Friday, February 29, 2008 |
Rumor: Brandon Inge To LA
Labels: dodgers, rumors, trades
Free Angels Spring Training Radio Broadcasts?
Tech: Revenge For Silverlight
OT: Taps For The Press-Telegram
Update: More on this at the Stress-Telegram blog. Interesting that there's a piece about the connection between basic reporting and circulation and how small local newspapers seem to be doing well despite the overall downturn. We've got a couple small free weeklies here, one of which is actually worth reading (the Sun, published out of Seal Beach), and both of them seem to be doing reasonably well.
Labels: offtopic
Base Coaches Must Stay Inside The Box This Year
Labels: rules, stupid ideas
OT: The Spies Who Love You
Allowing the lawsuits to proceed could aid our enemies, because the litigation process could lead to the disclosure of information about how we conduct surveillance.For instance, how they're trolling large numbers of phone calls unrelated to any real investigations, just because. That's the last thing the White House wants known, so they're praying and hoping that telecom amnesty can ensure there will never be any real investigations of what they're up to. (Speaking of that, why the hell is Henry Waxman wasting his time on steroids investigations?)
Thursday, February 28, 2008 |
Late, But Wuzza? Josh Byrnes Given Eight-Year Deal
Labels: diamondbacks, front office
No Radio For Angels Spring Training Games?
It's A Successful Spring
Diamondbacks Are A Call Girl's Best Friend
Shawn Green Retires
"I had planned on retiring at the end of this contract," the 35-year-old Green said yesterday in a phone conversation. "If something where I could live at home popped up, then I would have had to take that under consideration. But I still don't know what I would have done."Just don't drive drunk there, Shawn.That decision never really had to be made. The affable Green, a former member of the 30-30 club who once smashed four homers in one game, wrapped up his tenure with the Mets last season. He said yesterday that a bunch of teams then showed interest in him, but he indicated that he simply wasn't willing to be that far from his California home.
"There was some real solid interest from maybe six or seven teams," he said. "A lot of teams were pretty far across the country."
Green, who is building his dream house in Irvine with his family (wife Lindsay and daughters Presley and Chandler), added, "I wanted to stay here with my family. Not travel around the country anymore. I enjoyed playing a lot. I enjoyed New York. But for me, it was time to be home."
More at Jon's.
Labels: ex-dodgers
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 |
Arrest Warrant Issued For Scott Spiezio
He was not in the lineup for a Wednesday exhibition game at Jupiter, FL.
The Rev has a pointer to the Orange County DA's office website with details of the charges; he is wanted on a $10,000 warrant.
Update: The Cardinals have released Spiezio, according to the AP. (Also at MLB.com.)
Labels: ex-angels
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 |
BA Ranks Top 100 Prospects
7. Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers)
16. Brandon Wood (Angels)
24. Nick Adenhart (Angels)
31. Andy LaRoche (Dodgers)
55. Chin-Lung Hu (Dodgers)
79. Hank Conger (Angels)
81. Jordan Walden (Angels)
88. Scott Elbert (Dodgers)
Labels: angels, dodgers, minors
Monday, February 25, 2008 |
Collision
Collision at the plate in Saturday's game between Long Beach and Rice. Danny Espinosa, who had a huge series against the Owls that included a solo homer in this same game, upends Adam Zornes to score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth on freshman Devin Lohman's RBI single, taking the series with a 3-2 victory. The Dirtbags dropped their Sunday game 3-1, but it was nevertheless a great showing against a higher-ranked opponent.
Update: Baseball America moved Long Beach up to 11th overall in this week's Top 25 Tracker.
Labels: dirtbags
Bartolo Colon Signs Minor League Deal With Boston
Update: Theo Epstein explains:
"Well, signing Colon to a minor league deal, we think, is a no risk potential high reward signing. He's on a minor league contract, going to show up here at camp tomorrow and we'll do an evaluation of how far he is away from helping us. But it takes more than five starting pitchers to get through a season. Obviously he's an accomplished guy and if we can get him back to a point where he's throwing well, he can certainly help us at some point this season."Colon threw 4 1/3 innings on Feb. 6 in the Caribbean Series against Venezuela, and hasn't thrown since. That, Epstein said, puts him behind the other pitchers in camp, and will certainly affect when he might be ready to start the season.
