Glaus Seems Ready to Start the Season

Concerns about Troy Glaus’ injured right shoulder not responding to a winter’s worth of rehabilitation were put to rest Wednesday when the Angel third baseman launched a third-inning home run over the 30-foot-high wall behind Tempe Diablo Stadium’s center-field fence, 420 feet from home plate.

“He just crushed that ball,” Manager Mike Scioscia said after the Angels’ 8-7 exhibition victory over the Chicago Cubs. “He hit it over the batter’s eye. That had to be 500 feet.”

Glaus began camp as a question mark after being limited to 91 games in 2003, a season cut short in late July when he suffered a slight tear of the rotator cuff in his shoulder. Glaus hit .248 with a career-low 16 home runs and 50 runs batted in.

The 27-year-old opted for physical therapy instead of surgery on his shoulder, though he did undergo laser surgery to correct his vision, a procedure that freed Glaus from the constant problems he had with contact lenses.

The seven-month layoff hardly seems to have affected Glaus, who is batting .353 (12 for 34) with three home runs and nine RBIs in 15 spring games.

“The thing that’s irrelevant is whether you miss four or seven months, your swing [looks terrible] when you get here,” Glaus said.

“But I worked hard all winter rehabilitating to get to this point, and it feels fine. I’ve been throwing and hitting all winter. The only question was how it would respond throwing every day.”

That hasn’t been a problem.

“The little adhesions [in the shoulder] don’t get a chance to tighten up like they do if you take a couple of days off,” Glaus said. “As long as I break them up every morning, it’s easier to stay loose.”

Many believe a strong rebound by Glaus will be a key factor in the Angels’ season, because it appears Glaus will bat fifth behind No. 3 hitter Vladimir Guerrero and cleanup batter Garret Anderson.

“Troy looks great so far,” Scioscia said. “His swing looks great. You can see it in the way he’s driving the ball.”

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The Angels were not thrilled that reliever Francisco Rodriguez threw 45 1/3 innings of winter ball in his native Venezuela, but the right-hander believes he’s reaping the benefits of the extra work.

Rodriguez threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings Wednesday, striking out two, to lower his spring earned-run average to 0.96 in seven games. After struggling at the start of 2003, going 2-1 with a 5.40 ERA in April, Rodriguez believes he’s more prepared to start this season than he was last season.

“That’s the one reason I played winter ball -- I wanted to come into camp in shape and ready to pitch,” said Rodriguez, who probably will enter the season as the Angels’ primary setup man while Brendan Donnelly recovers from a broken nose. “Last year I was out of shape and struggled at the beginning of the year. My location was bad, and I fell behind hitters all the time. Now, I feel healthy and am in great shape.”

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Kelvim Escobar bounced back from his rocky outing against the Cubs last week, giving up one run and four hits, striking out six and walking three in 4 1/3 innings Wednesday. Escobar, who gave up four runs and six hits in four innings against Chicago last Thursday, threw 82 pitches, showing good velocity on his fastball and mixing in several sharp breaking balls and changeups.... Closer Troy Percival got roughed up a bit, giving up three runs and four hits in the seventh inning, and reliever Kevin Gregg gave up three runs in the ninth. The Angels won on Howard Kendrick’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth.