There’s No Place the Kids Can Hide : ’93 preview: Angels have no veterans to rely on, so Salmon, Snow and Easley must be ready.

Angel first baseman J.T. Snow has no way of knowing, but he has a hunch he will spend most of this morning holding his stomach, trying not to be sick.

Right fielder Tim Salmon, who also remembers those waves of nausea before high school football games, figures he might experience them again.

Second baseman Damion Easley, the veteran of the group because he played eight days too many last year to qualify for rookie status, figures he will be the cool one.

“I’ll get sick in the morning, before anyone sees me,” Easley said.

It’s opening day at Anaheim Stadium, and with Jim Abbott in New York, Bryan Harvey in Florida and Wally Joyner in Kansas City, there is no secret where the attention will be when the Angels play the Milwaukee Brewers at 1:05 p.m.

Anyone who picks the Angels to finish higher than last place in the American League West is considered a raving optimist. A .500 finish would be cause for a parade. So all eyes will be on the youngsters--Snow, Salmon and Easley.

Although this will be their first full season in the big leagues, they will carry the hopes of an entire organization.

“It’s going to be difficult because we’re asking an awful lot from them,” Manager Buck Rodgers said. “Each player will be responsible for a certain amount of offense. But the biggest difference is that they’re not going to have veterans to hide behind.”

The Angels introduced the first phase of their youth movement a year ago. They said Lee Stevens would make everyone forget Joyner; that Bobby Rose would be the answer at second base; that Gary DiSarcina would be just as proficient as Dick Schofield at shortstop; that Chad Curtis would be a pretty good utility outfielder.

Now, Stevens is looking for a job, Rose is in Japan, DiSarcina is the Angels’ shortstop and Curtis is a starting outfielder.

“Rose and Stevens had the ability,” Rodgers said. “But they didn’t have the personality. I mean, Rose was absolutely scared to death. When I told Rose he was my opening-day second baseman, he said, ‘Oh . . . , do you really mean that?’

“That’s when I said, ‘Oh, no!’

“In Stevens’ case, he never could handle it mentally. He put so much pressure on himself that he was never there. He got caught up trying to be Wally Joyner when all we wanted was him to be Lee Stevens.”

So now, there are Snow, Salmon and Easley. They proved in the minor leagues that they have ability. But no one knows whether they can be successful in the big leagues.

“They’re going to go through the same thing we did last year,” DiSarcina said. “We wanted to prove to ourselves that we were worthy of being on the team the first day, but it worked the opposite. We were scared.

“I remember looking over at Lee and Bobby in the infield that first day, and they just looked robotic over there. I was so up-tight I couldn’t believe it. The first ball hit to me, I threw 20 feet short of first base.

“You start getting a lot of doubts in your mind, whether you can play. And for me, it took until the All-Star break until I finally felt like I belonged.

“I guess it’s a feeling Bobby and Lee never reached.”

The Angels, trying to reduce the the three players’ apprehensiveness, announced before spring training began that they would be in the starting lineup.

No matter. Salmon and Snow said pressure was impossible to ignore. Salmon, the 1992 minor league player of the year, batted only .227 this spring, with a team-high 19 strikeouts in 75 at-bats. Snow batted .229, increasing his batting average 56 points in the last week. Easley, who sat out the first two weeks of exhibitions because of shin splints, checked in at .192.

“If I had to take a job from an established veteran, I wouldn’t have a job,” Salmon said. “It’s that simple.

“I just never showed what I was capable of doing at the plate. I don’t know what it was--whether I tried to do too much, tried to prove I can play up here or what. I’m just grateful it was only spring training.”

Although Rodgers says he is not overly worried about Salmon, he decided it would be best to juggle the lineup. He dropped Salmon to fifth in the batting order and moved Snow to third.

No other Angel was subjected to the pressure faced by Snow. He spent the winter making public appearances, then responded to constant interview requests in the spring and now finds himself the only evidence of the Abbott trade. Pitchers Russ Springer and Jerry Nielsen, who came from the New York Yankees with Snow, were sent to the minors.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t trying to impress people during camp,” Snow said. “By doing that I put a lot more pressure on myself. There was never a point where I thought I was overmatched, but I did feel overwhelmed at times.”

Although Easley escaped the media attention during spring training, he attracted rave reviews from the scouts. They say he might be the most talented of the three players, and if it were not for the extra eight days he spent in the big leagues last season, would be their choice for rookie of the year.

“I know I can play this game because of what happened last year,” said Easley, who batted .258 in 47 games. “I just want to start out evenly, work my confidence up and take it all in stride.

“I don’t think I feel the same pressure as Tim and J.T., but who knows? That could change.”

It has been 21 years, but Rodgers still remembers what it can be like for a rookie. He went hitless in 25 at-bats, he said, before getting his first hit, then went hitless in his next 18 at-bats. But when the season ended, Rodgers was batting .258, had had an 18-game hitting streak and finished second in the rookie-of-the-year balloting.

“We believe in their potential,” Rodgers said. “And we believe we’ve got three guys who can mentally handle it. The biggest thing is that they have to convince themselves they can play in the big leagues.

“The thing we’ve got to do is keep the kids from giving up on themselves, from burying themselves. I’m concerned, but I don’t see the fear in their eyes like I did a year ago with our new guys.”

OFFENSE

Although Rodgers is opening the season with Snow batting third, Salmon fifth and Easley seventh, the lineup, he said, will be flexible.

When you have a club that finished last in 1992 in batting average, runs, hits, doubles, total bases, walks, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, it’s senseless to be locked into a set lineup, Rodgers said.

“We believe it’ll be better,” he said of the offense, “but how much, I don’t know. When you’re last in 11 offensive categories, it’s easy to improve.”

It has become apparent that for the Angels to score, however, they will need to rely on their running game. They hit only seven home runs all spring.

DEFENSE

The biggest improvement will be defensive, said Whitey Herzog, Angel vice president. There are six positions already better than a year ago, he said, and he ranks the right side of the infield, with Snow and Easley, with any in the American League.

Rodgers agrees.

“I think our entire infield defense is as good as anyone’s in the American League,” he said. “That’s why I’m not so worried with our new guys as last year.”

PITCHING

Chuck Finley, who was 7-12 last season, appears to have returned to the form that produced consecutive 18-victory seasons in 1990 and ‘91, and Mark Langston always is a threat to win 20 games.

The rest of the rotation is anyone’s guess. Scott Sanderson could have his worst run support in the last four seasons. John Farrell has not pitched in a major league game in two years. Julio Valera is opening the year in the bullpen.

Joe Grahe, who saved 21 games in 24 opportunities, will anchor the bullpen, but Rodgers still has not determined how he will use the supporting cast.

How does Rodgers expects the Angels to fare?

“I think we can compete,” he said. “And that’s not a cop-out. It means finishing .500--give or take five games. And I won’t consider the season a success unless we finish .500.”