Padre Notebook : Center Fielders’ Problems May Soon Provide Jefferson With Opening

CHICAGO â€”  It was fun while it lasted, with a couple of fresh faces and names and promises.

But Marvell Wynne, still the Padres’ team leader with nine homers, has returned to earth.

And Shane Mack, he of the 27-game minor league hitting streak, has yet to get his feet off the ground in the major leagues.

And starting for the Padres in center field this week . . . Stanley Jefferson?

Indications are that during the upcoming home stand, perhaps even by the time it begins Tuesday night against the Houston Astros, Jefferson may be recalled from triple-A Las Vegas and placed in the starting lineup for the rest of the season.

“I have no comment right now. I haven’t talked to anybody about it,� Manager Jack McKeon said.

But the signs point in that direction. McKeon has said publicly he believed that the former manager, Larry Bowa, never gave Jefferson a chance earlier this season, and McKeon has grown worried about Wynne’s slump and Mack’s impatience at the plate.

Some say it would only make sense to see how Jefferson--one of the key figures in the 1986 trade that sent Kevin McReynolds to the New York Mets--would do if he were put in the starting lineup and left there for the rest of the season.

“With some kids, you just have to put them in there and leave them,� McKeon said, speaking generally. “With some kids, that’s the only way to find out how they will do.�

The sensitive Jefferson was never allowed to play this way with Bowa. Example: Jefferson hit .307 in spring training this year and was the opening-day starter in center field. But he was benched after one game , in which he went 0 for 4 against Houston’s Mike Scott.

It was the start of the worst slump of his six-year pro career and, after he had just four hits in 13 games (.105), he was abruptly demoted to Las Vegas April 19. After moping around for a couple of weeks, Jefferson has since turned his attitude and season around.

Entering Saturday, he was hitting .311 with 4 homers and 31 RBIs. Folks in Las Vegas say he’s making things happen on the bases and he’s making spectacular catches in the field.

“Initially I was bothered by being sent down. I was never given a chance up there,� Jefferson said Saturday from a hotel room in Vancouver, Canada, where the Stars were playing a weekend series. “I had been hitting well in the spring. I was due for a slump, but because it happened at the beginning of the season, I was benched. I wasn’t given an chance to work out of it, not at all.

“Being benched so quick made me think and press and finally realize that his (Bowa’s) mind was already made up about me.�

Jefferson said this left him with a sour taste that would not easily depart.

“The first two weeks in Las Vegas, it was difficult to motivate myself,� he said. “I couldn’t understand a lot of things.

“But then it finally kicked in. I made up my mind, I don’t belong down here. And I was going to play like I didn’t belong here.�

And how long has he been playing like that? Jefferson chuckled.

“It’s been quite a while,� he said. “I was ready to be called back awhile ago.�

But he didn’t complain or whine, or even publicly laugh when Bowa was fired.

“I know Jack is a different person, and a real good man,� Jefferson said. “And I’m ready to play up there for him.�

What has happened to the other two Padre center fielders is not so good.

After the Padres’ doubleheader sweep in Los Angeles June 16, Wynne was the team’s darling, hitting .326 with eight homers and 26 RBIs.

In the ensuing five weeks--33 games--Wynne has hit .191 (17 for 89) with one homer and five RBIs. He still leads the team in homers (9) but has fallen to .271 and is third with 31 RBIs.

“I’m just not seeing the ball well. I need to start seeing it again,� Wynne said.

McKeon is increasingly upset that leadoff-hitting Wynne has not gotten on base more often during No. 3-hitting Tony Gwynn’s 18-game hitting streak. McKeon believes Wynne just needs a better understanding of what he’s looking at when he sees the ball.

“Marvell is a good extra player who could be a good regular if he would just be more selective at the plate and not swing at everything,� McKeon said.

For Mack, nothing is looking good. In the 70 games since his recall from Las Vegas May 8, Mack has played in 56 games but has batted only 119 times, or 2.1 times per appearance. He has yet to find his hitting stroke; he is batting just .244, with no homers and 12 RBIs.

How’s his swing?

“I can’t tell you,� Mack said. “I do know I’m the kind of guy who gets into a lot of bad habits if I don’t play every day. You don’t swing every day, you never get your swing.

“I understand Marvell got hot, and I am willing to wait, but it doesn’t make it any easier.�

If it sounds as if the second-year man is frustrated, well, he revealed that he plans to travel to Puerto Rico or Mexico this winter to learn how to bat left-handed and become a switch-hitter.

“If it will help me stay in the big leagues, I’ll do it,� Mack said.

“Inexperience,� McKeon said of Mack’s problems. “He’s trying to do too much. He gets up there with the bases loaded and is not content with a base hit; he has to put it out of the stadium. It happens to a lot of guys. They have to fail X number of times before the light goes on.�

Healthier attitude: Eleven times last season, the Padres moved a player to the disabled list. Through the May 28 firing of Larry Bowa, they made four moves.

Since Jack McKeon took over? Zero moves.

Although nobody will comment on it, clubhouse talk is that Bowa demanded many panic moves of players who were going to be unable to play for only a few days.

“There were some convenience DLs,� trainer Dick Dent admitted, adding: “But the biggest reason is probably that we haven’t had any dramatic injuries this year, nobody running into each other on the field.�

Now for the bad news.

“These injury things run in patterns,� said Dent, whose year-round conditioning program annually helps the Padres be one of baseball’s most injury-free teams. “We haven’t had any in a while, so I think we’re about due.