This Move Shows Serious Thought

So what do you know.

The Angels are serious about this thing.

As serious as a Terry Collins stare, a Dave Hollins grimace, a Jim Edmonds dive.

As serious as that 92-mph fastball that you will soon be seeing from right-hander Ken Hill, the pitcher who makes them legitimate contenders for the American League West championship.

He was acquired from the Texas Rangers Tuesday in a trade for catcher Jim Leyritz, one player to be named, and one player not to be named.

The most important part of that deal is the third one.

The player not to be named was outfielder Garret Anderson or first baseman Darin Erstad.

The Angels were able to add a starting pitcher for their stretch run without costing themselves any of their top young hitters.

That was previously thought to be an impossibility along the lines of, say, Bill Bavasi growing hair.

So what do you know.

The Angels are serious about this thing.

The team that desperately needed a veteran starter has one.

The organization that desperately needed to show its fans it cares about winning has done just that.

Ken Hill is a poor substitute for Ron Wilson, but you get the picture.

There are those who think Hill, 31, has lost some of the form that helped him win 16 games in three of the last five seasons.

To which I say, duh. Why do you think the Angels were able to acquire him for a catcher who was suddenly expendable?

News flash: You are not going to get Greg Maddux for Jim Leyritz. You are not going to get last year’s Ken Hill for Jim Leyritz.

You are not even going to get a staff ace for rough-edged catcher, who was outstanding in his four months here, but probably not as good as Todd Greene is going to be.

That’s OK. The Angels don’t need an ace. Chuck Finley took over the place recently, and won’t let anybody near it.

The Angels don’t need a star, they need a guy who will take the ball every five days and keep it close. They need a guy who, while he might not shut out the Cleveland Indians in late August, will not get lit by the Minnesota Twins three weeks later.

They need a guy who will approach September not as if it were a busy intersection, but a country road.

As if he’s driven it before.

Which Ken Hill has done.

He was 2-1 with a 1.85 ERA in the 1995 postseason with Cleveland.

He allowed three earned runs in six innings in his only postseason start last year with the Rangers.

He has struggled this season, first with a sore shoulder, then with a bunch of flat pitches, going 5-8 with a 5.19 ERA.

Is he hurt? All pitchers are hurt. The winners are the ones who adjust.

If structural damage is found, he will be shipped back to Texas faster than you can say Greg Vaughn.

If not, well, he is old enough and smart enough to adjust.

This is a guy who won many games he should not have won for the mediocre Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinal teams several years ago . . . then suddenly changed leagues at the end of 1995 and pitched decently in the final two months for the Indians.

The other night, Hill had a good start in Chicago against the White Sox, allowed four hits in 7 2/3 innings, and lost, 2-1. He walked six, but against that team, you aren’t doing your job if you don’t walk six--Frank Thomas three times and Albert Belle three times.

It was only one game. But in the funny-wound mind of a guy who works twice a week at most, all it takes is one.

“We hope we’re getting him at a time when he’s about to kick it in,” said Bavasi, the Angels’ general manager. ‘He’s gone through a tough period; we think he’s ready to break out of it.”

Your turn, Seattle Mariners. The price for Toronto reliever Mike Timlin just soared.

If you don’t get him, the Angels will get you. Even if they do solve your bullpen problem, the Angels should now hang around until the end, when anything can happen, and doesn’t every Orange County soul know it.

‘We feel we can win the division with what we have,” Bavasi said. “But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t look.”

The enduring message here is not contained in the first part of that quote, but the last.

More than Ken Hill or Jim Leyritz or the Angels, this is about Disney doing its job as as a responsible sport franchise, taking chances, trying to get better, maybe even trying to win for winning’s sake.

What was the name of that big red-headed guy again?