Dodgers Find a Way to Keep Sid Bream . . . : But Bailor Wonders If His Shoulder Is Really Injured

VERO BEACH, Fla. —  The Dodgers couldn’t find a space on their roster for first baseman Sid Bream, so they created one Thursday, putting shortstop-second baseman Bob Bailor on the 21-day disabled list.

Now, Bream, who was expected to play in this weekend’s Freeway Series against the Angels, then return to Albuquerque, will start the season with the Dodgers.

There is no question of Bream’s deserving a berth on the Dodger roster. Thursday, he won the award as the team’s outstanding rookie of the spring and hit a 400-foot home run off Montreal Expos reliever Jeff Reardon as the Dodgers won, 7-6, in their Florida exhibition finale.

There is a question, however, of how badly Bailor’s shoulder is hurt. If anyone knows, he hasn’t told Bailor.

“I can’t seem to get an answer from anybody on what the problem is,” Bailor said of the shoulder. “All I know is, they looked at it one day, the next day I got a shot, and today I went on the disabled list.

“I don’t want to make excuses--I can’t throw normal. But I don’t want to go on the DL. What if in a couple of days it comes around?”

The Dodgers also put relief pitcher Bobby Castillo on the 15-day disabled list with a sore right shoulder. That opened a spot on the roster for Carlos Diaz, who most likely would have lost his job to rookie Larry White.

“I think they’re just trying to be careful with me,” said Castillo, who has had a rotator cuff problem in the past. “This may be the best thing for me, so I don’t rush back.”

Bailor also opened last season, his first with the Dodgers, on the disabled list. There was no mystery then, though. Bailor had a separated left shoulder and was out for seven weeks.

This time, Bailor suspects his injury was convenient for the Dodgers. Asked if he thought that he may have been victim of a numbers game, Bailor said: “That was the first thing that went through my mind. I just hope it’s not at my expense.

“What’s going to happen later (when he gets off the disabled list)? It’s a delay of game, I guess.”

Bailor said he experienced trouble throwing last Sunday in workouts. He was examined by Dr. Frank Jobe and then, on Wednesday, given a shot of cortisone. Thursday morning, trainer Bill Buhler told Bailor that he was being listed as disabled.

“I don’t want to make any trouble about it, but I don’t like it,” Bailor said.

“To me, if it had been a couple of other players, the Dodgers would have sat them down with a doctor and said they want to know what’s wrong with them, and the doctor would have said this or that.

“But with me, they gave me a shot, it didn’t work, and they told me I was on the DL. There was no explanation what was wrong with me or anything.”

The decision to keep Bream appears to have been made before Thursday. One Dodger official said Wednesday that Albuquerque’s roster was set, that Bream wasn’t on it and that Franklin Stubbs would be playing first base for the Dukes every day.

Dodger Vice President Al Campanis said Jobe had recommended that Bailor be put on the disabled list. Asked if Jobe had told him what was wrong with Bailor, Campanis said: “No. I didn’t ask him. We had to hurry to get this done.”

When someone mentioned how convenient it was, Campanis smiled. “It gives us more time, and time is our ally,” he said.

Bailor, whose contract in 1985 will pay him $330,000, counting bonuses, had only 65 at-bats last season. Only once in his nine big league seasons has he had fewer. That was in the strike season of 1981, when he also started the season on the disabled list.

This spring, he saw signs--such as Bill Russell working out at both third and second--that he might not be playing much this season, either.

“I got that impression early,” he said. “I wasn’t playing much in games. I don’t know what they think, to be honest. Nobody’s said one way or the other.”

Bream’s home run was his third of the spring, most on the team, and undercut the Dodgers’ argument that he can’t play regularly because he doesn’t have power. Now, it appears, the Dodgers are reopening the competition between Bream and Brock.

For the weekend, though, the competition between the Dodgers and Angels will be in the forefront. The Freeway Series is tied, 22-22-1.

Mike Witt will start for the Angels against the Dodgers’ Bob Welch in tonight’s Dodger Stadium opener at 7:30.

Geoff Zahn, providing he has recovered from what he described Thursday as a tired shoulder, will pitch for the Angels against the Dodgers’ Orel Hershiser Saturday night at 7 at Anaheim Stadium.

The series will conclude at Anaheim Sunday at 1 with Ron Romanick of the Angels and Rick Honeycutt of the Dodgers pitching.

Tickets are available for each game, although Saturday night’s game is expected to draw more than 60,000. General admission seats are being sold on a reserved basis.

The Angels are still carrying 31 players, six over the opening-day limit.

Dodger Notes The last time Steve Howe started a game, he said: “Moby Dick was a guppy.” Thursday, Howe pitched the first two innings of a Class AA game against Minnesota’s farm team in Melbourne, Fla., and said afterward: “In two weeks I’ll be ready.” Howe threw 27 pitches. “Ten balls and 17 strikes,” he said, “and nearly all the balls were in the first inning. And the second inning, I threw harder than I did the first. I was more fluid, I was stretching it out a little bit.” Howe said he plans to throw again Sunday against the Angels. “That’ll be the test,” he said. “I was bad, I got better, and now we’ll see in the next one. If I can stay around the plate, accomplish what I want to do, and my arm comes back quicker than it did, that’s what I’m looking for.” . . . The Dodgers want catchers Jack Fimple and Gilberto Reyes to alternate on a daily basis in Albuquerque, but Fimple still would prefer a trade, according to his agent, Alan Meersand. . . . The Dodgers are taking 27 players home, not including the disabled Bailor and Castillo, or Alejandro Pena, who is expected to be placed on the 60-day emergency disabled list. Two players are expected to be returned to the minors--pitcher Tom Brennan and third baseman Hector Rincones, a non-roster player signed out of the Cincinnati organization. German Rivera, opening-day third baseman in 1984, was left behind in Florida. The roster for the Freeway Series: Catchers (2)--Mike Scioscia and Steve Yeager. Infielders (7)--Greg Brock, Sid Bream, Steve Sax, Dave Anderson, Pedro Guerrero, Bill Russell and Hector Rincones. Outfielders (7)--Al Oliver, Ken Landreaux, Mike Marshall, Candy Maldonado, Terry Whitfield, R.J. Reynolds and Jay Johnstone. Pitchers (11)--Fernando Valenzuela, Jerry Reuss, Bob Welch, Orel Hershiser, Rick Honeycutt, Larry White, Carlos Diaz, Tom Brennan, Steve Howe, Ken Howell, Tom Niedenfuer.

Times staff writer Ross Newhan contributed to this story from Palm Springs.