The Dodgers Are on Fire, but Angels Keep Fiddling

Another Christmas has come and gone, and did you notice how the neighborhood baseball teams made out?

Both teams got new right fielders.

The Dodgers got Darryl Strawberry.

The Angels got Dave Gallagher.

Both teams got new center fielders.

The Dodgers got Brett Butler.

The Angels got Junior Felix.

Both teams got some pitching help.

The Dodgers got Bob Ojeda and Kevin Gross.

The Angels got Floyd Bannister.

Both teams also caught a glimpse of the future, as to how they’ll be spending next year’s holiday season.

The Dodgers saw 25 golden rings, four World Series victories, three All-Stars in the outfield, 2.9 million in attendance and Lasorda on the TV screen all damn winter.

The Angels saw 162 lumps of coal.

It has to be rough sharing a hedge with the team that doesn’t. The Dodgers just won’t sit still. They don’t make the World Series for a couple of seasons, and they get nervous. They’ve got places to call, turkey to talk, people to beat.

The Angels, of course, haven’t made a World Series since the dawn of man. Every so often, they get the misguided notion that they’re close, like right after the 1989 season, when they won 91 games. Then they go out, get Mark Langston and Dave Winfield and finish the next season 23 games out, so you can understand why they’re a little bit confused.

Actually, this is the first winter in many winters the Angels have an actual game plan. The idea was to give Manager Doug Rader a stronger say in personnel matters, a slice of inspiration that, so far, has shown to carry a double edge.

Rader favors a youth movement, or at least a new one, seeing as how the youth movement of ’87 got old in a hurry. This is the right way to think. The Angels need to re-fortify their minor league system, add fuel to the fire started by Joe Grahe and Scott Lewis, and squandering first-round draft picks on designer-label free agents isn’t going to get it done. Building from within and trading for prospects, at this point, is the safest and sanest approach.

But Rader also favors surrounding himself with players he knows, which has meant turning the Angels into the Chicago White Sox Alumni Assn. Rader no doubt has fond memories of his years with the White Sox--as a coach for Tony LaRussa, he salvaged his career out of the Texas Ranger dumpster--and now, Anaheim Stadium is crawling with old White Sox: Bannister, Gallagher, Fred Manrique, Donnie Hill.

One problem: The old White Sox were no good.

Even the new White Sox recognize this, which is why Ron Schueler’s front office has become the Emery of the American League West. Out go Eric King, Shawn Hillegas, Ivan Calderon, Barry Jones. In come Tim Raines, Cory Snyder, Charlie Hough.

This represents slippage as far as the Angels are concerned. The Angels finished fourth in the AL West in 1990, behind Oakland, Chicago and Texas. Oakland and Texas have basically stood pat; the A’s lost Willie McGee, but he was only a temp until Dave Henderson healed, and re-signing Bob Welch was addition by anti-attrition. The White Sox, though, have clearly picked up the pace, enlisting help where they needed it most--on offense, in the outfield--and outlegging the Angels to the finish line for Raines.

Consider that the Angels and the White Sox set out this winter on one similar mission--Needed: One Center Fielder--and compare how they completed the route. Better yet, go back in time, to 1988 or so, and compare these potential trade packages:

Devon White and Willie Fraser.

Ivan Calderon and Barry Jones.

Which one brings home Raines and which one buys you Junior Felix?

Now, 1991 is knocking, and for the Angels, the pressure mounts. Team Anaheim is coming off a dismal summer, which was bad enough, but all winter long, Team Chavez Ravine has been cleaning its clock. Do the Angels stay the course, stay with what’s at home and take a couple years off to rebuild? Or do they yield to temptation and shoot for the marquee moon, throwing themselves at the first big name that winks in their direction?

Those Wally Joyner-for-Lee Smith rumors scare me.

All of this has jacked up the ante in the Gary Gaetti sweepstakes, almost to the point where the Angels can no longer afford to lose him. Flawed though he is--32 years old, coming off two sub-par seasons--Gaetti fills Angel needs on two levels that cannot be ignored. Physically, it’s a simple equation: The Angels are desperate for a third baseman, especially one that won’t cost them a draft choice in return. But psychologically, Gaetti also lets the Angels feel better about themselves in the Strawberry-Butler market. See, the Angels can get their man, too.

Gaetti would be a shot in the season-ticket brochure, would give the Angels a new-look infield that wouldn’t look half-bad and, with a Bert Blyleven-type comeback, could even give the Angels a fighting chance in 1991.

Swing and miss on Gaetti, though, and things could get awfully grim again.

The 1991 baseball is still more than three months off, and already the Dodgers are dropping hints about Eric Davis, the L.A. native who becomes a free agent at the end of the 1992 season.

Right now, the Angels aren’t even sure they can keep Chili Davis.