Amid Angels Lost Dominance, Napoli Continues to Rub It In

        By Ross Newhan

        Amid the misery that stalks the Angels on the field, amid the heat and unrest--internally and externally--rattling the organization, there is the continuing hate mail from Boston.

        Well, okay, it's not really hate mail that Mike Napoli has been dispatching as he now contributes to the resurrection of the Red Sox after helping Texas reach the playoffs in both of his years there.

         Call it long distance reminders of possibly the worst trade in Angel history--and whether the blame should be put on then general manager Tony Reagins or Manager Mike Scioscia (who didn't trust the catcher's defensive skills)--the numbers are haunting.

        Napoli is currently third in the American League with 31 runs batted in and has six home runs in the first six weeks.

        In the two plus seasons and 252 games since he and Juan Rivera were traded to the Toronto Blue Jays (who immediately flipped Napoli to Texas), he has hit 58 home runs and driven in 162 runs.

        About two weeks after the Angels failed to fill their biggest need in the offseason of 2010/11 by refusing to go to six years in negotiations with third baseman Adrian Beltre, who then got the sixth year from Texas in what represented one of several division turning points, the previously dominant Angels yielding to the Rangers, Napoli was exchanged for Vernon Wells and the $84 million left on his contract.

        Now, as the 11-20 Angels look up at the 20-11 Rangers, the Beltre/Napoli/Wells saga is just one part of a complicated story of mis-management, mis-spent money and missed opportunities, derailing that dominance.

        Injuries have played a part, certainly through the opening weeks of the current season with the revolving door bullpen, and in some ways the Angels are still trying to find a rotatiion replacement for the late Nick Adenhart.

       The story is too long to detail in entirety here, but even the successful tenure of Bill Stoneman as general manager was marred toward the end by the $50 million wasted on Gary Matthews following his only big year, and after Stoneman came Reagins and Jerry Dipoto, and there were the failed bids to sign free agents Beltre, Mark Texeira and Carl Crawford while the multi-millionaire Wells sat more than he played. Then owner Artie Moreno seemed to get more involved with his TV billions and there were the $329 million signings of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson followed last winter by the $125 million laid on Josh Hamilton in what seemed to be an 11th hour attempt to compensate for permitting Zack Greinke to sign a $147 million deal with the Dodgers even though Dipoto had given up the organization's top prospect, Jean Segura, in acquiring Greinke at the trade deadline in 2012.

      Now Segura, one of several top prospects lost through trade or compensation for free agent signings, is a rookie of the year candidate with the Milwaukee Brewers and Hamilton, who struggled through periods of 2012 despite his 43 home runs, is battling the Mendoza line while leading American League right fielders in errors and strike outs, and Pujols, with eight more years to go, is limping through April and May with that bad heel and tender knee, and with the highest payroll in club history the Angels went cheap in filling the Greinke and other rotation holes with Joe Blanton, Tommy Hanson and Jason Vargas.

     There is a long way to go in 2013, and with three games against woeful Houston next, a chance to start the recovery, but this is not a good team at present. The Angels lead the league or are close to the lead in too many negative categories, the famed Scioscia aggressiveness piling up outs on the bases, the defense piling up errors behind pitchers who HAVE to get the outs when they earn them, and an offense, strong on paper, failing to hit in the clutch, and where is Mickey Hatcher when you need him?

    No one is without blame for the slow trickle of lost dominance over the last six years or so, but the heat now, of course, is hottest on the manager.

   Scioscia is signed through 2018, but know this: His relationship with the front office has not been the same since Stoneman retired in October of 2007, and even if the Angels rebound, it would not be a surprise if Moreno/Dipoto made a change, familiarity after 14 years building a degree of contempt, or it would not be a surprise if Scioscia made the change, and wouldn't a return to Dodger Stadium be interesting, certainly an easier drive from Westlake?

        
                                              

Matt Kemp: Has a Superstar Ever Been This Lost at the Plate?

        By Ross Newhan

        A few observations....

