You would think, but that hasn't been true. Napoli actually started hitting in spring training early, well before he was allowed on the field to catch. He probably did as much as two weeks of DHing, IIRC. His shoulder concerns didn't extend to his swing much, from what the coaching staff has been saying. The possibility of using him at DH has been a hot topic on Angels boards for a month now.

As for the field, I understand they'll be cautious about that, plus Mathis has been good. But Napoli was catching 6-7 innings in the last spring training games and was pretty much pronounced ready to go (which is why he wasn't placed on the DL).

No, this is Scioscia, as usual, getting myopic on his lineup choices, which is one of his worst attributes. He doesn't have many bad ones, but his over-reliance on speed and contact guys to make his move the runners offense run constantly has him rolling out much more of a punch and judy lineup than he needs to. Which is, unfortunately, why Brandon Wood as at AAA right now, too.

I can definitely see that.

For me, of course, it's all about fantasy, and I see a multi-positional p[layer who pops 20-plus a year, with catcher eligibilty. Hard to ignore that (and, yet, he usually is available).

Heh...we're both off to a sad start, eh? Good luck on the race to mediocrity! :D

On the topic of Angels DH, hasn't Vlad Guerrero been there in every game this season? And Vlad is a RF, which is also what Abreu is. So it wouldn't be taking ABs from Rivera if Napoli was DHing some.

i'm just happy that because of the scheduling-quirks that the sox will be done with the west coast by the end of may.

both teams will end up doing fine...i'm sure of that. but i'd love to see some more offense from the sox

punkass fucking abreu

punkass fucking sciosia - sit the fuck down

and torii hunter's ejected

red sox are just chilling and the angels players are just freaking out.

story is that beckett was holding the ball and watching figgins on 2nd for a long time and abreau asked for time and the ump granted it very late so beckett let one fly up around head-height (but still decently far from abreau and late after he stepped back), and the angels got super-steamed

really rests on schreiber, the home plate ump for the late call as beckett was in mid-delivery

Crap, don't have the game on yet. What happened?

Ah got it.

Vlad has been in DH a bit, but he has also been in RF, and has repeatedly professed he wants to play in the field. When he's in RF, Abreu moves to LF. Abreu has actually played in LF more than RF so far this year.

angels players can't hit beckett so sciosia was freaking out trying to get beckett tossed.

the late time-call broke beckett's motion which i think is why the ball flew high+wide...beckett being a righty it would tend to fly high + wide to the left side of the plate. cause for bitching sure...but not for benches emptying twice and the manager having a coronary

Come on dude, don't be a dick insulting players. Calm down, would you? This srot of reaction is why Red Sox fans are rather low as a fanbase on my personal scale of quality. You post normal otherwise, so why not do it here, too?

sciosia is back out on the field talking to joe west AGAIN

this is ridiculous...can he get fucking tossed already please?

Not according to baseball-reference:

Bobby Abreu Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com

36 innings in RF and 9 innings in LF

And that's the first LF he's played since 1997. Wonder how his defense is over there.

dude who am i insulting? sciosia is being a tool...he just got himself tossed out of the game (it appears)

the announcers are the ones saying it - i'm just repeating what they've said

Looks like he did get tossed, and he appears to be pissed the umps have taken away his pitchers' ability to pitch inside. Hopefully they will do the same to the Red Sox.

look - the other night - after the adenhart tribute - i was actually happy that the angels beat the sox

Oh, well, I must have only noticed him much in LF. I did see him in RF, of course. But I didn't think it was as much as that. I guess Vlad has been in DH more than normal. He has said he wants to play the field, though (and regularly), and the intent is for Abreu to move to left then.

Nothing like complaining about a pseudo-insult and responding with an actual insult.

Why not attack all the other "insults" in this thread (i.e. people acting like regular sports fans)?

i actually like the angels - i like their brand of baseball

but the fact is that they have had their troubles hitting beckett the past couple years and sciosia was wayyyyy overreacting there in the first

Here you go...

youk + drew go back-to-back

2-0 sox

So he's trying to get Beckett tossed? Gimme a break. We beat Beckett up last year, and beat him in the playoffs. Beckett's a very good pitcher, no issues with having troubles hitting him, lots of guys do. But your reaction was rather assholish and insulting and denigrating to the abilities of the Angels players.

