Angels Lead This Arms Race

So, there were the fractious Dodgers, packing their fading playoff hopes on those wounded wings and a prayer as they headed to Florida on Monday, and here came the Angels, their faint breath still visible in the wild-card race, returning to Anaheim for a crucial homestand against the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, and answer me this. . .

Who would have believed that if either team is going to turn its ongoing tease into the reality of a postseason berth, it would be the Angels, who approach the final six weeks with the deeper, healthier and more effective rotation?

After all, it seems like only yesterday that Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman was being criticized for putting too high of an expectation on Jarrod Washburn, Ramon Ortiz and Scott Schoeneweis while failing to sell Mike Mussina or Mike Hampton on the merits of the Magic Kingdom and instead signing economic retreads Pat Rapp and Ismael Valdes as the veteran leaders of his young rotation.

And it seems like only yesterday that the Dodgers entered the season with a megabuck rotation that some--no names, please--were even suggesting had the potential to supplant that of the Yankees or Atlanta Braves as the best in baseball.

Now?

Well, the Dodgers have nearly $30 million in 2001 salaries sitting on the disabled list in the form of Kevin Brown, Andy Ashby, Darren Dreifort and Luke Prokopec, while Washburn, Ortiz and Schoeneweis have responded to the cynics and the challenge to become the bellwethers of a clearance rotation totaling only $5.295 million in 2001 salaries, and which is carrying the Angels into a final series of wild-card showdowns in a season in which their offense has provided only inconsistent support.

Does Stoneman feel vindicated?

“I’m happy they’ve pitched well, that’s the beginning and end of it,” he said, referring to the three young starters, all experiencing their first major league season free of a minor league shuttle.

“The media has a forum and is welcome to express its opinion,” Stoneman said, “but I didn’t think committing to those kids represented that great a risk given their talent and competitiveness. This game isn’t about yesterday, but today and tomorrow. I thought it was natural to think they would get better and I think it’s natural to think they’ll get better yet.”

If Stoneman is due a media apology, maybe Manager Mike Scioscia is as well.

Of course, the deserving Scioscia received a three-year extension from the Angels on Monday, which is better than any apology he might receive from the media wise guys who snickered when he said last spring that he felt Washburn, Ortiz and Schoeneweis were just as good as the Oakland Athletics’ young threesome of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito.

Well, Hudson is 14-6 and Mulder is 15-6, and it can be argued that Washburn (11-6), Ortiz (11-7) and Schoeneweis (10-8) aren’t yet there statistically, but there are other ways to measure competitiveness. The Angel rotation is second in the American League in innings pitched and second with an average of 61/3 innings a start, limiting the workload for a bullpen that has the second-best earned-run average in baseball. Which, in turn, has contributed to an overall ERA of 3.83, third best in the AL and about a half-run better than that of the Dodgers.

If the Angels maintain that edge, it will be the first time since 1971 they will have finished the season with a lower ERA than the Dodgers, which, of course, isn’t really the prize--personally or otherwise. Scioscia severed his long roots with the Dodgers when chased out by the former sheriff. His new contract indelibly brands him an Angel. He could not care less if the Dodgers are experiencing an injury siege among their pitchers, if they seemed to be imploding when they lashed out Sunday in unwarranted hostility and frustration at Chan Ho Park, if their bullpen has been weakened by the need to start Terry Adams and Giovanni Carrara.

What most interests Scioscia and his respected pitching coach, Bud Black, is the continuing development of Washburn, Ortiz and Schoeneweis, and how far that development helps take the Angels in the wild-card race, such as it is.

One thing seems certain:

The threesome has helped brighten the present and future in Anaheim, but then Scioscia insists that he and Stoneman never had any doubts and this wasn’t simply Disney being cheap again.

“If we didn’t think they were ready for the challenge, if we didn’t think they could become the core of a championship staff, we’d have considered other options,” Scioscia said, adding he still believes his threesome is comparable to that of the Athletics or the young Seattle starters in the AL West and, in fact, “match up with any three young pitchers on any team in the league.”

With Washburn, Ortiz and Schoeneweis, the Angels have three pitchers with 10 victories or more for the first time since 1997. The threesome has gone seven innings or more 12 times since the All-Star break, and each went eight innings or more in his last start, dispelling concern that stamina and durability could become a September issue as it was last year, when they were extended for the first time.

“I’m looking forward to going over 200 innings and pitching in the playoffs in October,” Washburn said, adding that, while he and his young colleagues realized they hadn’t accomplished anything that might have altered the cynical perceptions of last spring, “we really didn’t think it was as negative as everyone was making it out to be and we decided to come out and show everybody what we were really capable of and we take a lot of pride in what we’ve accomplished as a staff.”

The opener of the important homestand didn’t go well, however. Valdes, who had pitched seven innings or more in three of his last four starts and came in with a solid 3.48 ERA, was rocked for eight hits and five runs in four-plus innings of a 6-1 loss to the Red Sox. The Angels trail Oakland by seven games and Boston by three in the wild-card race, and at this rate the question of whether the Angels or Dodgers are better armed for the final month will soon become academic.