BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Rodgers Says He Believes in Angels

There are no predictions or promises from Buck Rodgers.

He understands the reality of a 162-game schedule, the crucible that awaits his young Angel hitters.

He sits behind his desk at Anaheim Stadium and tells of a spring sensation named Jackie Warner, a 1966 Angel teammate who lit up April with seven home runs, “but couldn’t survive May.”

He knows how devastating that first big league slump can be and that a player hasn’t definitively arrived until he demonstrates he can weather it.

He says that Chad Curtis, the center fielder, and Gary DiSarcina, the shortstop, did that last year and can stand up and say they belong.

He says that J.T. Snow, Tim Salmon and Damion Easley have the character and ability to join them.

Rodgers chooses his words carefully. He says he is hopeful that the magic of the first two weeks is no illusion and that what we’re seeing is no fluke.

“I’m hopeful we’re seeing the beginning of some outstanding careers and not just 30-day wonders,” is the way he puts it.

He is more than hopeful, actually. He is confident. The leaders of the American League West have six players with two years or less of major league experience in their starting lineup, and the manager says that what he likes is that no one is going to play mind games on them.

“They’re tough kids who won’t be intimidated and they’re all good athletes,” he said. “We’re not talking about donkeys who can only swing the bat.”

In other words, he says the Angels are onto something special. Twenty or more years overdue, perhaps, in the context of franchise direction, but ahead of schedule in the context of current redevelopment.

You listen as he breaks it down individually and puts it back together, and you find yourself believing.

He says how phenomenal it is for an organization to have two players with the capability of batting third full-time--”basically the No. 3 hitter is the best hitter on your club”--come out of the minors to join the lineup in the same year, “when it generally takes 10 years to find one.”

He is talking about Snow and Salmon, and he adds that they have the personalities that should enable them to survive that first slump. Both believe they can get it done on their own, he said, “rather than having to ask every coach, writer, equipment man and peanut vendor what they’re doing wrong. They have enough confidence in (batting instructor) Rod Carew to accept a word or two, adjust and go on.”

Snow, he adds, has the advantage of having grown up in a sports environment with his football-playing dad, Jack, and is a “step ahead mentally” as exemplified by his season-opening roll.

“He’s only trying to have fun and establish himself,” Rodgers said. “He’s not thinking about Wally Joyner or Jim Abbott or anyone else. I wish the guy last year (Lee Stevens) would have had the same focus, but he was intimidated by the surroundings. The mental part of the game is amazing.”

The mental outlook of Rodgers and his young players has obviously been buoyed by their successful start.

Augment those two No. 3 hitters, he says, with Curtis and Easley, who can hit, run and field, and a young shortstop, DiSarcina, who should hit .250 or more, and it’s all part of a promising foundation.

Roger Clemens will test for cracks tonight, followed by Abbott on Wednesday night. It will get tougher before it gets easier. Are the Angels only 30-day wonders or is this finally the start of the wonder years? The pragmatic manager says he has valid reasons for hope.

POT LUCK

The inexact nature of the amateur baseball draft can be measured again by developments with the Angels.

The career of pitcher Pete Janicki, their No. 1 selection last June from UCLA and Placentia’s El Dorado High, is in doubt since a stress fracture in his elbow developed into a full-fledged break.

Pitcher Shawn Holcomb, another El Dorado product and their No. 4 pick in June, is sidelined until next season at the earliest after undergoing elbow surgery.

Yet, two late-round selections from previous drafts, Easley, a No. 30 in 1988, and Curtis, a No. 45 in 1989, seem to have arrived to stay.

Easley, said Rodgers, should steal 20 bases by accident and eventually hit 15 home runs a year, maybe eight to 10 this year. He will eventually be capable of hitting anywhere from second to seventh, Rodgers said, maybe even joining Snow and Salmon as a third potential No. 3.

The 5-foot-10 Curtis would seem to be the quintessential overachiever, but Rodgers doesn’t buy that.

“He may have been an overachiever on the basis of size when he was drafted, but not on the basis of his tools,” the manager said. “He runs and throws above average and he can hit for power. He’s worked hard and become a good center fielder. He can hit .280, draw 50 to 60 walks and steal 50 bases.”

Curtis stole 43 last year, batting .259. He was batting .340 before the weekend series with the Boston Red Sox and had a league-high 10 steals for a team on a pace, at that point, to steal 297.

