6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Roster Notes

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Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Roster Notes

Vlad Guerrero may not participate in the WBC following the deaths of his three cousins.
"He was pretty shaken up," [Angels broadcaster Jose] Mota said. "These were all guys he played dominoes with. He knew the first two had died, but one was hanging on in the hospital for a while. When he heard about the third one, he was almost in shock."
Alberto Callaspo started taking ground balls at third on Monday, in preparation for Howie Kendrick's move to second base at AAA Salt Lake.
Chone Figgins is working on his bunting this spring training.
Kendry Morales continues his defensive woes:
Scioscia pulled Morales aside after he made a lackadaisical stab for a throw in the dirt while working out at first base Monday. "It wasn't lack of effort, it was just apprehensiveness," Scioscia said. ...
D-Mac is unable to sleep because of a rash that so far the team can't track down. Perhaps a case of strikeout-itis?
For a guy who's known as being a mouthy jerk, Chisox catcher A.J. Pierzynski's reaction to news that Kelvim Escobar isn't exactly a fan was pretty tepid: "'Oh, well. What can I do?' Pierzynski said. "Tell him turn the page.'" Escobar made the remark after somebody left a Pierzynski card on Kelvim's locker.
As mentioned Saturday, the Dodgers are all hot for Billingsley to make the team in 2006, but what's interesting in this version is this little note about Edwin Jackson:
"Edwin was kind of a work in progress," said Rick Honeycutt, the Dodgers' minor-league pitching coordinator the past four seasons before joining Little's staff as pitching coach this year. "At the time (September 2003), the major-league club had a need and wanted our best arm. That was either Edwin or Greg Miller, who had just been shut down (because of shoulder problems).
"We were asking him to go outside of himself and try to, all of a sudden, develop an offspeed pitch, develop a breaking ball and make all these adjustments at the major-league level. That's not a reflection on Edwin, that's the organization's fault."
And having screwed up, they decided to ship him out? Crazy misuse of a prospect if you asked me.
Odalis Perez won't join the Dominican WBC team until just before their first start.
Yhency Brazoban has a sore shoulder, and his throwing is being cut down.
Grady Little wants two lefties in the pen with one dedicated LOOGY and another who can go multiple innings. So far, the frontrunners look like Kelly Wunsch and Tim Hamulack for those roles, respectively.
"[Hamulack] was lighting it up a little bit," Little said. "He was changing speeds, locating, and the quality of his pitches was good. This is a guy who wouldn't have any problem getting six outs in a game. I talked to (bullpen coach) Dan Warthen, who had him last year (as pitching coach for the New York Mets' Triple-A Norfolk affiliate), and he said this guy is resilient enough to come back the next day and give you two more innings, if needed. All those are good options to have."
Did he look at his 23.14 ERA with the Mets last year?