BASEBALL : Pittsburgh Starts Off Even Better Than 1990

The Texas Rangers have produced the longest winning streak of the 1991 season, 14 games, and the Seattle Mariners have experienced the wildest series of ups and downs, but the steadiest and most successful course has been steered by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have baseball’s best record and appear to be the best team.

Shaking off the free-agent loss of Sid Bream, Wally Backman and R.J. Reynolds, plus the threat of internal combustion stemming from the contract dissatisfaction of Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla, the Pirates were on a pace to win 107 games as they entered a weekend series in Philadelphia.

Last year, in taking the National League East title, Pittsburgh won 95 games.

“We’re not a perfect team, but we’re not playing any perfect teams,� Manager Jim Leyland said by phone. “We’re versatile, deep and solid. I don’t know if Bonds and Bonilla can match the numbers they produced last year, but overall I believe we’re a better club. We’ll have Zane Smith all year, and John Smiley is healthy.�

Left-handers Smith, Smiley and Randy Tomlin are a combined 18-4, with Smiley 8-2, Smith 7-2 and Bill Landrum, chairman of Leyland’s relief committee, eight for eight in save chances.

The Pirates are third in the NL in earned-run average, despite the 3-7 start of Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek. They lead the league in runs despite the struggling starts of Bonds, who got hot in mid-May, and Andy Van Slyke, who was hitting .323 on the road but was faltering at home--compiling an overall average of .235.

The acquisitions of Mitch Webster, Lloyd McClendon, Gary Varsho and Curtis Wilkerson have helped rebuild a bench weakened by the loss of Reynolds and Backman.

Rookie Orlando Merced has emerged to bat .345 as Bream’s replacement at first base, and shortstop Jay Bell, with 14 home runs in five previous seasons, has hit six to share the club lead with Bonilla and Van Slyke.

There is no better manager than Leyland, who proved it last year when he got victories from 19 pitchers--�we don’t have many household names,� he said--and again this spring when he told an unhappy Bonds where the door was if he cared to leave.

Bonds remains eligible for free agency after the 1992 season, and Bonilla can leave after this one, but Leyland has helped keep a lid on the flammable situation, with the result, he said, that the Pirates “have one of the best clubhouses in the league.�

Translation: The chemistry is good.

“Contracts are a big part of the game, and a lot has been justifiably made of it,� Leyland said, referring to the Bonds and Bonilla situations.

“A lot of it also is what I would call media gingerbread. Bonds, Bonilla and Van Slyke (who signed a contract extension late in spring training) are quality people who have always been able to separate their contract issues from what they have to do on the field. We went through the same thing last year, and it didn’t affect us.�

The potential spark is always there, however, and it has been accompanied by various trade rumors, among the most persistent of which is a deal that would send Bonilla to the Angels for Wally Joyner.

Leyland laughed at the mention of it again and said neither Bonilla nor Bonds is going anywhere--at least not until the season is over, when Bonilla can leave on his own.

“I’d like to have it resolved as much as anyone,� Leyland said. “I’d like to know what direction were going in, what to tell players when they ask about it. I want my players to be happy, but it’s between management and the players.

“All I can do is treat them fairly and hopefully entice them to stay.�

Not with money, that’s not his job, but with a shot at a ring money can’t buy.

DRAFT DODGERS

The Dodgers have been paying Darryl Strawberry and Kevin Gross bimonthly, but the bill comes due in another way Monday when baseball begins the annual June draft of amateur players.

The Dodgers do not get a selection until the third round, No. 80 overall. They forfeited their first-round choice to the New York Mets as compensation for their signing of free agent Strawberry, and their second-round pick to the Montreal Expos for the signing of free agent Gross.

“Some people feel otherwise, but we believe that after the premier players are taken, there’s enough good players in this draft to be comfortable with the idea that we’ll be able to draft one,� Dodger scouting director Terry Reynolds said.

Reynolds is conducting his first draft since the retirement of Ben Wade. Was he discouraged as he watched the organization go on its free-agent binge of last winter, depriving him of advantageous positions in the draft?

“I wouldn’t say I was discouraged or disappointed,� he said. “There’s some marquee-type players I’d love to be able to draft, but we would still have had to make a real good selection to come up with a player comparable to Darryl Strawberry.�

The New York Yankees have the No. 1 choice in the draft, news in itself.

Paying the price for their success on the field in the 1970s and George Steinbrenner’s annual free-agent signing sprees that resulted in the loss of compensatory draft choices, the Yankees have drafted in the first round only twice in the last 12 years and haven’t had a No. 1 since 1967, when they picked Ron Blomberg.

This time, they are almost certain to select Brien Taylor, a left-handed high school pitcher from North Carolina, though they are also considering Arizona State outfielder Mike Kelly, who would have a quicker impact.

