Tuesday, September 12, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
John Gochnauer BRO b. 1875, played 1901, d. 1929-09-27. Coming up with Brooklyn in 1901, he moved to Cleveland the next year where he was the shortstop part of their keystone combo, along with Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie. Gochnauer owns some dubious records: he has the most single-season RBIs of any player with a sub-Mendoza batting average, has the most at-bats never to homer, and was the last major leaguer to make 90+ (98) errors in a season.
Hilly Hathaway CAL b. 1969, played 1992-1993
Maicer Izturis LAA b. 1980, played 2005. Half-brother of Cesar, the Angels' present-week leadoff man is probably too unfamiliar with baseball arcana such as the "walk" to be effective over any sufficiently long stretch. That is, whatever went wrong with Chone Figgins is a persistent disease in the Angels' offense, and Izturis is simply the flavor-of-the-month until he, too, gets figured out by the league.
Masao Kida LAN b. 1968, played 2003-2004. Had a terrible auto accident that knocked him out for most of 2004; the Dodgers DFA'd him, and Seattle claimed him off waivers. He then spent most of 2005 working at the Mariners' AAA affiliate in Tacoma. The following December, he scampered back to Japan, where he has a 2.25 ERA over 4.0 innings with the Yakult Swallows.
John Montague CAL b. 1947, played 1979-1980. Won two games and saved five in his first week with the 1979 Angels, who were on their way to a division title, an outcome about as unexpected as J.C. Romero doing the same thing today.
Franquelis Osoria LAN b. 1981, played 2005. Last seen with the 51's.
Albie Pearson CAL,LAA b. 1934, played 1961-1966, All-Star: 1963. A Top 100 Angel whose appearance at 95 actually struck me as appropriate until I did my own top 40 list based on career win shares, where he shows up as twenty-second. No doubt a good bit of that came from his extraordinary plate discipline: he had a higher OBP than SLG every year but one of his career, and when healthy, he had OBPs around .400. His career was cut short by a spring training accident that aggravated a pre-existing back condition (he was born with an incomplete spinal column).
God Is A Bullet, Have Mercy On Us Every One
- Somebody asked in the comments a while ago whether the Angels were sending anyone to the new Hawaiian Winter League; it looks like the answer is no, but Cory Dunlap, Xavier Paul, Blake DeWitt, Wesley Wright, Zach Hammes and Anthony Harper from the Dodgers will all be there.
- Former Dodger prospect Shane Victorino is having a fine season with the Phillies.
- Tony Jackson wonders who's on first for the Dodgers:
Will the club re-sign Nomar Garciaparra? Is James Loney ready to take over on an everyday basis? Is Jeff Kent willing to move there if he is asked to?
The short answers are probably not, probably not and probably. The long answers require a little more investigation, beginning with the Garciaparra issue, which no one on either side is willing to touch so far with the Dodgers in the midst of a pennant race.
- Hong-Chih Kuo will make Thursday's start against the Cubs, but it's unclear whether Eric Stults will have another shot.
- Dallas McPherson will require even more surgery; though the mlb.com article is a bit sketchy on some details, it sounds like he's got a herniated disk. Rehab time, depending on the procedure, will be anywhere from three months up to a year.
Questions of durability have begun to arise, and McPherson admits those issues are warranted.
The Angels have "no defined role" for McPherson, whose back injuries could be cumulatively career-threatening:"They have every right to. I have a herniated disk. The typical thing that people are going to do is question your durability," McPherson said. "To tell you the truth, I've had some injury problems, but this is nothing compared to last year. This is a walk in the park. It's September and I'm still playing."
"The question is, would surgery fix it, and if I don't have surgery, is this going to happen every year?" said McPherson, who hit .250 in 56 games at triple-A Salt Lake with 17 home runs and 45 runs batted in.
Update: I somehow missed this Times story about Dallas McPherson, in which Troy Glaus defends his sometime replacement:Troy Glaus still believes in Dallas McPherson, even if the Angels might not. In the two seasons since they let Glaus walk into free agency and made McPherson their third baseman, the Angels have used eight players at that position.
The words "unconditional release" and "along with Chone Figgins, traded for ..." come to mind."If Dallas was able to stay healthy, this wouldn't be a conversation," Glaus said Sunday, before he and the Toronto Blue Jays played the Angels.
...
"When you're banged up, you can't do what you want to do," Glaus said. "Dallas is a hell of a player. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to stay healthy. I don't know what their plans are."
- Korean prep pitcher Yung-Il Jung and his family are finally in the States, and made a tour of Angel Stadium last night. Jung signed a deal with the Angels for $1M, outbidding the Mets, Twins, Yankees and Mariners.
- Brendan Donnelly is serving his suspension now, and why does MLB even allow guys to do that during expanded rosters?
- The Daily News speculates that Chone Figgins could end up traded to the White Sox in the offseason, for Joe Crede. The Sox have a poor relationship with Scott Boras, and Kenny Williams may not want to write the kind of checks that Crede and Boras are expecting, says Doug Padilla, but it sounds like wishcasting to me.
: 9/12/2006 03:53:00 PMNewer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.