Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.latimes.sports From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Expensive Expansion Shopping List Offered Baseball: Big-name players are available for the Rockies and Date: Sat, 14 Nov 92 08:11:37 EST Message-ID: HEADLINE: Expensive Expansion Shopping List Offered Baseball: Big-name players are available for the Rockies and Publication Date: Friday November 13, 1992 BYLINE: ROSS NEWHAN An all-star array of big-name, high-salaried players will be available to the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins in Tuesday's expansion draft. Danny Tartabull, Jack Morris, Eddie Murray, George Bell, Lee Smith, Jose Lind, Kelly Gruber and Tim Wallach are only a few of the players who were not protected by their clubs, according to official lists obtained by the Chicago Tribune and Rocky Mountain News. The lists confirmed a recent Times report regarding the 15 players to be protected by the Dodgers, and that relief ace Bryan Harvey would not be protected by the Angels, who believe his elbow injury of last season and $10.75-million guarantee over the next three seasons will scare off the Marlins and Rockies. The Angels protected 24-year-old right-hander Ron Watson, 8-5 at Quad Cities, in Harvey's spot. They also made an 11th-hour decision to leave outfielder Luis Polonia unprotected so that 23-year-old left-hander Hilly Hathaway, 9-3 at Palm Springs and Midland, Tex., in '92, could be included among the eight protected pitchers. Polonia led the Angels with a .286 batting average and 51 stolen bases but made $1.65 million in 1992 and is eligible for arbitration this winter, as is Junior Felix, who led the club with 72 runs batted in but is also available to the Marlins and Rockies. Both Polonia and Felix probably will be among the four players the Angels pull back after the first round of the draft, if neither is selected. The Angels are protecting outfielders Chad Curtis and Tim Salmon, infielders Gary DiSarcina, Damion Easley, Kevin Flora and Luis Sojo, catcher John Orton and pitchers Jim Abbott, Chuck Finley, Mark Langston, Joe Grahe, Troy Percival and Julio Valera, in addition to Watson and Hathaway. The Dodgers are protecting pitchers Pedro Astacio, Tom Candiotti, Kevin Gross, Greg Hansell, Orel Hershiser, Pedro Martinez and Ramon Martinez; catchers Mike Piazza and Carlos Hernandez; infielders Eric Karros and Jose Offerman, and outfielders Billy Ashley, Brett Butler, Raul Mondesi and Darryl Strawberry. Colorado General Manager Bob Gebhard and his Florida counterpart, Dave Dombrowski, said they could draft one of the more illustrious, high-salaried players and then trade him. "We're mainly building with youth, but if I can get a prearranged deal set, why not?" Gebhard said. "I mean, it's part of the process. We're not supposed to mention any names of players who don't belong to us, but that doesn't prevent us from approaching another general manager and finding out who he's interested in (among the unprotected players)." Dombrowski said he would be surprised if there aren't deals. He said he hoped to build with a veteran-youth combination. "But I'm not sure I could win the division, even if I took all of the players who were left off the protected lists," he added. The nature of the lists, Dombrowski said, did not surprise him in that he knew there would be an array of older, higher-salaried players left exposed. Smith led the National League with 43 saves for the St. Louis Cardinals. Bell had 112 RBIs for the Chicago White Sox, Lind won a Gold Glove with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Morris won 21 games for the Toronto Blue Jays and Tartabull, although he played in only 123 games because of injuries, hit 25 home runs and drove in 85 runs for the New York Yankees. Tartabull is only 30, but he is guaranteed $19 million over the remaining four years of his contract. The Yankees would like to apply that to the pursuit of free agent Barry Bonds, who is also the No. 1 objective of the Atlanta Braves. No team had more trouble getting down to 15 players than the talent-rich Braves, who decided to protect Deion Sanders among five outfielders, even though he is still splitting time between two sports and his signing would further congest the Atlanta outfield. Charlie Leibrandt, Pete Smith, Damon Berryhill, Mark Lemke, Sid Bream, Rafael Belliard and Kent Mercker were among the players Atlanta did not protect. Players who filed for free agency did not have to be protected, and there is a glut of talent on that market from which the Rockies and Marlins can shop. This article is copyright 1992 The Los Angeles Times Home Edition. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM