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Tuesday, March 14, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves, Tryin' To Keep Up On The Road Edition
Meta: Downtime
The vicissitudes of posting time availability on the road -- especially now that my in-laws have joined us -- have made it tough for me to keep up with the news back home. Fortunately, it's that time of the year when the stories consist mostly of fluff. I still have a ton of photos from yesterday's Angels/Mariners contest, and will be working from those. I'm writing today from the hotel breakfast area -- not really a restaurant so much as a place to eat the continental breakfast they serve here -- and the place is rapidly being taken over by a college women's tennis team.Dodgers 7, Red Sox 5
D.J. Houlton throws two scoreless innings, and already they're talking him up. He lost his focus worrying about Korean Jae Seo displacing him on the 25-man roster? Maybe he doesn't deserve a role on the team...This Is What You Get For Hiring Scott Boras
Jarrod Washburn is miffed with Bill Stoneman for not giving him an offer this last offseason:"I wanted to be an Angel the rest of my career," said Washburn, who was their second-round draft pick in 1995 and started his first game three years later. "This was my family. I loved playing there. I think I separated it, didn't take it out on the field, but I kept wondering. It finally became clear that it wasn't going to happen."Wow -- maybe if Washburn liked Anaheim so much, maybe he'd pitch better than the 28-33, 4.61 ERA he accumulated there lifetime. Maybe he should have thought about that when he signed Scott Boras as his manager -- with Boras, money comes first. Ultimately, Wash became as dispensible as Scott Schoeneweis, another Boras client whose monetary ambitions outstripped his on-the-field ability.The Angels played here Monday, and Washburn held very little back.
"I went to Bill a lot of times, it was public knowledge," he told Angels beat writers. "He just laughed. He would give out his little chuckle and that would be the end of it."
"I knew he wanted to talk to us about a long-term extension, but we weren't interested," Stoneman said. "Judging by what he got, it wasn't likely."
Roster Notes
- The Register reports that Garret Anderson's left heel is sore and will keep him off the field another 7-10 days.
- Grady Little liked Takashi Saito's pitch stylings despite giving up a home run to Alex Gonzalez.
- The Angels have reassigned Nick Adenhart, Jose Arredondo, Bob Zimmermann, Brenton Del Chiaro, and Brett Martinez to minor league camp.
- Casey Kotchman doesn't feel pressured by the expectations now that he's been essentially handed the first base job.
"We don't need Casey to do anything beyond what he is capable of doing," manager Mike Scioscia said. "We have plenty of guys that will be expected to carry the load."
Kotch ought to be able to do more than Erstad, though, and that's all we care about for now.
End Of The Road For Tiger Stadium?
Money to maintain Tiger Stadium is running out, and the wrecking ball looms as a real possibility. The money -- from Tigers ticket sales -- is slated to end this year, but the report ends on an interesting note: the neighborhood is slowly revivifying, with new lofts and restaurants being constructed nearby. That economic progress occurs despite a collapsing ballpark is proof enough that the world doesn't spin on the axis of new stadium construction.
Comments:
Let me get this straight: Opening Day is almost three weeks away, and already GA needs rest?
Wow.
It's really sad to see a guy, still relatively young, fall apart so completely, so quickly.
So much for counting on GA to contribute anything of value to the lineup.
Wow.
It's really sad to see a guy, still relatively young, fall apart so completely, so quickly.
So much for counting on GA to contribute anything of value to the lineup.
# posted by 
: 3/14/2006 10:11:00 AM
: 3/14/2006 10:11:00 AM
Actually, I found this Washburn quote rather puzzling:
"Yeah, I know," Washburn said last week [that the Angels' M.O. is to replace aging veterans with kids from the minors]. "So why did they sign Weaver?"
Well, Jarrod, it's because they got him on a one-year deal, which is not the same as the long-term extension you were seeking. The last time I checked, a one-year contract is not a multi-year contract. See, if you'd bothered to mention in your frequent conversations with Stoneman that you were willing to do a one-year thing, it might have been different.
"Yeah, I know," Washburn said last week [that the Angels' M.O. is to replace aging veterans with kids from the minors]. "So why did they sign Weaver?"
Well, Jarrod, it's because they got him on a one-year deal, which is not the same as the long-term extension you were seeking. The last time I checked, a one-year contract is not a multi-year contract. See, if you'd bothered to mention in your frequent conversations with Stoneman that you were willing to do a one-year thing, it might have been different.
# posted by : 3/14/2006 10:21:00 AM
: 3/14/2006 10:21:00 AM
GA has only played in 3 spring games thus far and has amassed a grand total of 8 innings in the outfield. D-Mac has barely seen any action and is on the injury list too. C'mon Kendry!
# posted by : 3/14/2006 11:01:00 AM
: 3/14/2006 11:01:00 AM
"Kotch ought to be able to do more than Erstad, though, and that's all we care about for now"
That isn't exactly this highest standard now is it? I hope Kotch can do substantially better than anything Erstad has done in the past 3 years.
That isn't exactly this highest standard now is it? I hope Kotch can do substantially better than anything Erstad has done in the past 3 years.
# posted by : 3/14/2006 11:57:00 AM
: 3/14/2006 11:57:00 AM
Seitz -- yeah, there are some lookers.
Anderson's coming remarkably close to being done.
I didn't mean to make it sound like Kotchman was going to suck, but he is relatively untested; he's had a grand total of 242 major-league at bats. It would behoove us to temper our expectations.
Anderson's coming remarkably close to being done.
I didn't mean to make it sound like Kotchman was going to suck, but he is relatively untested; he's had a grand total of 242 major-league at bats. It would behoove us to temper our expectations.
Per dictionary.com, "revivifying" = "reviving". But the former is an actual word...very impressive and educational !!! 8^)
# posted by : 3/14/2006 08:16:00 PM
: 3/14/2006 08:16:00 PM
There were character issues with Washburn.... remember those charges of him soliciting a minor a few years back.... which may further explain why the Angels weren't even interested in making an offer.
# posted by : 3/14/2006 08:26:00 PM
: 3/14/2006 08:26:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
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