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

Today's Birthdays

Gene DeMontreville BRO b. 1874, played 1900, d. 1935-02-18
Joe Klugmann BRO b. 1895, played 1924, d. 1951-07-18
Frank Lankford LAN b. 1971, played 1998
Jack McCarthy BRO b. 1869, played 1906-1907, d. 1931-09-11
Mel Queen CAL b. 1942, played 1970-1972
Jose Vizcaino LAN b. 1968, played 1989-2000

Roster Notes

• Bobby Jenks Watch, Day Something-Or-Other: For the hyperthyroidal White Sox fans out there who still read me, Ozzie Guillen is considering going with a closer-by-committee.
• Jason Schmidt has a 3-0 record and a 2.00 ERA in spring training, and yet Felipe Alou still hasn't named him his opening day starter?
• Speaking of the Giants, Barry Bonds was scratched Saturday from an elbow strain.
• Frank Thomas has been cleared to play in major league games.
• Good news (for the Mariners): Kevin Appier is expected to start in AAA Tacoma. Bad news: they haven't eliminated the possibility of him joining the big club yet.
• Bartolo Colón's fastball is still clocking 92, about 2-4 MPH off his pre-shoulder-injury numbers.
• The Angels are talking about acquiring Baltimore utility player David Newhan, son of the former Times baseball columnist, older-than-dirt Twin Ruben Sierra, or older than slightly less-old dirt Marlin Lenny Harris. The Rev made mention of the Sierra possibility earlier in the week.
• K-Rod thinks he can work a changeup into his repertoire this year, but it won't mean much if he doesn't have his fastball working. He almost never threw fastballs toward the end of the season, a circumstance Baseball Prospectus attributed to his awful mechanics.
• If Garret Anderson becomes a full-time DH at the start of the season, Tim Salmon could end up at AAA Salt Lake for a time. His reconstructed knee won't let him play the outfield, not yet anyway, but it's unknown whether he would accept such an assignment. Salmon wants to stay in an Angels uniform:

  "My desire is to finish (my career) in one place," he said. "But that being said, when we get to that bridge we'll cross it and look at all the options. There are family things, a lot of things that would be involved in that decision.

  "This is a championship-looking club. If it was a rebuilding situation, the answer might have been decided already," he said, meaning he probably would have made the team. "But when you're talking about clubs that are expecting to win every year, you've got to carry your weight."

• John Lackey threw five and two-thirds innings without pain in Saturday's contest.
• Angels draftee Sean O'Sullivan has signed with Grossmont College, turning down the Angels' third-round, $500,000 bonus offer.
• Jeff Mathis, Tough Guy: Put him in a cage death match, in keeping with the latest inane Interweb fad, against Chuck Norris. Whatever, he's one tough dude:

  Playing for Class-A Cedar Rapids, a pitch struck Mathis near his left eye and fractured his orbital bone.

  "My face was just hanging and sagging," Mathis said. "It was kind of messy."

  Doctors performed emergency surgery that night, inserting three metal plates in his face and two more plastic ones near his eye. They had to rebuild the tear ducts in his left eye. For one awful night, Mathis, then 20, didn't know if he'd be able to see again out of his left eye. He doubted whether he'd ever play again.

  "They wouldn't let me know what was up until 10 o'clock. I was scared to death," Mathis said. "Needless to say, I didn't sleep that well."

  Mathis was catching two days after getting hit hard by a fastball on the hand in a Monday minor league game that had his hand "swelled up like a baloon".
• Esteban Yan's performance "should virtually guarantee him a spot", according to the Register, unless of course they trade him.
• Despite Russell Martin's good spring (.323/.400/.419), Grady Little wants Sandy Alomar, Jr. as the opening day catcher.
• Dioner Navarro probably won't spend time on the DL.
• Chad Billingsley will pitch Saturday in Anaheim in the second game of the Freeway Series. He's scheduled to open his year in AAA Las Vegas, but I expect to see him sometime in the middle of the regular season.
• Odalis Perez will pitch the home opener.
• Hong-Chih Kuo and Franquelis Osoria are dueling it out for the last bullpen slot; it appears that the team may start the year with Yhency Brazoban at Las Vegas.

And You Thought Geeks Had No Lives

Pity the poor advance scout, who hasn't had a girlfriend in two years.

Cardinals 5, Dodgers 1

Brad Penny blew up after an umpire accused him of scuffing a ball; Penny claims he just threw the ball into the dugout after noticing it was scuffed. Whatever, if he was scuffing the ball, it apparently didn't work, as he gave up all five runs in four innings of work.

"Anytime you get in an argument with an umpire who won't call strikes, it makes it a lot of fun," said Penny, who felt he was being squeezed out of strikes. Moser, a Minor League umpire in a spring tryout, would not comment after the game.

...

"The results were bad, but you get to this time of Spring Training, it's a stage to go through," Little said of Penny, whose spring ERA rose to 5.66. "The pitchers are chomping at the bit to get started."

The Dodgers' only run came on a Ricky Ledee homer.

Recap

Diamondbacks 6, Angels 2

John Lackey gave up three earned runs in 5.2 IP, while the entirety of the Angels offense came from a pair of solo homers off Kendry Morales' bat, the first against countryman Orlando Hernandez. Dallas McPherson continued his cold streak, going 0-4; Mike Napoli was 1-2 with a walk; Nick Gorneault was 1-3. Jason Bulger gave up three earned runs in 1.1 IP, and looks increasingly like he'll start the season in AAA.

Recap