Chone Figgins

Speculation has already begun in Chicago and New York. The White Sox need a versatile defender who can lead off, the Cubs need more speed and on-base ability at the top of the order, the Yankees want a leadoff man to push Derek Jeter to the second spot. And Chone Figgins , the Angels third baseman and leadoff batter extraordinaire, is at the top of each team's winter shopping list. "It's always good to be wanted," said Figgins, who will become a free agent after the season.

Almost 10 years ago, the Angels achieved one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history when they defeated the San Francisco Giants in Game 6 of the World Series. Call it memorable. Call it remarkable. But if you're talking to Tim Salmon, just don't call it shocking. "We were a late-inning comeback team," said Salmon, who was an outfielder with the Angels for 14 seasons and is now a Fox Sports West analyst. "It was just one more example of us never being out of the game.

The Angels got their first look at Chone Figgins since they let him go to Seattle as a free agent over the winter. And although he didn't do anything they haven't seen before, Sunday's performance served notice that his departure may be one the Angels will soon come to regret. Especially now that Figgins is teamed with Ichiro Suzuki at the top of the lineup for the Angels' chief division rival. "That obviously is going to be a heavy part of what they're hoping to do offensively, as far as being able to set the table and create on the bases," Manager Mike Scioscia said of Figgins and Suzuki, who combined for five hits, including two triples, five runs and three runs batted in in the Mariners' 12-6 Cactus League win. "You have to try to keep them contained as much as you can. They're really tough in the batter's box, they know what they're doing and when they get on the bases they can create like you saw today.

OAKLAND — Right fielder Torii Hunter , on the restricted list since May 14 while he deals with the arrest of his 17-year-old son, will probably rejoin the team early next week, Manager Mike Scioscia said. Hunter has been in Texas, where Darius McClinton-Hunter was arrested on a sexual assault charge. Though the Angels have not been required to pay Hunter during his 10-day absence, he is receiving his full salary, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly about it. If Hunter returns for Monday night's game against the New York Yankees in Angel Stadium, he will have been away for two weeks.

He was one of the most popular players in franchise history, and he was coming off an All-Star season, one in which he led the American League in walks, was second in runs and third in stolen bases. But after the Angels let Chone Figgins leave as a free agent following the 2009 season, his numbers plummeted. By the time he went on the disabled list with a hip flexor injury last month, Figgins had lost his starting job and had a .188 batting average and .241 on-base percentage.

Chone Figgins was hitless in four at-bats in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees Friday night and he is now 0 for 16 in the postseason. But the third baseman remained in the leadoff spot for Game 2 tonight, and Manager Mike Scioscia said before the game that he doesn't anticipate any changes at the top of the order. Maicer Izturis and Erick Aybar would be the other candidates to lead off. "You need production from all aspects of the lineup, and if you move Figgy to ninth, he's still hitting in front of the middle of the order," Scioscia said.

Having spent much of his big league career as a super utility player, starting at six positions and sometimes jumping from the infield to the outfield and back in the same game, Chone Figgins is used to adjusting on the fly. But nothing could have prepared the Angels third baseman for Tuesday morning's mad scramble when, because of an injury to Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria, Figgins was added to the American League All-Star team about 10 hours before Tuesday's game in St. Louis.

The Angels, as expected, offered arbitration on Tuesday to pitcher John Lackey and third baseman Chone Figgins, assuring them of maximum draft-pick compensation should the free agents sign elsewhere. But in something of a surprise, the team did not offer arbitration to veteran reliever Darren Oliver, the 39-year-old left-hander who was 5-1 with a 2.71 earned-run average in 63 games last season, when he earned $3.665 million. The Angels also did not offer arbitration to outfielder Vladimir Guerrero, so they will not receive a draft pick should the 35-year-old slugger depart after six years in Anaheim.

Matt Holliday is not coming. Jason Bay might be coming. John Lackey and Chone Figgins are not coming back -- not together, anyway. Those were the highlights of the state of the Angels address delivered by owner Arte Moreno on Thursday, after baseball's owners concluded their meetings here. The free-agent shopping season opens today, with owners citing an uncertain economic forecast in suggesting players might linger on the market well into the winter. Yet Moreno left one thing absolutely certain: The Angels have no interest in outfielder Matt Holliday, perhaps the best position player available in free agency.

He has been an Angels sparkplug for most of the past seven years, a speedy leadoff batter who had a .395 on-base percentage, 114 runs and an American League-leading 101 walks in 2009. But after finalizing a four-year, $36-million deal with Seattle on Tuesday, Chone Figgins will be part of a twin-turbo engine at the top of the Mariners order, teaming with baseball's best leadoff hitter, Ichiro Suzuki, to give Seattle a dynamic one-two punch. "To be able to create havoc with Ichiro at the top of the order is going to be a whole lot of fun," Figgins said on a conference call Tuesday night.

