Short supply of big hitters hurting Stars

Friday, Aug. 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

FOR STARTERS, it should be stated right up front that Jerry Royster has to know it would reflect poorly on him if he were to suggest his Las Vegas Stars baseball team has underachieved this season. After all, he's the manager.

But he might be stretching things when he says "this has been an overachieving team as far as I'm concerned."

Granted, the Stars are currently in first place in the Pacific Coast League's Southern Division second-half standings. But, overall, they've been playing tag with a .500 record this season and it's obvious better things were anticipated.

If, as Royster says, the Stars have overachieved, it's only in that they've won half their games despite hitting statistics that are downright puny.

Thursday they wrapped up their penultimate home stand on a high note with a team-record 10 doubles in a 10-2 win over Tucson, and Royster -- who has been very outspoken at times and relatively forthright all year -- was in a forgiving mood. He refused to express any dissatisfaction toward his team and its lowly .263 batting average, which is easily the worst in the 10-team league and is a contender for the worst team batting average by a PCL club in several seasons.

"We don't have guys capable of hitting .300 throughout the lineup," he said. "So I'm not looking for that. I know what I've got and what they're capable of, and they're just not going to hit for a high average and score a lot of runs."

But Las Vegas fans were expecting a few more fireworks from their team this year, particularly with the Stars' working agreement with the San Diego Padres on the line.

Consider: aside from being last in the league in batting, they're last in hits, last in stolen bases and last in runs.

They're also hitting eight points worse than the dismal 1995 Stars who went 61-83.

Despite the Stars' moderate success this season, the lack of runs translates to a certain lack of excitement, which further translates into lower-than-expected attendance figures. At an average of 4,446 per game, Las Vegas is in the middle of the PCL pack but on pace for its lowest per-game average since 1990.

All of this is only of marginal concern to Royster, who has steadfastly looked to the larger picture this season and expressed himself quite eloquently on the subject many times. He sees his duty as developing players for the Padres, and whether the Stars win or lose, draw or don't draw, is of only secondary importance to him.

"I try not to lose my perspective," he said. "I'll comment on a game after it's over, and then it's over. We're here for a reason and that's to push these players to reach their full ability."

Yet a handful of the "veteran" hitters aren't doing as well as they did last season, notably Riccardo Ingram (.348 in '95 to .259 now), Rico Rossy (.301 to .246), Paul Russo (.297 to .267), Ira Smith (.325 to .242) and Todd Steverson (from Detroit in the major leagues to .228 with the Stars).

To really be successful, the team needed these guys to hit and they haven't.