BIG PAYOFF STILL MIGHT ELUDE HARRINGTON.

Byline: BRIAN DOHN

There are members of Matt Harrington's camp who believe the San Diego Padres will give the right-hander close to the $4.5 million he sought from the Colorado Rockies when he was the seventh overall pick in the June 2000 amateur draft.

Maybe when Coronado Island freezes over he will.

Harrington, the hard-throwing pitcher from Palmdale High who spurned the Rockies' offer and is pitching with the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League, might get a major-league contract out of the Padres despite being the 58th player chosen earlier this month. He also might get peace of mind because he felt the Rockies negotiated unfairly.

But the only way Harrington's going to get $4.5 million guaranteed is if the Padres decide to slap the commissioner's office in the face and thumb their noses at the other 29 teams in baseball.

The top few picks receive multimillion-dollar deals but the slide leads to second-rounders rarely getting a $1 million signing bonus.

If the Padres were to award Harrington anything close to what the Rockies offered, which they say is $3.7 to $4 million, the draft-pick salary structure will be thrown so far out of kilter there will be a line of major-league and team officials at Qualcomm Stadium waiting to take apart the Padres' front office piece by piece.

One of the issues regarding the next collective bargaining agreement, which could cause another work stoppage after this season, is the salary structure of draft picks. The owners, trying to save money at every secondary turn so they can pay major-league players upward of $252 million, want to have NBA-like salary slots for draft picks.

Imagine how the 58th pick next season will be slotted? Would the 100th pick in the draft be making $2 million? The first pick could be signed to a deal that would surpass a few teams' total payrolls.

Negotiations with the Padres were yet to begin as of late last week, which says something else about the situation. Other teams, including the Dodgers, have signed their second-round picks.

Harrington was in San Diego on Tuesday and threw about 80 pitches in the bullpen and lunched with club officials, but contract discussions weren't on the menu.

``I just don't want to have any problems,'' Harrington said. ``The vibe last year was bad. I just don't expect any problems now.''

The Rockies remain bitter at Harrington and his agent, Tommy Tanzer, particularly because of the mud-slinging that took place. And the feeling apparently is mutual.

``There is no comparison with the Rockies,'' Harrington said. ``We never negotiated. We haven't started talking to the Padres yet, but things were better in one day here than they were in 365 with Colorado. I know that sounds harsh, but it's true.

``This feels like a real good fit. When I was drafted by the Rockies, we were on top of the world. I thought my house was floating, that's how happy we were. But it was one of the worst things I ever went through.

``I never had any trust with the Rockies. That was kind of hard. What they did to me over the course of a year, I wasn't sure who I could trust in the baseball world. I think the Padres will be easy to trust. That's one of the biggest things.''

It also should have been a humbling experience for Harrington, who lacked the leverage of college in his dealings with Colorado and instead went to St. Paul so he could re-enter the draft and be taken 51 picks lower.

Scouts flocked to see him with St. Paul but came back with less than glowing reviews. His velocity was down from the mid-90s to the high 80s early on, he was scratched from a start because of shoulder stiffness and his control wasn't as good as his final season of high school, scouts said.

So Harrington, one of the more intriguing pitchers in the 2000 draft, fell out of the first round, out of the supplemental round and down to San Diego.

Maybe it cost him nothing in the long run. Perhaps Harrington goes on to become the type of pitcher those selected seventh overall should become. Then he'll get the big contract, get more money for a month of pitching than he sought as the Rockies' draft pick.

But there's the alternative, as one former first-round selection, a pitcher, said quietly right after the draft.

``What if you get injured and that's it for your career,'' he said. ``What if it doesn't work out? How much did that kid cost himself.''

Perhaps it may be as much as $3 million.