Santana shipped to minors
The Angels finally decided enough was enough. Ervin Santana, who won 16 games a year ago, was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake Wednesday. Mike Napoli was recalled from the disabled list. An announcement on Sunday's starter at Minnesota will be made later, but it is expected to be left-hander Joe Saunders, currently at Salt Lake. The final straw on Santana was Tuesday's outing against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays when he gave up 14 hits in the first five innings of his six-inning outing. It was just one hit off the Angels record of 15 hits in an outing. The right-hander is 5-11 with a 6.22 ERA, including a 1-9 mark on the road with an 8.79 ERA.
Package a deal with the New York Yankees or someone, Santana is the weak link of this pitching staff.
What the hell is Bill Stoneman (Stonehead) doing? Weak links will COST you games in key situations whereas the race is close.
Santana is dogging it and has no desire to be an Angel anymore.
Rid the bastard and be done with it! Pawn him off on some other sucker!
David Fiorella
Doug,
I was very pleased, after 31 years, to see mention of my name in your recent article about Ervin Santana's close call with a record that I set in September, 1976.
What is rather misleading is your implied assumption that I set the record with a similar outing. In fact, I pitched 8.2 innings and left the field leading 4-2 (in Kansas City). In what would be Michael Overy's last appearance in the major leagues, KC tied the score. They won it in the 10th with Micky Scott on the mound for the Angels. I base my statements on information contained at www.retrosheet.org should that be helpful to you in future writings.
My recollection is that I threw about 137 pitches that night and www.retrosheet indicates only one extra base hit.
Thank you again for mentioning me by name.
Kind regards,
Paul F Hartzell
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