With Nothing to Lose, A’s Try a Tag-Team Rotation

There have been three-, four- and five-man rotations.

Gene Mauch tried in vain to win a National League pennant for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1964 by using only Chris Short and Jim Bunning as his starters over the final 10 games.

Because necessity is the mother of invention, the Oakland Athletics are employing a radical scheme akin to a nine-man rotation.

The A’s are using three groups of three pitchers each on a three-day rotation, with each pitcher limited to 40-60 pitches.

“If we don’t win some games in a hurry, we’re out of it,” Manager Tony La Russa said Thursday. “We’re in sixth place, 10 games under .500. It’s not like we’re jeopardizing anything. We’ve had very little pitching consistency. It was time to try something new.”

Under the format, starters Bob Welch, Ron Darling and Bobby Witt could do more than start. They could pitch in the middle or late innings, as Darling did Monday and Thursday, and Witt did on Tuesday and Friday.

So far, there has been no revolution among the pitchers, even though the only thing a starter can qualify for is a loss. The pitch count makes it virtually impossible for the starter to get the five innings required for a victory.

Witt, the most effective of the starters, suggested that he isn’t pleased, but added: “I’ve never been a person to go against the grain, and they’ve got an option on me for next year. I’m just sitting here and doing what they’re asking.”

Said General Manager Sandy Alderson:

“This is something that’s typically done in spring training. The negative is that it’s also typically born out of a lack of starting pitching, and that’s our problem right now.”

In winning three consecutive pennants, starting in 1988, the A’s had the best earned-run average in the American League. But age, injuries and economic realities left Oakland with a revolving-door pitching staff that has a 5.02 earned-run average and only three complete games--all by Witt.

Dave Stewart and Mike Moore, onetime backbones of the rotation, were allowed to leave as free agents last winter as the A’s used their savings to retain Mark McGwire, Ruben Sierra and Terry Steinbach, the nucleus of their lineup.

The season-opening rotation consisted of Darling, Welch, Witt and the hope, in Alderson’s words, they could “fill in or catch a break” from among Storm Davis, Curt Young and Kelly Downs. But Downs has been inconsistent, Young is on the disabled list and Davis has been released.

“We not only didn’t fill in the two spots, the top three (Darling, Witt and Welch) have been inconsistent,” Alderson said.

“We were left with a chaotic situation, and Tony and Dunc (pitching coach Dave Duncan) are trying to bring order out of that. It wasn’t working the other way.”

The three groups:

--Todd Van Poppel, Darling and Kevin Campbell.

--Mike Mohler, Witt and John Briscoe.

--Downs, Welch and Goose Gossage.

Dennis Eckersley remains as the closer, with Edwin Nunez, Joe Boever and Vince Horsman available for relief.

The A’s used 13 pitchers, had a 4.80 ERA and lost five of the first six games in which they used the new format.

Nevertheless, Alderson said there are positives beyond the final score.

“This isn’t concession, but we’ll at least see more of our pitchers on a consistent basis as we sort through our plans for next year,” he said. “It also allows Van Poppel to acclimate three or four innings at a time without having to go deep into the game.”

The A’s and others are still high on the former Texas phenom, but injuries to several of their other young prospects--the A’s were recently thought to be baseball’s deepest in that area--have further eroded the pitching situation.

“I’m disappointed we haven’t pitched better and won more games, but I don’t view this as a tragedy,” Alderson said of the new format, which will be on display for three games in Anaheim starting Monday night. “I applaud Tony, Dunc and the pitching staff for having the courage to give it a try.”

DEADLINE

The A’s have taken it to extremes with their major league-high 13 pitchers and novel format, but they are not alone in carrying more than the normal complement of 10 pitchers.

“When did baseball get so bad that every team carries 11 or 12 pitchers?” Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson said. “When I was at Cincinnati, we never had more than eight or nine.”

Amid widespread mediocrity, there is a high price on quality arms. Saturday marks the deadline for trading without waivers. Among the available pitchers are Tim Belcher, Dennis Martinez, Greg Harris, Mark Portugal, Sid Fernandez, Randy Tomlin and, perhaps, Andy Benes, Chuck Finley and Kevin Gross. Some contenders are scouring that market, but appear reluctant to part with their best prospects.

Anderson alluded to the Tuesday deal in which the Texas Rangers sent two of their top pitching prospects, Kurt Miller and Robb Nen, to the Florida Marlins for Cris Carpenter when he said: “Look what Texas had to give up to get an average middle reliever. That’s criminal.”

The Rangers see it another way. After years of frustration and failed promise, they have a shot at the title in the American League West and believe their rebuilt bullpen will be a key factor.

“We couldn’t be sure we could trade for a starter, and we knew we couldn’t get one for what we gave up to get Carpenter,” General Manager Tom Grieve said. “As soon as we could make that trade, we made it.”

