BASEBALL / STEVE HENSON : Former Grant Ace Stands at Giants’ Beck and Call in the Minors

All aboard the Phoenix-San Francisco shuttle! Right-handers, left-handers . . . anybody who can lend a hand, step right up.

The San Francisco Giants have looked to their triple-A team, the Phoenix Firebirds, to rescue their injury-riddled pitching staff. Unfortunately, the Firebirds have dispatched mostly fire starters.

One highly touted prospect, Eric Gunderson, flopped so badly that he has been unable to get untracked since being shipped back to Phoenix. Since his return, Gunderson is 0-3 with a 12.49 earned-run average.

Stepping nimbly through the wreckage is Rodney Beck, the 1986 City Section Player of the Year at Grant High.

Beck, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound right-hander, was promoted to Phoenix from the Giants’ double-A team in Shreveport, La., two weeks ago. In his first start, he pitched a complete game, beating Calgary, 5-1.

Six Giant pitchers are on the disabled list. Will the shuttle beckon Beck next?

“It’s always a possibility,” Beck said. “Just about everybody has been up and down. I’m in a good spot right now. The big league club is having some problems with pitching and (Giant Manager) Roger Craig mentioned my name in a San Francisco news article.”

Control is Beck’s best asset. He walked only 10 in 57 1/3 innings at Shreveport while posting a 6-2 record and a 2.51 ERA.

“I try to keep the ball over the plate,” he said. “I’ve got control of my fastball. I’ve been spotting it really well.

“The last couple of years my approach has been to go out, throw strikes and make them earn runs. I’m not gonna walk anybody. Walks score 90 percent of the time.”

An exaggeration, perhaps, but in his second start for Phoenix, Beck was rudely reminded that walks hurt. He walked six in 4 1/3 innings and, sure enough, was touched for six earned runs.

Beck (2-1) was back on track Wednesday in a 10-4 victory over Portland. He allowed two earned runs, struck out five and walked one over six innings.

The shuttle might be slowing, which would give Beck proper time for seasoning. Since being summoned from Phoenix, right-hander John Burkett is 7-1 and left-hander Trevor Wilson pitched a one-hitter in his second start. They might be in San Francisco to stay.

Ultimately, that’s what Beck prefers: a one-way ticket.

Add Beck: Like most pitchers in the Giant organization, Beck throws a split-finger pitch. But it is not the wicked, darting fastball that Craig teaches. In fact, Beck learned the pitch before he joined the Giants.

“It’s not a true split. I just call it a changeup,” Beck said. “My fingers aren’t real long, so it’s basically a good change of speed for me.”

While at Grant, Beck threw a slider and a knuckle-curve. He all but abandoned those pitches in his first two minor league seasons after being drafted by the Oakland Athletics. Beck was traded to the Giants during the 1988 season.

“My slider is average, but I’ve learned how to get movement on my fastball,” he said.

Force-fed: What was supposed to be nothing more than a waiting period for Greg Zaun has turned into three months of question marks and exclamation points.

Zaun, in his first professional season after being drafted in the 17th round by the Baltimore Orioles last June, was riding the pine for the Wausau Timbers of the Class-A Midwest League. When the rookie Appalachian League began in late June, Zaun would head for Bluefield, W. Va. and get some playing time.

The plan changed when Timber catcher Ceasar Devarez injured his throwing arm the first week of the season. Zaun, a 1989 St. Francis High graduate who turned 19 in April, was thrust behind the plate. There was no other choice.

Even an 0-for-23 start at the plate couldn’t keep him out of the lineup. Zaun’s first professional hit finally came April 18 against Peoria and it did more than snap the slump: It was a game-winning three-run home run.

The hits have been coming with more frequency lately. After a horrendous three-for-59 start, Zaun has had 11 hits in his past 42 at-bats to raise his average to .139.

He has held his own defensively. And when he is sent to rookie league this week, a certainty, according to a Wausau official, Zaun will be more seasoned than most of his teammates.

Add Zaun: Zaun (5-foot-10, 175), a nephew of Dodger catcher Rick Dempsey, passed up a scholarship to Texas and signed with the Orioles in August after helping the U. S. Junior National team win the Junior World Championship.

Despite his start, the switch-hitting Zaun is highly regarded.

“He’s a leader on the field and, of course, he has bloodlines,” Oriole scout Paul Fryer said. “He’s the reincarnation of Rick Dempsey.”

Vatcher update: For a player who was supposed to be too small for Division I and professional baseball a few years ago, Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Jim Vatcher has made a rapid rise through the minor league ranks.

Vatcher (5-9, 170 pounds), who is nine for 23 since being recalled from Scranton-Wilkes-Barre two weeks ago, played at Palisades High and West Los Angeles College before transferring to Cal State Northridge for the 1986 season. He batted only .286 as a junior but blossomed in 1987, batting .354 with 15 home runs, 20 doubles and 49 runs batted in.

Still, he was not drafted by the Phillies that June until the 25th round. Placed on the 40-man roster this spring, Vatcher impressed Phillie Manager Nick Leyva, who commented, “The little guy hits the ball pretty good.”

The Phillies, of course, have a little guy who hits even better. Lenny Dykstra, their 5-9 center fielder, leads the majors with a .388 batting average.

“I don’t really hear about my size anymore,” Vatcher said. “Guys like Lenny help. It just doesn’t matter how tall you are.”

Dangerous curve: Scott Weiss’ wicked overhand curve could not keep Stanford from being eliminated from the College World Series by Georgia on June 8, but the pitch did help him rack up four strikeouts in the fifth inning.

Weiss, a sophomore from Quartz Hill High, replaced Mike Mussina to begin the fifth and struck out the first batter with a curve that dropped about three feet. The pitch also eluded the catcher, however, and the batter reached first.

After a walk, Weiss struck out three in a row and finished with nine strikeouts in five innings.

Add Stanford: Mark Skeels, a sophomore catcher from Thousand Oaks High, pinch-hit twice in the series and was one for two. Skeels made the team as a walk-on last season after accepting a full academic scholarship.