The Hall of Fame announces its selections today. The guess here is that Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg will be elected. Both are deserving. Many arguments pro and con have been made regarding the candidacies of Bruce Sutter and Goose Gossage, two dominant relievers in their era. The most compelling advocates include Alan Schwartz whose excellent piece in the New York Times points out that both men pitched in an era when closers worked more than one or two batters let alone an inning and when saves were literally harder to earn.
My argument on their behalf is quite simple: both Sutter and Gossage largely defined the modern role of a dominant closer and it is now axiomatic that a team lacking one cannot hope to win a championship. In other words, they changed the game.
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The St. Louis Cardinals are rumored to be pursuing a deal with 37-year old second baseman Roberto Alomar. The Cardinals could have had Placido Polanco but apparently didn’t attempt to sign him. Why they failed to make Polanco an offer is a complete mystery to me. Not only is he considerably younger and a much better player than Alomar at this point, he is a known commodity whom the Cards really like.
I remain convinced the Phillies plan to move Polanco. There is no place for him to play every day and he isn’t a utility man. The only way Polanco remains with the Phillies throughout the 2005 season is if something happens to David Bell.
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Another rumor that has been floated alleges that once the Randy Johnson deal is completed and Javier Vazquez is the property of the Diamondbacks, Arizona will turn around and deal the young right-hander to the Phillies for Randy Wolf. Vazquez is already on record as saying he didn’t want to be traded away from the East Coast (that’s a switch!!!) so one might make a case for trading him back to a club there. But if the Phils trade Wolf for Vazquez, they will have a starting staff made up solely of right-handers, an untenable situation.
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