Wood’s turn at third has finally arrived | MLB.com: News

Is it really Brandon Wood’s time?

Manager Mike Scioscia has pulled Wood aside the past few years to let him know he was in the club’s master plans.

“Sosh said, `You’re going to play in the big leagues a long time—it’s just not your time yet,’” Wood, who turns 25 on March 2, said by phone from his Scottsdale, Ariz., home.

“My goal in years past was to make the team. Running out of [Minor League] options takes some of the pressure off, knowing I’ll have an opportunity to play in the big leagues.

L.A. Times :  Rex Hudler is having a tough time

In November, after 11 seasons, he was let go from the job he loved: talking about the Angels for FS West and KLAA radio 830. More devastating, though, was the effect that had on his mother.

“When I told her I lost my Angels job,” he said, “she went downhill so fast. For the past couple of years she would sit all summer. She couldn’t do anything, she couldn’t walk or talk, but she could watch the Angels and she thought so much of her son doing those games.”

Three days before Hudler’s mother died, Rory Markas, one of Hudler’s Angels broadcast buddies who handled the play-by-play, passed away. In talking about that first week of the new year, Hudler’s voice gets unsteady—but only for a minute and above all else he said he’d like to speak to his fans.

“Everyone has personal tragedies in life,” Hudler said. “God never promised me smooth waters. He only promised me navigation.”

The Angels and FS West had decided not to renew the contracts for Hudler and announcer Steve Physioc and instead, beginning this season, would have Markas do the television play-by-play with Mark Gubicza as his analyst while Terry Smith would do radio play-by-play with Jose Mota as the analyst.

Hudler said he had spoken to MLB Network and the Baltimore Orioles about a job. “Only one job in baseball has been open and that was Baltimore,” he said. “I was considered for it and that was great. I didn’t get it, but that’s how it goes.’

Keith Law: Top 100 prospects

NO.  PLAYER
1 Jason Heyward, OF, ATL
2 Stephen Strasburg, RHP, WAS
3 Carlos Santana, C, CLE
4 Buster Posey, C, SFO
5 Mike Stanton, OF, FLA
6 Desmond Jennings, OF, TAM
7 Martin Perez, LHP, TEX
8 Dustin Ackley, CF, SEA
9 Justin Smoak, 1B, TEX
10 Jesus Montero, C, NYY
11 Brian Matusz, LHP, BAL
12 Starlin Castro, SS, CHC
13 Neftali Feliz, RHP, TEX
14 Domonic Brown, RF, PHI
15 Wade Davis, RHP, TAM
16 Aroldis Chapman, LHP, CIN
17 Jeremy Hellickson, RHP, TAM
18 Casey Kelly, RHP, BOS
19 Aaron Hicks, RHP, MIN
20 Brett Wallace, 1B, TOR
21 Logan Morrison, 1B, FLA
22 Tyler Matzek, LHP, COL
23 Jenrry Mejia, RHP, NYM
24 Michael Taylor, OF, OAK
25 Zach Britton, LHP, BAL

Scouting reports for the top 25 should be free, I think.

ESPNLA: Izturis inks 3-year, $10 million deal

The Angels avoided arbitration with reserve infielder Maicer Izturis, signing him to a three-year contract on Monday.

Izturis’ contract is worth $10 million. The deal provides a $500,000 signing bonus, with salaries of $2.6 million this year, $3.1 million in 2011 and $3.8 million in 2012.

Izturis, 29, is coming off his finest offensive season, in which the native of Venezuela batted .300 with eight home runs and 65 RBIs in 114 games.

He likely will play a variety of positions this summer, but he could also push rookie Brandon Wood for the everyday third base job this spring.

SI.com: Mets have deal for Matthews Jr.

Sarge Lite reporting for duty!

The Mets have a deal to acquire Gary Matthews Jr. from the Los Angeles Angels according to an American League source. Matthews has two years and $23 million remaining on his contract and the Angels will be paying the vast portion of that money. Matthews also gets $500,000 for being traded.

