Tavares Is Pondering Ways to Jump-Start Stalled Angels

So here they are at the All-Star break, foundering when almost everyone predicted they would be flying.

The Angels have had five winning streaks of four games or more, including two seven-game streaks.

They also have had seven losing streaks of four games or more, including two six-game skids.

Is this any way to win a division title?

No, and that inconsistent pattern of play explains why the Angels are 43-45, tied for third place with Oakland and 8 1/2 games behind first-place Texas in the American League West.

It’s also angering new Angel President Tony Tavares. Eager to turn around the club’s long history of failure on the field and at the box office, Tavares hinted Monday there will be changes.

The Angels’ first move was to release reliever Brad Pennington, who walked all three batters he faced in Oakland’s 13-run first inning last Friday.

“I’m not going to sit back and say, ‘Oh, well,’ and accept losing as part of fate,” Tavares said. “We will have a competitive team on the field. But we’re not going to play the rent-a-pitcher game this club has played in the past. We’re not going to give up young talent for a pitcher we’ll have for three months.”

Certainly, the Angels’ mediocre start ranks among the top surprises in the major leagues in the first half of the season. Figuring out how and why the Angels have been so inconsistent isn’t difficult.

It’s the pitching.

“Why isn’t this team playing better? Let’s analyze what’s happening on these long losing streaks,” Tavares said. “It’s the pitching. Actually, it’s a combination of things. But it always has to do with walks or errors. Think about all the times we’ve walked somebody or made an error that’s wound up costing us a game.”

Injuries, unwillingness to retain Tony Phillips and several disappointing performances--including the manager’s--also can’t be discounted.

Marcel Lachemann gave a profane response when questioned about his own accountability after he admitted making several tactical mistakes in a 6-5, 10-inning loss to Oakland Saturday.

The gist of it was that he understands his culpability and that he has to live with decisions he does or does not make.

Tavares continues to defer to General Manager Bill Bavasi on baseball matters. But that doesn’t mean he won’t make his feelings known loud and clear.

Tavares, also the Mighty Ducks’ president, wanted to make a coaching change during the middle of this past hockey season but was talked out of it by General Manager Jack Ferreira.

The Ducks then made a number of trades and wound up one victory short of making the playoffs for the first time.

Lachemann has plenty of staunch supporters, including Bavasi, who hired him to replace Buck Rodgers early in 1994, so it’s possible history could be repeated this summer.

“Sometimes you need to change the mix of the 25 players rather than the one manager,” Tavares said. “It’s not always the manager’s fault. Maybe there are some square pegs in round holes [among the players].”

Tavares and Bavasi are talking during the break about possible trades and roster moves. Clearly, those discussions wouldn’t carry the same urgency if the Angels’ pitching was better and they weren’t so far behind in the standings.

“Pitching keys a lot of [the inconsistency],” Lachemann said. “The other players key off the tempo of the game. Body language is very important from the standpoint that everybody’s watching you. The pitcher is the one holding the ball.

“And the results are obvious.”

Which brings us to Jim Abbott’s struggles. Who could have guessed that by the end of the first half, Abbott would have a 1-11 record and a 7.60 earned-run average? Or that he would be demoted to the bullpen?

After all, he won 11 games and had the ninth-best earned-run average in the league in 1995. Now, he has been reduced to mopping up in games hopelessly lost while working to regain his form.

Tavares promised change in the second half, but what he can do with Abbott is unclear. His glaring lack of success and high salary make a trade unlikely. Simply releasing him would mean eating the remainder of his three-year, $7.8 million contract--a doubtful proposition.

Still, there is no way to dump all the blame on the pitchers.

“Here’s where the imbalance is: we score four or five runs and they [the pitchers] give them right back,” second baseman Randy Velarde said. “Our pitchers shut them down for a few innings and the offense goes flat. We’ve got to be in sync.”

And then there is the disappointing performance of Gary DiSarcina.

An All-Star last year, DiSarcina batted a career-best .307 and had only six errors, emerging as one of the game’s finest young shortstops. At the break this year, he’s batting .245, hasn’t had an extra-base hit since June 23 and has 11 errors.

“It’s been a really difficult year for us because so much was expected out of us coming out of spring training,” Velarde said. “It’s critical not to get down.”

Turning around the Angels’ fortunes shouldn’t be that difficult. They have been masters of changing courses this season. Becoming consistent winners has been the tough part.

“The most discouraging thing is to see the young talent we have mixed with the veterans--I mean we’re right there with a lot of teams,” said Velarde, who had a hit in 22 of 23 games before the break. “We’re getting blown out by a lot of teams when it should be the other way around.”