Darin Erstad was good for at least one web gem a night in the outfield the past few seasons. Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Darin Erstad used to play first base, but then the Anaheim Angels wised up and moved him to the outfield, where he became a two-time Gold Glove winner in center.

And now the Angels are moving him back.

You simply don't take a Gold Glove out of a premium position like center field, the thinking goes, and stick him at first base. First base is for creaky old catchers. It's for lead-legged stiffs. It's where you put the guys who can't play anywhere else.

You don't take a good -- no, great -- defensive player and waste him at first base. It's just not done. It's just not smart.

Well, smart or not, it's about the only thing the Angels can do with the loaded lineup they have. Anaheim will open the 2004 season with slugging newcomer Vladimir Guerrero in right field. Garret Anderson is moving to center, leaving left field for another newcomer, Jose Guillen. It's a heck of an outfield. A powerful outfield. Maybe the best outfield in the game.

How good that outfield will be defensively, though ... well, you take a Gold Glover out of center, it has to hurt.

Erstad doesn't buy that, of course. Not many players do, he insists.

"They don't say that at all. They say the opposite. They say things like 'Those balls in the hole aren't hits any more,'" Erstad said at the Angels' spring training camp in Tempe. "It's just people's perspective. What it boils down to is what's best for our team. And with the acquisitions we made this year, putting me on first gives us the best team. And I've said it all along: whatever's best for the team, I'm willing to do whatever."

This season, Erstad will get the most significant playing time he's had at first since 1999, when he played 78 games there. He's played almost 300 games at first, where he owns an impressive career fielding percentage of .994 -- exactly what Scott Spiezio had for the Angels last season.

Erstad has been neck-deep in his new-old position from the start of spring training. He's taken endless ground balls at first. He's been working on charging bunts, turning the 3-6-3 double play, flipping to the pitcher covering at first. He's trying to get a feel for the arms all over the infield, trying to learn how far into the hole between first and second he can cheat. He's discovering which grounders are his, and which belong to second baseman Adam Kennedy.

No, he doesn't cover as much ground as he did when he patrolled center. He doesn't have to.

But this spring he still has had plenty of ground to cover.

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"I'm just getting up to speed with the infield. I'm not completely comfortable right yet. But the transition is a lot easier than it was the first time," said Erstad, who came up as an outfielder in 1996 before switching to first base for 126 games in 1997. "It's pretty much the same game. Stop the ball and don't let it get by you. Catch and throw. Pretty much the same."

As good a center fielder as he was (Gold Gloves in 2000 and 2002), Erstad played in only 67 games last year because of hamstring problems. That's another reason manager Mike Scioscia and general manager Bill Stoneman decided to put Erstad at first, a position that doesn't demand so much wear and tear.

Still, Erstad is one of those players who goes all out sitting on the bench. He's become so used to running all over the field that he will not become a statue at first. Kennedy already sees that.

"We're two guys who like to cover some ground. I just look at it as a good thing. It's going to be tough to get the ball through the right side," Kennedy said. "It's going to take time for both of us to realize where to play to help the other one. I can play more up the middle to give him more room. But it's going to take a little time to figure it out."

The best first basemen, of course, can play deep into the hole as well as protect the line. The best first basemen can help his infielders by digging throws out of the dirt and being big enough to pull down high throws (Erstad, a left-hander, is 6-foot-2).

The best first basemen, too, can stretch for a throw to help nail the runner on those bang-bang plays. If, of course, their hamstrings allow it.

"People love throwing that out there: 'Is it going to wear on you more, wear on you less?' I don't know. Just play and whatever happens, happens," Erstad said. "You know, you can't worry about that stuff. You do all your exercises and hope it holds up. I can't do any more work to make it stay healthy. If it goes, it goes."

For his part, Scioscia says he has no worries about Erstad at first. Whatever the Angels might lose defensively with Erstad out of center -- and that's still to be seen -- they should pick up in offense, especially with Guillen and Guerrero in the lineup.

Erstad, who turns 30 in June, will not be the prototypical slugging first baseman. He's never hit more than 25 home runs in a season, and he's never driven in more than 100 runs.

But if he stays healthy, he's capable of hitting at least 20 home runs and driving in 85 or 90 runs. Add that to the expected high output of guys like Guerrero, Guillen, Anderson and designated hitter Tim Salmon and the Angels have probably the most potent lineup in the American League West.

Given how good he was in the outfield, most everyone on the Angels expects Erstad to more than hold his own with the glove at first base. Clearly, he is not moving there to play out the string.

"You look at guys toward the end of their career that have moved to first to, they say, save on their legs," Erstad says. "I'm not at that point where I'm ready to throttle back the way I play. I believe you get out what you put into it. Wherever you're at, you can make an impact."

The Angels are counting on it.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.