Likability Won’t Do It in Anaheim

The clock is ticking on Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline. Rumors are rampant, phone lines are buzzing and general managers are sweating.

It’s the wackiest week and weekend of the season, but everything is cool in Anaheim, where General Manager Bill Stoneman surveys the scene, thinks a trade is unlikely and says, “there’s a lot to like here.”

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Just when the Angels creep into the wild-card race and their comatose offense shows signs of awakening, they score four runs in 19 innings against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Baltimore Orioles and lose two games to two teams that a team with a lot to like shouldn’t lose to.

Yes, Jarrod Washburn and Ramon Ortiz are turning their potential into reality during a year in which the Angels have received better pitching than anyone could have anticipated, but the inconsistency of the offense can’t simply be rationalized by the absence of Mo Vaughn.

Forgetting the vacuum at first base, which Vaughn should be back to fill next year, the Angels operate a revolving door at designated hitter (has anyone noticed that Jose Canseco is batting .300-plus and has six home runs in 24 games with the Chicago White Sox?); get no power from their catcher, second baseman or shortstop; face a $40-million crisis in right field, where Tim Salmon is beyond the point of simply being mired in a slump, and suddenly have an enigma in center fielder Darin Erstad, who is slipping back toward .260, much closer to his .253 of 1999 than his .355 of last year.

The Angels have mortgaged their future too often in 41 years, but this is a team whose players and fans are hungry for something more than that verbal pat on the back from management.

There are two months to play, the wild card is still there, and it would be a resounding indication that the front office cared if Stoneman could find another bat before the deadline.

Now, that would be a lot to like--even as modest as it would likely be at this time of the year.

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The Boston Red Sox exhumed another miracle out of their congested trainer’s room and the dust bin of seemingly spent careers with the return of Bret Saberhagen Friday night.

Sidelined for almost two years after reconstructive shoulder surgery, Saberhagen, 37, pitched six strong innings in a 9-5 victory over the White Sox, providing a literal shot in the arm for a rotation still missing Pedro Martinez and operating on more than one wing and a prayer.

Who would have believed that David Cone, 4-14 as a Yankee last year, would be 6-1, or that Hideo Nomo, 8-12 with the Tigers, would be 11-4, or that Tim Wakefield, 6-10 with the Red Sox and sent to the bullpen when the current season began, would be 6-5 and chewing up innings?

Who would have believed that with Nomar Garciaparra and Martinez still sidelined, with Jason Varitek out until late August and Carl Everett and John Valentin missing large chunks of the season, and with Manager Jimy Williams and General Manager Dan Duquette barely talking to each other, the Red Sox would still be clinging to division and wild-card hopes?

Garciaparra, however, could provide the next lift, possibly returning during a series with the Angels that begins Tuesday night. In the meantime, Saberhagen’s return--”I can’t recall him looking any better,” catcher Scott Hatteberg said--was a lift the Red Sox weren’t really counting on and only Saberhagen expected during two years of intense therapy.

Sixteen years after pitching Kansas City to a World Series title, the former Reseda Cleveland High right-hander said he wasn’t ready to retire “until I get that one more ring.”

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The most important assignment a relief pitcher generally has is to retire the first batter he faces.

It’s usually in a tough situation with runners on base, at a critical point in the game.

In a season of dominance by the Seattle Mariners, it is probably no surprise that their relief pitchers lead in that category as well.

In fact, according to STATS Inc., Mariner relievers are more effective against first batters than any bullpen in 15 years, having held first batters to a .147 average. Jeff Nelson is first in the league at .050, Jose Paniagua is third at .118, Kazuhiro Sasaki is sixth at .130 and Arthur Rhodes is eighth at .136.