Valdes Starts Over on Angels

The Angels, hoping one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, took on another reclamation project Thursday, signing oft-maligned pitcher Ismael Valdes to a one-year, $2.5-million contract that can net the Dodger discard an additional $2.7 million if he pitches 200 innings.

For the Angels, it is a relatively low-cost move to potentially bolster a marginal rotation with a right-hander who, when healthy, is capable of throwing 200 innings and winning a dozen or more games.

For Valdes, a seven-year veteran at only 27, it is a chance to resurrect a once-promising career and patch a reputation that has taken a beating in recent years, with teammates questioning his courage and losses outnumbering wins.

“People will see a different Ismael Valdes, because I’ve been preparing myself like I never have before,” Valdes said in a conference call from Mexico. “I’m as healthy as a bull. I have more strength in my shoulder, my legs, all parts of my body. This is a new year.”

Last year was a disaster. After being traded with second baseman Eric Young to the Chicago Cubs for pitchers Terry Adams and two minor leaguers, Valdes, hindered by shoulder tendinitis and a hamstring injury, went 2-4 with a 5.37 earned-run average in 12 starts for Chicago.

The Cubs were more than happy to ship Valdes back to the Dodgers for pitcher Jamie Arnold and a minor leaguer in July, but Valdes did nothing to boost the Dodgers’ pennant hopes, going 0-3 with a 6.08 ERA in nine games.

The Dodgers were so fed up with Valdes--and his complaints that he felt numbness in the pinky finger of his pitching hand--that they yanked him from their rotation in early September.

Valdes went 15-7 with a 3.32 ERA for the Dodgers in 1996, striking out 173 in 225 innings, and he went 10-11 with a 2.65 ERA in 1997, throwing 196 2/3 innings, but the Dodgers thought so little of Valdes after 2000 that they didn’t even offer him arbitration after he filed for free agency.

The 6-foot-3, 195-pounder went 9-14 for the Dodgers in 1999, but his low point may have come in 1997, when Dodger first baseman Eric Karros openly ridiculed Valdes in a team meeting, criticizing him for being passive in a 3 1/3-inning, four-run, eight-hit effort against the Florida Marlins. The two later exchanged angry words and shoves in the shower area of the team’s clubhouse.

The Angel clubhouse is also a low-tolerance zone, with players showing little patience for those who may lack intestinal fortitude, but General Manager Bill Stoneman believes Valdes will be accepted.

“I’ve never in my baseball life been involved with a team that had the clubhouse atmosphere we had in 2000,” Stoneman said. “If you don’t fit in here, you won’t fit in anywhere.”

Stoneman said he has heard the negative reports about Valdes, who has a long history of blisters on his pitching fingers, “but somehow, with the exception of last year, he has a history of pitching around 200 innings,” Stoneman said.

“Project that onto this club, with the runs we can generate, and you’ll have a guy who will have a lot of success. [Manager] Mike Scioscia knows Valdes very well and thinks this is the right environment to get the most out of him.”

Scioscia, the Dodger bench coach in 1997-98, said the Angels see Valdes as someone “who wants to pitch, who will take the ball no matter what, and that’s something our guys will hopefully feed off of.”

Stoneman is convinced Valdes, with a 63-61 career record and 3.59 ERA, has overcome his 2000 injuries. Valdes, who made $5.75 million last season, began a strenuous weightlifting and throwing program in November and said his shoulder feels great.

“We were looking for a guy who could have a turn-around year,” Stoneman said. “People who buy stocks do the same thing.”

That seems to be the theme for the budget-conscious Angels this winter: buy low, cross your fingers and hope for a high rate of return.

All a team in dire need of a top starter has done this off-season is add journeyman Pat Rapp, the questionable Valdes, and re-sign aging and injury-plagued right-hander Tim Belcher at a combined cost of about $5.5 million in base salary.

Youngsters Ramon Ortiz and Jarrod Washburn are leading rotation candidates, and Scott Schoeneweis and Matt Wise will compete for spots. The Angels don’t exactly match up with the New York Yankees of Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina and Orlando Hernandez, but that won’t deter the eternally optimistic Stoneman.

“We should have good starting pitching,” he said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ismael Valdes’ Record

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Year Team W-L IP H R ER SO ERA 1994 Dodgers 3-1 28.1 21 10 10 28 3.18 1995 Dodgers 13-11 197.2 168 76 67 150 3.05 1996 Dodgers 15-7 225.0 219 94 83 173 3.32 1997 Dodgers 10-11 196.2 171 68 58 140 2.65 1998 Dodgers 11-10 174.0 171 82 77 122 3.98 1999 Dodgers 9-14 203.1 213 97 90 143 3.98 2000 Chicago (NL) 2-4 67.0 71 40 40 45 5.37 Dodgers 0-3 40.0 53 29 27 29 6.08 TOTALS 63-61 1,132.0 1,087 496 452 830 3.59

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Other Possible Angel Starters

Major league statistics for last season for the six other pitchers expected to compete for a spot in the rotation:

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Player W-L IP H R ER SO ERA Ramon Ortiz 8-6 111.1 96 69 63 73 5.09 Jarrod Washburn 7-2 84.1 64 38 35 49 3.74 Pat Rapp 9-12 174 203 125 114 106 5.90 Matt Wise 3-3 37.1 40 23 23 20 5.54 Tim Belcher 4-5 40.2 45 31 31 22 6.86 Scott Schoeneweis 7-10 170 183 112 103 78 5.45

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Note: All were with Angels except for Rapp, who was with Baltimore.