EV Tribune: Mesa unveils plan to keep Cubs; vote Monday

Mesa’s plan was developed after months of talks with the team to prevent the Cactus League’s most popular team from accepting a bid from investors near Naples, Fla.

The $84 million plan was drafted on requests that the Cubs had to develop a Wrigleyville-themed complex, Mesa City Manager Chris Brady said. The city would own the stadium and training facilities. Mesa maintains the current training facilities, but Brady said the team wanted to take that expense and gain advertising rights at the new complex.

BBD: Baer: Halos Slipping Down

Yet, here we are now, just weeks away from P & C and the Angels have lost to free agency:

* The most valuable third baseman in the American League last year (according to FanGraphs) in Chone Figgins to the Seattle Mariners;
* Ace starter John Lackey to the Boston Red Sox;
* Gimpy DH Vladimir Guerrero to the Texas Rangers

The Angels have responded by signing:

* Gimpy DH Hideki Matsui for one year, $6 million;
* Wild Fernando Rodney for two years, $11 million;
* Joel Piniero for two years, $16 million

In essence, the Angels have swapped gimpy designated hitters, downgraded from Lackey to Piniero, lost Figgins and gained Rodney. Meanwhile, Roy Halladay went to Philadelphia, Cliff Lee went to Seattle, and Aroldis Chapman went to Cincinnati. The Angels wanted an ace pitcher and they ended up with Joel Piniero. It’s the kind of dream/reality contrast one would expect to find with the New York Mets, not the L.A. Angels.

As Johnny Carson Bigbee used to say..."A Zanger for you!”

Pineiro, Angels agree to 2-year deal

Free-agent right-hander Joel Pineiro agreed Wednesday to a $16 million, two-year contract with the Angels, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney.

Pineiro is due to take a physical Thursday.

Pineiro, 31, pitched a career-high 214 innings over 32 games last season, with a 15-12 record and 3.49 ERA for the National League Central champion St. Louis Cardinals.

Forget Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak: Billy Parker has a baseball record that will NEVER be broken

If I ever throw a bucket of dancing feces at a Sam Goody store or something...please don’t sic the J.G. Preston Experience on me. Thank you.

Baseball players have been lying about their age for almost as long as people have been paid to play.  In days of yore players might shave a year off their age; in recent years there have been a number of stories about players from Latin America who took even greater liberties.  Miguel Tejada turned out to be two years older than he had said he was, while Rafael Furcal was actually three years older.

But I can’t imagine anyone else ever tried to pull off what Billy Parker did.

...When Billy Parker played his first season of minor league baseball, in the Class A Midwest League in 1969, he was actually 27 years old, not 22 as he claimed.  And when he made his major league debut in 1971, he was 29, not 24.

Parker was born and raised in the small town of Hayneville, Alabama, the county seat of Lowndes County, just southwest of Montgomery in the southern part of the state.  In an article in The Sporting News of August 14, 1971, Parker said, “I was one of 11 sons, and that doesn’t include my sisters.”

He graduated from Central High School in Hayneville; I’ve not yet been able to verify the date.  According to Parker’s obituary, he attended what is now known as Alabama State University in Montgomery, on a football scholarship, for one semester; a document in Parker’s file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library says he attended what was then Tennessee A&I (now known as Tennessee State University) for six months.  And a questionnaire that Parker filled out, now in his Hall of Fame file, doesn’t indicate he attended college at all.

Sources: Rangers agree to terms with Guerrero

To close out an Expos-heavy news week.

According to two sources, the Rangers have agreed to terms with outfielder/DH Vladimir Guerrero on a one-year contract believed to be worth $5 million plus performance bonuses. General manager Jon Daniels has not responded to requests for confirmation.

Guerrero, who turns 35 in February, was limited to 100 games last year by injuries after playing 143 in 2008. Guerrero would be used as the team’s primary DH, with David Murphy moving once-again into a part-time role.

Yanks’ Bautista one of three suspended

Yankees Minor Leaguer Rony Bautista was one of three players to receive a 50-game suspension on Friday from Major League Baseball for testing positive for substances in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program...Pitcher Roberto Toribio of the Angels’ organization and outfielder Miguel Negron of the White Sox organization were the other players who had suspensions announced on Friday.

