Monday, May 29, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
Toby Borland ANA b. 1969, played 2001
Eric Davis LAN b. 1962, played 1992-1993, All-Star: 1987, 1989. Everybody remembers what a bust Daryl Strawberry was, but Eric Davis was just as big a disappointment. Blazingly fast and gifted with a phenominal power bat, the Dodgers thought they were getting a 1-2 punch with Davis in center and Strawberry in right when they traded for Davis from the Reds in November, 1991. Davis, who had been Strawberry's childhood friend, instead broke his left wrist, sprained his left shoulder and herniated a disc in his neck during the wretched 1992 season, appearing in only 76 games. The Dodgers traded him to Detroit near the end of 1993; he retired in 1994 after the neck problems got too much for him. But the rest proved a tonic, and he came back with the Reds in 1996, rewarding Cincinnati with his best numbers in seven years (.287/.394/.523 with 26 homers). He signed the Orioles in 1997, but was diagnosed with colon cancer in May; he struggled through chemotherapy and returned to the lineup in September. He retired three years later after injury-plagued stints with the Cards and Giants.
Phil Gallivan BRO b. 1907, played 1931, d. 1969-11-24
John Kennedy LAN b. 1941, played 1965-1966. May 29 is also conveniently the other John Kennedy's birthday, but this one made a career out of not hitting but being a good late-innings replacement. Mike Napoli alert: he homered in his first appearance. Sometimes a first-at-bat-homer is a sign of nothing.
Dyar Miller CAL b. 1946, played 1977-1979. There must be some good reason why the 1979 Angels sold their third-best reliever to the Blue Jays. Right? It's the kind of head-scratching move the Angels front office made in those days; they won the division anyway but lost the ALCS to the heavily favored, 102-57 Orioles.
Trever Miller LAN b. 1973, played 2000
One Assessment Of Angels Player Development
Here's an interesting assessment of the Angels player development so far from John Klima in the Daily Breeze:For years, the Angels have said that they sought to design their organization around the model of the Atlanta Braves. Any player development plan in baseball can best be called a five-year plan, but the Angels -- in terms of position players -- have not yet succeeded. This is not to say they won't eventually, but the early returns haven't been promising.It's a bit of an overgeneralization, but at the same time it's also true that the Angels' inability to make friends with Mr. Ball Four expresses itself at every level of the organization; it's not just MickeyDallas McPherson is a mistake hitter with a long swing and little discipline. Casey Kotchman, bothered by illness this season, hasn't yet shown that he can maintain a consistent hitting approach, teetering between the temptation to use the whole field one month and pulling everything in sight the next. Jeff Mathis is capable of catching-and-throwing at the elite level, but he didn't hit.
Pitching is a different story. The Angels covet tall, hard-throwing right-handers, but seem weary to place their faith in finesse left-handers who might get outs with offspeed pitches, leading to a lack of depth and differentiation, an imbalance that continually plagues their major league pitching staff.
The result is an assembly line, players whose individuality has been stripped for the sake of conformity. A stream of players with identically open stances, as taught in the minor leagues, weaned on aggressive hitting, which when trying to learn to recognize the difference between a triple-A and a big league slider, is difficult to maintain. It leads to hacking. Hacking leads to frustration. Frustration leads back to the Pacific Coast League.
Roster Notes
- Jered Weaver could displace his brother in the rotation, although that's kind of ridiculous talk at this point with Jered having only one start so far in his major league career.
- Mike Napoli has an ankle sprain following the second inning collision in Saturday's game; what's shocking is that Mike Scioscia let him continue in what was increasingly a blowout game. He was available Sunday, but wisely never used.
- Maicer Izturis starts his rehab stint in Salt Lake tonight. Dallas McPherson had better be better than Izturis... right?
- Bartolo Colón may be ready for his rehab start within a week.
- Darin Erstad still has not resumed baseball activities, and there's no schedule for him to do so.
- Matt Kemp will report to AAA Las Vegas once Ricky Ledee or Jason Repko return to the major league lineup. I saw him in Sunday's game and he looked terrible, botching at least one ball; he's clearly nervous jumping up a level like that, and it's just as well for now that he do his learning at AAA. Of course, the Times' suggested notion that Colletti will trade for outfielder-by-conscription Alfonso Soriano is purely ridiculous.
- Both Jeff Kent and J.D. Drew should be available today. Update: looks like Jeff Kent is out of the Dodgers' lineup in today's game against Atlanta.
As frustrating as it is, the fact of the matter is that many of the best players in the history of baseball have stunk it up in their first cup of coffee in the bigs. Players like Albert Pujuols are the exception. It's pure meshugana to draw any conclusions from a player's first handful of ABs.
Frankly, in Kotchman's run of regular play at the end of 2005, he seemed remarkably consistent. The dude is too sick to play right now. He's not taking batting practice or anything.
On another topic, any bio of Eric Davis that doesn't mention that he went off to the tune of .327/.388/.582 (best career BA & 2nd-best SLG) with 28 HR and 29 2B in 1998 after he came back from colon cancer does him a disservice.
: 5/29/2006 11:46:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
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