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Angels: March 2008 ArchivesI'm certain he would have preferred a 1-2-3 inning, but not allowing a run after the way the 8th inning went surely had to have been nice for Darren O'Day. A non-roster invitee who made the team with an impressive spring training, O'Day made his major-league debut on Monday night and quickly got 2006 MVP Justin Morneau to ground out. Then the trouble began. Delmon Young singled, pinch-hitter Jason Kubel blooped a double to left and O'Day intentionally walked Mike Lamb to load the bases. He struck out Brendan Harris and got Adam Everett to fly out to end the inning, the threat, and surely the butterflies in his stomach. So much for Minnesota missing Torii Hunter on the diamond. This new kid, Carlos Gomez, is tearing it up today. He's 2 for 2 with a double, two stolen bases, and two runs, plus he ran down Gary Matthews Jr.'s long fly ball into the right-center field to end the fifth inning. The Twins received Gomez as the head of a package of players from the Mets for Johan Santana and he hasn't disappointed in his Twins debut. As for Hunter, he received two standing ovations, but the love disappeared quickly when he caught two fly outs in the first inning and was promptly booed. Here is the Angels' opening day lineup and at the end are some of Manager Mike Scioscia's thoughts on the shortstop and catching jobs. Figgins - 3B Scioscia on the catching duties and the playing time for Mike Napoli and Jeff Mathis: "They both have a good track record behind the plate. We'll look at it on a daily basis." Translation - It looks like the season will begin with a 50-50 split playing time for both. Scioscia on the shortstop situation: "I don't think it will be one and one, but we want Izturis to get comfortable there. We'll see how things shake out." Translation - Izturis may get a few games as the starter to see how he does. Right now, in my opinion, Izturis will play four games and Erick Aybar two games a week. The Angels open their season in about two and a half hours from now with Jered Weaver opposing Minnesota's Livan Hernandez. Here are some Angels opening day notes, things to keep in mind as today tips off the 2008 season: ABOUT OPENING DAY: Angels open their 48th campaign vs. the Minnesota MARCH SADNESS: Tonight the Angels play their third ever regular season VS. TWINS: Halos have a four-game win streak vs. Twins...Angels have Angels OF Torii Hunter will return to Minnesota this week when the team opens the season at the Twins, where he spent his entire career and was a fan favorite. But as for going "home," Hunter said that Texas is home and Anaheim is his new home away from home. As for Minnesota. "That's the house that Kirby Puckett built," Hunter said. "I just helped renovate it." Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said that Dustin Moseley would be the team's fifth starter to open the season and that his main competition for the job -- Nick Adenhart -- would open the season at Class AAA Salt Lake City. Moseley got the job in part because of his experience. He started eight games last season, including two early in the year. He will likely be the long man in the pen once John Lackey returns to the lineup. "I think Mos is a guy that has done it before and has the ability to do it and right now is throwing the ball very well," Scioscia said. "There are a couple things Nick needs to work on but we wouldn't hesitate to use him if we had to." Outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., who injured his right ankle on Monday, said that it was feeling much better on Saturday and that he would avoid the disabled list to start the season and was optimistic that he would be a part of the opening day lineup. Matthews injured it while running the bases in Monday's game and initially feared he would be headed for the DL. On Saturday, he shagged balls in the outfield and took some cuts during batting practice and said that despite some swelling, it was strong enough to play on. "Hopefully it continues to get better over the next two days," Matthews said. "I could barely walk after I hurt it. I woke up the next day and couldn't walk to the bathroom. To move to where we are after four days is really good." Nathan Haynes, who was fighting for a spot on the Angels' roster, was claimed off waivers this afternoon by Tampa Bay. Haynes, a speedy outfielder who was out of minor league options, would have had to pass through waivers for the Angels to re-claim him and obviously he didn't. After spending 10 years in the minor leagues and battling various injuries, Haynes finally broke through and made it to the majors last season. He is a close friend of Chone Figgins' and helped the utility man during his struggles last season and Figgins ended up hitting .330 last year, sixth in the AL. Haynes, a left-handed hitting and throwing outfielder, should remain on the Rays' roster all year and will certainly help that team. Preston Gomez, the first ever manager in San Diego Padres history, and a special advisor with the Angels, is in critical condition at a Palm Springs hospital after being hit by a car on his way home from the Angels spring training facilities this morning. Gomez, 84, had stopped with his wife at a Chevron gas station in Blythe and decided to take a walk to stretch his legs when he was hit by a car. The team has not released any official information about Gomez, but he "suffered pretty major head injuries," according to Detective Sargeant Jeff Wade of the Blythe Police Department. He was airlifted from Blythe to the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. According to Wade, the driver of a large Dodge pickup was given a field test for sobriety and had no signs of intoxication of drugs or alchohol. "The man was crushed," Wade said, and added that the driver held Gomez's hand while waiting for paramedics and officers to arrive. Wade said that Gomez had walked around the end of the gas pumps and into the next aisle before he was struck. Gomez has spent 64 years of his life in professional baseball and has been with the Angels for the past 27 years, first as a major league coach before assuming his role as special assistant to the General Manager. Originally from Havana, Cuba, Gomez began playing in 1944 with the Washington Senators, appearing in eight games before spending the remainder of his playing career in the minor leagues. He became the Padres inaugural manager beginning in their expansion year 1969 and managed the team until 1972. He later managed the Houston Astros (1974-75) and the Chicago Cubs (1980). Gomez joined the Angels in 1981 as a third base coach lasting four seasons at that spot before taking on his current role. He was inducted into the Hispanic Baseball Heritage Museum Hall of Fame in 2003. No one is currently contemplating any charges against the driver.
