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September 30, 2006
looking ahead ... WAY ahead
It would be great for fans of both teams, newspaper travel budgets and those two lesser-known counties at either end of the endlessly trendy O.C.
And, apparently, for Dodgers manager Grady Little. ...
``The team I would like to see us play is San Diego in the National League Championship Series,'' said Little, fully aware that both clubs have to get through the Division Series round first. ``I think that would be very exciting. It's a new season when you get into the playoffs, and if we get to that point, there won't be any looking back.''
That's because to look back would be to remember that the Padres won 13 of 18 from the Dodgers this season, which is why San Diego will be awarded the division title if the teams end today the way they are starting it, which is tied for first place in the N.L. West.
Despite that dominance, the two clubs have engaged in a riveting dance for the division lead most of the season and split four games of an epic series at Dodger Stadium two weekends ago. That both have now clinched playoff berths seems only appropriate.
Little and Padres manager Bruce Bochy are close, with Little having served as Bochy's bullpen coach in 1996. Dodgers bullpen coach Dan Warthen was the Padres' pitching coach that year, a season when, coincidentally, the Padres won the West and the Dodgers took the wild card. Both teams were swept out of the first round of the playoffs.
Posted by Tony Jackson at 06:39 PM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2006
Dr. Scioscia
Manager Mike Scioscia was being pressed for details regarding the surgery that Darin Erstad will undergo once this season ends. Erstad has dealt with bone spurs in his ankle this season that led to tendon irritation and a deterioration of his ankle joint. It was clear Scioscia didn't know everything about what Erstad is about to undergo so he hit the smart-aleck button.
"I think they were talking about a proximal shift of the intervenous joint," Scioscia said. "But I don't know if that's going to get it done. They'regoing to have to go in there and see if that's the direction they want to go."
It almost sounded legit.
"I don't know," Scioscia finally said. "They do have to shave a spur down. That as been defined as the burr in the saddle right now. From there we'll see."
Posted by Doug Padilla at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2006
No apologies necessary for Lackey
John Lackey struck out a career-high 11 batters Thursday against the Oakland A's and afterward he was asked if the watered-down lineup he faced somewhat diminished the accomplshment. The A's started Hiram Bocachica in center, Adam Melhuse at catcher, D'Angelo Jimenez at shortstop and Antonio Perez at third base.
Perez was the only one of the irregulars that didn't have a strikeout. There was also the low strike zone by home plate umpire CB Bucknor. The A's disputed the zone a number of times and Milton Bradley was even kicked out for making a fuss when he wasn't even at the plate. Bradley was ejected after Bobby Kielty was upset over a called third strike.
Lackey will take it no matter the circumstances. As he proudly noted, he had 10 strikeouts against the A's on July 7 when they offered up their regular lineup, and in a game at Oakland no less. That outing was on July 7 when he pitched a one-hitter.
Three times this season Lackey struck out 10 batters in a game all all three outings came in succession: July 2 against the Dodgers, July 7 against the A's and July 14 against the Devil Rays.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 10:16 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2006
Salmon giddy about No. 299
Tim Salmon hit the 299th home run of his career Wednesday with just four games remaining in his career and afterward admitted he was at a loss for words. The home run off the Texas Rangers’ Adam Eaton came on a 1-0 pitch in the first inning with no outs and runners on first and third base.
Salmon crushed the ball to right-center in amazement to his manager Mike Scioscia, who said he hasn’t seen Salmon hit a ball like that to the opposite field in years. Salmon is scheduled to get one start in right field during the series against the A’s, which starts tonight, but Scioscia won’t say what game that will be.
After the game, Salmon talked briefly to about a half dozen reporters, sounding as giddy as if it was his first day in the big leagues.
Q: Was that fun?
A: Yeah, that was a lot of fun which is the understatement of the year. I’m kind of at a loss for words. My head is spinning a lot right now with just a lot going on. It’s like a did-that-really happen kind of thing. It’s one of those times right now when you try to make the most of your opportunities and try to enjoy it along the way … get all those emotions out of the way. It was exciting today.
Q: What have all the ovations this week meant to you?
A: It’s great. This whole year, from spring training on, the fans have really gone way beyond what anybody could imagine to show their appreciation. And I’ve noticed it all year and recognized it and appreciated it, especially this last week. I guess hitting a home run like that, that’s one way to kind of give it back to them. But I do notice it.
Q: They would really like one more.
