Team Attempts to Extend Talks With Bootcheck

The Angels have increased their offer to pitcher Chris Bootcheck from $1.3 million to $1.6 million and have asked the first-round pick for a one-day extension on negotiations aimed at preventing the right-hander from beginning classes at Auburn today.

Bootcheck said Monday night he would “probably” grant the Angels the extension, but the sides still appeared to be around $500,000 apart on a signing bonus. Once Bootcheck attends his first class, the Angels would lose their rights to him.

“If they don’t move significantly [higher] then I’ll be in class [today],” said Bootcheck, the 20th pick in the June draft. “I thought I was more valuable to the club than this. I don’t know, maybe it’s not over, but I wasn’t happy with their final offer.”

Asked if it would take about $2.2 million to sign him, Bootcheck said: “That would be nice . . . All I know is it’s going to take more than $1.6 million. I know what I have to offer.”

Bootcheck, a 6-foot-5 right-hander, went 8-1 with a 3.60 earned-run average and 98 strikeouts last season, but his lawyer, Scott Boras, has touted him as the best college pitcher in the draft. At the root of the differences between the Angels and Bootcheck is market value.

Boras would point to Monday’s signing of Arizona pitcher Ben Diggins, the 17th pick by the Dodgers, for a reported $2.2 million and the recent signing of Texas pitcher Beau Hale, the 14th pick by the Orioles, of $2.25 million, as the market for Bootcheck.

The Angels would point to the Pirates’ signing of high school pitcher Sean Burnett, the 19th pick, for $1.65 million and the Giants’ signing of high school pitcher John Bonser, the 21st pick, for $1.245 million, as Bootcheck’s market value.

*

Angel first baseman Mo Vaughn and Red Sox General Manager Dan Duquette chatted amicably behind the batting cage before Monday’s game. What was this, a little kiss-and-makeup session? A little detente in the highly publicized feud that led to Vaughn’s departure from Boston after 1998?

“I just said hi to him, and we started talking,” Vaughn said. “I’m not in the business of walking by people without speaking to them. It takes a lot of work, a lot of negative energy, to not talk to someone. There’s nothing big to be made of it. That’s all in the past.”

*

Darin Erstad continued to make progress in his recovery from a left rib-cage spasm, but the left fielder who was hurt Saturday will probably sit out one more game tonight before possibly returning as a designated hitter Wednesday. . . . Jarrod Washburn, sidelined by a stress fracture in his shoulder blade, will throw in the bullpen today, a significant step in his recovery process.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

KENT MERCKER

(0-2, 5.17 ERA)

vs.

RED SOX’S

TIM WAKEFIELD

(6-7, 5.03 ERA)

Fenway Park, Boston, 4 p.m. PDT

TV--Channel 9. Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

* Update--The Angels will face a knuckleball-throwing starting pitcher for the first time this season, and center fielder Garret Anderson probably couldn’t be happier. While many players hate batting against knuckleballers, Anderson has a .361 career average (13 for 36) with five home runs and 13 runs batted in against Wakefield.