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

These two days were spent in Tempe Diablo Stadium, spring training home of the Angels. The changes, largely documented elsewhere, were mostly visible as improvements in the seating. And it was: the new green seats, much like modern major league seating, are far more comfortable. It's a huge jump over those at Peoria, which apparently were built to accommodate Kate Moss-sized waifs. Though the seat pitch hasn't changed, with the ends of the seats turned up, you can actually plant your knees into the corners and have enough room to avoid feeling cramped, though I would advise six-footers to buy tickets to the outfield bleachers. And though there's been talk about improvements to the food selections, the grilled chicken from the third base barbecue still looks like the best choice; everything else is pretty much the same, though I confess to only glancing at what was available.

Wednesday's game was against the Rangers, and R.A. Dickey in particular. Dickey, who only learned last year how to throw a knuckleball, was absolutely shelled, giving up five earned runs on five hits in four innings, including a home run to Casey Kotchman. In some fairness, the wind was cooperating with him randomly, blowing in, blowing out, and getting suddenly becalmed, too. We realized this when the wind blew smoke from the third base grill into our section, then out of it, then back onto the field; some of the photos we have show a smoke-obscured Jeff Weaver on the mound. But if this is the transformation the Rangers were hoping for, Dickey may not become a useful part on their team. BPro agrees, saying "he's a long shot to be a useful major pitcher, but he'll get every chance to be one with the Rangers."

And given the pitching-depleted state of the Rangers, that's no surprise. Listening to Buck Showalter, the jury's still out on whether he'll make the team:

"It's not a finished product but he goes through periods where it's pretty good," Showalter said. "We've got to decide if it's there yet. That's a pretty tough call."

Wow -- so the guy allows eight of nine batters to get on base consecutively, yet it's tough to decide whether he should make the team? Ouch. But these are the kinds of problems the Rangers face at the moment. Things are looking a little better this year in the bullpen: for one thing, closer Francisco Cordero should be a year healthier, though that's perhaps a rank speculation; a shoulder twinge came back earlier in spring training to remind him of his previous injuries, and his 2005 ERA was over a full run higher than his 2004. With this in mind, I point out that El Pulpo, AKA Antonio Alfonseca, coughed up a pair of dingers -- in consecutive at bats, no less -- to the likes of Orlando Cabrera and Vlad Guerrero. You can certainly understand Vlad -- that's what he does, man -- but Cabrera? That's like Tyra Banks agreeing to a date with Homer Simpson. When you can't make the Rangers, it's time to hang it up, and there's almost no chance, after this performance, that Alfonseca gets another chance unless he somehow straightens up and flies right in the Texas minors.

Aside from the Angels' fireworks against the experimental branch of the Texas pitching staff, the Angels fared not so well, in point of fact. In particular, I was concerned about Dallas McPherson, whose exceeding weak spring training included an injury -- two if you count his dermatitis -- and a terrible offensive performance. When we saw him at the plate, he clearly didn't have a clue as to what he was doing, striking out in the seventh inning during his only plate appearance in Wednesday's game, and accomplishing nothing in four at bats Thursday, striking out once, grounding out twice, and popping out to third. He seemed totally lost, and this even against the lesser lights of the Rangers' and Cubs' staffs -- Jason Durocher for the Rangers, and Rich Hill, Todd Wellemeyer, and Scott Eyre on the Cubs. Sad as it seems, sending him back down to Salt Lake wouldn't be a bad idea; at least he could get some at bats in before he tried to settle in as the team's DH, or even compete for a third base job.

Similarly, Dallas's defense needs some explanation. He was unbelievably stiff both days, failing to make plays ranging to his left; one particular one that stands out from Wednesday's game was Orlando Cabrera covering for him on a hard-hit Angel Pagan grounder. Dallas just sat looking at the ball as if he hadn't seen one before, and Cabrera raced in almost directly behind him, fielded and threw to first no more than 20 feet back of third and maybe ten feet inside of the foul line. Another case was a weak grounder hit almost directly to him off Jerry Hairston's bat, in the second inning of Thursday's game; he caught it, all right, but it popped out of his glove, and while he recovered to make the out, he had plenty of rust to shake out.