The latest from the Commish’s police blotter. The article kind of buries the lede - Negron was a first-round pick for the Blue Jays in 2000.

Stats: Toribio, Negron.

Bert Blyleven staying positive on Hall of Fame prospects

Blyleven, 58, failed today for the 13th time to receive the necessary number of votes in annual balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America and thus will be on the outside looking in again — or more likely, sitting in a broadcast booth, working and circling for the Twins — when Andre Dawson is enshrined July 25 in a sunny, Sunday ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y. Dawson’s name was marked on 420 of the 539 ballots, 15 more than the 75 percent (405) he needed to gain election. Blyleven, in his strongest showing yet, got 400 votes for 74.2 percent.

“I’ve got to stay positive with it,” Blyleven told me when I phoned him shortly after the results were announced. (Full disclosure: I have voted for the Hall since 1991 and have put an X next to Blyleven’s name since he became eligible in 1998.) “It’s come up a long way, so that’s very nice. … Only five votes short. There’s not much you can say.”

Then Blyleven cracked wise: “Well, you can string ‘em up so they never vote again.”

Anyone want to forward him Marriotti’s address?

L.A. Times: Angels face a tough call after Markas’ death

uddenly and unexpectedly Monday night.

He had suffered a brain aneurysm in November 2008, recovered, broadcast an entire Angels season in 2009, was well into this USC basketball season and was getting ready to be the full-time, regular television play-by-play man for the Angels in 2010.

In November, the Angels and FS West ended their relationships with Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler. What had been a hodgepodge on TV and radio of Angels voices—Markas, Terry Smith, Mark Gubicza, Jose Mota, Physioc and Hudler—was more clarified.

Markas and Gubicza would be the television team; Smith and Mota the radio team; Physioc and Hudler needed new teams.

And so there’s that question. It’s horribly sad to ask so soon and yet it’s being asked. Who succeeds Markas?

Can it be Physioc? It can’t be Hudler, even as much as Angels fans would like that. Hudler doesn’t do play-by-play.

Angels’ announcer Rory Markas dies

Rory Markas, one of the Angels’ play-by-play announcers since 2002, has died. The Angels’ team-owned radio station, AM 830, announced his death this morning. The station did not announce a cause of death.

Yahoo Sports: Duk: The top 10 playoff disappointments of the 2000s

Next up are the most disappointing playoff teams of the decade, a group that crept close to the promised land before leaving all of their fans to wonder what might have been. We weighed a number of factors before including each member, but please note that this list does not include any World Series teams. It’s our view that an AL or NL title can rarely be viewed as a total downer. (We’re sure, though, that fans of the 2002 Giants, ‘03 Yankees, ‘04 Cardinals and ‘06 Tigers would like to disagree.)

Source: Angels, Rodney agree to deal

Rodney on the CF ROC’s.

Former Detroit Tigers closer Fernando Rodney and the Los Angeles Angels have agreed to a two-year, $11 million deal pending a physical, a source told ESPNdeportes.com’s Enrique Rojas.

The physical examination is scheduled to take place later Wednesday.

The 32-year-old Rodney saved 37 games in 38 opportunities for the Tigers last season. The Angels would be acquiring him primarily as a set-up man for closer Brian Fuentes. But the Angels are expected to give him some opportunities to close, as well.

Fuentes succeeded Francisco Rodriguez as the Angels’ closer last season and led the league in saves, with 48. But he also had six blown saves and appeared to shake the confidence of manager Mike Scioscia during a second half in which Fuentes had a 4.81 ERA, a 1.685 WHIP and more walks (15) than strikeouts (12).

Rodney finished the season with a 4.40 ERA, the highest among AL relievers with 20 or more saves. But that figure was skewed by his 6.08 ERA in nonsave situations.

Japan Times: Zimbalist says Matsui’s key impact for Angels will be on the field

Certainly more than a pennyworth off the field…

With a large Japanese population in L.A. and leading Japanese travel company HIS already pondering an increase in the number of tour packages to the region, the Angels would seem to be in prime position to reap the benefits of Godzilla’s arrival.

