Playing in the Majors Isn’t Patterson’s Ultimate Goal

Ask any player in baseball’s vast farm system to list his ultimate goal, and he’ll tell you it’s to play in the major leagues, right?

Ask Jeff Patterson, the former Loara High School and Cypress College pitcher/infielder, and you’ll get a surprisingly candid answer.

“My main goal is to make a career out of playing baseball,” Patterson, 24, said. “If it’s in the minors, I’ll miss out on a lot of money, but there are a lot of guys who play 10-12 years in triple-A. The game is the same at either level. If someone paid me a million a year or $10,000 a year, I’d still love to play.”

Patterson, a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies’ triple-A team at Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Pa., is a lot closer to $10,000 than he is to $1 million. But a recent shift from the starting rotation to the bullpen could line his future with more riches than rags.

Patterson was the epitome of average in three years as a Class-A starting pitcher. His numbers weren’t bad--a combined 4-8 with a 3.20 earned-run average at Martinsville, Va., and Batavia, N.Y., in 1989, 3-6 with a 2.96 ERA at Clearwater, Fla., in 1990 and 9-8 with a 4.42 ERA at Spartanburg, S.C., in 1991.

But he did little to warrant a promotion to double-A, and as a 58th-round selection in the 1988 draft--he actually signed with the Phillies a day before the 1989 draft--Patterson wasn’t a high priority for the organization.

Then, in 1992, he moved to the bullpen. He had a 2-1 record, 1.98 ERA and 14 saves in 30 games at Clearwater. Patterson was bumped up to double-A Reading, Pa., where he went 3-1 with a 4.60 ERA and 13 saves in 26 games.

Before he knew it, Patterson was spending the last month of the 1992 season at triple-A Scranton, where he went 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA and one save. And he’s off to a good start this season at Scranton, going 3-2 with a 1.82 ERA in 16 games, primarily in a middle relief and set-up role.

“I definitely have a better chance of making the major leagues as a reliever,” said Patterson, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound right-hander. “I didn’t do the job as a starter that I needed to do. I pitched well enough to stay in Class-A ball, but the biggest jump is to get out of Class-A. Teams have three or four Class-A teams but only one double-A and one triple-A team. I knew as a starter it would be tough to move up.”

It won’t be easy making that final jump, from triple-A to the big leagues. Philadelphia has gone from worst to first in the National League East, and unless there’s an injury in the Phillie bullpen, Manager Jim Fregosi isn’t likely to shake up team chemistry.

“I’ve got to keep pitching well because you don’t know who’s looking at you, who’s watching you,” Patterson said. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s going to be called up, but I have to pitch for me. If something happens with the Phillies, great. If an opportunity arises with another team, that would be great, too.”

Patterson wasn’t so optimistic after the 1991 season. He had made little progress in three years in Class-A and was destined to begin the 1992 season at that level, too.

“I was definitely concerned that baseball might not be working out,” Patterson said. “I knew I could pitch--the problem is it’s a business. You get higher picks coming up and moving right by you. The money is invested in those guys, and they’re the guys who are going to get a chance.

“I felt I had to prove myself every day. It’s easier for the high-round picks, the real ‘prospects,’ that are labeled out of high school and college, to have a bad year. The organization says they just ‘need to mature.’ For a low-round pick, it’s not that easy.”

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Bombs away: After catching Dan Naulty at Cal State Fullerton in 1992, former Titan Jason Moler had a chance to hit off his friend and former battery mate in a Florida State League game two weeks ago.

Moler, playing for the Phillies’ Class-A team at Clearwater, faced Naulty, a pitcher for the Minnesota Twins’ Class-A team at Ft. Myers, twice. Naulty got Moler out once. Moler hit one out once, a homer that traveled well beyond the left-field fence at Clearwater.

“I hit a bomb off him--you can put that in the paper,” Moler said. “I faced him so many times in intrasquad games, and he always owned me. I was a little nervous, but I wasn’t going to let him strike me out. He took me out later that night, and we laughed about it.”

The home run came during a strange week-long power spurt in which Moler hit four homers--but had only five hits.

“I don’t know what happened,” Moler said. “I couldn’t hit a lick, but I went 5 for 30, and four of the hits were homers. I know that’s not going to happen a lot.”

Moler is batting .250 with 19 RBIs but has been solid behind the plate, throwing out more than 50% of attempted base-stealers. More important, Moler is feeling no ill effects from July’s knee surgery, which ended his 1992 Olympic hopes and delayed his pro career by a season.

“I don’t even notice the knee, to tell you the truth,” said Moler, a former Esperanza High standout who was a fourth-round pick in 1992. “All that rehabilitation work over the winter really paid off.”

Moler is catching six days a week, playing designated hitter once a week, and loving every minute of his new lifestyle.

“I love this,” Moler said. “You wake up whenever you want, show up at the ballpark and play. You can’t beat it.”