Answer to Angels’ Pitching Problems Is Still Developing

Jose Cintron’s numbers stick out in the Angel minor-league system.

Jason Dickson made the jump to triple-A Vancouver after playing at Class-A Cedar Rapids last season.

Jarrod Washburn’s career has picked up as much velocity as his fastball.

All are starting pitchers, but none are ready for the major leagues--although Angel officials wish they were. The Angels could use them now.

Bob Fontaine, the Angels’ assistant vice president for scouting and player development, pointed out last week only one American League starter on July 16th had an earned-run average under 4.00: “Roger Clemens,” he said. “I think it’s a situation that every club, with the exception of a few, is experiencing.”

The Angels just have had those pitching woes a little longer.

They have had few returns from home-grown starters in the 1990s. The best, so far, has been left-hander Brian Anderson, who was 7-5 with a 5.22 earned-run average in 1994. He has since been traded to Cleveland for Jason Grimsley and Pep Harris.

It has been nearly a decade since the Angels developed a quality starting pitcher. Chuck Finley was a reliever in the minor leagues. Jim Abbott went straight from college to the Angel rotation.

Willie Fraser was the last starter to come through the Angels’ minor league system to reach double figures in victories. He was 10-10 in 1987 and won only 28 more major league games in six seasons.

But Angel officials are confident, even excited, about the young guns threading their way from Cedar Rapids to Vancouver. But being patient is getting more difficult.

Until this season, it hasn’t been a pressing matter. Finley, Abbott and Mark Langston gave the Angels three solid pitchers. Now Langston is injured, Finley has struggled since May and Abbott is 1-13.

“In recent years, I think we’ve felt our pitching was very good, so we used the draft to shore up the position players,” Fontaine said. “We now have a good foundation of position players with the team. So maybe we didn’t draft as many arms.”

The Angels had 12 first-round picks since 1987 and seven have been pitchers. Only Abbott and reliever Jeff Schmidt are still with the Angels.

Injuries have hurt the progress of some. Pete Janicki, the team’s first round pick in 1992, missed one season with a stress fracture and another with a broken arm--both in his pitching arm. He struggled at triple-A Vancouver with a 2-8 record and was demoted to double-A Midland, where he went is 1-3. He returned to Vancouver last week.

Others just didn’t develop.

“The problem is that pitchers don’t get here in five minutes,” Fontaine said. “It takes years.”

Can they wait?

“The danger in rushing a pitcher is that he’ll go up and fail,” said Ken Forsch, the Angels’ director of player development. “The confidence factor is very important in pitching. It’s the same at every level. But it’s a double boom if they fail right away in the major leagues.”

Ryan Hancock (4-1, 6.94 ERA) and Shad Williams (0-2, 8.26) have had that boom land on them at times this season.

“We’re trying to push some of these [young] pitchers along, but we want to do it cautiously,” Forsch said. “The way things are going, some of these guys may not be many years off.”

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Cintron has made a tremendous leap this season at Cedar Rapids.

Cintron, a 20-year-old from Puerto Rico, is 9-3 with a 3.75 ERA this season. He would be 11-3, but the Kernels’ bullpen has blown two recent save opportunities.

“Our scout [in Puerto Rico] saw this kid in an all-star game and felt he had a real loose arm,” Fontaine said. “He needs to get a little stronger and learn how to pitch. But he’s got a great arm.”

Cintron, a right-hander, grew up in Yabucoa, P.R., and was a shortstop until 1992. Luis Rosa, then a scout for the Chicago Cubs, suggested he try pitching. A year later, the Angels picked Cintron in the fifth round.

He was 5-3 at Cedar Rapids last season, but didn’t pitch after June because of a strained ligament in his elbow.

Cintron gained experience by pitching in a Puerto Rican winter league against some major league players, including Juan Gonzalez and Roberto Alomar.

“In 1994, I came in relief on opening day and struck out Alomar,” Cintron said. “The next time up, he singled off me to win the game.”

The punch line is Cintron’s manager was Sandy Alomar, Roberto’s father.

“After the first at-bat, he got mad at me for striking out his kid, but he was just kidding me,” Cintron said. “The second time, he got mad again. But this time he wasn’t joking.”

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Dickson, 23, made an indirect leap to triple-A, stopping off in Midland for a month. He is 6-6 with a 3.89 ERA with Vancouver. Last season, Dickson, a right-hander, was 14-6 with a 2.86 ERA at Cedar Rapids.

“Moving him was a no-brainer,” Forsch said. “He’s got good stuff and has a 90-plus fastball. What impresses me is he completes games.”

Dickson had nine complete games last season. He had three with Midland before being advanced to triple-A. He pitched a five-hitter in a 7-2 victory over Phoenix Wednesday, his third complete game with Vancouver.

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Washburn’s career is also on the move.

Washburn, a second-round pick in 1995, was 6-3 and leading the California League in strikeouts with Lake Elsinore when the Angels moved him to Midland.

“I wasn’t sure if they were going to move me,” Washburn, 21, said. “I was begin to think I would be in Lake Elsinore all season, but I guess they thought I was ready.”

Washburn, a left-hander, hasn’t changed that perception. He is 4-2 with Midland.

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Treading water, though, is right-hander Jeremy Blevins.

Blevins was a third-round pick last year and Baseball America listed him as the organization’s ninth-best prospect. There was a lot to like. Blevins, 18, is 6 feet 3, 195 pounds with a fastball that’s been clocked in the low 90s.

The Angels have not developed a significant right-hander since Kirk McCaskill, who was 12-12 in 1985.

“He’s just struggling right now,” Forsch said. “He’s getting the ball up and getting behind in counts.”

A bad combination. Blevins is 2-2 with an 9.95 ERA with Boise.

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Scott Schoeneweis, the team’s third-round pick in June, and Brian Cooper, a fourth-round pick in 1995, are off to good starts.

Schoeneweis, a 22-year-old left-hander who played at Duke, is 3-1 with a 2.63 ERA in six starts at Lake Elsinore since signing June 18th.

Cooper, a shortstop who was converted to pitcher at USC, is 5-7 with as 4.01 ERA at Lake Elsinore, but he leads the California League with 131 strikeouts.

“I really believe that we have a lot of kids who can be big league starters,” Fontaine said.

Time will tell.

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An Arms’ Race

The Angels certainly haven’t ignored pitching in the past decade, with seven of their first-round selections in the June amateur draft going to pitchers. Here’s a look at the Angels’ first-round picks:

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YEAR NAME POSITION 1987 John Orton Catcher 1987 David Holdridge Pitcher 1988 Jim Abbott Pitcher 1989 Kyle Abbott Pitcher 1990 Phil Leftwich Pitcher 1991 Eduardo Perez Infielder 1992 Jorge Fabregas Catcher 1992 Jeff Schmidt Pitcher 1992 Pete Janicki Pitcher 1993 Brian Anderson Pitcher 1994 McKay Christensen Outfielder 1995 Darin Erstad Outfielder

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Source: Angel media guide