Four Horsemen ride again
CHICAGO – They were Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller and Elmer Layden, but you probably know them as Notre Dame’s Four Horsemen of the 1920s.
“Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again,” Grantland Rice wrote after a 13-7 upset of Army. “In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. Those are only aliases.”
We bring you a baseball version of these literary horsemen of the Apocalypse. They are Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Prince Fielder and Adrian Gonzalez.
We will call Mauer famine, as he’s clearly the best catcher to come along since Ivan Rodriguez; Pujols destruction (duh); Fielder pestilence; and Gonzalez death, as in to the San Diego Padres’ franchise.
All four of these elite hitters are within two years of free agency, as for that matter is Ryan Howard. He’s a little older than the others and not quite as big of a contractual question (albeit still a huge one for the Philadelphia Phillies), so we’ll stick to the aforementioned four.
Their top-rung production (.307-33-110 average per man per year the last three seasons) and prime-of-career ages (average when eligible for free agency: 28) dictate their next contracts will force their current teams to stretch far beyond their comfort zones.
Mauer, who can hit the market next fall, wants to stay with the Minnesota Twins. But can they afford him?
Pujols is talking a good game with the St. Louis Cardinals. But can he really ignore the 10-year, $27.5 million-per-year deal that Alex Rodriguez got from the New York Yankees two years ago, when he was older than Pujols will be when his contract ends after the 2011 season? The difficulties tying up Fielder and Gonzalez with the Milwaukee Brewers and Padres are self-evident.
Nothing happens in a vacuum, including the relative lack of spending by the Yankees and Boston Red Sox this offseason. Executives with other clubs believe baseball’s two biggest spenders are sitting out the Matt Holliday sweepstakes because they want as much flexibility as possible to land one of baseball’s four horsemen at some point in the next two years.
The Red Sox have been pursuing a Gonzalez trade. Given Kevin Youkilis’ ability to play either infield corner and their holding a club option on David Ortiz’s contract for 2011, they would be a fit for any of the four.
The Yankees are keeping the DH spot clear, for the time being, as a potential way to accommodate Pujols, Fielder or even Gonzalez playing alongside Mark Teixeira. They have advanced catching prospects to offer if the Twins reach a choking point with Mauer, which Mauer will dictate more than the club.
There’s little I would like more for baseball in 2010 than for the Cardinals, Twins, Brewers and Padres to sign their stars to contract extensions. It would be great for the sport and those four markets. However, history suggests that, in the end, the rich get richer.
Other things I’m hoping for in the new year:
A winning season for the Pittsburgh Pirates. It would be great to see how manager John Russell and his team would celebrate an 82nd victory after 17 straight losing seasons.
Andre Dawson joining Whitey Herzog, Doug Harvey and first-ballot possibility Roberto Alomar in being inducted into the Hall of Fame, with Bert “60 Shutouts” Blyleven taking a big leap forward in voting to set up his election in 2011. Dawson was 44 votes short a year ago, Blyleven 67. Both are deserving. Blyleven gets only two more tries, making it critical he starts getting votes he hasn’t had in previous years.
Alex Rios and Jake Peavy justifying the Chicago White Sox’s large investment in them. They will combine to earn almost as much as Mark Buehrle and Paul Konerko this season – and Buehrle and Konerko built up their salaries from the big-league minimum one good season at a time.
Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry finding a way to move Carlos Zambrano or Alfonso Soriano off his payroll, regaining some flexibility lost as Tribune Co. spent wildly in the first two years of the Lou Piniella era, evidently intent as much on raising the sale price of the team as on winning. The back-loaded contracts are weighing down the franchise. Among the highest-paid at their positions, Soriano and Zambrano ranked 68th and 69th, respectively, among outfielders and pitchers in Bill James’ Win Shares last season.
A deal to keep the Cubs based in the Phoenix area, if not in Mesa. The Ricketts family is strongly considering a spring training move to Naples, Fla., which would cause a firestorm within the fan base.
No more players disgraced – a la Sammy Sosa, Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez – from the 2003 drug testing that was to be done confidentially with no individual ramifications for positive tests.
A World Series that ends in October and includes at least one Saturday afternoon game. Like Todd Rundgren sings, the dream goes on forever.