“If he and Luis (Polonia) maintain their high on-base percentage and good sense for running the bases, they can be as good as any combination in the league at setting the table and as good as any I’ve managed,” Rodgers said of his lineup’s No. 1 and 2 hitters.

Among those Rodgers have employed in that capacity were Paul Molitor and Robin Yount in Milwaukee and combinations of Tim Raines, Otis Nixon, Marquis Grissom, Delino DeShields and Rex Hudler in Montreal.

“These guys are in that category,” he said of Polonia and Curtis.

A RED FLAG

The Cincinnati Reds may not miss Marge Schott, but their ability to overcome the absence of Rob Dibble, Hal Morris, Kevin Mitchell and Bobby Kelly will be more difficult.

Relief ace Dibble will be sidelined six weeks after having a broken bone in his left arm repaired surgically Saturday. First baseman Morris is sidelined until mid-June because of a separated shoulder. Outfielders Mitchell and Kelly are day to day because of hamstring strains, with Mitchell also hampered by a stress fracture in his foot.

Compounding those losses, shortstop Barry Larkin is playing with a bruised elbow and two swollen thumbs, and both third baseman Chris Sabo and second baseman Bip Roberts have had long bouts with flu, a reason they were batting .190 and .196 respectively entering Saturday’s game.

“We still have a lot of premium players and can stay competitive if they play up to their potential, but so far Sabo and Roberts haven’t because of the virus,” General Manager Jim Bowden said.

Bowden says Atlanta remains the team to beat in the National League West, and said: “It’s a good thing the Braves didn’t get off to a good start. If they were 10-1, we’d face a long and difficult road, but we’re not at a panic point yet.”

The Reds are 6-11. Randy Milligan has done a respectable job replacing Morris, and the Reds will attempt to replace Dibble, who had actually been the bullpen’s weak link, with a committee of Jeff Reardon, Greg Cadaret, Bill Landrum and Steve Foster.

KINDER AND GENTLER?

George Steinbrenner, the New York Yankees’ principal owner, was telling the Yankee press corps again the other day that he has returned from his two-year banishment with more patience and understanding, not ever happy to get beat by 10 runs but aware that those things happen.

Right.

A day later, talking to some of the same group, he was ripping bullpen coach Mark Connor, putting the blame for the poor start by Steve Howe, Steve Farr and the other relievers--the Yankee bullpen had allowed 11 homers in 35 1/3 innings--at the feet of a man he has thought enough of to employ three different times as pitching coach.

“You have to go to the man in charge,” Steinbrenner said. “Did the relievers get enough work in spring training or are they giving the maximum effort?

“Coach Connor is in charge of the bullpen. His job is to get them ready, and they don’t appear ready.”

ON THE OTHER HAND . . .

Claude Osteen, who spent the last four years as an instructor in the Dodger system and is now the Texas Rangers’ pitching coach, is getting much of the credit for the early success of that club’s rebuilt staff.

Through 116 innings, the Texas pitching corps, with the injured Nolan Ryan, had a 3.03 earned-run average and had walked only 38 batters, providing a foundation for the powerful offense.

The Rangers have not finished higher than sixth in the American League in team earned-run average since 1983 and have led the league in unintentional walks in seven of the last eight years.

Former pitching coach Tom House has a doctorate in psychology and liked to deal in offbeat concepts and approaches. Osteen is more into basic mechanics.

“He’s the best I’ve ever seen at teaching mechanics and how to get people out,” Manager Kevin Kennedy said.

Of course, Osteen and the potent Rangers have things going for them that House didn’t:

--A reliable closer in Tom Henke.

--A dominant set-up man, so far, in rookie Matt Whiteside.

--Two new and veteran starters--Charlie Leibrandt and Craig Lefferts--who generally do not beat themselves with walks.

--And, most important perhaps, reliable defense in the middle of the infield in Manny Lee and Bill Ripken.

The Rangers led the league with 154 errors last year, compounding 598 walks and leading to 90 unearned runs and 85 defeats for a team that scored an average of 4.3 runs a game.

“Having good defense makes all the difference in the world,” said Bob Patterson, the former Pittsburgh Pirate left-hander now answering relief calls for the Rangers.

“You throw strikes, let them hit it and have the defense do the job. That’s what we did with the Pirates.”