It had been eight years, nine months and some change -- 3,201 days, to be exact -- since Jerome Williams threw a major league shutout, but the Angels right-hander recalled details about that game like it was last week. "It was in 2003 and was my second win against Oakland," said Williams, 30, who was pitching for San Francisco at the time. "I remember that game because [outfielder] Jose Cruz Jr. helped me by doubling off Miguel Tejada at first. " So much has happened since that June 27, 2003, win -- Williams was traded away from the Giants, released by two other organizations, ballooned to 270 pounds, injured his shoulder, pitched in Taiwan, Mexico and two independent leagues -- but Tuesday night he finally authored a bookend to that gem. Baffling a weak-hitting Minnesota lineup with his cut-fastball and power sinker, Williams threw a three-hitter with six strikeouts and one walk, retiring 18 batters in a row before a two-out walk in the ninth inning, to lead the Angels to a 4-0 victory in Angel Stadium.

This was not the career trajectory or the route into Tempe Diablo Stadium that Brandon Wood and the Angels had in mind years ago. A first-round pick in 2003, rated by Baseball America as the game's third-best prospect in 2006, Wood was handed the Angels' third-base job coming out of spring training in 2010 and fumbled it away amid a flurry of strikeouts, pop-ups and weak grounders. Wood was released by the Angels last April, claimed by Pittsburgh and released after hitting .220 in 99 games.

Jeremy Moore is doing his best to reprise the role of Chone Figgins from the Angels' 2002 World Series championship team, entering as a late-inning pinch-runner Wednesday and Friday and scoring the winning runs in victories over the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees. "He's not as polished a baserunner as Chone was when he came up, but he can flat out fly," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "We'll tap into that when we need it. " The speedy Figgins was called up in September 2002.

He was one of the most popular players in franchise history, and he was coming off an All-Star season, one in which he led the American League in walks, was second in runs and third in stolen bases. But after the Angels let Chone Figgins leave as a free agent following the 2009 season, his numbers plummeted. By the time he went on the disabled list with a hip flexor injury last month, Figgins had lost his starting job and had a .188 batting average and .241 on-base percentage.

Jordan Walden was going to spend the All-Star break next week at Big Bear Lake with fellow Angels reliever Bobby Cassevah . Those plans changed drastically — for Walden and Cassevah — on Thursday, when Walden was selected to replace New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera on the American League roster for Tuesday night's All-Star game in Phoenix. "We were going to go fishing and boating, just get away from baseball for a little bit," said Walden, the rookie closer.

Reporting from New York — The Angels begin a stretch of nine interleague games in National League parks when they play the New York Mets on Friday night, giving their pitchers a rare opportunity to try to get a hit. Any success, however, would create a good-news, bad-news situation for the team. The good news: An Angels pitcher got on base. The bad news: An Angels pitcher got on base. It's not so much the swinging or bunting or slashing and running to first that concerns Manager Mike Scioscia.

The Angels had hoped to open spring training with Brandon Wood at third base and Chone Figgins in left field. If Wood faltered, Figgins could have returned to third base. That safety net appears to be gone, with Figgins close to signing with the Seattle Mariners. The vacated leadoff spot could be filled internally, most likely by shortstop Erick Aybar, or perhaps with a trade for outfielder Curtis Granderson of the Detroit Tigers. Figgins is expected to sign for four years and close to $36 million, according to multiple media reports on Friday.

Reporting from Seattle — The Angels do not walk under any ladders on their way into Safeco Field. There are no broken mirrors in the visiting clubhouse bathroom and no black cats roaming the dugout. But they've had a terrible run of luck in the home of the Seattle Mariners this season. On May 19, the Angels lost a game here when center fielder Torii Hunter, a nine-time Gold Glove Award winner, lost a routine ball in the sun, allowing the winning run to score. And they lost in bizarre fashion again here Wednesday night, when a two-out, bases-loaded ground ball that appeared headed right for Angels shortstop Erick Aybar hit the second base bag and bounced into center field.

Reporting from Tempe, Ariz. Maicer Izturis will never be confused with Cal Ripken Jr. when it comes to durability, but the Angels don't need the switch-hitting infielder to be an ironman. "If he plays 90 to 110 games, you have a very good player," Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. "If he gets there, we'll be happy. " Ripken, the former Baltimore Orioles star who went 18 consecutive seasons without a game off, would scoff at the notion of being "happy" to play 110 games when there are 162 in a season.