UPDATE: Matthews was taken to a local doctor to have preliminary X-rays taken. At the end of the first inning, Gary Matthews Jr. twisted his right ankle touching third base and immediately fell to the ground in pain. Manager Mike Scioscia and head athletic trainer Ned Bergert went out to assist Matthews and helped him off the field. It was announced that Matthews has a sprained right ankle, the same injury that cost him 10 games in mid-September after he hurt himself stealing a base in Baltimore. There is a chance he may start the season on the DL just to be safe and get everything working properly. Over the next week, this is how the Angels' rotation lines up: Today, Ervin Santana will pitch and tomorrow Nick Adenhart will start. Jered Weaver goes Wednesday and Jon Garland will face the Dodgers on Thursday at Angel Stadium. On Friday, Joe Saunders will pitch at San Diego while Dustin Moseley will pitch in a camp game here in Arizona and Santana would go again Saturday vs. the Padres. Again, that lines up to have Weaver be the team's opening day starter, although Manager Mike Scioscia said that no decision - and thus, no announcement - will be made. "We’ve got some ways to go," he said. Yeah, sure. Like he would start Garland on three days rest, or anyone else the way that lines up. The Angels issued the following press release for Monday's Angels Tonight show which will feature owner Arte Moreno and general manager Tony Reagins. Angels' Owner Arte Moreno and General Manager Tony Reagins will be featured Monday, March 24 on Angels Tonight, the weekly two-hour radio show devoted entirely to Angels' Baseball on AM 830. Angels Tonight airs on AM 830 on Monday, March 24, 2008 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (PST). Nick Adenhart isn't going down without a fight. Which, of course, is a common theme among the Angels lately. Adenhart pitched six shutout innings, striking out six in the Angels' 8-1 win over the Giants on Thursday. Manager Mike Scioscia said that the decision between having Adenhart or Dustin Moseley become the fifth starter "is going to be an 11th hour decision." "The only thing Nick can do is keep progressing and throw the ball well," Scioscia said. "We remain optimistic that he can do that." That's what Adenhart is trying to do - make the team's decision difficult. "That's a goal of mine," said the 21-year-old, "put pressure on them to make it a tough decision."
Justin Speier and Darren Oliver got into a clubhouse skirmish this morning and had to be broken up by two of their teammates. Speier is the class clown of the locker room and apparently his act got old on Thursday morning. Oliver, who has the next locker over, had been packing a box to take to Anaheim for the start of the season. The box was placed in front of Speier's locker and Speier picked the box up and dumped out the contents on the floor. Oliver, sitting at a nearby table, got angry for obvious reasons and yelled at Speier - "Don't dump my (stuff) on the floor." The veteran reliever came over, re-packed the box and then flung it directly at Speier's chest before Speier stood up and the two glared at each other and exchanged some colorful words. Oliver put his hand on Speier's side as if to shove him before Dustin Moseley grabbed Oliver and Gary Matthews Jr. ran from across the room to pull Speier, his good friend, away. Manager Mike Scioscia downplayed the quarrel and said "These guys are like brothers." A rocky spring all but evaporated for Ervin Santana after he allowed just one hit in six innings while striking out five in a 6-1 win over the A's. Santana came into the game saddled with a 7.90 ERA and many were beginning to believe that his subpar spring was a sign of things to come, or a continuation of things from last season. Meanwhile, Manager Mike Scioscia, Santana and pitching coach Mike Butcher all said that the results didn't matter and what did matter was Santana making sure his mechanics stayed in line. After throwing 93 pitches, it seems Santana's results are beginning to matter considering opening day is 11 days away. "I can feel the difference," Santana said about the hip turn Scioscia and Butcher kept talking about. An important part of Wednesday's game came when Santana allowed a leadoff triple in the third inning, but didn't allow the run to score. In the past, that run seemed almost automatic but Santana struck out the next two batters and got a pop-up (after a walk) to finish the inning. "Hopefully his struggles from last year weren't for naught," Scioscia said. "He understands what we mean about his mechanics and hopefully he can stay consistent." Even though it's only been a few days since John Lackey was told he'd miss the start of the season with a strained right triceps, the Angels' ace said Wednesday that he was "feeling better." "I can brush my teeth," he said. He meant without pain and with his right hand. It's not like he went without brushing the past few days. For a guy who has never rehabbed or missed a start, this is all foreign to Lackey. "It's not fun," he said. "I'm just in there doing what I have to do."
