Spring Training / Angels : An Old Hand Throws His Arm Into the Ring

The Angels’ first surprise of the spring came strolling into the team’s training complex minutes after the opening session of workouts had begun Saturday, lugging a huge cardboard box filled with baseball gloves and cleats.

Frank Sims, the Angels’ traveling secretary, spotted pitcher Ken Forsch coming up the walkway and had to do a double-take.

“He never told me he was coming down,” said Sims, who thought his first task of the spring--finding hotel accommodations for all players--had been completed.

“I don’t have a room for him.”

Not to worry. Forsch had already made arrangements to stay with catcher Bob Boone.

Besides, there were a lot of other things Forsch didn’t have.

A spot on the Angels’ 40-man roster.

A contract.

A locker.

Forsch plopped his belongings down where he could and began to undress. A clubhouse boy hurriedly scrounged up a uniform for him, including a numberless jersey.

A few minutes later, old No. 43 was located, dusted off and presented to Forsch.

After two years of unsuccessfully attempting to come back from a variety of arm injuries, Forsch was supposed to have been history as an Angel. In December, the team declined to offer him a 1986 contract--only an invitation to try out in the spring as a non-roster player.

Forsch looked at the Angels’ loaded pitching staff and thought it best to look elsewhere.

“The Angels have a roster problem,” he said at the time. “If I’m going to try out with a ballclub, I’m going to look for one with one or two openings on its starting staff. The Angels, right now, have an abundance of starters.”

So what was Forsch doing in Mesa, arriving unannounced on the first day of drills for pitchers and catchers?

Taking a chance, as he readily admitted.

“I was going to go with the Giants,” he said. “But Thursday, (Angel General Manager) Mike Port sent a proposal to my agent. From what I understand, we’ve basically agreed to a contract. Right now, we’re just working it out.

“I figure I’m more at risk here than I would have been with the Giants. There, if I’m healthy, I’m gonna start. Here, there’s still a numbers problem.

“But if I’m healthy and can’t make it here, if that’s the case, then it’s time to retire.”

The contract proposal was what swayed Forsch. With the Giants, he would have tried out as a non-roster player. Now, with the Angels, he will have some security--and the Angels, quite possibly, will have some trading material.

“If I’m under contract,” Forsch said, “they can trade me.”

Forsch’s signature is still needed, but Port said an agreement on a new one-year contract is “about 80% complete.” Port said the intention is to have Forsch make the team but admitted a trade is a possibility.

“Right now, we’re not looking at this as building up a surplus of pitching,” Port said. “Our pitching staff is set only on paper.

“But it may evolve to the point where we have so many healthy arms, we may investigate a trade.”

Forsch, 39, last pitched an entire season in 1983, when he went 11-12 with an earned-run average of 4.06 with the Angels. He made only two starts in 1984, when he dislocated his right shoulder, and missed all of 1985 with bone spurs in his right elbow.

The Angels were initially reluctant to risk another guaranteed contract on Forsch, but the pitcher has shown encouraging progress in recent workouts.

Manager Gene Mauch was glad to have an extra pitcher on hand to throw batting practice Saturday.

“I’m not so much surprised that he’s here as I am satisfied,” Mauch said. “I’ve always been a Ken Forsch man”.

“I talked with him at length during the winter, hoping he would come back, and I had some doubt about my influence. I told Kenny Forsch, ‘You’ve never been the 8th, 9th or 10th man on a pitching staff since I’ve known you. I know what kind of stuff you have and what kind of person you are. I just want to know if the arm’s right.’ ”

In all likelihood, Forsch is competing for a spot as a long reliever.

“That would be fine with me,” Forsch said. “Once I sign a contract, how (the Angels) use me is up to them. I’ll just keep my mouth shut and pitch for them.”

Or maybe pitch well enough to attract some outside bidders.

Angel Notes

Two pitchers, Don Sutton and Urbano Lugo, were no-shows on the first day of official workouts for batterymen. Sutton traditionally reports late (the mandatory reporting deadline is March 1) and Gene Mauch expects him in camp right before the deadline. “Nobody wants to do it more than Don Sutton,” Mauch said. “A lot of pitchers think they know how to get ready for a season when they are the ones who really need supervision. Don Sutton knows how to do it.” Lugo is still recovering from winter arm surgery. “His whole spring will be a re-hab project,” Mauch said. “There’s no rush.” . . . Former Angel pitcher Bruce Kison re-injured his rotator cuff and announced his retirement from the Boston Red Sox, drawing this response from Mauch: “He got a lot out of that skinny body,” Mauch said. “I wondered a lot of times how he got that heart of his inside that body.”