LOL

You mean my opinion of the quality of the Red Sock fanbase, support for which is on display here and elsewhere in many, many of these same sort of discussions with fans from all over the country?

Sorry you have a problem with it. Of course, you are one of the ones who has earned it, so I can't say I give a fig that you're "insulted" by my opinion, as I said, based on numerous encounters with said fanbase, both here and in real life.

I'm sure you're all actually great guys, and I have just had the misfortune of constantly running into the usual rare ninnies.

Disagree? Or is that all you can muster?

of course he's trying to get beckett tossed. what other reason would he have for going out there twice and stirring shit up?

assholish and insulting and denigrating? that's what any fan of any team would have said. dude i got no issues with you, and i appreciate that shit is still raw over there and everybody is coming together as a unit and all after the adenhart thing. as i said, i'm actually glad the angels won the other night, but i'm sorry, if a fan of one team can't denigrate the abilities of the other team after an altercation then where have we come to as sports fans?

Look through this thread - there's Royals fans bitching, Tigers Fans bitching, even some Nationals fans bitching. There's a few references to shooting managers in the face for bad decisions. When it's Anglels/Red Sox (or Lakers/Celtics), you get all offended and drop the "Boston Fans are Assholes" card (only because you can no longer complain about the Red Sox payroll as you did in the offseason thread, since the Angels payroll in now higher than the Red Sox. Edit: Maybe not on 2nd look, but they're in the ballpark). Why can't we react the same way as anyone else? It's so tired, and you're always the one who brings it up. Nobody's allowed to have an anti-Angels opinion without being an asshole.

I'm laughing at your overreaction in what is basically a gameday thread.

I LIKE THE ANGELS. I RESPECT A LOT OF THEIR PLAYERS. I UNDERSTAND THEY'RE EMOTIONALLY SCREWED-UP STILL.

that being said...if they're overreacting I'm not going to put on kid gloves because of it.

To defend his team? To make a stand with the umps to make sure his team is treated fairly? To just make sure het gets his say? It's not an automatic he's trying to get Beckett tossed, and if he was, it was for legit reasons, not for "Angels can't hit Beckett" reasons.

I understand what you're saying on the second paragraph, but the proper response there is, if Sciosc is trying to get Beckett tossed, it's not because "Angels hitters can't hit Beckett", it's because Beckett's a good pitcher, so of course you would want to see if he can be removed (it's called gamesmanship). Had you said something like that, instead of insulting the Angels' abilities pointlessly, you don't anywhere near the same reaction from me.

I just saw the pitch in question, BTW (finally). My question is, when Abreu reacted and took a step out, did Beckett apologize and say it was a mistake? I am guessing he did not.

I'll bite -- I disagree. You seemed to be grossly overreacting frankly. I figured it was just some sensitivity because of the tragic events of last week but if you want to really make an issue of it, you came off like a lot bigger prick than somebody wishing that Scioscia would sit down & shut the fuck up.

I'm generally pretty forgiving of Scioscia because of his days with the Dodgers but it's not exactly a reach to say he gets under the skin of a lot of people, fans & players alike. As for Abreu, meh, who really gives a fuck about him, other than people who've gotten some use from him in fantasy?

If you want to carry on with some sort of inferiority complex about the "the abilities of the Angels players" have at it, it really kind of fits with a team that can't even bear to acknowledge what city they play in. But that complex is your problem, not the rest of the league's nor the rest of the baseball fans of the world.

No, there are plenty of people who bring it up, and you know it. You only get it from me when you guys come at me directly. And nice screw up there on the payroll thing. You should have done yourself a favor and just deleted this.

I love JiMGA.

All right, fine, I'll accept that more from Jon. And I do know I am overreacting. But it's not like what I am saying is 100% not true either, or that I am the only one overreacting.

Oh, that's also me saying, I'll go back to my corner if they go back to theirs.

We need a "faints dead away" smilie ;) I don't get that sort of slack all that often.

