Angels Gamble, Lose Some More

When all was said and done and stolen right out from under Whitey Herzog’s nose, Tuesday went into the books as only the second worst expansion draft to ever hit the Angels.

The worst, of course, would be 1961.

No draft that year, no Angels.

No Angels, everyone in Orange County gets on with their lives without staring at the bedroom ceiling through tortured sleepless nights--crying out in anguish, “Why didn’t Mauch let Witt pitch to Gedman?” or “Why didn’t Buzzie give Ryan the money?” or “Why didn’t Whitey protect Bryan Harvey?”

Before Nov. 17, 1992, it was generally assumed that the Angels, 90-game losers this past summer, couldn’t get any worse.

Silly us.

After three rounds of picking and choosing by the Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies, the Angels now sit without their all-time saves leader, their 1992 RBI leader and a minor-league relief pitching prospect named Bret Merriman, who, knowing the Angels, is destined to become the next Dennis Eckersley.

No team in baseball took a bigger hit Tuesday than the Angels.

Not the Atlanta Braves or the Toronto Blue Jays, whose farm systems were overstocked and overflowing with unprotected gems.

Not the Chicago White Sox, who risked their 1993 pennant hopes by leaving George Bell, Bobby Thigpen and Steve Sax off their protected list.

The Angels, by contrast, seemed to have so little to lose. How much talent does it take to go 72-90? When major league baseball told the Angels they would have to protect 15 players before the first round of the draft, the immediate reaction was: Can the Angels actually get up to 15?

Eventually, Whitey and his men found a way--and somehow accomplished it without Harvey, a man who saved 46 games in 1991 and 126 in five big-league seasons; Junior Felix, the outfielder who led the Angels with 72 RBIs in 1992; and Luis Polonia, the club’s top hitter and base stealer.

Whitey and General Manager Dan O’Brien and Manager Buck Rodgers decided to protect 15 players ahead of Harvey and, as it turned out, 23 ahead of Felix. After both the first and second rounds, the Angels were allowed to “pull back” four more players, and Felix wasn’t selected until the third round, by Florida.

Florida also nabbed Harvey, in the first round, a move the Angels said “surprised” them.

Really now.

Cookie Rojas, who was Harvey’s manager during his 17-save rookie season of 1988, is now a base coach with the Marlins. Doug Rader, who was Harvey’s manager during back-to-back 25-save seasons (1989 and 1990), is now the Marlins’ hitting instructor. And Marcel Lachemann, who helped transform Harvey from a wild cannon fresh off the softball fields of North Carolina into one of the sport’s elite closers, is now the pitching coach in Florida.

The Angels assumed far too much when they left Harvey unprotected. They assumed an ex-Angel brain trust would think the same way as the current Angel brain trust.

If the cost-obsessed Angels of Jackie Autry wouldn’t take a chance on a $11 million relief pitcher coming off August elbow surgery, why would anybody else?

The brain trust had a brain cramp. As Lachemann pointed out, rather gleefully, after the selection of Harvey, “We’ve had good reports on his elbow and he has rehabbed successfully before. We think he’ll be ready by the start of the season.”

Lachemann was there with Harvey after the first elbow surgery, to remove bone chips, in 1988. Very similar to the operation he underwent three months ago. Not only did Harvey make it back by opening day, 1989, but he jumped his save total from 17 to 25.

Two years after that, he saved 46 games.

“When he’s healthy,” Florida General Manager Dave Dombrowski said, “we feel Bryan Harvey is the best relief pitcher in baseball.” And, Harvey’s only 29 years old. And, the Marlins, who figure to have limited late-inning leads to protect next season, don’t have to rush Harvey.

At $3.75 million in 1993 and $7 million more through 1995, the Marlins call that a bargain--an investment down the road, when they’re ready to win.

The Angels, they may never be ready. Consider where this club was 13 months ago--at .500, after a hugely disappointing 81-81 finish that cost Rader and General Manager Mike Port employment along the way.

However, 13 months ago, the Angels had a relief pitcher who’d just saved 46 games, a first baseman who’d just driven in 96 runs and an outfielder who’d just hit 28 home runs with 86 RBIs.

Now, Harvey and Wally Joyner and Dave Winfield are gone--and what did the Angels get in return?

Not one thing.

Winfield got released, Joyner turned free agent and Harvey was lost to expansion.

Three cornerstone players--and the Angels don’t even have one utility infielder-to-be-named-later to show for it.

Oh, but the Angels still have John Orton. They protected him over Harvey because they knew the Marlins and the Rockies would be clamoring for .203-hitting part-time catchers.

And they still have Luis Sojo. Every team needs three second basemen, right? So the Angels protected Damion Easley, because he showed great promise after his Aug. 12 call-up, and Kevin Flora, because he hit .324 at Edmonton, and Sojo, because the Angels only had to pay him $180,000 last season.

And, the Angels are happy to report, they still have Ron Watson. Who’s Ron Watson? He’s a 24-year old relief pitcher who saved 10 games for Class-A Quad City. Like Harvey, Watson is right-handed. Unlike Harvey, he won’t make nearly $4 million next season.

Essentially, the Angels protected their pocketbook in this draft. Also gone is Felix’s $590,000 salary, making this one whale of a draft for Jackie.

Now, however, the Angels have no excuse--no excuse whatsoever--for trading Jim Abbott for whatever Toronto General Manager Pat Gillick finds in his next box of Cracker Jack. Don’t have the money to re-sign Abbott, you say? Uh, what about this $11.6 million rustling around on the floor?

Tuesday was one of those rare days when the expansion teams wound up in better shape than an existing team.

The Rockies signed Andres Galarraga to a free-agent contract before the draft, so they now have something the Angels don’t--a first baseman.

And the Marlins drafted Bryan Harvey. The Angels don’t have one of those, either, and may never have one of his kind again.