BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Phillies’ Heart Is Still Ticking, N.L. East Teams Face a Licking

They might not be the Beasts of the East anymore, those grungy throwbacks who came back to win the 1993 National League pennant after finishing last the year before, but a mellower Animal House still has a bite to it.

The modestly rebuilt and recycled Philadelphia Phillies proved it this week, taking the Eastern Division lead with a seven-game winning streak that included a four-game sweep of the Braves at Atlanta and two of three from the Montreal Expos.

“Everyone says the Braves are the team to beat in our division, and rightfully so,” Phillie General Manager Lee Thomas said.

“But we proved in ’93 we can play with them when we’re healthy, and we proved it again this week. We showed the National League East they can be beaten and we can compete. I don’t see anybody running away with it.”

John Kruk, Mitch Williams, Larry Jackson, Terry Mulholland, Larry Andersen and others who contributed to the character and chemistry in ’93 are gone.

But much of the heart is still ticking as exemplified by the up-the-middle nucleus of center fielder Lenny Dykstra, catcher Darren Daulton and a still-maturing double-play combination of Kevin Stocker and Mickey Morindini supported by Mariano Duncan.

Dave Hollins moved to first base to replace Kruk, and onetime Phillie prodigy Charlie Hayes was re-signed as a comparative bargain free agent to replace Hollins at third.

The Phillies made a high-priced investment in Gregg Jefferies, a proven offensive weapon, to replace the left field platoon of Pete Incaviglia and Milt Thompson but spent only $2 million on the re-signing or addition of eight role players, including Dave Gallagher to platoon with Jim Eisenreich in right.

Amid the 54-61 struggle of last year’s strike-aborted season, the Phillies were 12th in the league in fielding, but the new composition is sizzling.

Through the first 14 games and 142 innings, the Phillies had made only five errors (three by Hayes in one game), adding to the confidence of a patchwork pitching staff that is clearly the suspect aspect of the team’s attempt to re-establish its ’93 swagger.

The staff has been surprisingly successful so far, but the Broad Street jury is still out.

With starters Tommy Greene and Bobby Munoz injured and unlikely to return for several weeks, Curt Schilling is the only remaining member of the ’93 rotation, and only Tyler Green came out of the Philadelphia farm system.

David West and Paul Quantrill, like Schilling, were obtained in trades, and Michael Mimbs, the No. 5 starter and a former Dodger farm product, was obtained from Montreal in the December minor league draft. West and Quantrill were a combined 37-52 before this season. Mimbs and Green were a combined 0-0. Heathcliffe Slocombe, who had two saves during all or parts of five seasons with the Phillies, Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs, was five for five in save opportunities as the new closer through Thursday.

“We need to get Greene and Munoz back,” Thomas said. “In the meantime, we’ve had three young pitchers (Quantrill, Green and Mimbs) take advantage of an opportunity, and that hasn’t happened around here in a while. If they keep us in the game, if they can get us to the seventh inning, we’ll be OK.”

Thomas and his longtime pal and former Angel teammate, Manager Jim Fregosi, have had to to piece the Phillies together while waiting for a rebuilt farm system to produce. That process, Thomas said, has been slower than he’d like, but “we’re within one or two drafts of reaching a point where Baseball America won’t rank (our farm system) last every year.”

In the meantime, the general manager who was once known as Mad Dog looks at temperament as well as talent as he patches here and there, seeking players with something to prove, convinced that the tone is set in the clubhouse.

“We’re a little quieter than we were in ‘93, but I think some of that same confidence is here, the expectation of winning, the belief they can make something happen,” Thomas said. “It’s like Gary Varsho (a new role player who was with the Pittsburgh Pirates during their championship years) said, of all the clubs he’s been on, he’s never seen a club play all nine innings like this one. That was the attitude in ’93 as well.”

PSYCHIC SOUTHPAWS

That was the headline on a National Enquirer story when the Mimbs twins, Michael and Mark, were still in the Dodger organization, their similar appearance and style matched by an uncanny tendency to produce similar seasons and experiences, such as the year they sent their father the same birthday card even though Michael was pitching at Vero Beach and Mark at Bakersfield. The cards even arrived on the same day.

Mark is still with the Dodgers, pitching at triple-A Albuquerque. A day after Michael got his first major league victory, giving up only one hit in six shutout innings against Atlanta last Saturday, Mark gave up only one hit in six shutout innings against Phoenix, ultimately working eight innings.

The twins are 26 and probably at career crossroads. Michael Mimbs was 22-12 in consecutive seasons at Vero Beach and San Antonio but was released by the Dodgers in the spring of ‘93, a victim of a numbers crunch, farm director Charley Blaney said. Mimbs spent the ’93 season at St. Paul of the independent Northern League, going 8-2. He was 11-4 at double-A Harrisburg in ’94 after being signed by the Expos, who ultimately made him available in the December draft. All 27 clubs passed on him in the first round before he was selected by the Phillies on the second.

