Cub Manager Believes That Pitching Stars Are on the Way Back

The Chicago Cubs fell apart last year when their starting pitchers fell to injuries.

Despite a slow start this year, Manager Jim Frey is counting on those starters to keep his Cubs in contention.

With a healthy Rick Sutcliffe, Dennis Eckersley, Scott Sanderson and Steve Trout, “we can compete with anyone,” Frey said.

“Our (pitching) staff had to struggle for a while, but so did everybody else on the team,” he said. “When we’re healthy, our pitching is as good as there is in the league.”

It also probably ranks with the most expensive in the league. The combined salaries of the four starters is estimated at $4.1 million a year--Sutcliffe at $1.8 million, Trout $900,000, Eckersley $800,000 and Sanderson $600,000 plus incentives.

But so far this season, the won-lost records haven’t kept pace with the paychecks. When the Cubs finished a recent home stand on June 1, Sutcliffe was 3-6 record, Eckersley 2-3, Sanderson 3-2 and Trout 2-3.

Though Frey believes last year’s injuries are still taking a toll, he thinks there are signs his starters are beginning to come around.

In a recent 10-game home stand, Cub starters had six starts--going six innings and allowing three or less runs. Sutcliffe put together two successive complete-game victories.

“We’ve only played one-fourth of the season,” Frey said. “We know things can turn around in a hurry. Things turned around in a hurry for us last year, but they turned the wrong way.”

In early June 1985, the Cubs were on top of their division and appeared to be on their way to another NL East title. They ended the season with a 77-84 record, mired in fourth place.

The demise of their starting pitching staff was a major reason.

By the end of the season, the starters had missed 52 starting assignments. During August, all were on the disabled list at one time or another.

Sutcliffe, who had the most problems, was on the disabled list three times. He suffered a torn hamstring in May, a strained adductor muscle on July 8 and a right shoulder injury on July 29.

Eckersley went on the disabled list Aug. 11 with tendinitis of the right shoulder, Sanderson went on Aug. 13 with a leg injury. Trout suffered nerve problems in his left arm and was out from July 23 to Aug. 24.

Dick Ruthven, a fifth starter, was hit on the big toe by a batted ball in mid-August and missed the rest of the season. Ruthven was released earlier this year because of ineffectiveness.

Sutcliffe, who was 16-1 in 1984 when the Cubs won their division, was 8-8 last season. Eckersley went from 10-8 to 11-7 last season, but needed a strong finish in September. He won three straight starts when the Cubs were out of the race.

Sanderson slipped from 8-5 to 5-6 and Trout went from 13-7 to 9-7.

“Never had I seen anything like it,” said Frey, who feels this year’s bad start may be the result of last year’s injuries.

“(Pitching coach) Billy Connors told me . . . that each one of these guys was affected by last year’s injuries and it has taken them a long time to get over their fears of doing damage again,” Frey said.

“I think some of them might have had some misgivings, especially Sutcliffe, Eckersley and Trout, because they all had arm injuries,” he said. “Not so much Sanderson, because his was a leg injury.”

Connors said he believes pitchers coming off injuries “get a little tentative when they are on the mound. They seem to be feeling around for something and, as a result, they are wild.”

However, Jody Davis, who does almost all of the catching for the Cubs, doesn’t think the pitchers are any different than they were in 1984.

“I don’t think they’ve had any luck,” Davis said. “There have been some ugly knocks (hits) and we haven’t been getting them any runs. But they all have been throwing the ball good.”

Even Frey thinks so.

“The starters are coming around,” he said. “We’ve been getting some quality performances, and if we maintain that trend, maybe we can put a streak together.”