Catching Some Heat

By STEVE SPRINGER

June 11, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

He was supposed to be a shining symbol of the new Fox era in Dodger baseball, but he has so far been a pale imitation of the bright stars of the O’Malley years.

He was supposed to make people forget Mike Piazza, but he has only reminded them of what was lost when the Dodger superstar was traded.

Catcher Todd Hundley’s debut in Dodger blue has been a disappointment thus far, a fact he certainly won’t deny.

“I’m the first to say it has been tough,” Hundley said. “I haven’t produced like I should have. No one is more frustrated than I am. I’m trying hard to improve, but I get impatient.

“The trick to this game is how you deal with failure. This is a failure game. It’s easy to be happy-go-lucky when things are going great. You find out who’s who when things are going bad.”

Even under the best of circumstances, Hundley, obtained with pitcher Arnold Gooch from the New York Mets in the off-season for outfielder Roger Cedeno and catcher Charles Johnson, had high expectations to live up to.

Hundley was expected to make enough of an impact in the lineup to erase the memory of last year’s Piazza trade, a deal that left fans bitter at the departure of a potential Hall of Famer.

Hundley was also obtained to finally supply the left-handed power so long missing from the Dodger lineup.

But he finds himself trying to do all that under the worst circumstances, while not fully recovered from reconstructive surgery to his right elbow in September 1997.

Hundley acknowledges that when he tries to throw out an opposing baserunner, the “juice” hasn’t completely returned to his arm.

Opposing baserunners, who study every nuance of both pitcher and catcher, zero in on such weaknesses like a shark homing in on blood.

That was never more obvious than Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium. The Texas Rangers, second in the American League in stolen bases, dug in their heels at the sight of Hundley behind the plate and Darren Dreifort, who doesn’t do a great job of holding runners, on the mound.

Leadoff batter Tom Goodwin, the league leader in steals, was off and running as soon as he got on base in the first inning. When the dust had settled, the Rangers were six for six in steal attempts, Goodwin stealing three bases.

By the end, Hundley wasn’t even trying to throw them out, choosing instead to hold onto the ball.

“It was deflating,” he said, “but if I had had a bazooka, I couldn’t have thrown some of those guys out. Sometimes, when the pitcher doesn’t do a good job of holding the runner on, the catcher still gets tagged with the blame. But there’s nothing you can do when, [by the time] you get the ball, the runner is wiping off his pants at second.”

Hundley figured that, even with his arm at full strength Tuesday, he would have only thrown out two of six runners at best.

The crowd at Dodger Stadium, however, was more than willing to make Hundley the scapegoat. When he came to bat in the eighth inning Tuesday--he has also struggled on offense, hitting only .224 with seven home runs and 19 runs batted in--Hundley was the object of heavy booing.

“These fans here can boo pretty good,” the Dodger catcher said. “People who say they don’t hear it are not human. You say you don’t hear 30,000 people booing? Are you deaf? Earplugs? What?

“But that’s fine. That’s the game of baseball. The fans pay good money. If we don’t do the job, they have a right to jump on us. We just have to roll with the punches.”

There was plenty of sympathy for Hundley’s plight Tuesday, and it wasn’t limited to those in Dodger uniforms. Texas third baseman Todd Zeile, who was also traded by the Dodgers in the Piazza deal, could relate to Hundley, having struggled himself as a catcher earlier in his career, throwing out only one of the first 20 runners who tried to steal on him one season with the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I think Todd was going to be tested right off the bat,” Zeile said. “And with his arm strength not where he wants it to be, runners get confidence. And the pitchers then try to keep the runners closer and it affects their pitching.

“In all fairness to Todd, it wouldn’t have mattered what he did behind the plate the other night because we had great base-stealers with good leads. But when you are struggling like he is, you sometimes try to do too much. You must have the confidence to say, ‘I am going to do what I can do and if the runner is safe, he’s safe.’ ”

No argument from the Dodger catcher.

“I admit I tried to do too much,” he said. “Sometimes, less is better.”

But Hundley’s success rate of 12%, having thrown out seven runners in 57 attempts this season, is simply not good enough.

So where do the Dodgers go from here? Piazza was criticized for not being the star behind the plate that he was at the plate. Johnson was criticized for not producing enough offense. (He batted only .217 in 102 games with the Dodgers.) Now Hundley, making $5.2 million this season and $6 million in 2000, is getting the criticism at both ends.

His manager, Davey Johnson, says he may make more use of Angel Pena, the rookie catcher the Dodgers are high on.

“If we face a team that runs real good,” Johnson said, “and we have a pitcher that is real deliberate, I may not put [Hundley] through the agony. I don’t want it to get to be a mental problem.”

Beyond that, the Dodgers would seem to have few options. General Manager Kevin Malone has dismissed the hot rumor of a few weeks ago that the Dodgers were going to trade Eric Karros and move Hundley to first.

“We already have a first baseman,” Malone said.

They also have a catcher. But so far, he hasn’t done the job, serving only to reinforce what the Dodgers had hoped to overcome--the fact that it’s been all downhill since the day Mike Piazza was shown the door.

Arms of Steal

Todd Hundley is among the worst catchers at throwing out baserunners this season. A look at the best and worst:

Top Five

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Catcher, team Runners caught Attempts % Jorge Fabregas, Florida 15 35 42.9% Jason Kendall, Pittsburgh 22 53 41.5% John Flaherty, Tampa Bay 16 40 40.0% Brad Ausmus, Detroit 11 28 39.3% Chad Kreuter, Kansas City 15 40 37.5%

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Bottom Five

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Catcher, team Runners caught Attempts % Chris Widger, Montreal 7 52 13.5% Todd Hundley, Dodgers 7 57 12.3% Greg Myers, San Diego 3 25 12.0% Jim Leyritz, San Diego 3 27 11.1% Eddie Taubensee, Cin. 5 45 11.1% Joe Girardi, Yankees 3 29 10.3%

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Numbers Game

Where Hundley ranks among the 30 starting catchers:

Batting average: .224 (ranks 26th)

Doubles: 7 (tied for 15th)

Homers: 7 (tied for 8th)

RBIs: 19 (tied for 18th)

OB%: .286 (27th)

SLG%: .416 (19th)

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Missing Mike

How Dodger catchers (Todd Hundley, Charles Johnson, Paul LoDuca, Angel Pena, Tom Prince and Rick Wilkins) have fared compared with Mike Piazza since the Piazza trade:

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DODGERS PIAZZA 660 At-bats 589 61 Runs 106 136 Hits 200 27 2B 42 1 3B 1 19 HR 35 63 RBI 117 .207 Avg. .340

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On the Run

Teams with fewest stolen bases allowed this season:

Texas: 10

St. Louis: 15

Detroit: 27

Cubs: 29

Florida: 32

Teams with most stolen bases allowed this season: