Written by Bill Shaikin at LATimes.com
The Angels’ owner had zipped up the team wallet. But the team desperately needed a pitcher, so management gambled on a fragile arm. The arm belonged to a former Cy Young winner, a guy who inspired a city, wore multiple World Series championship rings and drew raves from teammates for his accountability and effort.
So the Angels signed Fernando Valenzuela, two months after the Dodgers let him go. The Angels got two major league starts out of him. He lost both, and the Angels let him go.
That was in 1991. Here we are 25 years later, when the Angels ought to be above these kinds of gambles, and Tim Lincecum feels a bit like Valenzuela all over again.
“I think it will come down to September,” Eppler said Monday.
It might. The Angels and all their woes are only 4 1/2 games out of first place in theAmerican League West, which appears to be the weakest top-to-bottom division in the major leagues. So Eppler, in his first year, has provided low-cost upgrades to the margins of the roster over the last week: shortstop Brendan Ryan, pitcher Jhoulys Chacin and now Lincecum.
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