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Apr 23 21:42 UTC 1998

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Subject:      SportsZone special: Dave Campbell's major league report
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Status: R

To: ESPN Insiders
From: Dave Campbell, ESPN
Re: Around the majors

**Note: This is the first of a regular series of e-mailed Major League Baseball
reports that ESPN baseball analyst Dave Campbell will be writing for ESPN
Insiders.**

The interesting thing to me about the Reds' start is that the three guys who
are carrying their offense are Eddie Taubensee, Chris Stynes and Bret Boone. If
people had thought the Reds would do anything this season, it'd be because of
Barry Larkin, Reggie Sanders and Willie Greene, but this has become a very
intriguing team.

Boone is an interesting story. He's hitting around .360 -- and this was a guy
who went from hitting .320 after coming over from Seattle in 1994 to around
.220 last year. After his average fell 100 points, a lot of people were writing
him off.

Boone spent five weeks this winter with his dad, Bob -- a four-time All-Star
catcher and former manager of the Royals -- and they basically retooled his
swing totally. They worked on keeping his hands much more quiet, and obviously
it's really paying off.

To me, he's still the best defensive second baseman in baseball, right there
with Baltimore's Roberto Alomar, but Boone continues to get ignored for Gold
Glove consideration, and I don't know why. Maybe his offense will help draw him
some attention so people finally take notice of his prowess as a second
baseman.

-- The good news in Texas is that the Rangers are off to a terrific start. Two
years ago when they went to the postseason against the Yankees, one of the
things that really fueled it was their defense. They were the best in the
league, but then last year, they dropped down to ninth. Well, that great
defense is back, and the common thread is that shortstop Kevin Elster is back
with them. He's just such a steady player. He's not a Rey Ordonez, who will
make the stand-on-your-head type of play, but he makes all the plays he should
make and that's important.

-- San Diego's Greg Vaughn looks like he's back. Last year he was holding the
bat so tightly in his hands, you could see the muscles rippling out of his
arms. Batting coach Merv Rettenmund has gotten him to loosen up his hands so
he's not as tight, because that's what had slowed his bat down.

-- The Diamondbacks' team on-base percentage is absolutely horrible. They
aren't getting any walks and aren't getting many guys on base. In 13 games
against the Western Division, they've only scored 26 runs, and a lot of that
has to do with no one taking walks. They have a lot of young guys who just
don't have a really good idea up there at the plate. Karim Garcia went about 50
at-bats with only one walk and had an on-base percentage of .176, and that's
symbolic of what's going on there. That on-base percentage of .284 is killing
them.

-- In Charles Nagy's first 18 1/3 innings pitched for Cleveland this season, he
gave up nine home runs and still was 2-0. Last year Roger Clemens pitched 274
innings and gave up nine home runs. That's incredible. The positive spin on
Nagy is that in his last start against Boston over the weekend, he had 15
ground-ball outs and allowed no home runs, so it looks like he's found his
sinker.

-- Atlanta's Chipper Jones is off to a terrific start. He really had a hard
time getting over that playoff loss to Florida last season and he felt like his
failure to make a couple of defensive plays and not coming through in the
clutch really gnawed at him all winter, but he's come back with a vengeance.
He's a guy that respects the game and is a really solid pro, and to his credit,
rather than letting the disappointment of the '97 postseason carry over, he got
it all out of his system last winter.

-- Two of the Rockies' starting pitchers have double-figure ERAs -- John
Thomson (10.13) and Pedro Astacio (12.15) -- and Jamey Wright is close at 9.30.
A fourth starter, Mark Thompson, has an ERA of almost 8 (7.94), and the
Rockies' ace, Darryl Kile, is 1-3 with a 6.47 ERA. Their bullpen, led by Jerry
Dipoto and Chuck McElroy, has pitched well the last week or so, but those
starters have put them so far behind the eight ball, it really hasn't mattered
much.

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