Angels’ Few Moves Enough : Analysis: Bavasi comes through, and so does his team with a surprising first half.

The off-season performance of the Angel front office wasn’t much to boast about.

The team set out to secure a closer, a power hitter and a top-notch starting pitcher or two. The Angels went one for three, signing reliever Lee Smith, whose impact has been as huge as his 6-foot-6, 269-pound frame.

Though a .333 average will make a player millions, a general manager with a similar rate of success usually winds up in a river with hip boots and a fly-fishing rod.

But Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi staged an impressive rally during spring training, hooking a feisty lead-off batter in Tony Phillips, luring back an effective left-handed reliever, Bob Patterson, with minimal bait, and trolling the Homestead, Fla., free-agent camp for a productive starting pitcher, Mike Bielecki.

Then, once the season began, he convinced ownership to restore the three-year, $11.4 million contract offer to his top hitter, Chili Davis, who felt snubbed when the team reneged on the deal in April then highly appreciated--and he’s playing like it--when he signed in May.

And that power hitter Bavasi was looking for? Turns out he was right under the general manager’s nose: First baseman J.T. Snow is batting .305 with 11 home runs and 51 runs batted in, providing bodyguard-type protection in the No. 5 spot behind Tim Salmon and Davis.

The other starting pitcher Bavasi longed for turned out to be Shawn Boskie, who was picked up from the discard pile after the right-hander played for three teams in 1994. This year he is 6-2.

“We were definitely more lucky than good in the off-season,” Bavasi said.

This season, the Angels have been more good than lucky, and go into the All-Star break tied for first in the American League West.

There has been the surprising offensive emergence of numerous players, including shortstop Gary DiSarcina (.324, 21 doubles, 33 RBIs) and center fielder Jim Edmonds (.291, 13 homers, 52 RBIs), who are both on the American League All-Star team.

There have been the expected strong performances from veterans such as Chuck Finley (7-7, 3.56 earned-run average) and Mark Langston (8-1, 4.15), Davis (.359, nine homers, 38 RBIs) and Salmon (.291, 15 homers, 42 RBIs).

There have been dozens of clutch hits--DiSarcina is batting .414 and Snow .356 with 20 RBIs with runners in scoring position and two outs--and many clutch relief performances from the likes of Patterson and rookie Troy Percival.

The Angels have the league’s second-rated defense and have received timely bench contributions. Factor in a confluence of personalities that has brought vigor to the clubhouse, and that helps explain why a team many predicted would finish last in the AL West has spent much of the first half in first place.

“Chemistry is important in any occupation, but especially baseball, because the season is such a grind,” said Angel utility player Rex Hudler, a 34-year-old who has played for five organizations and in Japan. “If everyone was the same, it would be a very dull place.

“Bill [Bavasi] knows that. I’m no expert GM, but being here and other places, and observing what’s going on, a mixture of young guys playing and some veterans on the bench is a nice blend. He’s put together some characters on this team.”

Bavasi and Tim Mead, the assistant general manager, didn’t map out a plan to improve team chemistry this season. But it’s no coincidence the two newcomers who have had the most impact on the field--Phillips and Smith--have also had the most influence on the bench and in the clubhouse.

Phillips, who came from Detroit in a spring-training trade for Chad Curtis, has brought an edge to the team that wasn’t there last season.

He’ll get in the face of an umpire. He’ll get in the face of a teammate who he feels isn’t hustling. He won’t back down from any challenge--heck, he was ready to take on Boston batting instructor Jim Rice, who is about twice his size, during a Fenway Park brawl in June.

Curtis was an aggressive player, but his emotion was directed inward. In Phillips, the Angels got a 36-year-old veteran with a World Series ring and the maturity and patience to know how to get on base at a .417 clip.

Phillips is batting .280 with 14 home runs, 37 RBIs, a league-leading 61 runs scored and 61 walks, which rank second in the league. The switch-hitter has been the igniter of an offense that leads the major leagues in runs and on-base percentage. He also leads the Angels in ejections with two.

“We go beyond scouting reports [when considering a trade]--we get information on what kinds of guys these are,” Bavasi said. “But with Tony, he was a safe bet, because his reputation is so well-known for being a gamer.”

