Battle for First Base Job Still Tight

It’s not a decision Mike Scioscia is dreading, but it’s certainly not one the Angel manager is looking forward to.

Sometime this weekend, Scioscia will have to tell two of the three players battling for the first base job--Wally Joyner, Scott Spiezio and Larry Barnes--that they didn’t win the spot, even though all three have played well enough to earn it.

If it’s not Joyner, the 38-year-old veteran will retire and go home to Utah. If it’s not Barnes, the 26-year-old rookie probably will be sent to triple-A Salt Lake. If it’s not Spiezio, the 28-year-old switch-hitter will return to his role as the Angels’ utility player.

“Someone is going to be happy, and someone is going to be upset,” Scioscia said. “None of these guys has played his way out of the running, and they’ve all showed us what they’re capable of doing.”

Joyner appears to be a slight favorite. He’s batting .391 with one homer and seven runs batted in, he has shown good bat control, executing several hit-and-run plays and striking out only once, and he has played solid defense with the exception of one dropped ball on a throw from third Monday.

Barnes is batting .273 and has shown good power, with four homers and nine RBIs, but he has struck out 13 times. He has been very good defensively, as evidenced by his scoop of shortstop Benji Gil’s one-hop throw from the hole on Edgar Martinez’s grounder in Tuesday’s 15-2 exhibition loss to Seattle.

Spiezio, who is the most known commodity of the three because of his 17-homer season in Anaheim in 2000, is hitting .298 with four homers and 11 RBIs. He’s the least refined of the three defensively but has been adequate this spring and is yet to commit an error.

“It would have been an easier decision if one or two of these guys struggled this spring,” Scioscia said. “But they’ve all done the job.”

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Right-hander Matt Wise will open the season in the Angel rotation, and left-hander Jarrod Washburn will open on the disabled list.

Washburn (strep throat), second baseman Adam Kennedy (broken bone in his right hand) and reserve outfielder Kimera Bartee (bulging disk in his lower back) went on the 15-day DL Tuesday, retroactive to Friday.

The Angels are hoping Washburn, who was originally scheduled to start opening day, will be ready the second week of the season. The left-hander is scheduled to pitch in a minor league game Thursday and probably will pitch in an exhibition game for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga on Tuesday.

Wise, the former Cal State Fullerton standout, went 3-3 with a 5.54 earned-run average for the Angels last season. He will start Sunday’s exhibition against Arizona at Edison Field. The rotation for the first week of the season will be Scott Schoeneweis, Pat Rapp, Ramon Ortiz, Wise and Ismael Valdes.

David Eckstein is the likely starter at second in place of Kennedy, who is expected back the second week of the season.

Notes

Tim Salmon, slowed by an abdominal strain, played in his first exhibition since March 10 on Tuesday, hitting a single and double in three at-bats as a designated hitter against the Mariners. Though he felt “a little jelly-legged and uncoordinated,” Salmon was happy with his timing and his swing. He believes he’ll be ready to play right field on opening day. . . . What slim chance reliever Rendy Espina had of making the team was reduced when the left-hander was bombed for six runs on five hits in one-third of an inning. Starter Brian Cooper gave up six runs on eight hits in four innings and was optioned to Salt Lake afterward.