BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Abbott Deal Not End for Angels, It’s a Quality Start

With apologies to J.T. Snow, the decision by Whitey Herzog to trade Jim Abbott a year before he became eligible for free agency seems as ludicrous in reflection as the decision by Angel scouting director Bob Fontaine Jr. to waste his first-round draft pick on McKay Christensen in 1994.

Some in the media and elsewhere are suggesting that Fontaine’s selection of a high school outfielder who was committed to a two-year Mormon mission and would need a minimum of two or three more years of seasoning after that has been vindicated by the Chicago White Sox’s demand that Christensen be included in the package of prospects that returned Abbott to the Angels.

I don’t buy it.

In an era when amateur players are jumping to the big leagues after little or no professional seasoning, the first-round selection of a player who wouldn’t even play his first pro game for two more years--and would be prevented by his mission responsibilities from training seriously during that time--represents a frivolous waste of a big-time opportunity.

Oh, well.

As Christensen tours Japan on his mission, he now, at least, has returned a dividend on the $700,000 bonus he received from the Angels, with whom he will apparently never play a game.

He has (1) helped retrieve Abbott at a time when the Angels, blessed with a rare opportunity to prepare for October in July, needed another quality starter because it is impossible to negotiate the extended playoffs with only three, and (2) helped correct the trade in which Abbott went to the New York Yankees for Russ Springer, Jerry Nielsen and the now valuable Snow.

That was 1992, when the Angels averaged 3.7 runs a game and Abbott had concerns about the club’s direction. Now they are averaging 6.2, leading the major leagues in runs, and those concerns have faded.

Indeed, reunited with mentor Marcel Lachemann and supported by a consistent attack, Abbott should readjust nicely, particularly if he sustains his 3.36 earned-run average of Chicago.

Among other things, he will find that the Angels have developed one of the best young outfields in baseball.

How Christensen would have broken in is uncertain. How Darin Erstad, pegged as a left fielder and their No. 1 selection in 1995 at $1.575 million, will do it is also unclear.

“If the Angels are smart, they’ll keep this group of outfielders together for years to come,” right fielder Tim Salmon, 26, said in Anaheim the other day.

He referred to himself, center fielder Jim Edmonds, 25, and left fielder Garret Anderson, 23, all selected by Fontaine in the inexact science that is the amateur draft.

“I don’t want to make comparisons, but I’ve got to believe we’ll only get better with time,” Salmon said.

“What Jimmy is doing in his second year is unbelievable, and Garret has so much talent it makes you shudder.

“I look around and put his potential in the context of a Ken Griffey Jr. I don’t have that kind of talent, but I’ll be there every day for you.

“We definitely have the making of a great outfield. At the least, I think, you’re talking about three impact players.”

Edmonds leads the major leagues in runs batted in and has emerged as a most-valuable-player candidate on his way to 30-plus home runs. Anderson’s rookie numbers through 147 at-bats project to 27 homers and 112 RBIs for 500 at-bats. Salmon has 20 homers and 62 RBIs, on pace to a typical season of about 30 homers and 90 RBIs.

The yardstick is found in Cleveland. The Indians’ outfield of Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton and Manny Ramirez is generally considered baseball’s best, but the Angels’ Lachemann said:

“I’d say we’re on a par offensively and maybe better defensively. As young as our people are, I have to think they’re capable of getting better. They’re just a bunch of pups, really.”

The pups have a bite, however.

“One of the keys to this team is that they kept the young players together when we were losing,” Edmonds said. “Now that we’ve turned it around, I hope they allow us to stay together.

“We know we have a talented outfield and want to be considered one of the best, just like individually we want to be considered among the best. If we go out and continue to prove ourselves, that will all take care of itself. For now, it’s just fun to go in that direction.”

Edmonds has proved himself after being thrust into the center-field void with the spring trading of Curtis for Tony Phillips. He goes about it now with an edge, a degree of cockiness that teammates joke about and hope they can control.

Opponents have taken notice. Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove said he wasn’t impressed after Edmonds hit a two-run, game-tying homer in the seventh inning Monday night, stood at home plate hollering as he watched the ball clear the fence and then walked slowly toward first base before breaking into a trot.

“Yes, it bothered me,” Hargrove said. “Nobody said anything in our dugout, but I sensed an undercurrent of tension. I understand that he was excited, but he’s too good a hitter to be doing stuff like that.”

