Big blast doesn’t pay like it used to
GMs are not showing love for power hitters
The photos of Earl Weaver, champion of the three- run homer, are found along the walls of Camden Yards.
You see the l i ttle man everywhere in this wondrous ballpark, him and Jim Palmer and Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken, just as you see the photos of Joe Carter and Cito Gaston and George Bell inside the hallways at Rogers Centre.
They were all a bout power, back then and maybe even now, and there’s little doubt that Weaver, the championship manager, wouldn’t care much for the deep thinkers in baseball, who have mathematically devalued the home run and the home run hitter, oddly at a time when homers are being hit at a near- record pace.
The numbers are in essence an affront to Weaver’s longtime premise that “pitching keeps you in the games and home runs win them.”
It happened here on Opening Day when last season’s home run leader Mark Trumbo, the free agent without many suitors, ended the game with an 11th inning smash.
The new numbers are also an affront to Blue Jays history and maybe even their 2017 roster. Just about every significant victory in Jays history came via the home run.
Had Roberto Alomar not homered i n Oakland off Dennis Eckersley in 1992, how different might Blue Jays history be written?
Had Ed Sprague not hit the pinch-hit home run with the Blue Jays trailing in the ninth inning against Atlanta in Game 2 of the World Series, do the Jays go on and win that series? Doubtful.
Fast forward to a year l ater and the Joe Carter home run everybody knows about. Without that homer, do the Blue Jays win the World Series in 1993?
Then there was the bat flip home run from Jose Bautista in 2015, ending what might have been the craziest inning in baseball history, that home run — and the Texas Rangers infield — snatching victory from defeat.
And one year later it was Edwin Encarnacion’s turn to play hero. His 11 th inning walk- off shot pushed the Jays from the wild- card game i nto the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers.
Trumbo re t urned t he favour in a less meaningful way on Opening Day here, after signing for only US$ 37.5 million on a threeyear contract. He thought he was going to get US$80 million and maybe five years.
The same way Encarnacion thought he was going to get US$ 100 million and five years. He got three years and US$ 60 million from Cleveland.
And there was little action on Bautista, who signed a one- year deal with all kinds of options. It was a far cry from the US$ 100- plus million he was seeking over five or six years.
And the Yankees picked up 41-homer man Chris Carter for US$ 3.5 million on a one-year deal.
Last season, there were 5,610 home runs hit in baseball, a number up 1,424 from just two seasons back. That is a giant jump.
More home runs are being hit right now than any year since 2000, the heart of the steroid era. And baseball is paying less for them than ever before.
“Really, it comes down to all front offices, baseball executives, thinking more about the complete player in a more objective way,” said Ross Atkins, the Blue Jays general manager.
“It’s an interesting topic that is getting a lot of attention these days.
“We have more information about the complete offensive player and what that means. The home run is just one piece of the equation.”
It’s the piece that defeated the Jays on Opening Day. It’s the piece that advanced them from the wild- card game last October. It is the piece that had Carter touching them all.
“Across t he i ndustry, teams are doing a better job of understanding how a player who doesn’t hit home runs can impact a roster versus one who does,” said Atkins, who is more numbers inclined than home run believer.
Jays manager John Gibbons is more on the Earl Weaver side of things. Weaver used to say “if you play for one run, that’s all you get.”
Weaver had a career winning percentage of .822 in games in which the Orioles had a three-run home run.
“I know when you play in this division, you’ve got to hit home runs,” Gibbons said. “You can fall behind and you can get back into games quick ( with home runs). It’s hard to single yourself into a comeback when you’re down four or five runs.”
Gibbons is an admitted home run lover, so long as it’s his team getting them.
“The fans love it,” he said. “Your home run hitters are your biggest draws. In our division, the ball parks are conducive to hitting home runs. You’ve got to hit home runs to be successful here.”
Trumbo won the opener with a walk- off homer. In Texas, Encarnacion hit his f i rst homer with Cleveland. Khris Davis, coming off a 42- home run season in Oakland, hit two for the A’s against the Angels, and the youngsters Miguel Sano and Andrew Benintendi — who is already being compared to Fred Lynn — also supplied opening day blasts.
The numbers are up. Way up. The salaries are down. Way down. And the dispute between quantitative value and power awkwardly pushes on.
IT’S HARD TO SINGLE YOURSELF INTO A COMEBACK.