Barry Bonds remains unsigned despite hitting 28 homers and 66 RBI with a .480 on base percentage last season. Baseball's home run leader, the Riverside resident has largely not been discussed outside of a few teams. MLB Player's Association Executive Director Don Fehr was in Angels camp as part of his team-by-team tour on Tuesday and said that the thought of owners colluding against signing Bonds was a topic his department was looking into. "We always look at the free agent markets every year and make judgments," Fehr said. "If we come to the conclusion with respect to any player that this (is going on), we’ll pursue it. But I’m not going to make any suggestions or accusations unless we come to that conclusion. " Despite talk of performance-enhancing drugs affecting the game, Fehr doesn’t think it will change the popularity or overall economics of baseball. “I think it’s clear to me that the game is resilient,” Fehr said. “It’s popular, and notwithstanding whatever difficulties we’ve had in this area, the game itself is so good that it attracts the interest and the loyalty and the commitments of tens of millions of fans every year. I don’t see that changing.” Fehr also said during a short meeting with reporters that until a reliable blood test is available, he will not talk about using one for human growth hormone testing purposes. "I'm not sure what the players have said, but our position is really pretty simple," said Fehr. "As of now, there is no blood test. We’ve been waiting for it ever since Athens (site of the Olympics four years ago) and it isn’t there. When and if one is available, meaning commercially available, we’ll look at it, and we will examine what it would mean. We'll make sure it’s scientifically valid, approach the players about it and go from there. I’m not going to get into hypotheticals." The Angels announced their television schedule for the upcoming season. Make sure to print this out or write it down, as it's extremely long, detailing every game and the times and TV stations the games will be shown on. 100 games will be on FSN West, 75 of those broadcast in HD, while 50 of the games will be on KCOP Channel 13. Dustin Moseley will throw about 60 pitches today in an attempt to get as stretched out as fellow Angels, Jon Garland, Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders. The other four are right about at 75 pitches at this point in camp, so Moseley is about a week behind, but still has time to catch up. Many times pitchers get to about 80 or 90 pitches and then are peeled back during their final start so their arm is that much fresher for their first regular season start. Moseley starts today against a Milwaukee lineup only featuring four regulars or players who will be on the major-league roster since the Brewers have an off day tomorrow so manager Ned Yost wants to give his prime time players (Prince Fielder, Bill Hall, etc.) two days off. Jered Weaver looked superb again in his start Sunday, allowing just two hits over five innings in the Angels' 5-2 victory over the Giants in a split-squad game. If he remains on regular rest, Weaver will be the team's opening day starter on March 31 in Minnesota, though Manager Mike Scioscia has not confirmed it. After John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar went down with injuries, Weaver and Jon Garland are the leading candidates to lead the team in the lid-lifter. "Weaver is certainly a guy we're looking at closely," Scioscia said. Weaver has allowed five hits in four starts this spring and has a spring ERA of 1.29. Garret Anderson was scratched from Sunday's split-squad game in Mesa with irritation in his right knee. Anderson was also scratched before Friday's game, also in Mesa, with a sore left groin. Maybe there is just something about Mesa. Nick Adenhart is one of the Angels' prized prospects but has never pitched above Class AA. With news that John Lackey's right triceps injury is going to keep him out for at least the first month of the season and likely longer, Adenhart all of a sudden becomes a candidate to crack the big league rotation. He has made three spring training starts and done decent enough, posting a 4.26 ERA against mostly major-league hitters. "I've had some success," he said after pitching four innings in the Angels' 5-4 win over Arizona Saturday. "I also have seen some things I am doing wrong. They get magnified because hitters take advantage of my mistakes." The Angels have always maintained that young talent can outweigh experience and that's why they're giving Adenhart a lengthy look. "You have to look at how he executes pitches and his stuff with command," Scioscia said. "We've got confidence he could bring that into a major-league game and it would play out well. We're still evaluating where he is. We're going to pay attention and look at him the next couple of weeks and we won't rush him if he's not ready." John Lackey will miss at least the first month of the season with a strained right triceps he