Angels : Petry, McCaskill Still Delicate, as Is Status of Starting Rotation

First, Dan Petry underwent an X-ray scan to check the possibility of disk damage in his sore lower back. Then, Kirk McCaskill had to cut short a 15-minute pitching drill when he was visited by an old, but not forgotten, problem--stiffness in his right elbow.

As someone who is directly affected by the health and success of the Angels’ starting rotation, relief pitcher Greg Minton could only raise an eyebrow and state the obvious after hearing the news emanating Monday afternoon from Gene Autry Park.

“With us, the whole thing, in a nutshell, is starting pitching,” Minton said. “The hitters we have now are going to score enough runs. In the outfield and the infield, we’re going to be pretty good defensively. And with (DeWayne) Buice, Donnie (Moore) and me in the bullpen, between the three of us, we can ham-and-egg it.

“When I look at the team we have right now, starting pitching’s the only thing I have to wonder about.”

And Monday, no fast answers about Petry or McCaskill were forthcoming.

The results of Petry’s magnetic resonance imagining scan--basically, an X-ray without radiation--had to be express-mailed to team physician Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles. Yocum said he planned to examine the X-rays today.

“We’ve done this mainly as a precaution,” Yocum said. “I’d rather know now about his back than a couple weeks down the line. But I understand Dan was feeling better today, so that’s encouraging.”

The Angels also downplayed the significance of McCaskill’s aborted batting-practice session. After claims of a good-as-new right elbow following arthroscopic surgery 10 months ago, McCaskill lasted only 10 minutes of a scheduled 15-minute workout.

“The elbow was just a little stiff,” McCaskill said. “I never expected this comeback to happen without a hitch here or there.”

Added Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann: “It’s no big deal. At this time of the year, it makes no sense to try and have him push it.”

Before starting his workout, McCaskill apparently abandoned the stretching routine he had adopted during his rehabilitative program this winter. He has since been advised not to neglect it again.

“I have to heed every warning sign, I guess,” he said.

McCaskill is expected to pitch in Wednesday’s intra-squad game before starting the second game of the Angels’ exhibition schedule Saturday against the San Diego Padres.

As a member of the Angels’ bullpen, Minton can only watch and hope for the best. Or, at least, anything better than last season--when seven innings by an Angel starter became about as rare as a hit by Gary Pettis.

“Trying to brush my teeth and comb my hair in August was an interesting proposition,” said Minton, who worked stints of three-or-more innings eight times in 1987.

“Usually, a short man strolls down to the bullpen to loosen up in the seventh inning, or maybe the sixth. But last year, let’s be honest, there was a stretch where we were all down every day by the fourth inning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”

And that was one reason why Minton wasn’t shattered when he heard last October that the Angels had given Don (95 Pitches) Sutton his unconditional release.

“You don’t know how much of a toll those 5-inning starts by Don Sutton had on us,” Minton said. “Not only did that mean we had to work four innings on the day he pitched, but you also had to prepare the bullpen every time he pitched.

“You’d try to rest the guys the day before and then you’d have to rest them the day after. It became a three-day thing. And then, if somebody else faltered, it set the cycle back another day. . . . There were times when it took (the bullpen) three or four days, just to get healthy again.”

Not wanting to drag his right arm through another summer, Minton is understandably pulling for Petry and McCaskill to get healthy again.

“Who knows, two months from now, I could be (complaining) about the starters pitching too long and I’m not getting enough work,” Minton said, grinning at the whimsy of such a notion.

But, then, this is springtime. And if a young man can’t dream . . .

Barring a development he would describe as “a shock,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said he has narrowed the field for the fifth berth in the starting rotation to three candidates--Chuck Finley, Joe Johnson and Jack Lazorko.

“We have 22 pitchers in camp,” Mauch said. “Lach (Marcel Lachemann) has already made it quite clear to the young guys that we can’t give preferential treatment to 22 guys. They are all going to get one chance--but that could be all they get.

“That doesn’t necessarily apply to Finley, Lazorko and Johnson. But if some youngster wants to make an impression, he’d better grab me right quick and hold on.”

That means that Urbano Lugo, who opened 1987 as the Angels’ No. 5 starter, has slipped to long-shot status. Lugo has been unimpressive, both in effectiveness and appearance, thus far in drills, sporting a sore arm and--more noticeably--several extra pounds.

“Lugo came into camp with an arm that I have been told is tender,” Mauch said, “like all those steaks he’s been eating--succulent.”

Angel Notes

Manager Gene Mauch has named his pitching rotation for the Angels’ exhibition games this weekend in Yuma, Ariz., against the San Diego Padres: Friday--Mike Witt, rookie Frank DiMichele and DeWayne Buice; Saturday--Kirk McCaskill, rookie Vance Lovelace and Greg Minton; Sunday--Willie Fraser, Jack Lazorko and Donnie Moore. Next Monday against the Oakland A’s in Phoenix, it will be Chuck Finley, followed by Stewart Cliburn and Joe Johnson. . . . After undergoing oral surgery to remove some discolored and swollen tissue inside his mouth, Buice was advised by doctors to stop chewing and dipping smokeless tobacco. Buice, still hurting from Saturday’s surgery, said he will abide by their advice. “It’s time to call off the jam,” he said. . . . Personalized license plate on George Hendrick’s pickup truck: “SYLENT G.” . . . Wally Joyner’s new nickname for pitcher Mike Witt: “Katarina.” . . . Lee Walls, outfield instructor, arrives in camp today to begin work with Johnny Ray in left and Devon White in center.