If you’ve flown between John Wayne airport and Salt Lake City at any point this season, your odds of bumping into an Angels player are pretty high. The Angels have been busy burning a path from Anaheim to their Triple-A affiliate, having used 36 batters and 20 pitchers this season — both tied for second in the league.
Sunday might have been the busiest day of them all.
Continue reading “Salt Lake shuffle: Ryan Madson, Luis Jimenez, Kole Calhoun, Barry Enright in; Bill Hall out.” »
Angels left-hander Sean Burnett is scheduled to pitch an inning tomorrow for Single-A Inland Empire, his first rehabilitation assignment since going on the disabled list with tightness in his left forearm.
Burnett hasn’t pitched since April 26.
Kevin Jepsen hasn’t been scheduled to pitch a rehab game yet, but “he’s going to be close to a rehab game this weekend too, if not this weekend then early next week,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
Jepsen has been sidelined since April 12 with a strained right shoulder.
Ryan Madson is taking a pause in his rehabilitation schedule. The right-hander threw an inning four days ago for Single-A Inland Empire and was supposed to go to to Triple-A Salt Lake on his next assignment. That might not happen now, though his next outing will be a rehab assignment somewhere.
“He was going really hard for a week,” Scioscia said. Madson is “just trying to catch his breath and recover.”
The Angels deviated from their plan to activate Ryan Madson this weekend, opting instead to send the reliever to Triple-A Salt Lake Thursday for what Madson said could be a couple of weeks.
The move is surprising considering Madson punctuated a productive 10-day stretch with his first rehabilitation appearance on Monday since offseason Tommy John surgery, pitching a perfect inning for Single-A Inland Empire.
“I don’t know if it’s going to take a couple weeks,” Scioscia said. “It might. It might not. But I think that we want to make sure that he is ready to go and this rehab sticks when it goes. He’ll let us know how he feels, but he’s been talking about how close he is.”
Ryan Madson is throwing again.
The Angels pitcher, who’s seen his recovery from Tommy John surgery progress in fits and starts, resumed his long-toss program Thursday. It was the first time he’s thrown since April 23 — eight days ago — when he experienced a recurrence of pain in his surgically repaired right elbow.
“I felt good,” Madson said immediately after coming off the field. “A few more days of long toss, then I’ll try to get back on a mound.”
Madson threw in excess of 100 feet Thursday. How quickly Madson progresses will depend on how he feels in the coming days, and there’s no guarantee that he’ll be able to avoid another setback. But progress is progress, and the injury-depleted Angels will take any good news they can get right now.
It’s been exactly one year and three weeks since Madson had Tommy John surgery on his elbow.
