No Quick Fixes for Angels

The Angels’ general manager has been on the job for seven seasons, indisputably the most successful period in club history, a renaissance on the field and at the gate.

Yet, while occasionally spotted at the batting cage or recognized in restaurants, Bill Stoneman has largely remained in the shadows -- never upstaging his manager or team, never revealing his intentions to the media, methodically and analytically true to himself and his conviction that no one pays to see the general manager.

“I’d be very comfortable if I was never recognized and didn’t get any attention,” he was saying in his executive box at Angel Stadium late last week.

“That’s more my personality than the job, but it’s also the job. Public exposure for the GM doesn’t move you forward and is only likely to be a distraction.

“One reason I don’t hang around the clubhouse is that it tends to send a mixed message as to who’s in charge down there. In the clubhouse, it’s the manager.”

Hired under the ownership of the Walt Disney Co. in 1999 and enthusiastically retained by new owner Arte Moreno in 2003 after their minds met on the overriding philosophy of building from within and supplementing from without, Stoneman’s seven-year legacy includes:

The hiring of Mike Scioscia as manager, the winning of a wild-card World Series title in 2002 (with a roster largely built by predecessor Bill Bavasi), the consecutive division crowns of the last two years, a .529 overall winning percentage, record attendance and supervision of the capital reinvestment that has raised the payroll to $103 million -- easily the highest in a division the Angels were expected to win again.

None of it has happened in a vacuum, of course, and no general manager totally avoids attention.

And now, as the 2006 summer swiftly turns dark in Anaheim, as hopes fade for an offense that wasn’t repaired after last season’s struggle and the promise of a youthful restructuring hasn’t been realized, as a collapsing defense suggests an inexplicable absence of focus and the calendar marches inexorably toward the July 31 trade deadline that Stoneman has largely ignored in the past and may again, public exposure seems certain to call on the GM whether he wants it or not.

“People are passionate about the game and quick to share their opinions,” Stoneman said. “It’s not fun to be criticized, but it comes with the job. You have to have thick skin and get on with it. I have my own share of sleepless nights, but you have to remain objective. Get too emotional and you’re apt to [mess] things up real fast.”

Although Stoneman moved quickly to get Moreno’s approval when free agent Vladimir Guerrero was unexpectedly dropped in his lap, “real fast” is generally not a trait with which he is associated.

He is admittedly patient, deliberative and self-contained, a former marketing and finance executive with Canada’s conservative Royal Trust and then the man who often had to say no as head of baseball operations for the Montreal Expos, guardian of their limited financial resources at the time.

“I’ve found Bill to be honest and upfront,” Toronto Blue Jays General Manager J.P. Ricciardi said. “I’ve had good dealings with him and that’s the only way I know how to judge the man other than the fact that he’s had good clubs ever since he’s been there and that says a lot about him too. The one thing for sure is that he’s not the type of guy who is going to rush into anything. You’re not going to make a proposal and have him get back to you the same day.”

More banker than baseball man? More cautious than daring?

The questions have pursued the former right-handed pitcher who threw two no-hitters during an eight-year big-league career, and they frustrate Stoneman, 62, who insists he is simply a baseball guy who has always been good with numbers, able to read spreadsheets and understand budgets.

“I can’t say enough about Bill as a human being, he’s a true mensch,” said an agent who has done business with Stoneman. “I just wish he was more aggressive as a general manager. In preparing to succeed, you have to be prepared to fail at times.”

The June standings translate to failure of another kind -- and other questions.

Did a cautious Stoneman overvalue his young players and has he overprotected them in the trade market?

With Troy Glaus and Bengie Molina gone, what happened to the off-season bid to improve 2005’s struggling offense with a proven hitter once Boston sought the house for Manny Ramirez and Paul Konerko opted to return to the Chicago White Sox for the same approximate dollars that the Angels offered?

Can Stoneman pull the trigger on a major and creative trade when his seven-year resume shows there have been none of banner magnitude beyond the dumps of Mo Vaughn and Jose Guillen and the long-ago deal that quickly evolved into Jim Edmonds for Adam Kennedy?

