11 More Days!

March 29th, 2009

March 29, 2009 — Looking out the window, it’s hard to imagine opening day at Franklin Covey Ballpark is just around the corner. The guys hardly need extra incentives from yours truly, however, it probably wouldn’t hurt to offer this reminder.

Anaheim, last April . . .

Tempe, last week. . .

and Salt Lake City, today. . .

Gee, I hope someone warned the Rancho guys to pack their long underwear. Well, having spread good cheer all around, I suppose it’s time to switch topics.

With the first home game mere days away (um, weather permitting), I thought it would fun to run through an update on our big-league hopefuls. Maybe even make a few guesses about who we’ll see here in April. There have been quite a few roster shake-ups for the Angels since last October, with spots opening up at 1B, starting rotation and bullpen most notably. The rest of the positions—middle infield, 3B, C and outfield—look to be jammed two-to-three men deep.

The biggest news, of course, is Kendry Morales seems to have turned the corner into becoming a bona fide big-leaguer. Thus far in spring training, he’s produced .397 BA in 63 AB, with 3 HR and 42 TB. Enhorabuena y buenas suerte to the quiet man from Fomento, Cuba.

This ought to make things plenty interesting back here in SLC. Faithful Bees followers will remember Freddy Sandoval and Matt Brown taking turns at the two corners last season. Speaking of Brown, he’s been white-scorching-hot this spring—.513 BA in 39 AB, with 2 HR, 32 TB, 6BB and 7 SO. (Making me look like a forecasting genius, BTW. Thanks Brownie!) The parent club has kept him in big league camp for most of the spring, playing him at 3B and 1B to give him more opportunities to play, however he’s got a tough line-up to crack in L.A. Thus, with a forlorn heart, BeesGal predicts her fave corner infielder will be back in Salt Lake to start the season.

Sandoval has a mere handful of Tempe at-bats, since he dressed for Team Mexico in the recently completed World Baseball Classic. Mexico played six games total, making it to the quarter-finals. Sandoval played well, appearing in four games and finishing with the third highest batting average for Team Mexico. His .357 BA was mere fractions of a percent behind Jorge Cantu’s .360 BA.

Looking over the non-roster invitees, I spotted some familiar names from 2008: Brad Coon, Peter “Wheels” Bourjos, Ben Johnson (our “switch-hitting, triples-running” catcher), Flint Wipke, Alberto Rosario, Adam Pavkovich, and of course, Matt “Boon & Crocket” Wilhite. I also was happy to note a couple names from minor league camp: Gary Patchett and Coby Smith.

And lest readers think I’ve left out some important names, these “2008 Bees” are on the 40-man roster and at camp in 2009: Terry Evans, Brandon Wood, Sean Rodriguez, Bobby Wilson, Ryan Budde, Jason Bulger, Rafael Rodriguez, Shane Loux, Dustin Moseley, Nick Adenhart, Kevin Jepsen, Rich Thompson and Anthony Ortega.

The latest news is Lackey, Santana and Escobar are likely to start the season on the DL. Loux, Moseley and Adenhart have been playing musical chairs for a starting spot all spring and it looks as though for now, all three will be heading to Anaheim when camp breaks. The big question is who gets bumped when Escobar, currently scheduled to return to work first, returns to the starting rotation around early May. Loux and Moseley have the advantage of more big-league experience, as well as the ability to pitch from the bullpen.  Also, I believe they are both out of options, which means we risk losing them to waivers if sent down. With these factors in mind, most likely the first starting pitcher to get sent down will be the youngster Adenhart. Barring, of course, some catastrophic collapse by the other two contenders.

So who’s left to start for Salt Lake on opening day? The Salt Lake Bees website has posted a poll with five potential starters: Loux, Adenhart, Green, Ortega and Austen. Nick Green is gone, picked up from waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers and scheduled to start 2009 in Triple-A. Ortega arrived at spring camp with a sore forearm and has seen little action. In a radical departure from policy, BeesGal scrambles into the armchair manager seat to predict our 2009 Opening Day starting pitcher will be David Austen. I’ll pause a moment to let the snickers die down before pointing out that Austen is hardly a “last-man-standing” pick. After a couple of injuries during the regular season last year, he had a phenomenal season in Winter Ball, finishing with a 1.98 ERA in 63.2 IP with 38 SO and only 8 BB.

There’s been some healthy competition this spring for big-league bullpen spots as well. The departure of Bootcheck, O’Day and Rodriguez over the off-season opened up a few relief spots. Fuentes was acquired this winter as the Angels’ free-agent closer, with Arredondo being groomed as closer-heir-apparent. Shields and Oliver will no doubt be Team Consistency, same as always.  Speier is a bit of a question mark. He struggled at the start of camp however seems to be coming around of late. Nonetheless, most likely he’d have to suffer a complete melt-down to end up here. So the battle to stick with the big league bullpen looks to be winding down to Bulger and Jepsen. It’s a coin flip between these two.

Sean Rodriguez, you might remember, spent most of August and September 2008 with the Angels. He’s swinging the bat much better this spring, .302 in 43 AB with 4 BB and most importantly, only 4 SO. With Kendrick, Izturis and Aybar healthy, he’s likely to open in Salt Lake, although I suspect he’ll be racking up the frequent flier miles, as needed, just like last season. No matter. We should be grateful for whatever at-bats we can get from him in a Bees uniform. Bobby Wilson is in a similar situation, on the cusp of breaking into the big leagues. He’ll probably get to visit LA a couple of times this summer, but with Napoli’s shoulder pain-free throughout camp, it’s unlikely Wilson will be wearing red and white to start the season.

As for Brandon Wood. . .ah Woody, what to do about the talented infielder with the big bat? He seems to have at last found his “authentic swing” and is showing his power potential. Reading Lyle Spencer’s blog, the Angels have been playing him at shortstop, along with 3B. Hard to believe he’ll end up spending his third-straight spring in Salt Lake. Except, . . .there’s no place to field him in Anaheim. Hmmmm, I think this one’s a toss-up as well. For his sake, there’s no developmental reason for Wood to come back down to Triple-A.

According to the transactions page, Evans, Sandoval, Ortega and Rafael Rodriguez have been optioned to Salt Lake. Pavkovich, Coon, Bourjos and Johnson have been sent to minor league camp, which leads me to suspect we’ll be seeing them here in April as well. And of course we’ll be getting some players from Single-A and Double-A. Well, with all these names and numbers, I’m sure to have forgotten someone important. If so, my apologies for the oversight.

Hey, look! I just caught a glimpse of blue skies outside. Bye for now!

Entry Filed under: Major League Baseball,Minor Leagues,Salt Lake Bees,World Baseball Classic