Scioscia was one of my favorite players in all of baseball during his years, just as Steve Yeager had been before him. When I say I'm inclined to cut him some slack, I really mean that. I'd probably bitch about things he does sometimes if someone else did them but since it's him I don't.

So why is someone telling a manager to "sit down" an asshole/being insulting, but not somebody who says a manager should be shot in the face for a bad decision, or any of the other billion examples of playful bantering that goes on in any thread here that involves sports? Why not expand your crusade?

Heh...yeah, agreed. I think that very little of what happened with Sciosc was really about the Red Sox at all, but about the umps. The umps also stole a likely run from the Angels yesterday, and considering we lost by a run, that sort of things starts to grate on a manager. Sciosc was arguing the second time with Joe West--he's the dumbass who called Hunter out yesterday on a ball in the fourth inning that should have been a double (flyball at the wall hit the glove, hit the wall, fell back in the glove, a hit by MLB rules, Morales had a single in the next at bat, so Hunter would have scored). So combine that with the emotions and how Sciosc sees the umps acting, and not a good mix.

P.S. I hope the Red Sox get Beckett out soon, so the Angels can score on him.

Oh, and Torii went nuts and deserved to be tossed, and I do think the Beckett pitch was exactly as DT explained it--the ump (the ump again!) screwed up, called time, and totally f'd up Beckett's delivery, resulting in the overthrow. That said, I do want to know if Beckett made clear that it was an accident. He may after the game--I doubt he did then. Maybe if he did things might not have gone nuts. Of course, that goes to the whole stupid testosterone thing in baseball. All teams are guilty of that unfortunately.

First of all, it was "punk ass" I had a problem with, not "sit down".

Shot in the face? What are you talking about dude? Of course that's abominable and should not be said, be it about the opponent's manager or your own. And none of this this stuff was "playful bantering" and you know it. Come on, don't discredit both of us by callin that playful bantering. We both know when it's not the same.

As for my crusade, look I said, I'll back off if you do. It's up to you. I'm willing to walk away and forget it. So the ball's in your court, I guess.

3-2 Angels, for anyone keeping score.

Just saw Soria close out the Yankees, that kid has amazing stuff.

Pretty sad he will probably be closing for the Yankeees in a few years

Just got back from the 2 hitter Lohse threw today against the Astros. After a leadoff hit by Matsui (?), he retired the next 24 batters.

There is a decidely Red Sox slant to the story in this thread. Abreau give a WTF look at Beckett. It was Beckett who then approached Abreau and it didn't look like it was to exchange Easter greetings. Benches emptied (which is always laughable in a baseball game). Everything was actually calming down until Beckett for some reason decided to start chatting with Scioscia. That's when the Angels and Hunter in particular went berserk. The pitch by Beckett was pretty bush league and it was way closer than protrayed by the posts in here.

hey brad!

Yo!

The other great part of watching today's game is that I think I've decided to take the fam to Angel Beanie Night on Wednesday.

Yeah, Beckett's pitch didn't miss by much at all. I'm not sure of the intent.

Still, it was pretty funny seeing the Angels getting all worked up and getting four of themselves ejected while the Sox just stood around.

I wish the Phils still had Lohse.

I think Girardi screwed today's game up with too much thought. I hate bringing in a reliever with 2 outs, Marte was pitching to the HOF canidate Mike Jacobs and still gets yanked.

Shields pitched like a total nob, but manages to pop three guys out to get out of it and keep the Angels up 4-3 on the Sox.

Phils comes from behind (again) and win it 7-5 in the 9th :)

Thome and Buerhle FTW! :)

From this thread it sounds like I need to try and catch Baseball Tonight this evening.

He pitched a gem today for sure. :)

He's under contract until 2011 with 3 club option years tacked on the back of that with generous terms to the club. He came to GMDM last year and wanted a long term deal and he was ok with it being generous to the club. Very cool since with the Chiefs sucking, he might be the most popular athlete in the city. So, the Mexicutioner will be closing out games for KC for this and 5 more seasons, most likely.

And, yes, he's one hell of a treat to watch. :D

SI

I approve!

