St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 15

4 i 4 4 i i 3 JUL 15 1995 SATURDAY. JULY 15. 1995 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 5C BASEBALL CARDINALS NOTEBOOK CARDINALS REPORT Hamstring Strain Puts Morgan On DL For 8th Time In Career fCM MYDOPY ieRe I VPLAY THIS Sy PITCHING HENKE In a season of dwindling hopes and lost opportunities, the Cardinals realize they face the challenge of rebuilding their ballclub. The Post-Dispatch looks at the project, position by position.

The grades assigned indicate the talent available and what's needed at that position. Here's what the grades mean: A Good enough to win a pennant Good enough to be a contender Average enough to be a .500 ballclub Bad enough to be a cellar dweller Cards Happy That Henke May Return To Pen In '96 said. "Last year I had no fun. I'm going to be smart about this injury this time. "But I don't buy all this stuff about being 35 or 36 as being old.

Guys who are 20 pull hamstrings." When Morgan recovers, he may be sought by teams seeking to augment their staffs down the stretch. "When I'm on my game, I can pitch with anybody in baseball," he said. "But the Cardinals gave up a pretty good player Todd Zeile for me, so I would think I'd be in their plans for another year. "I have another couple of years left but I'd like to do it -with a team from Day One. You have to bear with me.

I might have these little things that go wrong but a lot of veteran players have these things. In the long run, you know what you're going to get when I go out there six, seven, nine quality innings." Third baseman Scott Cooper probably will be out until Sunday with back problems. "It's a little better today but -I can still feel it," Cooper said. "It's just a matter of how" much pain I can deal with." Cooper began feeling stiff on Wednesday. "I must have slept wrong on it," he said.

"It's almost as if something is-, out of place but it's not. I will be playing very shortly." Another third baseman with a bad back, Chris Sabo, has been sore the last couple of days, Jorgensen said, and his I return isn't imminent. Sabo has had only 13 at-bats since the Cardinals purchased his contract a month ago. The Cardinals have had only eight homers from the. corner positions first base and third base.

Normally' those are considered power spots. Five of those homers were hit by first baseman Zeile," who is with the Cubs. Cooper has had two as a third baseman and Darnell Coles one. First baseman John Mabry 's lone homer was smote as an outfielder. Despite the lack of power, infielder Jose Oquendo "We're playing like an American League team.

And we can't play that way. "We're always swinging. We don't give a guy a chance to steal a base and we don't give the manager a chance to make a play." By Rick Hummel Of the Post-Dispatch Staff PITTSBURGH On the heels of perhaps the finest game of his 18-season professional career, Cardinals righthander Mike Morgan has landed on the disabled list for the eighth time. Morgan had a no-hit game for 8'A innings in his last start on July 3, then suffered a hamstring strain while preparing for his next start. After the injury showed some improvement during the All-Star break, Morgan did not feel as well while working out on this trip and told manager Mike Jorgensen he would be unable to pitch here Sunday.

Lefthander Donovan Osborne, who has had a sore elbow, will be pulled off the disabled list to face the Pittsburgh Pirates. Osborne, who has had three starts in the injury rehabilitation program, last pitched for the Cardinals on May 14. He is 0-1 with a 4.09 earned-run average. "I've got 15 starts left and I'm going to be the best I can be," said Osborne, who last won a big-league game in August, 1993. He had shoulder surgery after that season.

As the Cardinals passed the halfway point of the season Friday night, they were back to their original rotation of one righthander (Ken Hill) and lefthanders Osborne, Allen Watson, Danny Jackson and Tom Urbani. Although Morgan is eligible to come off the disabled list in five days, Jorgensen said he thought it would take longer. Morgan said he appreciated Jorgensen giving him a chance to heal before being placed on the disabled list. "A lot of teams, when I injured it last Thursday, would have put me on the DL the next day," Morgan said. "They held off as long as they could." Because of his various injuries and a shortened spring training this year, Morgan has made only 23 starts in the last two seasons.

