Angels ’87 : A Bullpen in Need of a Little Relief : Mauch Is Hoping Sore Arms Won’t Be a Pain in the Neck

Don’t believe any of that stuff you read in those baseball magazines about the Angels’ bullpen.

So the Angel relievers injected enough cortisone last season to send pharmaceutical stocks soaring. So they dabbled in ultrasound, acupuncture, electric stimulation and traction therapy . . . not to mention the usual whirlpools and heat and ice treatments. So maybe they spent more time with the physical therapist than with a baseball.

That’s no reason to think the Angel bullpen will be in the same disfigured shape this year, is it?

Last season was your basic manager’s nightmare. The bullpen was fragmented, to put it mildly. There haven’t been that many blown arms since the last Rambo movie.

A strong starting rotation and some good-looking rookies could mean a dream team for the Angels in 1987. A bunch of sore-armed relievers could turn that dream scary in a hurry.

Manager Gene Mauch prefers to look at it from the it-can’t-get-much-worse perspective.

“After last year, I think we can handle anything,” he said. “I just don’t see the vulnerability some other people do.”

A quick look back :

Donnie Moore pulled something in his rib cage during training camp in 1986, his mechanics deteriorated and he ended up hurting his shoulder.

In 1985, Moore was one of the premier relief pitchers in baseball and had the numbers--31 saves, 1.92 earned run average--to prove it. In 1986, he didn’t regain his form until June (after spending 15 days on the disabled list) and still ended the season in pain.

“I never did feel good last year,” Moore said. “It was the first time I’d ever had arm problems. I didn’t say anything, but it hurt even with the cortisone.

“Because of the rib problem, my spring training was the Freeway Series (against the Dodgers). Then the season started and I had to get in shape and get people out at the same time. I’m going out there against these hackin’ SOBs and I’m not in shape. It’s hard enough when you are in shape. I blew my arm trying to get in shape.”

That was Woe No. 1.

Gary Lucas’ lower back, which kept the left-hander sidelined the first half of the year, was No. 2. Lucas, who had to be carried off the mound in Palm Springs last spring, finally recovered and pitched in only 27 games. He was 4-1 with a 3.15 ERA.

Woe No. 3 was the decline and fall of Stewart Cliburn, Moore’s right-handed set-up man. Cliburn had a 9-3 record in 1985 and then went from hero to zero.

He developed serious shoulder problems in the spring, didn’t throw a pitch in a big-league game last season and finally underwent arthroscopic surgery Nov. 18.

Left-hander Chuck Finley was the sole pleasant surprise of ’86. He filled the role of middle man admirably, emerging with a 3-1 record and seven saves.

The Angel bullpen’s season of discontent was summed up when Lucas hit Boston’s Rich Gedman and then Moore threw that 2-and-2 split-fingered fastball to Dave Henderson in the ninth inning of the infamous Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.

The most frustrating defeat in the franchise’s history seemed destined to be hung on the relief corps like a badge of discourage.

Back to the present . . . and future.

Mauch says he remains confident that the bullpen will be healthy and effective this season. But, every once in a while, a little doubt shows through.

He was sitting in the dugout in Palm Springs recently, admiring the graceful glide of rookie outfielder Devon White and said:

“We’re very aware that a team can get hammered, I mean really hammered, trying to break three or four new players into the starting lineup at one time. But you have a lot better chance of getting away with it when you have the stability provided by our starting pitching . . . make that pitching staff.”

Bullpen included, but as an afterthought.

With Gene Mauch, you have to read between the lines. With Donnie Moore, you have to be willing to wait out his macho rantings. He gets a kick out of talking brash, but beneath the facade is a serious-minded realist.

“Our bullpen is a little weak,” he said. “Lucas was hurting, Finley’s not throwing too good, Cliburn’s coming off surgery, myself, I’m still suspect to you guys, although I think I’m throwing all right. Yeah, we’re a little suspect right now.”

Moore, who considered arthroscopic surgery after last season, opted for a specialized weight-training program. After suffering a slight recurrence of rib pain two weeks ago, Moore’s arm seems to be coming around. His velocity was up to the low 90s two weeks ago and he said then that he needed only to pitch on back-to-back days without discomfort to be ready.