Not necessarily.

“I believe the main impact will be what he contributes on the playing field,” Andrew Zimbalist, the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., told The Japan Times in an exclusive interview on Saturday. “The coterie of reporters that follow Matsui add nothing to the team’s revenues.”

Zimbalist, a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Sports Economics and author of several books on baseball economics, thinks Matsui’s signing won’t make a huge impact for the Angels in terms of revenue.

“There also may be some additional Japanese fans in greater L.A. and tourists who come to the games, but, I suspect, that these numbers will be very modest. There also may be some Japanese signage at the ballpark.

“In the end, the fact that Matsui is a beloved star in Japan may add a few million dollars to the Angels’ revenues, but, again, the main impact will be on the field.”

...While there will be inevitable connections with the impact of Ichiro on Seattle and Matsuzaka on Boston, it should be noted the situation with Matsui is not exactly the same.

“Similar,” Zimbalist says. “But, of course, Matsui in the MLB is no longer a novelty and he is not in the prime of his career.”

O.C. Register: Former Angel Arredondo stabbed

Former Angels pitcher Jose Arredondo was stabbed in Dominican Republic this week, according to a Spanish-language Web site.

Details are sketchy, but Arredondo’s former agent, Greg Maroni, said he had heard second-hand reports that the pitcher was stabbed in his left arm but that it wasn’t that serious. The Angels had not heard anything about the matter at 2:55 p.m. Thursday, and Arredondo’s current agent could not be immediately reached Thursday.

Beisbol.org reports that “the National Police regional in San Pedro had no official report of the incident” which took place at a car wash — or, perhaps, a place called Car Wash. The report also says he was at a party when it occured. (Translated by Google.)

EV Tribune: Mesa puts Cubs batting cages on hold

Mesa is refusing to upgrade a ballpark used by the Chicago Cubs unless the team enters more serious negotiations to keep spring training here.

The city was about to sign off on roughly $684,000 for semi-enclosed batting cages but on Thursday decided to hold off until top Mesa officials meet the Cubs in Chicago on Friday.

The city had expected the Cubs would welcome improvements that the team requested, Mayor Scott Smith said. But he noted that when a Chicago sports columnist asked Cubs manager (sic - he’s team president) Crane Kenney about the batting cages, no comment was given.

“The silence that came out of Chicago and the Cubs was deafening,” Smith said.

Heyman: Big teams still have moves to make

Just for BBC:

The Astros are telling teams Lance Berkman is unavailable. The Red Sox are one team to have inquired.

And for the Met fans:

Of Igarashi, the Japanese reliever who’s about to go to the Mets, one Japanese scout said, “I’ve seen him great but he wasn’t great last year.’’

Arn Tellem: Godzilla Rocks Southern California

Hideki takes special pride in being a complete player—at the plate and in the outfield—and from the start of negotiations, the Angels made every effort to accommodate him. On Sunday, during a meeting with team officials at my home, manager Mike Scioscia offered Hideki the chance to show that he can still play the field. Hideki is a longtime fan of Scioscia, and the lunch cemented his desire to play for him. Scioscia’s current plan is to have Hideki test his knees and mobility in spring training. Ideally, Hideki would start in left at least once or twice a week. The rest of the time, he’d DH.

In the end, Hideki chose to accept Angel’s offer rather than wait for Yankees to decide whether they wanted to bring him back. Failure to act quickly might have caused L.A. to withdraw its offer and forced Hideki to sign with a weaker team, thus forfeiting a shot at another World Series. Conflicted, Hideki stayed up all Sunday night mulling his final move in this limited game of musical free-agent chairs. He didn’t want to be left standing.

Happily, the Yankees’ 2010 home opener is against the Angels on April 13. Hideki will be on hand --- kusuri-yubi (index finger) extended—for the ring ceremony.

kusuri? He mispelled middle.

Whicker: Matsui is here, but fans’ thoughts are elsewhere

Farewell, Edward Woodward. Hello Whicker, man.

