FALLEN ANGELS : PICKING UP THE PIECES : Don’t Be Surprised, After Loss to Boston, If a Few Old Faces Are Missing

What do you get a team that had a chance at everything and let it slip away?

Some are calling the Angels’ dive in the American League playoffs the greatest postseason collapse in baseball history, a thought that carries some merit.

Name another team that opened a 3-games-to-1 series lead, was one strike away from champagne, then came crashing down with three straight losses--the final two by scores of 10-4 and 8-1.

With the off-season coldly thrust upon them, the Angels face a major reconstruction assignment before regrouping next April. In foremost need of repair are the following:

--Donnie Moore’s right shoulder.

--John Candelaria’s left elbow.

--Kirk McCaskill’s confidence.

--The designated hitter position, which produced just 76 runs batted in during the regular season--second lowest in the league--and managed just 2 RBIs and a .194 batting average in the playoffs.

--Second base, left vacant by the retirement of Bobby Grich.

--Right field, where gambling again with a platoon of Ruppert Jones and George Hendrick may be the worst bet since Angels in five.

--The No. 5 spot in the Angel pitching rotation, also known as the black hole.

--The bullpen in general. Against Boston, Angel relievers combined to allow 23 hits in 16 innings and an overall earned-run average of 6.36.

Time, the Angels hope, will take care of the first three. Moore and Candelaria both maintain that a long winter’s rest will cure their physical problems. As for McCaskill, five months should be ample time to blot out the memory of two dreadful starts in October.

The rest are in the hands of General Manager Mike Port, who has already begun sifting through the ashes of ’86. While Gene Mauch said he was going to hole up in Palm Springs and try to sleep off Game 7 “for about two whole days,” Port stood in the losers’ locker room and said he was ready to go to work.

“I tried to take a vacation last year,” Port said. “I planned to go away for three days, but when I got there, it was so quiet and the air was so fresh, I had to turn around and go back. It lasted one-half day. I don’t want to go through that again.”

Rather than stay in the East for the World Series, traditionally a gathering spot for baseball executives, Port said he was flying home with the team to get started on the work that awaits a general manager with eight potential free agents on his hands.

“We’ll do a little regrouping for a couple of days,” Port said. “We’ll start to formulate some things and then try to sit down and map out, on an individualized basis, the course we want to take.”

That course could leave behind at least three Angel veterans. It is unlikely that Reggie Jackson, Rick Burleson and Jones will return for 1987. Doug Corbett is a definite maybe.

Brian Downing mentioned retirement in the wake of Game 7, but he was talking with one hand wrapped around a beer can and his emotions wrapped up in the despair of the moment. Don Sutton, 41, is uncertain about playing a 22nd season. Doug DeCinces may test the free-agent waters.

Of the eight, only Bob Boone is considered a sure thing for next season. Re-signing Boone, who in 1987 could break the major league record for games caught, is one of the club’s chief priorities, according to Port.

“Bob Boone has shown continued capacity at catcher,” Port said. “We are getting to the point where we have to contend with his pending free agency.”

Translation: Boone will be a 39-year-old catcher in ‘87, making him a risk, but the Angels will have to ante up for at least one more season because the organization’s backlog of catching talent rivals its collection of World Series rings.

If Sutton wants to return, he, too, figures to be back. For two decades, the typical Don Sutton season was 15 wins and 11 losses. Once again, he went 15-11 in ’86. With a limit of 100 pitches per start and his ice-bath routine after each start, Sutton may keep this up as long as Phil Niekro does. The Angels are expected to pick up Sutton’s option.

Downing and DeCinces will be the focus of the Angels’ most interesting contract negotiations. Each hit 20 or more home runs and drove in 95 or more runs in 1986.

They also represent the only guaranteed power in the Angel offense. Rookie Wally Joyner hit 22 home runs but only two after the All-Star break. Considering his build and his swing, Joyner’s future looms as a spray hitter.

