Baseball

Texas Tornadoes

Rangers pitchers Aaron Sele (5-1 with a 2.72 ERA through Sunday) and Rick Helling (6-0, 2.93) were taken in the first round of consecutive June drafts—in '91 and '92, respectively—so it shouldn't be a total surprise that they're two of the hottest hurlers in baseball. That they are among the top 10 in the American League in ERA and combined for more wins in April than five major league teams is shocking, however, especially considering that neither had delivered on any of that first-round promise before this year. The dynamic duo has given Texas a pair of aces in a rotation that for years has been stacked with jokers, and thanks in large part to them, the Rangers were atop the American League West at week's end.

Sele came to Texas in a trade last winter after an ugly breakup with Boston that included some questions from his Red Sox teammates about his intestinal fortitude. "Not everyone can play in New York or Boston ," Sele's former teammate, Bret Saberhagen , said last week. "I don't think Aaron had the toughness to play here. If he had a tough outing, he wouldn't say, 'I'm going to go out there and kick ass next time.' Instead it was, 'If I go out there and get hit, I'm going to get hit again the next time.' He was timid."

Sele, who had ERAs of 5.32 and 5-38 in his final two seasons in Boston , brushes off his former teammates' criticism, claiming his lack of emotion on the mound is easily misconstrued as timidity. He has suggested that his troubles in Boston were at least partly a result of disputes with his coaches over pitch selection. What is certain is that Sele's 80 walks in 177? innings in '97 cemented his reputation as a nibbler. Sele no longer discusses his Red Sox tenure except to say, "Now I've got a pitching coach [ Dick Bosman ] I can have a conversation with and a manager [ Johnny Oates ] who sticks with me."

Since arriving in Texas , he has followed Bosman's credo: Get ahead. Stay ahead. Use your head. "He has three good pitches, so he doesn't need to trick the hitters," Bosman says. "He's got plenty of arsenal to challenge anybody."

Sele admits he feels more comfortable throwing strikes this season because he is backed by the league's best defense and because the Rangers' robust offense has scored 60 runs in his six starts. As a result of his new aggressiveness, Sele has already thrown two shutouts in '98 after throwing none (and just four complete games) in 108 starts with the Sox.

Helling began this season with only 11 major league victories and looked like a bust. He had started the '94 and '95 seasons in the Texas rotation but was dispatched to the minors in May of both years. In '96 he shuttled back and forth between Triple A Oklahoma City and the Rangers three times before being traded to Florida . Helling left thinking he'd been blackballed by someone in the Rangers organization.

But someone liked him enough that the Rangers reacquired him in a trade last August. Since then he has pitched as if he has something to prove. Says Oates , "If Rick's got a chip on his shoulder, I hope he tapes it on there."

Helling has learned to keep his fastball down and work his way up the ladder instead of trying to throw high fastballs past hitters early in the count. He has also benefited from following Sele in the rotation and charting his games. "We have a similar style, so I can learn by watching how he attacks hitters," Helling says. "He keeps racking up wins and you want to keep the streak going."

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