1. In a column in today’s Post, I recommended that Yankee GM Brian Cashman should make a play to hire Pat Gillick, who is stepping down as the Phillies’ GM after the season. There were many reasons that I thought Gillick would be helpful to the Yanks as an aide to Cashman, but one key is a scouting eye that is universally admired within the sport.
To exemplify that skill, Gillick’s long-time sidekick, Phillies director of major league scouting Gordon Lakey, told the story of Jayson Werth. While the Orioles GM, Gillick authorized the drafting of Werth in the first round because he was so enamored with Werth’s athleticism and felt it would translate into baseball skill. Gillick also recommended that the athleticism would serve Werth better as an outfielder rather than a catcher, and so that change was made. As Gillick bounced from the Orioles to the Mariners and then the Phillies, he watched as Werth bounced from the Orioles to the Blue Jays to the Dodgers, trying to figure out how to re-acquire him. When Werth was released on Dec. 12, 2006 by the Dodgers, Gillick made sure a representative of the Phillies was face-to-face in Werth’s house the next day to begin the sales job to convince Werth to sign with Philadelphia. A week later Werth did that and has blossomed from valuable reserve to full-time right fielder, fulfilling those athletic gifts that Gillick saw in him.
“We never really got off of Jayson Werth,” Lackey said. “That is the scout in Pat, he never stopped believing.”
2. One trade Gillick probably wishes he could have back was the December 2006 deal in which he sent Gavin Floyd to the White Sox as part of a package for Freddy Garcia. In Philly, Garcia was hurt and never effective. As a White Sox, Floyd blossomed this year into a 17-game winner. Philadelphia might win the World Series without Floyd, but with him as the No. 2 starter between Cole Hamel and Brett Myers, the Phillies would probably be the favorite to go all the way.
3. A lot of attention is being paid to Jacoby Ellsbury channeling his inner Melky Cabrera this October. But I find it interesting that here in the postseason that age is catching up with the Red Sox as surely as it did with the Yankees during the regular season.
The Red Sox miss the bat of Mike Lowell, 34, out of this round of the ALCS with a hip injury. Jason Varitek, 36, carried a horrid season into the playoffs. He has three hits in 24 at-bats, none of them for extra bases and he has no RBIs. David Ortiz, 32, went from a down/injury-plagued season to a worse October, so far: four hits in 27 at-bats, one RBI, no homers. Mike Timlin, 42, is pitching on fumes and lost Game 2. Tim Wakefield, 42, makes his first start of the playoffs tonight.
Boston has done a well-chronicled job of turning over its roster from the 2004 champions by using an excellent farm system. But you could still see some problem areas moving forward. What if hip surgery saps Lowell of some range or power? What if Ortiz, so vital to this team, especially with Manny Ramirez gone, has dropped from among the elite run producers in the game to merely good? And what of Varitek? He is a free agent and all indicators are that Boston should not bring him back. But the detailed/heady work he does in catching the pitching staff has proven invaluable over the years. Has he reached the point at which he simply is too much of a liability as a hitter to keep him as a catcher? Do the Red Sox really want to go through a tough negotiation with Scott Boras to retain a .220 hitter? But can Boston find someone in the offseason who can give them the security that the staff feels with Varitek?
The Red Sox obviously are still in good shape moving forward with Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jason Bay, Jon Lester and Jonathan Papelbon – among others – in their prime. But the Yanks are not the only team in the AL East with age-old problems.
