Angels Overcome Karl and Overpower Toronto

It is meant as no disrespect to General Manager Bill Stoneman or Manager Mike Scioscia, who were shrewd enough to realize that the biggest change the Angels needed to make was in the environment.

But make no mistake: The gritty Angels, with their volatile offense, surprising young pitching and impressive array of home-grown talent, are a tribute to former general manager Bill Bavasi and his scouting director, Bob Fontaine.

It is not a stretch, in fact, to suggest that the division and wild-card contender remains Bavasi and Fontaine’s team.

In reacting to that suggestion, Bavasi said:

“I have an ego, like everyone else. I’m flattered if people are saying that. Maybe in a private moment I think about it as well. I’m proud of the job we did, but I don’t want to say anything that will take away from what Bill has done. I hate hearing former general managers pop off like that. If I felt this was my team, I should have stayed.”

A tumultuous season ended last October with Bavasi resigning under duress.

He and club President Tony Tavares differed on the steps to take after a 67-92 season, during which the clubhouse imploded and manager Terry Collins, burned by the bickering, resigned in early September. Fontaine yielded to front-office housecleaning by Stoneman, but he and Bavasi left their marks.

Only the Oakland Athletics, perhaps, have a more impressive array of home-grown talent--all of which was drafted and/or signed during Fontaine’s tenure as scouting director and most of which was drafted and/or signed while Bavasi was general manager, having moved up from farm director.

Five key position players--Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson, Darin Erstad, Troy Glaus and Bengie Molina--came out of the Angel system, as did injured shortstop Gary DiSarcina, closer Troy Percival, left-handed specialist Mike Holtz, sidelined starter Jason Dickson and the young pitchers who have kept a fragile rotation together at critical points: Scott Schoeneweis, Jarrod Washburn, Ramon Ortiz, Matt Wise, Brian Cooper and Seth Etherton.

Approaching September, with the Angels still alive, Schoeneweis, Ortiz and Wise form three-fifths of a rotation that remains devoid of a proven stopper and veteran leadership.

In addition, Stoneman used the home-grown Jim Edmonds in a trade for Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy, filling the second base void before dealing Bottenfield for Ron Gant, who provides right-handed power in the DH role.

As Bavasi noted, “I think it’s phenomenal when you look at the number of home-grown players and consider the lack of opportunity we had in the international market.”

He referred to the significant financial restrictions that he and Fontaine operated under during the final years of Gene Autry’s ownership and the early years of Disney’s ownership. The Angels often had to draft on the basis of signability. Bavasi wouldn’t discuss it, but sources said that any signing of a top international player, such as Venezuelan pitcher Francisco Rodriguez for $900,000 in 1998, meant that they had $900,000 less to spend on domestic drafts and signings, by edict of Disney.

“Let’s just say that I’m very proud of the job Bobby and his scouts did and leave it at that,” Bavasi said. “I don’t want to get into any discussion regarding the conditions or restrictions.”

Fontaine is now a top scouting lieutenant under Chicago White Sox General Manager Ron Schueler.

Jeff Parker, the former Angel farm director, is vice president and general manager of the Altoona Curve, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Eastern League affiliate.

Bavasi, co-chairman of the committee that selected players and staff of the U.S. Olympic baseball team, is a partner in a company called Inside Edge, which supplies advance scouting reports based on pitch selection to 13 major league clubs. He also represents several Japanese clubs in funneling U.S. players.

Although elements of his resignation remain sketchy, there were several areas in which he and Tavares were known to disagree:

* Tavares, reeling in the immediate aftermath of that incendiary summer, wanted a clubhouse housecleaning that Bavasi didn’t think necessary. Nor did he agree with Tavares’ desire to fire many of the club’s oldest scouts. A dozen of them were dismissed after Bavasi had resigned, even though they had contributed to the drafting and signing of many of the players now making key contributions.

* Tavares also felt that the Angels too often went from one philosophy to another, changing direction from year to year, and that it was time for a long-range plan. Bavasi, while committed to farm development, felt there was a need to try to win every year, that after 40 years without a World Series, they couldn’t afford a long-range plan.

Said Bavasi this week, “Given the market and the Angel history, I don’t think you can tell people that the goal is to win in five years, or however many years. I think the Angel goal has to be to win every year, to be in the race every year. However, I think from Disney’s corporate viewpoint, they require that long-range formula and that the feeling was they don’t have to win this year or even next year if they remain on that long-range track. I think Tony and I wanted to get to the same place but had a different idea of how to do it.”

No one in Angel management has said they are pointing toward 2005. Stoneman and Scioscia have consistently maintained that they are trying to win this year.

However, whereas Disney supported Bavasi’s $80-million signing of Mo Vaughn in the winter of 1998, there was no attempt to retain Chuck Finley as the rotation’s veteran linchpin last winter and it seemed that economics were a factor in every possible trade involving the acquisition of a veteran arm.

Whatever the blueprint, the Angels now are in playoff contention with a team Stoneman avoided breaking up, just as the departing Bavasi rejected that mandate.

Of course, the Angels have profited from the dramatic change in attitude and atmosphere under Scioscia and his staff, from the return to health of the regular lineup, from the development of Molina and acquisition of Kennedy, from the booming maturation of Glaus and from the contributions of the largely unheralded young pitchers--almost all of whom might have failed to generate much minor league hoopla because, except for Ortiz, they are not overpowering.

“Sometimes a new face helps,” Bavasi said, referring to his own resignation and the hiring of Stoneman. “I felt that if he didn’t do anything rash, if he took what we had done and made a few changes, if the team stayed healthy, it was capable of contending, and that’s what’s happened. Bill has done a terrific job getting past the DiSarcina loss, blending the pitching and hiring Scioscia and the staff. That was inspired. Who knows? Maybe I wouldn’t have made the same good moves filling in. Maybe I wouldn’t have hired the same manager.”

This much is known: Some of the trades Bavasi made and didn’t make are vulnerable to criticism, but he and Fontaine left the organization with a solid foundation of home-grown talent. The system, of course, may not have much left at the higher levels because it is all in the major leagues. Indeed, 2000 would seem to represent redemption for the departed Bavasi and Fontaine.

“I’m happy for the players and organization, but redemption for us? That will have to be for others to decide,” Bavasi said. “I think redemption would be involved only if we had doubted ourselves and what we were doing. We never doubted ourselves. We had faith in what we were doing and are proud of what we did.”

They can be justified in that, particularly considering the restraints.