Friday, November 17, 2006 |
Pickoff Moves
Today's Birthdays
Jim Brewer LAN,CAL b. 1937, played 1964-1976, All-Star: 1973, d. 1987-11-16. Came up with the Cubs, but the Dodgers stole him — and another player — for Dick Scott, an unremarkable reliever. The Dodgers finally traded him midseason 1975 to the Angels, where he pitched very well until his retirement. Musta been that screwball.
Ray Chadwick CAL b. 1962, played 1986. Lost all the decisions (five) he got in seven 1986 starts, he's now coaching baseball for Thompson Rivers University, a small school in British Columbia, Canada.
Dave Frost CAL b. 1952, played 1978-1981. He came to the Angels in a trade with the White Sox along with Top 100 Angel Brian Downing, a terrible trade for the Chisox but a great one for the Angels. Went 16-10 in 1979, the first year the Angels ever won a division; never before and never after would he win as many as 10 starts. Elbow problems limited his effectiveness in the last three years of his career.
Aubrey Gatewood LAA,CAL b. 1938, played 1963-1965
Bill Harrelson CAL b. 1945, played 1968
Joe Hatten BRO b. 1916, played 1946-1951, d. 1988-12-16
Brad Havens LAN b. 1959, played 1987-1988
Lew McCarty BRO b. 1888, played 1913-1916, d. 1930-06-09
Dan Osinski LAA b. 1933, played 1962-1964
Orlando Pena CAL b. 1933, played 1974-1975
Sam Post BRO b. 1896, played 1922, d. 1971-03-31
George Stallings BRO b. 1867, played 1890, d. 1929-05-13
Ben Weber ANA b. 1969, played 2000-2004. Ben's out of baseball now, which is too bad; I liked him on the Angels. Every team, the Angels especially these days, need guys like him who crawl their way to the Show and hang in for a few years of super-competence. Never devastating, just lots of groundball outs. Sayonara, Osama.
Mitch Williams CAL b. 1964, played 1995, All-Star: 1989. Nicknamed "Wild Thing" because of the large number of plunked batters early in his career, he pitched for six teams over eleven seasons, with a K/BB rate that approached unity most years. His fielding was awful, too, made worse by a followthrough that left him in a bad place to field his position. Yet somehow, he managed to save thirty or more games three times in his career (probably scaring the customers in the process). He was involved in one of the worst trades the Cubs ever made, one that sent Rafael Palmiero and Jamie Moyer to Texas; he also gave up the series-losing home run to Joe Carter in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series.
Bullety Stuff
- Mike Scioscia hosted his annual golf tournament, a charity benefit for the Amateur Baseball Development Group of Southern California.
- Proof positive we're in silly season: The Angels chasing Freddy Garcia? For Ervin Santana?
- The Angels got postseason shares worth $10,154.79 each for coming in second in their division? Good grief. (The Dodgers, who actually went to the postseason this year, got $27,050 for a full share, of which 50 were handed out.)
- The Dodgers signed a couple backups with invitations to spring training: catcher Ken Huckaby and RHP Travis Smith.
- The Times is reporting that the Dodgers and Nomar Garciaparra are close to concluding a multiyear contract ("two or three" years), with a significant pay increase over the $6.5M with bonuses he got previously. Ned Colletti is said to be concerned about keeping players who want to be Dodgers rather than grabbing with the highest possible salary.
- The Dodgers could leave Vero Beach as early as 2008.
- At Least He's Got His Brain Screwed On Right About That: Ned Colletti, on this offseason's free agent market:
"There's some real good players available on the free agent market, but there's a lack of depth to it. In some cases, the team that loses out on a player may be the team that feels the best about it a year from now."
He also notes the Dodgers are still talking about bringing back Kenny Lofton. Eww. - Update: Jon Heyman at the ever-so-glacial Sports Illustrated website suggests the Dodgers are about to make a run at the aging Jason Schmidt.
- Update 2: Tracy Ringolsby says the Red Sox are about to sign J.D. Drew to a two-year, $30M deal. If he inks that one, he ends up losing money compared to the $33M he had guaranteed with the Dodgers, but it may be a case where he thinks the current free agent insanity will extend through the 2008/2009 offseason, and that he'll be hale enough to cash in. That's not the way I would bet, but whatever.
- Former Angel Scott Spiezio won himself a $4.5M/2-year deal with the Cards. The NL Central now becomes a game show called, "Who's The Dumbest GM?"
- Frank Thomas's signing with the Blue Jays is official, on a two-year deal that nets him $18M.
The 10 grand is a lot to rookies and minor league callups with pro-rated salaries.
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