Guerrero’s Striking Zone Hard to Miss

The idea was to learn how to pitch to the un-pitchable, Vladimir Guerrero, during the Freeway Series.

“So, let me get this straight,” said Derek Lowe, who starts today for the Dodgers. “You want us to tell you how we get him out, and then you write about it.”

Granted, it sounded smarter on the 90-minute drive to Anaheim.

“I pitch him all over,” said Brad Penny, who started Saturday night’s game, and did.

That happens to be his strike zone, from tongue to tongue, spikes to palate.

“I’ve never in my life seen a guy hit so many different pitches so hard,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said.

If it begins to sound impossible, or next to it, that would explain Guerrero’s .338 batting average, and his 11 home runs and 37 runs batted in in 54 games. He could miss 20 games and still challenge to repeat last season’s American League MVP award, particularly if the Angels stay on this run.

Not only does Guerrero reach pitches no one else reaches, he often puts the bat barrel on them. Recently, Washington National closer Chad Cordero stumbled during his delivery to Guerrero and the ball bounced across the plate. Nobody could believe Guerrero didn’t swing.

A week later, that anecdote led to the urban legend, the tales of Guerrero clubbing bounced pitches for hits.

“Yeah, 1997,” Guerrero said.

Tracy, then Manager Felipe Alou’s bench coach in Montreal, said it was a season later, in 1998. Pete Harnisch, the Cincinnati Red right-hander, threw a split-fingered fastball that bounded off the turf at Olympic Stadium, a good six or seven feet in front of Guerrero.

Off Guerrero’s bat, on a line, the ball wedged into the padding of the wall in left-center field. Tracy swears it’s true.

“Felipe, in that voice of his, says, ‘Did that [pitch] hit [the ground]?’ ” Tracy said. “I say, ‘Yeah, twice. It hit the turf and then the wall.’ The darnedest thing I ever saw.”

An unassuming type, Guerrero smiles and shrugs at the details.

“It was a long time ago,” he said.

Mike Ashman pitches batting practice to the Angels before every home game, throwing hittable pitches to Guerrero being one of the easiest jobs in sports.

“I had a first last week,” said Ashman, also the head baseball coach at Cal Poly Pomona. “I threw a pitch he didn’t swing at.”

When Guerrero is done with batting practice, the cage is usually empty. It’s the stands that are full of baseballs.

Nearby, Angel hitting coach Mickey Hatcher overheard and said he too had seen Guerrero crush a bounced pitch. Claude Osteen, then the Dodger pitching coach, had gone to the mound and ordered the pitcher -- Hatcher could not remember which -- to throw a ball in the dirt against Guerrero. Sadly for the Dodgers, the one-hopper arrived shin-high, and the line drive carried into the outfield.

So, the scouting report’s first rule: Keep the ball in the air.

“Generally, he’s a great off-speed hitter in the strike zone,” Dodger catcher Jason Phillips said. “Because his arms are so long, he can reach pitches most people can’t. Those are pitches normal human beings don’t hit.”

An American League scout who sees a lot of the Angels said Guerrero must be pitched up and in with what baseball people call “a plus fastball.”

“Overall, though,” the scout said, “there’s no real place to throw to him, because the guy has no strike zone.”

He called him, “Roberto Clemente, with more power. He’s really one of the great right-handed hitters of the past 30 or 40 years.”

Phillips agreed Guerrero can be pitched up and in, but pointed to his fist and said, “The hole to tie him up is that big.”

So, Guerrero arrived at the Dodger series batting .451 over the previous two weeks, and with five consecutive multi-hit games, only to have Jeff Weaver hit the fist a few times. Penny also pounded at the spot just above Guerrero’s hands, and in the fifth inning struck him out on the eighth pitch, all fastballs, the last one eye-high and 95 mph.

Be assured, Guerrero won’t go to Hatcher for consultation. Early last season, he told his hitting coach, “The worst thing you can do is get in my head.” Hatcher says he’ll remind Guerrero, who sees about 3 1/2 pitches per at-bat, to lay off the first pitch once in a while. Beyond that, the Angels leave the hitting to Guerrero, and let everyone else figure him out.