A: Yeah, there are a lot of us who would like that. It was funny, the guys before the game were kind of giving me a hard time. They were like, `Don’t go up there and walk or go for singles and all those things you would normally do. You go up there and swing for that home run. In the first at-bat I go up there and I do it and I miss. I’m like `You know what, come on. You have a runner out there and less than two (outs). Just a nice easy swing here.’ Boom, home run. To guys who haven’t hit a whole lot of them it’s kind of weird to understand but for me at least home runs tend to surprise me more than anything else. (They come) when I’m not trying to do too much with the ball.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2006
tough road
It might be true that the Dodgers are far from mathematically eliminated from the playoff hunt. But by going no better than 5-5 (and possibly 4-6, depending on today's game with Arizona), they have created a path for themselves that is close to impossible. ...
A six-game road trip is one thing. A six-game road trip through Colorado and San Francisco, two of the most dangerous spots in the National League, is another. It's true the Rockies aren't very good, but Coors Field is still a tough place for visiting clubs. And with the way the Dodgers' pitching is going right now, it could devour their already worn-down bullpen.
As for San Francisco, if the Dodgers are still alive when they get there, you think the rival Giants -- and their fans -- won't be hot to finish them off?
My best guess right now is the Padres and Phillies are headed to the playoffs, and the Dodgers are headed home. But then, there is a reason why they play the games.
Posted by Tony Jackson at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2006
Struggling Tomko
Dodgers manager Grady Little said Wednesday he would like to find an innocuous situation -- such as a big lead in the late innings -- to bring in struggling reliever Brett Tomko to allow him to try to straighten himself out in a pressure-free situation. But that might not be possible. ...
``Ideally, that's the situation you would like to put a guy in when he is going through what he is going through right now. But I can't sit here and tell you exactly what I'm going to do.''
Tomko now has allowed 10 runs (seven earned) in three innings over his past four appearances. That includes a four-run outburst by Pittsburgh on Tuesday night that put the game out of reach of another late-inning comeback bid by the Dodgers, and the four-run inning he gave up at Chicago on Thursday turned a 5-2 lead into a 6-5 deficit and, eventually, a critical loss for the Dodgers.
Posted by Tony Jackson at 06:08 PM | Comments (1)
September 19, 2006
Saunders a new Rogers
Angels rookie left-hander Joe Saunders got an impressive compliment Tuesday from a Kansas City veteran. Saunders rebounded well from a poor start last week to give up just one run with a career-high eight strikeouts. Afterward, the Royals' Mike Sweeney had some nice things to say.
"He pitched like a young Kenny Rogers only with a little more on his fastball," Sweeney said. "He threw fastballs in changeup counts and changeups in fastball counts. He was tough."
Posted by Doug Padilla at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2006
fingers crossed, breath held
Nomar Garciaparra returned to the starting lineup on Monday night when it was determined that his strained left quadriceps had adequately healed. But Dodgers manager Grady Little admitted that club officials were taking a risk by bringing him back so quickly.
``It's a little bit of a gamble,'' Little said. ``There is a risk of him overextending and it blows up, and we lose him for an extended period of time. He'll take all the precautions he can, but a player, when he gets out on the field and gets a chance to beat out an infield hit or score from second on a base hit, it's hard for him to to back off. Hopefully, he'll get through it with no more damage.''
Little said he likely would pinch run for Garciaparra in late-inning situations.
Garciaparra had tried to talk Little into playing him on Sunday, but Little wanted to be extra cautious with the injury, which Garciaparra had suffered early in Friday night's win over San Diego.
Posted by Tony Jackson at 06:51 PM | Comments (1)
September 15, 2006
A's fan not convinced
Spoke to an old friend on the phone a few minutes ago, who happens to be a longtime Oakland A’s fan, and the feeling around the Bay Area seems to be one of skepticism. Even though the end of the season is just two weeks away and the A’s have a five-game lead on the Angels, this guy, anyway, is not about to buy supplies for a division-clinching party just yet.
So it isn’t just the hardcore devoted Angels fan who thinks this division is winnable. The biggest factor for my buddy – a former baseball writer, by the way – was the A’s collapse of two years ago. Plus, he tends to be a pessimist by nature. Not a knock, dude, just an observation.
The Angels won five out of the last six games against the A’s last year and it could have been six of seven had they won an 11-inning game on Aug. 30. This year, it’s probably going to take winning six of those last seven that take place over the final 10 days to get the job done (not to mention victories in just about every other game that doesn’t involve the A’s).
