Signing Takes Fun Out of Spring

Can we go ahead and start the regular season now?

By signing Jack McDowell Wednesday night the Angels took the suspense out of their preseason faster than you can say “William VanLandingham.”

(Come to think of it, spring training might be over by the time you finish saying William VanLandingham.)

What’s spring training without questions and intrigue? We were led to believe the most compelling story line would be the battle among VanLandingham, Omar Olivares and Rich Robertson for the No. 5 spot in the starting rotation.

The Angels kept saying it was going to be a dogfight.

Instead, it became a card game, with the dealer showing an ace. It’s over before it even got a chance to start.

Black Jack, baby.

With McDowell in hand, thoughts turn to what might happen in October, not March.

Chuck Finley, Ken Hill, Allen Watson, Jason Dickson and McDowell? That’s the most solid rotation, top to bottom, in the American League West. Each pitcher is capable of winning 15 games, which would put the Angels well on their way to a pennant.

And if the Angels were seriously considering the other three guys for a starting spot, it shouldn’t hurt too much to use one of them if a starter goes down with an injury.

McDowell and the Angels are convinced the elbow problems that limited him to 40 innings with the Cleveland Indians last year are gone. It remains to be seen whether the control problems that brought about a demotion to the bullpen in 1996 are behind him too.

McDowell doesn’t do things the easy way. He will fall behind in the count and give up more hits than innings pitched. But he is, as Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi said, “a warrior.” He will battle and keep himself around until the sixth and seventh innings, even when he does not have good stuff. His toughness should set a good example for younger pitchers such as Dickson.

As far as the Angels are concerned, he’s low-risk. If McDowell doesn’t have it, he only cost them $1 million--that’s bat boy money these days--and they have no obligation for next year. If McDowell returns to his old form, starts 30 games and pitches 210 innings, the Angels have a Cy Young Award-caliber pitcher and McDowell gets $5 million worth of incentives.

(Since these are the Angels, you also have to consider the worst-case scenario: McDowell earns all of his incentives while the rest of the rotation falls apart and the Angels go nowhere.)

Bavasi said the head honchos in Mouse World authorized this unexpected expenditure, which is a good sign. Team President Tony Tavares said recently that Disney headquarters in Burbank gave the Angels permission to go over budget to apply finishing touches on the stadium renovations. If they can spend extra bucks to sandblast the concourses in the stadium, it only makes sense they spend extra bucks on the team.

In some ways the Angels are lucky. Although the club is unwilling to write huge checks to keep pace with the current market, players are dropping down to fit the pay scale. If McDowell and Cecil Fielder weren’t coming off injury-plagued years in 1997, there’s no way the Angels could have signed them at $1 million and $2.8 million, respectively.

But by getting them when they had the chance, the Angels have sent a message--to their competitors and their team.

“That says a lot to the players,” Manager Terry Collins said. “We might not be spending $60 million, but we’re going to do what it takes to win.”

Collins brought up Darin Erstad’s new four-year, $7.25-million contract, which was finalized earlier Wednesday but overshadowed by the McDowell deal. The Angels aren’t sacrificing the long-term stability of the team by pursuing what could be temporary solutions like McDowell.

“They’ve already shown a commitment to winning,” closer Troy Percival said. “Everything they’re doing now is just reinforcing it. The long-term deals, singing Cecil. . . . This is something that hasn’t been here since I’ve been here, a commitment to winning.”

All the Angels need now is a little time travel. Call up Mr. Peabody and Sherman and tell them to bring the Way-Back Machine. Set it for 1993, when Fielder had his last 30-home run, 100-RBI season and McDowell went 22-10 with a 3.37 earned-run average.

They don’t even have to go back that far for the other guys. Last year will do just fine. Bring back the the Dickson who went 8-4 with a 3.41 ERA before the All-Star break, the Finley who was perfect (7-0) in July and the Hill who gave up only six earned runs in 37 2/3 innings in September.

But first, skip past this suddenly meaningless spring training.