Friday, June 02, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
A lot of dogs but not much bark...Bryan Harvey CAL b. 1963, played 1987-1992, All-Star: 1991, 1993. This Top 100 Angel is still second all-time for career saves with the club (126), and still holds the record for single-season saves (46). Possessed of a devastating forkball, the Angels lost him in the 1992 expansion draft, and Harvey ended his career in a Marlins uniform, retiring after the injuries caught up to him in 1995. In one of those spooky coincidences that sometimes litter baseball, in his last appearance in the majors, Harvey gave up a three-run shot to the Giants' Glenallen Hill at San Francisco. Robb Nen became the Marlins' new closer, and later, the Giants' — and in turn, he would give up a game-losing double to Troy Glaus in the 2002 World Series — which was also his final appearance in the majors.
Bob Lillis LAN b. 1930, played 1958-1961. Maury Wills or this guy? Uh, Maury. Right. So off Lillis went to Houston, where he had a decent little career.
Jim Maloney CAL b. 1940, played 1971, All-Star: 1965. As usual, the Angels went for a guy whom injuries had felled, and was well past his prime. What a prime it was, too: with a fastball clocked at 99.5 MPH, in 1965 he threw a ten-inning complete-game no-hitter, one of three no-hitters he would toss over his career, two of them complete games; he had a 27-inning scoreless streak in 1968. On May 21, 1963 — four months before I was born — he struck out eight consecutive Braves, tying the then-current record. The only Brave he did not get? The great Hank Aaron.
Maloney only pitched 30.1 innings for the Angels and then retired following shoulder and Achilles tendon injuries.
Gene Michael LAN b. 1938, played 1967
Lemmie Miller LAN b. 1960, played 1984
Joe Pactwa CAL b. 1948, played 1975
Chance Sanford LAN b. 1972, played 1999
Sloppy Thurston BRO b. 1899, played 1930-1933, d. 1973-09-14. Brilliant with the last-place White Sox, he lived up to his nickname by walking more batters than he struck out most years of his career. Declared to have "dead arm" by manager Eddie Collins, he spent two years in the wilderness and came back with the Dodgers. A LAIM (League-Average Innings Muncher) for the early 30's Brooklyn teams, he became a swingman who got limited starts as the back end of a series of mediocre-to-bad rotations.
Rene Valdez BRO b. 1929, played 1957
The Travs Hate Their Bullpen
The freaky parallels between the Angels' troubles and their AA Arkansas affiliate continue to just amaze me. The Travs' bullpen is the worst in the minors according to GM Bill Valentine, and he's making it known he wants the Angels to do something about it. Something good, that is; whether recent addition Kyle Edens amounts to "something" remains to be seen. Edens has never pitched at AA before, and has had inconsistent results bouncing around between high-A and low-A four straight years. Unloading Tim Bittner seemed like the right thing to do, as the former Texas League All-Star had been getting worse every year he stayed put in AA (this season was his third round at this level).One Travelerocity commenter claims that the Travs are the only team in the Texas League that has failed to have a rehab start in the last six years. While I realize the cost of airfare is getting up there, I somehow think the Angels could throw them an occaisional bone on that one.
Roster Notes
- Bartolo Colón's shoulder still appears to be in trouble if the radar gun is any indication; his velocity is still down in the 87-91 MPH range, far away from his usual 91-95 MPH.
- The Angels will make no changes to their away uniforms for next year; the question is, will the Dodgers?
- Major League Baseball officials have no evidence to support an umpire's claim of a "well-documented" history of bad blood between the Angels and Chicago White Sox in general or catcher A.J. Pierzynski in particular, vice president of umpiring Mike Port said.
- Update: Life is like a video game if you're Jered Weaver.
- Dioner Navarro is swinging a bat but still feels "something still going on in there".
- WTF? I didn't hear this because I was away at Coldstone Creamery from the seventh through the penultimate out in the ninth, but apparently the crowd booed Tim Hamulack because they wanted to see Eric Gagné. Wow. Just, wow.
- Via BTF, Gary Sheffield is out indefinitely. Brings a smile to my face, lemme tell ya.
: 6/02/2006 12:34:00 PM : 6/02/2006 01:22:00 PM
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