Phillips Says It Was Not the Money

Manager Marcel Lachemann said the decision not to re-sign Tony Phillips this season was strictly financial, that “there was no doubt Tony could produce again, but if you’re not going to get anyone out, it’s not going to matter,” he said. “We only had so much money and had to retain pitching.”

To which Phillips responded: “That’s bull.”

Phillips is now doing for the Chicago White Sox what he did last season for the Angels, getting on base from his leadoff spot at an amazingly high rate (.428 entering Monday night’s game), hitting for average (.311), scoring runs (57), drawing walks (53), arguing with umpires (ejected twice over the weekend) . . . the kind of stuff the Angels have sorely missed this season.

Phillips, who signed a two-year, $3.6-million deal with the White Sox, wanted to play in Anaheim this season, but the Angels made no attempt to sign him, opting to lock up pitchers Chuck Finley and Jim Abbott with multiyear deals and go with an inexpensive platoon of Tim Wallach/Jack Howell at third.

“If someone wants you, if someone needs you, they sign you,” said Phillips, who hit .261 with 27 homers, 119 runs, 113 walks and 61 runs batted in in 1995. “They wanted Finley and Abbott, they’re more important, and that’s fine. I have no problems with a business decision. That’s baseball.

“But when you look at 119 runs and 61 RBIs, that’s 180 runs--where are they going to get that? Those guys [the Angels] will be OK, but that’s what I looked at over the winter.”

*

Phillips, on the fact he hit .198 last August and September, as the Angels blew an 11-game lead in the A.L. West: “I choked.” . . . When Jack Howell (strained right hamstring) was placed on the 15-day disabled list Monday, it marked the 16th time this season an Angel has gone on the DL, tying the team record set in 1992. The Angels currently have nine players on the DL. . . . The Angels Monday traded triple-A reliever Ken Edenfield to Columbus (Ohio), the New York Yankees’ triple-A team, for a player to be named, clearing room on the 40-man roster for catcher Pat Borders. Borders, a former World Series most valuable player acquired in a trade Saturday with St. Louis, joined the Angels Monday and ended his first meeting with reporters with an apology. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m boring.” . . . Lachemann said Abbott (1-10, 7.67 earned-run average) will make his next scheduled start, Friday night in Milwaukee. . . . Blood was dribbling down Angel utility player Rex Hudler’s elbow and was smeared all over his pants Monday--during batting practice. “It’s an old ploy,” Hudler said. “When a hot team comes to town, you pick a scab, rub it on your pants, and show ‘em what you’re made of.”