Tinkering With His Mechanics : Witt’s Opening Start Was ‘All Right,’ but He’s After Perfection

The Angels have come to expect a great deal from Mike Witt.

They expect their big right-hander to overpower most hitters with his moving fastball and sharp-breaking curve. They expect him to pitch a lot of complete games. And, of course, they expect him to win almost every time he takes the mound.

These may not be unreasonably great expectations. After all, Witt was fifth in the American League with 208 strikeouts in 1986, worked into the seventh inning in 32 of his 34 starts and had 18 victories, the most by an Angel since 1982.

Still, it seems a bit much to ask. It’s as if they’re saying, “You don’t have to be perfect, Mike, just almost perfect.”

Witt, however, won’t complain. Because no one--from owner Gene Autry to Manager Gene Mauch to the fans--expects more from Mike Witt than Mike Witt.

Tuesday, opening day 1987 in Anaheim Stadium, was a case in point. Witt went the distance, yielding only five hits and striking out eight in a 7-1 victory over Seattle.

His manager and teammates were duly impressed.

Pitcher Don Sutton: “With the exception of Sandy Koufax, Mike Witt is as good as anyone I’ve played with. And he has the potential to be a pitcher mentioned in the same breath as Koufax and (Don) Drysdale. He can dominate a game.”

Catcher Butch Wynegar: “Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff or best control, he can dominate. It’s really fun to catch a guy like that. There’s so many avenues open. You can play a lot of games with the hitters, really mess with their minds.”

Mauch: “He got a little tight when he had to sit while we scored those runs (three in the sixth inning and three in the eighth), but overall he pitched very, very well.”

And Witt’s evaluation?

“It’s a good feeling to get that win under my belt and set the season off on a positive note and I guess I threw all right, but I’m not where I want to be,” he said. “My control was off and that’s a problem with my mechanics.”

Yeah, and 90% of the pitchers in baseball would love to have these kind of mechanical problems.

Witt was upset because he walked Donell Nixon twice--leading off the first inning and again to set up the Mariners’ only run in the sixth--and Phil Bradley to lead off the ninth. He was also unhappy because he began to tire in the late innings and gave up two hits in the ninth.

Witt seemed to forget that he struck out the side to shut down the threat in the sixth and that the two hits in the ninth were a ground ball shortstop Dick Schofield could only knock down and a bloop single to right.

“I got it going in the middle innings and then I got tired and it got away,” Witt said. “I was rushing myself a little. It might have been the excitement (of opening day), I don’t know. I just wanted to get the ball to the plate.”

Witt’s goal this spring was to prepare himself for a fast start. He was 4-4 the first two months last season before going 12-3 in June, July and August. He may not have been in perfect-game form Tuesday, but he’s 1-0 with a 1.00 earned-run average so far.

“Oh, he struggled a little bit today,” Wynegar conceded, “but when he got command of the curve in the middle innings, he was getting ahead of hitters and they were helping him out by chasing bad pitches. His fastball was really moving and it was running out of the strike zone a lot.

“He reminds me of (Ron) Guidry because he’s so composed. You can’t tell if he just gave up a home run or struck out the side. And when he got in trouble, he just threw the hook a little harder and really snapped one off.

“Overall, I’d say he was excellent . . . well, pretty close to it, anyway.”

For Mike Witt, of course, that’s not close enough.