Starters Labor, but Angel Bats Work Overtime

Kevin Stocker will make his starting debut as the Angels’ shortstop in today’s game against the Dodgers, becoming the sixth shortstop rookie Adam Kennedy will have played with in his first two months at second base. Kennedy reflected before Friday night’s interleague opener, shook his head and asked, “Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Wasn’t there supposed to be one shortstop and five or six second baseman?”

Things are seldom the way they are supposed to be in the crucible of a 162-game season.

The Angels and Dodgers, for instance, resumed their rivalry having already employed 35 pitchers--19 by the Angels, whose pitching coach, Bud Black, was forced to take bullpen reservations during pregame preparations Friday as six pitchers, including the rehabilitating Ken Hill, Jason Dickson and Tim Belcher, got in throwing sessions.

“Guys were coming by asking what time slot they had,” Black said. “Usually, you have one bullpen a night. We had six, but that’s the reality of our situation, the way it is with a lot of clubs. I’m just fortunate there was a spring training and got to know everybody. We haven’t had to hand out name tags.”

The reality of the situation is that the Angels and Dodgers are trying to survive a war of attrition and doing a strong enough job to remain contenders in their respective divisions.

Will it last?

For now, part of the answer may rest with two players who couldn’t have been expected to be in their current uniforms at various points in the recent past.

A year ago, Kevin Elster was lounging by his Las Vegas pool, sitting out the 1999 season. He has returned to fill the pivotal shortstop role for the Dodgers, an unexpected catalyst who made his second career start at third base Friday night, having volunteered when Adrian Beltre went on the disabled list.

A week ago, Stocker was released by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Now he is expected to replace Benji Gil as the primary successor to shortstop Gary DiSarcina, who is out for the season.

“Funny business,” said Stocker, sitting at his new locker Friday night and addressing the improbability of his and Elster’s situations.

“Just when you think you’re out of the game, you’re not. I mean, it can lift you up and tear you down. It’s all pretty humbling.”

Stocker was humbled but not deflated by the Devil Ray release.

He could have taken the remainder of the $3.3 million he is owed this year and retired, but at 31, having played all or parts of eight big league seasons, with free agency on the horizon and convinced he is better than he was at Tampa Bay, he discovered what Elster discovered last year: He was not ready to quit.

There were other offers, but the Angels represented steady work, the chance to play for a West Coast team for the first time (he lives with his wife and three children in Spokane, Wash., and has a brother and sister in Los Angeles), the return to an all-grass diamond for the first time since he played at the University of Washington and, of course, a shot at a division title.

“I went from a last-place team to a team fighting for first,” Stocker said. “Who can ask for more? I haven’t smelled [a title] since ’93.”

The Philadelphia Phillies won an NL pennant that year and rookie Stocker batted .324 in 70 games after being summoned to replace Juan Bell and Mariano Duncan for defensive purposes. He has never approached that debut offensively, but his steady glove work prompted the Devil Rays, seeking a veteran shortstop to anchor an expansion infield, traded Bobby Abreu to the Phillies for Stocker on the night of the expansion draft.

Abreu has developed into one of baseball’s best young players, which Tampa General Manager Chuck LaMar insists could not have been predicted.

But in releasing Stocker, LaMar took a shot at the shortstop, saying he had provided “signs of why we made the trade, but the consistency has not been there.”

Stocker would agree.

He left with a .263 batting average and 11 errors, 10 on the pseudo surface at Tropicana Field, seven in his last three games--so nervous suddenly that he stopped wanting the ball hit to him in late innings.

“I’m basically in the big leagues to play defense,” Stocker said Friday night. “It wasn’t all the ballpark. I just didn’t make the adjustment to the new surface. It will be good to get back on real grass. I just have to relax and re-acclimate.”

Until he does, of course, there will be questions about his glove and a knee that was operated on in 1999.

However, Stocker costs the Angels little, improves their depth at a pivotal position and gives them an experienced No. 2 hitter, taking the pressure off Kennedy, who dropped to No. 8 Friday night and promptly slugged a two-run homer in a 12-5 victory.

“The Devil Rays are having a disappointing season and making a lot of changes,” Stocker said. “I was a little surprised to be released, but my wife and I have a lot of faith and believe everything happens for a reason. I couldn’t be happier to be here, but I’m not here to take anyone’s job. I’ll do whatever the Angels want.”

Elster wasn’t looking to take Beltre’s job when he volunteered to give the Dodgers an option at third. His start there Friday night--he singled and hit his ninth home run--was his first at the hot corner since Sept. 6, 1995, but he will probably be back at short today and a long way from that invigorating sabbatical that “may have been highly unusual but which I would highly recommend.”

Of course, Elster hopes he won’t be requested to take another.

“If it’s worthwhile, and it should be, I’ll play again next year,” he said. “There’s too much money to turn your back on. Of course, if we win the World Series, I might just hang it up.”

For the Dodgers and Angels to reach the World Series, they might have to keep those name tags handy.