So if anybody needs a reason to hope, let the worry of at least one A’s fan make you feel better about things.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 01:46 PM | Comments (3)
September 14, 2006
Brotherly comparison
Curious stat of the moment: Brothers Jeff and Jered Weaver each have made 16 starts with the Angels. The oddest part is that it seemed like Jeff barely was in an Angels uniform while Jered's stint seems to have gone on much longer.
The raw numbers on the two are that Jered is 11-2 with a 2.30 ERA. Jeff was 3-10 with the Angels with a 6.29 ERA. Jered has 87 strikeouts with 27 walks, while Jeff had 62 strikeouts and 21 walks.
Morphing the Weaver brothers into one pitcher, they have a combined 32 starts with a 14-12 record and a 4.15 ERA. If those numbers came just from Jeff, the Angels would have taken it. Then again, it might have taken his little brother longer to crack into the rotation if Jeff wasn't sent packing when he was.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2006
Getting them talking
Angels and White Sox fans had plenty to say about a notebook item here that speculated on a trade involving the Angels' Chone Figgins and the White Sox's Joe Crede. Angels fans seemed in favor of it while many White Sox were extremely skeptical.
White Sox general manager Ken Williams was amused to hear of the trade speculation. A big fan of pitching, Williams might bite on the deal if a good arm was packaged with Figgins to get Crede. The White Sox, though, are almost certain to sign Crede to at least a one-year deal at the end of the season. They have a highly-touted third-base prospect in Josh Fields nearly ready to to become an everyday major leaguer but he looks to be at least another year away. Perhaps this deal is another year away.
On a fan forum at the Angels' website, the move was discussed.
White Sox fans discussed the move at www.whitesoxinteractive.com.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2006
Brother mentality
Like many baseball clubhouses at this time of the year the Angels are engrosed in their fantasy football league. Jered Weaver is as into it as anybody and his selection of a quarterback made perfect sense.
Weaver went with one half of the NFL's brother act by selecting the New York Giants' Eli Manning, brother of Peyton Manning. Weaver knows about a sibling athletes since he and his brother Jeff pitched together for a short time on the Angels. He eventually replaced his brother on the roster.
Shortly after Weaver pitched the Angels to a victory Sunday, he was taking stock of his fantasy team. He needed big performances by Manning and Peyton's main target, Marvin Harrison.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2006
Silver Slugger time
Who is the best offensive performer at each position? Managers and coaches were recently sent ballots to decide those players, in an official award not decided by baseball writers. The Angels have one clear-cut candidate for the award and another long shot.
Vladimir Guerrero has won two consecutive Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Awards and is likely to make it three in a row. The Boston Red Sox's Manny Ramirez has won seven of his eight in succession, while Gary Sheffield has won three consecutive, with that streak expected to end.
Orlando Cabrera is in the midst of his best offensive season but he will find it hard to take the shortstop Silver Slugger from Miguel Tejada, who has won the past two.
Winners will be announced during the postseason.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2006
Scioscia: Don't go there Rex
Mike Scioscia vs. Rex Hudler. The stoic manager battles the high-strung TV commentator. It would have made for an interesting battle if there really was a dispute there but all that happened Tuesday is that Scioscia refused to answer one of Hudler's pregame questions.
Bad blood? Hardly. The topic was Robb Quinlan and what kind of playing time he would get. Scioscia said Quinlan would play against left-handers and some right-handers when the matchup was to his advantage. Hudler wanted to know if Quinlan was at an advantage against hard- or soft-throwing righties.
"I don’t want to give you our analysis to put out there," Scioscia said. "He certainly matches up with some guys a little better than others, but against lefties he’s as good as there is in the league. It’s a good question, I just don’t want to give our scouting reports to other guys out there."
"My bad," Hudler said.
An advance scout worth a darn would likely know Quinlan's strengths and weaknesses, but Scioscia typically plays it as safe as possible.
A short time later, the energetic Hudler was bouncing around the press box dining room and clearing the reporters' dirty plates. Yes, Hudler was playing busboy for the print media. Talk about a guy with his batteries charged.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 08:35 PM | Comments (1)
note to mlb: get a life
The nightly sausage race at Miller Park tonight featured, as usual, a polish, a bratwurst, an Italian and a hot dog. There was no sign of El Picante, the sombrero-wearing, goatee-sporting chorizo that made a one-night debut earlier this season and will be a fixture next year. Why, you ask? ...
Because Major League Baseball prohibits uniform or mascot changes during the season. Imagine. A sport with a major steroids issue going on, a sport with a marquee player about to break one of its most hallowed records who might be indicted, and the powers that be in the commissioner's office have nothing better to do than regulate sausage racing? The introduction of a fifth sausage midway through the season is something MLB would find objectionable? Give me a break.
