Angel Notebook : Cliburn Comes Down With First Sore Arm on the Pitching Staff

Angel Manager Gene Mauch divided his pitching staff and gave each group a day off last week, hoping that the rest would help alleviate that dreaded curse of spring training, the sore arm.

Too late.

Relief pitcher Stewart Cliburn, who won nine games and saved six others as a rookie last season, has developed a case of bursitis in his right shoulder that has prevented him from throwing the past four days--and may sideline him for many more.

“He threw so good Wednesday and when he left the ballpark that night, the thing started throbbing,” Mauch said. “The next day, he couldn’t throw a baseball.”

Cliburn, 29, has been relatively free of arm problems throughout a professional career that began in 1977. “I’d never experienced something like this,” he said. “I was kind of scared at first.

“I’d been throwing all winter, working out at Anaheim Stadium, and I thought I was in midseason form. Then all of a sudden, this hits me.”

Maybe too much work too soon?

“No, I wasn’t overthrowing,” Cliburn said. “I was probably going 75 to 80% out there. I wasn’t pitching in game conditions yet.”

Roger Williams, the team physical therapist who has begun a rehabilitation program with Cliburn, called the injury typical for this time of year.

“Early in spring training, you see a lot of these,” Williams said. “Basically, it’s a strained shoulder. Only his is a little more severe.”

Williams has Cliburn lifting light weights, doing stretching exercises and taking anti-inflammatory drugs.

“It’s coming around slowly,” Williams said. “Day One, he was so sore, he couldn’t move his arm. Today was 50% better than four days ago. Today, he could actually go through the motion of pitching without pain.

“He’s getting a little better every day. If he continues to improve at this pace, it’s feasible he could start throwing--doing some light tosses--by next week.”

Cliburn described the injury as “nothing major” and Mauch concurred. “It’s nothing to get all excited about,” the manager said. “The arm’s a little tender, enough so that he hasn’t been throwing the past few days.”

Still, Cliburn remains concerned.

“It’s kind of depressing,” he said. “I know the team is counting on me. You get a little setback like this and you have to start over. It’s no fun.

“What I’ve got to do is just take time (coming back). I’ve got a ways to go, but this is spring training. This is when you get into shape.”

Rick Burleson is working out at both second base, his new position, and shortstop, his old one, on a trial basis. Burleson asked Mauch if he could test his arm with the longer throw from shortstop.

Mauch agreed.

“He thinks he’ll keep his arm strong by playing shortstop,” Mauch said. “It’s not even a test of the arm, making the throw from second.”

So far, no problems.

“I’m tickled to death about his ability to throw,” Mauch said. “But baseball is an easy game to practice. I want him to get back into the flow of competition. He needs to get tournament-tough again.”

Overshadowed by Wally Joyner’s Puerto Rican League triple crown this winter was the performance of Rufino Linares in the Dominican Republic. Linares, an outfielder-designated hitter, was named the league’s most valuable player after batting .323 with 38 RBIs.

“That’s the second time in the past two years,” Linares said of winning the award. “Down there, it’s different. Down there, I get to play every day.”

The loss of Juan Beniquez to free agency could signal more playing time for Linares in 1986, but Linares isn’t getting his hopes up.

“They lost Beniquez, yes,” he said. “But they still have George Hendrick and Ruppert Jones. I don’t know what kind of plans they have for me.”

It Could Get Ugly: Kirk McCaskill was victimized Sunday by a locker room prankster armed with a pair of scissors and a devilish turn of mind. When McCaskill looked into his locker, he found his toothpaste tube chopped in half, the bristles of his toothbrush sliced to the nub and the shoelaces on his cleats cut three-quarters of the way through--just enough so that they broke when he tried to tie them.

McCaskill suspects the culprit to be Jim Slaton and he began his retaliation. The name above Slaton’s locker is now crossed out by a line of toothpaste. Next to it, the same blue-green gel spells out the word “WAR.”

“I can’t be sure it’s him,” McCaskill said of Slaton. “But when I am, I’m really gonna get him.”