Ankiel

PHOENIX – Rick Ankiel and his St. Louis Cardinals are taking a low-key approach as the troubled young left-hander prepares for his first start of the season Sunday against Randy Johnson and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

"I'm not going to talk about it," Mark McGwire told reporters, "and I think the less you guys talk about it, the better off he is."

The Sunday appearance will be Ankiel's first of the regular season, and first in a game that counts since his awful blowup in the postseason last year, when he threw nine wild pitches in four innings.

One of the game's most promising young pitchers at 21, Ankiel found himself dealing with the mental demons that can prevented him from consistently throwing strikes. He had some good outings, and some bad ones, this spring.

Ankiel has declined to talk to reporters since the team arrived in Phoenix.

"I'd rather not do any interviews," he said politely.

From a distance, he has appeared at ease. When the pitchers jogged to the outfield during batting practice Saturday, Ankiel was the only one to stop and sign autographs.

Yet whenever he picks up a ball, even to play catch, a camera seems to be on him. The attention has angered the Cardinals because it's making dealing with his difficulties even harder.

Manager Tony La Russa said offered Ankiel's final exhibition appearance in Seattle as evidence.

"He's been mostly good," La Russa said. "That day in Seattle, he had a couple of hiccups but the great majority of pitches he threw were strikes. It's not as interesting to report, so you don't get that."

Pitching coach Dave Duncan agreed.

"Whenever Rick goes to warm up, they have a camera on him somehow, somewhere and they are shooting every throw that he makes," Duncan said. "If he warms up throwing 65 pitches, and he throws 63 of them for strikes, you don't see one of those on SportsCenter. All you see is maybe the curveball that went in the dirt."

The same is true in a game, Duncan said.

"All you see is bad pitches. Well he's going to make bad pitches," Duncan said. "He's going to throw some balls up against the screen. It's not going to go away, but for the most part he's going to go back to where he's throwing a high percentage of strikes. It's not fair to continue to single out every bad throw he makes without putting something on the positive side to go along with it."

The Cardinals have decided that the way to get Ankiel back to his good form is to keep him in the majors, not send him to the minor leagues. Ankiel did well in his last side session on Thursday, Duncan said.

"It was a lot of fun. He threw the ball great," Duncan said. "I think he was very positive. I was."

Ankiel will go up against a lefty on Sunday who had some serious control problems of his own earlier in his career. Johnson's wildness was legendary, but he has developed remarkable control in recent seasons.

"I can remember when Randy was traded from Montreal to Seattle," Duncan said. "`This big, tall, wild left-hander, what do they want with him? He can't throw the ball over the plate"'

If Ankiel emerges from this excruciating experience, he could reach Johnson's level.

"When you look at Rick Ankiel's career years from now, what he's going through now probably will make him a better pitcher," Duncan said, "because he's going to learn more about himself.

"He's going to learn how to deal with adversity, which every pitcher needs to do. That usually determines how good they're going to be."