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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 1997)
Get Leid at Fish Bowl Rec. Center April 4 8pm - 12am only $5 CLASS OF 2000 The Battalion PORTS Pagt Thursday • March2/, Major trade lifts Indians over White Sc MSC VARIETY SHOW TICKETS!! On Sale MARCH 31st $8.00 at Rudder Box Office TICKETS sale quick so get yours today ! For information call 845-1515 r'l rV' ^ C' .C" o Persons with disabilities please call 845-1515 to inform us of your special needs. We request notification three (3) working days prior to the event to enable us to assist you to the best of our abilities. Sportswriter jeremy Furtick Senior journalism major CLEVELAND INDIANS The big trade Tuesday put Cleve land here and not behind Chicago in the Central. The Indians’ core of young talent from the ear ly ’90s was supposed to bring a champi onship to Cleveland, but now those pieces of the puzzle are gone. Carlos Baer- ga, Albert Belle and now Kenny Lofton no longer wear the Wahoo, but there is enough tal ent left to put another division win ner in Jacobs Field. David Justice will bring his out standing defense to an outfield se verely in need of it. Marquis Gris som will take Lofton’s place in center, but they aren’t exactly in terchangeable at the lead-off spot. Manny Ramirez is the only player left in the outfield from last year’s Central champs. Newcomer Matt Williams was signed to replace Belle’s power numbers and im prove the defense at third. Omar Vizquel will stay at short while Jim Thome moves to third with Sandy Alomar staying at catcher, at least until he gets hurt again. Second base and designated hitter will be some combination of Tony Fer nandez and Julio Franco at second and Franco, Kevin Mitchell, Chad Curtis and Kevin Seitzer at desig nated hitter. The starting rotation is still stel lar. Charles Nagy, Orel Hershiser, Jack McDowell and Chad Ogea will be the top starters, while Albie Lopez and Brian Anderson should split time as the No. 5 guy. Jose Mesa and his crooked hat remain the stopper with Eric Plunk, Paul Shuey and Paul Assenmacher fill ing the bullpen. The loss of Alan Embree in the blockbuster trade with Atlanta hurts the staff as Em bree was probably the premier AL left-handed reliever and a proba ble future closer. The big difference from last year’s team is attitude, although the improved defense won’t hurt either. If Williams can stay healthy and the two former Braves can adapt to the AL, Cleveland will be there in October. Projected Record: 96-69 Key Series: May 26-27 @ Chica go White Sox: The Indians’ first look at Albert Belle in a White Sox uniform and their first look at seri ous divisional competition. CHICAGO WHITE SOX Chicago has been glowing all winter after signing Albert Belle — too bad the party’s over. After the big four-player swap this week, Chicago finds themselves in the shadow of their division foe again, not to mention Robin Ventura’s season— and possibly career-end ing dislocation, compound frac ture, ligament and tendon damage to his right ankle. So what if Frank Thomas hits 85 home runs? With Belle in front of him, Chicago is just not as good as every one thinks. The outfield will TK.rV'^ have Belle in left, Dave Martinez in center and Tony Phillips in right. Danny Tartabull, Darren Lewis and Lyle Mouton V : are there to back V up the outfielders, and Mouton should ^ spend a little time at des ignated hitter along with Tartabull and Harold Baines. Chris Snopek is filling in for Ventura at third with Ozzie Guillen, Ray Durham and Thomas around the horn. Ron Karkovice returns at catcher. Jason Bere will miss at least half the season after having elbow surgery. That will open the door for Mike Bertotti or Mike Sirotka to join newcomers Doug Drabek and LAST 3 DAYS! GO A Gift Of mjiM ^ v tsiii I m penne M Choice Exclusively at Dillard’s... choose one of two sets as your 7-piece gift with any 18.50 Lancome purchase. Six beauty travelers in a sporty spectator case! • Choose a warm or cool colour collection, featuring two full-size lipcolours and a coordinating nail lacquer. Plus... • DEFIN1CILS Mascara in Black • EAU DE BIENFAIT Cleansing Water for Face and Eyes and • POEME Parfum. Yours with any 18.50 or more Lancome purchase. One gift per person, please, while supplies last. Offer ends Saturday, March 29. Choose your makeup shade collection. Ask about our Lancome ‘Encore Event”! Dillard’s Jamie Navarro in the starting rota tion. Wilson Alvarez and James Baldwin are the only starters left from last year’s second-ranked pitching staff. The middle relief is fairly young, with Tony Castillo, Jeff Darwin, Matt Karchner and Alan Levine getting most of the work. Roberto Hernandez is back as the closer and should have an other great year. The White Sox won’t be able to recover from the loss ofVentura. They need another left-handed bat in the lineup behind Belle and David Justice isn’t on the market anymore. Chicago will have to wait ‘til next year to buy a champion. Projected Record: 93-69 Key Series: April 18-21 vs. New York Yankees: Chicago thinks they’ve put the best team in base ball together this winter. Now they get a chance to prove it against last year’s champs. MINNESOTA TWINS There are enough teams in the AL with a chance to win the Wild Card to make