North Shore Notes
View From The Crows' Nest
By Jim Lachimia

*  Trade deadline success story: In July of 1997, Jim Leyland-then the manager of the Florida Marlins-felt his club was dead in the water and lacking a true leader. "I'll tell you who I want in here, it's Dutch Daulton," Leyland told coach Rich Donnelly, referring to the aging Phillies' catcher whose knees were pretty much shot by then. "Dutch Daulton? He's broken down," Donnelly offered. "I don't give a (bleep). He'll shake this place up," Leyland steamed. The skipper was right. A couple weeks later, Florida acquired Daulton and took off after that, capturing the N.L. wild card. Daulton hit .389 in the World Series as the Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians, four games to three. He never played again after that year, but Daulton did what he was brought in to do. Lead…and win.

*  What's even more disheartening than Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny underachieving (big time) this year is that the Pirates-a team in such desperate need starting pitchers-had two 27-year-old former first round draft picks who couldn't help them in John Van Benschoten and Bryan Bullington. Compared to Van Benschoten and Bullington, Kris Benson was wildly successful here in Pittsburgh. And by the way, I'm not buying Bullington's story after he got claimed off waivers by Cleveland that he never really got a chance here. There was no conspiracy.

*  Last winter, mid-level (at best) free agent Chad Durbin chose Philadelphia over Pittsburgh because he felt he had a better chance to crack the Phillies' starting rotation. He didn't. And now since they've acquired Joe Blanton from Oakland, Durbin most likely will remain in the bullpen. It's tough to be critical of Pirates' GM Neal Huntington, because he's done a lot of things right, but putting the "we're not in the market for starting pitchers" message out as he did was probably a mistake.

*  The Minnesota Twins are often cited as the small market ballclub that does the best job of staying competitive year in and year out. And it's true. This past off-season, two of the most sought-after free agents on the market were theirs-centerfielder Torii Hunter and pitcher Johan Santana-and they lost both. No matter. Through the first four months of the season, the Twins ran a close second to the White Sox in the A.L. Central without their two long-time stars. And they did that with a starting rotation that included little-known and relatively inexperienced guys such as Scott Baker, Glenn Perkins, Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey.

*  During a recent Angels-Red Sox telecast on ESPN, color analyst Dave Campbell offered several reasons why it's much tougher for pitchers to get people out than it used to be. And, no, his list didn't include batters hopped up on steroids or juiced baseballs. Instead, Campbell cited: Modern ballparks being much smaller, meaning the fences are closer (and lower in a lot of instances) and there's much less foul territory in the interest of getting the fans closer to the action. A lot of times guys are still up there hacking away when they would have been out on a foul pop before. He also said the fact that you can't pitch inside anymore without batters wanting to charge the mound is another reason we're seeing ERAs that must make Bob Gibson sick to his stomach.