Spring Training / Angels : A Southpaw Is Traded to Cubs, but It Isn’t John

The Angels traded a left-handed pitcher to the Chicago Cubs Monday.

It wasn’t Tommy John.

“That just kind of disintegrated,” Angel General Manager Mike Port said of rumors that the Cubs were interested in John and ready to offer backup shortstop Larry Bowa for him.

Port did meet with Cub President Dallas Green, though, Monday and the trade they negotiated had the respective public relations representatives giggling when they announced it to reporters.

The Angels traded pitcher Angel Moreno, once thought of as their counterpart to the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela, for first baseman Tito Nanni.

Moreno, now 29 and 0-3 last year at Edmonton, will be assigned to the Cubs’ Iowa farm club. Nanni, 25, hit .273 at Salt Lake City and will join Edmonton.

John?

The Cubs decided that they simply did not have a place for him in their rotation.

“We talked about it, but he’s a starter and he’s got some age on him,” Manager Jim Frey said.

“The only way (the Cubs would be interested) is if we had a breakdown with one of our starters and he was going to be out a long time.

“A year ago (before acquiring Rick Sutcliffe and Dennis Eckersley) we might have been more interested, though I did see Tommy throw the other day and he threw like he always did. He got a lot of easy outs.”

The Angels will open the season a week from tonight against Minnesota, but there is still no clear definition of John’s status. Port insisted again Monday that he has received no substantive trade inquiries about John, who is scheduled to pitch against Milwaukee today.

“Regardless of Tommy’s feelings, if we feel he has earned a spot on our pitching staff, this is where he’ll be pitching,” Port said.

The Angels put Frank LaCorte on the 21-day disabled list for treatment of a calcium deposit in his shoulder. That left the club with 14 pitchers, four more than Manager Gene Mauch plans to carry.

The bullpen, at this point, appears set.

It includes Donnie Moore, Luis Sanchez, Doug Corbett, Jim Slaton and Pat Clements, the rookie left-hander up from the double-A Eastern League.

Clements yielded a ninth-inning run as the Angels lost to the Cubs, 7-6, but Mauch described the inning as “a bloop, three dribblers and a strike out.”

Asked if Clements was still a member of the team, Mauch said, “Something worse will have to happen for him not to be.”

The rotation is another matter. There is still uncertainty after Mike Witt, Geoff Zahn and Ron Romanick.

Ken Forsch is likely to be the No. 4 starter if his ailing elbow continues to improve. Forsch will pitch a simulated game today, then work either Saturday or Sunday in the Freeway Series against the Dodgers.

A setback could mean that Forsch will open the season on the disabled list, which would affect the battle for No. 5, currently going on among John, rookie left-hander Bob Kipper and Craig Swan, who is working without a contract in the wake of his two, 1984 arm operations.

“We’re going to sharpen our thinking over the next few days,” Port said.

Angel Notes Yutaka Enatsu, the Japanese left-hander bidding for a spot in the Milwaukee bullpen, is expected to fulfill a lifelong dream today, pitching against an idol, Reggie Jackson. Enatsu has said that he wants to strike out Jackson, who has been making impressive contact. He hit his second spring homer off Dennis Eckersley Monday and is batting .365 with 17 hits in 49 at-bats.