this season a very ex citing year. Minnesota is another one of those pesky squads that will be in the hunt come August. The TWins are going to give people some problems with . - Marty Cordova in left, Rich Becker in center ^ and Roberto Kel- ly in right. There is ,, • w another crew of > _ ... young Twins waiting in the wings to back these three up. Paul Molitor returns as the league’s best overall designated hitter, and Terry Steinbach will catch in his home state. The ques tion for this team will be at the cor ners. RookieTodd Walker will move to third from his natural po sition of second, and Scott Sta- hoviak will get the call over Ron Coomer and Denny Hocking at first. The invaluable Chuck Knoblauch will remain at second with Pat Meares at short. Rick Aguilera and Bob Tewks bury will be the main starters. Frankie Rodriguez and Brad Radke are a pair of budding stars who will join either Greg Swindell or Scott Aldred to round out the rotation. Mike Trombly, Dave Stevens, Dan Naulty, Eddie Guardado and Rich Robertson will be the committee in charge of handling relief re sponsibilities. The Twins need their young pitchers to step up if they are go ing to have any chance at the Wild Card. If they do that and Todd Walker develops into the next young star from Minnesota’s farm system, the Twins will be around in the end. Projected Record: 85-77 Key Series: June 20-22 @ Chicago White Sox; June 23-25 @ Cleveland Indians; June 26-29 vs. Chicago White Sox: If the Twins have any visions of postseason play, they’re going to have to sur vive this stretch of 10 games in 10 days against the Central’s two best teams. KANSAS CITY ROW And now we come toanoi interesting team. KansasCiR 40-37 in the second halfoflas son. To win the Wild Card,tl need to win about 85 game; The acquisition of JeffKinj (first) and Jay Bell (shortstop)i huge. They will join JoseOffen (second) and Craig Paquetteit in the infield with MikeMacfer behind the plate. Johnny! Tom Goodwin and Bip Rob© probably start in the outfield. 11 j Jon Nunnally and Michaellud J will get some playing time, T( if 1 Davis will give it one more go: designated hitter. Kevin Appier and Tim 1 are certain to have goodyeai the rest of the rotation is susj Jose Rosado, Jim Pittsley,Gle:j Ru sch and Chris Haneyvvillfi holes in the rotation andsplj in the bullpen. Jeff Montgomery is comirJ shoulder surgery and returns® his worst year as a closer.laiir,: Bluma, Bob Scanlon, Jason la: and Mark Huisman roundou; middle relief. Pitching is the key forKCl aren’t a big-time powerhouse!) will be able to manufacturemrt t h e pi tching staff consistentlye hold opponents to aroundfomi per game, the AL Wild Card rats be that much more interesting. < Projected Record: 83-81 Key Series: July 4-6 @ Clew’ land Indians: With thisyear’sli Star Game festivitiesbeinghe) Jacobs Field July 7-8, the cou will be turning its focus onClet land in this series. This is I als’ chance to show everyone they’re for real. MILWAUKEEBRE It will be an uneventful sun: mer in Milwaukee. The Brewei aren’t terrible, but they aren’t good either. Around the horn are John)! (first), Fernando Vina (second), Jose Valentin (short) and JeffCi: (third) with Mike Methenydoiif the catching. Dave Nilsonwillsj time with Jaha at designatedhiti and first. Marc Newfleld, Gerald Wf" and Jeromy Burnitz will roamte outfield with Chuck Carr avails on the bench. The starting rotation is Of, witl Ben McDonald and Calfldied leading the way. Scott Karl,Tim VanEgmond, Steve Sparks and Id D’Amico will duel for thelastto | spots. Mike Fetters will returnas the closer and lead a bullpeno( Doug Jones, Ron Villone, Bryce PTorie and Bob Wicknian througf the season. The Brewers will occasional) break out and score a lotofn® and will throw a shutout even now and then. But they reallyaa the only team in this division doesn’t have a chance to contpf for the playoffs. Projected Record: 77-85 Key Series: Sept. 26-28 vs. more Orioles: Playing the playol bound Orioles in the last series the year is as close as the Brew® get to the postseason in 1997, N.Carolina, Arizon meet again Saturda INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Dean Smith will not let North Carolina watch tape of its loss to Arizona. A vic tory does not mean Wildcats coach Lute Olson will be showing it either. Despite a freshman at guard and no seniors in the starting lineup, Ari zona had little trouble with North Carolina in the season opener in No vember, beating the Tar Heels 83-72. But both teams have come a long way since, and Olson says there is no point in looking back. “It’s not even the same team that we’re facing,” he said Wednesday during a conference call of Final Four coaches. “At that point, as young as they were, they* 1 searching for what their rolesw® The Arizona game was end of North Carolina’s stru| The Tar Heels, also untested' 1 three sophomore starters freshman point guard, lost theid three Atlantic Coast Confei games for the first time. But as many were writing (Hi] as a rebuilding year, North Can was pulling things together. North Carolina has a 16 winning streak, and on Satin the Tar Heels play Arizona aga' ( this time for a spot in the NCA' tie game. Floppy Joe's Co ^T CD-ROM Rentals 1 Day $2.00 games and more... 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