51s’ Fussell gets up to speed

The childhood dream of making the major leagues dies hard for many players.

51s reliever Chris Fussell came close to giving up his lifelong goal earlier this year, when he was closing games for the Camden (N.J.) Riversharks in the independent Atlantic League for the third straight season.

"If I didn't get picked up this year, I was going to be done," the 31-year-old right-hander said. "I was actually thinking about doing it at the All-Star break, which was about two weeks after I got picked up by the Dodgers."

Fussell, who spent the entire 2006 season with Camden (3.78 ERA, 23 saves), had a 1.23 ERA this year and was leading the league in saves with 17 when he and catcher Ben Davis joined the 51s on June 23.

Fussell said his agent had badgered De Jon Watson, the Dodgers director of player development, to send a scout to see him, and he was signed two days later.

"I want to pitch well enough to either stay here or get a job in Triple A somewhere and work my way back to the big leagues," said Fussell, who appeared in 40 games with the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals from 1998 to 2000. "It would mean everything.

"It's been since 2000 since I've been in the big leagues. That would be a good story, seven years in between."

Fussell is 3-1 with a 5.89 ERA in 11 games with Las Vegas and is coming off his best outing of the season.

The 6-foot-2-inch, 200-pounder threw three scoreless innings and earned the win in Wednesday's 7-6 win over Albuquerque at Cashman Field, allowing two hits and striking out three with no walks.

"He got us through the eighth in a tight ballgame. He had a real good slider and located his fastball," 51s manager Lorenzo Bundy said. "It was by far his best performance since he's been here."

Said Las Vegas pitching coach Ken Howell: "He's pitching good right now. His breaking ball is good, and his fastball command has gotten a lot better. He's shown he can go multiple innings, and he's just got to get back in a situation where he can excite some scouts and hopefully get another opportunity to get back (to the majors)."

Baltimore selected Fussell in the ninth round of the 1994 draft, and he went 5-9 with a 6.90 ERA for the Orioles and Royals.

He said he topped out at 97 mph when he was with Kansas City, but his velocity dropped to the mid-80s in the spring of 2001, when he had three bone spurs removed from his elbow.

He still can throw hard, topping out at 94 mph Wednesday while throwing consistently in the low-90s, but he relies on breaking balls and sliders more now than in the past.

"I don't throw as hard, but I've got better control, and I'm able to throw breaking balls for strikes more consistently," he said.

Fussell pitched in Triple A for four teams from 2001 to 2005, when the Houston Astros released him.

"That was the first time I've ever been released by a team. I figured I wasn't ready to quit yet, so I gave it a shot," he said. "But it took longer than I thought it would."

• NOTE -- Delwyn Young, who went 3-for-5 with a triple and a double for the 51s on Thursday, leads the Pacific Coast League in batting with a .350 average.