        --Yes, it has only been two weeks, but I don't recall ever seeing a verifiable superstar looking as lost at the plate as Matt Kemp. The Dodger center fielder can not hit a breaking pitch, seems equally unsteady in the field, and is the equivalent of the Thin Man after his shoulder surgery, reducing his home run strength to that dreaded cliche of "warning track power."

        --Unless the Angels prove they can generate a consistent winning streak (a difficult task given their major league worst starting pitching statistics) the heat is going to build again under Mike Scioscia when, in fact, it was general manager Jerry Dipoto who put together a second tier rotation of Joe (home run) Blanton, Tommy Hanson and Jason Vargas. Granted, no one could predict the injury to Jered Weaver or the inconsistency of C.J. Wilson, but the buck has to stop at the top, and that means Dipoto and owner Arte Moreno, and we're not even talking about Albert Pujols' legs holding up for another eight years and Josh Hamilton appearing incapable of regaining MVP form.

      --Midway through April you would have to say that Bryce Harper has edged past Mike Trout as the better of the two young players.

      --Anyone who says that Justin and B.J. Upton weren't problems at times in their previous clubhouses is obscuring the facts, but uniting them in the Atlanta clubhouse has been an inspired move--at least until this point--as the Braves reeled off 10 straight wins before losing to Kansas City Wednesday. Justin, in particular became the first player in the history of a club that once included Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Dale Murphy and Chipper Jones to hit eight home runs in 13 games. 

Matt Kemp: Has a Superstar Ever Been This Lost at the Plate?

       By Ross Newhan

      A few observations....

      --Yes, it has only been two weeks, but I don't recall ever seeing a potential superstar looking as lost at the plate as Matt Kemp. The Dodger center field can not hit a breaking pitch, seems equally unsteady in the field, and is the equivalent of the Thin Man after his shoulder surgery, reducing his home run prowess to that dreaded cliche of "warning track power."

     --Unless the Angels prove they can generate a consistent winning streak (a difficult task given their major league worst starting statistics) the heat is going to build again under Mike Scioscia when, in fact, it was general manager Jerry Dipoto who put together a second tier rotation of Joe (home run) Blanton, Tommy Hanson and Jason Vargas. Granted, no one could predict the injury to Jered Weaver or the inconsistency of C.J. Wilson, but the buck has to stop at the top and that means Dipoto and owner Arte Moreno, and we're  not even talking about Albert Pujols' legs holding up for another eight years and Josh Hamilton appearing incapable of regaining MVP form.

   --Midway through April you would have to say that Bryce Harper has surpassed Mike Trout as the better of the two touted young players in the first month of the new season.

   --Anyone who says that Justin and B.J. Upton weren't problems at times in their previous clubhouses is obscuring the facts, but uniting them in the Atlanta clubhouse has been an inspired move--at least until this point--as the Braves reeled off 10 straight wins before losing to Kansas City Wednesday. Justin, in particular, became the first player in the history of a club that once included Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Dale Murphy and Chipper Jones to hit eight home runs in 13 games. 

Can Nationals Be Beaten in Interleague Dominant Schedule?

    By Ross Newhan

   One of the strangest seasons in baseball history begins Sunday with 15 teams in each league, an interleague game virtually every night and 30 owners rolling in money, the average franchise value having increased 23%--a one year record, according to Forbes--to $744 million.

   Amid the nightly/daily absurdity of "now you see the DH and now you don't," here is my top 10. the most obvious features being the absence of that former hedge fund giant known as the New York Yankees and their annual American League East rival from Boston:

   1.  Washington Nationals: No weaknesses, from lineup to bench to pitching staff,  unless the do nothing Congress counts.

   2. Detroit Tigers: You could say the same thing about the Tigers except for some consternation about the bullpen by committee. Still, easily the best in AL Central.

  3. Atlanta Braves: Should be a dynamite dogfight with the Nationals in the NL East. Upton brothers figure to inspire each other, and if only Chipper was still at third base.

