Slow Motion : Candelaria’s Fastball Disappears, and So Does He

Last Thursday night, John Candelaria took the mound for the Class-A Palm Springs Angels and looked like a major league pitcher. California Angels Manager Gene Mauch was so impressed with the left-hander’s comeback from a severe elbow injury that he said Candelaria might pitch on Tuesday in Anaheim against the Chicago White Sox.

Well, Candelaria did indeed pitch on Tuesday. But it wasn’t against the White Sox. It was against the Class-A Ventura County Gulls. And he didn’t look like a major league pitcher. He looked more like your fat Uncle Lou pitching in a family picnic softball game.

In two innings, Candelaria gave up a line single to center, a booming triple to center and several other solid drives that were caught. He did strike out three Gulls as the Angels won, 9-3, but that tells you more about Class-A batters than it does about Candelaria’s effort. Candelaria allowed one run on two hits and two walks in two innings.

After throwing fastballs in the 88 and 89 m.p.h. range and one 90 m.p.h. sizzler in last week’s game, he began the game on Tuesday with pitches that measured 70 and 75 m.p.h. on radar guns trained on him by scouts.

In the second inning, the speed dropped into the 60s. Several pitches didn’t even register on the guns, which don’t record pitches slower than 50 m.p.h.

While leaving some doubt about whether he has regained major league pitching form, Candelaria left little doubt that he is rapidly regaining a major league bad attitude. After being taken out of the game following the second inning, he threw briefly on the sidelines, then stalked off the field in the third inning as his teammates watched. He told reporters he disliked the pitching mound at the Ventura College park, said he had nothing more to say and got into a car and drove away.

“He didn’t like the mound. This is not a major league facility,” said Palm Springs Manager Tom Kotchman. “The slope of the mound bothered him, he said, and apparently he was afraid to throw, I guess. He just kept telling me, ‘I can’t pitch off of this thing.’ When I went out to talked to him in the second inning he said his arm was fine.

“I don’t know what the problem was, other than what he told me. I can’t read the guy’s mind. After talking to him and to the trainers, I decided he just wasn’t getting anything accomplished out there, so I took him out.”

Kotchman said that Candelaria didn’t offer any explanation for his abrupt departure.

“He just told me he was leaving, and he left,” Kotchman said. “I don’t know where he went. We don’t keep track of guys like Candelaria down here. He’s a big boy. He knows where he’s going.”

Candelaria last pitched for the California Angels on March 21 in an exhibition game against the Milwaukee Brewers. He left after three innings complaining of severe pain in his left elbow. An examination revealed a bone spur. He underwent surgery April 16 to remove it and began a rehabilitation program a few weeks later.

His first outing with the Palm Springs Angels last week left everyone optimistic.

“Candy was much better than we had any right to expect,” Mauch said after watching Candelaria pitch in that game.

Candelaria was equally impressed by his first-game performance.

“I just want to help the California Angels, and I think we’re one pitcher away right now,” he said after that game. “I think I can be that pitcher.”

But Tuesday, he was that pitcher over whom batters drool. And at least one Palm Springs player wasn’t convinced that the pitching mound was Candelaria’s only problem.

“He said it was the mound, but I think maybe his arm was tired,” said catcher Erik Pappas, who could have caught Candelaria’s pitches wearing only Michael Jackson’s glove. “It seemed to me that there was something wrong out there and that he just didn’t want to force it.”

Kotchman said that until he hears otherwise, Candelaria will take another turn in the rotation, perhaps as soon as Saturday against the Gulls in Palm Springs.

Another pitcher hoping to make it back to the California Angels is Gary Lucas, who suffered a severe back injury in the same exhibition game in which Candelaria was hurt. He pitched two strong innings for Palm Springs, allowing only a single while striking out three and walking none. In his first Class-A game last week he gave up four hits and three runs in five innings.

“I’m not exactly where I want to be, pain-wise,” said Lucas, who meant that his back still hurts. “A few times when my lead foot came down it felt like someone was sticking a knife in my back. But I didn’t get this condition overnight, and I won’t get rid of it overnight, either. But all in all, I felt better than the last time out, and that’s all I can hope for at this point, just to see continual improvement.”