ANGEL NOTEBOOK : Players Fill In Blanks on the Roster

Demond Smith agonized over the decision all morning. Should the 22-year-old outfielder from Rialto Eisenhower High become a replacement player and risk being ostracized by the major leaguers he hopes to join some day? Or should he remain in minor league camp, appeasing the union but perhaps upsetting his employer?

The Angels needed an answer by early Sunday, and Smith, one of only a handful of minor league prospects in camp, put the decision off until the very last minute.

Then money started talking, and Smith was all ears, and soon he joined the throng of would-be Angels across the picket line.

“I’m broke and I need the experience,” said Smith, who played for Class A Boise (Ida.) and Lake Elsinore last season. “Most guys would be lying if they said it didn’t boil down to money.”

Not many of the 50 players in camp fretted over the decision like Smith. When General Manager Bill Bavasi distributed one-page questionnaires after Saturday’s practice and gave players until Sunday to decide whether to be replacements, about half returned the sheet before heading back to the clubhouse Saturday.

The Angels did not release questionnaire results. Manager Marcel Lachemann said “more than one” player refused to be a replacement, but only two or three players are believed to be unwilling to cross. Some 45 players confirmed they would be replacements.

Two players who anguished over the decision--Steve Renko, a 27-year-old pitcher and son of former major leaguer Steve Renko, and Darrel Akerfelds, a 32-year-old pitcher who spent parts of five seasons in the major leagues--declined to reveal their choices.

Nate Olmstead, a 23-year-old first baseman from Stanford, said he would not become a replacement.

“This may hurt me--it might have been my only chance to keep playing,” Olmstead said, “but I just wasn’t comfortable with the idea.”

Most others were.

“I’ve got to take care of myself,” said Doug Robertson, a 31-year-old pitcher who played at Upland High and Cal State Fullerton. “Who am I fooling? Like I’m going to go back to the minor leagues and compete with some 25-year-old? I’m past the development stage.”

John Thibert, a 24-year-old pitcher from Canyon High: “The big leaguers don’t know who I am, and I really don’t think they care about me.”

Ken Valdez, a 20-year-old pitcher from Florida: “When I got released (in 1993) the union was never there for me. I have to do this for myself.”

Angel special assignment scout John McNamara, who spent 18 seasons as a major league manager, could only shake his head as he sized up the situation in the Gene Autry Park clubhouse.

“To me it’s sickening the state of affairs the game is in now,” he said. “To see it come to this point is difficult to see.”

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Local scabs: The 10 aspiring Angels in camp with Orange County connections all said they would become replacement players Sunday. They are pitchers Dion Beck (Cal State Fullerton), Carlos Castillo (Loara, Cypress College), Tony Fetchel (CSF), Doug Robertson (CSF) and John Thibert (Canyon), outfielders John Fishel (Loara, CSF), Chris Powell (Edison, CSF), Greg Shockey (Mater Dei) and Pete Weber (Canyon), and catcher Ken Briggs (Foothill, Chapman).

Notes

The team will play the first of two intersquad games today. They will play again Tuesday before opening the exhibition season Wednesday night against Arizona State in Tempe Diablo Stadium. . . . Manager Marcel Lachemann said the Angels will ignore the union’s declaration that any player appearing in any exhibition games is a strikebreaker. “We may have to ask some minor leaguers to play because of injuries or something,” he said. “I don’t care what the union says--just because you play in a spring training game doesn’t make you a major league player or a replacement player.” However, Lachemann said the Angels’ 32-man replacement team would be chosen only from the pool of players who Sunday agreed to cross the picket line.