Dodgers Oldies Honored--Angles Oldies Report : Reggie, John, Carew Are Back, but Lynn, Aase, Kison Are Gone

Has the Angels’ silver-anniversary season been tarnished already by the loss of Fred Lynn, Don Aase and Bruce Kison, or will a regenerated Gene Mauch, returning as manager, help turn it to gold?

That is one of many questions facing the Angels as pitchers and catchers open spring training today. The remaining players will report to the Mesa, Ariz., complex March 1. The Angels will play 13 exhibition games in Arizona before moving to Palm Springs March 23 for 13 more.

Several prominent Angels, asked about the club’s 1985 title hopes in the wake of new emphasis on farm-system development and a more cautious approach to high-priced free agents, have already expressed concern.

Catcher Bob Boone, for example, said that the club is replacing known qualities with unknowns, that the loss of free-agent relief pitcher Aase, in particular, was a crime, and that some of the things that happened during the winter were ridiculous.

“Hopefully, by the end of spring training, I’ll feel we can win the weaker of the two divisions,” he said.

Mauch said Wednesday that he was confident the Angels would emerge as a contender in the American League West.

“In their best possible condition, I don’t have a worry about it,” he said.

“Of course, I can’t imagine how comfortable I’d feel if I knew we had a quality left-handed relief pitcher.

“I haven’t a clue where we’ll find one, but somehow, somewhere, maybe we can.”

The key questions, aside from the one about the left-handed reliever, are these:

--Can Ken Forsch, sidelined all of last season after dislocating his right shoulder in his second start, rejoin a five-man rotation that is still one pitcher short?

--Can right fielder Mike Brown or a platoon of Brown and Ruppert Jones replace Lynn’s 79 RBIs and 23 home runs?

--Can shortstop Dick Schofield, who hit .193 as a rookie, and center fielder Gary Pettis, who hit .227, improve enough to justify the continued employment of their excellent gloves?

--Can a farm product such as Rafael Lugo or Kirk McCaskill become the fifth starting pitcher by making the kind of jump Ron Romanick did last year, or will the Angels ultimately pursue a veteran of Don Sutton’s ilk?

--Can relief pitcher Donnie Moore, drafted from Atlanta as compensation for the loss of Lynn, demonstrate this spring that he is capable of matching his 16 saves of last year, providing a much needed bullpen stopper?

--Can Mauch develop a bench to compensate for the annual and anticipated barrage of injuries, particularly now that Tommy John is 40, Rod Carew is 39, Geoff Zahn and Forsch are 38, Boone and Reggie Jackson are 37, Bobby Grich is 36 and Doug DeCinces, Brian Downing, Jim Slaton and Juan Beniquez all are 34?

--And can Mauch’s renowned intensity provide a spiritual transplant for a team that at times seemed to reflect the laid-back personality of predecessor John McNamara, who rejected the Angels 1985 offer and is now managing Boston?

The details:

PITCHING--Despite the uncertainty regarding the fourth and fifth starters--not even mentioning the absence of a proven left-handed reliever--Mauch believes the potential is better than it was on the staff that contributed to his 1982 division title with the Angels.

“All anyone said was that we couldn’t win with that pitching,” Mauch said. “Well, the hell we couldn’t. We proved we could, and I really believe our pitching will be better (this year).

“If you look at nothing else than the improvement in Romanick and (Mike) Witt since then, it’s got to be better. And in Moore, (Luis) Sanchez and (Doug) Corbett, we’ve got more bullpen depth than we had when that season started.”

Forsch could be a key.

“I’m so excited about him that I’m afraid to talk about it,” Mauch said.

Pitching coach Marcel Lachemann, who supervised Forsch’s winter workouts, said: “He goes to spring training in as good a shape as he was at the start of last year. He’ll be on the same program as everyone else, and that was our goal. The only question now is how the arm responds when we build up his innings.”

A rotation of Forsch, Witt (15-8), Romanick (12-12) and Zahn (13-10) would give the Angels four genuine starters and leave the search for a fifth centered on:

--John, who was 18-26 over the last two years, has two years left on his contract, believes he corrected a mechanical flaw working with ex-Dodger Mike Marshall during the winter and could end up as the bullpen left-hander, although there are those in management who believe he does not do a strong enough job against left handed hitters.

--Slaton, who was 7-10 as Forsch’s replacement, has two years left on his contract and is expected to emerge in long relief.