"We'll do a full workup on him tomorrow when he gets here," Epstein said. "Probably safe to assume he's a little bit behind everyone else. We'll see."
On the reports on the stint against Venezuela: "He was 89-91, shaping his fastball different ways. Pitching more than throwing. We have pretty good reports in September. He was 91-92 up to 94. We saw him pretty good in September, so we had interest. We wanted to wait and see if it was the right thing to do, make sure the price was right. At this point it's, as we said, very low risk and high reward as far as the depth of our pitching staff goes. It takes a lot of starting pitching to get through the season. You're hoping to get 1,000 innings from your starters. There's a lot of attrition, so this might be a guy who can help us at some point."
Labels: ex-angels, red sox, transactions
Sunday, February 24, 2008 |
Notes On The Dodgers' Spring Training Move To Arizona
"It's sad to see them go," said Koufax, the former Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher. "I have friends (in Vero Beach), but most of them are not there any more either. ... It's just the way it works."(Make sure to turn on Adblock before you read that one ... lots of interstitials.)
The Press-Telegram has some reminiscences of their sports columnist Doug Krikorian from his years there:
There are a few events that still stand out for me from that spring training, one of which was a voluble confrontation I had with Sutton after I had written a column about how he had become a clubhouse nuisance.One trip to the Dominican to play an exhibition series yielded some rather racy side effects:I don't recall its specifics 31 years later, but I do know it angered Sutton, who let me know in no uncertain terms know he didn't appreciate such a negative article.
"Sometimes the truth can be painful," I remember telling Sutton, which, of course, made him even angrier.
I'll also never forget going into a sleazy Santa Domingo saloon with several other writers, including the late Bud Tucker, who was then the clown prince of Southern California sportswriters.Ouch.The place was swarming with women of all ages and shapes, and Mr. Tucker, a curious sort especially after a few belts, asked one what the price was for her services.
I'm not sure what she said in Spanish, but I do remember Bud, who restrained his activities that evening strictly to drinking, uttering this deathless response: "Honey, I just want to rent you, not buy you."
The Auto Club's January/February issue of Westways magazine (which I got in the mail Saturday) has a nice article in the print edition including people's remembrances of Vero, but it won't be online for a month or two.
Labels: dodgers, spring training
Friday, February 22, 2008 |
Back In The Saddle Again: Dirtbags 1, Owls 0
Danny Espinoza, the team's best hitter, finally came through in the bottom of the tenth with a bases-loaded, two-out RBI single against reliever Bryan Price, who took the loss. Price managed to walk the bases loaded with two out, and had quite a difficult time locating his pitches even with the help of an umpire with a generous strike zone.
The game had its amusing moments, too, the kind of stuff you expect to see early in the season: catcher Adam Zornes miscounted the outs and rolled the ball to the mound with a man on first early in the game. Thereafter, the crowd heckled him mercilessly about the number of outs.
Yeah, it was fun to be back at the yard again.
Labels: dirtbags
What Lisa Guerrero Is Doing These Days
Now that he’s retired and she’s no longer providing unintentional hilarity on Monday Night Football, Scott and Lisa have found time to co-produce 'A Plumm Summer,' a film about a kidnapped puppet named Froggy Doo. Process that for awhile, then note that the film also stars Jeff Daniels, William Baldwin, the Fonz, the dead lady from Desperate Housewives, and … Lisa Guerrero. Process that for awhile, then note that it’s also based on a true story.I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. ... Scott Erickson pitching ... well, you might believe that one. (Thanks to Jon for picking that ... unsightly horror up.)
