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EHCC Fact or Fiction
Prior, Beltran, and Tijuana get put on the witness stand
By Pedro Gammo and Jayson Snark / EHSPN.com
Fact or Fiction: Mark Prior will never develop into the pitcher the Doggs thought they picked up 3 years ago.
Gammo: Fiction
Mark Prior is a phenomenal talent. He's got everything you look for in a young pitcher. This recent trip to the DL was hardly his fault. Anyone would have gone down the way he did getting his by that line drive. Prior will be great. Every time he takes the mound you expect a win. He's got great stuff and rarely loses his cool. Though, it is unofficially reported that Josh Beckett has been sacrificing small goats so the Gods will keep Prior on the DL at least 3 times each season. If that continues I'll be proven wrong I guess.
Snark: Fact
Mark Prior will end up as just another in a long line of gifted professional athletes whose careers never quite panned out. He reminds me of a young Mark Fidrych – not for his mound antics, but for his one remarkable year and subsequent rash of injuries. Prior is a special talent, to be sure, but I just don’t think that he will stay healthy enough over the course of his career to fulfill his vast promise.
Aviator McShadeless of the Rakeville Times had an interesting article this week comparing Prior with Josh Beckett. Both young pitchers whose careers have paralleled each other’s in recent years. McShadeless argued that, perhaps, the competitive pressure is too much for Prior, and that his fears of Beckett getting the best of him lead him into freak injuries, such as broken forearms incurred by line drives. Bryce Florie was recently quoted as saying, “As you may have heard, I too was hit by a line drive. There were too major differences between our injuries. The first was that I tried to get out of the way but couldn’t. Prior looked like he almost leaned into it. The second was that mine hit me in the face.”
Is the pressure too much for Prior? Time will tell. But I don’t think Las Vegas has the next Roger Clemens as they once thought they did.
Fact or Fiction: The Doggs putting Carlos Beltran on the Trading Block is a desperation move.Gammo: Fact
And it won't work. Beltran is a great player. He's a 5 tool player who's going hit 40-40 with at least 90 Runs and 90 RBI's when fully healthy. He's in a slump thus far this year only hitting single digit HR's and barely stealing any bases, but it's just that, a slump. The Doggs shouldn't lose faith in their offensive captain just because they lost one week against the surging Weasels. Unless the Doggs get a great trade offer that they just can't refuse I don't feel they should get rid of Beltran. It's not like he's Mark Wilkerson.
Snark: Fiction
I don’t think it’s a particularly bright move, but it’s certainly not desperation. The Doggs have a solid outfield with or without Beltran, who has slumped of late. Adam Dunn, Hideki Matsui, and Pat Burrell are all more than serviceable. However, Beltran rode the bench the last week and the Doggs took a pounding at the hands of the red-hot Weasels. And while Matsui, Dunn, and Burrell are all good players, Beltran is the jewel of that old-field. The Doggs might be better suited to allow Beltran to get into a groove and then sell-high to gather some more pitching, which is their Achilles’ heel right now as their staff is banged up or ineffective. But, while it might be a little ill-timed, it’s not a desperation move. It’s more a case of a premier franchise using a strength to address a weakness.
Fact or Fiction: The war is over between the Tijuana and Las Vegas.
Gammo: Fiction
Then again, I don't know that it ever REALLY started. This self proclaimed rivalry between the two teams made by the Tijuana press is kinda ridiculous, but the players and staff of both organizations seem to have embraced it. With recent reports of Vegas players not wanting to be traded to Mexico you have to stop and think that there's more to it than the media knows and wishes to talk about. Perhaps the Hispanics stole the Doggs' players' wives and former jobs. I don't know.
Snark: Fiction
The war never began. Tijuana is not in the same league as Las Vegas and GM Peter Kantor was clearly high when he declared “war.” Week 5: Las Vegas 8. Tijuana 1. ‘Nuff said.
Fact or Fiction: The Swingers will contribute nothing more to the EHCC than articles on erectile dysfunction.
Gammo: Fiction
The Swingers organization will contribute great times had by opposing GM's during major and minor league drafts with picks like Ricky Henderson and Jorge Julio.
Snark: Fiction
The Swingers contribute a big win to one lucky team every week!
Fact or Fiction: Bizton is the best bad team in the league.Gammo: Fiction
If we're only talking about the bottom 5 teams in the EHCC (Golden, Bells, Bizton, Swingers, Tokyo) that award has to go to the Gryphons. They had a great expansion draft. They are very active on the open market and with making trades to better than organization. They have a "win now" mentality, as did the Monsters and Hispanics did when they first started out. Bizton has some good names on their team that have been slumping lately and they've made some questionable moves trading away the best young closer in baseball and gaining two older, injury prone ones. Bizton is easily the second best bad team but the Gryphons have a legit chance of making the number 6 seed for a playoff spot. Will it happen, perhaps not, but they have a better shot than the Markies I feel.
Snark: Fact
But I’m not really sure why they haven’t shown it. They appear to have the pieces, but they just can’t seem to put them all together week in and week out. It doesn’t help that Jason Bay has been riding the bench despite 11 homeruns and a .292 average (rumor has it that Bizton manager Biz Markie has benched Bay after Bay made a derogatory reference to “Celebrity Fit Club,” going on to add that VH1 was “a joke.” His .370 batting average and 2 homeruns for the week went to waste as Markie was heard yelling at Bay, “you…got what I need…but you say my ass is fat…but you say my ass is fat…” No word yet on whether or not Bay has apologized and gotten out of the doghouse).
But Bizton was my sleeper playoff team coming into this season, and I’m not giving up on them. They had a good off-season and a solid team coming into the season and nothing has changed. With Mike Hampton and his 1.83 ERA coming off the DL to complement a very solid rotation and Bob Wickman continuing to rack up saves, Bizton seems to have a very good chance to make a run if they can just get consistent offense. And I’m just waiting for it to happen so I can say “I told you so.”
Pedro Gammo and Jayson Snark write for EHSPN.com. They are not really players, so its understandable that they do not crush all that much.