Some clubs reportedly are fearful of Kelly’s alleged price tag of $750,000, but the Atlanta Braves, who draft No. 2, are inclined to believe he can be signed for less, according to a source, and will decide among Kelly, Taylor and Dmitri Young, the hitting sensation from Rio Mesa High in Oxnard, once the Yankees make their choice.

The Minnesota Twins, who will draft third, are believed certain to take USC outfielder Mark Smith, though Young may figure in the equation.

The Angels will draft 17th in the first round and are said to be considering pitcher Steve Whitaker of Cal State Long Beach, who would be the second Long Beach left-hander selected by the Angels in the first round in the last three years. Kyle Abbott was their No. 1 pick in 1989.

EXPANSION UPDATE

Commissioner Fay Vincent, forced to resolve an impasse between the American League and the National League as to how the $190 million in expansion fees will be shared--or if it will be shared at all--will make that decision this week.

Vincent knows he is not going to please everyone but accepts it as part of his job. He is perplexed, however, by the failure of the leagues to resolve the question after more than a year of negotiations.

“It is a purely economic issue,� he said. “For 26 business people not to be able to resolve a purely economic issue seems to me to be too bad. It is a matter that should have been settled between the leagues.�

As part of any settlement in which the American League might share the income, Vincent is also expected to announce a formula by which the AL would contribute players to the expansion pool.

EXPANSION II

The NL expansion committee will present its two choices to the owners at a meeting in Santa Monica on June 12. Buffalo, Orlando, Fla., and Washington are out; the word is getting stronger that Miami and Denver are in, a stunning blow to Tampa-St. Petersburg--which displayed the courage to put its money where its mouth is, building a stadium to show baseball the area’s determination and resources.

This is largely an economic issue, and the thinking is that the NL may be unable to resist:

--Miami, because of the financial resources of its single owner, H. Wayne Huzienga, who operates Blockbuster Entertainment, the video conglomerate that includes Carl Barger on its board of directors.

Barger is also a partner of Douglas Danforth in the syndicate that owns the Pirates, and Danforth is chairman of the NL’s expansion committee. That adds a conflict-of-interest smell to the Miami bid, but no one seems to care.

--Denver, because it is a base in the untapped Rocky Mountains, as well as a geographical bridge to the West Coast, and it has strong financial backing by the Coors brewery.

Denver’s new stadium would be called Coors Field, which seems at conflict with baseball’s drive to sever or reduce alcohol and stadium ties, but again no one seems to care because money is the issue.

THE YOUNG GUNS

The Atlanta Braves’ rebuilt defense has contributed to renewed aggressiveness by a long-touted pitching staff that no longer hides its eyes when a ground ball is hit.

And nobody has shaken the albatross of his great expectations more effectively than 25-year-old Tom Glavine.

In the wake of a 10-12 season that was accompanied by trade rumors, Glavine is 8-2 with a six-game winning streak during which he has given up only 10 earned runs.

Don Sutton, a 300-game winner who is a member of the Braves’ television team, said from San Francisco that Glavine, encouraged by the defense, has turned from finesse to firepower. “Tom realizes that he doesn’t have to be a Tommy John or Randy Jones--he has an identity of his own,� Sutton said. “He was walking around with a .30-.30 but wasn’t firing it.�

Now he is, consistently using a live fastball to complement his off-speed repertoire. Steve Avery, 21, has similarly rebounded from his 3-11, force-fed education of last year and is 6-2.

Sutton cited the maturity and work habits of both Glavine and Avery and said: “They have the chance to be star pitchers. Barring injury, they can be great.�

NAMES & NUMBERS

* Former Dodger Greg Brock is receiving $900,000 from the Milwaukee Brewers to watch former Dodger Franklin Stubbs struggle in the first year of a three-year, $6-million contract. Stubbs, replacing Brock at first base, was hitting .218 through Thursday, with 13 runs batted in and two home runs, which translates to $1 million per home run based on his 1991 salary.

* Asked if he were caught up in any superstitions during the Texas Rangers’ recent 14-game winning streak, pitcher Nolan Ryan said: “Superstitions are a sign of a weakness of the mind.�

* Paul Gibson of the Detroit Tigers is the only relief pitcher in baseball to lead his staff in strikeouts. Gibson has 27, which says more about the soft-throwing Tiger starters than about Gibson.

* One of Pat Dobson’s tasks as Kansas City’s new pitching coach was to improve the Royals’ method of holding runners on base. Dobson has had an impact. Catcher Mike Macfarlane, who threw out only 12 of 78 base-stealers last year, is 11 for 20 and leading the American League on a percentage basis.

* Longtime Boston Red Sox scout Joe Stephenson celebrated his 70th birthday and 50th year in baseball the other day at a surprise party given by his son, Dodger scout Jerry Stephenson, and attended by a Hall of Fame group of Southern California-based scouts.