Labels: ex-dodgers, the horror the horror
New 1988 World Series DVD Set
NEW YORK, NY– The annals of sports history are studded with teams that overcame the odds to capture championships. Teams that made up for lack of talent with extra heart, drive and determination. The 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers were such a team. Entering the postseason as distinct underdogs, the Tommy Lasorda-led squad, through teamwork, grit and perseverance, wrote themselves into the history books and, in doing so, created some indelible World Series moments. This March, as the team begins its last year of Spring Training in Vero Beach’s legendary Dodgertown before decamping for Arizona – commemorate the 20th anniversary of its surprising victory over the Oakland A’s with THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS 1988 WORLD SERIES COLLECTOR’S EDITION.Released in conjunction with the Dodgers 50th anniversary in Los Angeles, fans of the team have never had a memento like this: the Dodgers ’88 World Series and National League Championship Series games play out across seven remarkable DVDs, including all five World Series games in their entirety, plus the complete Game 4 and Game 7 of the NLCS. Featuring over 17 hours of never-before-available full-game content, all of the heroics of Mickey Hatcher, Mike Scioscia, Orel Hershiser and Kirk Gibson, who in his only 1988 World Series plate appearance issued the home run memorialized as “impossible” by Vin Scully, “unbelievable” by Jack Buck” and “Gone!” by Don Drysdale, are showcased and digitally preserved for fans’ viewing pleasure.
This collector‘s set also includes a treasure trove of bonus content including heart-stopping highlights, interviews with game greats and team legends such as National League MVP Gibson and A’s closer and Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, featurettes like “Inside the Moments: Kirk Gibson’s Home Run” and footage from series MVP Hershiser’s record-breaking streak of 59 scoreless innings pitched. Intensified by SleeveStats™ official stats, trivia, and game summaries, THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS 1988 WORLD SERIES COLLECTOR’S EDITION -- the ultimate addition to every Dodger fan’s memorabilia collection -- will be available on March 25 for $69.95srp.
Labels: dodgers
Angels Beat Frankie In Arbitration
Despite the contentious hearing, Arte Moreno still wants to sign K-Rod to a long-term deal:
"At end of the day, it gets down to, what do you really want?" Moreno said. "The last couple of years we've tried to sign him. We've been there a couple times, and things changed when Rivera and Cordero got their deals."We thought Frankie was going to sign, we thought he wanted to sign, and then the numbers changed. There's only so much you can do. He decided to go to arbitration."
Thursday, February 21, 2008 |
Dodgers' Arizona Highway No Sure Thing
In a development that made it clear the Dodgers' planned spring-training move to Glendale, Ariz., still isn't a certainty, the club issued a carefully worded statement on Thursday night indicating it is exploring "alternatives" to the move. The statement came almost three months after ground officially was broken on a two-team facility in the Phoenix suburb to be shared by the Dodgers and Chicago White Sox.Glendale, AZ has been slow to provide the "scope of work" document that outlines the exact facilities that will be built. If they continue using Dodgertown, they will be locked into their old lease that has them playing in Vero Beach through 2021, and they could pay a $575,000 fine."The facility-development agreement between the teams and the city of Glendale calls for the parties to develop a `scope of work' that will define the layout, design and construction of this spring-training facility and a firm completion date," the statement read. "While the teams fully expect that scope of work will be completed soon and to everyone's satisfaction, the Dodgers must have an alternative in the unlikely event that the parties are not able to agree on the scope of work."
Labels: dodgers, spring training
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 |
SI Lasorda Flashback
Although as a young pitcher out of Norristown (Pa.) High School in 1944 he was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies, Lasorda was soon purchased by the Dodgers, with whom he has spent most of his 27 years as a player, scout, minor league manager and major league coach. Lasorda's feelings for the Dodgers inspired him in 1961 to write a treatise called An Organization with a Heart. He also started repeating corny little sayings such as "Cut me and I'll bleed Dodger blue" and "When I die I want my tombstone to say, 'Dodger Stadium was his address, but every ball park was his home.'"
Bryan Smith On The 2008 Dirtbags
After a summer spent coaching Team USA, Mike Weathers returns to Long Beach with what looks to be a nice, complete team. They do have some star power, with junior shortstop Danny Espinosa and closer Bryan Shaw both likely to land in the first three rounds in June's draft. Between Shane Peterson and Jason Corder this looks like a good, veteran lineup, and on the mound junior ace Vance Worley is healthy with two experienced seniors behind him. The Dirtbags are the favorite to win the Big West, and after watching a few veteran teams make runs to Omaha a year ago, I wouldn’t count them out for a trip to Nebraska in June.
