Angels Aren’t Experts in the Fine Art of Dealing

I heard the Angels traded Devon White. Who’d they get?”

“Felix.”

“Jose?”

“Junior.”

“Noboa? Not him again.”

“No. Junior Felix. He’s an outfielder. They also got a second baseman from Toronto.”

“Who?”

“Sojo.”

“Soho? I thought you said he’s from Toronto.”

“I did.”

“So who’s from Soho?”

“Nobody. Sojo’s from Toronto. So’s Felix. The Angels are getting both of them, plus a player to be named later.”

“Later? I can’t even name the players they got now.”

They say that he who hesitates is lost, but that isn’t always the case. In Anaheim, we know that he who hesitates doesn’t trade Devon White for Joe Carter, doesn’t trade Devon White for Ellis Burks, but does wind up shipping Devon White to Canada for the 1990 version of Who’s On First?

Is that all there is? Is that all the Angels can buy for the center fielder who collects Gold Gloves like birthdays, the rookie flash of ’87 who hit 17 home runs in his first half-season, the white-hot blur of potential the Angels considered untouchable as recently as 1988?

It is when you forget half of the cardinal rule that governs the jock market:

Sell high, buy low.

Mike Port knows how to buy low. He has based an entire career on it: Lance Parrish for a minor league pitcher, Bert Blyleven for minor league surplus, Luis Polonia for a broken-down Claudell Washington. Port dresses like a banker but shops for some of his best players at the Salvation Army. He is Mr. Pic ‘N’ Save.

Selling high is the more difficult proposition, because it entails taking risks and trusting your instincts. Anyone can spot a bargain. The key to baseball trading success, as Branch Rickey once observed, is knowing when to trade a player a year early rather than a year too late.

Port still has this part backward. He sits on young players and waits, and waits, and waits--until Gary Pettis is more liability than commodity; until Mike Witt is mopping up no-hitters, not starting them; and until Devon White bats .217, gets sent to the minors and can’t bring home more than a center fielder the Angels hope can play center field and a second baseman the Angels hope can play second base.

Port waits because he operates by committee--it takes time to round up your manager, your assistant general manager, your minor league director, your scouting director, your scouts and your palm reader for staff meetings every time an offer’s on the table--and because he has always been impressed by what he calls “scouting-in-reverse.” Scouting-in-reverse is actually no different than trusting the other guy more than yourself, except it sounds better.

Basically, scouting-in-reverse goes something like this:

Other Team’s GM: “So, what will it take to get Jack Howell?”

Port, thinking to himself: “Hmmm. They really like Howell, so he must be good. We better keep him.”

Three years ago, the Angels owned what they considered an excellent cache of young talent--Pettis, Witt, White, Howell, Wally Joyner, Dick Schofield, Mark McLemore. The Angels heard offers. Scouting-in-reverse had Port convinced he was operating the ’27 Yankees, not the ’87 Angels.

One by one, the plums withered on the vine. Pettis proved, once and for all, that he couldn’t hit and was traded for a washed-up Dan Petry. Witt, a Cy Young also-ran in 1986, slinked to the rear of the bullpen before Port dealt him for a 38-year-old Dave Winfield. McLemore became the player to be named later for Ron Tingley. Howell, like White, spent time in Edmonton last season and now carries the damaged-goods tag as well.

This time last year, Cleveland offered the Angels an extraordinary Joe named Carter for a package of White and Johnny Ray. The Angels said no. Midway through last season, Boston was talking another package--White and Kirk McCaskill for All-Star center fielder Burks. Again, the Angels backed off.

A year later, the Angels entered another off-season hoping to dump Ray to the first taker, hoping to cash in White for anything approaching value and hoping McCaskill can come back after a second arm operation.

The idea of trading White has always involved an element of danger, and still does. There’s always a chance White might figure out the strike zone someday and become the next Ruben Sierra. That chance is much slimmer now, which explains the slimmer return, but the holes in White’s game were spotted years ago. The Angels knew them before the rest of baseball did. Port could have pulled a fast one by trading the fast one for a real windfall.

But, no, he opted for slow. By the time he was ready to deal, Port was no longer dealing from strength. He ended up trading White to Canada, where the exchange rate isn’t what it used to be.

In Felix, the Angels get a young outfielder who had a great first half as a rookie--.283, eight home runs, 41 runs batted in--and then managed one home run and five RBIs the rest of the way. Sound familiar? Last season, Felix’s second, he batted .263 with 15 home runs and 65 RBIs--not that much different than Dante Bichette (.255, 15, 53), the man Doug Rader refuses to play in center field or any field. Felix also struck out 99 times. Sound familiar?

Sojo is 24, has good range and is considered a prospect at second base. But once, so was McLemore. Sojo hit .296 in Class AAA but only .225 in 33 games with Toronto. Rader says he wants to bat Sojo second behind Polonia--Luis, Luis--which could be the first time the top of the Angel lineup caused anyone to break into song.

The best thing about this trade, the Angels say, is youth. Felix and Sojo are on the short side of 25. Their potentials have yet to be realized--or, for that matter, squandered.

Just wait, the Angels say.

We’ve heard that one before.