For now the Angels have Matsui, a perfectly fine DH who probably will outperform the 2009 Vladimir Guerrero, if he holds up physically. Lumbering around in left field, as both Matsui and Scioscia were speculating, might be pushing it.

The leadoff man, Scioscia repeated, will be either Aybar or Maicer Izturis and not Abreu. The lineup again will be organic, and will shift according to who’s pitching and who’s hot. They should score, although they suddenly need a young, swift outfielder.

Pitching is what could separate them from Seattle, Texas and Oakland. All three had a lower ERAs than did the Angels in ‘09, when John Lackey was still here.

“We really expect Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana to elevate their games,” Scioscia said, a few hours after Lackey told a Boston media audience that he’s with the Red Sox because he wants to win.

Agent: Bay turns down offer from Red Sox - MLB News - FOX Sports on MSN

Wow!

Jason Bay’s tenure with the Red Sox appears over.

The free-agent left fielder has rejected the team’s latest offer and is entertaining better proposals from other clubs, according to his agent, Joe Urbon.

“We don’t agree with their evaluation of the player,” Urbon said. “Frankly, we have other offers on the table that are of greater interest to Jason.”

Urbon left open the possibility that the Red Sox could circle back in the negotiations, but did not sound optimistic that it would happen, saying Bay was prepared to “move on.”

The Red Sox reportedly offered Bay a four-year, $60 million contract.

The Mets reportedly offered a four-year, $65 million deal, and the Angels and Mariners are among the other clubs showing interest.

BtBS: Bennett: Grudge Match: Burnett vs. Lackey

YIKES! This could be the ugliest match-up since Jonah Hex took on Hannibal Pike’s Army of Freaks!

From the “Yeah, and I’d Like a Pony” files, John Lackey has said he would like to receive a deal that exceeds A.J. Burnett’s in both yearly salary and length. Last offseason, Burnett signed a five-year, $82.5MM deal with the Yankees, which pays him a cool $16.5MM per year. Exceeding that deal would almost certainly put Lackey into the rarefied $100 million air currently occupied only by C.C. Sabathia, Johan Santana, and Barry Zito.

Many laughed when they heard what Lackey was asking for. But then I looked at the numbers, and that’s when the comparison began to seem apt.

...Other than those minor differences, however, these pitchers are very similar. Should Lackey get more money than Burnett? No, I don’t think so. But you never get what you don’t ask for, so Lackey (or perhaps more accurately, his agent, Steve Hilliard) made a wise comparison and then tacked on a little bit. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Lackey earn more than $15MM per year, and if he could be had at that price for fewer than five years, I think it’d be a bargain.

Angels now might include Erick Aybar in a trade—latimes.com

Some good stuff in this article. I don’t know how the Angels can be considered “front-runners” when they “have to find out what it’s going to take to make a deal, and we don’t have an indication right now.”

Toronto is believed to have targeted Angels left-hander Joe Saunders, catcher Mike Napoli and outfield prospect Peter Bourjos, but the Angels’ willingness to include Aybar could make them a far more attractive trade partner than the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies.

Aybar, 25, emerged as one of baseball’s best young shortstops in 2009, hitting .312 with five homers and 58 runs batted in and playing superb defense.

Would the Angels consider trading Aybar?

“You have to be open-minded, but it would have to be something that makes a lot of sense,” Reagins said. “It would take a significant package to move some players. Erick is very talented. We haven’t seen the best of him yet. He’s still improving, and there’s a real good chance we’ll see that in an Angels uniform.”

L.A. Times: Third base almost within the grasp of Angels’ Brandon Wood

Reporting from Indianapolis - With Chone Figgins expected to finalize a four-year, $36-million contract with the Seattle Mariners today or Tuesday, the Angels’ third-base job appears to belong to Brandon Wood, the 2003 first-round pick who has been the organization’s top position-playing prospect for three or four years.

Some might consider it a risky move, considering the track record of a few former highly touted prospects who either won or were essentially handed the Angels’ third-base job.

George Arias, who hit 30 home runs and drove in 104 runs at double-A in 1995, beat out veteran Tim Wallach with a torrid spring in 1996; Arias hit .238 with six homers and 28 RBIs in 84 games and was traded to San Diego the following season.

