PITCHING IN : Angels Are Off to Fast Start With Staff That Leads League in ERA

So, what’s gotten into the Angel pitching staff?

Some numbers:

--The Angels lead the American League with a 2.62 earned-run average.

--The Angels had three shutouts in their first 14 games and went 29 consecutive innings without allowing a run.

--Kirk McCaskill is 3-0 and leads the AL with a 0.44 ERA.

--Bert Blyleven is 2-0 and third in the AL with a 1.17 ERA.

--Chuck Finley is 2-1 with a complete game and a 2.86 ERA.

A year ago at this time, the Angels had an ERA of 4.96. They had to play 59 games before getting their third shutout of 1988. Mike Witt wound up as the staff’s big winner with a 13-16 record and McCaskill, Finley and Blyleven--then with the Minnesota Twins--combined for a 27-38 record.

A year ago, the Angels finished 13th in the AL in ERA at 4.32, ahead of only the Baltimore Orioles.

How to explain such a radical reversal?

Some idle speculation:

--It’s early.

--Eleven of 15 games have been against the Chicago White Sox and the Seattle Mariners.

--Maybe the Angel pitchers aren’t as awful as everybody thought.

The Angels, of course, have their own ideas on the matter. Apparently, no souls have been sold and no arms have been transplanted. Angel pitchers insist there is sound, practical reasoning behind the biggest baseball recovery this side of the Texas Rangers.

Some theories:

--With Bob Boone gone, the Angels are pitching inside more often and more effectively.

Around Anaheim, it’s considered blasphemy to criticize Boone, the Gold Glove catcher who guided two Angel pitching staffs into the playoffs and turned Witt and McCaskill, to name two, into winning major league pitchers.

But every catcher has his idiosyncrasies and one of Boone’s was a reluctance to call for the inside fastball.

“For whatever reasons, the Angels have had a history of not pitching inside,” said Manager Doug Rader, who previously managed in Texas and coached in Chicago. “To me, pitching inside is imperative. You need to do it. I don’t think a pitcher can be successful without throwing inside.

“If you’re only using one-half of the plate, that doesn’t leave you much margin for error. When you’re trying to set up a hitter, the inside pitch keeps him honest.

“If that was stressed here in the past, it wasn’t done in the past.”

Boone is now in Kansas City and Angel catching is being handled by Lance Parrish and Bill Schroeder. Both Parrish and Schroeder build their pitch-calling around the inside fastball--or, as Rader puts it, “are more flexible to that train of thought.”

Such thinking has lent a more aggressive edge to the Angel rotation, particularly with McCaskill and Finley.

“Sometimes a pitcher should go out to mound not thinking about what a pitch is, but where that pitch is,” McCaskill said.

Added Finley: “Since I’ve been doing it, I’ve seen the results. My objective now each game is to work inside and go from there. It’s helped me a lot.”

But if the inside pitch is, indeed, a wonder pitch, why did Boone, the thinking man’s catcher, avoid it for so long?

“Boonie didn’t get pitched inside that much,” Angel bullpen coach Joe Coleman said. “Pitchers got him out on other stuff, outside stuff. Mentally, that stuck with him when he called a game.”

And, according to Rader, it’s not uncommon for a catcher to call a game the way he hits--with Boone calling a slap-hitter’s game, as opposed to the power-hitter’s game called by Parrish and Schroeder, both pull hitters themselves.

“There’s a lot to be said about that,” Rader said. “I remember as a player, we’d go into Cincinnati and Johnny Bench would call breaking balls because they were effective on him. Then, you’d get (Pat) Corrales the next day and you’d see more fastballs.

“I think catchers fall back on their own personal experience. If they have difficulty with a certain pitch, they probably feel it’s universal.”

--Angel pitchers have responded to the new authority, and autonomy, given pitching coach Marcel Lachemann.

One of Rader’s first decisions after replacing Cookie Rojas as Angel manager was to basically assign the entire pitching program to Lachemann. Lachemann draws up the rotation schedule, plans all workouts--even goes to the mound to make pitching changes, traditionally the manager’s domain.

“Based on how qualified he is, why shouldn’t he be given total control?” Rader said. “The more he has to offer, the better for our pitchers.”

Lachemann is a low-key fatherly type blessed with the patience of, well, someone who has coached Angel pitchers since 1984, and his promotion was well received by the staff. Last year, many pitchers chafed under the unpredictable Rojas.

“Lach is the camp counselor,” McCaskill said with a smile. “How can you not trust him? He represents the approach you need on a major league pitching staff. You can be going as bad as you can go--and he doesn’t quit on you.”

Blyleven credits Lachemann with triggering his quick start by getting the veteran right-hander to slow his delivery. Finley, beginning his second year as a starting pitcher, said his confidence has been buoyed by the absence of the quick hook often employed by Rojas.

“When you look in the dugout and don’t see the manager reaching for the phone, the phone’s not ringing all over the place, that boosts your confidence,” Finley said. “You’re not always thinking ‘The team’s in jeopardy of losing,’ just because you’re out there.

“It makes sense to let Lach run the pitching staff. He’s worked with each of us for four or five years. He knows us pretty well.”

--Maybe the Angel pitchers aren’t awful, as everybody thought.

This one is forwarded by Rader and seconded, not surprisingly, by 10 Angel pitchers.

“When I came here, the pitching we had, at least on paper, was so much better than anything I’d been associated with in Texas,” Rader said. “Even if some guys had terrible years the year before, at least we had something to work with.

“McCaskill and Finley have had some success in the past. Blyleven. Abbie (Jim Abbott) was a mystery, but Witt . . . I saw Witter throw a perfect game. I was on the other side of it.

“You see that and, naturally, the tendency is to think you’ve got something.”

At the same time, the Angel pitchers say they have been united by the heavy criticism the staff received during the off-season.

“The pitching staff took it upon itself to prove some people wrong,” Finley said. “A lot of people said we were the weak link on the team. I think we’re better than most people expect.

“We’re off to a fast start and it’s something to be proud of.”

Still, as Rader noted, fame is fleeting.

“Most baseball people have very short memories,” Rader said. “The important thing about what we’re doing now is to keep doing it. Because next week, nobody’s going to remember what we did this week.”

With 15 games down, the Angels only have to keep doing it for 147 more.