Baseball A.L

Sporting News, The, July 30, 2001

Anaheim Angels www.sportingnews.com/baseball/teams/angels/

48-48

3rd West

After much trial and error, Wooten gets the nod at DH

C Shawn Wooten has become the club's primary DH, but only after manager Mike Scioscia gave up on Jose Canseco, Glenallen Hill and a variety of other experiments. Since the All-Star break, Wooten is hitting .364 (12-of-33). Before the break, he started games at first and catcher as Scioscia tried to mix and match to find the most productive lineup. Before Wally Joyner retired in June, it was more difficult for Scioscia to get Wooten into the lineup. But with Joyner gone and RF Tim Salmon out with a shoulder injury for nearly three weeks, Wooten got his shot. Wooten was a high school teammate of A's 1B Jason Giambi and generally was regarded as a better player, but he wasn't drafted out of high school because a knee injury scared teams off.

SCOUTING REPORT: The team signed RHP Ismael Valdes to a bargain-rate one-year, $2.5 million deal after he went 2-7 in 2000 for the Cubs and Dodgers and was hampered by shoulder and hamstring injuries. He went at least six innings in 11 of his first 14 starts and allowed three runs or fewer in 11 starts. The key is keeping him healthy. A cracked fingernail put him on the D.L. in April. He was back on it in June with a weak shoulder. Last week, Valdes shut out the Devil Rays on two hits over six innings but had to leave the game when a blood blister developed on his right index finger. The team has been quick to shut him down to prevent minor injuries from turning into big ones.

SEE A DIFFERENT GAME: With the team leading the Devil Rays 2-1 with two outs in the ninth, Angels RHP Troy Percival had to face 1B Fred McGriff, who a year ago hit a game-winning, two-run homer off Percival in the ninth. Percival decided to take 3 or 4 mph off his 97 mph fastball to make sure he hit his spots, but he fell behind in the count, 2-1, and figured a walk would be fine. At 2-1, Percival tried to throw a curveball off the plate but it caught the outside corner for strike two. At 2-2, he threw a fastball off the outside corner. McGriff swung and missed, ending the game. Percival had just two blown saves in his first 27 chances and led the league with a .926 save percentage.--Joe Haakenson

TSNUMBER 100 Career homers by 3B Troy Glaus, who reached the mark in his 456th game, making him the fastest to 100 in Angels history. Glaus, who was batting .197 in July, hit Nos. 100 and 101 against the Orioles last Saturday.

BATTERS        AVG   G    AB    R     H    HR

Gil           .343   64   169   25    58    8
(*)Wooten     .335   59   161   19    54    7
Kennedy( )    .295   80   292   32    86    4
(*)Eckstein   .285   89   340   48    97    3
Erstad( )     .277   94   379   53   105    7
Anderson( )   .277   96   401   43   111   16
Palmeiro( )   .276   61   127   21    35    2
B. Molina     .255   42   141   15    36    1
Spiezio(#)    .255   74   220   24    56    5
Glaus         .246   95   353   60    87   24
Fabregas( )   .211   34    95    4    20    1
Salmon        .202   74   257   33    52    9
Nieves        .000   10     7    1     0    0

BATTERS       RBI    OBP   SB   K    BB   E

Gil            30   .367    2   32    7    9
(*)Wooten      28   .357    2   32    5    2
Kennedy( )     24   .351    8   37   21    5
(*)Eckstein    22   .358    9   37   27    9
Erstad( )      47   .347   16   68   36    1
Anderson( )    66   .300    7   57   15    1
Palmeiro( )    14   .343    3   15   11    1
B. Molina      15   .323    0   23   11    2
Spiezio(#)     22   .311    2   34   17    0
Glaus          60   .356    6   89   60   14
Fabregas( )    11   .230    0    9    3    3
Salmon         26   .357    5   72   58    2
Nieves          0   .000    0    3    0    1

GRAND SLAMS: Anderson (1)

PITCHERS         ERA    W-L     IP     H    R

Levine           2.13   5-4    50.2    40   14
Percival         2.15   3-2    37.2    22   11
(*)Weber         3.05   4-1    44.1    41   16
Washburn( )      3.41   8-4   118.2   116   50
Hasegawa         3.60   3-4    30.0    29   14
Pote             3.61   1-0    47.1    45   20
Valdes           3.99   6-5    88.0    84   39
Ortiz            4.18   7-7   125.0   136   68
Holtz( )         4.37   0-0    22.2    20   11
Rapp             4.78   3-9   113.0   113   64
Schoeneweis( )   4.91   7-8   124.2   135   70
Borland            --   0-0     0.0     0    0

PITCHERS         ER   HR   K    BB   SV   AVG.

Levine           12    3   31   13    0   .229
Percival          9    1   41   11   25   .165
(*)Weber         15    4   30   25    0   .240
Washburn( )      45   10   83   41    0   .255
Hasegawa         12    3   25   14    0   .257
Pote             19    9   35   18    1   .243
Valdes           39    9   53   19    0   .246
Ortiz            58   11   82   46    0   .277
Holtz( )         11    3   28    7    0   .241
Rapp             60   11   54   44    0   .263
Schoeneweis( )   68   10   63   52    0   .279
Borland           0    0    0    0    0     --

SHUTOUTS: None

COMPLETE GAMES: Rapp, Schoeneweis, Valdes, Washburn (1)

(*) Rookie

( ) Lefthanded

(#) Switch hitter

League leaders in bold

Statistics provided by STATS Inc. through Saturday, July 21.