Fielder Is Under the Mac-roscope

It’s hard to believe a .242 batting average would be a good sign for Cecil Fielder.

But it took a 10-for-25 road trip to get him to that point before Friday night’s game against the Chicago White Sox, and now the Angels can breathe a sigh of relief that Fielder’s hitting days aren’t completely behind him.

If Fielder bombs, the Angels look that much worse for not trading for Mark McGwire last season or throwing a ton of cash his way when he became a free agent in the off-season.

The Angels chose to protect their core and the Walt Disney Co. profit margin by going the less expensive route. They signed Fielder to a one-year deal worth $2.8 million, while McGwire re-signed with St. Louis for a three-year, $28-million package that starts at $8.3 million this season.

Big Daddy vs. Big Mac. Fair or not, that’s the comparison Fielder and the Angels will have to face this year.

“People are going to talk,” Fielder said. “They’re going to say whatever they want to say. I can’t say [the Angels] made the right decision or they made the wrong decision, but I am going to contribute to this team over the course of the season. I’m going to do what I can do. I’m not going to do what Mac can do, I’m going to do what I can do. I’ve had some pretty successful times playing baseball myself.”

Not in April, however, and last month was no exception. While McGwire started off looking as if he would break Roger Maris’ home run record by the all-star break, Fielder was batting .174 with only one home run as recently as last week.

He couldn’t do anything when presented with wonderful RBI opportunities. He did so much fishing for balls outside the strike zone he looked as if he belonged on one of those Saturday morning ESPN outdoor shows.

It finally came together on the trip through Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Boston. Fielder batted .400 and drove in nine runs during the seven-game swing. The results started looking more like what the Angels expected.

“He’s not rushing as much as he did before,” hitting coach Rod Carew said. “He slows his body down, he’s getting his hands out to the ball, he’s striding a lot more toward the pitcher. I think at the start he was just trying to overdo it and maybe impress a little bit, trying to put on too much of a show. Now he’s a lot more relaxed.”

Fielder’s improvement was particularly timely because slugger Tim Salmon missed the trip because of a strained ligament in his left foot that caused the Angels to put him on the 15-day disabled list Friday. That left Fielder as the cleanup hitter and top power threat in the Angel lineup, particularly from the right side.

“Tim went down, Cecil slipped into the fourth hole and he said, ‘It’s time,’ ” third baseman Dave Hollins said. “He had some huge hits. Everyone said his bat had slowed down. He got some hits off guys throwing 92-94 miles an hour. He’s fine.”

Telling a hitter he has lost speed is one of those serious condemnations in sports, like telling a cornerback he has lost a step or telling a golfer he has lost his nerve.

“I think I’ve got a tremendous amount of bat speed,” Fielder said. “That wasn’t the problem. I was just mechanically wrong.”

“Coming to a new ballclub and being in a situation where I have an opportunity to win, you’re trying to do too much. I said, ‘I’ve got to do what I’ve been doing all these years.’ ”

To supplement Carew’s suggestions, Fielder went back and watched videotape of his days in New York and Detroit, when he was knocking out 30 to 50 home runs a year. He compared those to current at-bats and saw he was swinging at the plate too much instead of out toward the field.

“You go to the plate and they throw you inside, you start muscle-swinging,” Fielder said. “I think that’s why folks were talking like I had lost some bat speed, and that’s not the case.”

Not all of this is on Fielder. It’s on Jim Edmonds too. One of the reasons the Angels didn’t want to trade for McGwire when the Oakland A’s were shopping him is that Oakland kept insisting Edmonds be a part of the package. That’s something the Angels weren’t willing to do. Edmonds is capable of putting up some nice numbers himself and is one of the best fielders in the game.

The Angels got Fielder for one reason--his bat. When he isn’t swinging it well, the designated hitter can’t contribute much from the bench. Fielder should be compared to Fielder. From 1990 to 1996, he hit 258 home runs with 795 RBIs. McGwire had 194 home runs and 539 RBIs in that span, his numbers diminished by injuries.

Last year it was Fielder who was injured, sitting out two months because of torn ligaments in his thumb, while McGwire was enjoying his healthiest season since 1990 and the most productive home run year by anyone since Maris in 1961.

So now Fielder will be measured against a guy who hit 58 home runs.

“I’m not offended by that,” Fielder said. “He’s a great player. When it’s all said and done, I will have some pretty good numbers.

“I’ve driven in quite a few runs over the years, I think.”

His statistics--940 RBIs over 13 years--show he’s right. It will take more statistics this year to show the Angels were right.