One of the local sports talk stations (the good one) helped popularize the nickname last year with t-shirts that were the hottest thing going in KC last year for a while



Again, so much better nickname than the "1st letter of first name + 1st 3 letters of last name" that's been too popular for the last few years

SI

so true, thats a great nickname

+1 on the nick and I'm glad there's at least ONE good athlete in KC (are we soured on Matt Cassell already?)

Well, I think it's a bit early to get too excited about a QB who has never taken a snap for a team. But I've never been much of a Chiefs fan and don't live in KC anymore so I don't quite know the pulse of the team.

SI

After watching it I am a little surprised by the amount of hubbub the Beckett/Abreu incident generated in here.

I'm going to enjoy the Padres early success while it lasts....hopefully they don't have any 22 inning games that wreck the rest of the season :)

Don't get ahead of yourself. How long are most closers successful? 3-4 years? Then they start to slide, or get injured, etc. etc. Just enjoy him now.

Here's to the Nationals hopefully getting a win today for the home opener -- I'll be there, first row.

Rock on. How do you get seats like that? Or is it "first row, upper deck in the outfield"? ;)

SI

Oh, agreed- nothing in baseball is certain- especially with pitchers. But if he can continue to keep it up for 6 more years, we have him that long.

SI

Dude, it's the Nationals. They suck and no one is buying seats. Hell, I just checked on a Reds game for a week from Saturday and can get like 4th row behind the catcher - if I'm willing to spend $230 a seat, that is.

Feel your pain after the Tigers start last year. At least the Nats weren't predicted to win their division and be a realistic WS contender like Detroit was. Not that that makes it any easier for you, but christ that blew.

Be a season ticket holder. ;) Having said that, these are not my season tickets, but they are from the "season ticket holders get to buy early" set of tickets. Our season tickets are SECOND row. ;)


Er, are you a Royals fan, or am I thinking of someone else? :)

The seats behind the catcher are absurdly priced and no one sits there. It's a complete disaster. If you exclude those seats it's probably much harder to get a good seat. But no one wants to pay $200-300 to watch the Nationals. Even in a 35k+ attendance game those seats are virtually empty.

No, I'm not a Royals fan. But it's true - they suck, and ticket sales are way down, to the point where they won't announce season ticket sales numbers.

Truthfully, though - and I may in the minority with this opinion - I wouldn't pay $250 a seat for Game 7 of the World Series, let alone try to take a family of 4 to a game at $250 a pop. Utterly ridiculous. I guess that would explain why I haven't seen a professional sporting event in person in several years.

Yeah, he's a fan of one of those non-descript large market teams ;)

SI

You mean non-descript, as in World Series Champions?

Not sure why that matters, though. Who is going to argue with the comment that the Nationals suck and no one wants to pay good money to watch them? That's the case for a number of teams. It wasn't meant as a personal shot, and it's not like there is some kind of rivalry (although perhaps there is something between DC and Philly, I don't know - I'm not from there and don't really have a clue in that regard).

Red Sox fans are easily aggravated, even moreso when their team is losing.

Definitely not. My season tickets are 2 rows off the field and are $30/ea. I end up with 10 games of 2 tickets for myself. That is reasonable for me.


Well, there is. If nothing else in that Phillies fans, whether you want to disagree or not, are some of the worst in sports. And we have experience certainly from football, but also hockey and basketball. It has held true for baseball as well.

In addition, to know where we're at, I don't know if this made national news, but... Stan Kasten, the team president, went on two radio stations in Philadelphia and encouraged the Phillies fans to come to DC for the home opener. If that doesn't tell you something about the state of things, I don't know what else will.

But clearly, even if you look at the Phillies in the 90's, baseball attendance is largely based on performance (except a few anomolies such as the Yankees, REd Sox and Marlins). If your team does well, attendance will rise. With a team that peaked in it's first year at .500, attendance is going to be low.

dola: "Definitely not" meaning "even a Nationals fan big willing to buy season tickets doesn't want to pay $250 for a single seat"

The whole thing wasn't about the incident but about someone calling mike scioscia a "punk ass" - standard, harmless fare that doesn't become an issue unless certain personalities are involved (Nobody's similarly insulted about the "disrespect" show to Park, Zito, Dusty Baker, Jay Bruce, etc, on this message board.)