Labels: dirtbags, predictions
Roster Notes
- A report yesterday had Bartolo Colon signing with the Chisox, but Rotoworld cites a since-rescinded Chicago Tribune blog story claiming that hasn't happened. I don't know who to believe.
- Odalis Perez has signed a one-year, $850,000, non-guaranteed contract if he makes the Washington Nationals.
- Milton Bradley thinks he'll be ready for opening day with Texas.
- Juan Pierre might waive his no-trade clause if he can't be a starting centerfielder in Los Angeles. Waive bye-bye, Juan.
- The Dodgers will have their first full-squad workout today.
Labels: contracts, dodgers, ex-angels, ex-dodgers, injuries, nationals, rangers, rumors, spring training, transactions
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 |
OT: Peter Bagge's "A Guy From Boston's Guide To The Oscars"
Vlad's Elbow Still "A Little Sore"
Juan Rivera At First?
[Torii] Hunter is one of 10 outfielders with major league experience who will be in camp with the Angels this spring. The plan is to have four in the lineup every day, in the outfield and at designated hitter.That would seem to leave few at-bats for Juan Rivera who hit .310 with 23 home runs and drove in 85 runs in 2006 before missing nearly all of 2007 because of a broken leg. Scioscia said Rivera will get some work at first base this spring to create another potential avenue to get his bat in the lineup. Rivera could be a right-handed alternative to the left-handed Casey Kotchman at first.
Rivera has not played first base in the majors or minors but Scioscia said he had played some infield during winter ball in the past and "he's taken some ground balls there periodically."
"I don't think any of us would expect a guy who will go over there and play at the level of Kotch and some other guys," Scioscia said. "But there is probably some depth we can create if he can go over there and just handle the fundamentals of that position. We'll see.
"I think Juan has the potential to be able to handle it over there. Just add some depth. It's something we'll look into."
Labels: angels, spring training
Monday, February 18, 2008 |
Gagne Apologizes, Sorta
Labels: drugs, ex-dodgers
Sunday, February 17, 2008 |
Frankie's Last Season With The Angels?
Upon arriving for his first spring-training workout today, Rodriguez was asked if he's going into this season thinking it will be his last with the Angels.I can live with it either way."Yeah, probably," he said. "If they wanted me here, they would have done something a long time ago. In the meantime, I have to put that out of my head and do my job."
Rodriguez is quick to clarify when asked if he feels the Angels don't want him here.
"No, no, that's not what I'm saying, I don't want that in the paper," Rodriguez said. "It's just something I can't control."
Why hasn't he signed a long-term deal by now? "You're asking the wrong person," Rodriguez said, putting the onus on the team.
But the Angels tried to secure Rodriguez to multi-year deals after 2005 and 2006, and they couldn't agree to terms. The 26-year-old right-hander signed one-year contracts both winters.
The Angels made another offer, believed to be in the three-year, $34-million range, after last season. Rodriguez turned it down -- he's apparently looking for something closer to Mariano Rivera's deal (three years, $45 million) -- and the Angels pulled it off the table.
"We made what we thought was a fair offer, and it wasn't accepted," Angels General Manager Tony Reagins said. "They said they were probably going year to year, which, to me, means they're going to explore their opportunities."
Saturday, February 16, 2008 |
Torii Hunter Talks About Dad's Demons
Does it still hurt today?"Sometimes, yeah," Hunter said, fighting back tears. "I'm human. To think about it is sad. But I know there's another kid out there going through the same thing. I want to tell him to keep his head up, stay strong, keep God close, and everything will be all right."
This is why Hunter, who for years hid his family secret, began opening up about his turbulent past in 2005. He hopes to inspire kids from troubled environments.
"I want to let people know that, like everyone else, I have problems," Hunter said. "It may not be a drug problem, but everybody has problems. I want people to know they're not alone."
Labels: angels
Friday, February 15, 2008 |
PECOTA Predicts
With that in mind, I bring you PECOTA's preseason predictions, which have the Angels taking the division with an 89-win team, and the Dodgers tied but placing second to the Diamondbacks with 86 wins; the wild card will come from the NL Central, the Brewers. (For the AL wild card team, PECOTA picks ... who else, the Red Sox.)
