BASEBALL 1992 PREVIEW : Angels to Lean on the Lefties Again

By HELENE ELLIOTT

April 5, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A bone in Chuck Finley’s left big toe had shattered into enough pieces to make a bracelet, his surgeon later told him, but Finley never begged out of a start.

When Jim Abbott was 0-4 last April, critics said he would benefit from time in triple A. Abbott responded by winning 18 of 25 decisions and compiling a 2.89 earned-run average, fourth-best in the American League.

Driven to his knees to pray for strength during a nightmarish 1990 season, Mark Langston carried into 1991 the burden of justifying his five-year, $16-million contract. Adjustments in his delivery and philosophy helped him become the 10th Angel ever to win 19 games.

Finley, the Southerner with a lively sense of humor and a serious forkball. Abbott, who asks no quarter and needs none despite being born without a right hand. Langston, the Californian whose calm has raised doubts about his intensity. Three dissimilar personalities, but with a common strength of purpose that made them singularly successful last season.

Finley (18-9), Abbott (18-11) and Langston (19-8) became the first three left-handers in major league history to win 17 or more games for a team in the same season. A combined 55-28, they had more victories than any three teammates in the majors, exceeding the 54-29 of Jack Morris (18-12), Scott Erickson (20-8) and Kevin Tapani (16-9) of World Series champion Minnesota.

“Both of them made a total turnaround,” Finley said, “and it was fun to watch, because I knew if we went into a three-game series with Mark, Jim and myself, we’d walk into town and get a couple of runs, and that’d be enough.”

Facing any of the three is an unenviable task.

“They’re all competitors, very good competitors in different ways,” said Angel pitching coach Marcel Lachemann.

“They’re all relatively quiet. They don’t wear their emotions on their sleeves out there, but the opposition definitely knows they’re out there to win. We’re very fortunate to have people not only of that ability but who have the work habits and desire that they do.”

Buck Rodgers, who replaced Doug Rader as manager last August, learned quickly that the three left-handers--and reliever Bryan Harvey--would be the foundation for any Angel success.

“You see good arms in this game. They come and go,” Rodgers said. “The guys that are here for a long time are the guys that can combine that gutsy, bulldog instinct with talent.

“If you’re a major league pitcher, you’re not going to feel good every time out. You’re going to have aches, maybe an elbow that hurts, but you’ve got to go out and keep your team in the game. They do.”

Pitching on a toe he broke in April, Finley gave the Angels 227 1/3 innings. Sometimes laboring after he altered his delivery to protect the toe, he saw his ERA balloon from 2.40 to 3.80. He persevered because he couldn’t imagine doing anything else, and he tied Langston and Abbott for the team lead with 34 starts. His only concession to his injury was to delay one August start a few days.

“If I’m capable of going out and pitching, I’m going to do it. I’m not going to try and use injuries for an excuse,” said Finley, who signed a four-year, $18.5-million contract in December, days after undergoing surgery on his toe. “I didn’t think it would be anything that was going to have me hooked up to a pacemaker or an oxygen tent. I felt in my mind I was good enough to compete. I told myself, ‘You can take care of it after the season’s done.’

“The two or three previous years really helped me out last year because I had momentum and I knew if I wasn’t every bit there, I still knew what it took to win.”

In winning 18 games for the second successive season, Finley won his manager’s unreserved admiration.

“It’s very unusual in these days of long-term contracts and low thresholds for pain and extended days on the DL that a guy would go out and pitch with that,” Rodgers said. “That shows you a lot of intestinal fortitude.”

His teammates admire that as much as they admire his ability. “When you watch Chuck pitch, you see a tremendous amount of self-confidence on the mound,” Abbott said. “He’s saying, ‘I’m going to take my best stuff to the mound, and you’re going to have to beat me with my best stuff.’ ”

Said Langston: “Chuck goes right at people. He’s a driven guy. It’s fun to see him pitch because he has a style I think I have or want to have.”

Langston’s style was to overpower hitters with his fastball, which helped him lead the AL in strikeouts three times. When he began to subconsciously alter his delivery, he lost effectiveness and confidence. He lost 10 of 11 games through the spring and summer of 1990 and was booed regularly in Anaheim.

“Expectations, that’s the most dangerous word in baseball, to live up to people’s expectations,” Abbott said. “It’s a testimony to the person Mark is how he handled it, that he never blamed anybody and held it in. That’s why last year was so gratifying.”

With the help of Lachemann and tapes from his best seasons in Seattle, Langston righted himself in time to win five of his last seven decisions. That carried over to 1991, after he rediscovered the merit of getting ahead in the count.

“He started out the season staying ahead of hitters,” catcher Lance Parrish said, “and he gained a lot of confidence and just rode with it the rest of the season.”