“He manipulates his hands to get the head of the bat on the ball as well as anybody I’ve ever seen,” Angel bench coach Joe Maddon said.

It means opposite-field home runs on sliders in the other batter’s box, line-drive doubles on curveballs bound for his front foot, a few murky scouting reports and a lot of very interesting at-bats.

“I don’t know,” Guerrero said, smiling at the effort at analysis. “I’m just looking for the baseball.”

Where?

“Wherever,” he said.

*

It’s not the pitching that is hurting them anymore, so the Dodgers have made the acquisition of a big bat -- preferably at third base or the outfield, but potentially at first base -- their first priority.

The recent run of quality starts and the imminent return of Odalis Perez has allowed General Manager Paul DePodesta to think offense.

Injuries to Milton Bradley, J.D. Drew and Ricky Ledee exposed the alarming lack of organizational depth at those positions. Drew has a five-year contract and can walk after two, as unlikely as that sounds now. His recent knee ailment should remind the Dodgers how fragile he can be, and how close they are to fielding an all triple-A outfield.

Now that the Dodgers see the urgency, however, they’re finding that few teams believe they themselves are not contenders. Talks have moved so slowly, in fact, the Dodgers haven’t yet discussed what prospects, if any, they’d be willing to deal.

DePodesta would prefer a veteran on a short contract, according to team sources, but he might not have the luxury to be so picky. The Dodger payroll -- $88 million, including the insurance payout on Darren Dreifort and the $10 million they sent to Arizona with Shawn Green -- isn’t close to what owner Frank McCourt said he’d spend. So, presumably, they could afford, say, Preston Wilson ($12.5 million), Geoff Jenkins ($7.3 million), Hideki Matsui ($8 million), Matt Lawton ($7.8 million), Gary Sheffield ($11.5 million) or Mark Kotsay ($6.5 million). And the likes of Adam Dunn ($4.6 million), Carl Everett ($4 million) or Aubrey Huff ($4.9 million) would be that much easier.

Bats and pieces

The Red Sox have talked about reacquiring Gabe Kapler, who left after their championship season to play in Japan.... Arizona’s Jose Cruz Jr., after a tough day in center field last Sunday in Cleveland, arrived in the clubhouse to find posted to his locker a photo of Darth Vader with blue highlighter smeared on the cheeks.... A year ago, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf became an ordained clergyman in the Universal Life Church of Modesto after conducting studies on the Internet. Last Saturday, he married a couple at U.S. Cellular Field. Seriously.... Travis Harper is the Tampa Bay Devil Ray pitcher who was left on the mound Tuesday night through eight hits, nine runs and two-thirds of an inning against the Yankees. The next morning, a reporter asked Lou Piniella about the poor kid. “You think I did that intentional? You think I’m going to let a guy get beat up like that?” he asked. “No, I’m not.” Then he went into his office bathroom, tossed a chair and returned. This time calmly. Sort of. “You want to see where I threw the chair?” he demanded. “Go on in there and take a look exactly where the chair is at so you can look at it. All the ... you want to do is cause ... headaches and problems.”

Detroit’s Magglio Ordonez, out two months because of hernia surgery, is expected to begin a rehabilitation assignment this week. He’ll play the outfield for triple-A Toledo. Ordonez told the Detroit Free Press, “I’m like a bullfighter. If the bulls don’t kill me, I’ll be back.” ... San Francisco starter Jason Schmidt has some of his velocity back, so he hasn’t gotten old and left-handed yet. “You guys tried to turn me into Tom Glavine from the right side or something,” he said.... The Rangers and Kenny Rogers are talking contract extension. He’s 40.... Former Dodger Juan Encarnacion, fighting a slump in Florida and the subject of trade talks, sounds ready to go. He told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “If they’re going to do something, I hope they do it quickly so they don’t waste my time not playing.... They can send me to the worst team. Sitting down here, I’m not doing anything.... If you’re talking about [production], I may be bad, but I’m not the worst one here.”