Abbott Trade Provided Dividends for White Sox

Chicago White Sox General Manager Ron Schueler is not one to gloat--few GMs would dare be so bold--but now that the final returns on the 1995 Jim Abbott trade with Anaheim are in, it’s fair to say the White Sox cleaned the Angels’ clocks.

Every Angel fan knows the Abbott side of the deal. After going 5-4 with a 4.15 earned-run average during the Angel collapse of ‘95, when the team had an 11-game lead in the American League West on Aug. 3 but lost the division to Seattle, Abbott suffered his own collapse in 1996, going 2-18 and eventually getting released in the spring of 1997.

But how many Angel fans remember the names of the four minor leaguers Chicago acquired in the deal? Do John Snyder, McKay Christensen and Bill Simas ring a bell?

They should. All three have significant roles in the big leagues now, Snyder as one of the White Sox’s top starting pitchers, Christensen as the team’s young starting center fielder and Simas as the team’s hard-throwing set-up man.

“You have to wait three or four years before you judge a trade, but right now it looks pretty good for us,” said Schueler, who also acquired pitcher Andrew Lorraine in the deal but traded the left-hander away. “I have a lot of confidence in my scouts, and you’ve got to get lucky in deals like that.”

Snyder, who considered himself “a throw-in” in the trade, will take a 3-1 record and 1.88 ERA into Monday’s start against the Angels. The 24-year-old right-hander, who was struggling with a 9-9 record and 5.86 ERA at double-A Midland when he was traded, overcame reconstructive elbow surgery in 1996 to go 7-2 with a 4.80 ERA in Chicago last season, solidifying his spot in the rotation.

He has a 90-mph fastball, a good slider, curve and changeup, “and Lach said he might be the best of the bunch because he has great mental makeup,” Schueler said, referring to former Angel pitching Coach Marcel Lachemann.

Simas, 27, is starting his fourth full big league season and had a 2.25 ERA in nine games through Friday night.

Christensen, 23, was the 1994 first-round pick who signed a $700,000 bonus and never played in the Angel organization. Soon after the draft, Christensen left for a two-year Mormon mission to Japan.

The Angels took a lot of heat that year for picking Christensen over pitcher Jaret Wright, but Bob Fontaine, Angel player personnel director, has insisted that Christensen, considered the key component of the Abbott deal, will be an above-average outfielder.

He may be right. The speedy Christensen, who covers plenty of ground in the outfield, made the jump from Class-A Winston-Salem to the big leagues this season and is batting .282 in his first 16 games.

“I appreciate Bob’s confidence in me and his support,” said Christensen, a left-hander who did not start against Angel lefty Chuck Finley on Saturday night. “Hopefully I will live up to his expectations. . . . and my own.”

*

One small throw from behind the plate, one giant leap for catcher Todd Greene. Manager Terry Collins said Greene’s throw to second Friday night--though too high to catch Magglio Ordonez stealing--was so strong it could alter his medium-range plan for Greene.

“Do I think he could catch [Saturday]? No,” Collins said. “But is it feasible in the next eight weeks that he could catch three times a week? Yes.”

After catching his third game of the season Friday, Greene said his shoulder felt so good he could have caught again Saturday. “I think I’ve shown my arm is fine,” Greene said. “The key is whether it hurts or not, and it doesn’t.”

TONIGHT

ANGELS’ OMAR OLIVARES (2-2, 3.70 ERA)

vs.

WHITE SOX’S JIM PARQUE (3-1, 3.70 ERA)

Edison Field, 5

Radio--KLAC 570, XPRS 1090.

Tickets: (714) 663-9000

* Update--Olivares, who will square off against former UCLA standout Parque, is looking to rebound from his first subpar start of the season, when he gave up six runs and six hits in four innings of a 10-1 loss to Toronto on Tuesday night.