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GRAZIANO: Phillips may go from hero to trade bait
Monday, April 25, 2005
NEW YORK -- Andy Phillips, a six-year minor-leaguer who didn't see a big-league
batter's box until last September, knew a day like this might never happen.
As many times as he may have dreamed of hitting his first Yankee Stadium home
run as a Yankee, he knew the day might never come.
He just tried not to think about it.
"If you allow any factors like that to affect anything, then it's going to
affect the way you play," Phillips said. "This game's tough enough when your
mind is clear."
Phillips was speaking yesterday afternoon, after he'd hit a three-run home run
and an RBI double in the Yankees' victory over the Rangers. It had been his
first start of the season at first base, in place of the slumping Tino Martinez
, and he'd ended it with a curtain call.
Imagine that. The Yankee Stadium crowd saluting the guy who played instead of
Tino Martinez.
A dream?
"It was a lot of fun," said Phillips, a humble 28-year-old from Tuscaloosa,
Ala. "Obviously."
A lot of fun, but it comes with a lot of perspective. Sure, it might be a real
nice story -- guy comes up from Triple-A and gives the creaky old Yankee lineup
a spark. But the more likely story has Phillips in a different uniform by the
end of this season.
The Yankees make sure their minor-leaguers know that.
"My conversation that I have many times with these guys is that they're playing
not just for us, but they're playing for the 29 other clubs," Yankees GM Brian
Cashman said. "I have that conversation a lot. I'm getting pretty good at it."
When they gossip in the clubhouse at Triple-A Columbus, they don't talk about
spots opening up on the big club. When your big club is spending $200 million
on established veteran talent, the spots just aren't there. No, the guys in
Columbus chatter instead about which teams might be interested in them.
"I think it helps these guys to keep it in perspective that your only chance to
fight your way to the big leagues isn't necessarily from Columbus to New York,"
Cashman said.
And so here's Andy Phillips, a right-handed hitter getting the start against
a right-handed pitcher while Martinez, the left-handed hitting veteran, sits on
the bench.
"We need a little pick-me-up right here," Yankees manager Joe Torre said before
the game.
And Phillips gave it. His double turned a 1-0 lead into a 2-0 lead in what
would be a four-run second inning, helping the Yankees salvage the final game
of a rotten weekend. The home run was gravy, coming while the Rangers were
already starting to pack for their trip home, but it was another good swing
by a guy who's been sitting the bench while the big guys have been taking bad
ones.
"He showed us that we want to see him a little bit more," Torre said after the
game.
So Phillips is likely to play Wednesday, when the Angels' starter is the left-
handed Jarrod Washburn. Could even start platooning for a while with Martinez.
"I feel the organization has confidence in what I can do on the field," said
Phillips, who started at three different infield positions last year while the
Yankees tried to find him a path to the majors. "I can control the effort I put
out, and hopefully that'll translate into an opportunity, and I think it's done
that."
The opportunities are there all of a sudden for Phillips, for newly recalled
reliever Colter Bean, and for Chien-Ming Wang, who's in line to start
Saturday's game. The Yankees are having trouble, and with the trade market
still dormant so early in the season, their only choice is to turn to Columbus.
"I feel we have players down there that can help us," Cashman said, "either
directly, or indirectly, through a trade."
Right now, it's the former. But everybody who comes up as a Yankee knows how
likely it is to be the latter.
Andy Phillips knows it, and that's what made yesterday so sweet. He knew all
along that it was a long shot.
Dan Graziano appears regularly
in The Star-Ledger.
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