White Sox manager Jeff Torborg is expecting a monster season out of new left-fielder Tim Raines. And so is Tim Raines.
”We have a projection of his (Raines) having one of those years,”
Torborg said Monday, about an hour before Raines arrived at the new Comiskey Park to help the White Sox kick off their winter caravan.
”Any number you can come up with-or even imagine-it`s realistic,” vowed Raines, obviously happy to be restored to the leadoff spot where he terrorized National League pitchers for seven years.
Raines, acquired Dec. 23 from the Montreal Expos for outfielder Ivan Calderon and reliever Barry Jones, shouldn`t have to prove much of anything after compiling a .301 average over 10 seasons in Montreal and stealing 634 bases.
But, ”the last three years people have started to write Tim Raines off,” he said. ”I want to show I still know how to play the game.”
He also wants to show that when people compare him with the Oakland A`s Rickey Henderson, that is not some euphoric flight of fancy. For the first time, Raines will be in direct competition with Henderson in the same league and same division.
”Rickey has proven to baseball he`s a player who can definitely carry that ballclub,” said Raines. ”I`m just hoping I can be as much to the White Sox as Rickey is to them. It will be a great rivalry, I think. Hopefully, we`ll have a friendly challenge.”
Raines stole 70 or more bases his first six seasons in the National League and hit .300 or better in five of his first seven years with Montreal. He led the National League in hitting with a .334 average in 1986.
But in the last three seasons, his average has fallen below .300 each year, and his 49 steals last year were his most since 1987.
Raines said he believes going back to the leadoff spot with the White Sox will cure whatever had been ailing him.
”For seven years, I was a leadoff man and on the All-Star team,” he said. ”Ever since I was taken out of that position, things were never the same.
”As a No. 3 hitter, you have to change your stroke somewhat. I just haven`t been able to adjust to batting fourth or third.”
With the Sox, he won`t have to. They got him specifically to fill their need for a leadoff hitter.
”With Tim Raines leading off, we`ve got a lot of speed up there,” noted shortstop Ozzie Guillen. ”Everybody knows he`s a great ballplayer, but I talked to (Expos first baseman) Andres Galarraga on the phone last week and he told me we`ve got a great guy in the clubhouse, too.”
That`s important to Torborg, who noted that statistically the White Sox had no business going down to the wire with Oakland for the AL West title last year.
”We did it with attitude,” Torborg said. ”And when we went to make changes in the off-season, we said one thing we were not going to do when we made deals was to mess up the chemistry.”
Raines will have to make several adjustments in 1991. He`s going to a new team, a new league and a new ballpark with natural grass instead of the artificial surface he has played on for a decade.
”I`m looking forward to grass,” he said. ”Over the last three years, turf took its toll on me.”
As for adjusting to American League pitchers, ”I`ve got 10 years of experience. There can`t be that big a difference.”
