He Starts Over in Chicago : Baseball: McCaskill leaves Angels after 7 1/2 seasons for three-year contract with White Sox worth over $6 million.

Kirk McCaskill left the Angels on Saturday and agreed to a three-year contract with the Chicago White Sox worth between $6 million and $7 million.

McCaskill, a 30-year-old right-hander, was 10-19 with a 4.26 ERA in 30 starts for the Angels last season. However, they scored only 16 runs in his club record-tying 19 losses.

“First and foremost, the White Sox have a great team. I think they have a great chance to win next year,” McCaskill said. “I looked at a couple of teams, but what it boiled down to was the White Sox and the Angels. It was an extremely difficult decision. I’ve been with the Angels 10 years, 7 1/2 years in the majors and 2 1/2 in the minors. We live here and we have friends here, but I just I needed a change.”

McCaskill, who said the Angels’ offer “was a tad better” than Chicago’s, is 78-74 with a 3.86 ERA in seven years in the majors.

“I’ve always liked the way he goes about his work,” White Sox general manager Ron Schueler said in San Francisco. “He does a lot of the little things to help himself. He might be one of the better fielders in the game. He’s the toughest to run against.”

The White Sox had examined other available pitchers, but Schueler said they focused on McCaskill over the others.

“It’s not very often you can get an above-.500 pitcher you can add to your staff,” Schueler said. “Some of them are coming off injuries and that scared me. The others, the money was too much. And he wanted to come to us, which made it a lot more important.”

Except for Jack McDowell (17-10), Chicago’s starting staff in 1991 was bothered by injuries and ineffectiveness. The bullpen, however, was one of the best in baseball.

The 6-foot-1, 205-pound McCaskill goes from the last-place Angels to a club that has finished second the past two seasons.

“Obviously it was a very difficult year,” McCaskill said of the Angels’ season. “Physically I felt as strong as I have in about four, five years, which made it all the more frustrating. It’s a lot easier when your team is scoring runs.”

He is fifth on the Angels all-time victory list with 78, is tied for fourth in starts (189), sixth in innings (1,221), eighth in strikeouts (714) and tied for seventh in shutouts (11).

Schueler said he understood White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf was continuing negotiations with Danny Tartabull’s agent, Dennis Gilbert. Texas and the Angels are the other clubs interested in the free agent outfielder.

“I’ve heard there’s a five-year on the table,” Schueler said. “If that’s the case, I’m out of it as far as I’m concerned.”