ADD RANGERS

Since the end of last season, the Rangers have completely rebuilt their bullpen, signing Tom Henke, Craig Lefferts and Bob Patterson as free agents, signing Mike Schooler after his release by the Seattle Mariners and trading for Carpenter.

With the return of Nolan Ryan to a rotation of Kevin Brown, Charlie Leibrandt, Kenny Rogers and Roger Pavlik, Texas’ depth is the best among AL West contenders.

Ryan, who faces the Toronto Blue Jays tonight, threw one fastball clocked at 96 m.p.h. and averaged between 93 and 94 in the 5 2/3 innings of his successful return against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night. He gave up three hits and two earned runs and struck out six.

“He looked the same as we’ve been seeing him the last few years,” Robin Yount said. “He certainly isn’t going backward.”

Said Texas Manager Kevin Kennedy: “This is a guy we need for the second half to do just what he did against the Brewers. He doesn’t have to do more than that because we have an improved bullpen where guys pick each other up. Just let him be healthy. That’s all I ask.”

The Rangers might also have an intangible working for them in the second half. As of Saturday, they were 18-6 since Jose Canseco left the lineup because of an elbow injury that put him out for the season.

Said former manager Bobby Valentine, now a coach with the Cincinnati Reds: “He was going to be the guy who was going to lead them to the promised land, and the other guys didn’t like that.

“As soon as he got hurt they said, ‘Now’s our time to show we can do it,’ and they’ve been unbeatable. I look for them to win it.”

McGRIFF FALLOUT

The acquisition of first baseman Fred McGriff by the Atlanta Braves sent first baseman-outfielder Brian Hunter back to triple-A and will lead to the departure of veteran first baseman Sid Bream as a free agent when the season ends. It has also resulted in highly regarded first base prospect Ryan Klesko moving to left field at triple-A Richmond, an indication that the Braves will try to trade Ron Gant during the winter.

Klesko wasn’t happy about the change in positions, but General Manager John Schuerholz said: “What choice does a 20-year-old have? I mean, you worry about his reaction, as you would with any spoiled major leaguer, but he basically has to do anything we tell him to do.”

The departure of Bream and Gant, along with the imminent arrival of catcher Javier Lopez, shortstop Chipper Jones and Klesko as a left fielder, will allow the Braves to compensate financially for McGriff, who makes $3.5 million next year and has a 1995 option at $4.25 million.

It is a measure of the Braves’ touted farm system that they could trade three legitimate prospects for McGriff without disrupting a flow vital to their 1994 lineup and payroll.

McGriff’s arrival has stimulated the Atlanta offense, but the San Francisco Giants keep rolling in the National League West.

Viewing the race, Schuerholz said: “My view is through eyes that are getting dust kicked in them by a relentless leader who won’t drop back and keeps doing everything it needs to do.

“On the other hand, we’ve had what for us is a month’s worth of production in the three or four games McGriff has been with us. And if we keep getting that offense with the caliber pitching we’ve had all along, we can still make a run for it.

“I mean, all we need to do is pick up a game a week, not lose a game.”

NAMES AND NUMBERS

* THE AWARD: The Colorado Rockies won the season’s series from their expansion counterparts, the Florida Marlins, seven games to five. Florida owner Wayne Huizenga commissioned a painting of a mountain range in a tug of war with a fish, to be presented to the winner of the annual series. “So this is what we get for $95 million,” Denver Manager Don Baylor said of the so-called artwork. “Thank you very much.”

* BULLFIGHT: Oakland Athletic pitcher Edwin Nunez, who is 6 feet 5 and 235 pounds and is being called boom-boom by teammates, left the Bull, batting coach Greg Luzinski, with a black eye and swollen lip after an altercation on the team bus in Boston on Monday. Manager Tony La Russa described it as “nothing out of the ordinary when you have men spending 7 1/2 months together. It happens more often than people think.”

* MISLEADING: David Cone’s 6-9 record makes it appear that the Kansas City Royals made a bad investment, but the Royals have scored only 14 runs and batted .192 in those nine losses.

* REDEMPTION? Boston Red Sox General Manager Lou Gorman will never be allowed to forget the one-sided results of his trading Jeff Bagwell to the Houston Astros for pitcher Larry Andersen in 1990, but Gorman is also receiving plaudits now for trading Tom Bolton to the Cincinnati Reds last year for Billy Hatcher, a deal similarly one-sided in the Red Sox’s favor.

Hatcher has become Boston’s regular center fielder, batting .318 with a .380-plus average with runners in scoring position and near .400 with runners on base, helping lead a 24-5 surge since June 21. Hatcher was MVP of the Reds’ 1990 World Series victory over the A’s, going nine for 12.

That was a streak, he said. This isn’t. “I’ve been hitting the ball too hard too long for it to be a streak,” he said of his 1993 success. “I expect to continue.”