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Friday, September 29, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
Hunkey Hines BRO b. 1867, played 1895, d. 1928-01-02
Oris Hockett BRO b. 1909, played 1938-1939, All-Star: 1944, d. 1969-03-23. An otherwise unremarkable outfielder who made his mark in the talent-thin war years.
Craig Lefferts CAL b. 1957, played 1994. The Padres have been to the World Series twice and have exactly one win to show for it, 1984's Game 2; at least they played it at home. Lefferts got the save in that win. He finished his career with the Angels in 1994, and managed to be a little better than league average that year.
Harry Lumley BRO b. 1880, played 1904-1910, d. 1938-05-22. Once led the league with nine home runs, in 1904; later became a player-manager for Brooklyn.
Byron McLaughlin CAL b. 1955, played 1983
Dave Silvestri ANA b. 1967, played 1999
Joe Thurston LAN b. 1979, played 2002-2004. As with Greg Brock, a cautionary tale about reading too much into minor league offensive stats from the PCL and its high elevation parks. "Joey Ballgame" was never able to reproduce his success in the minor leagues, and cratered at the major league level, receiving criticism for his work ethic. Presently working for the Phils.
Gus Weyhing BRO b. 1866, played 1900, d. 1955-09-04
Congratulations, Jon
... about your new day job at Variety.Notes And Such
- With the Dodgers' win yesterday, the Astros were eliminated from the Wild Card; it's division or bust now.
- K-Rod collected his 46th save in last night's game, tying Bryan Harvey's old 1991 record.
- Tim Salmon remembrances to go with yesterday's press conference: in the Times, Daily News, Register (including snark from their blog); and in the AP via ESPN.
- Bob Keister, er, Keisser takes Bill Stoneman behind the woodpile for his use of rookies this year:
Stoneman also made a critical error that isn't mentioned enough when assessing a G.M. - he believed he had minor-league prospects, third-baseman Dallas McPherson, first-baseman Casey Kotchman and catcher Jeff Mathis - ready to take a place in the lineup virtually at the same time. He went 0-for-3.
It should be interesting to see whether Colletti hands the keys to first base to Loney next year, and will Keisser say anything about being wrong then if Loney struggles?[...]
Now consider his colleague across town. The Dodgers are as high on James Loney, Andy LaRoche, Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp as Stoneman was his trio, plus others down the minor-league pipeline. But G.M. Ned Colletti didn't hand these jobs to these talented rookies.
- Eric Gagne feels bad about not being able to contribute:
"I got paid a lot of money for two years and didn't do anything," he said Thursday. "That's what I feel bad about. I feel like I let the team down. I feel like I let the fans down. But I can't control injuries."
Right, like going out there when you're not 100% isn't an option. Sheesh. - The Dodgers are moving their high-A team to San Bernardino, and the Press-Telegram speculates the Dodgers will move their spring training facilities to Arizona as soon as 2009.
- The Mets will be without Pedro Martinez for the balance of the year. Just what they needed going into the playoffs, right?
- Update: It should be an interesting series with the Giants; aside from the usual spoiler role the Giants love to play against the Dodgers, the team by the bay will be saying bye-bye to a raft of free agents, including Barry Bonds, Moises Alou, Jason Schmidt, and Ray Durham; and manager Felipe Alou is expected to retire as well. The Giants might also have to get on a plane to St. Louis on Monday to play a makeup game from an earlier rainout, as it looks like the division race is going to go down to the wire in the Central.
Comments:
Right, like going out there when you're not 100% isn't an option.
Isn't that mindset what got Gagne in trouble to begin? He had a sore knee in March '05, yet insisted on pitching. His mechanics adjusted for the pain, creating an injury cascade.
GSfRB
Isn't that mindset what got Gagne in trouble to begin? He had a sore knee in March '05, yet insisted on pitching. His mechanics adjusted for the pain, creating an injury cascade.
GSfRB
# posted by 
: 9/29/2006 10:28:00 AM
: 9/29/2006 10:28:00 AM
Right, that was exactly my point: Gagne had a choice but failed to exercise it intelligently. Instead he went for the He Man Tough Guy route and here we are.