The righthanded veteran was afraid if he played Sunday he would alter his pitching motion to compensate for his leg pull. But he said it was a difficult decision. "I'm pitching well. I'm back on my game. I don't want to miss a turn because I'm having fun again," Morgan By Mike Eisenbath Of the Post-Dispatch Staff (Where are Mike Perez, John Kelly, Dale Kisten or Clyde Keller?) The Cards are more inclined to take a bulldog starting pitcher from Right Now their minor- GRADE league system and convert him into a short re-liever.

That points to John Frascatore. His The Cardinals are encouraged by the apparent shift of Tom Henke's attitude about baseball. He might return to their bullpen next season. First, he has to want to play baseball at all. Henke hasn't had a summer without putting on a uniform almost daily since about 1975, when he was in high school.

Tom and Nancy Henke never have had a chance to take their four children on a real summer vacation or spend a long Saturday fishing and swimming together on the farm. Should he feel enticed to keep saving big-league ballgames, the Cards have to choose to re-sign him. They'd be nuts not to try. His experience and professionalism have enhanced the entire ball Cards club, not just the GRADE personality is naturally intense, as opposed to milder Henke's style of turning it on when he reaches the mound. Frascatore's only hindrance as a closer could be that he has all the tools to be a solid starting pitcher.

Several minor-league pitchers seem to be moving along toward a big-league bullpen. That includes T.J. Mathews, who's back to starting at Class AAA Louisville, and Matt Arrandale. Neither should make it as a closer, but Arkansas middle man Doug Creek could get a shot some day. Steve Montgomery leads all the minors with 25 saves for Arkansas.

He needs to pitch many more innings before the Cards decide on his big-league role. And What Randy Myers? He leads the league in saves as the closer for a decidedly mediocre pitching staff. The lefty strikes out better than one batter an inning and has the stereotypical madman attitude so perfect for the role. Many managers prefer righthanded closers with better consistency than Myers has shown the last few seasons. If Myers commands too much on bullpen.

Despite a difficult 1994, Henke averaged more than 30 saves the last five years. He A- Ericks said. "He never did like me. The shoulder surgery gave him the opportunity to get rid of me. "Yeah, there was a little vengeance in my blood when I took the mound.

But why worry about him anymore?" Jorgensen said, "We had him six years actually five. It wasn't because he couldn't pitch; it was the injuries." Perhaps Ericks had waited a long time to hit against the Cardinals, too. His double scored a run in a four-run' -Pirates' second, which featured a 434-foot home run by, Steve Pegues. But control always has been a problem for Ericks, who once walked 101 in a minor-league season. He issued three walks and tossed a wild pitch as the Cardinals" climbed back into the game with four runs in the third.

Ericks' first mistake was in walking Urbani. He passed. Pena, too, before Allen Battle singled to right. A walk to, Jordan forced in one run, a wild pitch delivered another, and Lankford's two-run single tied the game. Urbani had allowed only two runs in 12V3 innings over his last two starts but this wasn't his night.

Jeff King 1 doubled in the Pittsburgh third, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Pegues' grounder to Mabry. Merced then popped his seventh homer, the Pirates were ahead 6-4 and Urbani was ditched for Mark Petkov- sek. A former Pirate, Petkovsek reeled off 3 scoreless innings. "I pitched like hell," Urbani said. "I didn't have any- thing in the bullpen and I didn't take anything out there.

"All four of my pitches they all stunk." Ericks, after his horrid third inning, was allowed to stay on and he retired 11 of the last 13 hitters to face him. But, after second baseman Carlos Garcia bobbled a bouncer by Jordan in the eighth, Lankford greeted Plesac with his 1 1th home run. Pirates manager Jim Leyland proved to be correct when he put on the hit-and-run with Slaught at bat in the bottom of the inning. "Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't," Leyland said. "But bringing in Plesac to face Lankford didn't work too damn good.

