1. In Jason Giambi and Carlos Delgado, the Yankees and Mets have first basemen in which poor defense was tolerated because of high production on offense. But both aging sluggers have hit poorly this year and their defense remains detrimental. In the past few days, Giambi showed some signs, hitting the ball with a bit more authority. That has not been the case with Delgado, who did not start Friday night. Here should be the worry for the New York clubs: Recent championship history shows little love for aging first basemen and/or non-productive first basemen.
Over the past 25 years, the only champion that used a regular first baseman who was older than his age-32 season was the 2001 Diamondbacks with 37-year-old Mark Grace. In terms of offense, the worst seasons in that time-span all belonged to teams that ultimately had to time-share at the position. The 1990 Reds won with Todd Benzinger and Hal Morris essentially sharing the job. The 1998 Dodgers, amazingly, had six players start at least 10 games at first: Franklin Stubbs, Mike Marshall, Mickey Hatcher, Tracy Woodson, Pedro Guerrero and Danny Heep. The 1984 Tigers used the trio of Dave Bergman Darrell Evans and Barbaro Garbay.
But keep in mind that the Reds had arguably the best late-game bullpen trio in history with the Nasty Boys (Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble and Randy Myers). The Dodgers were carried by the historic season of Orel Hershiser. And the 1984 Tigers were an historic team that began the year 35-5, and really dominated the sport all that season.
2. Here is a question: In 2008, would you rather have Shawn Green as your regular first baseman or Delgado? Green retired, but it is not that difficult to argue that as an overall player he would be better for the Mets than Delgado.
3. Willie Randolph often takes needlessly defiant or condescending tones with the media that tend to worsen matters. For example, in trying to dismiss the troubles of Aaron Heilman, Randolph ridiculously said, âIf those (homers) were singles, we wouldnât be talking about them.â Yeah, and if all of Carlos Delgadoâs singles were homers we wouldnât be talking about him either.