  4. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Spring pitching didn't provide much confidence, but Ernesto Frieri should be able to save enough high scoring games to edge out Texas and Oakland in AL West, a division that now welcomes the doormat Houston Astros.         

  5. Toronto Blue Jays: With help from Jeffrey Loria, Miami North filled enough holes with that one-sided trade and subsequent acquisition of R.A. Dickey to be considered the favorite in the AL East, particularly amid decline of Yankees and Red Sox.

  6. Cincinnat Reds: GM Walt Jocketty did a major league with minor fanfare in flushing away a lot of strikeouts in his lineup, strengthening his bench, acquiring a legitimate leadoff runner in Shin Choo Soo and who cares whether Aroldis Chapman starts or relieves, as long as they don't make him do both. Now the best in NL Central.          

  7. San Francisco Giants: Two out of the last three World Series title and still no respect, but the thinking here is that someone in the NL West is going to have to prove they can best that pitching over 162 games, and the Giants did what they needed to do to retain their key players from 2012.

  8. Los Angeles Dodgers: Here's what a $230 million payroll gets you: Questions in left field, shortstop, third base, back of the rotation and closer. Maybe they will all come up positive, but at this point no one is handing Guggenheim anything except a few more checks to be invested. The team has weapons but will have to prove it can return dividends.

  9. Philadelphia Phillies: The Phillies will open with a healthy Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, a revamped outfield in which Ben Revere and his 40 steals were acquired from Minnesota and the homegrown John Mayberry and Domonic Brown finally have unobstructed starting chances, but the ability to compete with Washington and Atlanta largely comes down to Doc Halliday proving he retains a fastball and Cliff Lee shaking off the 15 no decisions of last year.

 10. Kansas City: Considering that 13 different teams have made at least one postseason appearance in the last two years and nine have won the World Series in the last 12, parity is obvious and there is no really no such thing as a sleeper anymore, but lets put the long dormant Royals in that disappearing category with their baseball best spring record, array of young talent and off-season acquisitions of starting pitchers James Shields and Wade Davis in exchange for top hitting prospect Wil Myers.

    And on to a season in which a schedule is mandatory.          

K.C.'s 21-6 Record: Illusion or Reality?

    By Ross Newhan

    The results of spring, individually and collectively, can be either an illusion or a significant steppingstone to a successful season.

    The Kansas City Royals entered a Monday night game against the Dodgers with a 21-6 spring record, easily the best in baseball.

     Their young talent is not an illusion--built through the draft over a series of years--and during the last winter owner David Glass and General Manager Dayton Moore felt what Moore described by phone as the  "narrow window of opportunity" was right, given "the young talent that is now under club control for a period of years" to support it with veteran additions to the rotation.

     The 21-6 record does not carry into the season, but the confidence that it has created does, and while many general managers generally dismiss spring statistics, Moore does not.

     Was it important for the Royals to win in the spring, to prove that the enthusiasm created among the young players by the veteran additions, translated to the field?

     "Absolutely," Moore said in our interview.

     "The Royals haven't been to the playoffs since 1985 (and have had only one winning season since '95), and so we're consistently reminded of the need to create a winning culture.

     "We know that on April 1 our record goes back to zero, but winning as we have in the spring is definitely, I believe, a reflection of our talent and quality depth."

    Parity grips baseball. In the last two years alone, 13 of the 30 teams have made at least one postseason appearance. Nine teams have won the World Series in the last 12 seasons, and their average payroll rank has been 10th. Both Tampa Bay and Oakland, with the second lowest payrolls in 2011 and 2012, made the playoffs in those respective seasons.

    In addition, with a second wild card team in each league now qualifying for the playoffs, many more clubs have acquired playoff fever.     

  Whether Kansas City can unseat the Detroit Tigers in the American League Central is uncertain, but it's a wide open division otherwise, and the Royals have delivered a spring message.

