Beane Quickly Makes It a Pitchers’ Game Again

Near as anyone could tell, Billy Beane made one trip through the lobby on Saturday.

He wore a wrinkled T-shirt and floppy gym shorts. His hair was mussed, as if he’d just bellied from a fox hole.

“Just hiding out,” Beane said on his fly-by, his grin as fleeting as his public presence here.

For two days, baseball’s winter meetings had been mostly about pitching, just as the last month of the off-season had.

By Saturday night, as the limousines pulled past the front doors of the Anaheim Marriott, the meetings became about the Dodgers and their pursuit of Tim Hudson and the abiding relationship between the button-down Paul DePodesta and the laundry-basket Beane.

And, still, about pitching.

The A’s have it. The Dodgers need it, like, two wins from the National League championship series need it.

A few rooms apart on the fifth floor here, DePodesta and Beane were believed to have closed in on a trade that would bring Hudson to Los Angeles, the prospect Antonio Perez as the core enticement.

The Dodgers said it is not done yet.

But, their anticipation is palpable. They believe.

They believe the top end of their rotation can be Hudson, Brad Penny and Jeff Weaver. They believe they can add several more years at the end of Hudson’s contract, which runs out after next season.

They believe, at 29, that Hudson is their resolution to a crisis unsolved by their chase of Randy Johnson, their attainment of Penny, their advances on Matt Clement, their dreams for Kazuhisa Ishii, their fliers on the rest.

Hudson is as close to Orel Hershiser as there is in the game, part whippet, part bulldog.

He is mean and tough and has won 92 games and lost 39 in six seasons, despite a hip that breaks down once a season, an ailment that perhaps convinced Beane to trade him at all.

DePodesta is ready for another risk at another something bold, for something he believes in, a true ace, a real pitching staff, and cash to spare for Adrian Beltre.

Pitchers here have gone fast and not cheap; turns out $7 million a year is the minimum going rate for an average starting pitcher, the memory of October collapses by the New York Yankee and St. Louis Cardinals fresh enough to make Kris Benson worth $22.5 million over three seasons.

Benson’s career record is 47-53. His ERA is 4.28. The New York Mets could hardly wait.

A general manager short a starter or two could go there.

The Yankees apparently have, with Jaret Wright, though a potential issue has arisen from Wright’s physical exam. If they clear Wright, the Yankees will pay him about $21 million over three years. He won 15 games for the Atlanta Braves last season. In the five previous seasons, dogged by injuries, he won 17. Total.

Carl Pavano, who just had his first winning season since 2000, is about to get almost $10 million a year from the Yankees. David Wells, who in May will be 42, or 62 in Boomer Years, is a signature away from potentially earning $9 million a season from the Boston Red Sox.

Depending on one’s taste for pitching, and in some cases one’s stomach for bidding against the Yankees and Red Sox, Clement, Kevin Millwood, Derek Lowe, Eric Milton and Pedro Martinez are out there. (The Red Sox apparently have guaranteed a third year and $38.5 million in their offer to Martinez. The Yankees and Milton were believed to be only $3 million apart over three seasons, though that was before they had Pavano.)

Yes, if you’re a pitcher and still possess most of the feeling in your dominant arm, this is the market for you. If not, give it a day, it still might be the market for you.

A general manager short a starter or two, but the least bit budget conscious, has an option. A hint: It’s in the room with the cold iron.

Last month, Beane sprinkled the general managers’ meetings with the news he’d listen to offers for starters Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, and could be talked into trading one of them.

Huh.

None is older than 29. They’ve had one losing season among them, and that was five years ago. Two are left-handed. The right-hander, Hudson, is the best of the three. Their combined record is 245-121. They’ve allowed the Oakland A’s to overcome their market, their payroll, their turnover.

As baseball bulletins go, this ranked somewhere between Yanks Form Franchise and Bonds Meets Conte.

And so, predictably, much of the blather since Friday, when organizations gathered on Anaheim’s Convention Way, has been the availability of The Big Three and who would leave them The Lingering Two.

The Dodgers. The Baltimore Orioles. The New York Mets. The Atlanta Braves. The St. Louis Cardinals. The Philadelphia Phillies. The Florida Marlins. Late, very late, both the Yankees and Red Sox, peripheral partners for three-way trades.

While the firmest interest has been on Hudson, he is a year from his own free agency, and Beane said Saturday he would not grant a negotiating window as a requisite for a trade. Mulder, who struggled in the season’s final weeks, and Zito, who is 25-23 since winning the 2002 American League Cy Young award, have two years left on their contracts, so could be the better long-term acquisitions.

The Dodgers and Orioles went straight to Hudson. The Orioles asked about Zito. Most have spread their curiosity to all three, casting established players and potential players, and Beane broadened the bidding to three-way roundabouts, a prospect from here, a hitter from there, a pitcher from somewhere else.

Late Saturday, Dan Feinstein was spotted leaving Beane’s room. Feinstein spent a decade working for the A’s. Now he’s the Dodgers’ coordinator of baseball operations.

Gasp.

“We control our own pace,” Beane said. “[Other teams] are moving at our pace, which is the most important thing.

“We’re not in a hurry. We don’t feel the pressure to do anything. If we open the season right now, we’d have a pretty darned good baseball team.”