Salmon Happy With Outlook

Tim Salmon, rehabilitating from an Achilles’ tendon injury, is one of six starting position players who reported to spring training early, and it didn’t take long for him to notice something different in Tempe, Ariz.

“This is the most optimism I’ve ever seen coming into camp,” Salmon said. “Usually you have one or two areas of your team that need work, but our rotation and bullpen look strong, and we have a good lineup. . . . We’re going to be cutting guys who belong in the big leagues. That’s never happened here.”

This should be the most competitive Angel camp in years, with three starters (Omar Olivares, William VanLandingham and Rich Robertson) competing for the No. 5 spot, as many as seven relievers, all with extensive big league experience, competing for three bullpen spots and 11 players competing for four bench spots.

“Absolutely,” Manager Terry Collins said, when asked if his job would be tougher this spring. “But one of the things I like is competition in camp, especially when you’re dealing with young pitchers. The guy you go to is the one who turns it up a notch because he’s trying to win the job.”

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Former Angel pitcher Mike Witt, third on the franchise’s career win list, is in camp for 10 days to work with pitching coach Marcel Lachemann.

The team is making an effort to bring former players and coaches back to work with current players, and ex-Angel manager Gene Mauch is scheduled to be in Tempe later this spring.

Witt said seeing Angel minor league instructor John McNamara, the former Boston manager, sparked a flashback to Game 5 of the 1986 American League championship series, when the Angels were one out away from the World Series before losing the lead, the game and the series to McNamara’s Red Sox.

But Witt, who left Game 5 with the lead in the ninth inning, said he is not haunted by the extra-inning loss.

“When you’re involved in it, you just look at it as another game you should have won,” Witt said. “Yes, it was the game that could have put us in the ultimate goal, but you’d drive yourself crazy if you dwelled on it.”