THE LONG ROAD BACK : The Angels of 1988 Will Need Stronger Arms to Take Division

Brian Downing, the Angels’ designated hitter and frequent designated spokesman, was asked the question that dogged Gene Mauch all the way to retirement and has chipped away at Cookie Rojas ever since.

So, what about that Angel pitching?

Downing, whose point of reference goes back to those halcyon days of Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana, stares at the ground and smiles. He knows this question is more loaded than one of Billy Hatcher’s bats, so he takes a few moments to deliberate.

Finally . . .

“I still don’t know,” he says, looking up from his locker stall. “As I sit here today, I think about the pitching we had this time last year--Witt, Sutton, Candelaria, McCaskill. That was a pretty formidable rotation.

“I felt great at that time and I’d be a liar to say I felt the same way this year. Hell, I thought we would walk away with it (in 1987). Now, I’m just being realistic. We were the defending champions last year and now, it’s the opposite. We’re looking from the bottom up, we’ve got a new cast of pitchers, some coming off injuries.

“Of course, I don’t feel as good this year. Who would say they feel better about it now than last year?”

Would you? Take your pick:

No. 1 starter:

--Then: Mike Witt, coming off a club MVP season with an 18-10 record, a 2.84 earned-run average and several votes in the Cy Young award balloting.

--Now: Mike Witt, coming off a 16-14, 4.01 season complete with tired-arm symptoms and no shutouts.

No. 2 starter:

--Then: Kirk McCaskill, fresh from winning 17 games and compiling a 3.36 ERA, both career bests.

--Now: Kirk McCaskill, trying to restore his good standing after elbow surgery, a 4-6 record, a 5.67 ERA and a six-month layoff.

No. 3 starter:

--Then: John Candelaria, the 1986 American League comeback player of the year after finishing 10-2 with a 2.55 ERA in just 16 starts.

--Now: Dan Petry, winner of 14 games the past two years and just 9-7 with a 5.61 ERA in 1987, coming off an 0-4, 9.50 spring.

No. 4 starter:

--Then: Don Sutton, recently christened 300-game winner following his second straight 15-win season.

--Now: Willie Fraser, a still-raw 23-year-old who was 7-9 with a 4.34 ERA as a starter his rookie year. In 23 starts in 1987, Fraser surrendered 25 home runs.

No. 5 starter:

--Then: Urbano Lugo.

--Now: Chuck Finley, a 25-year-old former mop-up reliever who has previously started three games in professional baseball. The Angels went 4-31 during games Finley pitched in 1987. And this spring, Finley finished with a 6.65 ERA.

OK, so maybe you go with Finley.

But, man-for-man, comparison-by-comparison, you get the point. Out with the old, in with the new . . . and head for the bunkers.

The starting quintet the Angels brought to Chicago for today’s season opener against the White Sox went a combined 41-44 with a 4.54 ERA in 1987. Forty percent of the rotation--McCaskill and Petry--has undergone elbow surgery within the last 21 months. Everyone except Finley, who didn’t pitch enough, had some kind of arm ailment last year.

And that’s just the starters.

The bullpen, which entered training camp a relative strength, came out of March with more questions than you can shake a resin bag at.

Can Donnie Moore--coming off a 5-save, 14-appearance non-season--regain his status as Angel stopper with a bone spur in his pitching elbow?

Will Greg Minton, disabled with a frayed ligament in his right arm, pitch in a game before the All-Star break?

Is DeWayne Buice better than the 7.00-plus ERA he recorded this spring--or just another one-season flash, the Stewart Cliburn of 1987?

Can Stewart Cliburn be the Stewart Cliburn of 1986?

Can Frank DiMichele make the jump from Class A?

And just who is Ray Krawczyk?

Ready or not, the Angels are about to find out.

As a team, the Angels are attempting to rebound from a 75-87 season which took them from first place to last, equaling an AL feat last accomplished by the 1914-15 Philadelphia A’s. They have wiped the managerial slate clean, starting over with Rojas, and they have hired a couple of National League hit-men--Chili Davis and Johnny Ray--to do a job on an offense that batted just .252 in 1987, worst in the league.

Offensively, there is hope of brighter days ahead in Anaheim. Wally Joyner and Devon White are a year older and Jack Howell is now a regular at third base. Rojas has replaced the plodding Downing with swift Mark McLemore as leadoff man and pledges to run, run, run. Rojas has also instituted a set lineup, which has made the members of that lineup very happy.

