GOOD REVIEWS AFTER A BAD YEAR.

Byline: Karen Crouse

Shortstops are like groomsmen; the really good ones give a lot of assistance and don't get much attention. So the nicest compliment you can pay the Dodgers' Mark Grudzielanek is to say you've hardly noticed his fielding this season.

His defense has been solid as the Dodgers' disappointing season has been long.

The error Grudzielanek committed Sunday against San Diego was his 13th of the season. That's two fewer than perennial Gold Glove winner Omar Vizquel of Cleveland and an immense improvement over Grudzielanek's 33-error showing last year in 105 games with Montreal and 51 with the Dodgers.

His offense, meantime, is as good as it ever was. Despite going hitless in his last two games - the first time he has failed on consecutive days to get a hit since the first week of August - Grudzielanek is batting .337 for September and .320 for the season.

You have to go all the way back to 1963 to find a Dodger shortstop who batted over .300. Maury Wills hit .302 that year, and if you think that's neither here nor there, you've never been in an arbitrator's lair.

Baseball, as Grudzielanek discovered last year, is a team sport until it comes time to calculate your worth. Then it's as cutthroat an individual competition as the 100 meters. You're judged solely on your numbers at the finish line and where you stand in relation to your competitors.

The Dodgers took Grudzielanek to arbitration last year when the two sides couldn't agree on a multi-year deal and it was a miserable new experience for the fifth-year veteran.

It was a performance review void of any pluses. Though he had his agent in the room with him during the session, Grudzielanek, 29, felt like he was alone with his deficiencies.

As with any conscientious shortstop, he didn't like being caught out of position like that. The pointed criticisms were hard to handle. So last winter he worked with former Yankee Bucky Dent on shoring up his defense. The results have been like a balm to the Dodgers' infield.

``By him playing well, what it does is it prevents everybody from any letdown,'' said Dodgers' first baseman Eric Karros, suggesting that solid fielding isn't contagious but sloppy fielding can be.

The clubhouse culture rejects players who can accept a losing season as long as their numbers are good. It would be like a relay runner rejoicing over his career-best split after his team finished out of the medals at the Olympics. It would be considered horribly bad form.

Grudzielanek the baseball player can't feel good about about a season ending on the short side of the playoffs. Grudzielanek the businessman recognizes he has salvaged something valuable from the wreckage. Namely, his reputation.

``It's definitely disappointing we're not winning,'' Grudzielanek said. ``The satisfaction for myself is not as great as it would be if the team was doing well. When all is said and done you've got to take care of your role on the team individually and I think I've done that.''

When the Dodgers signed noted ground-ball pitcher Kevin Brown to the richest contract in baseball, the pundits had a field day at Grudzielanek's expense. Everybody was sure Brown would shrink the 6-foot-1 Grudzielanek to Eddie Gaedel's size with his glares.

``People were writing about how the Dodgers have that middle infielder who makes mistakes,'' Grudzielanek said. ``That was fine. I was making mistakes.''

And yet he continued to believe in his fielding abilities even if nobody else did.

``I knew I had the arm, I had the tools to play the position and be one of the better shortstops in the league,'' Grudzielanek said. ``Most of the time when I made mistakes, it was a mental thing. I just couldn't concentrate every pitch, every inning. I wanted to come out this year and really make a statement.''

Grudzielanek is an offseason neighbor of Dent's in South Florida. The two played a couple of rounds of golf together last winter and eventually got on the subject of fielding. Grudzielanek said he could use some help, Dent told him about his fielding school and next thing Grudzielanek knew, Dent was ``busting my chops'' under the hot Florida sun.

Grudzielanek said he is indebted to Dent. ``He's been instrumental in getting me straightened out,'' he said.

But it was not an unassisted play by Dent. Grudzielanek deserves credit for making a concerted effort to improve his defense. How can the Dodgers not be gratified by the results?

``Just to get the belief of the pitchers, not have them be afraid I'm out there, it's something I really worked hard on,'' Grudzielanek said.

If Grudzielanek winds up back in arbitration, the numbers this year will be on his side. ``I've built up a good argument, no question,'' he said with a wary smile. ``We'll have to see how things play out.''

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PHOTO Shortstop Mark Grudzielanek, batting .320 for the season, is the first Dodgers shortstop to bat over .300 since Maury Wills hit .302 in 1963.

Morry Gash/Associated Press