Pitchers Get to Ply Their Trade Today

Angel pitcher Jason Grimsley said he isn’t attaching any extra significance to today’s game against the Indians. Cleveland pitcher Brian Anderson is.

“Guys say it’s just another game, but it’s bigger than a normal game,” said Anderson, who was traded from the Angels to the Indians after a winter contract dispute.

“There’s going to be a lot of emotions pitching against my friends and former teammates, but I still have a job to do. We’ll be friends after the game, but for a couple hours, we’re going to be worst enemies.”

Just like Anderson and the Angel front office were last winter. The Angels tendered Anderson a contract in December with more than the maximum 20% salary cut.

They claimed to have corrected the error within a week, but Anderson claimed they didn’t, and he and his agent threatened to file a grievance, which could have resulted in him becoming a free agent.

But General Manager Bill Bavasi, fearing Anderson would be a “clubhouse distraction” if the pitcher lost the grievance and was forced to return to the Angels, traded Anderson for Grimsley and pitcher Pep Harris before it got to that point.

“That really fried me,” Anderson said. “Anyone who knows me knows that’s not the type of guy I am. I’ve got less than two years in the big leagues, like I’m going to walk into a clubhouse and tear it up? Get real.”

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Eighth inning, two on, two out, Carlos Baerga at the plate and a Jacobs Field crowd of 42,267 cheering wildly. Angel reliever Ryan Hancock stepped into this scene for his major league debut and, two pitches later, stepped right out of it.

Hancock, impressing Manager Marcel Lachemann with his performance under pressure, retired Baerga on a groundout to end the inning, one of the few Angel positives in a 5-0 loss.

“I’ve played in front of bigger crowds and I’ve played at Notre Dame,” said Hancock, Brigham Young’s starting quarterback in 1992. “So that helped me prepare as far as the nerves go. I had butterflies when I was called to warm up in the fourth inning, but I got rid of them by the time I came in.”

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The Angels have made 25 errors in their last 21 games, falling from first to ninth in American League fielding percentage. . . . Cleveland right-hander Orel Hershiser is 1-0 with an 0.64 earned-run average in two starts against the Angels this season. . . . The only team in baseball with a worse road record than the Angels (8-21) is Detroit. . . . Garret Anderson is three for 19 (.158) on the trip and has one homer since May 11. J.T. Snow has two RBIs in his last 14 games.