ANGELS : Team Weighs Cost of Top Draft Pick

With 97 shopping days before the June 1 baseball draft, Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi spent Friday afternoon at a display window in San Diego, where Nebraska outfielder Darin Erstad, one of the nation’s top college prospects, was playing in a tournament.

Bavasi liked what he saw. “A very nice looking, all-around player,” he said. The question is, would the Angels have enough money to purchase such a prized product?

The Angels, for the first time in 20 years, have the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, a blessing for a team that needs an impact player, a potential curse for a team with financial problems.

The Angels, of course, fall into both categories, so they might face a dilemma come June: If there is one player who stands out above the rest but may be out of their price range, do they choose him? Or do they take a lesser, but more affordable player?

“Budget will have absolutely nothing to do with the first pick,” Bavasi said. “We’ve been told to get the best player.”

But at what price? Last year’s No. 1 pick, pitcher Paul Wilson, received a $1.55 million signing bonus from the New York Mets. That’s what the Angels spent signing all of their 1994 picks, including first-rounder McKay Christensen, who received $700,000.

Bavasi said the Angels’ signing budget “has to go up,” but he wouldn’t say how high. Neither would President Richard Brown, but Brown made it clear the Angels won’t take a second mortgage on the Big A to fund their pick.

“You don’t get the first pick too often and you certainly want to get the best athlete, one who can help in the immediate future,” Brown said. “But the sky is never the limit.”

It’s too early to peg whether this year’s draft is considered above average, average or below average, but Erstad, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound left-hander, entered the season as Baseball America’s top-rated college prospect.

Two right-handed pitchers, Matt Morris, a 6-5, 210-pounder from Seton Hall, and Mike Drumright, a 6-3, 215-pounder from Wichita State, were rated second and third by the magazine.

With the sixth pick overall last year the Angels chose Christensen, a high school outfielder who is serving a two-year Mormon mission in Japan and won’t join the organization until fall, 1996.

“A lot of people slapped us around for going after McKay,” Brown said. “But if you put (Angel scouting director) Bob Fontaine under oath, he would tell you he went after a future, all-around, major league outfielder.”

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Bavasi distributed a one-page questionnaire to players after practice Saturday, asking if they’d be willing to participate in exhibition games and, in effect, be labeled as strikebreakers.

Players have until this afternoon to return the questionnaire, but a team official said “a good amount” of the 49 players in camp had returned them before heading back to the clubhouse Saturday.

The Angels open the exhibition season Wednesday night against Arizona State in Tempe, and team officials expect all but perhaps a handful of players to cross the picket line.

“The ultimatum has come,” said pitcher Tony Fetchel, who played at Cal State Fullerton. “The time for the decision is now. You can’t run from it anymore.”

Those who agree to be replacement players will move from Mesa to Tempe on Wednesday for the start of what will be considered major league camp. Their per diem will jump from $53 to $78, and those who make the final 32-man roster will receive a $5,000 bonus and a salary of $115,000, $20,000 of which will be guaranteed.

Though Bavasi told players they wouldn’t automatically be released if they chose not to be replacements, it was made clear that such a decision would greatly reduce their chances of making a farm team.

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Notes

Elvin Rivera, a 28-year-old right-handed pitcher who played in the Angels’ farm system from 1986-88, was added to the roster Saturday, bringing to 50 the number of potential replacements.