BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Help Wanted Sign Is Hung Out

A starting rotation with Shawn Boskie and Mike Bielecki might have been frightening for Angel fans a month and a half ago. An even more scary thought: A rotation without Boskie and Bielecki.

Bielecki joined Boskie on the 15-day disabled list because of biceps tendinitis, leaving the Angels scrambling for a starter for Friday’s game against Detroit and for the weeks ahead.

“We’re looking at all our options,” General Manager Bill Bavasi said. Among them: Mark Holzemer, a left-hander who was called up from triple-A Vancouver last week, and Andrew Lorraine, a left-hander at Vancouver.

The Angels are scouring the waiver wire--Oakland’s Mike Harkey and Toronto’s Danny Darwin are two right-handed starters who were recently released--but Bavasi said any emergency move would not preclude a trade for a more prominent starter, such as Minnesota’s Kevin Tapani.

*

Bielecki, who has had a sore arm for several weeks and gave up five homers in his last two starts, had trouble adjusting to rehabilitation.

“It’s no fun,” he said. “I’ve been on the DL for an hour, and [the training staff] is killing me.” . . .

A magnetic resonance imaging test on Boskie’s inflamed elbow revealed no serious damage and he will not need surgery, but he’ll be sidelined for several weeks.

*

How did pitcher Brian Anderson, a native of nearby Geneva, Ohio, celebrate his victory over Cleveland on Monday night? “My dad and I sat on our back porch at 3 a.m. and killed two cigars,” Anderson said. “I think they were cheap ones because they already had the ends bit out. But I did not inhale . . . are you kidding me? My lungs were hurting this morning.”