Weekend Buzz: Hunter's move symbolic of Angels' demise
The Weekend Buzz while you were navigating through the recall of millions and millions of eggs. ...
1. Eggs-cellent on some fronts, not on others: What a weekend. We lost Lou Piniella and gained Manny Ramirez. Not fair at all. But we gained Vin Scully for 2011 just two weeks after losing Don Wakamatsu for '11. Nothing personal to the fired Mariners' manager, but we'll take that deal.
Hey, it's just business.
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| Once the best at patrolling center, Torii Hunter's decline is a microcosm of what has happened to the Angels. (Getty Images) |
Torii Hunter? He's lost center field for the rest of this summer and, most likely, for 2011 as well. You do what you have to do.
It's just, you know, business.
As the Angels wrapped up a trip in Hunter's old home this weekend, Minnesota, he was swallowing his pride and hiking out to right field. In a last-ditch effort to save the Angels' season earlier this month, manager Mike Scioscia asked Hunter to shove over and make room for rookie speedster Peter Bourjos in center field.
Hunter, 35, is a nine-time Gold Glove center fielder.
But the move was necessitated in part because Hunter no longer has young legs ... and the fact that Juan Rivera has less range in left field than a Kenmore refrigerator was killing the Angels defensively and wearing Hunter out.
"All I want to do is win," Hunter was saying a conversation the other day about the change and his agreeing to move. "I've won nine Gold Gloves, I'll possibly win a 10th, but I need a ring. If it's for me to try and make our outfield defense better, than I'll be the one to do it. I'll move."
Scioscia first floated the idea to Hunter a year ago, when Hunter missed 32 games with a strained right groin. Hunter figured they were talking in generalities and the move would be several years away.
Of course, in Chicago, it never dawned on Piniella until recently that 2010 would be his final season, either.
As they say, life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.
"This takes some pressure off of Torii," Scioscia said. "Torii had to go gap-to-gap -- with Rivera in left and, often, Bobby Abreu in right. ... We're excited to see the range in our outfield now. We think it's going to be a difference-maker for our pitchers."
Alas, since moving Hunter to right field on Aug. 3, the Angels, 62-62 entering Sunday night's finale in Minnesota, were 8-8 (Hunter missed four of those games after being suspended following an ejection).
"Trust me, I'm human, I have pride like everyone else," Hunter said. "I still love center field. I didn't want to give it up. But I knew I had to. By all means, I'm not the weakness in the outfield. But I'm the one that's going to solve the problem.
"Some people probably will say, 'Torii's slowing down, he's not playing good defense.' That's just stuff I've got to take. But it's not true."
Worst part is, Hunter said, he no longer can go up high and steal home runs at home. The right-field fence in Angel Stadium is 18 feet high. But as if on cue, he went over the wall in Fenway Park last week to bring back what would have been an Adrian Beltre homer into the right-field bullpen.
"I prayed about it," Hunter said. "It was eating me up. I have pride like everyone else, but sometimes pride will kill you. I had to slap it in the face.
"To this day, I lay down and think about how much fun I had in center field and I hope I haven't played my last center field. But at the end of the day, you want to leave a legacy. You want to leave a good name."
Admirable, and you would expect nothing less from one of the best people in the game.
The Angels, though, continue to jog in quicksand as the days fall off the calendar and the October odds worsen.
Sometimes, as Piniella, Hunter, fired O's manager Dave Trembley and many others this season have learned, the game has a way of not allowing you to finish what you start.
Meantime, Hunter's right-field debut on Aug. 3 in Baltimore? In the other dugout, Buck Showalter was making his debut as Orioles manager. Even Baltimore (12-7) has out-performed the Angels since that night.
2. Eggs-actly what the Nationals don't need: A day later, the Nationals slowly exhaled after phenom Stephen Strasburg's brush with an arm injury Saturday night in Philadelphia. After leaving the game early because of what the team now is calling a forearm strain, Strasburg played catch on Sunday before heading back to D.C. for an MRI. General manager Mike Rizzo insists Strasburg is not being shut down for the season, though we'll know more this week. What I do know now is this: In conversation earlier this month with Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, Strasburg's coach at San Diego State University, after Strasburg was scratched from a start, Gwynn said the pitcher did not have any arm problems at all during his three years at SDSU. "None," Gwynn said. "Zero. Nothing."