Labels: predictions
Dodgers Announce Broadcast Schedule
And, Hey, Reggie, How's That Gallbladder?
Frankie Not In Camp, And Kelvim Out Til May
"We want him here, but Frankie hasn't always been here on time in the past," Reagins said. "I'm not reading anything into it."Also, it turns out Kelvim Escobar won't be back in the rotation until at least May.
Labels: angels, contracts, injuries, spring training
Kiss The Register's Dodgers Coverage Bye-Bye?
Singleton previously approached the Register to acquire it, but was rebuffed when the Hoiles family heirs raised $900M from the Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners. If they can't return that money by 2010, they may have to sell the paper anyway. Singleton has a reputation for slashing newspaper operating staffs, as he did after he bought the Press-Telegram in 1997. A content-sharing agreement would be a first step toward a merger.
Update 2/16: Lookee here: a Tony Jackson byline at the Register. Huh.
Labels: angels, dodgers, media, newspapers
Tech: HD DVD All But Dead
Labels: tech
The Mariners Mirage
So why am I not more bullish on this trade for the Mariners? Well, those Angels and Twins teams were simply better than this one is. The 2008 Mariners looked like a .500 team, maybe a bit worse, before this trade was made. Having Bedard make 32 starts instead of having Cha Seung Baek or someone make them saves 35-50 runs, worth three to five wins in the standings if you assume there will be no cost to having Brad Wilkerson in right field rather than Jones (which, in 2008, may actually be true). That shortens the gap between them and the Angels, but it doesn’t close it by any means, and it doesn’t make them a factor in the wild-card race.The 88-win scenario stands in stark opposition to USS Mariner's recent simulated season, which had the team at 77-85. Of course, that simulation also put the A's on top of the division.The problem, of course, is that GM Bill Bavasi isn’t looking at his Mariners as a .500 team. He’s seeing last year’s 88-74 record and figuring Bedard, along with improvement from Felix Hernandez and bounce-backs by Jose Lopez and Richie Sexson, makes the Mariners as good as the Angels. The 2007 Mariners may have posted an 88-74 record, but that record was…misleading. The Mariners were outscored by their opponents, 813 to 794, a differential expected to produce a 79-83 team. Now, while the true ability of the Mariners was debated throughout last season—with a reasonable case being made that the gap between their run differential and record was not just luck, but the result of strong relief pitching and terrible back-end starters—in evaluating a team at the end of a season, it’s the run differential, and not the record, that is the better predictor of future performance.
Labels: mariners, predictions
Thursday, February 14, 2008 |
Joe Sheehan On The Dodgers' Spring
Where: Vero Beach, Florida (Grapefruit League)
2007 record: 82-80 (4th, NL West)
New guys: Gary Bennett, Andruw Jones, Hiroki Kuroda
Gone guys: Luis Gonzalez, Mike Lieberthal, Mark Hendrickson, Ramon Martinez (NRI), Olmedo Saenz, David Wells, Randy Wolf
Wow, he’s still here? Esteban Loaiza was lousy (8.34 ERA in five starts) after being acquired at the waiver-trade deadline in August. However, his contract runs another year, so he’ll be at the back end of the rotation.
Winter grade: B
The Jones signing was an excellent case of buying low, and Kuroda’s contract is a good gamble given the price of MLB free agent starting pitchers. Better still, the Dodgers avoided making another bad trade, retaining all of their young talent.
NRI to watch: Not that the Dodgers need another outfielder, but John-Ford Griffin is in camp. The one-time first-round pick is now a 28-year-old with no upside. However, and take this with a grain of salt, he has a career line of .304/.370/.696 in 27 plate appearances. Aren’t you just a little curious?
Job battle to track: There are four outfielders for three spots, and it’s excruciatingly clear to anyone familiar with baseball who ranks fourth among them. However, the likelihood that the Dodgers relegate Juan Pierre to a bench role is nil. Every PA he takes from Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier is a mistake.
