For a guy who did nothing but win as a prep pitcher for Austin High, hearing Mike Wuertz talk about losing as a good thing is a tough pill to swallow.

Wednesday, August 04, 1999

For a guy who did nothing but win as a prep pitcher for Austin High, hearing Mike Wuertz talk about losing as a good thing is a tough pill to swallow.

"It’s nice to win," he said. "But it’s nice to lose once in a while too. You learn certain things."

Such is life in the minor leagues, where statistics can sometimes rival stirrups as a pretty, but useless item.

To understand why the bottom line isn’t always numbers, understand that minor league baseball is wrought with inconsistencies.

For example, there are hitters leagues, where the parks are small and a pitcher’s earned run average is moot, and pitchers leagues, where the parks pass as pastures and batting averages go to sulk. There are umpires in training, like the one Wuertz faced in his last start on Saturday, a three-inning, five-run beating in which the ump appeared downright opposed to calling the low strike. And, most importantly, there are baseball players in training.

"Minor league baseball is a time to develop," Wuertz said. "When the fans come to the park, they’re coming to watch you work."

To the layman, Wuertz’s current 10-9 campaign with a 5.00 ERA is an unsexy season. But to minor league baseball people, it’s not always about the numbers. It’s about the progress and the stuff and the makeup. And in those departments, Wuertz is holding his own.

At only 21 and with room to fill out, the wiry righthander is throwing his fastball consistently in the 88-92 mph range. Wuertz rarely, if ever, reached that high end in high school, when he usually maxed out at 88-89. He’s developing his slider and change-up to compliment his fastball. It’s a somewhat slim arsenal for a starter, but a solid base to build off of.

"Those three pitches have been effective for me," said Wuertz, who leads the Class A Lansing Lugnuts in innings pitched and strikeouts. In fact, a good measure of pitching success is the walks-to-strikeouts ratio. Wuertz’s numbers of 37 base-on-balls and 102 Ks equate to 2.76 strikeouts per walk, an excellent ratio considering 2:1 is favorable.

Wuertz’s last outing was unusual in that "he usually gives us six or seven strong innings," said Lansing pitching coach Stan Kyles. "He’s losing sometimes, but learning a lot.

"I think he’s getting things done."

Among the things Wuertz must learn, Kyles said, is to trust his stuff in a jam. In his last start against Quad City, a Minnesota Twins affiliate, Wuertz got in trouble early in a five-run third inning. He gave up a pair of scratch singles to start inning. But he compounded his troubles by "trying to be too fine," Kyles said.

Before he knew it, Wuertz allowed a triple, home run and double before getting out of the inning.

"It’s going to happen," Kyles said, "but Mike’s got to learn that he’s always one pitch away from getting out of an inning."

In other words, Wuertz needs to maintain his aggressive approach. He’s always been a pitcher not afraid to challenge hitters. Though he didn’t face Mike Restovich on Saturday (Restovich was out of the Quad City lineup with a scheduled day off), Wuertz’s senior season battles with the Rochester Mayo star are the bedliner to his growing local legend. Restovich, who drilled a game-winning homer off Wuertz when the duo were juniors, couldn’t touch Wuertz in his senior season, when Wuertz time-and-again busted the slugger with tight fastballs.

At the moment, Restovich, playing the role of the Twins’ golden boy, is the more touted prospect. Wuertz, on the other hand, is on the low rungs of his climb through the Chicago Cubs farm system. He figured he’ll begin next season at High A ball, the step above Lansing and the step before Double A, the most important proving ground in the minor leagues.

Considering most big league pitchers don’t arrive to the major leagues until their mid-20s, it’s too early to tell Wuertz’s future.

So it’s best to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

"I’m really having a good time," Wuertz said. "You grow up real fast down here."