One Is Down, but Other Is Up : After a Long Fall, Angels Came Up Short in Winter

A tattered Angel summer has given way to a checkered winter, which in turn is about to give way to a Doug Rader spring. If this qualifies as progress, we’ll soon find out, what with pitchers and catchers reporting to Mesa, Ariz., Thursday to open another training camp.

A new beginning is the great Arizona hope, and if ever a slate needed cleaning, it was the Angels’ in 1988. Now, this is a franchise that knows its way around a bad season, but never before did an Angel team punch its clock two weeks early and shrug its way through 12 consecutive season-ending defeats.

Angel heart? You’d have needed a private eye to locate as much as a trace of it in Anaheim last September.

Postseason remedies were advised. Folding the franchise had a nice ring to it. But an old cowboy’s work is never done and owner Gene Autry instructed his general manager, Mike Port, to enlist again for the Angels’ now-annual task of picking up the pieces.

A new manager was hired. So were new players. Good ideas, but executing them--i.e., getting the right new manager, the right new players--are other matters altogether. And on the surface, the Angel way to clean house appears to have produced a very mixed bag.

Consider that, during the past four months, the Angels:

--Passed on bright, young managerial prospect Jim Lefebvre, citing his lack of experience . . . and hired recycled Doug Rader, whose Texas Ranger experience included an overall record of 155-200.

--Acquired catcher Lance Parrish, coming off an injury-marred, .215 season . . . and lost Gold Glove catcher Bob Boone, coming off a .295 season, to free agency.

--Failed in two extravagant bids to buy free-agent pitchers Nolan Ryan and Bruce Hurst, who turned down millions to stay out of Anaheim . . . but were able to acquire 37-year-old starting pitcher Bert Blyleven, coming off a 10-17 season with a 5.43 earned-run average.

--Failed to assemble workable trades for outfielders Dale Murphy and Phil Bradley . . . and wound up shelling out $2.6 million to bring in 34-year-old Claudell Washington for the next three years.

If it seems that the Angels keep settling for second best, well, that’s kind of been this team’s tradition, at least as long as the Dodgers have been playing 35 miles to the north.

The regimen even extended to the club’s selection of a spring-training site for 1990. Harboring grand visions of a sparkling new high-tech facility in the Arizona desert, the Angels were forced to re-up with Palm Springs last November and extend their current arrangement for another year.

There were other personnel moves, too. During the off-season, Port filled out the Angel roster by signing catcher Bill Schroeder, who batted .156 with Milwaukee in 1988; Bob McClure, a 35-year-old relief pitcher; Mark Clear, a 32-year-old relief pitcher with arm problems; Marcus Lawton, a 23-year-old outfielder who batted .233 with triple-A Tidewater, and former Cincinnati Reds infielder Dave Concepcion, a 40-year-old utility player.

Oakland Athletics, brace yourselves.

Rader, for his part, is going to his first camp as Angel manager with realistic expectations.

“You can’t dismiss the fact Oakland had a wonderful year last year and then got better,” Rader said. “Realistically, we can only hope to play to our ability. Only one team in baseball played to its ability last year and that was the Dodgers. They didn’t play over their heads--they just played to their own ability and everyone else played below theirs.

“If we can play to ours this year, then we’ve got a chance.”

To approach that level, Rader, first and foremost, needs a healthy pitching staff. On paper, the rotation of Mike Witt, Dan Petry, Kirk McCaskill and Blyleven doesn’t look bad. In 1985, it might have won a pennant.

But in 1988, Blyleven spent a month on the disabled list with an injured thumb, a sprained ankle washed out Petry’s season and a nerve irritation ended McCaskill’s season in early August. Combined, they had a record of 21-32 and an ERA of 4.80.

The status of McCaskill, who at 8-6 was the Angels’ only starter with a winning record, tops the club’s list of spring concerns. Last summer, the nerve irritation left his right hand numb, which can inhibit the process of throwing a baseball right-handed. Rest was prescribed and in January, McCaskill began working out again--to hopeful early results.

“I’ve been watching him and he’s throwing extremely well,” Rader said. “Lach (pitching coach Marcel Lachemann) says he’s very, very sure McCaskill will be one of our opening five guys.