But again, as Downing puts it, “it all comes back to pitching. We’ve got to be working on all cylinders for us to have a chance.”

For better or for worse, Angel catchers Bob Boone and Butch Wynegar have the best perspective of Angel pitching. They are the ones that call the pitches, inspect the pitches and, hopefully, catch the pitches. When that doesn’t happen, they are also the ones who try to console the pitchers after home runs--a skill they perfected in 1987.

Wynegar, who knows a thing or two about foot injuries, was asked if he considered the Angels’ pitching staff to be the club’s Achilles’ heel. Virtually every preseason baseball publication has termed it that--or worse.

“I think they’re right,” Wynegar says without a moment’s hesitation.

“I see us as a good defensive ballclub with a good lineup, capable of scoring more runs than last year. But when I look at the starting rotation, I see Mike Witt and McCaskill, two guys who can at least give us six or seven innings, and then, after than, we get into the question marks.

“Willie Fraser has one year in. Chuck Finley’s new. Dan Petry is coming off some arm problems. . . . I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with them, but, no doubt, our pitchers are going to make or break us. You look at Oakland, the way they’ve built up with all those big boys in their lineup. You’re going to need some pitching to keep up with that kind of power.”

Boone is somewhat more diplomatic when discussing Angel pitching prospects for 1988, but is also wary, nonetheless.

“I have to feel positive,” Boone said. “It doesn’t do any good for me to look at it any other way.

“You can never tell what you have by what happens in spring training. We’re going to know more once the bell rings and we see these people throw. The problem is, you want to eliminate all the ‘ifs’ going into the season--and we still have some ‘ifs.’

“We’re still scrambling for a fourth and fifth starter. I’m concerned about that. I’m concerned about the health of the bullpen. . . . There’s not going to be anything magical I do or Butch does. We just have to find out if they can make the pitches they need to make.”

So, what do the Angel pitchers have to say about all of this?

Basically, they’ll argue their case--up to a point.

Said Fraser, who went 0-2 with a 4.97 ERA this spring: “I’m not worried about being a question mark. Maybe I am one, but I know what I can do. People are going on what they know. I have a year as a starter, Chuck doesn’t have a year. Maybe if I had an unbelievable season last year, people would look at it differently.

“Our pitching, I don’t have a problem with it. Sure, we’ve had some bad outings this spring, but there’s not any pitching staff in baseball that’s going to go out there and throw up zeroes all the time. We know we have to turn it up once the season starts.”

Said Petry, whose first spring start was delayed two weeks when he wrenched his back during agility drills in Mesa, Ariz.: “Nobody knows what to expect from our pitching staff and that’s understandable. Both me and McCaskill have had big years and both of us have had arm surgery. People don’t know what to expect.

“I think it’s all right that people don’t think of us as being that good a baseball team. But I pitched against the Angels last year, and that was no-last place team, not in terms of talent.

“This is a good group of pitchers over here. Everybody. Normally in camp, you’ve got a couple guys who can throw it through a brick wall and have no idea what to do with it. Everybody here has an idea.”

OK, so the Angels have a good group of idea men.

But what can they expect in the way of results?

From Witt, probably the usual 15 to 18 victories. Starting his fourth consecutive season opener today, Witt went 5-0 with a 2.73 ERA during exhibition games. “This is the best spring Mike Witt’s ever had,” Boone said. “That has to be a positive.”

McCaskill did not have his best spring--going 3-0 with a 4.35 ERA--but he did show improvement during his final three starts. Suffice to say, McCaskill will probably win more than four games and probably not as many as 17. Take the median--about 11--and figure that’s the least what the Angels can rightly expect from McCaskill.

Petry, as he admits, is an unknown. “I’m not making any promises,” he says. Petry won 18 games in 1984 and 15 in 1985--and just 5 and 9 in the post-op years of ’86 and ’87. In ‘88, he could wind up anywhere. Take a dart and let it fly.

And Fraser, whose overall record was 10-10 as a rookie, is talking “15 to 17 or 18 wins. I think that’s an obtainable goal.” Of course, if self-confidence could be gauged on the speed gun, Fraser would be pushing 100. Give the Angels 12 wins, Willie, and the club will say nice job, thank you very much.

And Finley? The Angels will be happy if he can simply stay in the rotation. If Finley lasts six starts, that will be one more than Lugo.