3. Atlanta scrambles Cubs 16-5: Piniella's final game in the Cubs' dugout Sunday was much like too many others in 2010. He quit not long after several Cubs did. The Cubs already have dispatched Mike Fontenot, Ryan Theriot, Ted Lilly and Derrek Lee this season in trying to grow younger, but broadcaster and former manager Bob Brenly rightfully was razor-sharp when, after watching another bouncer skip to the right of third baseman Aramis Ramirez, he wondered whether Ramirez is ever going to get in front of another ground ball this summer.
4. Wee Willie and Ichiro, sunny-side up: You never know where quirky Seattle leadoff man Ichiro Suzuki is going to go next with his thoughts, so how about this: On the off day Thursday before the Mariners opened a weekend series in Yankee Stadium, as Larry LaRue of the Tacoma News-Tribune reported, he spent his day traveling to the grave of Hall of Famer Wee Willie Keeler.
Like Ichiro, Wee Willie specialized in base hits. In 1898, Keeler slapped 206 singles. And like Ichiro (5-foot-11, 170 pounds), Wee Willie was, well, wee (5-7 officially though, as LaRue points out, some sources listed him at 5-4 and 140 pounds).
Ichiro said the drive to Keeler's grave-site took about 30 minutes. And then, wouldn't you know it: On Saturday in New York, Suzuki suddenly went Babe Ruth and slammed two homers.
5. Eggs-istential thinking: Only the Padres (38) have more road wins than Tampa Bay (37) in the majors ... but only Tampa Bay (thankfully) is wearing custom-made, plaid-blue blazers with a yellow sunburst on the left breast. At least, the Rays are wearing them on their current trip (it's mandatory), an idea concocted by manager Joe Maddon. "I like it as being a unifying aspect," Maddon told reporters. "I also like the way they look. It's morphing Herb Tarlek with Ted Baxter." Only Maddon would give props to characters from WKRP in Cincinnati and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
6. Cracked shells and frayed Sox: In Boston, All-Star second baseman Dustin Pedroia went back to the disabled list because of a foot that still isn't healed. Following Kevin Youkilis (thumb, out for the season), Jacoby Ellsbury (ribs, out for the season) and a list that's far too long even for the Internet. The fact that Boston owns the fourth-best record in the AL and still has a fighting chance for October is simply remarkable ... and a testament to what might be Terry Francona's finest job as manager.
7. Cliff Lee, over-easy: In losing at Baltimore on Saturday, the Texas ace now is 2-4 and has a 4.31 ERA for the Rangers since the July 9 trade. Good thing he doesn't really get going until October.
8. Matt Kemp, hard-boiled: Everybody's favorite punching bag for the disappointing Dodgers' season couldn't even get through Matt Kemp Bobblehead Night on Friday without the sniping. Classic Letter to the Editor of the Los Angeles Times from Culver City's Larry and Jacob Weiner on Saturday morning: "If Kemp is really a five-tool player, I hope one of these tools is a screwdriver because I think something is a little loose up there. Lately, every night is Matt Kemp Bobblehead night."
9. Green eggs and slam: When Matt Stairs belted his 21st career pinch-hit homer Saturday in Milwaukee, it vaulted him into the record books ahead of Cliff Johnson (20). And the way things are going in San Diego, Stairs will have a chance to wallop an October homer as big as the one he clobbered off of the Dodgers' Jonathan Broxton in the NLCS two Octobers ago: Threatening to run away with the NL West, the Padres led San Francisco by 2½ games when they left for a 10-game road trip week before last. After going 7-3, they return home up six games on the Giants.
10. Egg on their faces: Congratulations, Pirates. Not only an 18th consecutive losing season guaranteed, but this was the earliest clinch of a sub-.500 campaign yet: Aug. 21.
