Naulty Trying to Hang On to What He Has

When Dan Naulty went to spring training this year with the Minnesota Twins, he was fairly certain he was ready to pitch in the major leagues.

But he also realized he still might be a step or so away.

“I wanted to make a good impression with them, but I sort of expected to have to go back to Salt Lake City and do the best I could there for a while,” Naulty said.

As it turned out, he was with the Twins on opening day, not back in triple A, and became the 23rd former Cal State Fullerton player to reach the big leagues.

In the first two thirds of the season, he also has shown he wants to stay there awhile.

Naulty, who played high school baseball in Huntington Beach (Ocean View) and continues to live there, has made more appearances this season (49) than any Minnesota pitcher other than Eddie Guardado.

Naulty (3-2) has four saves, and his 3.79 earned-run average is one of the best on the team.

The Twins hope that some swelling and numbness that showed up in his pitching hand this week won’t seriously blunt his performance in the final third of the season.

“He’s done fine for a first-year player,” Twin Manager Tom Kelly said. “But because of that, it becomes a question of how much you want to put on him as a rookie. You don’t want to lay the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

Kelly recently moved Naulty into the closer role when Dave Stevens, who was in that spot, went on the 15-day disabled list July 23 because of an injury to his pitching hand.

“Using Dan there was pretty much out of necessity,” Kelly said. “He had been throwing as well as anyone in our bullpen.”

But on Aug. 2 against Boston, Naulty had a 10-7 lead in the ninth inning. He retired the first two batters but didn’t hold on. Naulty gave up a two-run homer, and the winning run scored on a hit off Rick Becker’s glove when Becker pulled up short of the wall. Kelly says that rally was tainted by a questionable call.

“The replay shows he got the third out earlier, even though the runner got the call,” Kelly said. “But it probably wasn’t fair on my part to put the kid in that kind of situation this early, as a rookie. He’s done fine coming in during the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.”

After that game, Naulty’s pitching hand became swollen, and Kelly held him out of the three-game series with the Angels and sent him back to Minneapolis Wednesday for further examinations.

Naulty hasn’t been at his best lately. He gave up eight earned runs in his last two games after allowing none in his previous 12. The problem with his hand might have been a factor, more than the pressure of suddenly becoming a closer.

“You expect to come into some tough situations,” Naulty said. “I like it in relief. In Salt Lake City, I started the first couple of months last year, but then went to the bullpen. They’ve been telling me that my future in the majors probably was there anyway, so it turned out to be a good move. The thing I like is getting to pitch more than once every five days.”

Naulty, 6 feet 6 and 211 pounds, also learned to throw a split-fingered forkball last year. “It’s not my No. 1 pitch, but it’s helped me,” he said. Naulty’s fastball is solid, but he considers the slider his best pitch.

“He definitely has three major league pitches,” said Dick Such, the Twins’ pitching coach. “He throws hard, and his breaking balls are good. But when he gets into trouble, it’s because he isn’t throwing strikes. He probably could have used a little more time in the minors to work on some things, but we’ve asked him to pitch a lot this season, and he’s doing all right. We just have to work to keep him in the zone.”

Naulty has moved up quickly without having a fast-track reputation.

This is only his fourth full season in professional baseball. He wasn’t drafted as a junior at Fullerton, then wasn’t taken until the 14th round in 1992 as a senior on a Titan team that finished second to Pepperdine in the College World Series.

Naulty gives George Horton considerable credit for his development as a pitcher. Horton has been associate head coach for six years at Fullerton and is the top candidate to succeed Augie Garrido, who resigned to become coach at Texas.

Naulty pitched for Horton at Cerritos College, then followed him to Fullerton.

“George is the guy who put me over the hump,” Naulty said. “I was tall and could throw hard, but my mechanics really weren’t that good. George turned it around for me. He helped me fine-tune what I had at that point and made me as good as I could be. He got me drafted.

“As a senior, I didn’t have a lot of leverage in the draft, but I was just happy to get a chance to keep pitching. The Twins didn’t give me much money, but they gave me an opportunity, and I’m grateful for that.”

While Naulty had some concerns initially about whether he was ready, he says he’s feeling more comfortable, and Kelly said he’s overcome some typical rookie rough spots.

“Naturally, we’d like to see him be able to finish strong,” Kelly said. “But he’s done fine so far. He seems to have what it takes to stay up here.”