ANALYSIS : Angels Ends, Questions Begin for Fallen Angels : Baseball: Attendance falls with team’s fortunes, and several quality players are needed to brighten the future.

In front of more empty seats than spectators Sunday at Anaheim Stadium, the Angels finished their 32nd season with the traditional Fan Appreciation Day giveaways to their customers. But it’s not true that first prize was two season tickets for 1993 . . . and second prize was four season tickets.

A crowd of 21,986 saw the Angels end their worst season in nearly a decade with a 9-5 loss to the Texas Rangers. The team’s attendance of 2,065,444 was the lowest since the strike-shortened 1981 season, but then again, the Angels offered few gate attractions.

Their top home-run hitter, Gary Gaetti, had 12--as many as Oakland’s Mark McGwire might hit in a good month. Their offense was the weakest in the American League, and none of their starting pitchers won more games than they lost. With a 72-90 record, the Angels recorded the fewest victories they have had since 1983, when they were 70-92.

Any wonder why attendance decreased 350,792 from 1991?

Whitey Herzog, the Angels’ senior vice president for player personnel, wasn’t around Anaheim Stadium much this season either. But he had the excuse that he was busy evaluating and overhauling the entire organization after last season’s last-place finish and 81-81 record.

That huge task meant Herzog didn’t have much time to go fishing, his favorite pastime. But he has taken up a new hobby: dangling pitcher Jim Abbott as trade bait, hoping that with Abbott as the lure, he can reel in the potent bat--or bats--that the Angels desperately need.

It’s a temptation Herzog should resist, although he probably won’t.

Why is Herzog so actively trying to trade a player who has ranked among the American League’s best pitchers the last two seasons, gives his time to every charity that asks and, at 25, has the potential to be the ace of the staff for the next decade?

Primarily because Abbott is the only Angel who could be traded for two or three quality players, players who might fill glaring voids on a team that finished in a tie for fifth place in the American League West and was at or near the bottom of the league in most significant offensive categories.

Herzog is also figuring that even though Abbott is immensely popular, he didn’t fill seats at Anaheim Stadium. The attendance drop will increase the club’s season budget deficit, which was projected last spring to be about $8 million by Jackie Autry, the team’s executive vice president and final authority. By Herzog’s thinking, with an offense fortified by players he gets for Abbott, the Angels could be a more attractive draw next season.

After spurning offers for Abbott from the Toronto Blue Jays around mid-season, Herzog in September approached the Yankees and offered them Abbott for center fielder Bernie Williams, first-base prospect J.T. Snow and pitching prospect Mark Hutton. Herzog has since found justification for the deal: After sporadic contract talks with Abbott over the past month, he rejected Abbott’s idea that the two sides split their financial difference after the most recent talks.

The Angels offered Abbott $16 million for four years--compared to the $19-million, four-year deal sought by Abbott and his agent, Scott Boras--but Herzog refused to meet in the middle at $17.5 million for four years. Now, Herzog has declared that Abbott can’t be signed, the prelude to trading him.

“We’re not moving,” Herzog said last week, a week in which he also reportedly discussed dealing Abbott to the Philadelphia Phillies. “There’s no compromise. I thank the Cowboy (owner Gene Autry) for letting me go as high as we have.”

Could part of the reason pitching coach Marcel Lachemann departed be that he knows Abbott--his protege--won’t be back next season, and that Lachemann doesn’t want to be around to deal with that?

Herzog, a shrewd judge of talent, probably would rather not part with Abbott. But he has few options because Abbott is his most tradable commodity, one of the few Angels not past his prime and/or locked into a lavish long-term contract.

Pitcher Mark Langston has two years left on his contract at $3.25 million per season; he also has a no-trade clause. While not absolutely opposed to waiving that, he has said he would refuse a trade to New York. At 32, with a 118-115 won-lost record, he’s less marketable than Abbott.

Pitcher Chuck Finley is coming off an injury-marred 7-12 season and is only one year into a four-year, $18.5-million contract that most teams wouldn’t touch. Reliever Bryan Harvey (four years, $15.5 million) is coming off elbow surgery, which renders him too questionable to be the key figure in a major trade. Herzog would love to get rid of Gaetti’s contract, which has two years left at $3 million per year, but there is little hope of any team assuming that burden after Gaetti’s .226 season and shaky defense at third base.

Herzog’s other poker chips are prospects. And while other teams would snap up outfielder Tim Salmon or infielder Damion Easley, neither would bring the caliber of player the Angels need to add major punch to an unthreatening lineup.

Asked how far away his team is from contending for a division title, Manager Buck Rodgers measured his words carefully.

“If I was confident we could get two guys for the middle of the lineup I would say to you we can be competitive next year, competitive being .500,” he said. “We might get lucky and jump up 10 games. We need a couple of guys in the middle of the lineup. In Hubie Brooks and Von Hayes, we thought we got them, but that didn’t work out.

“And other guys are going to have to progress as scheduled. The pitchers are going to have to pitch as scheduled, and we have to avoid injuries to our starting pitchers. After two guys in the middle, our priority has got to be pitching. For me to say we’re a year away or two years away, a lot of things have to happen.”

