Starting Job One of Few Openings

There isn’t much competition for jobs in the Angels’ camp this spring. It’s difficult for even a talented prospect such as 1995 No. 1 draft pick Darin Erstad to take an outfield spot away from Garret Anderson, Jim Edmonds or Tim Salmon, for example.

The fight for the No. 5 starter’s spot in the rotation is one of the few job openings this spring.

So far, Shawn Boskie and Jason Grimsley have impressed Manager Marcel Lachemann most of all. Phil Leftwich, who starts today against the Oakland Athletics, also has pitched well. Scott Sanderson has not.

With Steve Ontiveros, slated to be the No. 4 starter, slowed by a sore right elbow, it’s possible Grimsley and Boskie could be in the starting rotation by opening day.

Ontiveros, who had off-season surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow, has yet to pitch in a game this season and isn’t certain when he will.

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Closer Lee Smith, recovering from surgery to repair the patella tendon in his right knee, threw off a mound for only the second time this spring.

Smith threw 50 pitches and “didn’t have any problems,” Lachemann said. “If we don’t have any problems he could be pitching in a game within a week.”

Smith, who injured his knee while hunting last November, is scheduled to throw off a mound again today.

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The Angels played the last of their split-squad games Sunday, losing to the Colorado Rockies, 14-5, at Tucson and defeating Oakland, 15-10, at Las Vegas.