After scoring 12 runs against the Chicago White Sox, the Angels come back with a whopping 3. There were only 3 players in the starting lineup that will make the starting lineup come April, so I can’t really complain. For an extended look, here’s the box score. And here’s the recap….

Angels 3, Athletics 1
at Tempe, Ariz.
Feb. 26, 2009

Angels at the plate: Kendry Morales went the opposite way for a line-drive single and pulled a double into the right-field corner. Kevin Ramos, who will play in the World Baseball Classic for Panama, tripled and singled home a run. After getting robbed of extra bases twice in the opener, Brandon Wood doubled and singled in three at-bats. Reggie Willits had an RBI single, and Jeff Mathis doubled and scored.

Athletics at the plate: Jack Cust blasted a solo homer, his first of the spring, down the right-field line. Ryan Sweeney singled twice, and Chris Carter doubled.

Angels on the mound: Starter Jordan Walden showed why he is a favorite of scouts, striking out three hitters in two scoreless innings, including veterans Cust to end the first and Rob Bowen to close the second. Walden yielded two hits and no walks. Brian Fuentes made his debut in an Angels uniform and worked a scoreless third, striking out Eric Chavez and retiring Cust after yielding a pair of singles.

Athletics on the mound: Starter Sean Gallagher surrendered three hits, including a double and triple, but worked out of jams in both of his innings, striking out two and walking one. Brett Anderson yielded three hits and a walk in a two-run fourth, his lone inning of work.

Cactus League records: Angels 2-0; Athletics 0-1-1.

Up next: The Angels host the Rockies on Friday at 12:05 p.m. PT. Sean O’Sullivan will start against Colorado’s Greg Smith.

The Twins took down the Red Sox 5-2 in the first game of the Mayor’s Cup. Not much offense to speak of on the Sox’ part, managing only two runs, though they did get the tying run to the plate in the 9th but couldn’t get the one big hit.

The Mayor’s Cup is a friendly Spring competition between the two teams in Fort Myers, the Red Sox and Twins. The winner of the Spring series takes home the Cup, and in the event of a tie the winner from the previous year would win. The Red Sox won last year.

The rest of the Mayor’s Cup games are on Sunday March 1, Tuesday March 17, and Saturday March 28. All three games will be on MLB.TV

I only wish it was on TV. I got to listen to it on my computer, for free. Thanks to the Angels, they made an agreement with MLB.com so all Angels Spring Training games will be radio broadcasted for free! Anyways, here’s the recap.

Angels 12, White Sox 3
at Tempe, Ariz.
Feb. 25, 2009

Angels at the plate: Cleanup man Mike Napoli, robbed of a hit in his first at-bat, cracked a two-run double in the third to left center. Hainley Statia doubled twice, scoring a run and driving in another. Hank Conger drove in three runs with a pair of singles, Freddy Sandoval doubled, singled and drove in two runs, and Ben Johnson

cracked an RBI double.

White Sox at the plate: A.J. Pierzynski’s second single, a liner to left, produced a pair of runs in the second inning. Josh Fields singled and doubled, scoring a run. Jerry Owens opened the game with a drag-bunt single and had a sacrifice fly.

Angels on the mound: After Matt Palmer yielded two runs on five hits, Scot Shields and Jose Arredondo each pitched a perfect inning of relief, Shields striking out one man and Arredondo a pair. Rich Thompson delivered two perfect innings.

White Sox on the mound: Starter Clayton Richard worked two scoreless innings, giving up one walk. Octavio Dotel was nicked up for three runs on two hits, a walk and a hit batsman. Lefties Matt Thornton and Randy Williams each pitched a scoreless inning of relief.

Cactus League records: Angels 1-0; White Sox 0-1.

Up next: The Angels host the Athletics on Thursday at noon PT. Jordan Walden will start for the Angels against Sean Gallagher of the A’s.

It’s finally here! The 2009 season has started (sort of). The Mets started off in very good fashion! Here is what the starting lineup looked like:

Castillo, 2B
Murphy, LF
Pagan, CF
Church, RF
Castro, R, C
Cora, SS
Evans, 1B
Valentin, Jo, 3B
Martinez, F, DH

I have to say, I was quite impressed with Church, Castillo (Yes I said Castillo), Murphy and Pagan. The Mets took this game 9-3 and banged out 15 hits.

In order for this team to have any success, this lineup is going to have to produce…especially in those late innings!