Herzog and Rodgers predicated their plans for 1992 on getting 150 runs batted in from Brooks and Hayes, veteran outfielders acquired relatively cheaply because they were coming off injuries. They envisioned shortstop Gary DiSarcina and outfielder Chad Curtis as support players and hoped that pitcher Julio Valera, acquired in April for shortstop Dick Schofield, would be a capable fourth starting pitcher.

DiSarcina, Curtis and pitcher Joe Grahe, transformed into a reliever when Harvey’s injured elbow left the bullpen without a closer, exceeded Rodgers’ expectations. Valera, although inconsistent, has pitched well enough to keep a spot in the rotation. Brooks and Hayes, though, fell miserably flat.

Brooks started strong but was sidelined by a neck injury for 11 weeks and hit .216 with 36 RBIs. Hayes, lamentable defensively and on the base paths, was released in mid-August after hitting .225 with four home runs and 29 RBIs.

“The bottom line is Von didn’t do it, Hubie didn’t do it and none of the younger kids chipped in to be the icing on the cake. The kids have been the cake, not the icing,” Rodgers said. “Which may not be altogether bad, when you talk about development.”

It’s never bad to find a solid, everyday shortstop, as DiSarcina promises to be, or a speedy outfielder like Curtis, whose 43 stolen bases proved a pleasant surprise. Or an athlete like Easley, who made a remarkable transition to third base after Gaetti’s bat sputtered and the steady Rene Gonzales fractured his hand.

But John Orton, handed the catching job when Lance Parrish was released, has had enough chances to show he can’t hit. Outfielder Junior Felix, who led the team with 72 RBIs, slumped markedly in the second half. First baseman Lee Stevens, who was supposed to make the fans forget Wally Joyner and instead had a forgettable .221 season, playing himself off the list of players the Angels will protect in the Nov. 17 expansion draft.

This is a team glutted with players suited to hit sixth or seventh in the lineup, not in the pivotal third, fourth and fifth slots, a team devoid of power from the left side. Salmon hit cleanup after his August promotion from triple-A Edmonton but was later moved to third or fifth; the Angels still have to determine if his .347 batting average, 29 homers and 105 RBIs for Edmonton were a fluke. They couldn’t tell this season because a sprained left wrist sidelined him for much of September and limited him to a .177 batting average.

“But I have a tough time saying this has been a bad year,” Rodgers insisted. “You can look at the standings and say, ‘We’re not better off than we were a year ago,’ but anyone around the scene for 15 minutes knows we are. Our options are better. Our scouting system, which has been dumped on, should be walking high. This has been a good organizational year. It’s brought the organization together a lot.

“The next step will be how these young players develop further, how we take advantage of the things we learned, both good and bad about our players, how we can put together a deal or two to strengthen ourselves.”

Rodgers doesn’t envision the Angels making player trades until after the draft or perhaps until spring training. He wants to keep Abbott, especially if the return would improve the offense only marginally.

“If it’s going to be one bat, one bat isn’t going to do it. We’re going to have to have at least two, and one of them is going to have to be a left-handed hitter,” Rodgers said. “We may have to trade for one or (sign) a lower-line free agent. We might have to get lucky with a free agent, which we weren’t lucky with our selections last year.”

Translation: They won’t be spending $30 million or more of Gene and Jackie Autry’s treasury on Pittsburgh’s Barry Bonds, the prime catch in this winter’s free agent market. Or however many millions it will take to sign McGwire. Oakland’s Ruben Sierra doesn’t interest them, Kirby Puckett and Paul Molitor have less value to the Angels than to Minnesota and Milwaukee, respectively, where they have played their entire careers.

If the Angels are going to spend money, it should be on right-handed pitcher Chris Bosio, who won’t be re-signed by the Brewers. A rotation of Abbott, Finley, Langston, Valera and Bosio would be formidable. Rodgers is hoping someone emerges for the fifth starting spot, but he acknowledged that none of the triple-A pitchers has the remotest chance of winning a job. If nothing else pans out, the Angels can re-sign Bert Blyleven (8-12) at least for a while.

To succeed without emptying the Autrys’ bank account--and every indication from Jackie Autry i s that that won’t happen--the Angels must keep building on their pitching, continue their aggressive baserunning and stay with the kids they promoted this season. Supplement the kiddie corps with the mid-talent level free agents who should be plentiful enough to drive prices down; re-sign Gonzales (which they have put off only to avoid having to protect him in the expansion draft), but forget fringe players like John Morris and Jose Gonzalez and the broken-down, 30-something warriors like Don Robinson, the ex-Giants pitcher signed last off-season and released in May.

Too many times in their history, the Angels have declared they were going in one direction--with kids, with high-salaried superstars--only to change course the moment they faltered. The course they are on now is the right way to go if they are ever going to win that pennant and World Series championship they have always wanted to give the Cowboy.

Times staff writer Ross Newhan contributed to this story.

Down to the Finish

The Angels finished the season with their lowest winning percentage since 1983’s .432: 1992: .442 1991: .500 1990: .494 1989: .562 1988: .463 1987: .463 1986: .568 1985: .549 1984: .500 1983: .432 Source: California Angels