Snakes To Unleash Their Secret Weapon
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The world is not just, and rewards do not always descend on those who deserve them; audacity is often thwarted by cautious time-serving, and we can often do nothing about it. In baseball, though, we can at least cheer on the deserving, and so if you have the time, try to catch this weekend’s Arizona-Los Angeles series, and throw out a cheer or three for the Snakes.
This is a big series. Entering play yesterday, the Diamondbacks led the Dodgers by a single game, and it’s a classic matchup. The Diamondbacks are an exceptionally young team. Six of their positions are manned by players 26 or younger this year, all of them products of the team’s farm system. Their ace, defending Cy Young winner Brandon Webb, is 28; amazingly, not a single reliever older than 28 has recorded an out for them this season. Run by Josh Byrnes, a young general manager the team lured away from a job with Boston, they’re a team built to win now and dominate in the future.
Los Angeles, by contrast, is largely a team of bland veterans, which makes no sense. The team’s farm system is rated right alongside Arizona’s as one of the best in the game, and yet the Dodgers lard the lineup with the likes of Juan Pierre, Luis Gonzalez, and Nomar Garciaparra — even when better, younger players are often available. Witness the deal in which the Yankees picked up Wilson Betemit, a 25-year-old who can play every infield position and hit 10 home runs with 32 walks in 156 at-bats for Los Angeles this year — the Dodgers shipped the man off for sorearmed reliever Scott Proctor. This sort of thing should be no surprise, as general manager Ned Colletti came to the team from San Francisco, where he helped build the oldest team in baseball history.
So, vigor and youth against the stale certainties of the known veteran quantity. Who wouldn’t like Arizona here? Even better, they yesterday announced that this crucial series will see the unveiling of their new secret weapon — a 19-year-old.
This weekend will see the debut of Justin Upton, the first player picked in the 2005 draft and, by far, the best prospect in the game. He was called up to fill the spot vacated by injured right fielder Carlos Quentin after destroying the minors this year, hitting .309 with 13 home runs and 37 walks in 259 at-bats at Class AA, and his debut will, in the end, probably overshadow a series that could decide the pennant race.
In the last 25 years, nine 19-year-olds have taken 50 or more trips to the plate in a season. Alex Rodriguez, Ivan Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., Andruw Jones, and Gary Sheffield are likely all headed to the Hall of Fame. Juan Gonzalez won a pair of MVP awards. Adrian Beltre has been a very good and occasionally great player throughout his career. B.J. Upton, Justin’s brother, is having a monster season for the Devil Rays, hitting about as well as A-Rod does in a typical year despite striking out in about a third of his at-bats. The one ringer in the bunch, Jose Oquendo, was an absolutely terrific utilityman for the Cardinals at the height of Whiteyball, and would have enjoyed a long, fruitful career if not for some unfortunate injuries.
Where Juan Gonzalez and Andruw Jones represent something like a player’s downside, he’s awfully special indeed, and so in one sense Arizona doesn’t really deserve any special congratulations or esteem here. They’re simply doing what should obviously be done. How many contending teams, though, actually do that? Far more common is the sort of thing we’ll almost certainly see with the Mets when Carlos Beltran returns from the disabled list — Shawn Green, who’s hit an appalling.226BA/.257 OBA/.348 SLG since his own return from the DL in July, will play regularly, and Lastings Milledge, a clearly superior player at this point, will only get at-bats as they become available.
The Dodgers didn’t choose Garciaparra, who can no longer hit, over Betemit, who can, because they’re stupid or wicked. The Mets don’t rely on Green because they’re indifferent. This is, though, in any field, one of the prices of success — a terrible fear of the unknown, and thus an irrational attachment to the known. The evident absence of these fears and attachments is exactly what makes the Diamondbacks so special right now. They may or may not win this year, but Justin Upton will play for a team worthy of his talent.