Mimbs was telling Philadelphia writers on Wednesday that both Blaney and Dave Wallace, then the Dodgers’ minor league pitching instructor, had told him he would never pitch in the big leagues when he was summoned to the phone in the Phillies’ clubhouse. He returned to say that it had been Blaney calling to congratulate him on his first victory and to say, “you proved us wrong.”

Said Blaney: “He’s the first player I’ve released who has come back to reach the big leagues, and I accept the blame. He’s a smart kid who worked hard and received some help from (Phillie pitching coach) Johnny Podres with his sinker. He deserves a lot of credit, and I told him that.”

Mimbs’ sinker wasn’t sinking Thursday when he was rocked by the Expos for his first loss. In the meantime, however, he was pleased by Blaney’s call and had only one request: “Give my brother a chance,” he asked.

NOW WHAT?

In the 11 months since the labor negotiations began, management has gone through a succession of lead negotiators, including Richard Ravitch as head of the Player Relations Committee, John Harrington and then Jerry McMorris as head of the negotiating committee and Chuck O’Connor as general counsel of the PRC.

Who is the lead negotiator now? Where is the legal advice coming from? What is the labor strategy? When will talks resume?

None of that is clear, and the union remains wary, convinced that if Robert Ballow, a Nashville lawyer known for his union busting strategy, is calling the shots, the owners might be determined to set up another impasse and implement either a salary cap or a high-rate payroll tax equivalent to a cap.

Tom Reich, one of several respected agents talking to owners and the union in an attempt to regenerate negotiations, said the players “don’t even want to think” about going out again, but if the owners are talking about an impasse and a cap “you might as well start writing a eulogy for the game.”

Reich said it would be “blatant negligence” for either side to delay talks, that the sport can still be salvaged but the clock is ticking.

“The damage can’t be repaired without a new labor agreement,” he said. “The time has come for an accounting of who is willing to compromise and who isn’t.

“Other sports have left baseball in the dust. Without an agreement, the next sport to pass it will be ice skating.”

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NAMES AND NUMBERS

--The Cleveland Indians, who wisely avoided trading for the now-sidelined Bryan Harvey, have turned their attention to Houston’s John Hudek. The Astros would trade Hudek and make Todd Jones their closer, but only if the Indians also take Greg Swindell and his corpulent contract, which calls for $3.6 million this year, $4.2 million next year and a club option at $4.6 million--or a $600,000 buyout--in 1997.

--Corpulent contracts? The Oakland Athletics have tried unsuccessfully to unload Ruben Sierra and his five-year, $28-million package that runs through 1997. A’s Manager Tony La Russa had a closed-door shouting match with the .209 hitting Sierra Tuesday over his lack of effort and execution.

“When you set yourself up as a key guy, and you get paid for it, there’s responsibility,” La Russa said. “Unless you’re ready to turn some money back, you can’t say don’t look at me more closely or give me more responsibility.”

--The depth of his starting rotation was Seattle Manager Lou Piniella’s primary preseason concern. Legitimate? Randy Johnson and Chris Bosio were 4-0 with a 1.57 earned-run average in six starts through Thursday. Dave Fleming, Tim Davis and Bob Wells were a combined 2-3 with a 6.52 ERA in seven starts.

--The Colorado Rockies are now 8-3 in Coors Field, of which Manager Don Baylor said: “Anyone turning their back to buy a hot dog in the left-field bleachers should be told to beware.” Indeed. The Rockies have hit 25 homers in the 11 games, including six by Dante Bichette. They have scored 98 runs and are batting .365 as a team.

--The Rockies’ potent lineup has been enhanced by the emergence of rookie infielder Jason Bates, a seventh-round draft pick from Arizona in 1992. Bates had hit in all 10 of his starts at second base and third base through Thursday, with four home runs and a .348 average.

--The work stoppage curtailed Matt Williams’ assault on Roger Maris’ home run record last year, but with six homers through Thursday, the San Francisco Giant third baseman had hit 60 in his last 159 games dating to Sept. 3, 1993, three games shy of a season.

--In response to recent criticism here regarding the Angels’ community involvement, Tom Seeberg, the club’ vice president for civic affairs, sent a letter detailing an extensive and impressive list of charity and community projects of which the Angels should be proud. The criticism, however, was aimed mainly at the absence of a consistent marketing and sales pitch, a long-range vision, in a burgeoning area stretching from Long Beach to Riverside. Small market? Nonsense.