Saturday, March 28, 2009 |
Pickoff Moves
The Importance Of Rotation Depth
Oh, God:The Angels could have the most formidable starting rotation in baseball – some time in May.Argh.When they open the season against the Oakland A’s in nine days, however, it will be with a rotation of Joe Saunders, Jered Weaver, Dustin Moseley, Nick Adenhart and Shane Loux.
Justin Duchscherer To Start The Season On The DL
Pitching injuries are just going around, I guess. He'll have his elbow scoped.Dougie Defense On The 25-Man?
So claims the Daily News:He came to camp with little more than a promise of playing time and a shot. Faced with the alternative of putting his spikes into his bat-bag for the last time, that sounded good enough for Doug Mientkiewicz.Update: MSTI has more on this:Spring training had already started, meaning he was already behind. But as long as there were at-bats to be had, ground balls to be dug out of the dirt at first base and fly balls to dive for in the outfield, he knew he had a shot.
A month later Mientkiewicz seems to have played himself into contention for a spot on the Dodgers' Opening Day roster.
"Doug's certainly got our attention," manager Joe Torre said after Mientkiewicz drove in the Dodgers' only run in a 4-1 loss to the Royals on Friday afternoon at Camelback Ranch. "He came in with absolutely no promise other than getting some at-bats.
"I told him, `If somebody else sees you and you and you get an opportunity to play someplace else that's fine.' But he just won't let up. As Yogi (Berra) would say, he's trying to make himself necessary."
Look, I'm not blind to the obvious. Despite my pleas to not expose Delwyn Young to waivers on more than one occasion, it's becoming more and more obvious that the Dodgers are going to keep just four outfielders, and give the last spot on the bench to Doug "Eyechart" Mientkiewicz, who along with Casey Blake would apparently serve as 5th and 6th outfielders. I don't particularly have a problem with Eyechart per se; he's an excellent defensive 1B and a decent hitter - he's not without his uses. I just happen to think that he's a poor fit on a club that already has a lefty-swinging 1B with a good glove in James Loney, but apparently the club doesn't agree.Not what the Dodgers really need.
Predicting The End Of Bruce Bochy's Tenure In San Francisco
No surprises here:Only 33 managers in the past 100 years have posted back-to-back 90-loss seasons to open their tenures.Of course, it doesn't hurt if you have a Rookie of the Year candidate like Evan Longoria on your team...Of those 33, surprisingly only five didn't return for another season, including recent fall guys Art Howe (New York Mets, 2003-04), Jim Tracy (Pittsburgh Pirates 2006-07) and Buddy Bell (Kansas City Royals 2006-07). Among those who returned, four did not complete their third season.
Only three of the 24 other managers posted a winning season in their third campaign: Bobby Cox's Atlanta Braves went 81-80 in 1980, Roger Bresnahan's St. Louis Cardinals went 75-74 in 1911, and — here is the Giants' guiding light — Joe Maddon's Tampa Bay Rays went 97-65 and reached the 2008 World Series.
Jose Lima Pitching For Long Beach
Hilarious! The Long Beach Armada, that is, last stop for ex-major-leaguers like Jose Canseco.Labels: angels, dodgers, giants, managers, minors, spring training
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