Yeah, the Angels have been so hindered by their use of rookies that they have a better record than the Dodgers in a much tougher league. And it's all Stoneman's fault that McPherson got hurt again and Kotchman got sick. And seeing as how they replaced the struggling rookie at catcher with another rookie who was fairly productive for a catcher, that really shows how Stoneman's an idiot, too.
Seitz, you forgot about how that "idiot" Stoneman also called up one Howie Kendrick who, despite being asked by his manager to play a position he's never played before, has managed to put up a line of .285/.315/.419 (even better than that since his permanent recall).
Rookies named Saunders and WTY haven't done too shabby, either.
Perhaps the only dumb move was sending Kendry Morales down right about the time he might have been expected to adjust to ML pitching.
Rookies named Saunders and WTY haven't done too shabby, either.
Perhaps the only dumb move was sending Kendry Morales down right about the time he might have been expected to adjust to ML pitching.
# posted by : 9/29/2006 11:53:00 AM
: 9/29/2006 11:53:00 AM
Sanchez -- point taken. On the other hand -- a second place finish with this many kids on the team? Oh, hells yeah.
Stoneman did have a back up plan - Napoli/Alfonzo-Quinlan-Figgins-Izzy/Morales-Quinlan (Ersty)
i think most in the organization knew Napoli could hit as well as Mathis. Mathis's defense was the tie-breaker and the fact he had seen AAA.
remember Edgar Alfonzo? he saw plenty of 3B in the Spring but with some experienced MLB action, he still couldn't hold down the job. With D-Mac's health, i think they knew this was the most obvious position to have a Plan B.
Erstad going down screwed up "Plan B" for both 1B, and 3B too. Figgy had to go to CF (at least that's what we ALL thought at the start of the season). I'd think the Halos would have preferred a healthy Erstad at 1B rather than Kendrick.
i think most in the organization knew Napoli could hit as well as Mathis. Mathis's defense was the tie-breaker and the fact he had seen AAA.
remember Edgar Alfonzo? he saw plenty of 3B in the Spring but with some experienced MLB action, he still couldn't hold down the job. With D-Mac's health, i think they knew this was the most obvious position to have a Plan B.
Erstad going down screwed up "Plan B" for both 1B, and 3B too. Figgy had to go to CF (at least that's what we ALL thought at the start of the season). I'd think the Halos would have preferred a healthy Erstad at 1B rather than Kendrick.
It seemed like the Angels were willing to hand the division to Oakland for the next couple years, and then be the dominant team from 2008 on.
I could be wrong, and maybe Stoneman really thought this team could contend, but the Angels seemed like a team that could do well if things went their way, but probably weren't going to make the post season. Would Stoneman be facing the criticism if he would have just stated this at the beginning of the year.
I could be wrong, and maybe Stoneman really thought this team could contend, but the Angels seemed like a team that could do well if things went their way, but probably weren't going to make the post season. Would Stoneman be facing the criticism if he would have just stated this at the beginning of the year.
Show me a GM who concedes the division at the start of the year, and you're looking at a marketing disaster. Honesty is never the best policy when dealing with this. I'm just a fan, and look at the sort of savaging I took in certain quarters from saying the Angels would be a second place team...
I think its time to replace the ol' vets that have been spewing out garbage in our local sports pages for the past decade. Keisser, Wicker, Bisheff, Plaschke, Krikorian, Youngman... bleeehhh. I'm not saying I want the sports page to turn into baseball prospectus, but is a little intelligence and accountability too much to ask for?
# posted by : 9/29/2006 04:12:00 PM
: 9/29/2006 04:12:00 PM
Didn't Billy Beane say something to the effect of "this is the worst will be for the next five years" last year? It seems like the 2006 Angels are very similar to the 2005 Athletics: working a lot of young players in, but still solid.
I'm not asking him to conceed the division, but just mentioning something about reloading for the future might have done Stoneman some good.
I'm not asking him to conceed the division, but just mentioning something about reloading for the future might have done Stoneman some good.
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