--McCaskill, 23, a right-hander who opened the 1984 season as a professional hockey player, missed spring training, then returned to baseball and compiled a 7-11 record for Edmonton in triple-A.

--Lugo, 22, a right-hander who was 13-8 at Waterbury of the double-A Eastern League, the same team and league from which Romanick made his jump.

--Bob Kipper, 20, a left-hander who was the Angels’ No. 1 pick in the 1982 June draft and led the Class A California League last year with a 2.04 ERA and 18-8 record.

Kipper is probably a year away, but Lugo and McCaskill will get serious looks, Mauch said. Two others in that category are left-handed bullpen candidates Ken Angelo, 26, and Pat Clements, 23.

Clements was 4-2 with nine saves at Waterbury.

Angelo, a West Covina resident, is an intriguing proposition. He was released by Minnesota before rebounding last year in the Mexican League with a 14-4 record and 162 strikeouts in 136 innings for Yucatan.

HITTING--The Angels were next to last in the American League with a 1984 team average of .249. Now there’s the problem of replacing Lynn’s production, most of which he contributed in August and early September.

“I’ve always been a Lynn admirer, but he never put a full season together in California,” Mauch said. “He’s a great streak hitter, and we’ll probably see him go on another this year.

“The thing is, the season is 26 weeks and not just six.”

Lynn’s departure leaves Downing, who hit 23 homers and drove in 91 runs last year, in left, Pettis in center and either Brown, who hit .284 with 22 RBIs in 148 at-bats, or a combination of Brown, 25, and Jones, 30, in right.

Said Mauch: “Right field is open. I love competition and we’re going to have some. I mean, I don’t know whether Bobby Grich will let Rob Wilfong play second base. I don’t know whether Rod Carew will let Grich play first. And I don’t know whether Mike Brown will let Ruppert Jones platoon with him in right.

“I do know that Brown has shown he’s too good to go back to the minors. I know what he’s capable of, but I don’t know that he knows it. If he does, he’ll turn in some kind of year.”

Mauch’s 1982 Angels were second in the league in runs and home runs despite playing a considerable amount of what he called little ball--the sacrifice, the squeeze, the hit and run. He may now play a lot more of it, employing the men expected to hit eighth, ninth and first.

That would be Boone, who hit a shocking .202 last year, and the struggling rookies of last year, Schofield and Pettis. Mauch is pinning much of his optimism on those three.

“I’m looking for over 100 points of combined offensive improvement from them,” he said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Schofield alone hits .270 or more, I think that much of him.”

DEPTH--Schofield and Pettis have more going for them than Mauch’s support. There’s no one shadowing them, waiting to take their jobs. Depth may be a critical problem on an injury-susceptible team.

An unproven minor-league veteran named Craig Gerber, for example, is expected to be the backup shortstop. Gerber, 26, hit .230 at Edmonton. Grich will have to back up DeCinces at third and serve as a role player at second and first.

Beniquez, the versatile outfielder, hit .336 last year, but there are persistent rumors that he or first baseman Daryl Sconiers will be traded for a pitcher or packaged with Sanchez in a trade.

Former Atlanta outfielder Rufino Linares, who recently signed as a nonroster free agent, is expected to make the team. Catcher-first baseman-outfielder Darrel Miller--Reggie and Cheryl’s brother--is likely to return in a reserve role.

The questions and concerns have not diminished the fires that began to glow again for Mauch last winter while he was scouting the instructional league as the Angels’ personnel director.

He still thinks about the controversial playoff loss to Milwaukee in 1982, just as he will always be hounded by thoughts of the lead his Phillies blew in 1964, but the strain seems gone. The trauma stemming from his wife’s struggle with terminal cancer in the wake of the ’82 season also seems to have eased.

Said Zahn, who previously pitched for Mauch in Minnesota: “Gene is as enthusiastic as I’ve ever seen him, and I don’t think he’d be that way if he didn’t think we had a chance.”

The 1984 Angels, who ultimately finished at .500, still had a chance in the final week of last season, when their character and dedication were challenged in the media. Mauch believes that the pride and determination of his veterans to prove they can still play will flower again. He returns with all of his old pride and confidence.

“I may not be the smartest manager,” he said Wednesday. “I may not know everything. But if I don’t, no one else does either.”

‘All anyone said was that we couldn’t win with that pitching. ‘Well, the hell we couldn’t.’

--GENE MAUCH