His Focus Needs Sharpening, but Sisco’s Stats Are on Target

Steve Sisco’s offensive statistics don’t make the transition from Division I college baseball to the Class-A professional level appear to be too difficult.

The second baseman, who helped Cal State Fullerton advance to the College World Series championship game in June, is batting .326 with 25 runs batted in and 21 stolen bases for the Eugene (Ore.) Emeralds, Kansas City’s short-season Class-A team in the Northwest League.

But while numbers don’t lie, these aren’t telling the whole truth.

Though short-season leagues consist primarily of recently drafted college players--players Sisco should be competitive with--the jump to the everyday rigors of pro ball and its demanding schedule has been anything but easy.

“I have aches and pains and my legs feel like they’re 100 pounds each,” said Sisco, who hit .321 with 23 doubles, 58 runs and 57 RBIs for the Titans in 1992. “We’ve had some injuries, so I’ve been playing every day. It’s been three weeks since I’ve had a rest. We have one day off this month and two days off all summer.”

Sisco has almost as many at-bats in two months of pro ball (224), as he did in four months of playing in college (262). He doesn’t have to worry about schoolwork, which is nice, but when you get to the park everyday between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., work out and relax around the clubhouse all afternoon and play every night, your mind tends to wander--sometimes at the wrong time.

“I’ll back up the first baseman one time and the next time I won’t, and that’s the time they throw the ball away,” Sisco said. “I’ll start wondering when I’m going to get a day off or think about my at-bats. Mentally, it’s a lot harder trying to keep yourself in the game.”

Sisco’s occasional lapses of concentration have affected him more on defense than offense. His 10 errors in 58 games is not an extremely high number, but Sisco is not playing as well as he knows he can.

“I haven’t clicked with our shortstop yet, and some of my errors have been untimely,” Sisco said. “I’m not playing bad defensively, just inconsistent. I’ll never play the same ball the same way twice. As soon as I get my head screwed on tighter I’ll get things worked out.”

Helping Sisco through the difficult times has been Larry Sutton, a former standout at Mater Dei High School and Illinois who plays first base for Eugene.

Sutton, who is batting .296 with a league-leading 13 home runs and 49 RBIs, played with former Titan catcher Jason Moler at Illinois before Moler transferred to Fullerton. Sisco resided with Moler’s family in Yorba Linda this past year and became friends with Sutton through Moler.

“Larry and I are roommates now, we come to the park together and we talk a lot about the game,” Sisco said. “He keeps me sane.”

Utility man: Joe Ciccarella could pose an interesting dilemma for his manager in the later innings of a game: Do I bring him in to pinch hit in the seventh? Or do I save him to pitch in the ninth?

The former Mater Dei and Loyola Marymount standout is capable of both. Ciccarella, who hit .435 with 13 homers and 70 RBIs in 1991 as a senior first baseman at Loyola, was converted to a relief pitcher during the off-season.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound left-hander has a 2-1 record, 2.79 earned-run average and nine saves this season for the Winter Haven (Fla.) Red Sox, Boston’s Class-A team in the Florida State League. Ciccarella may be new to the bullpen, but he still knows his way around the batting cage.

“They’ve talked about using me at designated hitter, and if they needed someone to hit, they wouldn’t think twice about it,” Ciccarella said. “I take batting practice, but I’m really interested in pitching right now.”

Ciccarella never pitched in high school, but he threw some in the bullpen as a sophomore in college and made a few spot relief appearances as a junior. He was a fourth-round draft pick in 1991 and, after signing late, hit .240 in a month at Winter Haven last season.

He had always had a strong throwing arm, and when he began to burn out on playing first base, he approached the Red Sox about a switch last winter.

“They must have been thinking about it, too, because they didn’t have any problem with it,” Ciccarella said.

Ciccarella was a highly regarded power prospect, and he played with Team USA during the 1990 Goodwill Games, but he feels pitching will get him to the major leagues quicker.

“It gives me an opportunity to move faster through the organization,” said Ciccarella, who relies on a fastball, curve and split-fingered fastball. “Everyone needs left-handed pitching, I was interested in it and I went for it. I made my decision, I have no regrets and things are looking pretty good.”

Slip of the hip: The first professional season of pitcher Dan Naulty, who attended Ocean View High and Cal State Fullerton, was cut short by a hip injury.

Naulty, who had an 0-1 record and 5.50 ERA in six appearances for the Minnesota Twins’ Class-A team at Kenosha, Wis., dislocated his hip while attempting to field a ball during a morning workout in mid-July.

The team was performing a drill in which a grounder is hit to the first baseman, who throws to the pitcher covering first. But when the ball was hit within Naulty’s reach, he instinctively tried to field it while running toward first.

“I bent down on a full run, but my knee didn’t want to bend, and I heard a pop,” Naulty said. “They thought it was a fracture, but there was just a deep bone bruise in the pelvis.”

Naulty, who was 13-4, with a 3.59 ERA and 95 strikeouts for the Titans this past season, remained in Kenosha two weeks after the injury but came home when it was apparent he wouldn’t be able to pitch again this season. He hopes to return for the Florida Instructional League in September.