Minor League Notebook : Former Titan Caffrey Feeling Better in Double A

The most encouraging news for Bob Caffrey this season is not that he’s hitting .263 with four home runs and 22 runs batted in after 51 games.

The best part is that he’s playing without pain for the first time in a long while.

This season, Caffrey, a former Loara High School and Cal State Fullerton catcher, has moved up to the Montreal Expos’ double-A team at Jacksonville, Fla., after three seasons in Class-A ball.

Caffrey has had a nagging injury to his right shoulder and has had surgery twice--once in November, 1985, and again in January, 1986, when it was apparent that the injury was not healing.

In 1985, Caffrey hit .244 with the Expos team at West Palm Beach, Fla. The next season, he played in only 13 games for West Palm Beach. In ‘87, Caffrey played 131 games and batted .243 with 20 homers, but he was able to catch in only eight games. Because of the shoulder problems, he spent most of the season at first base while splitting time between the Expos’ Class-A teams at West Palm Beach and Burlington, Iowa.

Caffrey, who graduated from Loara in 1980 after he led the Saxons to the 1979 Southern Conference football title as a quarterback, is healthy and behind the plate again.

“It was a long battle,” Caffrey said. “There were times where I thought I wouldn’t be able to throw competitively again.”

Caffrey spent a few weeks during the winter working out under the supervision of Augie Garrido, his former coach at Fullerton who is now at the University of Illinois.

“Actually, it helped me a lot mentally,” said Caffrey, who set a single-season school record with 28 home runs in 1984, his senior year at Fullerton. “I respect Augie a lot personally. He’s the type of person who can find something that’s bothering you even when you didn’t know anything was.”

When Caffrey came to spring training this season, his shoulder was still hurting, but it was better than it had been.

“The way it has turned out, everything is going pretty good,” he said. “I’m having fun playing the game again. I enjoy coming to the ballpark again. I feel like it (his shoulder) is getting stronger every day.

“This is something positive that’s happened. With the last two years, it’s all been negative. Something positive always gives you a little boost and keeps you going.”

The Chicago Cubs, a team with a number of good young pitchers, believe they have another one developing in their organization.

The Cubs have moved a former Cal State Fullerton pitcher, Mike Harkey, to their triple-A club at Des Moines, Iowa.

Harkey left double-A Pittsfield, Mass., Saturday after he went 9-2 with a 1.32 earned-run average and an Eastern League-leading 75 strikeouts. He also started the Eastern League All-Star game on June 27.

Harkey spent most of last season, his first in professional baseball, with the Cubs’ Class-A team at Peoria, Ill.

“There was no question he was the best pitcher in the league,” Pittsfield General Manager E.J. Narcise said. “My personal opinion is that it’s a little too early to move along. He was doing really well here. Obviously, the people in Chicago know more than I do.

“To be able to pitch here and win 20 games would really help his confidence.”

At Pittsfield, Harkey had been tutored by Grant Jackson, a former pitcher for the Phillies, Orioles, Yankees, Pirates, Expos and Royals, and by Jim Essian, who caught for the Phillies, White Sox, Athletics, Mariners and Indians.

“There’s no better tandem to coach (Harkey),” Narcise said. “He’s throwing a 96-mile-an-hour fastball. The thing is, he’s learning poise and composure. He pitched one game two weeks ago and got 14 strikeouts and went nine innings, but got no decision. You had to see the kid work.”

Keith Kaub, a power-hitting first baseman for Cal State Fullerton this past season, said his biggest adjustment in professional baseball is getting used to the wooden bat.

Kaub used an aluminum bat to hit .344 for Fullerton, helping the Titans to the semifinals of the College World Series.

Aluminum bats, generally thought to add a bit more sock to hits, are outlawed in professional baseball, however.

Other than that, Kaub has made a successful transition from the college ranks to the Expos’ Class-A team in Jamestown, N.Y. Kaub, who also played at Los Alamitos High and Golden West College, is hitting .289 with four homers and eight RBIs for Jamestown in the New York-Penn League.

“The pitchers are taller and bigger physically and throw consistently harder,” Kaub said. “I just went out and didn’t try to do too much. I didn’t get a lot of money or extra benefits (for signing). I’ve got the same chance as a first- or second-round pick. Everything is going fine for me now.”

Kaub was the Expos’ 28th-round pick in the June amateur draft.

“Maybe they (the Expos) have been surprised,” Kaub said. “I’ve heard I’ve gotten good reports in Montreal. I still have to improve. I’m only playing single A. It’s going to take a couple of years to make the majors.”

Greg Pirkl, also a Los Alamitos High graduate, continues to be in the swing of things in his first few weeks of pro ball.

Pirkl, The Times’ player of the year in 1988 and a second-round pick of the Seattle Mariners in the June draft, is hitting .259 with three home runs and a team-leading 11 RBIs for the Mariners’ Class-A team at Bellingham, Wash. He has been with the team since June 11.

Bobby Hamelin, another former Orange County player, is tied with Pirkl for the Northwest League lead in home runs. Hamelin, who set state community college records for homers in a season with 31 and for RBIs with 105 for Rancho Santiago last season, is leading the team with a .409 average, four homers and 12 RBIs at Eugene, Ore., a Class-A team for the Royals.

Hamelin graduated from Irvine High and went to UCLA before he transferred to Rancho Santiago before the start of this past season. He hit .514 with nine homers for Irvine in 1986, his senior season. At UCLA, he batted .364 with 14 home runs.