As for the pitching, Right-hander Sean Green started for the Mets and was gone after just two outs, a victim of a cut nail on the middle finger of his pitching hand. Southpaw Pedro Feliciano got four outs without allowing an earned run, and veteran Duaner Sanchez pitched an inning and allowed three baserunners and one earned run.

Anyways, this was just a quick update, Let’s Go Mets in 2009!

The Sox picked up a win in their first game of the spring, playing the Boston College Eagles. The Sox were held scoreless through four innings and were down 1-0 heading into the bottom of the 5th. Then they struck for six runs to take the lead, added one more in the 6th off of a Yamico Navarro solo home run, and held off BC in the final frame to secure the 7 inning game.

On Deck:

The Red Sox travel across town to play the Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium in the first game of the Mayor’s Cup. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05. The game can be seen on NESN and MLB.TV.

Tomorrow marks the first day of Spring Baseball as both the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues have a handful of games scheduled for the afternoon. The Red Sox begin their spring with a split squad, first playing the Boston College Eagles at 1:05 at City of Palms Park, then they head across town to play the Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium at 7:05.

The Sox have their early spring rotation set, as Josh Beckett gets the ball against BC, Tim Wakefield has his go against the Twins, Jon Lester throws to the Pirates on Thursday,  Michael Bowdin climbs the mound on Friday to face the

Josh Beckett looks to improve on a 12-10 record from a year ago.

Tampa Bay Rays, lefty Kris Johnson will throw against Northeastern University with a split squad on Saturday, then Clay Bucholz is on the bump for the nightcap against the Reds. 

Brad Penny is expected to pitch March 5th, but that isn’t yet set in stone.

Of semi-related news, the World Baseball Classic begins play on Thursday, March 5 at 4:30AM EST.

Hi all. I’m a new author here, and I’ll be covering mainly Angels baseball. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Anthony, I live in the beautiful Southern California, and I am absolutely obsessed with baseball. Specifically, Angels baseball. I want to thank Jeffrey for giving me the opportunity to post Angels news, rumors, and information on his wonderful website. Now, let’s talk Angels baseball.

Who’s new to an Angels uniform?

After letting record-setting closer Francisco Rodriguez walk away and sign a lucrative contract with the New York Mets, Los Angeles thought they could use players on the inside to fill the void. However, after hearing former Colorado Rockies lefty Brian Fuentes express his interest in returning home to Southern California, the Angels looked in to it. The two sides agreed on a two-year, $17.5 MM deal. Fuentes isn’t looking to perform like K-Rod did, he’s looking to just do his job, close games. I’m looking at Brian Fuentes having a good year. Something like 35 – 40 saves, with an ERA from the 2.00 – 2.75 range.

Another new player, that came to a surprise to some of us, was outfielder Bobby Abreu. Just after you thought the Angels had enough Major League outfielders, 5 at the time, they added another. Abreu is projected to start in left field.

Abreu will be hitting 2nd, in front of Vlad in the lineup.

However, after resigning Juan Rivera to a 3-year, $12.75 MM deal, someone is going to have to start at DH. 8-Time Gold Glove center fielder Torii Hunter, for one, surely won’t get many starts at DH. Vladimir Guerrero has openly stated that he has no desire to take that role either.

So with the rotation of Abreu, Guerrero, Hunter, and Rivera, this leaves out OF Gary Matthews Jr. Matthews may miss the start of the season due to offseason knee surgery, and he struggled through knee trouble all year en route to a season that saw him hit .242 with just eight homers and eight steals despite appearing in 127 games. We can give him a little bit of a mulligan for that, but at 34 and coming off of knee surgery, we can’t expect a big bounce in his numbers. The signing of  Abreu renders him potentially just a fifth outfielder, so playing time could be really hard to come by, lessening his chance of a rebound.

Matthews, highly overpaid, is a possible trade candidate come July. The Angels have absolutely no use for him, and his no-trade clause ran up at the end of last season.

Kelvim Escobar’s phenominal spring training came to a halt on Monday, when the righty began to feel tightness in his left calf during morning stretches. The veteran right-hander shouldered past two significant hurdles on Friday and Saturday, throwing comfortably from a mound and waking without pain the following morning. “I was worried about how I was going to feel today,” Escobar told MLB.com on Saturday afternoon, “and I felt great. I had good range of motion and no problems at all when I went out to do my long toss today. That was big, very important. You usually find out the next day where you are, and I’m really excited.

More Angels news to come soon. I hope you enjoyed my first post as an author of Major League Blogging. Have a great evening everyone.