revealed today. The team's ace, who went 19-9 with an AL-leading 3.01 ERA last season, had an MRI on Friday and will be re-evaluated in the next three to four weeks. Lackey was slowed earlier this spring with a sore elbow and didn't make his first spring training appearance until March 10. He said this, however, was in a different spot and different pain that came after he threw a bullpen session on Wednesday. Lackey said Thursday that his arm tightened up on Thursday and that's when he told the team and was examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum. That leaves Dustin Moseley as the likely candidate to fill Lackey's spot in the rotation as general manager Tony Reagins said that it's unlikely the team will look outside the organization for another pitcher. If that's the case the Angels could open the year with 12 pitchers on their staff because of Kelvim Escobar and Chris Bootcheck's injuries, and thus may leave three open spots in the bullpen. Escobar had a strength test on his right shoulder performed Friday and the results were positive enough that he's expected to begin throwing within a week. Though Darren O'Day allowed his first run of the spring - a solo homer to Henry Blanco - in the Angels' 6-5 win over the Cubs, he still continues to impress and appears to be the lead candidate to take injured Chris Bootcheck's spot come opening day. O'Day struck out Alfonso Soriano with two on and then K'd Derrek Lee to open his next inning of work and has allowed just one run in his 11 1/3 Cactus League innings while retiring 35 of the 41 hitters he's faced. The side-armer is in contention with Jason Bulger and Rich Thompson for the final bullpen spot, two relievers who each have brief big-league experience. O'Day split time last season between Class A and AA. Ervin Santana entered today's game against the Cubs sporting an 8.31 spring ERA and did nothing to make it better in his first inning. He gave up three runs on three hits, two of them doubles, and walked a batter. Although Manager Mike Scioscia insists that Santana's mechanics have been good and that the results don't wholly matter in spring, this trend could be disconcerting considering how Santana fared last season. From the Angels media relations department:
WHO: The hosts for Angels Tonight are Angels' broadcasters Terry Smith and Jose Mota. WHEN: Angels Tonight airs on AM 830 on Monday, March 17, 2008 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (PST). Torii Hunter has made just one road trip thus far in Cactus League play (many veterans don't make long ones) but he was out in Surprise this afternoon, hitting third for the Angels. Thing was, unless you were close there was no way of knowing it was Hunter. That's because he forgot to pack his signature No. 48 jersey and instead was No. 32 in the first two innings. Maybe packing for his first Arizona road game weighed too heavy on his mind. Anyways, by the third inning Hunter was in his 48, courtesy of a clubhouse attendant who drove the 45 minutes to Surprise to deliver it.
Jon Garland is the last player on the Angels to win a World Series, doing so in 2005 with the White Sox, and so far has sensed a similar vibe within the clubhouse. “The chemistry so far has been great – everyone gets along really well, joking around and that’s where it starts,” said Garland who allowed three runs on seven hits in four innings in the 6-3 loss to the Royals. “We see each other every day, pretty much, for six months but if you enjoy coming around and being around the guys, it makes it fun.” Garland, who allowed a two-run home run to Kansas City DH Ross Gload, will pitch in a Class AAA game on Monday, the team’s off day. A giant heat pack was strapped to his left side and he looked like a quarterback with a half-flak jacket on, but Chris Bootcheck said he was a lot better than he looked. He said the strained left oblique that is supposed to keep him out for six weeks is progressing well enough where he's been throwing from about 100 feet the past four days and said "If they told me I could (pitch) today, I could today." "It feels tight," he continued, "and there's some stretching I need to do but there's no pain or discomfort." While there is still a competition for his spot in the bullpen should he not be ready for the team's opener March 31, that's the date Bootcheck is aiming for. "I don't think I'd rule out opening day if my progress continues like this," he said. "But, I think being 100 percent to help the club is the most important thing rather than putting a timetable on it for opening day." Jered Weaver still remains in line to pitch on opening day, provided everyone remains on their regular rest, and Manager Mike Scioscia didn't scoff at the idea. Then, again, he didn't necessarily endorse it, either. 'We've got a number of options,' he said. 'We've got a number of guys we could slot in there and Weave's certainly one of them. There are four others, too. You've narrowed it down to five.' Thanks, Mike. |