PRO BASEBALL / MIKE HISERMAN : Sent Down, Lund Picks Himself Up

Ed Lund wants to be a prospect again, but for now just being a full-time player is enough.

At the start of the minor league season, he was neither.

Lund, a graduate of St. Francis High, has been a catcher in the Dodgers’ organization since being drafted out of Notre Dame in 1990.

This spring, he was in double-A camp with high hopes of earning a promotion to San Antonio, the Dodgers’ affiliate in the Texas League.

Instead, with only two days of workouts to go, he was given a choice: Either be released or join the club’s Class-A team in Bakersfield as a player-coach.

“I wanted to keep playing, so here I am,” Lund said.

But, until the middle of last month, Lund’s catching opportunities were few and far between. Bakersfield’s catcher was Ryan Luzinski, the Dodgers’ top draft choice in 1992.

Luzinski played while Lund toiled in the bullpen and occasionally struggled to accept his new role.

“Basically the Dodgers told me that I was insurance,” Lund said. “They said, ‘We have some young catchers. If they don’t work out, we have you there.’ ”

Rick Dempsey, Bakersfield’s manager and a veteran of 24 major league seasons as a catcher, helped Lund cope. To Dempsey, Lund’s plight struck close to home.

Last year, the Baltimore Orioles kept Dempsey on as a backup catcher and part-time instructor. He played in only eight games and says he was asked to provide very little instruction.

Dempsey left Baltimore confused and bitter.

“He’s been excellent,” Lund said of Dempsey. “The first day I was with him he told me, ‘Let me know how you’re doing, because I’ve been in those shoes. If you have any problems, talk to me. We’ll work it out. If you need to leave, we’ll take care of it.’ ”

Lund chose to stay, and his perseverance is paying off.

Late last month, Luzinski, who was hitting well but struggling defensively, was sent to Great Falls (Mont.) of the rookie Pioneer League.

Lund has become Bakersfield’s starting catcher and in 91 at-bats is batting .286 with two home runs and 14 runs batted in.

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Dmitri Young, the St. Louis Cardinals’ top draft choice in 1991, is adapting to a double-dose change in venue. Young, who played at Rio Mesa High, was promoted from Class-A St. Petersburg (Fla.) to double-A Arkansas shortly after being moved from third base to first base.

Young’s erratic fielding at third prompted the position change, but simply moving him across the diamond initially didn’t work. In his first seven games at Arkansas, Young committed three errors. Since then, he has one error in 13 games.

In 71 at-bats for Arkansas, Young is batting .268 with six doubles, a triple, a home run and nine runs batted in.

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Gary Mota was most valuable player in the Class-A South Atlantic League last season. Playing for the Houston Astros’ affiliate in Asheville (N.C.), the outfielder from La Crescenta hit .291 with 24 home runs, 90 runs batted in and stole 22 bases.

Mota’s home run and RBI totals, plus his 242 total bases, were high marks in the Houston Astros’ organization. But this season has been a wash for the 22-year-old son of Manny Mota, a former Dodger player and coach.

Playing in only his second game for Jackson (Miss.) of the double-A Texas League, Mota was hit by a pitch and suffered a broken wrist.

Mota had surgery to repair tendon and ligament damage and resumed taking batting practice last week.

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Matt Whisenant, who is known for his strong arm, has a sore shoulder.

Whisenant, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound left-hander from Glendale College, was placed on the disabled list Tuesday because of tendinitis.

Pitching for Kane County (Ill.), the Florida Marlins’ affiliate in the Class-A Midwest League, Whisenant has 74 strikeouts in 71 innings.

However, he has also displayed a trait that seems to plague many young left-handers: He lacks consistent control. Though he allows an average of less than a hit per inning, Whisenant has walked 56, resulting in a 2-6 record and 4.69 earned-run average.

Last season, playing for Philadelphia’s Class-A affiliate in Spartanburg (S.C.) of the South Atlantic League, Whisenant struck out 151 in the same number of innings, but walked 85. His record was 11-7 with a 3.23 ERA.

Whisenant, 22, was traded by the Philadelphia Phillies to the Marlins in November along with pitcher Joel Adamson for veteran left-hander Danny Jackson.

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Andy Small is off to a rather inauspicious debut for the Elmira (N.Y.) Pioneers, the Florida Marlins’ affiliate in the Class-A New York-Penn League.

Small gets a hit almost half the time he makes contact, which happens only half the time.

Small has 12 hits in 54 at-bats but has fanned 26 times. He has been moved to first base after committing five errors in his first 14 games at third.

At Cal State Northridge last season, Small batted .332 with a team-high 20 home runs and had 68 strikeouts in 217 at-bats.

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Short hops: Travis Willis, who played for Camarillo High and Cal, pitched a perfect inning for the National League on Monday in the double-A all-star game at Memphis, Tenn. The Orlando Cubs’ right-hander struck out one. He has a record of 6-2, an ERA of 2.65 and leads the Cubs’ organization with 18 saves. . . . Also in the double-A game, Rich Aude, a first baseman from Chatsworth High, singled home two runs in his only at-bat. Aude played even though he had been promoted to Buffalo, the Pirates’ triple-A club, last month.