Aside from that, Kotchman was great, homering against El Pulpo, and going 1-3 against the random lineup of pitcherettes the Cubs threw up on Thursday. There might be some concerns about Vlad's bat considering he only just now hit his first home run, and that off Alfonseca; and of course, Anderson's health concerns are a big question mark for the team.

Maybe the most purely fun moment of the game -- for me, anyway -- was when Mike Napoli came to the plate.

Rob: Mmm, Mike Napoli. Dude either swings and misses, or the ball goes over the fence.
Napoli: swings and misses
Helen: Ah.
Napoli: homers

Napoli's having a decent spring in very limited at bats (.368/.455/.588 in 17 AB), but three-true-outcomes heroes probably won't be so welcome in the Angels, and so I imagine he'll go off to some other club in need of catching depth.

Speaking of catching, Jeff Mathis is also having a good spring, and he showed pretty decent speed by beating out an infield hit in yesterday's game, and then collecting a stolen base! His .368/.455/.684 line (19 AB) is, from what I can tell, mainly as a starter.

Everybody's favorite spring training story, Tim Salmon, got two doubles in two days, and we were privileged to see both of them; if he had better wheels, Thursday's could have been a triple, but we understand. Tim gets the biggest cheers of any Angel when he comes to the plate, and despite turning into yet another of the singles machines the Angels just don't need, the club's running out of options.

One bright spot with the bat is Kendry Morales's strong spring. The Angels clearly have great interest in him, giving him more at bats than any other player, and he's responded with a .382/.417/.647 line. The sudden decline in the split between his average and OBP is a little interesting, but I recall bromides about small sample sizes, breaking pitches that don't work in Arizona, and the general unreadiness of pitching staffs, and bite my tongue. Morales also looks decent at first, having made strides with the glove. He's still not yet as good a fielder at the position as Casey Kotchman, nor hardly Darin Erstad, but if he can provide a bat with some pop he may well make the 25-man before the season starts. With Garret Anderson's return on hold indefinitely, the team needs all the help it can get. Similarly, Howie Kendrick's respectable-not-great .290/.313/.419 line -- a disappointment relative to the .385/.410/.505 line I suspect a lot of people would have expected (I kid, I kid) -- amounts to an evaluation that's gone more or less successfully. Kendrick won't make the team in all likelihood, but he will be an option in the second half of the season, especially if Kennedy goes down.

At last, Angels pitching. Jeff Weaver cratered in yesterday's game, though I confess to being grateful that he didn't resort to the slump-shouldered pouting he did on the mound when getting in trouble with the Dodgers. That isn't to say I don't expect more of the same, but at least he hasn't started in spring. Ironically, younger brother Jered is doing better (2.35 ERA in 7.1 IP) in almost the same number of innings, but I can't speak to the quality of hitters faced.

Another old face we're wondering about is Brendan Donnelly. The Angels' official propaganda arm notwithstanding, Donnelly has some very meretricious spring numbers from what I can tell. He's yet to give up an earned run, true, but he walked three in Wednesday's game, and looked as though he were about to implode several times, pitching extremely slowly a la Colón most of the time. He may be a piece the Angels want to sell if he continues to have a good spring.

Other than those guys, the pitchers we've seen so far haven't impressed especially; for all that the Angels have a great farm system, guys like Greg Jones, Jason Bulger, Scott Dunn, Jonathan Rouwenhorst, and Joe Saunders haven't had particularly strong performances, and I can easily see some or all of them getting developmentally stuck in Salt Lake. For some of those guys, that's okay; they're still relatively young. But for other guys, they're just lost. So far, I don't see too many Brendan Donnelly stories in this lot.

Wednesday: Angels 8, Rangers 5

Recap • Photos

Thursday: Cubs 5, Angels 4

Recap • Photos

Photos to follow.