It's the dog days of Spring Training. All the players are ready to go, but there are more pre-season games to play. It was nice of Buck Showalter, the new Orioles skipper, to spice things up this week with his comments in Men's Magazine.
Showalter said Theo Epstein looks like a genius because he has a $200 million budget to work with. He went on to say that Derek Jeter frequently jumps back from pitches to work the strike zone in his favor.
I guess when you have a team that is picked once again to finish last in the AL East this is the only way to drum up some excitement. Showalter should remember that the San Francisco Giants won the World Series with no name-brand players. How about the Texas Rangers, Cincinnati Reds, Tampa Bay Rays & Texas Rangers all making the playoffs last year? None of those teams are known for lavish spending. Maybe Buck should be talking to Peter Angelos, owner of the O's, to spend some of his luxury tax money to field a competitive team. To paraphrase Rick Pitino, Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar & Mike Flanagan are not walking through those doors. It's too bad to see such a good baseball city as Baltimore with a beautiful park have such a poor product year after year.
As far as the Jeter comment, it's just another in the line of oddities surrounding Jeter's return to the Yankees this season. It started with ownership bad-mouthing his new contract negotiations in the press. The banter continues through Sprinmg Training as reporters speculate how long Jeter will continue to play short. Nice way to treat a 15-year player who will reach 3,000 hits this year.
In my opinion Showalter is just getting a few things off his chest. He realizes his team is going nowhere for the um-teenth year in a row. Maybe Buck should be jawing with Bud Selig to separate the Red Sox & Yankees into different divisions.
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