ANAHEIM ANGELS Released 2B-R Trent Durrington. [8/29] Claimed RHP Ben Weber off of waivers from the Giants, and assigned him to Edmonton. [8/30] Trent Durrington should be headed for his home country to help represent Australia in the Olympics, a departure that created a free spot on the Angels’ 40-man roster. I don’t know if…
One of the things that I heard the Olympic Committee really wanted to get was "foot speed". I read that over and over, and it made me think that maybe they were going to go out of their way to get former major leaguers, like Vince Coleman, so they could steal some bases. They didn’t….
Yesterday’s column set a DP record for responses, and I want to thank everyone for the feedback. In the flood of responses, a few readers hit on the same two points, so I want to talk a little about them here. The first common thread was that I’d misinterpreted the actions of Andres Galarraga in…
Last Wednesday I wrote in detail about the Braves/Rockies game the previous night, the one that went 12 innings and ended with Brent Mayne as the winning pitcher. What I didn’t get much into was the circumstances that led up to Mayne’s appearance. But after last night’s fiasco in Tampa Bay, I want to take…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Purchased the contract of LHP Scott Karl from Lake Elsinore (A-ball); optioned LHP Juan Alvarez to Edmonton. [8/28] For as much as I think Scott Karl is on a downward slope and picking up steam, he’s still a better pitcher to have around than Ken Hill or Tim Belcher. Sure, the straight numbers…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Activated RHP Troy Percival from the DL; optioned RHP Brian Cooper to Edmonton. [8/26] Short-term, they look worse off because of the good job Shiggy Hasegawa had done as the closer, and because of Troy Percival’s grisly rate of blowing almost a quarter of his save opportunities. Percival’s loss of command has already…
Off the top of my head… So, if you’re the third-base coach for Bellaire, Texas, I’d imagine you’re pretty darn happy right now that George Steinbrenner is involved with the Olympics and not Little League Baseball. One of the things I want to look at in the next few months is whether there’s a growing…
PITCHING DEBUTS "I was just lobbing it up there, like throwing it to a little kid. I was floating it up there." — Derek Bell, Mets outfielder, on giving up five runs pitching mop-up in the Mets’ 16-1 loss to San Diego "He didn’t have his good stuff today. He looks like he needs a…
Today: a rundown on the pitching side of things, but first a followup on yesterday’s column discussing the hitters: Outfielder Brad Wilkerson was a fine pick, and I was wrong to say he didn’t hit doubles. I didn’t locate any Double-A statistics for him for this year, but as several astute and polite readers pointed…
It’s been mentioned to me that the "Daily Prospectus" hasn’t quite been living up to its name lately. It’s nice to know people care, and you can all look forward to a more regular schedule beginning next week and running through the end of the regular season. One of the great comeback stories of the…
Six Weeks With roughly a quarter of the season left to go, all teams have a responsibility to use the remaining games for goals that they can accomplish. Because I’m either hopelessly optimistic or needlessly cruel, I like to think teams will be using this time to do whatever they can to help themselves win…
Dodger Blues As we predicted at the start of the season, the race in the NL West is tighter than Pamela Anderson's wardrobe, with only two and a half games separating the two contenders. What we failed to predict is who the contenders would be, again giving the Los Angeles Dodgers more credit than they…
ANAHEIM ANGELS Acquired LHP Scott Karl and cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named. [8/22] I’m sure the Angels think getting Scott Karl out of Denver will help, and while it can’t hurt, it won’t reverse years of decline. Karl’s road stats this year are still ugly: a 5.68 ERA, a…
Last week, I covered the technical problem behind revenue sharing: it’s so toxic to the penalized owners that it’s unlikely to work. Trying to convince an investor that he has already made enough money is like trying to convince Pat Buchanan that the last great anti-trade crusade gave us the Great Depression. It’s a fool’s…
Now that the roster has been announced, I’m much more optimistic about the United States Olympic baseball team’s chances than I have been. While I disagree with some of the choices, the fact is that most of these guys take walks and some of them hit for power. Some even do both. The pitching choices…
If Bill James were to assemble a Ken Phelps All-Star Team in the Year 2000, there is a good chance that Billy McMillon would be named as captain of the squad. Despite having the ability to help most major-league teams, McMillon has languished in Triple-A for the better part of the last five seasons. On…