It was certainly apropos that Atlanta Braves rookie Jordan Schafer would hit a home run in his first career Major League at-bat.
You better get used to stuff like that happening this season.
It seems that in this post-steroid, getting-back-to-basics style of play that a lot of teams are embracing, thanks in most part to the rapid advancement of the Tampa Bay Rays, younger players and especially rookies. The kids are back in vogue. They are cheaper, hungrier and highly skilled, and don’t look out of place alongside the veterans.
In Toronto, a lot will be expected from their young players. In fact, three-fifths of their wobbly rotation – David Purcey, Scott Richmond and Ricky Romero – have made a grand total of 17 Major League starts. Romero, the sixth overall pick in 2005, will make his first big league start Thursday afternoon against the Detroit Tigers in front of a crowd that will mostly be school children. Kind of makes sense, I guess.
Two other young Jays – Travis Snider and Adam Lind – will be expected to provide a bunch of offense and are full-timers for the first time in their young careers. Across the diamond, the Tigers, major disappointments a year ago, have two spots on their pitching staff taken up by their most recent two first round picks in Rick Porcello and Ryan Perry. The two have a grand total of 38 professional appearances between them, and none above A-ball in the Florida State League.
A quick glance at the Opening Day rosters around the Majors reveals that many teams are putting high stock in their youngsters. In Texas, 20-year-old shortstop Elvis Andrus was considered good enough to force the Rangers to shift all-star Michael Young, much to his chagrin, to third base.
The Cincinnati Reds offence revolves around Jay Bruce and Canadian Joey Votto, both entering their sophomore season. Twenty-two-year-old right-hander Chris Volstad is a fixture in the Marlins rotation and big things are expected of him, while Cameron Maybin, also 22, is the everyday centre fielder and they are hoping that he can live up to his vast potential.
The Kansas City Royals, who many feel could be the surprise team this season, have a starting infield whose average age is just south of 26. The Dodgers allowed several veteran pitchers to leave via free agency, knowing that 21-year-old Clayton Kershaw and 24-year-old Chad Billingsley are more than ready for prime time.
The contenders this season aren’t quite ready to embrace this philosophy. That’s why they are sitting atop the payroll list. The Yankees and Red Sox are in a different league when it comes to that, but as they saw last season when the Rays went on a worst-to-first run, teams full of wild-eyed youngsters will soon be clicking at their heels. Even as bad as the situation appears to be in Toronto, where 2010 is already being looked ahead to, kids are on the way, perhaps a half-season away from debuting at the Rogers Centre.
Left-handers Brett Cecil and Brad Mills were given long looks this spring and could be in the rotation should the current crop of youngsters stumble. J.P. Arencibia is as good a catching prospect as we’ve seen in many years. And infielders Bradley Emaus and Scott Campbell showed that they could both hit in the Grapefruit League and just need more experience. And for the budget-conscious Jays, young players equal cheap players, and with the team looking down the road when several over-priced contracts will finally come off the books, that’s a good thing.
The kids are alright, indeed. I think we’ve seen enough bloated, millionaire veterans going through the motions to embrace this new philosophy. And, at least, there won’t be any questions about performance enhancers.
A REAL HEAD SCRATCHER
I still find it amazing that Major League Baseball continues to gamble with the weather at the start of the season. With snow falling across most of the northern part of North America, Opening Day is in jeopardy on most fronts. The Royals – White Sox game in Chicago was postponed well ahead of game time due to a spring storm, and it makes me wonder if anyone in the Commissioner’s Office has any common sense. Is there any reason why for the first two weeks of the schedule the southern and western teams (Marlins, Braves, Rangers, Padres, Dodgers, Giants, Athletics, Angels) and teams with covered stadiums (Blue Jays, Mariners, Twins, Astros, Rays, Diamondbacks, Brewers) can’t open their seasons first, virtually guaranteeing all games will played? Then the rest of the teams could have their Opening Day two weeks later – April 20th – thus lessening the odds of bad weather washing out games and creating scheduling headaches later in the season.
You may remember two years ago when the Mariners visited Cleveland to start the season and it snowed for four straight days, forcing MLB to scramble and the Mariners having to return to Jacobs Field for single make-up games on three occasions. Not exactly ideal, especially for a West Coast team like Seattle that already travels farther than most teams for road games, and certainly avoidable.
The Blue Jays begin their road schedule this Friday in Cleveland, and as I look out of my office at the snow steadily falling, I’m thinking that weather will come into play later this weekend.
