Brown Hasn’t Been the Staff Ace for Quite a While

So, Kevin Brown is on the disabled list for the second time in a month and the fifth time since March of last year, and maybe Shawn Green better start hitting 14 or 15 homers in a week instead of nine.

Maybe the Dodgers can dodge a bullet again and Brown, with this latest injury in the area of his surgically repaired elbow, will return to the rotation in 15 days, as Dr. Frank Jobe said is possible, but aren’t the concerns mounting?

At 37 and owed $45 million for three years beyond 2002 (which underscores the risk and absurdity of a seven-year contract for a pitcher in his 30s no matter how much insurance the Dodgers have on him), the cold reality is that Brown hasn’t been a regular member of the rotation for two years.

The would-be ace made only 20 starts last year and has now had his return from Sept. 27 surgery for a torn flexor tendon in his right elbow interrupted twice by stints on the disabled list, which Manager Jim Tracy acknowledged to be “cause for concern just because of the domino effect” on a rotation that will again find Omar Daal replacing Brown and a bullpen that returned from three games in Arizona “maxed out” by toil and trouble.

In addition, the concern goes beyond dominoes.

Former pitching great Dave Stewart suggested as much at Dodger Stadium.

Now the pitching coach of the Milwaukee Brewers after serving as pitching coach of the San Diego Padres when Brown went 18-7 and helped lead that team to the National League pennant in 1998, Stewart is familiar with the physical demands of Brown’s vaunted repertoire.

He threw some of the same pitches and helped Brown refine his.

And now, as a concession to the elbow in his 15th big league season, if Brown were forced to stop throwing the sinker, slider or split-finger, Stewart said he wouldn’t be the same pitcher, especially if it was his signature sinker.

“It’s not just a surgically repaired elbow, it’s any elbow,” Stewart said. “All of those pitches put a great deal of pressure and strain on an arm, and we all know that Kevin is not a halfway guy. He’s an all-or-nothing guy. There’s no in between.

“He’s in high gear all the time, which is what everyone admires about him.”

There are the three years left on his contract.

There is the Dodgers’ obvious need for him over the remainder of the current season.

There is the possibility that a combination of the no-give Brown and the stress of his repertoire on a recovering elbow could overpower any therapy program.

“What’s Kevin, 37?” Stewart said.

“This seems like a great setback now because the Dodgers have been basically without him for a year and a half, but my guess is that he’s going to be healthy enough at some point to honor his contract and pitch very well.

“I have a lot of respect for him. I know all about his intensity and determination, and I hope he’ll take care of himself.

“Knowing when to back off is the issue now, and I think that if the Dodgers take the time to allow him to get healthy now, they’ll get good benefits.

“Maybe I should say, if he allows himself to get healthy.”

That indeed may be the issue.

The Dodgers deny it, but the perception is that Brown was allowed to set his own rehabilitation course during spring training, ultimately insisting on pitching the season opener when he might not have been ready and eventually going on the disabled list April 20 after tearing scar tissue in his elbow.

And now, even while warming up for Sunday’s start in Arizona, Brown apparently recognized he wasn’t 100% but still went to the mound.

Trainer Stan Johnston told reporters after that 10-9 loss that Brown had expressed discomfort in the bullpen.

Asked Monday if he was aware of that, an uncharacteristically testy Tracy said he wasn’t and wondered if the inquiring reporter was trying to “create something.”

A disconsolate Brown, back on the disabled list, stood at his locker and said: “There’s no one in this room who hasn’t tried to play in pain. I was hoping [Sunday] that it was just stiffness and I could work through it and get better, but that was not the case.”

Brown will have an MRI test today.

Jobe said Monday that he felt Brown had suffered pinched lining and a muscle sprain behind the elbow.

Given this new development and the sudden complexities of his pitching staff (which the Dodgers addressed with the recall of Bryan Corey), Tracy’s mood, perhaps, could be excused.

With Terry Mulholland and Jesse Orosco on the disabled list and his relief corps having been forced to make 195 pitches Sunday, with Daal having thrown 97 in the last two games and now ticketed to start Saturday in place of Brown, the pitching staff that has carried so much of the 2002 burden has been showing signs of fraying and needed Hideo Nomo to provide some innings in the holiday opener of a three-game series with the Brewers.

Nomo responded, overcoming seven walks (a taxed bullpen was the last resort) to go seven innings in a 5-3 win featuring Green’s 13th home run and first of the new week, thrilling a crowd of 32,491 that provided the slugging right fielder with standing ovations before and during the game.

If Think Green is the new theme at Chavez Ravine, there’s still Brown, who will miss at least two starts and said his new injuries may not be directly related to the surgery but are undoubtedly the result of having surgery.

He recognizes he had to go on the disabled list given the club’s pitching shortage coming out of Arizona and the uncertainty surrounding his own availability, and, in regard to what lies ahead, he shook his head and said, “I’m not trying to predict the future anymore.”

The admittedly frustrated Brown, and the Dodgers, will know more after today’s MRI.

General Manager Dan Evans reflected on the pitcher’s second flare-up of the season and said, “I’m not nervous or apprehensive. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions without knowing the result of the MRI. Injuries happen.

“You know going in you’re going to average 15 to 20 DL placements and hope you can overcome them.

“As I’ve said before, we’re fortunate to have a guy like Omar Daal who can step right in again. He’s excelled all season, which is why we didn’t deal him.”

It is the Dodger ace who has been dealt another blow.

Will it prove to be the last for Kevin Brown or simply the latest?