So, the Angels can scarcely afford to part company with either Downing or DeCinces. Mauch wants Downing back, and Downing may be agreeable to a one-year contract, which is all Port figures to offer.

The situation with DeCinces is a bit stickier.

DeCinces believes his stock rose measurably after the All-Star break, when he rallied from a sputtering first half to lead the club in home runs with 26, place second in RBIs with 97 and be named player of the month in August. He is looking for a multiyear agreement and believes one can be found--if not in Anaheim, then elsewhere.

In DeCinces’ case, there is also the Jack Howell factor. The Angels have groomed Howell to succeed DeCinces for the last two seasons, and although his production has yet to match his promise, Howell remains a favorite of Mauch.

When asked how the Angel infield sizes up for 1987, Port made a curious comment, complete with a possible Freudian slip.

“Second base is a concern,” Port began. “Is Mark McLemore ready to step in? Elsewhere, we have Wally Joyner at first base, Dick Schofield at shortstop and Jack Howell at third . . . . “

Hmmm.

Port caught himself. “Which is not to discount the possibility of Doug DeCinces returning,” he added.

In the outfield, Gary Pettis is set in center, but in right, it could be time for Devon White. He has been called a Pettis clone--fast, sure of glove, a switch-hitter--and he impressed the Angels enough at Edmonton to warrant a spot on the club’s playoff roster.

“Devon White has super physical ability,” Port said. “Right now, he is on a very fine, fine line. Devon White is very, very close to waking up and finding out what this game is all about.”

Front-line pitching remains the Angels’ strength, and no American League team could match the starting foursome of Mike Witt, McCaskill, Candelaria and Sutton this season. But the lack of a fifth starter and the late-season erosion of the bullpen are areas Port must attend to.

Within the organization, Urbano Lugo remains the leading candidate for the No. 5 position. But the leading project is Chuck Finley. The Angels think the rookie reliever can make the move to starter and are sending him to Puerto Rico this winter to see if they are right.

And then there’s the upset candidate: Ron Romanick.

Romanick is believed to be the leading resident of Port’s doghouse, but the general manager surprisingly listed Romanick first when discussing the No. 5 berth.

“If Ron Romanick gets himself down to winter ball and gets in some good outings, he could be a factor,” Port said.

In the bullpen, the Angels first need a return to effectiveness by Moore. He is the only proven closer in the organization.

The Angels are expected to pick up Gary Lucas’ option and invite Terry Forster to camp--provided Forster leaves about 25 pounds behind. Agreeing to a one-year contract may also earn Corbett a similar invitation. And Stewart Cliburn, mysteriously missing in action in 1986, will be given another chance.

Since the end of the 1985 season, Port has made only one trade--Lucas for Luis Sanchez. If he is to deal for what the club needs most--a left-handed power hitter, a short relief specialist, another starter--his most tradable commodities would appear to be Schofield and Pettis.

Witt, McCaskill and Joyner are currently irreplaceable, but Schofield was pushed hard last spring by Gus Polidor, and the Angels have at least three young outfielders on the brink in White, Darrell Miller and Mark Ryal.

Port also needs to re-sign his manager but says, “Everything in regards to Gene is set for next year.”

Added Port: “I know Gene’s track record of never having won and getting over the crest of the hill, but he does things that make a club better. He did it with the Montreal Expos, with the Minnesota Twins, and the fellows here will tell you he got the most he could out of them.

“My hope would be that Gene Mauch would be proud of the job he did this year. I have absolutely, positively no reason whatsoever to doubt that Gene Mauch will be in uniform the opening day of spring training. Is that definitive enough?”

In looking ahead to 1987, Port cast a quick look back on 1986.

“We can look at this one of two ways,” Port said. “We can quit or we can go out and do it again.

“We were not happy with the way it turned out. But maybe we’re on the right track. Last year, we finished one game back. This year, we finished one game short (of the World Series). Next year, who knows?”