Posted by Tony Jackson at 06:59 PM | Comments (1)
September 03, 2006
The power of ESPN
Not only does ESPN control the time of some games and make teams like the Angels travel home over night as has happened multiple times this year, it now controls where people sit in the dugout.
Maicer Izturis perched himself along a railing on the right-field side of the team's first-base dugout. To get some balance, he placed his feet on a trash can below him and settled in for the early innings. The problem was that he blocked a camera from getting shots of right-handed batters. It didn't take long for an ESPN representative to call and Angels representative in the press box to ask if Izturis could move.
Angels traveling secretary Tom Taylor went downstairs, through the clubhouse and to the entrance of the dugout where he got the attention of trainer Rick Smith. It was Smith who went to Izturis with the request and by the second inning he had found a new spot to watch the game.
Can it be long before television positions players on the field? Is it ethical to move the subjects in order to document the event, even if it's only a guy in the dugout? This is only sports, after all, but it's something to consider.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 05:27 PM | Comments (1078)
September 02, 2006
it's good to be second best
The Hawaii Winter Baseball League is back, after an eight-year hiatus. And while most organizations will send six of their top prospects to the more established Arizona Fall League this October, the second-tier guys will go, yes, to the islands to play their trade beginning on Oct. 2.
So while the Dodgers will send Double-A Jacksonville right-handers Brian Akin, Scott Elbert and Danny Muegge, catcher A.J. Ellis, shortstop Chin-lung Hu and outfielder Anthony Raglani to the Mes Solar Sox, where they will ply their trade in front of a few old men in lawn chairs in the middle of the desert, a handful of less highly regarded farmhands will don leis (and hopefully not hula skirts) and head for paradise.
The lucky six are Jacksonville left-hander Wesley Wright and infielder Blake DeWitt, Single-A Vero Beach right-hander Zach Hammes, first baseman Cory Dunlap and right fielder Xavier Paul and Single-A Columbus catcher Tony Harper. They will play for the North Short Honu.
Don't misunderstand. All 12 of these players are legitimate prospects who have serious shots at reaching the majors. But seriously. Where would you rather go if you're a budding ballplayer in your early 20s? Metropolitan Phoenix, where you're probably going to be spending six weeks of spring training every year beginning in 2008 or 2009, or Hawaii?
Posted by Tony Jackson at 08:01 PM | Comments (3)
Weaver's worries
A two-game losing streak doesn't have Jered Weaver in as much of a panic as a photo shoot he did Friday. Weaver was in full uniform a couple of hours before Friday's game and confirmed that yet another media outlet requested his presence. The problem was that the media outlet was Sports Illustrated.
Weaver is no fool and knows all about the SI cover jinx. Get yourself on the cover of that magazine and bad things are bound to happen. He took the photos anyway.
After Weaver had changed to get ready to shag balls in the outfield during batting practice, he expressed his worries with a nervous chuckle. He doesn't think he is destined for the cover, though. He said the upcoming story has something to do with him and his brother, Jeff Weaver.
In the end, he may have to fight his way through the jinx if he ends up putting together more nine-game win streaks like he did to start his career.
Posted by Doug Padilla at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2006
james loney -- pcl batting champ
For what it's worth -- and it probably means next to nothing to James Loney -- the first baseman the Dodgers recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas on Friday is going to win the Pacific Coast League batting title by an astounding margin.
When he returned to the majors, he was hitting .380 at Triple-A, 40 points better than second-place Alberto Callaspo of Tucson (Arizona affiliate). What this suggests is one of two things: either it's a paper tiger, just another inflated statistic in a league whose small ballparks and high-altitude cities make it synonymous with inflated stats; or it's an indication that Loney, once thought of as a defensive wizard at first base who probably would never hit .300 in the majors, wields a pretty good bat after all.
It says here that it's the latter. In his first callup to the big leagues, a two-week stint in April, Loney batted just .225, an indication that those advance projections might have had some merit. But when he came back on July 29, he hit .313 (10 for 32) with three doubles before being sent back on Aug. 18 to make room for Elmer Dessens to come off the disabled list.
If Loney can continue to prove in the next month that he can produce offensively in the big leagues, it will make the likely decision not to re-sign Nomar Garciaparra -- which seems inevitable, given that Garciaparra has had such a solid season and is already guaranteed at least $7 million this year -- a little easier to stomach. Don't be surprised if Loney is the opening-day first baseman next spring and stays there all season.
Posted by Tony Jackson at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)