Stars feature new leader, but doubts about future

The Las Vegas Stars will have a new look for the 2000 season as Duane Espy replaces Mike Ramsay as manager of the triple-A squad.

The big question, however, is will the team have a completely different look for the 2001 season?

Although the Stars have been the triple-A affiliate for the San Diego Padres since moving from Spokane in 1983, the contract between the two organizations expires at the end of this upcoming season as do all other triple-A player development contracts with major league teams.

There have been rumors that everybody from the Dodgers to the Angels to the Oakland A's would love to move their triple-A operations to Las Vegas next year. So will the Padres be looking for a new triple-A home next year?

"Right now I'd say it's 50-50," Stars General Manager Don Logan said before Wednesday afternoon's Dugout Luncheon at Caesars Palace.

Logan said it is against major league rules for teams to discuss switching affiliations before the end of August.

"It's a $500,000 fine if there is contact by either side before then," Logan said. "And I don't have the money to pay that kind of fine."

The Padres are pulling out all the stops this year to try to keep their association with the Stars.

Besides bringing in a veteran minor league manager in Espy, who has spent the past five seasons as the roving hitting instructor for the Padres, Padres GM Kevin Towers, an ex-Stars pitcher, has almost doubled the team's spending budget for the season to $1.5 million.

"This will be one of the best clubs we've ever had here," Towers said. "We love Las Vegas. It's kind of like an extended family for the Padres. I pray that we can have many more years together here."

Towers signed what he calls "the best group of six-year major league free agents we've ever had" to help ensure the Stars of a competitive campaign.

Among the players who could begin the year in Las Vegas are veteran big league pitchers Luis Andujar (White Sox), Eric Moody (Rangers) and Vicente Palacios, outfielder Ryan Radmanovich (Mariners) and infielder Jed Hansen (Royals).

"Offensively, it should be one of the best clubs we've ever had here," Towers said.

That offense should benefit from the managing of Espy, who spent the last five years as a hitting instructor in the minor leagues for the Padres.

"Anybody in the organization except the six-year guys I've worked with on a personal level before," Espy said. "Hopefully, that will be an advantage."

* STARS NOTES: Joining Espy on the Stars' staff will be pitching coach Darrel Akerfelds, who was promoted from single-A Rancho Cucamonga, and base coach Randy Whisler, who was at Peoria, Ariz., of the rookie league. ... Last year's Stars' hitting coach, Craig Colbert, will manage the Padres' single-A team in the Midwest League, the Fort Wayne Wizards, while last year's pitching coach, Tom Brown, has been promoted to pitching coordinator for the entire Padres' minor league system. ... George Poulis, the Stars' trainer the past two years, has landed a job with the Toronto Blue Jays. ... For only the second time in team history, the Stars will open their season away from Cashman Field. Las Vegas opens its season with a four-game series starting April 6 at Calgary and then is scheduled to play three games in Edmonton before hosting New Orleans on Friday, April 14, in their home opener.

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