Vigilantes Clean House for Second Season

Changes all around.

That should be the unofficial slogan of the Vigilantes, who begin their second season of minor league baseball in Mission Viejo on Saturday night at Saddleback College against the Chico Heat, the defending Western Baseball League champion.

The Vigilantes, who won Western League titles in 1995 and ’96 while in Long Beach, finished 39-51 last season.

So Manager Buck Rodgers, who became a minority owner in the off-season, and the front office, got busy.

Mission Viejo traded outfielder Sam Taylor (.306, a club-record 21 home runs, 58 RBIs), to Tri-City for all-star catcher Bodie Sheppard (.319, seven homers, 39 RBIs).

Other Western League veterans added to Mission Viejo’s 22-man roster this season are outfielder Phil Kernan, who batted .257 with four homers and 17 RBIs in 52 games with Salinas last year, and infielder/catcher Tim McDonnell, who batted .264 with two homers and 34 RBIs for Grays Harbor.

Rodgers expects to get contributions from a number of the new players, including:

* Outfielder Dwain Bostic, who has been in the Dodger and Cardinal systems;

* Outfielder Randy Curtis, who spent six seasons in the Padre, Met and Indian organizations;

* Shortstop Brian Grebeck, younger brother of former Angel and current Toronto Blue Jay Craig Grebeck, has played eight minor league seasons with the Angels and Astros.

Rodgers said he doesn’t expect the Vigilantes to be as strong offensively as the 1997 team that batted .278 and averaged five runs.

“Right now we have ordinary speed and ordinary hitting,” Rodgers said. “We’re going to concentrate on pitching, defense, and playing fundamentally sound baseball.”

Six pitchers return from last season, including right-hander Mike Smith (10-4, 2.95 earned-run average), who was the league’s pitcher of the year. Joining Smith on the staff are fellow right-handers Kirt Kishita (3-5, 4.18), Daniel Ehler (5-8, 6.06), Steve Ceterko (1-6, 5.14) and Josh Gingrich (0-1. 3.52) and left-hander John Homan (3-4, 4.28).

The lone position player returning is outfielder Alan Burke, who batted .318 with 17 homers and 77 runs batted in.

“One thing we’re going to teach all the pitchers is the split-finger fastball,” Rodgers said. “For some guys it will be an ‘out’ pitch; for others, we just want the hitter to know the guy can throw it.”

Kishita, who led the team in saves (12), said he likes the changes so far.

“There are new faces, but they’re faces from around the league and they’re all hard-nosed players,” he said. “Guys who will get down and dirty, who’ll battle, and get the job done.”

Among last year’s starters, infielders Sean Drinkwater and Corey Parker and catcher Carl Nichols retired. Third baseman Bret Barberie, who joined the Vigilantes three weeks into the 1997 season and led the team with a .347 batting average, was signed by the Texas Rangers and assigned to their triple-A team.

Rodgers made changes on his coaching staff as well. He added former Salinas Manager Steve Hendricks as his third-base coach and hitting instructor.

Gone is pitching coach Brad Lesley, who resigned at the end of last season after Rodgers said he wanted a greater hand in working with the pitchers.

Smith returns as a pitcher as well as assistant pitching coach, working with the bullpen in between starts. He said the Vigilantes will need to find the consistency in their play that was lacking last season.

“Last year, we could never put our pitching and hitting together until the last two to three weeks of the season,” Smith said. “Either we’d score eight runs and give up 10, or give up three runs and score two. . . . We had so many people in and out last year; when we won in 1996, we pretty much had the same nucleus all season.”

Rodgers expects the Vigilantes to be “a more focused group; and that includes me” this season. Last year, Rodgers’ first in Mission Viejo, the manager’s attention was often focused on his parents, who died as a result of a June auto accident in Ohio.

“After the accident my body was here but my mind was back in Ohio,” Rodgers said. “I was just going through the motions. Now, I’m back to baseball as usual.

“I’m more familiar with how an independent league operates. I have a better feel for the caliber of players.”

Not all the changes are in Mission Viejo this year. The Western League, entering its fourth season, also has a few new wrinkles:

* The Pacific Suns, who were in Palm Springs in 1995 and ’96 and idle in ‘97, have moved to Oxnard.

* The division playoffs between the winners of the season’s first half and its second will be expanded from a best-of-three series to best of five.