One move to make: Trading Pierre for whatever he’ll bring back, even if it means eating $10-15 million. Pierre would actually be a decent extra outfielder; it’s just not likely that the Dodgers would do that, or that he would be all that happy in the role. Having Pierre around just increases the chance that he’ll take time away from better players. There are people who don’t like it when we say players aren’t good, and saying this about a known nice guy like Pierre tends to fire up the opponents of performance analysis. Playing him regularly on a corner is just baseball malpractice, however, and the Dodgers have to avoid that temptation.Ned Colletti has squandered a fair amount of Logan White’s work in his time as the Dodgers’ GM, but he avoided doing so this winter. Thanks to that, he heads into the spring with his best team, and with the best chance of having that team play. There remains the need to push Pierre and Nomar Garciaparra into supporting roles, the latter so that OBP machine Andy LaRoche can take over at third base. The “right” Dodger lineup can win 94 games and the division. How Joe Torre apportions playing time in a situation not dissimilar to the 1996 Yankees will determine whether the Dodgers fulfill their potential.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 |
Dodgers Sign Saito, 1 Year/$2M
Labels: contracts, dodgers, transactions
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 |
OT: They Closed Your High School For What?
A fowl prank closed a Philadelphia high school today, canceling classes for 3,600 students.Sounds like a hen-side job to me, but I'm too chicken to point fingers...Eighty-five "full-blown live chickens" - identified later today as Rhode Island Reds - were discovered roaming the halls of Northeast Philadelphia High School this morning as faculty arrived before dawn.
"They've created quite a mess," said Fernando Gallard, spokesman for the school district. "It's going to take us at least a day to clean up."
The flock was let into the school on Cottman Avenue over the weekend.
Now several agencies are involved in investigating the poultry prank: the Philadelphia School District, the Philadelphia Police, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Video surveillance shows that multiple culprits gained entry into the school about 9:30 p.m. Sunday to release the hens and spread chicken feed on the floors, Gallard said.
Any break-in is supposed to trigger an alarm, but the caper was not discovered until 5 a.m. by a janitor, Gallard said. How the perpetrators got into the building and why the alarm apparently did not go off is still under investigation.
Monday, February 11, 2008 |
Angels, K-Rod Headed For Arbitration
The Angels and closer Francisco Rodriguez have made no progress in negotiations for a 2008 contract, and it seems almost certain the two sides will have to settle their dispute during a Feb. 21 arbitration hearing in St. Petersburg, Fla.Much as I like Frankie, he's been wildly inconsistent, has had problems with the longball, and has had a pretty consistent second half fade of about one earned run every year since he's been designated team closer. And then there's that problem with last year's ALDS Game 2. He has a tendency to serve up meatballs at, uh, bad points in the game."Sometimes you file for a trial, and that's what we did," said Paul Kinzer, Rodriguez's agent. "There's a philosophical difference between us and the Angels on where [Rodriguez's salary] should be, so we're going to let an arbitrator decide."
Rodriguez, who made $7 million in 2007, has asked for $12.5 million and the Angels have offered $10 million, a $2.5-million gap that was the second-largest of any arbitration filings, behind slugger Ryan Howard's $3-million gap with the Phillies.
Sunday, February 10, 2008 |
Filling In The Corners: Dodgers Near Deal For Mark Sweeney
Labels: contracts, dodgers, transactions
Saturday, February 09, 2008 |
Catching Up On Stuff You Might Already Know
- Cleveland has signed a minor league deal with former Angels reliever Brendan Donnelly, with an invitation to spring training.
- Nolan Ryan was named Rangers team president for reasons I don't understand.
- Brandon Lyon will be the Diamondbacks' new closer following the trade of Jose Valverde to Houston, one of the most inexplicable trades executed in this offseason.
- Speaking of inexplicable trades, it looks like the Erik Bedard deal is finally done. This will apparently push Brandon Morrow into the bullpen.
- Lather-rinse-repeat dep't: Rich Harden's elbow feels "tremendous".
- Keith Foulke will be reunited with the A's on a one-year, $750k deal.
