Green Lite
Shawn Green stood motionless Wednesday night as the Dodgers were shut out for the eighth time this season, taking strike three on a picture-perfect fastball over the middle of the plate to end a 2-0 New York Met victory.
The familiar scene was disturbing for the frustrated right fielder and struggling Dodgers, who expected Green to shoulder more responsibility after trading Gary Sheffield to the Atlanta Braves in January. Green acknowledges his swing has been out of sync since spring training and he can’t pinpoint the problem, though he dismisses suggestions of being burdened by increased expectations.
The franchise’s single-season home run leader remains hopeful that things will improve, but the punchless Dodgers need their star player to find his way quickly.
“I just feel really terrible,” said batting coach Jack Clark, who works with Green daily. “I wish there was something I could do or say, because now it’s at the point where you want to do and say a lot, but I don’t know. I’m sure that man has plenty of things going on in his head and heart. He’s such a big piece of this team and he’s not feeling what he wants to feel to help this team.
“He just hasn’t felt it since spring training. For whatever reason, and I don’t know whether it’s the pressure from everyone saying it’s his team now, the fact that Sheff is gone or what. All I know is I wish I had an answer for him. I wish we could go look at film, get a little key or something and find the reason why we’re not getting there. But we’re not at that point and it is what it is. Like I said, I just don’t know.”
After going 0 for 3 Thursday against Montreal, the left-handed batter is hitting only .235 with three homers and 21 runs batted in. Green is in a six-for-35 slump and has not homered since April 20, spanning 21 games and 83 at-bats. He has hit into a team-high 12 double plays.
Manager Jim Tracy recently moved Green from cleanup to third in the batting order in front of Paul Lo Duca, hoping Green would get better pitches to hit. In about one-third of the club’s at-bats in the No. 3 hole, Green is hitting .148 (nine for 61) with no homers and three RBIs.
The Dodgers have the fewest homers in that spot in the major leagues, and are tied for the lowest RBI total with the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals.
“It’s not fair to put it all on Greenie,” Lo Duca said. “Yeah, Greenie is our focal point and we need him to do well, that’s just the bottom line, but he can’t do it by himself. Everybody has to take responsibility to get us going.
“When other teams come to town, they feel they can beat us if they get Shawn Green out. He’s a marked player because he’s earned it, but we all have to do more to help him. No one expects Greenie to just carry us.”
Green’s power outage has contributed to the Dodgers ranking 15th in the 16-team National League in runs and homers. Heart-of-the-order batters Brian Jordan and Eric Karros also have not produced as hoped, prompting Tracy to shuffle the batting order in an effort to jump-start the offense, but Tracy recently singled out Green, saying he could not determine the club’s run-production potential until Green gets going.
Such is the spotlight for Green after he had arguably the best season in franchise history in 2001, setting a team home-run record with 49 while batting .297 with 31 doubles, 125 RBIs, 121 runs and a .598 slugging percentage.
“He was allowed to just go out and play last year,” Karros said. “There weren’t any kind of expectations, so he just went out and he performed.
“He performed at a level that was probably better than any season that I’ve seen in the last decade here, and you had a lot of great seasons with Sheff and Mike [Piazza]. Now, this year, [expectations changed] because of the year he had last year.”
Green was not upset about Tracy putting him on the spot, saying he understands how this works.
“With the year I had last year, and with some of the changes we made, I understood I would have a big responsibility this year,” Green said. “I knew it would be bigger than what it had ever been in the past here, I think that’s just pretty much common sense, and I accept that.
“But I’ve also gotten off to a lot of slow starts in my career. The only difference this year is what I did last year, and the numbers are going to come once my swing is right. But I can’t try to rush it and focus on the external expectations. That’s not going to help anything.”
Scouts who follow the Dodgers said Green’s swing is longer than it was last season, reducing his chances of making contact in the strike zone. Clark, Tom Lasorda and Ira Green, Shawn’s father, agree with the assessment of the scouts and have approached Green about the change.
However, Green has not completely embraced their view.
“We look at tapes, he’s got all his good swings [from 2001] on his own computer and we talk about the mental part of hitting all the time,” Clark said. “But he knows his swing better than anybody else. No matter what I say or talk about, I can’t try to change a guy’s stance unless he comes to me.
“He’s not ready to throw in the towel and start all over, and I understand that. Sometimes he just looks so close. He’ll get into batting practice sometimes and work on some things and feel really good. Then he’ll come in during games and say, ‘I don’t know why I’m missing those balls.’”
Green traveled a similar road in 2000, struggling in his first season at Chavez Ravine after signing a six-year, $84-million contract. He batted .269 with 44 doubles, 24 homers and 99 RBIs--but the Dodgers needed more.
Now, they need even more from Green.
“As an organization, you have to look at what numbers players put up in the past, because that’s your only gauge as to what’s going to happen in the future,” he said. “Everybody just has a different amount that’s expected of him.
“I know what’s expected of me and I believe I’m going to get going as soon as I can just get my swing right. I’m not worried because it’s really that simple.”
The Dodgers can only hope.
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Sinking Feeling
*--* Comparing Shawn Green through 41 games this season and last season: 2002 STAT 2001 235 BA 270 3 HR 8 21 RBI 26 39 SO 29 349 Slug% 500
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