Baseball ’90 PREVIEW : Parrish’s Inside Job Gives Pitchers Focus : Resurgence: Catcher helped turn around staff last season. Change of scenery also aided his hitting.

No one wants to talk about it, so the question remains unanswered: Just how valuable was the inside information Lance Parrish brought to the Angels last season?

Quite a ruckus surrounded the debate last year. Was Parrish, the Angels’ Mr. Inside who insisted pitchers work the ball in on hitters, a pivotal factor in the resurgence of the Angel staff? Did Bob Boone, the former Angel catcher who fled to Kansas City when Parrish showed up in Anaheim, have an outside chance of defending himself?

It’s a touchy subject. Most Angel pitchers tiptoe around the fringes of the controversy, much the same way they try to paint the black edges of home plate with their pitches. Some would rather throw a belt-high fastball down the middle to Jose Canseco than give a straight answer on this one.

“I don’t want to make any comparisons to anyone else,” Kirk McCaskill said, “but Lance is a skilled catcher, a very aggressive catcher, and it’s a pleasure to throw to him.”

There are, however, certain Angel pitchers who aren’t so concerned with diplomacy. Reliever Greg Minton, for one, is more likely to say whatever is on his mind.

“Lance came in at the right time,” Minton said. “(Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann) has been trying to get people to go in there ever since I came here, but previous catchers just weren’t that type of catchers. Now, the pitching coach and the catcher are both in line.

“Personally, I like to throw to a catcher’s chest. Bob wanted you to pick out a kneecap on his shin guard and throw to that. With Lance, you’ve got 235 pounds of huge human and half of that huge chest is sitting halfway behind the hitter.

“He just puts one finger down, scoots that big body in there and it’s a lot easier to get inside that way.”

There were, of course, a number of factors that contributed to the Angel staff’s incredible one-point drop in earned-run average--4.32 in 1988 to 3.28 in ‘89--in just one season, including the additions of Bert Blyleven and Jim Abbott, the maturation of Chuck Finley and the health of McCaskill.

Obviously, it would be unfair to single out any one individual as being the key player. So just how much of the credit should go to Parrish?

“I don’t want any credit,” he said, “and I don’t want to make a big deal about it. The pitchers are the ones that made it work and then stuck with it.”

Parrish will admit, however, that he calls an aggressive game, refusing to allow hitters free reign. You don’t want to be leaning out over the plate a lot if the pitcher is throwing to Parrish’s target.

“I’ve never met a pitching coach who doesn’t believe you have to pitch inside to be successful,” he said. “Even if you don’t come inside with strikes, you have to establish the inside so you can work the outside part of the plate. And these guys understood the necessity of it. To set up the rest of your pitches, you just have to do it.

“We worked at it last spring and once they saw that the approach could be successful for them, they had no problem letting me lead a bit more. It worked initially, they were willing to accept my pitch selection, and that set the tone for the season.”

Parrish is quick to point out, however, that none of this is an indictment of Boone. Asking for inside pitches is one thing, getting them is quite another. Parrish knows. He spent two frustrating seasons (1987, ‘88) in Philadelphia where his philosophies fell on deaf ears, not mention some dead arms.

“Last year was a great year for me from a confidence standpoint,” Parrish said. “The two years in Philadelphia were demoralizing in terms of what I could contribute to the pitching staff as a catcher. We went nowhere. I basically tried to instill the same ideas that I did here, it’s just that these guys were more receptive.

“That’s why everyone here is trying to walk a fine line. No one wants to discredit Bob Boone or anything that he’s ever done. He’s a tremendous catcher and who’s to say he didn’t try to do the same things and it didn’t work. As a catcher, sometimes you try to establish something, but the staff doesn’t feel comfortable with it. Then you’ve got to go to Plan B.”

The Angels were so ecstatic with the way Plan A was working out last year, anything Parrish did with the bat was almost gravy. When he had 13 home runs and 43 RBIs by the end of July, General Manager Mike Port must have felt like he’d made the deal of the century when he picked up the six-time All-Star for what appeared to be a very cost-efficient $1.2 million for the 1989 season.

In July, Parrish hit .325 with six homers and 16 RBI.

On Aug. 5, however, the banner year came crashing down when Milwaukee’s Glenn Braggs came barreling around third and Parrish, predictably, stood his ground at home plate.

“Braggs hit him on the dead run,” Minton said, wincing. “And I mean that guy is chiseled pretty good. Braggs is built the way I am in my dreams. Lance said he was fine, but the next day, he had four or five big purple spots on his body.”

In fact, Parrish was not fine. He suffered serious contusions of the right knee and his rib cage and hit only .192 with six RBIs and two homers after the collision. He played in 33 of the final 52 games, but he would have been out on the field more often if Manager Doug Rader had not “listened to the little voice in my head” and rested a protesting Parrish.

“We just enjoy projecting what his year would have been like last year,” Port said. “(The collision) definitely hampered his swing. When you think of Lance Parrish offensively, you think in the range of in excess of 20 home runs, 80-plus RBIs and roughly a .270 batting average and he was on that track last season.

“There were many times when he had every reason to tell Doug, ‘Not today, I’m not quite up to it.’ But he was a big enough individual to take it out there with what he had, for the sake of the club, and that was appreciated.”

That’s an understatement. Last winter, the Angels gave Parrish a $500,000 signing bonus on a three-year contract which will pay him $1.75 million this year and $2.25 million the next two. What Parrish did when he was less than 100% might have earned him more money than what he accomplished when he was healthy.

“Lance’s durability is amazing,” catcher Bill Schroeder said. “When there’s a question about whether or not he can play, he’s always out there. He can be really hurting and he still will be out there.

“It’s easy to play when you’re strong and feeling good, but when you’re stuffing (slumping) with the bat and hurting, it takes something extra. Lance has it to give. I guess he knows the team needs him out there for rhythm and continuity.”

For his part, Parrish simply would like to find a sense of personal continuity this season. He averaged 28 homers and 92 RBIs in his last five seasons with Detroit, but struggled both years with the Phillies.

“It seems for last three years I haven’t been able to put together a consistent season,” he said. “In ‘88, I had a good first half then hurt my back in the middle of season and wasn’t very productive in the second half. Last year was very similar. I got in that groove and then my offensive numbers just stopped.

“I just want to put together a solid season and if I do, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t hit 20 home runs and maybe have 80 or more RBIs. I expect that out of myself and I’m sure the club think’s I’m capable of that.”

Parrish’s knee wasn’t completely healed until late January, so he admits that the shortened spring training may affect him later in the season. Still, the 33-year-old veteran of 12 years in the majors figures he can catch “120, 130, even 140” games this season.

“Physically, I feel real strong,” he said, “but I have to be realistic. They’re going to try and preserve some of my energy. They’ll just look to see how I handle the load and go from there.”

You can bet the Angels are hoping Parrish’s appropriately massive shoulders can bear a considerable burden. There was, however, a question of whether he would even be on the roster for ’90. He was declared a “new look” free agent after last season as a result of baseball’s second collusion case.

“When I was granted my free agency, I didn’t want to leave here,” said Parrish, who lives in Yorba Linda. “I mean, being home with your family is the best. And you can’t say enough about what it’s like to be on a team that’s winning and having fun.

“I was hoping that everything would work out so I wouldn’t have to be put in a situation where I’d even have to consider leaving. The Angels were honest and fair and I feel fortunate that things worked out the way they did.”

Clearly, the feeling is mutual.