Four hundred and 20 feet, later, I had a brain From page one have thrown Merced out. "I thought that 'play developed slowly as far as the ball getting to the plate," he said. "We definitely had a shot at him." Pena, after saying at first he thought there was nothing wrong with the throw, conceded that "it was a little bit off." But Parrett and Jordan both were strong in their beliefs that Merced should have been out. "I got to the ball as quick as I could and got it straight in to Pena," Jordan said. "You've got to catch it and throw.

He hesitated, and you've got to use the turf bounce the ball." Lankford, who has started the second half in torrid fashion, drove in four runs Thursday, giving him six in two games. His last two came on a mammoth homer over the center-field wall off lefthander Dan Plesac in the eighth inning, tying the game at 6-6. Before that, it appeared as if John Ericks, the Cardinals' top draft pick in 1988, would exact his revenge. Ericks had waited for this day for more than two years. Jorgensen, then the club's player development director, had released Ericks, having given up on him because of injury and wildness.

Ericks, a former University of Illinois star, was rescued by former Pirates general manager Ted Simmons, the Cardinals' previous player development director. After laying out in 1993 following shoulder surgery, Ericks has bounced back in the last two years. Ericks withstood a horrid third inning and endured long enough to pitch six innings, giving up only four runs despite walking four. Cardinals lefthander Tom Urbani, a 1992 Arkansas Travelers teammate and next-door neighbor of Ericks, was batted out in three innings. Ericks never pitched for the Cardinals organization after the 1992 season, when he was 2-6.

He hurt his shoulder on July 5 and was lost for the year. "Jorgensen was pretty much of a bad guy to me," PIRATES 7, CARDINALS 6 (Thursday) Cardinal AB Avg. Pwia2b 3 1 0 0 2 1 .271 Battle If 1 1 0 0 1 -294 Jordan rf 3 2 0 1 1 0 .289 Unktordcf 4 1 2 4 0 0 .273 Mabry 1b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .303 Cotes 3t 3 0 1 0 1 0 .211 Cramer as 4 0 0 0 0 0 .234 Pagnozzi 4 0 0 0 0 1 .218 Urban 0 1 0 0 1 0. 308 Patkovsekp ....1 0 1 0 0 0 .200 b-Carabato ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .257 Parrettp 0 0 0 0 0 01.000 -Perry ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .133 Totals 33 5 5 Pittsburgh AB Bl Avg. Brumfield cf 3 0 1 0 1 0 .266 Bellas 4 0 2 1 0 1 .228 Young 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .191 King lb 3 2 2 0 1 1 .274 Pegueslf 3 1 1 3 0 0 .267 c-Martin ph-lf 1 0 1 0 0 0 .239 Merced rf 4 2 1 1 0 0 .304 Garcia 2b 4 0 0 0 0 0 .277 Slaughtc 3 1 2 1 1 0 .296 Erlcksp 2 1 1 1 0 0 .222 a-Clark ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .333 McCurry 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Plasac 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Oyer 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500 d-Lirianoph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .281 Mlcell 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Totals 33 12 3 2 Cardinals 004 000 0206 0 Pittsburgh 042 000 0H 7 12 1 -grounded into double play for Ericks In the 6th.

b-grounded out for Petkovsek the 6th. c-singled for Pegues in the 9th. d-Mned out for Oyer in the 8th. e-flied out forParrettinthe9th. Garcia (8).

LOB Cardinals 5, Pittsburgh 5. 2B Coles (4), King 2(15), Ericks (1). HR Pegues (3). off Urbani, Merced (7), off Urbani. Lankford (11).

off Plesac. RBIs Jordan (43), Lankford 4 (41), Bell (19), Pegues 3 (11), Merced (32). Slaught (9), Ericks (1). SB Lankford (16). CS Brumfield (6).

