LANCASTER JETHAWKS NOTEBOOK: HIGH STRIKE LOW PRIORITY PITCHES COULD CAUSE TROUBLE AT THE HANGAR.

Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer

TUCSON, Ariz. - The newly sanctioned high strike, which is supposed to be enforced at all levels of professional baseball this season, is designed to give pitchers more room with which to work.

But for pitchers who'll be working at hitter-friendly Lancaster Municipal Stadium, where powerful gusts to right field often blow routine fly balls into oblivion, the additional four to six inches above the waist they'll have to work with is the last place they want to be.

``You really don't want to pitch up there anyway,'' said Mike Schultz, who is projected to be the JetHawks opening-day starter when they play host to the San Jose Giants on Thursday at 7:15 p.m.

``It just depends on what works for you,'' JetHawks pitcher Doug Slaton said. ``For me to be successful, I need to keep the ball down and get ground balls.''

The new high strike is really the enforcement of an existing strike zone that umpires have re-interpreted over the years. The strike zone is supposed to start at the midpoint between the armpit and the waist, and end at the bottom of the knee. Under the major-league baseball directive, umpires are also instructed to enforce more strictly the outside corner, where pitchers have been getting strikes over the years on pitches that are not in the zone.

Slaton said he has seen little difference in the way the strike zone has been called so far this spring.

``I think the umpires are working with it, too,'' he said. ``It takes some time for them to adjust, too, I guess.''

California League umpire John McMasters said the specifics regarding the strike zone were not explained to umpires at the minor-league level until a clinic on Thursday morning. He said the high strike would probably only affect about three or four pitches per game that in the past would have been balls.

``The game's just evolved that way over the years, where the pitchers have all worked down from the waist to the bottom of the knee caps,'' McMasters said. ``Now they want us not so much to give anything off the plate, it's the stuff just above the belt that they want us to call.''

JetHawks pitching coach Mike Parrott said the new strike zone could help pitchers drop in high-breaking balls for called strikes, and that high fastballs could be used to get hitters, who are conscious of the new strike zone, to chase pitches out of the zone.

Parrott however does not believe umpires will be able to formulate a uniform standard for the new strike zone.

``I don't think there's going to be one consistent level that it's going to be called at,'' he said. ``Some home-plate umpires will give you a little more up, others are going to call balls and strikes like they always have.''

--Launching pad: Lancaster Municipal Stadium is known for being a launching pad for hitters. But whatever damage the wind-blown homers have done to pitchers' egos over the years, the Hanger has also been a launching pad for pitchers' careers. Of the first 14 former JetHawks to reach the major leagues, 12 were pitchers.

``I think it is good to pitch at Lancaster for a year,'' former JetHawks pitching coach Scott Budner said. ``You've got to learn to pitch aggressively and you've got to learn to pitch ahead (in the count) and pitch inside to have any kind of success.''

Budner attributes the success his staff had last season to the fact that they led the league in fewest walks allowed.

His advice to the incoming pitching staff is: ``Pitch in, pitch ahead, and be aggressive. You've got to be an animal.''

Former JetHawks pitcher Jeff Heaverlo, who was 14-6 with a 4.22 ERA at Lancaster last season, said pitching at the Hangar made him better.

``Any time you're dealing with that kind of adversity with the way the wind blows there it really does help you. It makes you work harder and make better pitches.''

His advice: ``Keep the ball down, because it'll fly out of there.''

Schultz said he's not intimidated by the hype surrounding pitching at the Hangar.

``Not at all,'' he said. ``It makes you a better pitcher and teaches you to keep the ball down.''

Slaton said: ``I'm act looking forward to the challenge, because if I do well there, then that means I'm certified.''

--Neal sent up: First baseball Steve Neal, who had been projected to play for the JetHawks, was sent to Double-A El Paso. Replacing him on the tentative roster is Ryan Jones.