Little Sympathy for the Rangers

It didn’t take Chuck Finley’s filing for divorce to prove again that there is little love in baseball.

Consider the Texas Rangers, whose estrangement from the rest of the baseball community is based on several grounds, among them:

* Last year’s industry-infuriating signing of Alex Rodriguez for $252 million.

* The flouting of rules, resulting, most notably, in a fine of about $500,000 for tampering in the hiring of General Manager John Hart and his assistant, Grady Fuson.

* The acquisition of more suspect characters than any road gang, among them Carl Everett, John Rocker, Hideki Irabu, Dan Miceli and Ruben Rivera. Hart reminded a caller, however, that some of his championship Cleveland teams featured the inimitable Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jose Mesa and Kenny Lofton.

“We had clubs in Cleveland that would make this one look like a Boy Scout troop,” he said from Texas.

With all of this, it’s no wonder there’s little sympathy for the injury-wracked Rangers, who keep getting their Lone Star handed to them. They have lost 12 of their first 17 games against American League West rivals.

“Where is there sympathy?” asked Hart. “That’s just the way it is in baseball. I don’t think people look on us as a marked team.”

Maybe not, but the Rangers certainly haven’t engendered much affection.

In the wake of his hiring Nov. 1, Hart spared little cash or effort trying to “prop up” a team that finished last in the West for two consecutive seasons and a pitching staff that had the league’s worst earned-run average last year. The payroll went to $105.3 million, baseball’s third highest, but the 2002 Rangers seem to resemble the 2001 Rangers.

Hart, however, cited an injury wave that hit the Rangers like “a perfect storm” in late spring, forcing them to open the season with a virtually unprecedented 13 pitchers after taking 34 to camp.

The disabled list is so congested, and Hart has brought in so many journeymen pitchers, that he may next activate Orel Hershiser, the team’s associate general manager.

Hershiser politely declined an interview request because he doesn’t want his front-office apprenticeship to seem bigger than it is, but at 43, he said laughing, he has served his active duty and isn’t the answer to what Hart calls “a real injury mess.”

“Am I disappointed with our record? Absolutely,” Hart said. “We just haven’t been able to overcome the inconsistent bullpen. I don’t think any club could prepare [for] or overcome the number of injuries to key players, especially a club that doesn’t have tremendous depth, like ours.”

A bullpen that is two for nine in save opportunities and has blown nine leads in the seventh inning or later--”It stinks, it’s demoralizing,” Rodriguez said in Anaheim Tuesday night--remains without closer Jeff Zimmerman, setup man Jay Powell and situational left-hander Rich Rodriguez. In addition, Hart’s two biggest free-agent acquisitions, rotation ace Chan Ho Park and cleanup hitter Juan Gonzalez, are on the disabled list, and catcher Ivan Rodriguez will join them because of a herniated disk in his lower back.

The closer void has been particularly costly.

Hart gave Rocker another chance, as he had in Cleveland last year after obtaining the controversial southpaw in a trade with the fed-up Atlanta Braves, but Rocker failed again, blowing two of three save chances and compiling an ERA of 9.53. He was optioned to triple A on Wednesday and is deciding whether he will report. He has a split contract that pays him $625,000 in the minors, compared to $2.5 million in the majors.

Said a Texas executive: “John still has terrific talent but doesn’t understand the commitment required at this level and still allows his frustrations to result in anger. It’s part maturity, part never really learning how to pitch when he could throw 97 and 98 mph. Now he throws 93, 94. It would be good enough if he had a breaking ball to go with it, but he has no consistency with a slider, or any other breaking pitch.”

So, the closer role now has been given to Irabu, who was dispatched by the New York Yankees with George Steinbrenner’s label of “a fat toad” and who sacrificed his opportunity with the Montreal Expos by drinking himself into a stupor before a rehabilitation start at triple A.

Still potent on offense, the Rangers are so hungry for bullpen reliability that after Irabu had saved Wednesday’s 4-1 victory over the Angels, first baseman Rafael Palmeiro said that with Rocker, “You never knew what was going to happen [but by taking charge,] Hideki can change the whole attitude of the team. He’s confident, and we feel he can do the job.”

If it’s a strange cast, Hart suggested he had little choice.

He said that he had to stabilize the poor pitching of last year, improve the middle of the batting order and respond to the spring injuries. All of the moves, however, forced him to sacrifice two key pitching prospects, Andy Pratt and Juan Moreno, in trades, and he has been criticized by Texas media for reneging on a promise not to cut into the club’s future.

“We’re committed to the future but this is a different situation from what we inherited in Cleveland [where he built a division dynasty from scratch], “ Hart said. “With the Indians, there was no short-term hope at all. Given the owners’ commitment here, the financial investment, the nucleus of star players, I don’t think this club was geared up to wait five years.”

At that, Hart conceded, he doesn’t expect to close the 43-game gap of last year and replace the Seattle Mariners as division champions.

“They won 116 games and haven’t taken a step back,” he said. “I felt coming in that it was unrealistic to think we could run them down, but if we could keep them in our headlights by being more competitive, it would be a big accomplishment.”

The sputtering Rangers face a long road, but maybe it’s wrong to suggest they are totally unloved. A-Rod broke hearts last week when he revealed that he planned to marry his longtime girlfriend, Cynthia Scurtis, in November.