   Building on the homegrown talent of Billy Butler and Alex Gordon, Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer, Moore took three offseason steps to strengthen the rotation, the development of pitching having failed to keep up with the development of position players as the Royals took advantage of generally high draft positions because of their poor finishes during the season.

   First, he acquired Ervin Santana from the Angels, then re-signed Jeremy Guthrie, who pitched well for the Royals after his mid-season acquisition last year, and, believing there is "still enough quality in the pipeline,"  traded one of the he top hitting prospects in baseball, Wil Myers, to Tampa Bay for starters James Shields and Wade Davis.

   "I feel like our younger, position players responded immediately," Moore said. "The rotation now has a presence to it, and our entire camp had a more stable feel and sense of stability.

   "The one thing that should allow our young players to continue to mature at their natural rate is the  better starting pitcher. We should be able to compete more effectively from the first day to the last."

   Moore and staff took over in mid-season of 2006. Gordon and Butler were in double A, "and I thought we were looking at an eight to 10 year process of building from within and developing the waves of players that would allow us to make a move of the type we did in trading Wil Myers.

   "As I mentioned, it's a narrow window in which you have quality young players under club control or signed to long term contracts, and we felt we had reached the point where we could enhance that nucleus by creating a veteran presence in our rotation that would enable us to build a winning culture that the city has been without for too long--at least on the baseball field."

   A long tenure in baseball has taught me to approach spring results cautiously.

  However, there is no denying that the Royals have some attractive young players augmented by a stronger rotation, and 21-6 is impressive at any time of the year.                          

MLB Suit Against Drug Clinic Is Innovative, but...

      By Ross Newhan

      Give Major League Baseball credit for determination and innovation.

      The suit that MLB has filed in a Florida state court against six former employees of a now defunct South Florida clinic alleged to have distributed performance enhancing drugs to an undisclosed number of major league players is a backdoor attempt to gain evidence that can possibly be used in suspending those players.

     MLB is accusing the six of damaging the sport in distributing PEDs to the players and is asking for at least $15,000 in compensation, but the money is secondary.

    If the suit is not dismissed, MLB will gain the subpoena power it does not now have and access to a variety of notebooks and documents maintained by the Biogenesis Clinic and at least some of the six people named in the suit, along with the right, of course, to depose the six, who are alleged in the suit to have "participated in a scheme to solicit major league players to purchase or obtain, and/or to sell, supply or otherwise make available to major league players substances that the defendants knew were prohibited under baseball's" drug testing program.

   There are no players named in the suit, but among those who have been linked to Biogenesis records in various media reports are the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, currently recovering from a second hip operation, and Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers, who was the National League's Most Valuable Player last year. Braun has insisted he has "nothing to hide" and that his only link to Biogenesis resulted from his attorneys using the clinic on a consulting basis when MLB charged Braun with a positive drug test last year and suspended him for 50 games. Braun claimed at the time that it was a false positive, appealed through arbitration, and had the suspension overturned on a chain of custody issue involving his urine sample.

   One of the six defendants in the MLB suit is Marcelo Albir, a former University of Miami teammate of  Braun and Detroit minor leaguer Cesar Carrillo. The latter, who did not have the protection of the Major League Players Assn., because he was not on the Tigers' 40 man roster, was suspended for 100 games last week for violating the minor league drug policy. MLB did not cite specific violations, but Carrillo was one of six players named in the original Miami New Times report that first broke the Biogenesis story and, according to multiple reports, was uncooperative with MLB investigators.

   The suit by MLB comes after the New Times refused to turn over documents pertaining to the clinic and would seem to suggest that baseball investigators, lacking the legal requisites, have not acquired the documentary evidence or witness testimony necessary to discipline players in cases where there is no positive drug test.

  The suit is an unusual and aggressive step in MLB's continuing battle with doping, but whether it will move forward is uncertain.

  It cites, in part, "loss of goodwill, loss of revenue and profits and injury to its reputation, image, strategic advantage and fan relationships.''

 Can that be proven in a period of record attendance and revenue even amid the doping brushfires and lingering ashes of the steroid era?