The Angels let veteran slugger Troy Glaus leave as a free agent before 2005 to clear third base for power-hitting prospect Dallas McPherson, who had a combined 40 homers and 126 RBIs at double-A and triple-A in 2004.

Derailed by a series of back and hip injuries, McPherson was limited to 101 games in 2005 and 2006, in which he had only 15 homers and 39 RBIs, and he was released before 2007.

So, it is no surprise that for inspiration for his anticipated promotion, Wood prefers to look toward the other corner of the infield, where Kendry Morales, who took over at first base after Mark Teixeira left as a free agent last winter, hit .306 with 34 homers and 108 RBIs in 2009, his first full big-league season.

“I like how Kendry went into spring training last year,” Wood said by phone from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. “When Teix didn’t re-sign with us, everybody said it was Kendry’s job. But Kendry said, it’s not your job until you earn it, and he worked his tail off.

BPro: Angels Top 11 Prospects

Four-Star Prospects
1. Mike Trout, OF
2. Hank Conger, C
3. Jordan Walden, RHP
4. Trevor Reckling, LHP
5. Fabio Martinez, RHP
Three-Star Prospects
6. Garrett Richards, RHP
7. Peter Bourjos, CF
8. Randall Grichuk , LF
9. Tyler Skaggs, LHP
10. Jon Bachanov, RHP
11. Tyler Kehrer, LHP

Four More:
12. Chris Pettit, OF: This hitting machine is limited to a corner athletically, and a lack of power hurts him there.
13. Tyler Chatwood, RHP: An undersized righty, he can miss bats with plus velocity, but his secondary stuff and command need work.
14. Alex Amarista, 2B: The tiny Venezuelan won the Midwest League batting title, but he has questionable upside.
15. Mark Trumbo, 1B: His power dropped off in Double-A; as first-base prospect, he has to mash.

1. Mike Trout, OF
DOB: 8/7/91
Height/Weight: 6-1/200
Bats/Throws: R/R
Drafted/Signed: 1st round, 2009, Millville Senior HS (NJ)
2009 Stats: .360/.418/.506 at Rookie-level (39 G); .267/.421/.267 at Low-A (5 G)
Last Year’s Ranking: Did not qualify

FOX: Rosenthal - Sources: M’s, Figgins on verge of $36M contract

The Mariners are on the verge of signing free-agent infielder Chone Figgins to a four-year contract in the $36 million range, according to a major-league source.

The two sides are “very close” to a deal, the source said — a deal that would be a serious blow to Figgins’ previous team, the Angels.
...
A spokesman for the Mariners said the team hasn’t planned any annoucements regarding a free agent signing today. It’s not believed that Figgins will take a physical before the weekend.

The 10 worst baseball contracts of the 2000s

Omar, you still have four weeks to make this list!

It wasn’t merely his five-tool ineptitude that sealed the title. No, the Dodgers — easily the most generous gifter of garbage contracts — somehow thought it was a good idea to give an $11 million-a-year deal to a 29-year-old who had a surgically repaired elbow and was coming off a season in which he allowed 31 home runs and walked 87 hitters. It was Dreifort’s best season as a starter, by the way, and his ERA was 4.16. In Dodger Stadium. To know that of the three things a pitcher truly, indubitably controls — home runs, walks and strikeouts — Dreifort was terrible in two categories should have told the Dodgers: run. Run! RUN!!!

They didn’t. They saw the Rockies’ offer of six years and $60 million (!) and upped the per-annum value. At the time, this wasn’t seen as a huge blunder, either. Dodgers GM Kevin Malone told Sports Illustrated: “You could say that Darren’s contract shows that pitching in baseball is at the point where you don’t need to show consistent performance to get a big, long-term payout. That’s not healthy. But you could also say the contract shows we’re an organization willing to take a chance to give our fans a winner. That’s healthy. If Darren does what we believe he can do — give us 220 innings, start 32 or 33 games, win half of them — we’re looking at a bargain.”

Adenhart’s estate gets full playoff share

Nice move by the Halos players.