Angels ’87 : Revived Farm System’s Bumper Crop Filling Big League Roster

As recently as 1983, the Angels reigned as baseball’s foremost mercenaries. They assembled their lineup the way Mercedes Benz sells cars--imports only.

Remember how the ’83 Angels were put together:

Catcher--Bob Boone. Purchased from Philadelphia.

First base--Rod Carew. Traded from Minnesota.

Second base--Bobby Grich. Free-agent signing.

Third base--Doug DeCinces. Traded from Baltimore.

Shortstop--Tim Foli. Traded from Pittsburgh.

Left field--Brian Downing. Traded from Chicago White Sox.

Center field--Fred Lynn. Traded from Boston.

Right field--Reggie Jackson. Free-agent signing.

It was owner Gene Autry’s brand of antique collecting. An aging superstar here, a burned-out marquee name there. Oh, sure, the Angels had a farm system, but it wasn’t meant to be trusted. In the Angel organization, in those days, the term prospect translated roughly into trade bait .

Flash ahead four years. Next Tuesday, the Angels will open their 1987 season. And included in their regular lineup will be:

First base--Wally Joyner, selected in the draft of ’83.

Second base--Mark McLemore, draft of ’82.

Shortstop--Dick Schofield, draft of ’81.

Center field--Gary Pettis, draft of ’79.

Right field--Devon White, draft of ’81.

Left field--Jack Howell, signed out of college in 1983.

That’s six out of eight position players, each of them hand-picked and home-grown. One of them was runner-up in the 1986 American League Rookie of the Year balloting. Another is a favorite for the 1987 award. Another already has a pair of Gold Glove trophies to his credit.

Once considered as barren and neglected as the Siberian tundra, the Angel farm system now is generally regarded as being among the top half-dozen in baseball. The new faces keep coming--Chuck Finley, Gus Polidor, Mike Cook, Willie Fraser. And more are on their way--Dante Bichette, Lee Stevens, Todd Eggersten, David Martinez, Mike Fetters.

“I’m proud of it,” says Mike Port, who is beginning his third season as general manager of the Angels. Port calls the development of the Angel farm system “my very favorite topic,” and he means it.

“I call it baseball’s version of ‘Research and Development’--new product, if you will,” Port said. “A prosperous farm system gives you so much flexibility. You can patch a position in your lineup if you lose a player to injury. You always have your own reservoir of talent available.

“You look at the clubs that have been most stable over a period of time--Baltimore, Kansas City, Detroit, certainly the Dodgers. On balance, they have avoided signing free agents and have emphasized a well-functioning developmental system. Their objective is signing good young players and having them make it as major league players.”

The Angels learned this the hard way. The get-a-pennant-quick scheme was a flat-out bust. Between 1978 and 1984, their forays into the free-agent market produced such disposables as Merv Rettenmund, Jim Barr, Fred Patek, John D’Acquisto, Bill Travers and Frank LaCorte. Not only did the Angels fail to get a return for their investment, they lost draft choices every time they signed a free agent.

Said Port: “We figured it out that between 1979 and 1982, because of re-entry signings, we averaged a loss of four selections every June draft. When you consider some of the people we were able to draft in that period--Tom Brunansky, Dick Schofield, Bob Kipper--we might have had a lot of fun if we had hung on to those selections.”

The most telling example was the Angels’ 1981 draft. In the first round, they selected Schofield, who has been their starting shortstop since 1984. In the sixth round, they picked White, their 1987 right fielder. In between, they selected no one. Free agency had stripped them of four rounds’ worth of draft choices.

“Just imagine what those picks between Schofield and White would have been,” said Bill Bavasi, the Angels’ director of minor league operations.

The Angels also lost their first two picks in 1979 and 1980 for signing Barr, Patek and Bruce Kison and tampering with Bill Bordley.

In this instance, Port figured it was much better to receive than to give. Since 1983, the Angels have signed just one free agent--Ruppert Jones--but have lost several. And as they did, they began to stockpile draft choices and rebuild their depleted minor-league talent pool.

When Don Baylor signed with the New York Yankees, the Angels gained an additional third-round pick in the 1983 draft. That selection eventually turned out to be Wally Joyner.

Last year, they received two first-round picks apiece from the Yankees (for Al Holland) and Baltimore (for Juan Beniquez), giving the Angels five of the first 28 selections. Their 1986 haul--pitchers Roberto Hernandez, Mike Fetters and Darryl Green and outfielders Lee Stevens and Terry Carr--has been hailed as the finest in more than a decade.

And because they let Reggie Jackson re-enlist with the Oakland A’s, the Angels stand to gain two more picks in this June’s draft--giving them four in the first round.

Port enjoys this game.

“Just for fantasy, we worked out all the possibilities if all the players eligible for free agency last year went elsewhere,” said Port, referring to the likes of Brian Downing, Bob Boone and Doug DeCinces.

His eyes begin to gleam.

“That would have meant 17 additional selections for us,” he said.

