Sheffield Not Hard Sell for Braves

It is several hours before his reunion with the Dodgers, and Gary Sheffield insists he has put those three tumultuous seasons in Los Angeles behind him. He is sitting by his locker in the Atlanta Brave clubhouse and ticks off the reasons why he can’t stop smiling. Principal among them are that the environment here is everything he thought it would be and more, that his wife is expecting their first child in September and, in the last few days alone, he has sold houses in Tampa and Bel-Air, houses he didn’t need any more.

If the real-estate market has picked up for Sheffield, the question that haunts the Dodgers is this: To what extent did his departure from the middle of a lineup that has produced fewer home runs than any National League team except the Pittsburgh Pirates foreclose on the Los Angeles offense? If the Dodgers clearly seem to miss the power that produced an average of 37 homers and 103 runs batted during those three years, do they miss the pollution that often accompanied it?

Sheffield was traded for Brian Jordan and Odalis Perez on Jan. 15. The impact can’t be analyzed in early May, and it can’t be analyzed by numbers alone.

How does chemistry fit into a fragile balance of power?

Dodger catcher Paul Lo Duca wrestled with that and said, “Look, Sheff is a feared hitter whose presence in a lineup can’t be replaced, but Jordan is a good hitter himself and he brings a lot of good intangibles. He wants to win, which is not to say Sheff didn’t, but there were things he said that he shouldn’t have. When Brian Jordan says things, it’s about the team, not himself.”

The message in that is obvious, but on a night when Sheffield claimed he has turned a corner to the extent that he even prays for the Dodgers’ success, there was little inflammatory. Of course, aside from Perez--who faces his former team with a 3-1 record and 1.75 earned-run average tonight--neither the struggling Jordan nor similarly struggling Sheffield seemed in position to do much sniping before exchanging big-time shots in a 16-inning, 6-5 Dodger victory.

Jordan, admittedly unable to get comfortable in Los Angeles and missing his Atlanta-based family, returned to Turner Field with a .248 average, three home runs and 13 RBls. However, he emerged from a one-for-20 home stand with four hits, including two home runs, a statement to the Braves, who he felt had betrayed him with the trade.

Sheffield, who might have gone on the disabled list if the Braves hadn’t lost B.J. Surhoff for the season, is still encumbered by a sore left wrist he jammed in early April and came in hitting .230 with three homers and 10 RBIs. His first home run in 81 at-bats came off Eric Gagne in the ninth and created extra innings.

Asked if the Dodgers underestimated his offensive impact given their loss of early power, Sheffield smiled and said, “[General Manager] Dan Evans clearly knew what I’m capable of doing. It’s just a trade that had to be made. They weren’t willing to fill my [contract] needs and I wasn’t willing to be there under those circumstances. I wanted to move, and as fast as I could. It had nothing to do with underestimating ability.”

Nevertheless, scouts maintain that Sheffield’s absence has significantly changed the sequences that opposing pitchers use against the middle of the Dodger lineup and significantly affected the type pitches that Shawn Green sees. Green hit a career-high 49 homers batting ahead of the annoyed Sheffield last year and now has three.

“Look at my numbers,” Sheffield said, “Of course I had an impact. What kind of impact I had on other players, who knows? Greenie’s got to hit for Greenie. It ain’t nothing he ain’t seen before. It’s just a matter if you hit it or not. It doesn’t matter who is standing on deck, or anything like that.”

Well, of course it does, and Sheffield admitted there’s a respect factor involved and the great thing about the Braves is that there’s an acceptance and understanding “whether you’re going good or bad.”

In addition, he said, the players are not forced to follow time-consuming rules such as pregame stretching as a team (“they give you credit for knowing what to do to get ready”) and that he’s never spent as much time with teammates or been more excited about his environment since he left the Florida Marlins, which characterizes what he thought about those three years in Los Angeles.

In the meantime, he added, the Dodgers “have to live with what they got,” which to this early juncture has been very good pitching and defense and a sporadic offense averaging only 3.7 runs per game. A little more, Manager Jim Tracy was saying, and his team might have come to Atlanta with 21 or 22 wins rather than 18, but he remains confident the middle of the lineup “will hit and hit a lot” and he disagrees with the theory Sheffield’s absence has been critical “because I don’t see any difference in the pitches being thrown and don’t see them picking on one guy and pitching around him.”

Maybe not, but Green, Jordan and Lo Duca combined for 99 home runs last year and they now have 10. Sheffield alone hit seven last April on his way to 36, 24 of which either tied the score or put the Dodgers ahead.

“I think we have enough offense here,” Lo Duca said, “but we have to step it up, feed off each other a little better. Greenie and I have talked about it, and we can’t just try to do it as individuals. I think the three of us [including Jordan] have put too much pressure on ourselves, which may not be surprising.”

Lo Duca referred to the fact that he is trying to legitimize his breakthrough season of last year, that Green now carries the weight of his club record for home runs and that Jordan is trying to justify a trade of which the early conclusion is this:

If it’s a lot quieter in the Dodger clubhouse, the lineup has been a lot quieter as well.