Lighter Canseco Ready for Camp

Every winter Jose Canseco would adjust his off-season weightlifting regimen, and every season he seemed to wind up on the disabled list, where he has been 11 times in 15 big league seasons.

Eager for another change this winter, the slugger who has 446 career home runs tried something radical: He didn’t lift any weights.

The result isn’t exactly Jose Lite. The 6-foot-4 Canseco reported to his first spring training workout with the Angels Wednesday at 242 pounds. But that’s 20 pounds fewer than he weighed when he finished last season with the New York Yankees.

“I tried everything--this is the only thing I haven’t tried,” said Canseco, the Angels’ new designated hitter. “I joked in New York that I should come back as a slob this year, and I’d probably hit 60 home runs. Every year, something blows out.”

In an effort to avoid the major injuries that have derailed his career, Canseco spent the off-season concentrating on nutrition and agility. He is not as chiseled as he has been in recent years, but he feels more flexible.

“Am I as strong as I was? I don’t think so,” Canseco said. “Do I need to hit a ball 600 feet? No. Technique will take care of that. Twenty pounds of solid muscle is a lot to lose. . . . Basically, if I don’t have any muscle, I can’t pull it.”

Canseco’s ratio of a home run every 15.2 at-bats exceeds nine of the 16 Hall of Fame players who have hit 500 homers or more, including Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Frank Robinson. He sees no reason why that pace shouldn’t continue in Anaheim.

“If I can stay healthy, it’ll be an automatic 40-50 home runs,” Canseco said. “I don’t doubt that at all.”

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Darin Erstad’s move from left field to center field this season seemed logical, given Erstad’s superior closing speed in the gaps and his ability to make spectacular catches, but Garret Anderson is not pleased about being switched from center to left.

“I don’t understand it, and I will probably never understand it, but that’s his call,” Anderson said of Manager Mike Scioscia. “He knows how I feel about it. I didn’t want to be moved. I could see it if I was dropping balls and stinking it up out there, but I wasn’t. So this was a surprise.”

Scioscia said the move was by no means a reflection of Anderson’s defensive skills.

“Garret did a good job for us in center field last season, and he takes a lot of pride in his defense, but we have the opportunity to make ourselves better with this look,” Scioscia said. “There’s no reason he can’t be the best left fielder in baseball.”