Blyleven to Start Opener; Witt in Bullpen : Angels: Rader doesn’t want to subject Langston to all the first-day hoopla against the pitcher’s former teammates.

So what if he won 17 games last season, was named the American League’s comeback player of the year and is closing in on 300 victories.

According to Bert Blyleven, those factors had no bearing on why he was selected to be the Angels’ opening-day pitcher.

“They did it by beauty,” he said, keeping a straight face. “I’m probably the best-looking guy around here.”

That might be open to debate, but there’s no denying that the bearded right-hander has looked strong all spring.

“It doesn’t matter who opens, we’re all going to pitch,” said Blyleven, who will be 39 on Friday. “No matter who it is, we’ve got five aces.”

The operative word here is five.

When Manager Doug Rader announced that Blyleven would open against the Seattle Mariners next Monday at Anaheim Stadium, Rader also said he had moved Mike Witt out of the rotation and into the bullpen for use as a long reliever and spot starter. The rotation will be Blyleven, Chuck Finley, Mark Langston, Kirk McCaskill and Jim Abbott.

Witt, who was the team’s opening-day pitcher in each of the previous five seasons, gave up six runs in three innings Tuesday in the Angels’ 11-3 loss to the Padres at Angels Stadium. However, his fate had been determined before his third outing of the spring, which raised his earned-run average to 11.42 in 8 2/3 innings.

Although Witt was obviously upset about the change, he blamed only himself--not newcomer Langston, not Rader--for being taken out of the rotation.

“It’s a situation that I’ve pitched myself into, as well as other people pitched themselves into,” said Witt, who has been frequently mentioned in trade rumors involving half a dozen clubs.

“I understand and it’s something I have to live with for the moment. Whether I want to stay here or not, I don’t think it’s up to me. I’m not the GM or the GM of another team. I’ve got a contract right now and it’s with the Angels. Where I pitch is where I pitch. . . .

“You don’t have to be sorry for me. I’m making $1.3 million in the big leagues. There’s a lot of worse things I could be doing.”

Rader said the rotation was structured to have Blyleven open the season not only because of the honor involved, but because Blyleven has a 14-4 record against the Mariners. Rader also didn’t want to subject Langston to the pressure of pitching the opener, given the pressure Langston is already carrying as the team’s $16-million man.

Langston, who had control problems Tuesday and yielded eight hits and three earned runs in five innings, will pitch the third game of the series and will open the Angels’ two-game series against Oakland on April 17.

“The reason it’s Blyleven is for the contributions he made to the ballclub last year, and in so saying, that leads to the question, why not Finley, Abbott or Langston?” Rader said. “A number of people could be the opening-day starter, but unfortunately only one man can do it.

“Maybe this is being overprotective, but I don’t think Mark Langston needed all the hoopla of opening up against his former teammates. Bert Blyleven, given his success against that team, would be the guy you’d want to throw against them during the season, so why not start that way?

“Finley or McCaskill could as well have been considered. The one great way of looking at it all is that because the opening-day pitcher was so hard to determine, that means a lot of guys have a lot to be proud about from last year. I hope we have the same difficulty next year. We tried to do what’s fair. The five people in the rotation are the five we consider the most qualified to do that right now.”

Langston, 1-1 this spring, was hit hard by the Padres in the third and fourth innings Tuesday. He minimized the damage by picking Joe Carter off first in the fourth, one of two slick pickoffs he completed. Otherwise, he was not especially sharp.

“I felt like I didn’t have a good fastball,” he said. “I worked on my off-speed stuff again, which is what I wanted to do, but I got behind on a lot of hitters and threw all over the place.

“I picked up on a lot of things I was doing wrong. It was kind of arm strength a little bit, but I didn’t feel real good on my fastball. It’s just a little thing you go through. Some guys are on top of their game. Last time (last Friday), I got the ball where I wanted it. This time I didn’t and they hit it, and hit it often.

“Since the spring is so short, I really wanted to get on top of my off-speed stuff. My fastball and slider, I really count on, and they’ll be there. The last couple of games I’ve thrown more off-speed stuff than I normally would.

“My strength is coming along. I didn’t feel real strong today, but to go five innings and throw a lot of pitches is always a step in the right direction. I hope to throw more strikes the next time out.”

He regards the loss, which dropped the Angels’ spring training record to 6-5, as a lesson.

“It’s not a crushing blow. It’s still spring and there are things to be worked on,” he said. “Sometimes getting hit around is good. I was careless on a lot of pitches today because I didn’t put them where I wanted to. Getting boxed around makes your concentration and thought processes a little sharper.”

Seeing opposing teams bat Witt around has been puzzling for Rader.

“He’s throwing 93-m.p.h. fastballs and being hit and throwing what looks like a very effective breaking ball, and the opposition stays off it,” Rader said. “We’ve got to study the tapes to further evaluate it.”

Witt’s self-evaluation was realistic.

“I was throwing hard today,” he said. “I had a good curveball and changeup. I got ahead of a few guys and didn’t put them away, which is a problem I’ve had. I get to situations where I want to be, as far as counts, and I don’t finish it off. That’s the big thing. You’ve got to bury people instead of let them get back into counts.”

Getting back into the mind-set of relieving won’t be a problem, he said.

“Pitching is pitching. It’s just a different situation. The game’s already got a flow and when you start, you start the flow.”

Or go with it.

Angel Notes

Shawn Abner drove in San Diego’s first run with a double in the third and scored on a single by the next hitter, Roberto Alomar. A home run by Jerald Clark and a run-scoring single by Mark Parent in the fourth gave the Padres a 4-0 cushion, and they broke it open with a four-run eighth against Mike Witt. . . . All three Angel runs were scored on home runs, a two-run shot by Jack Howell in the fifth and a solo home run by Lee Stevens with one out in the ninth. Howell was two for three and has seven hits in his last 14 at-bats, for a .333 batting average this spring.

Kirk McCaskill will start for the Angels today against Bruce Hurst. . . . Rick Schu, who started in left field, has a five-game hitting streak.