Tuesday, April 11, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
Pop Corkhill BRO b. 1858, played 1890, d. 1921-04-04Kelvim Escobar ANA,LAA b. 1976, played 2004-2005. Make sure you've got that fingernail fixed, Kelvim.
Tim Fortugno CAL b. 1962, played 1992
Ray Gordinier BRO b. 1892, played 1921-1922, d. 1960-11-15
Sid Monge CAL b. 1951, played 1975-1977
Al Nixon BRO b. 1886, played 1915-1918, d. 1960-11-09
Dick Wantz CAL b. 1940, played 1965, d. 1965-05-13
The Snake Pit, Or Jim Tracy Makes An Asp Of Himself: Dodgers 8, Pittsburgh 3
I have completely lost faith in Odalis Perez as a starter, and yesterday's game did nothing to alleviate those kinds of thoughts; this is, after all, Pittsburgh, home to a trifecta of a world-class incompetent at the helm in Dave Littlefield, lousy ownership — and of course Jim Tracy. Many longtime readers will recall that I at one point defended Tracy, but as had been ably pointed out at Fire Jim Tracy back when that was a going concern, his problems lay ever beneath the surface, awaiting the right team to express themselves.So it was yesterday, the fans booing with great gusto at yet another awful shellacking, the stink of Tracy's hokum permeating the ballpark as a great intellectual outhouse. Of course, any kind of public humiliation like this one takes a team effort, inverting the bromide, "success has many fathers but defeat is an orphan"; the Pirates were bad before the Tracy's advent, to be sure. His inherited team has already surrendered 50 runs, second worst in the majors behind Atlanta (!), while scoring 37. Perhaps Tracy needs therapy. More likely, the club needs to be nuked from orbit, just to be sure. When the likes of Jason Repko delivers a win, it's time to reexamine just how bad your team is. This will not happen in Pittsburgh, of course; it never does.
Texas Hold 'Em: Angels 5, Rangers 2
John Lackey started the day with a 5.36 ERA against Texas lifetime, and ended it with a 5.15 ERA; I still get a little nervous with him on the mound, having suffered through a couple years and a month of him failing to get third outs, or blowing up in late innings after cruising through four or five. (I will still watch him pitch to the Red Sox with all the comfort of a Christian Scientist with appendicitis.) Yet he dispelled all of it, dominating the Rangers despite an early home run to Phil Nevin, a man who hit only twelve last year; sometimes, you just leave one over the plate, I guess.The surprise in this game was the relative solidity of the Rangers bullpen. For all that the Rangers rotation is awful, getting three scoreless innings out of sidearmers Brian Shouse and, especially, Scott Feldman must have been quite a relief, pardon the expression. Feldman, rushed out of AA after a relatively dominating 2.36 ERA in 61 IP for Frisco, especially struck me as the kind of desperate gamble pitching-thin clubs make.
With 2-4 nights for each of the first four batters, the Angels' offense seemed — as I suggested Sunday — to have found its tonic in Rangers pitching. I'm mostly worried about Anderson, whose hitting has become spottier since he was long-termed in 2004, and Casey Kotchman, who is still somewhat green. There are just enough offensive holes on this club to make you nervous.
LANG Start A-Blogging
The Los Angeles Newspaper Group — the Los Angeles Daily News, Pasadena Star-News, Riverside Press-Enterprise, etc. — are all launching pool blogs, pooling, that is, the resources of their collective sportswriters. You'll see Tony Jackson and Doug Padilla covering the Dodgers and Angels respectively on a dual-purposed blog (not unlike this one in that respect). Sidebar links due up any time now.Update: You're welcome, Keven.
Vin Scully's Druthers
Vin Scully, on whether he'd prefer to have Barry's record-breaking homer happen against the Dodgers:"I would just as soon it not happen against the Dodgers," Scully told the Los Angeles Times. "With Aaron, it was a privilege to be there when he did it. It was just a great moment."With Bonds, no matter what happens now, it will be an awkward moment. That's the best word I can think of now. If I had my druthers, I would rather have that awkward moment happen to somebody else."
: 4/11/2006 09:37:00 AMRob, while I'm as worried about GA as the next guy, the timing of your comment is a bit incongruous if you saw GA play last night. He he also made an impressive catch of a fly ball near the line while doing the patented Salmon-slide, I believe in the 8th inning.
: 4/11/2006 11:28:00 AM
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