Nieves Trade Turns Into a Minor Disturbance

As trades go, this one isn’t looking too brilliant right now. In spring training, when the Angels decided they needed a backup shortstop, they traded reliever Mike Fyhrie to the Chicago Cubs for infielder Jose Nieves.

On Friday, 10 games into the season, the Angels decided rookie David Eckstein could be a backup shortstop and sent Nieves to the minor leagues. Also Friday, the Angels summoned two pitchers from triple-A to bolster a tired bullpen.

General Manager Bill Stoneman isn’t looking back. While Fyhrie might have helped this weekend, the Angels had one too many relievers for their opening day roster.

“Somebody wasn’t going to make our club who should have been in the major leagues,” Stoneman said.

Eckstein made his first major league start at shortstop Saturday, giving Benji Gil the night off. If Gil were injured, given Eckstein’s relative inexperience at shortstop, Manager Mike Scioscia said the Angels would probably summon Nieves or Wilmy Caceres from triple-A Salt Lake or Alfredo Amezaga from double-A Arkansas.

“I’m glad we have a lot of depth there,” Stoneman said.

Caceres, the prospect, will get most of the playing time at shortstop at Salt Lake. Nieves will play second base, third base and shortstop.

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Before Saturday’s game, pitcher and author Shigetoshi Hasegawa met with about 100 visitors from Japan. Hasegawa said he has sold more than 40,000 copies of his book “Adjustment,” in which he suggests how Japanese business executives can adapt to American customs and practices.

Saturday’s guests included winners of an essay contest held in Japan to promote the book. The contest attracted 4,000 entries. The winners met Hasegawa, posed for pictures with him and saluted him with a standing ovation.

“Not for Ichiro. For me,” Hasegawa said, grinning widely. “Write it down.”

The Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki, Japan’s reigning baseball superstar, faced Hasegawa Friday in the first major league meeting between a Japanese-born hitter and a Japanese-born pitcher.

“It’s awesome,” Angel outfielder Darin Erstad said. “You should have the best players in the world playing in the major leagues. The guys they’re sending over now are all legit.”

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Erstad said he liked the prototype he had seen of a proposed Angel uniform for next season. The pinstripes added by Disney designers in 1997 have been removed, Erstad said. The Angels also are considering restoring the halo to their caps, removing the angel wing from the cap and jersey and changing the cap from blue to red.

“It looks very nice,” Erstad said.

Erstad has won big wearing red, as the punter on Nebraska’s 1994 national championship team.

TODAY

ANGELS’ PAT RAPP

(0-2, 13.00 ERA)

vs.

MARINERS’ JOHN HALAMA

(1-1, 5.59 ERA)

Edison Field, 1

TV--Fox Sports Net.

Radio--KMXN-FM (94.3), KMPC (1540),

XPRS (1090).

* Update--Rapp tries to right himself after two awful starts that left the Angels wondering whether their rotation might be better off without him. Rapp is 0-1 in five career games against the Mariners; Halama is 4-0 in five career games against the Angels.

* Tickets--(714) 663-9000.