EVENTS
 Sportsman of the Year
 Heisman Trophy
 Swimsuit 2001

CNNSI.com GROUP
 Sports Illustrated
 Life of Reilly
 SI Women
 SI for Kids
 Press Room
 TBS/TNT Sports
 CNN Languages

COMMERCE
 SI Customer Service
 SI Media Kits
 Get into College
 Sports Memorabilia
 TeamStore

A strong bullpen, a weak rotation and a big-bang offense add up to mediocrity

By Stephen Cannella

Hasegawa's American dream has come true as he's mastered English, settled in California and become the Angels' most reliable reliever.  Robert Beck ENEMY LINES An opposing team's scout sizes up the Angels "The Angels don't have any pitcher resembling an ace. Ramon Ortiz is inconsistent, and his breaking pitch isn't that great. He throws a lot of flat fastballs. The rap on Ismael Valdes is that if he has any kind of nagging injury, he won't go to the hill. Jarrod Washburn has the highest ceiling of the group. He throws 90 to 94 mph and has a plus slider and a changeup that's developing.... Troy Percival still throws in the low-to-mid-90s, just not as consistently as he did. He'd be more effective if he used his curve more. Shigetoshi Hasegawa 's stuff is just fair, but he locates the ball, and he'll take it every day.... Wally Joyner has lost a step. His bat speed isn't there.... Adam Kennedy has to come back from a broken finger, but he always hits. He steals a lot of bases. He's not that fast, he just knows how.... Gary DiSarcina may not be back, and that's a huge problem. Benji Gil 's tools are diminishing.... Troy Glaus has learned to hit the ball the other way, and he has power to all fields. We might be looking at a home run champ for years to come. He has a very easy swing -- it's no effort for him to hit the ball 50 feet beyond the fence.... Jose Canseco is no longer all bulked up. If he stays in the lineup, 20 to 25 homers are possible.... Darin Erstad was wasted in left, so the move to center is good. He has unmatched hand-eye coordination, and he never gives up an at bat.... Tim Salmon has lost a step, but his arm is still good. To get him out, you have to pitch him up.... Ben Molina is a solid catch-and-throw guy, but pitchers started to figure him out at the end of the year."

For Shigetoshi Hasegawa, watching Hollywood movies in his native Japan was a maddening experience. He'd sit in the theater, half listening to the English-speaking actors while he scanned the subtitles that appeared at the bottom of the screen, all the while wondering if those printed characters were telling him everything he needed to know. "I wanted to know if what I read was the truth," he says. "A lot of times it wasn't, because it's tough to translate English into Japanese."

A similar curiosity drove Hasegawa to the Angels. He wanted to live in the U.S., and pitching for an American big league team would make that wish come true. "For other Japanese players, the dream is just to play in the major leagues," says Hasegawa, who spent six seasons with the Orix Blue Wave of Japan's Pacific League. "My dream was to live here, to experience the American lifestyle."

Anaheim has been the beneficiary of that dream. In his four seasons with the Angels, Hasegawa, 32, has been a key man in the bullpen, and last year he almost singlehandedly kept a leaky pitching staff afloat. Working first as a setup man and then taking over for closer Troy Percival, who went down with tendinitis in his right elbow, Hasegawa led the Anaheim staff with 10 wins, had a 3.57 ERA and saved nine games. After the All-Star break he had a 2.05 ERA and held opponents to a .205 batting average; over one six-week stretch he went 30 innings without allowing an earned run. "From May on he was our most reliable, most consistent pitcher," says pitching coach Bud Black. "He was counted on tremendously." As was the entire bullpen: Anaheim relievers worked the second-most innings and had the second-lowest ERA (4.13) in the league.

Meanwhile, the Angels' hitters -- even without slugger Mo Vaughn, who'll miss the season with a torn biceps tendon -- can mash with anyone. Last year Anaheim (along with Toronto) became the first AL team with four 30-homer hitters (Vaughn, Troy Glaus, Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon), and four members of this season's lineup (Anderson, Glaus, Salmon and Darin Erstad) knocked in at least 97 runs. Throw in new DH Jose Canseco, who will continue his slow march toward 500 home runs (he needs 54) as long as his easily broken body lets him, and scoring runs won't be a worry for the Angels.

What Anaheim can't do is trot out a bona fide frontline starter. The callow Ramon Ortiz, Jarrod Washburn and Scott Schoeneweis (average age: 26) are tantalizing but unproven talents, and Ismael Valdes and Pat Rapp would be better cast as back-of-the-rotation inning eaters, which means Hasegawa and his bullpen mates are in for another heavy workload. That's fine with Hasegawa, a fanatical student of hitters and viewer of videotape. "A lot of relievers sit out in the pen and look around, but from the first pitch Shigetoshi is paying attention," says Black. "He's as prepared as any relief pitcher I've ever been around."

That preparation is facilitated by Hasegawa's near perfect English and his assimilation into life in the U.S. He conducts interviews without an interpreter, and during the off-season he and his wife, Erie, and their son, Kohto, stay in California, visiting their home country for only a few weeks. "I don't think of him as being from Japan," says Percival, who has resumed his closer's duties. "He fits right in."

That's what the Angels will do in the West -- blend in without drawing much attention to themselves. Anaheim somehow finished two games over .500 last season with its action-movie offense and horror-flick rotation. No subtitles needed here: The odds of that happening again are slim in any language.

Issue date: March 26, 2001

Copyright © 2001 CNN/Sports Illustrated An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines.