AMERICAN LEAGUE: AROUND THE HORN CUTS PROVE ANGELS' AX FALLS SWIFTLY.

Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - As Jose Canseco and Glenallen Hill can attest, the Angels certainly aren't ones to procrastinate.

Canseco and Hill both were released swiftly from the team after failing to live up to expectations. Canseco, 36, hit .231 with no homers and three RBI in 39 at-bats during spring training. Hill, 36, hit .136 with one homer and two RBI in 66 at-bats in April and May. Both spent more time with the team trying to recover from injuries than playing.

And in both cases, the Angels had seen enough and decided to move forward. End of story. But they don't believe they acted without giving both players enough time to produce.

``One of the philosophies we bring is patience,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ``Any moves we make are ones well thought out and where we gave the player an opportunity to perform. Players understand that.''

Ironically, it was Hill who was deemed a better fit for the DH role than Canseco. But it turned out Hill wasn't necessarily more durable or productive as the Angels had hoped he'd be.

Neither was very popular in the clubhouse, but it wasn't anything that couldn't have been cured by a few more homers and RBI.

--He's da man: Jason Giambi probably will win American League player-of-the-month honors for May, but it might be difficult to win a second consecutive MVP. Last season Giambi was at his hottest in September, carrying Oakland to the AL West title.

Unless the A's pull off some incredible rally and top Seattle, Giambi probably will have to settle with how his hitting coach Thad Bosley sees him.

``On every good team you need a key player to emulate,'' Bosley told the Oakland Tribune. ``On this team it's Jason Giambi. He makes pitchers work and he jumps on his pitch. He's the perfect example for this ballclub. They all see him swinging the bat like he is ... what do you think they're thinking? They're thinking, `I want to be like Jason.' ''

--Clemens-Piazza III?: Yankees manager Joe Torre admitted to writers in New York that he was favoring trying to realign his pitching rotation to keep Roger Clemens from starting at Shea Stadium when the Yankees meet the Mets in a couple of weeks.

After Clemens hit the Mets' Mike Piazza with a pitch in the head last July, Torre said he wasn't concerned about Clemens facing the Mets at Shea later that season. But after last year's World Series incident, in which Clemens threw the barrel end of Piazza's broken bat toward him, Torre thought better of it.

In fact, even the Mets are calling it ``good managing.''

--No mirror image: Former Boston third baseman Wade Boggs, now the hitting coach for Tampa Bay, was looking forward to seeing Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki up close this weekend because he had heard people tell him their batting styles are similar.

``I've heard about this Ichi-mania,'' Boggs told the Seattle Times. ``I see where he hits the ball where it's pitched and uses the whole field, and I did those things.''

But Boggs, a five-time batting champ and .328 career hitter, also said he saw differences.

``He gets his front side moving more than I did,'' Boggs said. ``I was more balanced.''

--New York Post poll: The Post asked its readers last week ``If Tony Soprano was commissioner of baseball, which team would you have him whack?'' The results: Montreal, 42.9 percent; Tampa Bay, 41.9; Florida, 8.3; Pittsburgh, 4.6; and Kansas City, 2.5.

--No photographs, please: ESPN had planned to do a documentary about Cal Ripken and his 20th season with Baltimore. Ripken, though, has put it on hold for now because he said the cameras following his every move would be a ``distraction.''