GIDP Young. Clark. Runners left in scoring position Cardinals 2 (Cromer 2); Pittsburgh 3 (KYoung, Merced, Liriano). Runners moved up Mabry, Pegues. DP Cardinals 2 (Cromer, Pena and Mabry), (Pena, Cromer and Mabry).

Cardinals IP RER NP ERA Urbani 2V4 7 6 6 2 0 54 4.39 Petkovsek 3 2 0 0 0 0 36 4.09 Parrett ..2 3 1 1 1 2 39 4.93 Pittsburgh IP HRER NP ERA Ericks 6 4 4 4 4 3 92 3.21 McCurry .1 0 1 0 0 0 11 4.91 Plesac. Vt 1 1.1 0 1 8 2.35 Dyer 0 0 0 0 0 5 4.37 Miceli 1 0 0 0 1 1 25 3.86 Winner Dyer (2-1). Loser Parrett (2-3). Save Miceli (12). McCurry pitched to 1 batter In the 8th.

Inherited runners-scored Plesac 1-1. WP Urbani, Ericks 2. Umpires Home. Rapuano; First, Runge; Second, Layne, Third, DeMuth. 2:39.

A 9,065. HOW THEY SCORED (Thursday) PIRATES' SECOND King walked. Pegues homered to left on 1-0 count, King and Pegues scored. Merced grounded out to second baseman Pena. Garcia grounded out to second baseman Pena.

Slaught walked. Ericks doubled to left. Slaught scored. Brumfield singled to center, Ericks to third. Bell singled to left, Ericks scored, Brumfield to second.

FOUR RUNS. Pittsburgh led 4-0. CARDINALS' THIRD Pagnozzi flied out to left fielder Pegues. Urbani walked. Pena walked, Urbani to second.

Battle singled to right, Urbani to third, Pena to second. Jordan walked, Urbani scored, Pena to third, Battle to second. On Ericks' wild pitch, Pena scored, Battle to third. Jordan to second. Lankford singled to center, Battle and Jordan scored.

FOUR RUNS. Scored tied 4-4. PIRATES' THIRD King doubled to left center. On Urbani wild pitch, King to third. Pegues grounded out to first baseman Mabry, pitcher Urbani covering, King scored.

Merced homered to right on 0-0 count. TWO RUNS. Pittsburgh led 6-4. CARDINALS' EIGHTH Jordan safe on second baseman Garcia' fielding error. Plesac relieved McCurry.

Lankford homered to center on 1-1 count, Jordan and Lankford scored. TWO RUNS. Game tied 6-6. PIRATES' EIGHTH Martin, pinch hitting for Pegues, singled to second. Merced grounded into fielder's choice, first baseman Mabry to shortstop Cromer, Martin forced at second.

Garcia flied out to left fielder Battle. Slaught singled to right center, Merced scored; on throw home, Slaught to second. ONE RUN. Pittsburgh won 7-6. CARDINALS' AVERAGES BATTING Avg.