“But, like everything else, the guy has had a problem. We’ll have to take it day by day and hope it doesn’t crop back up.”

Another recuperating arm belongs to Bryan Harvey, who saved 17 games and placed second, to Oakland’s Walt Weiss, in the balloting for American League rookie of the year. Harvey underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery in late September for the removal of bone fragments and, like McCaskill, resumed throwing in early January.

“He’s looked fine, so far,” Rader said. “We’re not worried about Harvey.”

That is the good news for the Angels, anyway.

The bad news is that a recuperated Harvey may not be enough.

“We’re especially vulnerable at short relief,” Rader conceded. “Aside from Harv, we really don’t have anybody who can fill that role. Short relief is a big responsibility and you need more than one guy to handle it. If it’s only Harvey, you leave him open to injury or ineffectiveness because of the work load.”

That leads to Spring Project I: Moving Willie Fraser to the bullpen. Fraser has dabbled in relief work the last two seasons and could be asked to make a long-term commitment. Now, this is the same Willie Fraser who gave up 59 home runs in 1987 and 1988--not the most appealing credential for an aspiring late-inning specialist--but Fraser throws hard and the Angels believe he could be effective in short, intense bursts of fastballs.

“He’s a power type of guy and he has some durability,” Port said. “If you need someone to close out a game, most certainly you would want Bryan Harvey, but Willie Fraser can lend us some depth.”

Elsewhere in the bullpen, there’s Greg Minton--seven saves, 2.85 ERA--who is 37 years old and coming off arthroscopic knee surgery. Stewart Cliburn and Sherman Corbett--not the same person, by the way--are strictly middle-to-long relief types, as is Jack Lazorko. McClure and Clear? They are coming to camp hoping to reclaim bygone days and bygone fastballs.

DeWayne Buice, who saved 17 games for the 1987 Angels, wasn’t invited to the major league camp in 1989. His fall from grace was caused by his coming to camp out of shape last spring, his ’88 stats of 2-4 and 5.88, a near-6.00 ERA during winter ball and the dubious nature of a June hamstring injury--which Buice incurred just before an impending demotion to Edmonton.

Last August, Port removed Buice from the 40-man roster and left him unprotected for the winter draft. He went unselected and figures to begin this season back in Edmonton.

Then there’s rookie Jim Abbott, who was invited to camp, despite long odds of making the cut.

There are reasons for this. Abbott, the one-handed All-American and Olympic gold medalist, is at once a curiosity and a good citizen, a potential cure for the Angels’ current public-relations woes. Already, the club has held three press conferences for Abbott and Publicity Director Tim Mead says he’s planning to keep a log for all the interview requests expected for Abbott this spring.

Go out there, Jim, and pitch.

The Angels are also high on their everyday lineup, provided Parrish’s back is sound enough to keep him in the lineup every day. Wally Joyner, with new $920,000 contract in hand, will go to Mesa happy for the first time in three years. Washington has been recruited to play right field, which has to be an improvement over Chili Davis tiptoeing through the mine field. Davis has since been re-assigned to left, where, it is hoped, he can slice his error total--a club-record 19 last season--in half.

With Devon White and his Gold Glove in center field, Dick Schofield at shortstop and Jack Howell at third base, the only position competition will be waged at second base. Johnny Ray versus Mark McLemore, or, good hit versus good field. Ray batted .306 last summer and made the All-Star team, but before undergoing June arm surgery, McLemore had been the Angels’ starting second baseman.

Competing for reserve roles will be Schroeder and Darrell Miller at catcher, Tony Armas, former Dodger Mike Ramsey and Lawton in the outfield, and Glenn Hoffman, rookie Kent Anderson and Concepcion at utility infielder. Port and Rader are both openly pulling for the ancient Concepcion, who batted .198 in 84 games last year, to make it, which says something about the state of the Angels.

“You can’t minimize the importance of having a Davey Concepcion on your team,” Rader said.

Port said: “He can play all four infield positions, but the input he can provide in the clubhouse is considerable. He’s been on some pretty darn good ballclubs.”

Consider Concepcion the Angels’ good-luck charm this spring. And considering what happened in 1988, can you blame the Angels for keeping him around?