Edmonds Shows Vaughn a Thing or Two

Center fielder Jim Edmonds picked up one of Mo Vaughn’s 36-inch, 36-ounce bats the other day and was awed by the size of it. “It felt like a sledgehammer,” he said.

Vaughn might have the biggest bats, but Edmonds is carrying the biggest stick early in camp. While Vaughn struck out three times against three pitchers in Tuesday’s intrasquad scrimmage, Edmonds hit two more home runs, giving him three homers and two singles in six intrasquad at-bats.

His only out was a one-hop smash that shortstop Nelson Castro made an outstanding stop of Tuesday and threw Edmonds out in Tempe Diablo Stadium.

Edmonds isn’t about to get too excited.

“It doesn’t matter--nothing counts until April 6,” he said. “I’m just a little more ahead of the game than some guys. I got out here two weeks before the first [full-squad] workout and was taking live batting practice, while most of the other guys were still in the snow.”

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His shoulder may not be strong enough for him to catch in a game, but it’s certainly strong enough for Todd Greene to hit. Greene’s home run off Shigetoshi Hasegawa on Tuesday cleared not only the left-field wall, but another fence about 50 feet behind the wall.

Tim Salmon played right field for the second consecutive day and scored from second on Chris Pritchett’s single, providing further evidence that Salmon has recovered from off-season surgery on his left foot.

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Pitcher Chuck Finley, sidelined for three straight days because of a strained muscle in his upper back, played catch and is hoping to throw off a mound by Thursday. Manager Terry Collins hinted that if Finley were to miss more than a week or so, it might jeopardize his opening-day start. “There’s no reason to rush him,” Collins said. “We’d like him ready by April 6, but if it’s April 10, that’s fine.” . . . Third baseman Dave Hollins suffered a slightly strained hamstring and sat out Tuesday’s intrasquad game. . . . The Angels agreed to terms on one-year contracts with reliever Mike Holtz and pitcher Ramon Ortiz.