As Rojas put it just before the team broke camp in Palm Springs, “Witt’s been good all spring, McCaskill’s starting to throw good, Petry and Fraser have been good their last few outings. We’re starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

“Finley’s the one who still has to get all his (stuff) together.”

He has until Thursday, when Finley will make his first 1988 start against the White Sox.

And what about this thing called Cookie Ball?

Angel fans, brace yourself for some changes in the scenery around Anaheim Stadium. In the days ahead, you’ll actually be seeing:

--Speed at the top of the lineup that doesn’t go by the name Gary Pettis.

No more automatic strikeout to open the game. And no more making do with Downing simply because no one else could handle the job.

Downing, for all his walks (106 last year) and willingness to take one for the team, was always better suited for life in the middle of the lineup. McLemore, who stole 67 bases in the minors in 1986, gives the Angels new life at the top of the batting order.

Provided he hits .250 with 70 walks.

--Speed turned loose on the basepaths.

“Whenever possible, we’re going to do it,” Rojas says. The Angels, who ran only discriminately under Mauch, could be in for a green-light special under Rojas. “We’ve had two or three fellows running on their own all spring,” Rojas said. “McLemore, Davis, Devon White, Dick Schofield--all those guys will be running a lot.”

--A set lineup.

Grab a pen and write these names down: McLemore, Ray, Davis, Joyner, White, Downing, Howell, Boone, Schofield. This is the lineup Rojas says he will use, day in and day out, providing for injuries and occasional days of rest.

“I prefer to go with a set lineup,” Rojas said. “I hate to change four or five guys in the lineup everyday. I’d rather have the players coming to the park knowing every day where they’re going to hit.”

And so do Rojas’ players.

Wynegar, who considers Mauch a friend, was never enthralled with his former manager’s storied Dial-A-Lineup approach to a 162-game season.

“When I played for Gene in Minnesota, I hit anywhere from first to ninth,” Wynegar said. “I actually hit leadoff. I’d bat cleanup one day, second the next, ninth the next. It’s not that big a deal, but after a while, you start to get an unsettled feeling.

“If I’m going to hit ninth, hit me ninth every day. Don’t hit me third, and then ninth, and then second. . . . Now, Boonie and I can come to the park knowing that the catcher is going to bat eighth. And (Schofield) knows coming in that he’s going to bat ninth.”

There are high hopes for what this set lineup might be able to accomplish, too.

Joyner is coming off back-to-back 100-RBI seasons and, with arbitration beckoning in 1989, he’s chomping at the bit for a third.

Howell is now the everyday third baseman after hitting 23 home runs in just 449 at-bats as a platoon player in 1987. No more left field-right field-third base-second base shuttle. No more Doug DeCinces tapping on his shoulder.

“I know myself and with more consistent playing time, it should mean more consistent numbers,” Howell said. “Now I’m at one position. The more consistent playing time I get, the more adjusted and confident I’ll be.”

In the outfield, Davis replaces Pettis; last year, he outhomered Pettis, 24-1. White is back after a 24-home run, 87-RBI rookie season. And in left field, the Johnny Ray experiment continues, which, at least, is good news for the Angel offense. Ray is a career .288 hitter and batted .346 in 30 games as an Angel last season.

Defense is another matter altogether and Ray, despite all the kind words from outfield instructor Lee Walls, opens the season indisputably ranked 14th among the league’s 14 starting left fielders. With Ray, any ball hit behind him, in front of him or 40 feet to either side of him remains an adventure.

Ray concedes he has been “shaky” thus far, which is kind of like calling the San Andreas Fault shaky. He’s hoping the move from spring training ballparks to major league stadiums will ease the transition from second base to left.

If not, if Ray continues to make Howell and Downing look like Gold Glove performers by comparison, expect a surge in the playing time of Tony Armas. Or, rather, Armas Lite, considering all the poundage he dropped during an active winter in the Dominican League. Armas has had a big spring--leading the club in home runs with five--and does know his way around in the outfield.

And with Downing returning as designated hitter after a 29-home run season, Rojas says “I can see four or five guys (hitting) over 20 home runs--Joyner, Chili, Devon White, Downing and Howell.”

But will that be enough for the Angels to overcome the Oakland Athletics, the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins . . . and, their own pitching?

Cookie’s fortune in 1988 rests precariously on Witt and nine questionable arms. As the ancient proverb tells us, one can only go as far as one’s pitching allows.