Mussina Would Qualify as Heavenly Addition

Mike Mussina takes the mound at Edison Field tonight, and isn’t that a nice thought?

Isn’t Mussina exactly the

No. 1-caliber pitcher the Angels need at the head of their young and promising rotation, the piece missing so critically in this summer of revived optimism in Anaheim?

“I’m sure I’d be speaking for most every club by saying that a Mike Mussina would make the difference,” right fielder Tim Salmon said. “With all the youth we have, there’s no doubt what a veteran pitcher with experience and health would mean. All you have to do is think of our last trip [2-5 in Chicago and Detroit] to know how important it is to have somebody to stop the bleeding.”

Mussina takes the mound as a Baltimore Oriole, but it could be one of his last starts for the team with which he has spent all 10 big league seasons, winning 18 or more games four times, 15 or more six times.

The 31-year-old right-hander rejected a six-year, $72-million Oriole offer that deferred $2 million a year at no interest. He can file for free agency after the World Series.

“All my doors are still open,” Mussina said when it was suggested how attractive he might be to both the Angels, with their need for a rotation leader, and the Dodgers, missing two-fifths of a rotation.

The Dodgers already owe $72 million to 12 players next year, are committed to Kevin Brown for five more years at $15 million a year and face the expensive re-signing of Darren Dreifort and Chan Ho Park even before worrying about their rotation voids.

The Angels, at $55 million and capable of saving $11.1 million by avoiding the 2001 options on Ken Hill, who is already gone, and Tim Belcher, should have payroll flexibility considering Ramon Ortiz, Scott Schoeneweis, Jarrod Washburn, Seth Etherton and Matt Wise all pitched in the minimum-salary range this year.

The question is, will Disney respond to the optimism and opportunity, pull out the Mo Vaughn blueprint, and make a preemptive offer to Mussina or another top-tier free-agent pitcher such as Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle or even Dreifort--an intriguing salvo in the cold war with Fox?

“The core has been here, but there’s always been the question of that one more piece,” Salmon said. “It would be nice to have a Mussina, but you look at what happened to Chuck Finley and wonder if they’ll pay the price. All we can do as players is put it on our Christmas list.”

Who can measure baseball economics?

Is a 37-year-old Finley worth the three-year, $27-million contract he received from the Cleveland Indians? Would he have been worth it to the Angels at a time when there were questions about the health of Hill and Belcher and uncertainty as to what they could get for Jim Edmonds? Would he have been worth it considering there was no assurance they had so much young pitching in the system and would need a veteran at any price to relieve the pressure?

The Angels are where they are, and so is Mussina, coming to the close of a difficult season with a once-proud organization committed to rebuilding after the trade-deadline fire sale in which Will Clark, Mike Bordick, Harold Baines, B.J. Surhoff, Charles Johnson and Mike Timlin all left.

Mussina reflected and said it had been a disappointing year from the standpoint of how the Orioles had played, how many friends and good players had departed and how his won-loss record isn’t what it should be. But, he said, “those are things out of my control. It’s unfortunate I don’t have more wins, but I’m not disappointed with the way I’ve pitched. I’ve been healthy and thrown a lot of innings and my overall statistics are consistent with what they’ve always been.”

Burdened by the lowest run support among American League starters, Mussina is 9-13 despite a 3.91 earned-run average that is fifth in the league. He leads the league with 211 2/3 innings, is second in strikeouts with 180, and his 2.71 ERA in the hitter haven of Camden Yards is the league’s second best home ERA.

Said Jim Palmer, the Hall of Fame pitcher who is now a broadcaster with the team: “Give him the five or six runs a game that most pitchers in this league receive and his record would be what it always is. Mike Mussina would make a major difference to any club.”

Mussina had hoped it would be the Orioles.

He was born in Pennsylvania and still lives there. He attended Stanford, but his only California connection is to Santa Monica-based agent Arn Tellem.

“My choice the whole time has been to stay,” Mussina said. “If I didn’t want to stay I wouldn’t have gone through what I have this year trying to work out a deal.”

The fact that the Orioles have begun what could be a long rebuilding project hasn’t deterred his hope of remaining, he said, because “it could be even more rewarding to have been part of it when the goal is realized. I mean, I obviously want to be part of a good club every year, but at 32 next year I can still afford to look at the long term.”

Brown was 33 and had a career winning percentage of .584 when he signed that seven-year, $105-million deal with the Dodgers. Mussina, 32 in December, has a win percentage of .647 and is believed to be seeking at least five years at

$14 million a year.

The market is what it is, and it appears too late for the Orioles--despite their own pitching need-- to stop Mussina from testing it.

For the Angels, reluctant to part with their young pitching in trades or to fill one hole by creating another at a time when they will also be reviewing their shortstop situation, free agency would seem to be the avenue for that missing piece in their rotation.

Will they pay the toll?