BALTIMORE – This time of year, with the trade deadline approaching, scouts crisscross the country like airline pilots. If they happen upon a 10-year-old kid skipping a stone across a pond, they just might file a report on him to their general manager.
Last night, a group of scouts sitting behind home plate, their heads bobbing down in unison as they recorded each pitch in their charts, watched intently as a 23-year-old kid skipped a baseball right past a formidable lineup for seven innings.
But the most important scout of all was general manager Steve Phillips, who made an unexpected trip to Baltimore specifically to watch the kid up close since most teams want this prized prospect in any potential trade.
The kid is Octavio Dotel, who baffled the Orioles in the best start of his rookie season as the Mets beat the Orioles 4-1 last night. Dotel allowed only one run on three hits and struck out five.
His only significant mistake among his 99 pitches was a solo home run to Will Clark in the fifth inning, and Bobby Valentine said the only reason he wasn’t going for the Mets first complete game was because he was pitching on three days’ rest following a minor league start Thursday.
“It would have been interesting to see him put the hammer down,” Valentine said.
The Mets offense came from solo home runs by Edgardo Alfonzo and Robin Ventura, and RBI singles by Mike Piazza and Benny Agbayani as the Mets put themselves in position to sweep the O’s tonight with Al Leiter on the mound. They closed to within three games of the Braves, who lost in Toronto.
Now the Mets must decide whether to give up Dotel (2-1, 5.01) in a trade for another pitcher with more established credentials, keep Dotel in the hope he can be the pitcher to take them to the postseason or keep Dotel for the future and get another pitcher as well.
“You have to ask that question,” Phillips said. “Can he be the solution to the problem? Can he fill that void for us down the stretch. It’s unfair to put that expectation on him. It’s completely unfair. If he does give us what we need, he will be exceeding expectations.”
That’s what he did last night. Using four very good pitches, including a fastball that touched 96 mph, a good curve and slider and a developing changeup, Dotel looked every bit the prospect the Mets hoped he would be and every bit the commodity other teams hope to acquire in a deal.
But after watching Dotel up close, Phillips will be even stingier with his prized righthander, if not completely averse to trading him now.
“You’re not quick to give up an arm like that,” he said.
One veteran player put it very succinctly after the game, saying Dotel’s value, “shot way up tonight.” It shot up like a glass of cool water in the desert.
It shot up in the first inning alone when he struck out Brady Anderson and B.J. Surhoff, and then held the Orioles hitless through 31/3. It also went up after he forced both Albert Belle and Harold Baines into 0-for-3 nights. The bottom third of the Birds’ order went 0-for-8 with three strikeouts.
“I know, and everybody knows, they have great hitters,” Dotel said. “But, yeah, I think I can pitch in this league.”
Right from the start, Dotel struck out leadoff hitter Anderson to set a tone, then got Bordick to pop out before Surhoff struck out as well. The second inning was just as easy. Belle and Clark hit easy grounders and Baines flied out to left. In the third, Johnson and Jerry Hairston Jr. popped out and Dotel struck out Minor.
He had a few tricky moments in the fourth and fifth with runners on base, but he always managed to throw the right pitch to get out of it.
“We ran into a good young pitcher,” Oriole manager Ray Miller said. “He had a 96-mph cut fastball. We heard he was a hard sinker, slider guy. But he looked like Mariano Rivera.”
So convincing was Dotel’s performance that after watching it Phillips said Dotel could change his mind in the next couple of starts about trading for another starter.
“If we think we can get enough [wins] from him,” the GM said, “it could shift our priorities.”
