SURE SHOTS AND LONG SHOTS: THE NEW RANGER PITCHERS

IN THE LATE Forties, the success of the Boston Braves pitching staff, which featured Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain but liitle else, depended upon “Spahn and Sain and two days of rain.” Lately for the Rangers, it’s been “Charlie Hough and then it gets rough” In 1984, Hough led the league in complete games with seventeen. Last year he had fourteen, while eighteen other Ranger pitchers combined for a total of four. Four.

But happier days may be on the way. The Rangers have accumulated a cadre of young pitchers with potential, including ten who were added to the organization last year.

“Baseball is different,” says Rangers General Manager Tom Grieve. “When you draft a Tony Dorsett or a Mark Aguirre, you know what you’re getting. But in baseball, just 15 percent of the signeesi make it [to the big leagues], and just half of the number one draft choices come through. So, if you need three or four young pitchers, you sign fourteen or fifteen and hope that three or four will make it.”

Aided by the impressions of baseball observers both in and out of the Rangers organization, we’ve “handicapped” Grieve’s new pitchers as to the likelihood of each becoming a winning major league pitcher.



．BEST B



Jose Guzman. Grieve’s eyes sparkle when he talks about Guzman. “He was a skinny, seventeen-year-old kid when we signed him in ’81,” says Grieve, “and he threw about eighty miles per hour. Now he’s in the upper eighties and sometimes nineties.” Guzman has put it all together-good speed, a change-up, a slider, and a remarkable sense of what the game is all about. He’s developed what all the other Ranger prospects are still trying to attain.

“Guzman is a pitcher,” says Norm Hitzges, sports director for Home Sports Entertainment and a radio sports show host. “The others are still throwers,” Odds are good that Guzman will make it.



．THOROU GHBRE



Ed Correa. The Chicago White Sox, who gave Correa up in the deal for Wayne Tolleson and Dave Schmidt, were said to be very high on him, rating him as one of the top five pitching prospects in baseball. Blackie Sherrod, venerable sportswriter for The Dallas Morning News, suggests that if this were really true, the White Sox would not have traded him for the whole Ranger organization. But this doesn’t bother Grieve, who says that Correa has all the physical tools; all he needs is experience. “At this stage of development, he needs to concentrate on just throwing the ball over the base,” says Grieve, “rather than trying to throw it to spots like Catfish Hunter.”

Bobby Witt. The Rangers’ number one pick in the ’85 draft and the third player selected had an inauspicious beginning with Tulsa, going 0-6 with a 6.43 earned run average, but Jim Reeves, who covers sports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Sporting News, notes that the youngster has rebounded since then. Grieve agrees, noting improvement in the Florida Instructional League last fall. “He has more raw ability than any pitcher who’s come out of the draft in a long time,” says Grieve. “What he needs now is innings.”

Mitch Williams. Rangers manager Bobby Valentine says that all Williams has to do to get people out is throw the ball over the plate, but for Williams, that’s a tall order; he’s the wildest pitcher in the Rangers organization. Grieve’s not worried yet; Williams is just twenty-one, and Sandy Koufax didn’t get it together until he was twenty-six. The odds are about 2-1 against him.

Dwayne Henry. He’s had arm problems in the past, but when he’s not hurting, he can be overpowering. If Henry’s going to make it, this should be the year. Hitzges thinks that he can be the Rangers’ stopper out of the bullpen, if he stays healthy.



．ALSO-RANS, BUT COULD SURPRISE

Jeff Russell and Matt Williams. Guzman, Correa, Witt, Mitch Williams, and Henry have the potential to be outstanding. Russell and Williams lack their natural abilities, but have the potential to make it as third, fourth, or fifth starters. Russell, who came to the Rangers in the Buddy Bell trade, looked good to the Rangers scouts but got knocked around alter joining the club last year. Grieve says he’s too predictable and needs a healthy dose of guile.

A few years ago, Matt Williams was the fifth pick in the same draft in which Ron Darling was the Rangers’ eighth choice. Toronto had obviously given up on Williams before letting him go in the trade for Cliff Johnson. The Rangers hope he’ll regain the glitter he had as a superstar at Rice University. Both pitchers have a chance, but not a strong one.



WORKHORSES-NEED SUPERIUR EFFO



Rich Surhoff and Scott Patterson. Surhoff, obtained from Philadelphia for Dave Stewart, came to the Rangers with a reputation for having an outstanding sinker, but he hasn’t proved himself here. Patterson was selected from the Yankee organization in the major league draft last year. The Rangers hope there’s something there that the Yankees didn’t see.



．LONGSHOTS



Sandy Johnson, the Rangers’ assistant general manager of player personnel and scouting and a master of diplomacy, refers to the rest of the young prospects as “long-term investments,” but they’re more like speculative stocks.

Jimmy Vlcek, at six-foot-four and 185 pounds, has a pitcher’s body, but at this stage he’s just raw talent.

Greg Ferlenda, obtained in the Cliff Johnson deal, has good Class A stats, but is years away.

Steve Wilson, picked by the Rangers in the fourth round last year, has good stuff and decent control, but no appreciable experience.

Jeff Mays, a throw-in with Matt Williams and Ferlenda in the Cliff Johnson trade, was 2-5 last year at Medicine Hat, believed to be somewhere in the northwestern United States.

And Duane James, obtained head-to-head from Detroit for Frank Tanana, must have had the best game of his career the day the Rangers scouts saw him.

Odds: take your pick at 20-1.