Ex-Titan Casian Threw Curve Into Twins’ Pitching Plans

Larry Casian saw the same scene unfold every week during his senior season at Cal State Fullerton in 1987. Mike Harkey would take the mound, and scouts, from their customary spots behind the backstop, would hold a vigil to velocity.

“All you saw were radar guns,” Casian said. “Guys would say, ‘I got 92!’ or ‘I got 93!’ It was like a carnival. ‘Look what this guy is throwing!’ ”

When Casian took the mound for the Titans, the guns would go back to their holsters. Why pollute the air with unnecessary radiation?

Yes, Casian was left-handed, had a good curve and good control, but just look at that body. One-hundred sixty pounds on a heavy day. Next to the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Harkey, Casian looked like a batboy.

Harkey was tabbed a can’t-miss prospect back then, and he hasn’t. He just began his second season in the Chicago Cubs’ starting rotation.

Casian was untabbed. He wasn’t even drafted after his junior season and wasn’t sure of his professional potential as his senior year began.

But guess what? Casian, the former Lakewood High School standout, had a better year than Harkey in 1987 and wound up in the same place as Harkey: the big leagues.

“I had a goal to do the same or better than Mike and I did that all the way through our last year at Fullerton,” said Casian, a long reliever for the Minnesota Twins. “It was good to set goals like that and to have someone ahead to push you.”

Now Casian, a sixth-round pick in 1987, has people pushing him from behind. Their names are Paul Mirabella and Gary Wayne, the two left-handed relievers Casian beat out during spring training to make the Twins’ roster.

The 6-0, 170-pound Casian didn’t allow a run in his last four spring outings, impressing the organization enough to send Mirabella, an 11-year major league veteran, and Wayne, who spent the past two seasons with Minnesota, down to its triple-A Portland, Ore., club.

Casian, 25, who had a combined 16-21 record as a starter the last two seasons at Portland, got his break last September when pitchers Kevin Tapani and David West went down with injuries.

Casian had returned to Lakewood at the end of Portland’s season, but three days later he was on a plane to Minnesota.

Casian started three games and went 2-1 with a 3.22 earned-run average in 1990 and has appeared in three games this season. He was 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA entering the Twins’ game against the Angels on Friday night.

His only rough outing was against the Angels last Saturday when he allowed three runs, including one of Dave Winfield’s three homers, in 2 2/3 innings of a 15-9 loss.

“I was hit hard by the Angels, but otherwise, I’ve done all right,” Casian said.

Casian, a starter all his life, is adjusting to a new role this season. With the Twins’ starting rotation set, Steve Bedrosian as the closer and Rick Aguilera as the setup man, Casian’s job is middle relief. His appearances are usually limited to the fourth through sixth innings.

“My job is to keep our team in the game and keep the opponent’s runs to a minimum,” Casian said. “I don’t know if I’ll start, but I can if needed. That’s working in my favor if one of the starters gets hurt.”

Casian is not overpowering. He has four pitches--fastball, curve, slider, changeup--but can change speeds on the first three and has excellent command of all four.

“The key for me is to keep guys off balance,” Casian said. “You can keep big league hitters off balance, but if you make a mistake here, it gets hit.”

Casian wasn’t hit very hard in high school. He went 25-2 in two varsity seasons at Lakewood, both of his losses coming to Colton in the Southern Section 4-A playoffs, and struck out 130 as a 5-11, 135-pound senior.

He spent one season at Oral Roberts University before transferring to Fullerton, where he went 11-1 with a 2.54 ERA and 118 strikeouts as a senior and was named Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. pitcher of the year in 1987. Harkey went 10-2 with a 2.72 ERA and 101 strikeouts that season.

“Larry was actually the first starter in every series and Harkey the second,” Titan Coach Augie Garrido said. “Larry was a more advanced pitcher then in terms of command and consistency. He had pitched a lot longer than Mike, but Mike was seen as the better athlete.”

Casian is used to hearing such statements. Throughout high school and college, there were always pitchers with better tools, better bodies, better professional prospects.

“I was the typical left-handed pitcher who battled and could throw a lot of pitches for strikes,” Casian said. “It was always like, ‘Well, he’s good, but this guy throws harder.’ I was always trying to come up to that guy’s level.”

Looks as though he’s finally made it.