Port ponders that prospect for a moment. It could never happen, but that doesn’t prevent a smile from spreading across Port’s face.

Hey, just call him a nutty dreamer.

Port was an assistant to Buzzie Bavasi, then the general manager, when the Angels first shifted their philosophy from paying for past performance to investing in the future.

“It was about 1981 or ‘82,” Port recalled. “The idea when Buzzie came to Anaheim in 1978 was to participate in the re-entry draft and make the club competitive while hopefully being able to buy time to develop our own players.

“The only problem was that when you set those kind of priorities, you give up draft choices. By 1981 and ‘82, it seemed a lot easier to forgo heavy involvement in free agents and concentrate on development.”

Historical footnote: Around that time, the Angels signed free-agent pitchers D’Acquisto and Travers. Combined, D’Acquisto and Travers pitched in 40 games for the Angels, producing a cumulative record of 0-4.

“That certainly reinforced the direction we were headed,” Port said.

The Angels retreated from the free-agent front line and instead poured those dollars into player development. They hired more scouts and more minor league instructors. They expanded their farm system, adding Class A affiliates in Quad Cities and Idaho Falls (now Palm Springs).

Port credits Larry Himes, who served as the Angels’ director of scouting and player development from 1980 to 1986, as instrumental to the transition. Under Himes, the Angels drafted and signed Joyner, Schofield, White, McLemore, Kirk McCaskill, Finley and Fraser.

But last winter, the Chicago White Sox fired Ken Harrelson as general manager and came calling for Himes. Not only did the White Sox hire Himes away from the Angels, but Himes brought four Angel scouts with him--including the well-regarded Al Goldis.

“That could have destroyed us,” Bavasi said. “We lost Larry and a lot of good people. That could have set us back years. Mike had to work his butt off. He dedicated a lot of time and a lot of research toward replacing Larry.”

From the end of the World Series until late November, Port virtually locked himself in his office and burned the telephone lines. He would not return calls from reporters, allowing only that he was “attending to highly important business.” He called those weeks “a very disruptive period.”

Port and Himes parted bitterly. When Himes arrived in Chicago with four California scouts, Port called the league office about the matter, stopping just short of filing a formal grievance for tampering.

Possibly to appease Port, Himes allowed the Angels to talk with Bob Fontaine, who had been the White Sox’ Northwest region scouting coordinator. Port eventually hired Fontaine as Himes’ replacement--and Fontaine brought a White Sox scout, George Bradley, with him.

The result looked suspiciously like a “trade” between two scouting organizations, with Fontaine and Bradley being the Angels’ compensation for Himes and Co.

Port said it was “purely coincidental.”

“During the summer of 1985, Larry Himes was one of the individuals interviewed by Seattle (for the general manager’s position) with the contingency that we would go after Bob Fontaine. I’ve known young Bob since we were both in San Diego.

“A subsequent coincidence, in a sense, was that we had an element of leverage when Larry went to Chicago. Because they were undergoing transition, too, and it was late in the scheme of things, they were more agreeable to letting us talk to Bobby.”

Port describes the incident as “water under the bridge.” He says the Angels gained more than they lost.

“As catastrophic as it appeared at the time, I am amazed to hear so many people tell me, ‘You know, you guys came out of that thing better than you were,’ “Port said.

“Bobby Fontaine has hired extra instructors, he’s given our scouting in Latin America a larger scale. Things are proceeding smoothly. It was a most unfortunate thing at the time, but the whole experience reiterated to me how a negative situation can be catalytic to a positive development.”

Fontaine, 33, is the son of former San Diego Padre General Manager Bob Fontaine. He served as the Padres’ scouting director in 1981 and was responsible for signing Kevin McReynolds, Tony Gwynn and Ozzie Guillen.

“That’s not too bad for one draft,” Bavasi said.

The Angel farm system also has been helped along by Manager Gene Mauch, whom Bavasi describes as “a farm director’s dream. We get kids to the big leagues, and he eases them into it.”

Mauch has, no doubt, been agreeable to the Angels’ youth movement. At one point in 1985, Mauch had five rookies on his pitching staff--McCaskill, Lugo, Stewart Cliburn, Pat Clements and Tony Mack. He remained patient with McCaskill, allowing him time to turn an 0-4 start into a 12-12 finish in 1985. He gave Joyner his chance in 1986 and will accord White and McLemore the same opportunities in 1987.

“For us, every time one of the kids makes the big club and helps out, it’s really inspirational,” Bavasi said. “The kids still in the minors see their friends make it and think, ‘I can make it, too.’

“That’s completely different from ‘80, ’81 and ’82. Kids would see the Angels bring in free agents, and that would be completely demoralizing for them.”

Next week, the Angels will unveil their state-of-the-art lineup at Anaheim Stadium, complete with six starters scouted, drafted and developed by the Angel organization.

“That makes us feel good,” Bavasi said. “You get six in the lineup and you say, ‘Let’s get nine in there.’

“It’s kind of funny. We’re excited about having those six guys there, but our job isn’t over. Now, we have to try and find six more who can knock them off.”