...

I think the Red Sox offense is going to look pretty impotent against good pitchers this year, but they should win enough against the drecks to contend.

OH NOES WE'RE 2-4 AFTER 6 GAMES FOO HAS REALLY CUT TO THE BONE HERE

I posted a thread for it, but if anyone is interested in the Nationals vs. Phillies game in DC at 3pm today (April 13), I currently have 1 extra ticket and I'm leaving for the game very soon.

FWIW (and I don't mean to come off as defensive as I probably am), the Phillies did not surpass the National's attendance number for last year until 2004, when they jumped 12,000/game when CBP opened. For comparison sake, Nationals Park opened last year and attendance went from 24,000/game to 29,000/game (Phillies went from 28000 to 40000 when CBP opened). The Phillies went 86-76 the year CBP opened, the Nationals were 60-102 the year Nationals Park opened.

OK, but I'm a non-Philly-living Phillies fan and I don't root for any of the city's other teams. I only became a Phillies fan back in 1979-80 because I was a huge Steve Carlton fan growing up (being 10 years old and a left-handed pitcher). I guess I'm kinda atypical in that I've been a lifelong fan of the Phillies and Broncos, yet have visited those cities a combined 3 times in my life. I still root for my hometown teams in Detroit, though.

Well the Boston/New England Defense Force certainly gets kind of crazy sometimes but this is one instance where I would have to side with them, I don't think Beckett threw at the guy intentionally and what set things off in here seemed to be harmless everyday banter.

Apparently Harry Kalas was found passed out in the broadcast booth this afternoon and his condition described as "serious" by the Phillies' president.

LOL at how fat Bobby Jenks is this year! He hasn't had the 100mph fastball since the '06 season, but his control/stuff is still plenty good enough to get the necessary outs. So far, so good for Carlos Quentin's wrist. I was worried the injury would zap all of his power, but the Canseco-esque swing is still there! Once Ozzie realizes the CF position is an absolute debacle, I'm guessing Alexei moves back to CF(played there in Cuba) and Gordon Beckham takes over at SS for the next decade. They will probably wait till the off-season to make this move, though...

EDIT: Looks like this will be one of Konerko's "good" seasons, which is bad news for the AL Central.

The Phillies reporter on Twitter has tweeted that he passed away. No link.

/tk

Dola,
This is the twitter feed: Todd Zolecki (tzolecki) on Twitter

Ok, back to back #300 homers for Dye and Konerko is pretty cool even if they are on the White Sox ;)

SI

You shut your face.

Thanks. Confirmed on ESPN.com now.

Harry Kalas...legendary Phillies announcer died today :(

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/..._hospital.html

That is insanely cool! Congrats to both...

EDIT: RIP to Harry

Zack Fucking Miner! Dude was mediocre as a middle reliever. I'd rather pitch Travis Minor.

holy crap, wow. :(

as much as I dislike the Phillies I always enjoyed listing to him, he was a great broadcaster.

Carlos Quentin is a baseball god, that is all. He may have blown his shot for MVP last season, but the man is on a mission to right the wrong!

It's been a tragic week or so in baseball, here's another one:

Fidrych killed in accident - Extra Bases - Red Sox blog

"Mark Fidrych, a Northborough native whose aw-shucks charm and on-the-mound antics helped make him a national phenomenon as a Detroit Tigers rookie pitcher in 1976, was killed in an accident in his hometown yesterday while working on his pickup truck. He was 54.

Fidrych, who won 19 games as a rookie before injuries derailed his career, was found dead on his 107-acre farm this afternoon, according to the office of Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. Fidrych was found by a family friend underneath his truck at about 2:30 p.m."

I'm not sure how famous he is anymore, I haven't heard very much about him over the last 15 years or so.

The deaths suck :(

But back-to-back and 300 for Dye and Konerko and our third straight win rocks :)

I am enjoying the hell out of the Rays/Yankees game right about now.

9-0 Rays with no one out in the bottom of the 2nd. Carlos Pena just teed off on a GS and now has 6 RBIs in the game.

Poor Nats. So close and yet so far from their first win :(

SI