Angels Calm Despite Hole at Shortstop

Gary DiSarcina, Angel MVP?

Judging from the tremors on the left side of the infield since Black Thursday, you’d have to say the voting would be a landslide.

Before DiSarcina’s hellacious slide onto the disabled list--he went in trying to break up a double play and instead tore up a thumb--the Angels had won eight in a row and 17 of their first 20 games after the All-Star break.

Including the night of the injury, the Angels have lost three of four--two of three to their closest challengers in the American League West, the Texas Rangers.

Before DiSarcina grabbed the wrong end of the second-base bag with the wrong hand at the wrong time, he had committed five errors in 88 games at shortstop.

In three games without DiSarcina at shortstop, the two Angels attempting to share the position have made four errors--one by Rod Correia on Sunday to follow Spike Owen’s hat trick Saturday.

Is it too early to panic?

Let us review:

This is Anaheim.

These are the Angels.

All present are hereby permitted to panic.

Bill Bavasi, the Angel general manager who just finished plugging one hole in the starting rotation and now must reach for the Spackle again, admitted Sunday that his level of concern “is high. If we lost a starter at any position, I’d be concerned . . . But that shouldn’t be alarming. It’s my job to be concerned.”

It’s also Bavasi’s job to scrounge up a solution. So far, the call has gone out to Dick (Ducky) Schofield, who probably figured Bavasi was ringing to invite him to Oldtimers Day. Schofield was the Angels’ shortstop before DiSarcina and after Tim Foli, holding down the position--and the ninth spot in the batting order--during the club’s “Little Ball” years of 1984-1987 and their “Little Chance” years of 1988-1991.

Schofield broke in alongside teammates named Rod Carew and Rick Burleson. Now Carew and Burleson coach the Angels. His first double-play partner was Bobby Grich, who has been retired for nearly nine years. Schofield had his best years under Gene Mauch, who retired and unretired and now sits on the bench next to Kansas City Royals Manager Bob Boone, another old Schofield contemporary.

Scouts say Schofield doesn’t have the range he used to. Neither does Luis Aparicio. But the Angels wanted someone who knows the terrain, someone familiar with the organization, and Jim Fregosi’s too busy yanking pitchers off the mound in Philadelphia.

No, Schofield is not the answer, which Bavasi readily acknowledges. “I’m thinking of him strictly as a backup,” Bavasi said.

So who does Schofield back up?

Owen just got off the disabled list and has a left shoulder that will probably require surgery after the season. It’s tough to win a pennant when your everyday shortstop belongs in a sling.

Correia has taken fewer than 160 at-bats against major league pitching. His next big league home run will be his first. His next big league RBI will be his 11th. If Correia impacts any pennant race this season, it will most likely be the Pacific Coast League’s.

Rene Gonzales? He’s here to back up Owen and Correia.

According to Bavasi, these are options C, D and E. Option A, he says, is to “hunt for a front-line guy. But that’s not likely. Finding pitching is probably easier than finding a front-line shortstop.”

Cal Ripken being unavailable--last Bavasi heard--the Angels are left to comb a short list of shortstops either too expensive (Jay Bell, say) or not worth the trouble (Jose Offerman, say.)

In between, Mariano Duncan is available. Or was. Philadelphia just tried to trade Duncan to Atlanta, a move that first necessitated Duncan clearing waivers, but Cincinnati made a claim on the player to block any deal.

Montreal, renowned dumper of large contracts, still owns the rights to Wil Cordero and insists for the moment he’s staying put. The Cubs might have incentive to unload Shawon Dunston--he becomes a free agent at the end of the season--but after the Jim Abbott trade, Bavasi is fresh out of truckloads of minor league prospects to ship to Chicago.

The Mets are dangling Jose Vizcaino, a good-field, occasionally-hit type who could interest the Angels, although Mets, generally speaking, make lousy pennant insurance.

That brings Bavasi to option B. You know him as Damion Easley, Angel second baseman. But before he was an Angel second baseman, Easley was a Quad City and Midland shortstop, and if the Angels and their fans can hang on for another week to 10 days, Easley is expected to return to from whence he came.

“Shortstop was all he played until his last year in the minors,” said Bavasi, the Angels’ minor-league director during the early 1990s. “We moved him to second base because we already had Gary and he was the most athletic of the candidates we had at second base.

“He was an outstanding minor league shortstop. Outstanding. But that was a while ago (1989-1991). Athletically, it’ll be no problem for him to move back there, but he’ll be flying blind a little bit at first.”

Easley is already taking ground balls at shortstop during infield practice. Bavasi said the plan is to “give him a comfort level there,” which should take a week or so.

With a 10-game lead, the Angels just might be able to make it from there to there.

“I think right now the club is going through a lull,” Bavasi said, “and it could very well be connected to what’s happened with Gary. But I think these things pass. We still have good pitching and once we solidify shortstop, we’ll still have the great defense we’ve always had.”

And if Easley hits 100 points below DiSarcina, well, Tony Phillips, Jim Edmonds, Tim Salmon, J.T. Snow, Garret Anderson and Chili Davis have all thumb ligaments intact.

“We are still in a really good situation,” Bavasi said. “A year ago, we were in a really bad situation. I’ll take this any day.”