“My role won’t change,” said Moore, who has added a sinker to his repertoire during the off-season. “I’ll be the short man and I’ll try to get the job done on a day-to-day basis. The big thing for me now is to get a day off if I’ve pitched a couple of days in a row.”

Lucas has had a thoroughly frustrating spring trying to deal with “the first significant arm pain of my life.” A sore shoulder sidelined him for more than two weeks this spring.

Lucas is throwing more comfortably these days, but he hasn’t been able to get in much work. He’s been throwing off a mound without pain for slightly more than two weeks. But the discomfort is down and his spirits are up.

“We lost some experience when we lost Doug Corbett and Terry Forster (who were not re-signed),” Lucas said, “but we’ve got some very talented young arms to replace them.

“If I have my durability and am doing my job right, then Donnie won’t have to show until the eighth or ninth inning. We’ve had some problems, but we’re a lot more healthy than we were at this point last spring. Mainly, we’ve got a healthy Stewart Cliburn.”

Cliburn has received rave reviews from Dr. Lewis Yocum, the team orthopedist, for his quick recovery from surgery, but he hasn’t exactly been the toast of the Cactus League. The Angels have been bringing Cliburn along very slowly.

But no one seems concerned.

“So far so good,” a smiling Yocum said recently. “I’m really pleased. He’s made a very quick recovery. The big thing he had going for him was that he was in such good shape going into the procedure. He was already into the exercise program going in.”

Cliburn has had two main problems this spring: lack of velocity and a tendency to let the ball get up in the strike zone.

Relief pitchers who throw not-too-fast, high strikes usually end up in broadcasting or selling insurance.

“I just hope I can come back to the form I showed in 1985,” Cliburn said. “I really came into my own that year before my arm troubles. If I can get back to the way I felt physically in 1985, then I know I can help this club.

“Right now, I’m having a little trouble getting my velocity up.”

But no trouble getting the ball up. Some have speculated that Cliburn is pitching himself off the club, but Mauch disagrees.

“It’s no different than the spring of ‘85,” Mauch said. “When he comes up out of the bottom of the strike zone, he runs head first into trouble. When he stays down in the strike zone, he’s superb.

“There’s no pressure on him. When you’re good at something, why do you need to feel any pressure?”

Chuck Finley might be able to answer that. Mauch has told him not to worry about his spot on the roster, but even a 24-year-old with only 134 days of major league experience knows there are no guarantees in this business.

And when you can’t seem to throw a strike when you want to and your spring ERA is hovering around 6.00, it’s hard to stay optimistic.

The 6-foot 6-inch left-hander was sent to Puerto Rico last winter to learn a new delivery and become a starting pitcher. The experiment was less than a success. Finley came back with a new pitching motion, his old spot back in the bullpen . . . and a sore arm.

“Every time he steps on that mound, even when things don’t work his way, Finley’s going to be getting better,” Mauch said. “We want Chuck to have a more responsible role than he did last year and he knows that. So he wants to impress us. It’s an understandable, self-imposed pressure.”

Finley’s struggling to find the plate and struggling to find a way to stay upbeat. Even after yielding three hits and two walks in a recent 1-inning stint, Finley tried to accentuate the positive.

“There’s some mechanical things we’ve been working on, mostly on my follow through, and they’re starting to come together now,” he said. “Gene told me not to worry about (making the roster). And he told me not to worry about the outcome, just to work on my stuff to better myself.

“It’s been frustrating, but I think I’m slowly working into form. I’ve been around the plate a lot more the last few days, anyway.”

The long man spot will probably go to either Mike Cook or Willie Fraser, both hard-throwing right-handers. Fraser, 22, was so impressive this spring that Mauch seems to leaning toward sending him down to the minors rather than letting him sit in the bullpen waiting for mop-up roles.

Cook, 23, was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA last year during a short midseason stint with the Angels. His spring numbers aren’t that great, either, but Mauch has been impressed by his stuff on a number of occasions.

If everyone in the Angel bullpen stays healthy and pitches as well as they have at times in the past, 1987 could be a banner year for the Angels.

Of course, those are some pretty big ifs .

Even Mauch, in a moment of weakness, let his faith waver.

“OK, there’s a certain amount of uncertainity,” he said. Then he stared down at the floor of his office.

“Does it seem like all we talk about is the bullpen?” someone asked.

“There’s good reason,” Mauch said, softly. “Nobody wins without a good one . . . nobody.”