Sluggish Start Is Hardly a Concern

The Angels broke camp Thursday, eager to start the season and none too worried about their poor Cactus League record.

With a 4-3 victory Thursday over the Chicago Cubs, the Angels have nine exhibition victories, a total exceeded by every team except the Detroit Tigers, San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. After making 87 errors in six months last season, they made 32 in one month this spring, the most of any American League team.

“We haven’t played very well this spring,” General Manager Bill Stoneman said. “We’ve been making defensive mistakes we didn’t make last year.”

However, history has shown no correlation between spring records and regular-season records. In addition, the Angels attribute some of their spring struggles to what Manager Mike Scioscia called “a rehab environment for some guys,” with outfielders Darin Erstad and Tim Salmon coming off surgery and several other players, including pitcher Jarrod Washburn and shortstop David Eckstein, fighting nagging injuries.

“I don’t put too much stock in spring training,” Erstad said. “This has been a different kind of spring training. We’ve had guys banged up. We’ve used spring training a little more to get into shape. Everybody started their off-season program a month later.

“I feel like we’re kind of lying in the bushes right now, saving it for the start of the season. We’re going to have to crank it up. I’m confident we will.”

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The Angels are optimistic that third baseman Troy Glaus will be able to play in Sunday’s opener. Glaus, sidelined by tendinitis in his right wrist, was able to throw during a workout Wednesday at Edison Field. If he can take batting practice and play tonight, he should be able to play Sunday.

Even if Glaus misses the opener, the injury has responded to treatment well enough that the Angels believe they can avoid putting him on the disabled list.

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Joe Saunders, the Angels’ first-round draft pick last year and their top left-handed prospect, is expected to miss most if not all of the season because of a shoulder injury.

Saunders complained of shoulder discomfort on reporting to minor league camp earlier this month, Stoneman said, and has not pitched this spring. Stoneman declined to reveal a specific diagnosis, since Saunders is seeking a second opinion, but Stoneman said Angel medical director Lewis Yocum has recommended an intensive therapy program over surgery at this time.

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Cub Manager Dusty Baker, the losing manager when the Angels beat the San Francisco Giants in seven games in last year’s World Series, said he spent some time this winter reflecting on the events of last October.

“It was very disheartening and very sad for a while. Then you look back and say how grateful we were to get there and how close we came,” Baker said.

“I probably would have reflected more had I been retained by the Giants. But I’m not one to live in the past. I’m trying to get this club to the World Series. I wouldn’t mind wrestling those Angels again, in a different uniform.”

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Mickey Callaway, who will start the second game of the season, struck out six in six innings Thursday and 18 in 20 innings this spring. He’s throwing a new split-finger as a strikeout pitch.

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The Freeway Series resumes tonight for the first time since 1999 with Ramon Ortiz facing Kevin Brown at Dodger Stadium.