Poor Pitching Leaves Oates to Take Hit

The resignation of Johnny Oates as Texas Ranger manager proved that Ranger pitchers are not totally without ability. A staff that had done a wretched job of getting opposing batters out effectively forced Oates out.

The man who led the Rangers to three division titles in six years had simply seen enough of his battered mound corps. Or is that corpse?

Of course, Oates knew his days were numbered because there had been plenty of mumbling from owner Tom Hicks about his team’s bad start. That’s the same Hicks who spent almost $300 million beefing up his lineup with Alex Rodriguez, Andres Galarraga, Ken Caminiti and Randy Velarde while investing virtually nothing in a pitching staff that had the American League’s highest earned-run average last season, 5.52, and was losing closer John Wetteland.

When Oates resigned, the Rangers had baseball’s highest ERA, 6.72, and had just been swept by the Detroit Tigers, who scored 25 runs in the three games.

Tiger outfielder Bobby Higginson wasn’t fooled. He knew his team hadn’t suddenly become Murderers’ Row.

“It’s Ranger pitching, not like it’s Yankee pitching,” he said of the bombardment. “We’re just doing what everybody else does.”

Indeed.

Ranger pitchers are on a pace that will challenge league records for most runs, hits and home runs yielded in a season.

In their first 28 games, they gave up six runs or more 22 times.

Even Alan Greenspan would have trouble helping the inflationary rotation. Staff ace Rick Helling had a 1-5 record and an 8.01 ERA. Darren Oliver was 4-1, despite a 7.22 ERA. Kenny Rogers was 1-2 with a 5.71 ERA, Doug Davis was 2-2, 6.49, and Ryan Glynn was 0-3, 11.09.

Several days before his resignation, Oates said, “For us to have a chance, we have to pitch better. If not, we have no chance.”

The Detroit sweep convinced Oates it would be the latter.

In the same Central Division in which the Minnesota Twins might go from last to first, the Chicago White Sox might go from first to last, an AL first.

The one player who has withstood the almost total White Sox collapse is first baseman Paul Konerko, the former Dodger phenom who continues to prove his Dodger buildup wasn’t all hype, that he merely had to get in a situation where he had the chance to play regularly and wasn’t looking over his shoulder after every hitless game.

Konerko said during the visit by the White Sox to Anaheim in midweek that he emerged with a better understanding of baseball’s often cold business side when he was traded by then Dodger general manager Tom Lasorda a week after being told he wouldn’t be traded.

“I see these big free agents get all this money and fans get on them for it,” Konerko said. “[The fans] don’t realize that the first few years, you have to deal with people who put the screws to you. They’ve got you and they take advantage of you.

“When Alex Rodriguez or whoever is signing those big deals, as a player you understand [it]. It’s totally justified because of what was done to them in their first few years. No one writes about that.”

The Dodger lesson wasn’t lost on Konerko. He’s in the first year of a two-year, $6.1-million contract.

The last-to-first Twins also have the first choice in next month’s amateur draft, by virtue of their 93 losses last season, and seem to be leaning toward USC pitcher Mark Prior.

Said General Manager Terry Ryan: “You don’t want to have the No. 1 choice too often [because it means you had the poorest record the year before], but to be playing as well as we are now and to have it is a pretty nice position.”

The league’s best pitching has been the foundation of the Seattle Mariners’ sizzling start, but they also have comprehensive insurance at their triple-A farm club in Tacoma. The similarly sizzling Rainiers were 18-5 in midweek, and a rotation of Robert Ramsay, Kevin Hodges, Dennis Stark, Joel Piniero and Greg Wooten was 15-3.

Said pitching coach Chris Bosio: “You can take this five and put them on any major league team and it would be competitive.”