Holdridge Decides to Sign With Angels

Former Ocean View High School pitcher David Holdridge signed with the Angels Thursday, the team announced.

Holdridge was the Angels’ first pick, 32nd overall, and the first player picked from Orange County in the June professional draft. He had signed a letter of intent to attend USC but decided to sign after the Angels made a second offer two days ago.

Neither Holdridge nor the Angels would say what the exact amount of the signing bonus was, but Angel scout Rick Ingalls said it was in the area of $125,000.

Ingalls and Holdridge said this was a substantial increase over the offer the team made in June.

Holdridge, a right-hander, will report to the Instructional League in Mesa, Ariz., Sept. 15.

“I’d rather play baseball than go to school,” Holdridge said Thursday night at Anaheim Stadium. “I wanted to go to school because I felt the money wasn’t right at first.”

Holdridge was 7-0 with 1.45 earned-run average and had 79 strikeouts in 54 innings as a junior at Ocean View in 1986. He also pitched a one-hitter against El Toro that season. But he dislocated his right shoulder playing touch football Dec. 22 and couldn’t pitch his senior season.

As Ocean View’s designated hitter last spring, he led Orange County during the regular season in home runs (9) and RBIs (36). He hit .341 (28 for 82), scored 22 runs, and had three grand slams and three three-run home runs.

“If he were healthy this year, he would have been one of the first five selections in the country,” Ingalls said.

Holdridge has been playing this summer with the Ocean View Palomino League team and has been pitching two or three innings at a time.

“The shoulder is fine now,” he said. “I was clocked in the 90s two weeks ago in a tournament in San Diego.”