Area Architects Planning With Ceiling in Mind

The Angels and Dodgers hope to raise the roof with their first-round selections in Monday’s annual June draft of amateur players. Bill Stoneman and Kevin Malone, the Angel and Dodger general managers, said they will select players with the “highest ceiling” regardless of their position or whether they are high school or college players.

The Angels have the 10th and 20th picks, the latter compensation from the Oakland Athletics for their free-agent signing of relief pitcher Mike Magnante. The Dodgers have the 17th pick. Baseball America, a publication specializing in the draft, predicts that the Dodgers will select David Espinosa, a high school shortstop from Miami, and that the Angels will choose Pepperdine catcher Dane Sardinha and Stanford pitcher Justin Wayne. However, the Angels are also known to be high on El Camino College pitcher Robert Stiehl, a Troy Percival clone.

Neither Stoneman nor Malone would discuss their preferences in a draft that both agreed, as Malone put it, is a “little lean on premium talent.” Because of that, however, both are optimistic that they will end up with first-round choices of their liking, because, Malone said, “there is so much difference of opinion at the top.”

It is the second draft for the Malone regime, trying to replenish a barren Dodger farm system, and the first for Stoneman and scouting director Donny Rowland with the Angels, who have already had to lean heavily on the surprising pitching depth of a system that may have received some unjustified criticism.

As always, signability will be a factor. The price of doing business in what is an inexact science with a high failure rate has soared dramatically.

The average signing bonus for first-round players in last year’s draft was $1.8 million. The Florida Marlins, who have the top pick this year, gave a $7-million package to high school pitcher Josh Beckett last year and insist they will not duplicate that spending, which means they may pass on consensus No. 1, Palmdale High pitcher Matt Harrington, and opt for one of two San Diego-area high school prospects: first baseman Adrian Gonzalez or catcher Scott Heard.

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With successive series losses to Boston and Oakland at home, the New York Yankees seem certain to trade for an outfielder, with Ricky Ledee likely to lose his job.

The Yankees have other concerns--such as David Cone’s 1-5 record, Chuck Knoblauch’s ongoing throwing problems and the significant falloff in offensive production from several players, including Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius--but nothing more visible than the left field vacuum.

George Steinbrenner has been steaming that he allowed himself to be talked out of trading for Jim Edmonds, so it’s inevitable, given the Yankees’ current struggle, that a change is coming.

Among the possibilities: B.J. Surhoff, Brady Anderson, Moises Alou, Johnny Damon and Juan Gonzalez, who has no intention of re-signing with the Detroit Tigers and sat out last week’s reunion with the Texas Rangers because of a mysterious foot injury.

The Gonzalez acquisition, combined with other factors, has put Randy Smith’s job as Detroit general manager in jeopardy, and it’s uncertain if the possible acquisition of pitcher Ed Yarnall and infielder Alfonso Soriano in a Gonzalez trade with New York would be enough to save it.

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Congratulations to Kansas City Royal pitcher Miguel Batista, who didn’t want to hear about juiced baseballs after giving up three of the four home runs the Angels hit in the fifth inning last Sunday.

“You never saw Babe Ruth spending six months lifting weights,” Batista said. “He was huge. Pitchers just have to find ways to get this going in our way. They get paid to hit, and we get paid to get them out.”