Nettles Tries to Stay Up While Being Down in a Valley

Graig Nettles has been managing not to drive himself crazy.

Which is a pretty good trick, considering the hand he’s been dealt with the Bakersfield Blaze in his first season as a manager.

Nettles, the former All-Star third baseman of the New York Yankees, was hired as the Blaze manager just five days before the season.

On opening day he had a 17-man roster, a 24-year-old pitcher-pitching coach, a second baseman who was practically pulled off the street and no first baseman.

Half a season later, Bakersfield has a pitching coach and a decent second baseman, but Nettles has still had to use pitchers to play outfield, catchers to pitch and a bullpen catcher to bat ninth.

It all adds up to a league-worst 26-61 record for the Blaze, 2-15 in the second half through Friday.

“It’s been difficult but I’ve enjoyed it,” Nettles said. “It’s been difficult in the fact that rarely do we have a full roster. We’ve been short of players all year.

“I knew it was a co-op team, but I didn’t realize it would be so hard to get players. I knew I would have players from different organizations, but I never thought they would allow a team to go out on the field with a 20-man roster [five fewer than other teams in the league].”

Major league clubs use co-op teams as warehouses for leftovers, guys who just don’t fit on any of a team’s own affiliates. With so many clubs acting independently as to who they send to the co-op teams, there are no guarantees of having enough players at each position, or that players will be replaced after the parent clubs take them back.

As opening day approached, the Blaze had not been sent a second baseman. The club owners scrambled to sign free agent Mickey Perez, who was released by the Chicago Cubs. After a week, it was obvious that Perez couldn’t cut it, so they signed Mauricio Gonzalez, who was released by the Colorado Rockies.

At first base, Bakersfield initially used Doug Carroll, an outfielder who was later taken back by the Seattle Mariners and moved to the JetHawks, and then Chris Paxton, a catcher a year out of Palmdale High.

Two Bakersfield pitchers performed well early in the season. But Jose Cabrera was quickly taken back by the Cleveland Indians and Rob Kell by the Boston Red Sox, with little or nothing sent to the Blaze in return.

Short of pitchers, Bakersfield ended up sending catcher Todd Johnson and Carroll to the mound. And not just in lopsided losses. Carroll pitched in a victory.

Then there was Dalton Maine, a 24-year-old veteran with 56 innings of professional experience, all at Class A or lower.

He was the pitching coach.

“He was a rookie just like me,” Nettles said. “He had no experience. We had trouble getting organizations to send us pitchers because we didn’t have a real pitching coach.”

Bakersfield finally hired Blake Green to be the pitching coach about a month ago. Green, who lives in Bakersfield, played briefly in the Houston Astros’ organization.

Ken Teasley was another Bakersfield resident hired by the Blaze, as bullpen catcher. It’s actually a luxury in Class A to have a catcher specifically for the bullpen so the regulars don’t have to do so much grunt work.

Then the grunt had to play.

Last week, the Blaze player-shortage hit a new low when a couple of injuries to position players forced them to sign the pudgy Teasley to a player’s contract. Every bullpen catcher’s dream.

Before Bakersfield signed Teasley, the Blaze was using pitchers at designated hitter or in the outfield.

Somehow Nettles has kept his sanity through it all, no doubt by reminding himself that these are the dues to be paid to get to the major leagues, as a manager or a player.

Carroll, who played two months with Bakersfield, said he was sorry to go, despite the team’s pathetic performance, because he missed Nettles.

“He helped me a lot with the mental aspects,” Carroll said. “He was just a great influence. Every day he taught me something new.

“He and I got to be good friends. He just made everything sound so simple.”

Simple. Probably just the way Bakersfield owners made it sound to Nettles in that phone call days before the season, when they asked:

“Want to be a manager?”

*

Ben Grieve, the Modesto outfielder inexplicably snubbed for an all-star team spot, was recently promoted to double A, leaving the Cal League with a .356 average, fourth highest. He had 11 homers and 51 runs batted in.

In an ironic twist, Grieve was selected the league’s player of the month for June in a vote of managers--the same ones who left him off the all-star team.

Grieve batted .387 in June and .410 in May.

Russ Ortiz, a graduate of Montclair Prep, was finally promoted by the San Francisco Giants to double A. Ortiz was the dominant closer in the California League, posting 23 saves and an 0.25 earned-run average. In 36 2/3 innings he struck out 63 and gave up 16 hits.