MINOR LEAGUE NOTEBOOK / EASTERN LEAGUE : Tranberg Is Getting His Second Chance

In the spring, when they toss out the first ball in the Eastern League, the weather can be downright frigid. By the time the season ends in the waning days of summer, stifling heat and high humidity humble even the fittest players.

Much like the climatic contrasts that afflict this double-A league, the future for former Western High pitcher Mark Tranberg has the potential to go 180 degrees in either direction.

Tranberg, 26, is making his second appearance at the Philadelphia Phillies’ farm club in Reading, Pa., and his future in professional baseball hinges on how well he does this time around.

“I had my chance at double-A last year,” Tranberg said, “and I struggled. Now, I’m back, and it’s just basic. It’s a make-or-break situation for me. There’s no going down again. If I want to advance, I’ve got to put up good numbers.”

He bombed in Reading his first time, he and Manager Bill Dancy agree, because Tranberg took hitters at this level too lightly. Often he would fall behind in the count, trying to nibble too much at the corners with his split-fingered fastball, or a variation of the pitch that works more like a slider. Hitters caught on quickly, then teed off on anything he threw over the heart of the plate.

“I think he didn’t give [the hitters in this] league too much credit,” said Dancy, who managed the Phillies’ Clearwater, Fla., Class-A team when Tranberg was there. “The type of pitcher he is, he can’t afford to get behind in the count, and that’s what he did.”

Last year’s frustration in Reading forced a trip back to Clearwater, which led to a lot of soul-searching by the 6-foot-4, 210-pound right-hander, who was drafted by the Phillies in the 34th round of the June, 1992 draft.

Tranberg questioned whether he had it in him to keep playing. Life was tugging at him, too. A long-distance relationship with his fiance, Jolynne Forgey of Lake Forest, made each day difficult.

But Tranberg has met, and dealt successfully with, adversity plenty of times in his baseball career. Given another opportunity to prove himself in Reading this season, he is off to a fairly good start.

Tranberg (5-4) had started 14 games, worked 85 2/3 innings and has a 4.10 earned-run average.

Dancy said that those are very good numbers this early in the season in the 10-team Eastern League, which stretches from Ohio to Maine.

“The toughest thing pitchers find here is that you start in such cold weather that you don’t really get a real good touch on the ball,” Dancy said. “Last year Mark couldn’t get a really good grip on the ball. Then he saw that the league was better than he thought it was and he struggled at times.”

Tranberg was the cleanup and designated hitter and the No. 3 pitcher for Western. The Pioneers won the Orange League title in his senior season, but lost to Oxnard Rio Mesa, 5-3, in the 1986 Southern Section 3A championship game.

Although recruited as a hitter, Tranberg insisted on pitching at Fullerton College, where he was 7-2 in 1989. Long Beach State and Fresno State were interested, but Tranberg signed with Chapman, at the time a Division II team. Tranberg wasn’t sure he would get a lot of playing time at larger schools.

“I was green around the edges,” he said. “I needed to pitch everyday.”

After only two bullpen workouts in the fall of 1989, Tranberg injured his right shoulder in a pickup football game. Arthroscopic surgery revealed nothing serious, although pain remained in his arm every time he lifted it above his shoulder. Frustrated, he dropped out of Chapman after sitting out the 1990 season and took a desk job in a San Pedro cargo warehouse.

Pitching was the farthest thing from his mind when a co-worker tossed a rubber ball on his desk several months later. When Tranberg tossed it back, the pain in his shoulder was gone.

“It felt better than ever,” he said.

With a little arm twisting, Tranberg persuaded Coach George Wing at nearby Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson to give him a tryout. Wing liked what he saw.

“He had a major league arm,” Wing said.

Tranberg became a starting pitcher in January, 1991 and he went on to earn Division II All-American honors after posting an 11-3 record with an ERA below 1.00. He even beat his old teammates at Chapman a couple of times.

