Angels Missing Core of Problem

So, now that they’ve been all but eliminated from the division and wild-card races, the free-falling Angels are conducting closed-door meetings and getting serious about a trade?

For as much as was made about that clubhouse confab between General Manager Bill Stoneman and Manager Mike Scioscia on Sunday, for as much as the names of the usual suspects -- J.D. Drew, Juan Gonzalez, Brian Giles, etc. -- are now emerging from the Edison Field emergency rooms, the real question is how serious is serious when Stoneman and Scioscia say they are reluctant to break up the team’s core or trade top prospects?

How serious is serious when Alfredo Amezaga and Robb Quinlan are joining Jeff DaVanon in the lineup, creating the impression that the Angels are looking harder at 2004 than 2003?

How serious is serious when this disappointing defense of their World Series title makes it difficult to tell anymore what (or who) constitutes that core?

Only Garret Anderson and Bengie Molina have surpassed or maintained their 2002 form and only the bullpen -- in the context of offense, defense and starting pitching -- has provided a measure of reliability.

The wide core, to use Scioscia’s ongoing description?

It is a startling measurement of the extent to which this championship defense has unraveled that, in reality, it’s really no wider than Anderson, Molina, Troy Glaus and Darin Erstad among position players, and Ramon Ortiz, Frankie Rodriguez and Troy Percival among pitchers.

That is not to insult Tim Salmon, Brendan Donnelly or anyone else, but we’re talking here about a long-term core and foundation that only nine months ago seemed considerably more stable, and, yes, wider.

In emerging from October’s sea of red, Stoneman and Scioscia were so confident in regard to the wider core that they made the decision to bring the roster back nearly intact.

The Walt Disney Co. provided money to do otherwise, but there was no change except for the two backup outfielders.

A member of the Angel coaching staff confided recently he considered that a mistake.

“I was worried about it for much of the winter,” he said. “I don’t mean to say that there’s been complacency or that the guys haven’t played hard, but I do think that when you report to spring training with a virtually set roster there isn’t the same edge you experience when there are some positions up for grabs.”

New to the championship spotlight, limited in their preparations by the sudden distractions of the off-season, hampered some by injuries that have lingered into the season, the Angels were 9-20 in spring training games, setting a disturbing tone for a season in which they have failed to recapture the aggressiveness and consistency of last year.

Win a few, lose a few.

The Angels have been unable to sustain a streak, and their hopes of returning to the playoffs have seemingly been destroyed by a 2-9 record since the All-Star game that they took into Monday night’s attempt to salvage the finale of a four-game series with the Oakland A’s, who have managed to separate themselves from their American League West rival because of superior pitching.

It was in the spring of 2001 that an optimistic Scioscia compared the potential of Jarrod Washburn, Ortiz and Scott Schoeneweis to the A’s young Big Three of Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson and Barry Zito, and said, “I think our three guys can match those guys pitch for pitch.”

It hasn’t happened, of course.

Washburn and Ortiz were significant contributors to last year’s championship, but Anaheim’s Big Three was reduced to two with last year’s demotion of Schoeneweis to the bullpen. Going into Monday night’s game, that once promising threesome of Washburn, Ortiz and Schoeneweis had combined for a career record of 114-92, compared with the 190-87 for Mulder, Zito and Hudson, who have become a Big Four with the arrival of the touted Rich Harden, who went seven innings to register his first major league win in an 8-1 victory over the Angels on Saturday.

With 58 games left, nothing has more undermined the foundation of last year and created more core uncertainty for the Angels than the breakdown in starting pitching.

Nothing has been tougher for Scioscia to swallow in this season of indigestion than his own words from the spring of 2001.

Now, among a variety of debilitating debts and pivotal issues the Angels are forced to keep in mind, they are saddled with the $20.5 million owed Kevin Appier and Aaron Sele next year, and confronted as well by the expiring contracts of Anderson, Glaus and Percival, among others, at the end of that year.

Do they begin financial and artistic preparations for 2004 (as they seemed to have with their recent recalls) or do they cater to the expectations of their increased and increasingly impatient fan base by trying to pull off a significant trade before Thursday afternoon’s deadline?

An attempt to reach owner Arte Moreno through club spokesman Tim Mead failed to produce a response.

The new owner has been demonstrably sensitive to the fans, as evidenced by the lowering of certain ticket and concession prices, but it is unlikely that he would order his basically cautious general manager, having recently extended his contract and reemphasized his commitment to long-term building from within, to make a placating move.

This much is clear: The clock is ticking on a season turned rotten to a diminished core.