ANGELS : Union Edict Isn’t Keeping Doty Off Field

No one has said anything to Derrin Doty, but the Angel outfielder has gotten some dirty looks in the hotel restaurant, mostly from triple-A players.

Though Doty hasn’t committed to playing in regular-season replacement games, he knows his decision to leave minor league camp and play in the last three spring-training games will be criticized.

“I have confidence that I can handle someone getting in my face, but that hasn’t happened yet,” said Doty, who split the 1994 season between Class-A Cedar Rapids and Lake Elsinore. “It’s not the most fun situation, but if I can turn it into a positive, it can be great.”

Doty, 24, has ignored the union’s stance that those playing in spring training games will be considered scabs for the chance to impress major league coaches.

Collecting three hits and five runs batted in during the Angels’ 12-10 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Tempe Diablo Stadium Tuesday went a long way toward justifying his decision.

“When Marcel Lachemann and Rod Carew can put a face to a name, that could mean a lot more than money down the road,” said Doty, the Angels’ 17th-round pick in 1993. “People have said this could come back and haunt me, that I’ll be blacklisted, but I would think people will forget about the guys doing this.”

The Angels are hoping to attract about a dozen replacement players from their farm system with an offer that includes a guaranteed minor league roster spot when the strike is settled and an increased minor league salary that is guaranteed for the entire season.

Doty said he hasn’t been approached with such an offer, but he said he’d still consider playing in regular-season replacement games.

“A lot of guys are scared to come over--I’m the only one who has,” Doty said. “They don’t realize how good it is being here . . . it might be different if they ask me to go to Anaheim, but right now, I’m fine with this.”

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The Brewers, whose roster includes many triple-A and double-A players, completed a five-game spring-training sweep of the Angels thanks to Tuesday’s 17-hit attack. Milwaukee outscored the Angels, 48-31, in the five games.

Angel starter Carlos Castillo, who had been one of the team’s most consistent pitchers, was racked for 11 hits and nine runs, three of them earned, in 2 2/3 innings. Tim Barker and Bo Dodson each had three hits for the Brewers.

Milwaukee, which appears to have one of the American League’s better replacement teams, has signed 39 players to replacement contracts, but they have until Friday to back out.

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Rumors persist that a group of prominent major league players have told union chief Donald Fehr that if the strike is not settled by a certain date, it will cross the symbolic picket line.

“All it takes is a little break in the dike and players will swarm over,” Angel President Richard Brown said.