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Vigilantes at a Glance

* Home field: Saddleback College

* Game times: Monday-Saturday Vigilante home games begin at 6:55 p.m.; Sunday games begin at 5:35 p.m.

* Tickets: $5-9 for adults, $4 for seniors and children 12 and under

* Radio: KPSL-AM 830

* Website: www.vigilantes.com

* Information: (949) 699-1616

SCHEDULE

Saturday--Chico; Sunday--Chico; Monday--Chico; Tuesday--Sonoma County; Wednesday--Sonoma County; Thursday--Sonoma County; MAY 29--at Chico; 30--at Chico; 31--at Chico.

JUNE 1--at Chico; 2--at Reno; 3--at Reno; 4--at Reno; 5--at Bend; 6--at Bend; 7--at Bend; 9--Grays Harbor; 10--Grays Harbor; 11--Grays Harbor; 12--Tri-City; 13--Tri-City; 14 Tri-City; 16--at Grays Harbor; 17--at Grays Harbor; 18--at Grays Harbor; 19--at Tri-City; 20--at Tri-City; 21--at Tri-City; 23--Reno; 24--Reno; 25--Reno; 26--Bend; 27--Bend; 28--Bend; 30--Pacific.

JULY 1--Pacific; 2--at Pacific; 3--at Pacific; 4--at Sonoma County; 5--at Sonoma County; 6--at Sonoma County; 7--at Sonoma County; 9--Pacific; 10--Pacific; 11--Pacific; 15--Chico; 16--Chico; 17--Chico; 18--Chico; 19--Sonoma County; 20--Sonoma County; 21--Sonoma County; 22--Sonoma County; 24--at Chico; 25--at Chico; 26--at Chico; 28--at Reno; 29--at Reno; 30--at Reno; 31--at Bend.

AUGUST 1--at Bend; 2--at Bend; 4--Tri-City; 5--Tri-City; 6--Tri-City; 7--Grays Harbor; 8--Grays Harbor; 9--Grays Harbor; 11--Reno; 12--Reno; 13--Reno; 14--Bend; 15--Bend; 16--Bend; 18--at Tri-City; 19--at Tri-City; 20--at Tri-City; 21--at Grays Harbor; 22--at Grays Harbor; 23--at Grays Harbor; 24--at Pacific; 25--at Pacific; 26--at Pacific; 27--at Pacific; 28--at Pacific; 29--Pacific; 30--Pacific; 31--at Sonoma County.

SEPTEMBER 1--at Sonoma County; 2--at Sonoma County.

ROSTER

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Name Pos. B T Ht. Wt. Born Residence Josh Belovsky P R R 6-3 210 4-8-73 Orange Steve Ceterko P R R 6-8 222 2-29-74 Mission Viejo Dan Ehler P R R 6-3 180 2-17-75 Covina Kent Ervin P R R 6-3 195 1-12-74 Littleton, Co. Josh Gingrich P R R 6-1 205 8-6-72 Huntington Beach John Homan P R L 5-9 165 9-19-72 Huntington Beach Kirk Irvine P R R 6-0 185 1-27-75 Irvine Kirt Kishita P R R 6-2 185 4-4-73 Rancho Palos Verde Mike Parisi P R R 6-3 195 6-18-73 Arcadia Wally Ritchie P L L 6-2 180 7-12-65 St. George, Utah Mike Smith P R R 6-3 230 6-17-70 La Habra Bodie Shepherd C R R 6-0 215 11-6-72 Oceanside Tracy Edmonson 2B R R 6-0 165 6-10-75 Riverside Manny Gagliano 3B R R 6-0 185 12-26-70 San Diego Brian Grebeck SS R R 5-7 160 8-31-67 Laguna Niguel Tim McDonnell 3B/DH S R 5-10 195 1-20-70 Chino Robert Muro 2B R R 5-10 175 1-16-76 Apple Valley Willie Mosher 2B/3B R R 6-0 200 1-9-74 St. George, Utah Dwain Bostic OF R R 6-0 180 10-29-74 Chula Vista Alan Burke OF/1B R R 6-0 215 11-28-70 Chino Randy Curtis OF L L 5-10 195 1-16-71 Norco Phil Kernan OF/1B L R 6-3 180 12-20-72 Lafayette, Calif.

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