He rode it to 19 victories, equaling his 1987 career high for Seattle.

“Mentally I just had to get back to my style and be aggressive, go right at people,” Langston said. “I got whacked around a little bit, and I started becoming a defensive pitcher. You don’t even realize it’s happening.

“(Fans) had the right to boo. They were paying their money and it’s their prerogative. They had no reason to cheer or get excited. I never got disappointed about that as much as with the way things were going.”

Rodgers, who managed Langston in Montreal in 1989, saw little to disappoint him in 1991. “He really became a pitcher in my eyes last year. He always had tremendous stuff, but his inconsistency made him vulnerable. He’s got a little less on his fastball than early in his career, but he’s a better pitcher now.”

After a 12-12 rookie season and a 10-14 record in 1990, Abbott last year showed he belonged among the AL’s elite.

Until August, Rodgers had watched Abbott only from afar; the closer his vantage point, the more Rodgers’ respect has grown.

“He’s a tremendous competitor, and he has no handicap when it comes to baseball,” Rodgers said. “Obviously, last year was a real turning point. He learned a lot, and he learned it at the major league level, which is pretty tough to do.

“Probably the low point was last year when there was considerable thought given to sending him to the minor leagues. When Lach came up with the idea of not sending him, it was a tremendous idea. . . . A year later, he’s considered one of the top pitchers in the American League, where he could have been coming in here trying to be the fourth or fifth pitcher.”

It never occurred to Abbott he needed seasoning in Edmonton, even after his ERA reached 6.00 on April 28. And Lachemann had enough faith to say that if Abbott were sent to the Trappers, he’d go, too.

“I feel I had had a good spring and a lot of positive things happened,” he said. “In the first four games, I had two bad games, but in the other two I threw pretty well.”

His season reversed course after his fourth loss. “There was a workout when we had an off day,” he recalled, “and (bullpen catcher) Rick Turner and Lach came to the park. Lach really voiced his support and told me I had the ability, (that) I just had to go out there and start throwing, use my ability, be myself. Once I got going, my confidence built.

“The people who were questioning me didn’t know what they were talking about.”

His teammates questioned why anyone doubted him. “He’s always had the ability to overpower people with his cut fastball and fastball, inside to right-handers and away to left-handers, but he had a little problem being consistent on the outside part of the plate,” Parrish said. “In his first two years it was something he was working on, and last year he really got over the hump and was able to hit that part of the plate consistently.”

Abbott worked it well enough for a career-high 158 strikeouts in 243 innings. His ERA in his last 17 starts, during which opponents hit a mere .222 against him, was 2.38. He might have led the league in inducing broken-bat outs, so often did he get the ball in on the hands. “It’s unusual for a left-hander to be as effective as he is pitching inside,” Rodgers said.

Lachemann has had more influence on Abbott, a 24-year-old Michigan native, than on the other two. Langston had six major league seasons behind him when he joined the Angels, and Finley learned his forkball from Joe Coleman, formerly an Angel pitching coach and now pitching coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. Both credit Lachemann with polishing their skills--”He took me from being a 15-game loser (in 1988) to a 16-game winner the next year,” Finley said--but none owes him more than Abbott.

Lachemann was instrumental in deciding Abbott could make the leap from college to the big leagues in 1989. He helped Abbott develop an off-speed curve that serves as a changeup, and his fatherly concern is a variation of the affection he holds for all of his pitchers.

“He’s a real solid, consistent man,” Abbott said. “He lives and dies with our staff. . . . I think he’s one of the hardest-working people and most sincere I’ve met.”

Proud of his accomplishments and enjoying newlywed bliss after a December marriage to Dana Douty of Fountain Valley, Abbott is enjoying a satisfying time in his life. His strong spring performances indicate he can maintain his success, and winning 20 games is a goal. He might have won 20 last season had relievers protected four leads he handed them.

Having role models like Finley and Langston will help. “To shoot for the best,” Abbott said, “you only have to shoot for the guys in front of you.”

And when Abbott shoots for something, he usually gets it. Only rarely does he concede there’s a skill he can’t master.

One night last summer, after a game in Baltimore, musician Bruce Hornsby gave an impromptu concert at the piano in the lobby of the Angels’ hotel. Fascinated by the dance of Hornsby’s hands over the keys, Abbott told him, “I wish I could play piano.”

Having seen what Abbott can do, Langston wouldn’t rule that out. “I wouldn’t put it past him,” Langston said, smiling. “Jimmy’s just never been taught.”

1991 In Review

Jim Abbot

Innings: 243.0

Walks: 73

Strikeouts: 158

Won-Loss: 18-11

ERA: 2.89

Chuck Finley

Innings: 227.1

Walks: 101