Are the Angels already beyond the benefit of a deadline deal and does Stoneman see the value in at least negotiating a trade that would send his players a supportive message when, in fact, there have been only three largely anonymous deals in his six Julys and only one that bore second-half fruit, the 2002 acquisition of Alex Ochoa?

In the Angels’ clubhouse last week, a veteran player shook his head and said, “When I think about the trades Bill has made, I think more about role players than stars. Those are the type players we needed at the time, but now we need more than an Ochoa. I look around and still have faith that the group here can get going, but for whatever reason it hasn’t happened. After a while you start to wonder if it will.”

Acknowledged Tim Mead, the club’s senior vice president of communications: “I wouldn’t say we’re at a crossroads or that the deadline is a crossroads, but I do think we’re in a time frame in which we have to sort out some tough issues that should help establish a tone for the future.”

Will Kennedy or Darin Erstad be re-signed?

Can Garret Anderson, with two years left on a $48-million contract, be expected to regain full health after two injury-slowed seasons?

Does Chone Figgins, his focus and hustle questioned by manager and teammates in the first half, still fit?

What about all those once -- and in some cases still -- touted kids?

“Look,” said the general manager of an American League Central team, “there are a couple of purposes for maintaining a productive farm system. One is to plug your own players into the lineup and reduce costs. The other is to use some of those players in trades to fill positions you can’t fill from the system.

“The Angels are still talking about acquiring an offensive player, but we’ve seen some of those kids at the major league level now and they don’t have the same value they once did.”

Said Toronto’s Ricciardi: “I’m not saying this is the case with the Angels, but some of these baseball publications seem to fall in love with certain organizations and help inflate the buildup. The proof is in the pudding. My view is that the Angels are definitely in the upper echelon of teams with legitimate prospects. If Bill wants to do something trade-wise, he’s in position to do it.”

Does Stoneman want to do something? The answer isn’t clear.

He continues to insist that the Angels have the ability to win but haven’t played to their capability. He continues to express belief in his young players but he asked for a summit meeting with Moreno and Scioscia in Arizona on Thursday to analyze his disappointing team and discuss what should be done.

A trade for trade’s sake, it’s safe to say, isn’t going to happen.

“What happens in this industry a lot,” he said, “is the churning of talent simply for the churning of talent. I don’t get it.

“I’m not afraid to pull the trigger on a deadline deal or any deal that moves us forward, and I’m not afraid to trade a young player, but I better get an impact player in return and it better be good for our club going forward.

“With the pressure on payrolls now, young players have far more value than they ever used to, even for the large-market clubs that can more easily absorb a mistake.”

While the Angels insist that anybody with the fortitude to sever relations with Glaus, Molina, Troy Percival and Chuck Finley, among others, has the fortitude to pull the trigger on a major trade, Stoneman said he works from a general plan that goes five years into the future while leaving room for opportunism. At a deadline, of course, more clubs are working the phones and there is more opportunity for opportunism.

Stoneman shook his head.

“The public thinks you have a lot more opportunities to do things than you really have,” he said, “and there’s an assumption that you should make deadline deals.

“Really? Where’s the logic? Why?

“If it’s a difference-making deal you do it, but you do it at the deadline or you do it in March or you do it in September.

“If it isn’t going to make a difference, you don’t do it. You can’t be afraid to say no when there’s a lot of pressure to say yes. You can’t let people who aren’t on the inside and who don’t have the information we do be making or pressuring your decisions. You can’t let pressure from fans, media or a deadline affect the quality of your ball club.”

Bill Stoneman was 19 when he returned home after a 12-hour shift at a West Covina gas station at 11 p.m. one Saturday to discover that to be eligible to play at Idaho after transferring from Mt. San Antonio College, he had to enroll in summer school that Monday morning.

Stoneman took off on the 900-mile drive within the hour only to fall asleep at the wheel and roll his car near the Washington-Idaho border. He crawled out bloodied but undeterred. A friendly truck driver who put him in the back with the pigs and sheep got him to a sheriff’s station, and Stoneman ultimately hitchhiked the rest of the way, making the registration deadline.

The anecdote has traveled with Stoneman ever since, evidence he is a man who stays the course, public exposure or not, trade deadline or not.