But his fastball was clocked at only 83 m.p.h., which scared off scouts. When he wasn’t drafted that year, Tranberg went on an off-season training designed by Dominguez Hills professor Bill Pewett. Pewett was a conditioning consultant to several major league players, including current Kansas City Manager Bob Boone. Boone was a catcher for the Angels at the time.

Tranberg wasn’t as successful in 1992 with the Toros, going 5-5 with a 3.65 ERA. But the conditioning program helped him pick up about five miles an hour on his split-finger fastball. That was good enough for the Phillies.

At Batavia, N.Y., in the Class A New York-Penn League, shoulder pain returned and Tranberg went 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA. But the Phillies took a chance and sent him to their Spartanburg, Va., Class-A team, he recovered to finish 8-1 with a 1.98 ERA. That earned a promotion to Clearwater, where Tranberg sizzled with 15 victories, helping the team win the 1993 South-Atlantic League title.

But the train stopped at Reading last year. Tranberg was knocked around early in the season and a 4-3 start dropped him back to Clearwater.

He revived himself in the warm Florida sun, going 7-1 with an 0.14 ERA. Last July he was named pitcher of the month in the Phillies’ organization. Late last summer he was sent back to Reading.

Dancy thinks Tranberg has the best chance to make the major leagues as a middle-inning reliever. But the reality check for Tranberg is that he must pitch well in Reading the next month or so, now that the weather is warming, for the Phillies to put him on a fast track.

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Reading outfielder Gary Mota, son of former Dodger Coach Manny Mota, has struggled with injuries this spring. Mota, who attended Fullerton College, missed 26 games, first because of a hamstring injury, then because of tendinitis in his right shoulder. Mota is batting .175 with a home run and five runs batted in.

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Farther to the west in the Pennsylvania countryside, former Corona del Mar pitcher Neil Weber has been throwing extremely well at Harrisburg, although his 2-5 record would have you believe otherwise. Harrisburg, a Montreal affiliate, is the worst-hitting team in the Eastern League’s Southern Division, batting .216.

“I feel I’ve pitched very well,” Weber said. “I’m just not getting the support.”

Team officials seem to agree, pointing to his 3.44 ERA in 73 innings. Weber has given up fewer hits than innings pitched, although he has walked 40. At first-place Reading, by comparison, Tranberg has walked only 21 in nearly the same number of innings.

Again, the weather might have had something to do with Weber’s control problems.

“The biggest problem is that you can’t get loose in the early part of the season,” he said. “You’re starting games in April when the temperature is in the 40s. Being from California, and having just gotten out of spring training in Florida, that is a big disadvantage.”

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Eastern League Road Map

How many minor league ballparks can claim a former President once played in the infield? George Bush played at Yale Field, now home to the New Haven Ravens, one of the teams in the latest version of the Eastern League. Here’s a closer look at the league, which has included such future major leaguers as Roger Clemens, Jim Palmer and Albert Belle:

When formed: 1923 (originally called the Class B New York-Pennsylvania League)

Yankee honored: Canton’s stadium is named after the late New York catcher and Canton native Thurmon Munson, who was killed in a plane crash.

New looks: The league may be one of the oldest in minor league baseball, but it has updated its look. Five of the league’s 10 parks having been built since 1987. Two other cities are building new stadiums, and Reading is renovating its existing home. Even Yale Field was renovated before the New Haven Ravens started playing there.

League Locations

Here are the league’s 10 teams and their major league affiliates:

Binghamton, N.Y. (New York Mets)

Bowie, Md. (Baltimore Orioles)

Canton/Akron, Ohio (Cleveland Indians)

Hardware City, Conn. (Minnesota Twins)

Harrisburg, Penn. (Montreal Expos)

New Haven, Conn. (Colorado Rockies)

Norwich, Conn. (New York Yankees)

Portland, Me. (Florida Marlins)

Reading, Penn. (Philadelphia Phillies)

Trenton, N.J. (Boston Red Sox)

Source: Eastern Coast League