Rocky Season Doesn’t Shake Kile’s Resolve

Physically, Darryl Kile insists, he is fine. Mentally? Colorado Manager Don Baylor is concerned. Kile, the most attractive free-agent pitcher on last year’s market, is 7-14 with a 5.97 earned-run average and is 2-11 in his last 16 starts.

“You can talk about being tough mentally, but you have to be realistic,” Baylor said, unsure of his next move. “I don’t want to lose this guy, just because he is a great soldier.”

Kile signed a three-year, $24-million contract with the Rockies, rejecting the Houston Astros’ late attempt to keep him at $21 million. The guess is that Kile would not be 7-14 and the Astros would not have traded for Randy Johnson if he had remained the Astro ace instead of tempting the precipitous risks of Coors Field.

Kile understood those risks--the possibility, for instance, that his celebrated curve would not break as much in high-altitude Denver, the Greg Maddux theory that a pitcher has to work so hard to survive there that he tends to be spent for his next start--but felt that with the potent Colorado lineup behind him and his previous success there, he could remain a consistent winner, attorney Barry Axelrod said.

Well, the Rockies haven’t been as potent and Kile hasn’t been as consistent and he will face the New York Mets at Coors Field today after being blistered by the Pittsburgh Pirates in his last two starts.

No excuses or regrets, however.

Axelrod said he recently mentioned to Kile that signing with the Rockies might have been a mistake and maybe they should go to the club and suggest it might be beneficial to both if he were traded.

“Darryl didn’t want to hear it,” Axelrod said. “His reaction was, ‘It wasn’t a mistake and I don’t want to be traded. I haven’t pitched well but I’m going to fight through it.’ ”

Ultimately, Axelrod suspects, Kile has tried to justify the contract, creating pressure.

“Am I pressing? Who wouldn’t press?” Kile said.

“I feel like all my teammates are stuck in this major traffic jam, and I’m in the car in the front that got in the accident and caused it. It’s my fault we are where we are. That doesn’t mean the car won’t be repaired.”

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The minimum major league salary is $170,000, meaning the minimum payroll for a 25-man roster would be $4.25 million. The Florida Marlins are getting close.

With the deadline trades of Todd Zeile and Felix Heredia, the Marlins are down to a major league low $6 million.

They have 15 rookies on their roster and still might unload veteran John Cangelosi and arbitration-eligible Edgar Renteria before the Aug. 31 deadline for setting playoff rosters.

Meanwhile, Gary Hughes, Florida’s player personnel director, had a hard time containing his merriment at the package the Chicago Cubs gave up for Heredia (0-3, 5.49 ERA). The Marlins got three players, among them third baseman Kevin Orie and pitcher Todd Noel, 19, the Cubs’ top prospect, many believe.

“They overpaid,” Hughes told Florida reporters. “But in that situation [a chance to reach the playoffs], you overpay. What was it [broadcaster] Jack Brickhouse used to say about the Cubs? ‘Anybody can have a bad century.’ This is the Cubs. They have a chance. You go for it.”

Reacting to that chance, Cub President Andy MacPhail picked up the 1999 options on General Manager Ed Lynch and Manager Jim Riggleman. It wasn’t a major vote of confidence, but MacPhail said he wanted to keep the focus on the field, and the contract issues may be revisited later.