Tuesday, February 19, 2008 |
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
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