BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : The New Guy Is Strange One

Angel infielder Jim Walewander still is considered a bit of a flake, taking the city bus to games, listening to The Dead Milkmen, and decorating his apartment with green plastic trash bags, but he finally is back in the major leagues.

Walewander had played only nine big league games since 1988, when he was the Detroit Tigers’ utility infielder, but his contract was bought Friday by the Angels. He replaces catcher John Orton, who was put on the 15-day disabled list because of an inflamed right elbow.

The Angels made room for Walewander on the 40-man roster by putting pitcher Julio Valera on the 60-day disabled list.

“I’d like this to lead into a nice, 15-year Hall of Fame career,” said Walewander, 31, who was batting .315 at triple-A Vancouver. “But I better take it one day at a time.”

Walewander spent half of last season playing in Italy before returning to play for the Texas Rangers’ triple-A Oklahoma City club.

“I came back from Italy because I thought if I played there any longer, I wouldn’t ever come back,” Walewander said. “The only trouble was that it ruined my driving for the rest of my life.”

Walewander appeared as a pinch-runner Friday.

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Orton, who has played only 37 games this season because of a variety of injuries, will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging test in Boston. The Angels will continue with only two catchers, Manager Buck Rodgers said, and use infielder Rod Correia as his emergency third catcher.

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Second baseman-outfielder Kevin Flora, whose wife and niece were killed in April in an automobile accident, will be activated today at triple-A Vancouver. . . . The Cleveland Indians signed pitcher Daron Kirkreit of UC Riverside, the 11th pick in the June free-agent draft, for $600,000. That came as bad news to the Angels, considering that pitcher Brian Anderson was the third pick in the draft and they had hoped to sign him for $700,000.