Streak reaches 6 on Guillen's blast
May 7, 2004
Lew Price
Press-Enterprise
ANAHEIM – Shane Halter is not a pitcher, and he spends much of his professional time jousting against them.
But he loves them.
He comes to spring training and counts the pitchers, or at least the ones who are likely to make opening day. If he counts 11, he feels OK. If he counts 12, he unpacks his many gloves. He knows he's going to stay awhile.
In a baseball economy caught in a squeeze, Halter is a classic temp. He can give a manager a respectable set of games at any position. He came up as a shortstop. With the Angels he already has played all four infield spots, and he can play all three outfield spots, too. He caught in high school and can do so again, in a flood.
He has pitched. And he can type.
Jolbert Cabrera, late of the Dodgers and now with the Mariners, does the same thing. As does Joe McEwing of the Mets.
Milwaukee's Brooks Kieschnick, Halter's old teammate at Texas, and Boston's Dave McCarty are pitcher-outfielders. In Detroit, Brandon Inge catches and plays third and the outfield.
The Angels are doubly blessed. They have another octopus in Chone Figgins, a shortstop/center fielder/second baseman. Because Halter and Figgins can replicate themselves so prolifically, Mike Scioscia can use 12 pitchers and two backup catchers, three if you count Halter.
"A lot of guys could do this," Halter said, "if they'd be willing to check their egos at the door. In my case, I got an opportunity to play shortstop full time for Kansas City one year, and they decided to go in another direction. Besides, I'd gotten pretty tired of playing in the minor leagues."
Then there are the converts. Troy Percival and Trevor Hoffman have been deluxe closers for nearly 10 years apiece. Percival was a catcher, Hoffman a shortstop.
In the Dodgers bullpen, Guillermo Mota warms up the audience for Eric Gagne. He does it with 95 mph fuel. But in '96, Mota was a 6-foot-4 shortstop in the Florida State League, hitting .234 and looking for light.
"I wasn't going to play shortstop for the Mets," Mota said. "I was behind Rey Ordonez."
So Montreal drafted Mota out of the Mets' system and made him a pitcher in spring training. "I started pitching in 1997 for the Cape Fear Crocs," Mota said with a grin.
He came to the Dodgers in the lamented Matt Herges trade and threw 185 formidable innings in long relief in 2002-03. This season Mota has a 2.38 ERA with nine strikeouts in 111/3 innings.
"I know I can close," said Mota, who turns 31 this season but won't become free agent-eligible for three more seasons. "I see how excited people get when Eric comes out of the bullpen. I want to do it soon, if not here, then somewhere else."
"I know there aren't a whole lot of closers with better stuff," said pitching coach Jim Colborn.
The point is that baseball's desperation for pitchers - setup men, jam men, left-handed matchup men, single-out men, inning-eating men - is becoming a bit of a dependency, and it's affecting the entire diamond.
Last season, Ryan Wagner of the U. of Houston and Chad Cordero of Cal State Fullerton went from the draft to the big leagues in the same summer. Cordero still prospers for Montreal, but Wagner is getting battered in Cincinnati.
All but three big-league teams (Florida, Philadelphia and Oakland) feature at least 12 pitchers right now. That's seven relievers, and that often is not enough. Starting pitchers are conditioned to call Blue Cross when they throw their 100th pitch, and sometimes they get there in less than five innings.
Forget using Spider Man on the bases and the plate. See if he can get two outs.
Nowadays, there simply aren't enough extra hitters - especially in the National League - to handle an extra-inning game. That is why a 26-man roster (with a slow elimination of the DH) was a popular topic during the 2001 Basic Agreement negotiations.
Until it arrives, there will be more Halters and Motas.
Halter faced his crossroads in 1996, his sixth torturous year in the minor leagues. For the final 16 games, the Royals loaned Halter to Florida's Triple-A team in Charlotte.
"Loaned," he repeated sourly. "That was a tough one to take. I was at the point where if things didn't change, I was going to get out. You can spend 10 years of your life in the minor leagues and come out with nothing to show for it. In the back of my mind, I was going to go back to school and study to be an orthodontist."
Braced for the end, Halter suddenly hit .293 for Charlotte, and the Royals welcomed him back, even showed a little interest. The next two years he played 160 games in Kansas City. But he never was the solution.
"They were trying a lot of guys at shortstop," he said. "They tried David Howard, then Jay Bell."
Halter was traded to the Mets and waived after spending most of '99 in Triple-A. The Tigers claimed him, and Halter showed he could catch in spring training. He parlayed it into four years of consistent play. In '01 he even had 450 at-bats.
He came to Anaheim after last year's Titanic season with the Tigers.
"That was awful," he said. "It's amazing to come here to a team that's absolutely stacked. But I really think that my versatility has helped me make the roster, wherever I've been - including this one. I've gotten six years in, and I'd like to get 10."
Moral: If you don't want your baseball job to be sent to India, learn new skills.
And if you can't be a pitcher, be a moving target.
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