Labels: athletics, diamondbacks, ex-angels, front office, injuries, mariners, rangers, trades, transactions
Thursday, February 07, 2008 |
Angels Extended In Rancho Through 2010
Bummer: Kelvim Escobar Won't Be In Uniform On Opening Day
The shoulder inflammation that forced Kelvim Escobar to miss a start in late September flared up again this winter, and the Angels right-hander, coming off a career year, is expected to open the season on the disabled list.An MRI test showed no significant changes in the shoulder from last fall, which "was somewhat of a relief," General Manager Tony Reagins said, but Manager Mike Scioscia acknowledged that the rehabilitation program the team has mapped out won't have Escobar ready by the March 31 season opener at Minnesota.
"It's doubtful he'll be ready for the start of the season, but if the strength comes back in the shoulder, he has a good chance to be very strong early in the year and come back and do what he did last year," Scioscia said.
"You can't rush it. There is some weakness in some areas that need to be strengthened, and once they are, [the Angels' medical staff] will feel more comfortable with him throwing."
LA CityZine Dodger Photo Essay
Labels: dodgers
Monday, February 04, 2008 |
Ex-Dodger Willy Aybar In Jail On Domestic Violence Charges
Rudy Seanez Re-Signs With The Dodgers
Labels: contracts, dodgers, transactions
Don Mattingly's Wife Arrested
According to a Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Department probable cause affidavit (PDF), Kim Mattingly's arrest came after Vanderburgh County sheriff's deputies were called to the Mattingly home on Darmstadt Road on Saturday for a report of a family dispute "involving a person who refused to leave."There's another distraction for Mattingly to worry about... the all-but-certain upcoming divorce proceedings. (Via BTF.)When deputies arrived, Kim Mattingly, 45, allegedly said her husband had taken her phone and she wanted it back.
Don Mattingly told deputies he did not have the phone, so deputies informed her that he did not have the phone and that she needed to go through her lawyer for future dealings with him. She also was told to stay away from the property.
Labels: coaches, dodgers, stupid ideas
Sunday, February 03, 2008 |
Padres Near Two-Year Deal For Khalil Greene, Other Roster Notes
- The AP and MLB.com both report that Khalil Greene and the Padres are near to a two-year, $11M deal that would buy out his remaining year of arbitration-eligibility.
- Former Dodger Odalis Perez had a tryout with the Phillies in the Dominican Republic.
- Johan Santana's new deal with the Mets will pay him $19M in the first year of a six-year, $137.5M contract.
- Hey, buddy, can you use a southpaw? dep't: David Wells is still looking for work.
- The Erik Bedard trade may be receding into the distance.
Labels: contracts, ex-dodgers, mets, padres, transactions
Pinto On The 2008 Dodger Lineup
Labels: dodgers, predictions
Friday, February 01, 2008 |
Roster Notes
- Rotoworld reports the Dodgers and Joe Beimel have reached agreement on a one-year contract worth $1.925M.
- In today's Ken Rosenthal column, Mark Prior could throw off a mound as early as next week, but those of us who are familiar with the Cubs' use of him recognize he's fragile as a Lladro figurine.
- 35-year-old Shawn Green is liable to retire if he can't find a taker on the West Coast.
- Former Dodger Alex Cora has apparently turned himself in for a DUI charge on a parole violation (!) for a DUI (!!). The episode occurred while he was with the Dodgers in 1999.
- It's hard to believe, but former Angels run donor Esteban Yan got a minor league contract from the Orioles with an invitation to spring training. Good grief.
- Brad Wilkerson and the Mariners inked a one-year, $3M deal.
Labels: dodgers, ex-angels, ex-dodgers, injuries, mariners, orioles, padres, red sox, transactions
David Pinto Projects The Angels Offense
Labels: angels, predictions
Obit: Arthur F. Frantz, Umpire At Nolan Ryan's Third No-Hitter
Minutes before the game, the more experienced Mr. Frantz was shifted to the plate and Cooney took over at second base. A little more than two hours later, Ryan had thrown his third no-hitter, leaving Cooney more relieved than ever that Mr. Frantz had agreed to call balls and strikes."With me behind the plate, he probably would not have gotten the no-hitter," Cooney said.
Labels: angels, obituaries, twins, umpires
Wisdom Of Crowds Says It's Gold Watch Time For Juan Pierre
Labels: dodgers, stupid ideas
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