Angel Notebook : Abbott Shows Some Major Stuff in Minor Role

Still think this Jim Abbott business is nothing more than an Angel publicity stunt?

Submitted for your perusal: Sunday afternoon’s exhibition game between the Angels and their triple-A farm club, the Edmonton Trappers, at Anaheim Stadium.

Final score: Edmonton 13, Angels 1.

Abbott pitched for Edmonton as part of Angel Manager Doug Rader’s lend-lease program and limited his once and future teammates to three paltry singles through six scoreless innings, striking out one Wally Joyner in the process.

Kirk McCaskill and Vance Lovelace, among others, pitched for the Angels. Combined, McCaskill and Lovelace surrendered 12 runs and 11 hits in four innings. Combined, McCaskill and Lovelace faced 15 Trappers in the top of the fourth, allowing 13 to reach base and 10 to score.

By the middle of the fourth inning, the major leaguers trailed the minor leaguers, 12-0.

Yep, there you have it. The Angels are keeping Abbott around for the publicity.

Losing games by 13-1 scores is bad publicity.

If Abbott doesn’t belong in the Angels’ starting rotation, what’s to be said for McCaskill, the projected No. 2 starter whose earned-run average has risen from 4.20 to 4.79 to 6.49 to 8.19 in his last three starts?

Sunday, McCaskill wobbled into the fourth inning trailing, 2-0, and allowed eight straight batters to reach base. The only out he would record in the inning came when Edmonton’s Dan Grunhard was thrown out attempting to stretch a double into a triple.

His line for the day: 3 1/3 innings, eight hits, nine runs (eight earned), three walks, no strikeouts.

And if Abbott doesn’t belong on this Angel pitching staff, what’s to be said for Lovelace, who replaced McCaskill and yielded three runs on three hits and three walks before he could retire the side?

Lovelace, a 25-year old left-handed reliever with no big-league experience, has made the Angels the new-fangled way--pitching his way onto the roster with a 9.00 spring ERA.

Who says the Angels are desperate for pitching?

After watching five pitchers on his opening-day staff, plus Edmonton-bound Stewart Cliburn, surrender a total of 17 hits, Rader took a deep sigh and summed up the afternoon thusly:

“Abbott had a good tuneup. After that, it’s pretty hard to find any more pluses on the whole deal.”

Rader had Abbott pitch for Edmonton in an attempt to have both McCaskill and Abbott work at least six innings. Abbott got his work in, but McCaskill succeeded only in getting Rader all worked up.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Rader said, shaking his head. “Obviously, he’s not quite good enough yet. But regardless of how I feel, I think Kirk must be concerned--and if I add my concern to that burden, it doesn’t serve the kid any purpose.”

Rader shrugged off Lovelace’s rocky outing, attributing it his recent hospitalization for an intestinal disorder.

“Vance was weak,” Rader said. “All we wanted to do today was get him some work. He was flat on his back for a few days, so I can certainly understand that one.

“Mac is still a puzzle. . . . He throws a fastball and they hit it. He throws a breaking ball and it seems to bounce (in the dirt). And when he doesn’t bounce it, he gets behind in the count.

“I don’t know how to straighten it out, other than to be supportive and hope he and Lach (pitching coach Marcel Lachemann) figure it out.”

Abbott, meanwhile, expressed relief after completing his longest--and most effective--outing of the spring. It was his first scoreless stint as an Angel and lowered his ERA to 3.91 and improved his record to 3-1.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel pressure to justify their decision to keep me,” Abbott said. “The last thing I want to hear in three weeks is, ‘He was here too early.’

“But I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I feel like I deserve to be here.”

Rader seconds that opinion, saying, “His physical and emotional ability made that decision easy.”

That and the state of the 1989 Angel pitching staff.