Salmon, Angels Are in It Together

He is not the Tim Salmon of old, the confident Angel right fielder who would pounce on mistake pitches like a cheetah on prey, but he’s beginning to show shades of the old Tim Salmon.

Since coming off the disabled list July 20, Salmon is batting .269 (52 for 193) with eight home runs and 22 runs batted in, which is far off his usual .300-hitting, 30-homer, 100-RBI pace but far better than his first half. Salmon was batting .206 with nine homers and 26 RBIs when he went on the DL because of a sore left shoulder on July 1.

Salmon is now batting .233 with 17 homers and 48 RBIs after Wednesday night’s 3-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics before 27,635 in Network Associates Coliseum, the Angels’ 10th loss in 11 games. Salmon was hitless in four at-bats but flied out to the wall in left in the seventh and missed a game-tying home run by a few feet in the ninth, sending center fielder Eric Byrnes crashing into the wall for a game-ending catch.

‘I know I still haven’t hit like I’m capable of, but I’m getting some hits and doing some things,’ Salmon said. ‘I know what I need to do now, and I know what I wasn’t doing before. I’m using my bottom hand now, and it makes a difference in how I swing.

‘It’s still weak. I need to get my [left] shoulder strong this winter. I don’t know that I’m locked in, but I found an important aspect that I wasn’t even focusing on in the first half. Everything is starting to come together.”

It better. The Angels signed Salmon to a four-year, $40-million extension in spring training, and if they are to rebound from their awful offensive season and get any kind of return on their investment, Salmon needs to have a comeback-player-of-the-year type season in 2002.

Last winter, before signing his extension, Salmon questioned whether the Angels were committed to building a contender and hinted he might be hesitant to sign another long-term deal.

This winter, Salmon said you won’t hear a peep out of him.

‘More so than any other year, I don’t need to be concerned about what needs to be done,’ Salmon said. ‘I know what I need to do, and that’s where my focus is. I just played a whole season where I didn’t do what was expected. I need to get myself back to my level.”

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The A’s continued their pattern of locking up young players to long-term deals, signing pitcher Mark Mulder to a four-year, $14.2-million contract extension. . Mulder, a left-hander nearing the end of his second season, is 20-7 with a 3.49 earned-run average. He is the fifth young Oakland player to sign such a deal in the past two years, joining Tim Hudson, Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez and Terrence Long.