Ask Baseball America By James Bailey
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April 11, 2000We're heading west for minor league baseball again tonight, this time to Winston-Salem to see the Warthogs take on the Wilmington Blue Rocks. The real appeal in the deal for us is a chance to visit with BA Player Journal god Ethan Stein. It looks like we might not get to actually see him in action, since he pitched last night, but if the Royals want to test his surgically repaired elbow, they can get him an inning of work for us tonight and see how he responds with the back-to-back outings. If you haven't been reading Ethan's journals, I suggest you check them out. He's got a good sense of humor and he writes better than most professional sports writers. And while you're at it, check out some of the other player journals, too. But first, enjoy a few questions right here. I noticed that the Blue Jays have a 22 year-old outfielder named DeWayne Wise on their Opening Day roster, yet he doesn't appear on your list of Top 10 (actually 15) prospects for the Jays. Can you tell us more about him? Hope you enjoyed the Bats game, that bar in left field is great. Walt Davis Carrboro, N.C. Wise was a Rule 5 selection last December from the Reds organization. He hit .253 with 44 extra-base hits and 35 steals for Rockford in the Class A Midwest League last year. It's quite a jump for a player to go from low Class A to the big leagues and it will be interesting to see what it does for his development. Wise was regarded as one of the biggest long shots to stick from December's Rule 5 draft. Obviously, the Blue Jays like his tools a lot and think that he'll be good enough down the road to make it worth holding onto him as a pinch runner for this season. In all odds he'll return to the minors next year to resume his development. As for the Bats game, the left-field Grand Stand area is sadly the only thing that stands out about going to a game in Greensboro. I really don't mind War Memorial Stadium, as old as it is. Even though it's been pointed out to me that the seats don't all face the field properly. (According to John Manuel, it was built as a football stadium.) The problem is that Greensboro has to be one of the worst-run teams around, especially given their market. They don't draw well, their concessions are severely lacking and their in-game P.A. shtick is so annoying you'll wish you had brought earplugs. There's one concession stand that sells all the good stuff and it's located behind the third base grandstand. As you can imagine, the lines get a little long there. All the other ones, including a couple in the concourse, sell Skittles and pizza and that's about it. Oh, and beer. Lots of beer. I could stomach all of that, if that were it, because I really don't need the concessions too badly. But what makes Bats games tough for me is the annoying routine of the P.A. crew. I don't need funny voices and pronunciations for every player. I don't need idiotic sound effects for every pitch. I want to watch a baseball game. And it really is the epitome of poor sportsmanship to play the "Schwing!" and "Hey Batter!" sound effects every time a visiting player swings and misses a pitch. I suppose, as sad as it is, it might be understandable if the fans were somehow revved up by the Bats' comedy sideshow. But they're not. First off, there's not generally much of a crowd there, and the ones that are there are all down drinking beer in the Grand Stand. I can't blame them for that, because it's the only place in that park where you can sort of escape the P.A. system. Secondly, most of the fans that are there are older than 7, which I think is about the maximum age at which one finds those sound effects entertaining. My plea to the Bats is to stop the madness. Allow baseball fans to sit in peace and watch a game. I for one would attend many more games there if I didn't have to sit through all the garbage. At the very least the Bats need to recognize their current formula for the horrendous flop it is, when they draw less than 1,000 people to Opening Day on a night when you couldn't ask for better weather. I know, they announced 1,900 something, but there must have been a lot of folks in the bathroom the entire game. There were certainly no more than 1,000 fans there, and we're talking about a metropolitan area that some people have been pushing as a major league market. There's no reason the Bats can't draw as well as Durham used to, even without a new park. The old Durham Athletic Park, where the Bulls played through the 1994 season, had more charm than War Memorial, but Greensboro's stadium isn't without character. The market is there if the Bats want to make the effort. In the meantime, take Walt's advice and head straight for the Grand Stand. I noticed on your feature article "Where the prospects are" you listed Wilson Betemit as being on the "suspended list." I was wondering what that meant, and if you could clarify his status. Is he in fact is no longer property of the Braves. Will he be playing this season? Sincerely, Michael Lief Betemit and his agent Scott Shapiro are suing the Braves to have his contract voided on the grounds that he was signed illegally when he was 14. He originally reported to camp this spring, under protest, but later left camp due to a disagreement between parties over whether his presence would in effect validate his contract. He's not currently on any roster, and won't be until his situation is settled. Until the courts rule otherwise, he remains property of the Braves. I was reading this weeks transactions and noticed that the Braves sent Adam Johnson to the White Sox and was just wondering what the will receive in return? Keith Hudson Johnson was sent to the White Sox for "future considerations." This often happens late in spring training when an organization doesn't have enough roster space for a player and doesn't want to simply release him. You can probably take it as a sign that a player traded for future considerations wasn't held in extremely high regard as a prospect by his former organization. But as a favor to another team, and really to the player himself, they make the deal. The White Sox picked up three players in such deals as spring training wound down. In addition to Johnson, they took in shortstop Jose Olmeda from the Indians and outfielder Rick Prieto from the Dodgers. Perhaps if one of those clubs is short a body in the future, the White Sox will return the favor. Whatever happened to Jose Oliva, the third-base prospect the Braves got for Charlie Leibrandt. I know they traded him to St. Louis when Chipper nailed down the third-base job, and I've heard rumors of his untimely death in Latin America. I hope they're not true, but I do want to know? Tom Bass Danbury, CT Diehard Braves Fan
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