Smith seems just the opposite, a laid-back Louisiana native who is so calm he naps in the clubhouse during games, and whose demeanor is consistent whether he strikes out the side or gives up a game-winning grand slam.

But there is no more intense a competitor, as his 20 saves in 22 opportunities this season--and his major league-leading 454 career saves--will attest.

“In the midst of saving 19 in a row, he never changed,” Davis said of Smith, 37. “Then he blew two in a row [on June 28 and 30] and everyone was looking to see what would happen, and he was the same Lee Smith. It was beautiful.”

The Angels had the league’s worst relief corps last season, but when Smith begins his slow strolls from the bullpen to the mound to start the ninth inning with a one-run lead, it’s as if the team’s confidence builds with every step.

“He has given us a calming influence at the end of the game,” Bavasi said. “You know he’s going to pitch well. He’s going to lose some, but he’s not going to lose because of a lack of courage, knowledge and experience.”

Smith has passed on this knowledge to the younger bullpen members.

Percival, who makes a point of remaining on the bench to watch Smith instead of retreating to the clubhouse to ice his arm, has set up 12 of Smith’s saves, usually shutting down opponents in the eighth inning with a fastball that has been clocked at 100 m.p.h. The right-hander has a 2.45 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 33 innings.

The Mitch Williams signing backfired--the left-hander had control problems and was released June 17 with a 6.75 ERA--but the re-signing of Patterson, who took a cut in base pay from $600,000 to $225,000 this year, was a stroke of genius.

Patterson, 36, has appeared in a team-high 28 games, sometimes merely to get a left-hander out. He is 4-2 with a 2.17 ERA and has allowed only six of 31 inherited runners to score.

The Angels have also proved to be resilient. Not only have they developed a penchant for scoring in the half inning after an opponent scores, they’ve managed to rebound from many tough losses.

After Smith blew his first save of the season June 28 at Texas, the Angels whipped the Rangers, 20-4, the next day. After losing five of six on their last trip--the Angels’ most severe slide of the season--Bielecki led a 7-1 victory over Oakland on get-away day, and the Angels returned home to take three of four from the Toronto Blue Jays.

And they’ve withstood the loss of several key players. Starter Brian Anderson (strained left biceps) was sidelined for six weeks in May and June, but Bielecki, a free-agent acquisition from the Atlanta Braves, was a capable fill-in and has remained in the rotation because of Scott Sanderson’s back injury.

Catcher Greg Myers has been on the disabled list twice, but Jorge Fabregas, called up from triple-A Vancouver June 5, is batting .276 and doing so well he might have won the starting job.

Think the Angel offense would stagnate when Davis went on the disabled list because of a strained hamstring June 21? Think again. The Angels have outscored opponents, 123-91, without their best hitter.

“You don’t know who to pitch around now,” Davis said after a 10-1 victory over Toronto on Thursday. “This is getting psycho.”

Give Manager Marcel Lachemann some credit too, Bavasi said. Lachemann has done an excellent job with the pitching staff and gotten the most out of an offense with virtually no speed by maximizing hit-and-run opportunities.

“There’s an old Branch Rickey saying, that luck is the residue of design,” Bavasi said. “Marcel and his staff were extremely prepared in spring training. They pushed the players to the extent that they were probably a little disturbed by the work regimen.

“But the players were very professional about it, and they embraced that approach. At the beginning of the season we had a prepared club.”

But are they prepared to stay in the pennant race through September?

Bavasi would like to add more pitching, and the names of marquee players such as David Cone, Bret Saberhagen and Ken Hill have been considered.

Bavasi said the Angels “won’t be in the running” for such high-salaried stars, “but if we’re given the opportunity to get a starting pitcher, we’d do so. But we’ll probably do it in bits and pieces, not the big blowout.”

One thing the Angels have going for them is a core of veterans, such as Davis, Phillips and Smith, who know what it takes to win championships, and how to handle the pressure of a pennant race.

“You can’t even think about being in first place,” Davis said. “When you try to hold on to something you squeeze real tight, and eventually you can’t squeeze any more because your hands are tired.

“There will be a pressure-filled atmosphere when we come back from the All-Star break, but it’s the same pressure we’ve dealt with all year. It has been a one-game race [in the West] all along, why should there be any difference?”