Big Ben Says He Will Strike Back and Padres Chime In, Too

Many eyebrows were raised around the California League this spring when the San Diego Padres assigned Ben Davis to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

Sure, the 6-foot-4, 195-pound catcher looks like he belongs in the Cal League, but he celebrated his 19th birthday in March, during his first spring training. So he didn’t quite fit in a league full of 22- and 23-year-olds, including former college All-Americans or all-stars from the lower minors.

As Davis heads into the final two weeks of the season with a .189 average, it appears the Padres goofed, stalling the development of their $1.3-million first-round pick from last summer’s draft.

The Padres disagree.

“He did very well last year in Idaho Falls, then had an excellent spring training and we, as an organization, felt he should come here,” said Quake Manager Mike Basso.

More convincing than Basso’s company line, however, is the precedent the Padres set with Derrek Lee, their first-round pick out of high school in 1993.

They threw him into the deep end, too, assigning him to the Cal League in his first summer after signing, at age 17.

Lee, who hit .274 in 20 games in 1993, returned to the Quakes and hit .267 in a full season in 1994. Back for his third season last year, Lee hit .352 in the first half before finishing at .301 with 23 homers and 95 runs batted in. He was named the No. 2 prospect in the league. Now the first baseman is tearing up the double-A Southern League--at age 20--with a .291 average, 30 homers and 95 RBIs.

The danger of placing a player in a league that’s too advanced is that failure could shake his confidence. That doesn’t seem to be a problem with Davis.

“I’ve told guys I’d rather be hitting .200 here than .230 in the Midwest League [a notch below],” Davis said. “Now I can see what my competition is and how I have to go about playing the game. I think I’m doing all right. If you look at my stats they aren’t that good, but I’m hitting the ball hard. Sometimes they fall in and sometimes they don’t.”

Basso, a former minor league catcher, managed Davis at rookie-level Idaho Falls last season. He said the Cal League is a better test for Davis because he’s never been challenged on the field.

“You definitely find out what you have when you go through adversity, and to say Ben has been through adversity this year is an understatement,” Basso said.

Davis began the season with a sore throwing elbow, the result of calcium deposits. It prevented him from going behind the plate, so he became the world’s only .200-hitting designated hitter.

“It’s definitely tougher,” Davis said. “[When you’re catching] once you make an out you can forget about it, go in the field and work the pitcher and work on the team defense.

“But when you’re DHing, when you make an out you go back in the dugout and start thinking about, ‘Oh my God, what did I do wrong?’ You start questioning yourself and that’s all you have to look forward to until your next at-bat.”

Though Davis returned to the catching gear shortly before the all-star break, it hasn’t helped his hitting. He’s striking out once every six at-bats, and looking overmatched at times. It’s a new experience for a guy who hit .507 with six homers and 37 RBIs in 71 at-bats his senior year at Malvern Prep near Philadelphia.

“It has been frustrating,” Davis said. “Last year in high school I’d go three for five every game with a home run and a double and a single. As long as I don’t let it get to me and keep going out and doing my work, I’ll be all right.”

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The Modesto A’s are trying to sell 1,000 new season tickets for 1997 in the next few weeks in an effort to show the Oakland Athletics that they will support minor league baseball if they have it.

The wheels started turning last week, when the Northern California city of Fairfield rejected a proposal to build a stadium that likely would have lured the Modesto franchise away.

But Modesto owners must persuade Oakland General Manager Sandy Alderson to renew the A’s contract. If not, a $3 million renovation to John Thurman Field won’t happen.

Alderson had said a merely renovated stadium isn’t enough, because there is so little fan support. Modesto owner Fred Anderson hopes the season-ticket campaign will convince Alderson otherwise.

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The Baltimore Orioles are not expected to renew their contract with the High Desert Mavericks.

“For them, the distance is out of line with the rest of the organization,” said Maverick General Manager Steve Pastorino.

The most likely major league club to sign with High Desert for next season seems to be the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The other affiliated teams in the Cal League have already renewed their contracts or are expected to do so in the next month. Bakersfield and Visalia, operating as co-ops, have to wait and see which major league clubs sever their contracts before they can begin negotiations.

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The San Jose Giants pitched three consecutive shutouts last week against Stockton. . . . Rancho Cucamonga’s Gary Matthews Jr., formerly of Granada Hills High and Mission College, batted .207 in the first half, but hit .371 in his first 42 games of the second half. He’s at .276 for the season. . . . Modesto shortstop Miguel Tejada, voted by managers as the most exciting player in the league, returned from an injured wrist Aug. 10. He was out only three weeks, instead of six, as was first projected. . . . When Dodger knuckleballer Tom Candiotti recently made two rehabilitation starts for San Bernardino, he brought along the extra-large catcher’s glove Mike Piazza uses to catch his games. . . . Update on our hero, Todd Johnson, the Bakersfield catcher who’s been forced into action as a pitcher: After pitching another 2 2/3 scoreless innings Friday night, his earned-run average is down to 2.74 in 16 appearances.