AB H2B3BHRRBI Parrett 1.000 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 Watson .462 13 3 6 3 0 0 3 DeLucia .333 6 1 2 0 0 0 0 'Gilkey .311222 33 69 10 0 8 36 Urbani .308 13 3 4 1 0 1 3 Mabry .30316515 50 9 1 1 13 Battle .294 34 5 10 1 0 0 1 Jordan .289266 44 77 11 410 43 Lankford .273264 40 72 22 011 41 Pena 271 7014 192 0 1 6 Caraballo .257 35 5 9 0 0 2 2 Cooper .255231 21 5910 2 2 31 Smith .250 68 6 17 3 0 0 3 Sheaffer .250 64 10 16 3 0 3 14 Cromer .234214 26 50 10 0 5 13 Hid 222 27 1 6 1 0 0 3 Pagnozzi .21819315 4214 0 1 11 Oquendo. .217129 20 28 5 1 1 11 Coles .211 71 8 15 4 0 1 9 Petkovsek .200 15 2 3 0 0 0 1 Jackson .182 22 1 4 1 0 0 2 Palacios .167 6 1 1 0 0 0 0 'Sabo .154 13 0 2 1 0 0 2 Perry 133 60 2 8 3 0 0 3 Hemond .087 46 4 4 0 0 1 2 tMorgan .071 14 1 1 0 0 0 0 'Rodriguez .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Fossas .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Arocha .000 10 0 0 0 0 0 Henke .000 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 'Osborne .000 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 SB: Lankford 16, Jordan 12, 'Gilkey 6, Smith 2, Pena 2, Zeile, Oquendo, 'Sabo. PITCHING ERA IP HBB SO 'Rodriguez 0 0 0.00 1.2 0 0 0 Fossas 1 0 0.90 20.0 11 6 21 Henke 0 0 1.59 28.1 20 8 23 TMorgan ..4 3 2.58 52.1 42 12 27 Arocha 3 4 3.40 42.1 44 16 19 DeLucia ..3 3 3.49 49.0 35 18 40 Petkovsek 3 2 4.09 55.0 56 15 19 'Osborne 0 1 4.09 22.0 25 5 13 Urbani 2 3 4.39 53.1 63 14 29 Hill 5 6 4.56100.2109 38 43 Parrett 2 3 4.93 36.1 42 16 35 'Palacios 2 3 5.80 40.1 48 19 34 Jackson ..2 9 6.62 68.0 66 35 31 Watson 2 2 6.75 32.0 45 9 12 Saves: Henke 18. On disabled list, tlncludes record with Cubs. CARDINALS' STATISTICS V9.

CENTRAL Home Road Totala Chicago 1 2 2 2 3 4 Cincinnati 0 3 1 2 1 5 Houston 2 2 0 3 2 5 Pittsburgh 2 1 0 1 2 2 Totala 8 8 3 8 16 VS. EAST Home Road Totals Atlanta 1 2 2 1 3 3 Florida 3 1 0 0 3 1 Montreal 2 1 0 1 2 2 New York 0 0 1 2 1 2 Philadelphia 2 3 1 0 3 3 Total 7 4 4 12 11 VS. WEST Home Road Totals Colorado 2 112 3 3 Los Angeles 1 2 2 1 3 3 San Diego 2 1 0 3 2 4 San Francisco 1 2 2 2 3 4 Totala 6 11 14 Overall Totals 19 21 12 20 31 41 BY THE NUMBERS Won Lost Day 11 14 Night 20 27 Shutouts 4 7 1 -Run Decisions 12 12 Extra Innings 5 2 Vs. RH Starters 25 33 Vs. LH Starters 6 8 Torre as manager 20 27 Jorgensen as manager 11 14 the market, con- GRADE sidering his current $3.8 million a season, needy teams might consider the rejuvenated arms of po-tential free has tied a Cardinals record with saves in 18 consecutive opportunities.

Henke, 37, has improved with age. With him, the Cardinals bullpen is excellent, a veteran, dependable group. Assembling a bullpen has become a hit-or-miss task each season, since relievers tend to move almost annually. The Cards mostly have had good judgment. For every Juan Agosto, there's a John Habyan and Rick Horton.

Without Henke, they need help. They could return Rene Arocha to the role of closer. He converted 11 of 12 save opportunities and enjoyed himself once he settled in last season. Arocha has the skill and competitive spirit to make a good closer. He lacks the experience, and without him the Cardinals would miss a reliable bulk of long-relief innings.

Rich DeLucia saved 19 games in the minor leagues last season. But that was his only shot at closing in a 10-year pro career. His career ERA near 5.00 helps explain that. Maybe Later The Cardinals traditionally have several relief pitchers who lead their minor leagues in saves. The next part of their tradition is that few of those pitchers become big-league closers.

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