Padres could lose their Mr. Intensity - San Diego Padres' pitcher Kevin Brown to enter free-agency market with many other players - Brief Article - Column

What you saw near the end of the World Series was a display of Kevin Brown's intensity. Padres first baseman Jim Leyritz fielded Paul O'Neill's grounder in the eighth inning of Game 4 and Brown thought Leyritz touched first base before O'Neill got there, but umpire Tim Tschida called O'Neill safe. Replays never proved Tschida missed the call, but Brown went into a rage and the Yankees then put a 1-0 game out of reach. You could tell the incident carried over because Brown waved his cap at Tschida after the inning.

Brown's teammates say they sometimes don't like getting dose to him bemuse he's so intense. Randy Johnson is the same way. But you'd rather deal with that than what San Diego and our Houston club have to deal with now: the possible loss of those players.

The Padres and Astros are about to be looked over--and could suffer big losses--in the free-agent market Just like the Padres don't really know what's going to happen with Brown, we don't know what's going to happen with Randy. I talked with Randy during the season, and he didn't want to talk about free agency at all. I know we'll make an offer, just as the Padres are prepared to make their best offer to get Brown back.

I don't know what Randy thought of the National League. I had to take him out in Game 4 of the Division Series because of the situation where you need a bat, but in the American League he would have stayed in the game no matter what happened. That's a big difference. In this league, he had to come out. On the other hand, Brown took his game to a new level by going from the A.L. to N.L., so maybe Randy will see that

I hope we can get Randy Johnson back, but we have to proceed over the winter as if we might not. A lot of people think the market will wait for Brown--a lot of agents will wait and figure he'll set the standard. He's a little younger (33, to Johnson's 35). In the meantime, we can't afford to let all our other activities wait

The offseason is difficult for all of us. You say you'd like to get another lefthanded hitter, another reliever, whatever it may be. If you wait, guys you might want to get are already gone. So you can't always do things in order of priorities. Sometimes you might have to do No. 5 on your list first and then do No. 2. You can't let the market set your desires--unless you have an unlimited budget

* Not that it mattered, but I was a little surprised the Yankees didn't try to bunt on Ken Caminiti in Game 4. He had a tough Series and his legs were hurting badly. Then again, I'm inclined to want to bunt on third basemen all the time. Chipper Jones plays 30 feet off the line, it seems, and I'm always thinking "bunt." But it's hard to get a hitter to lay one down in a game. It takes the right guy to do it.

* I think even more people would rave about Yankees closer Mariano Rivera if he'd improve his breaking pitch. Then imagine how good he would be. His fastball cuts a lot and moves away from righthanded hitters, and he throws 93-95 mph. To me, what stands out about him is the movement on the pitch and the fact he never walks anybody. He reminds me a lot of Billy Wagner on our team, but he has better control. I don't see him having much command of the breaking pitch, though.

* Even though you have to feel for the Padres and I'm a National League guy, the World Series was a fitting conclusion to the best season baseball has had in many years. You have a team with 114 regular-season wins sweeping the Series and making a legitimate claim to being the best team ever. All of the breaks went the Yankees' way in the Series, especially in Game 4, but they played so well so long that it seemed they'd get hits whether they hit the ball well or hit it poorly. I think the difference between the two dubs in the Series was very evident The Yankees had the total package and were capable of winning in every way imaginable.

Larry Dierker managed the Astros to their second consecutive postseason appearance in 1998 and is back as THE SPORTING NEWS' exclusive World Series analyst. E-mail him at dierker@sportingnews.com.

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