It’s a small problem as the Angels cruise toward a division title that they can virtually wrap up during a seven-game home stand against the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers that starts Tuesday. The Cleveland series last week seemed to awaken the populace, and the reacquisition of Abbott should keep everyone up late.

There’s something of a new spirit and image in Anaheim. General Manager Bill Bavasi and assistant Tim Mead have shown bold leadership, from the firing of Manager Buck Rodgers to the trading of Curtis to the aggressive pursuit this week of another starting pitcher. There will be changes when the Walt Disney Co. takes over, but Bavasi and Mead should be permitted to remain at the trigger.

THE PRICE

Did the Angels give up too much? In the subjective view of Baseball America, perhaps.

That publication ranked pitcher Andrew Lorraine as the Angels’ top prospect, listed Christensen No. 4 and placed reliever Bill Simas, a hard thrower who was expected to replace Troy Percival as the setup man when Percival replaces Lee Smith as the closer, No. 8.

Impressive on paper, but imprecise in reality.

The fact is, the Angels didn’t have to give up a front-line player or their top power prospect, Todd Greene, or their third baseman of the future, George Arias. In addition, how often have the Angels been in position to go the distance? How often can a club reacquire one of its most popular players?

Even if the Angels fail to re-sign Abbott, eligible for free agency when the season ends, it was worth the one-year shot, but it’s difficult to believe that the Newport Beach resident, having proven you can go home again, won’t be eager to stay.

DAVEY’S FUTURE

It remains one of the most bizarre stories of the 1995 season.

Even if the Cincinnati Reds win the World Series, Davey Johnson won’t be back as manager. He’ll become General Manager Jim Bowden’s assistant or leave to take another managerial job.

He is due to be replaced by Ray Knight, a close friend whom he brought in as assistant manager.

Johnson won’t discuss the matter, but it all stems from the fact that owner Marge Schott--who has asked: “What’s the name of our manager?”--reportedly harbors an intense dislike for Johnson, primarily because he and his fiancee were living together when he was hired to manage the team. A sin, in Schott’s view.

Johnson probably saved his job by marrying his fiancee before the 1994 season, but Schott, who likes Knight’s wife, golfer Nancy Lopez, still wanted Johnson out and Knight in for ’95.

Bowden interceded and convinced Schott that since Johnson had the Reds in first place when the strike began last Aug. 12, he was entitled to finish what he started.

Schott bought it, but only with the understanding that a change would be made at the end of the season.

PICKING UP THE PACE

Ultimately hoping to knock 20 to 25 minutes off the average game, currently 2 hours 57 minutes, baseball initiated a series of changes Friday:

--Hitters are to remain within three feet of the batter’s box.

--Pitchers are to deliver a pitch within 12 seconds after a batter is set in the box, providing no one is on base.

--Managers must call for pitching changes as soon as they leave the dugout.

--The between-innings breaks of games not on national TV are to be restricted to 2 minutes 5 seconds, with the public-address announcer calling for the first batter of the next inning after 1 minute 45 seconds.

Other changes, such as enforcement of the high strike and possible raising the mound, will be considered next spring.

There are no specific penalties if the new rules are violated, although an umpire can call a strike on a batter who wanders too far from the box, or a ball on a pitcher who takes too long to deliver.

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NAMES AND NUMBERS

One reason the Cleveland Indians did not back away from the acquisition of St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Ken Hill is that the Angels, their possible opponent in the opening round of the playoffs, beat up on all five of Cleveland’s starting pitchers--Dennis Martinez, Orel Hershiser, Mark Clark, Chuck Nagy and Chad Ogea--in winning three of five games during the last two weeks. The Angels hit .321 against the Cleveland starters, who were a combined 0-3 with an 8.20 earned-run average for the five games.

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Move over Don Gullett: David Wells of the Detroit Tigers is 10-3 with a 3.04 ERA and a nine-game winning streak. “He’s the best left-handed starter I’ve ever had,” Manager Sparky Anderson said after Wells beat the Oakland A’s, 10-4, Wednesday.

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There have been table-setting meetings between lawyers for the owners and the players’ union in each of the last two weeks, and there is a possibility that low-scale negotiations could resume for the first time since March 30 in the next few days.

No one expects a quick settlement, however. In fact, a union lawyer said the “smart money” among union representatives backs the theory that the owners will continue to stall and make another try at unilateral implementation of a new system in the fall.