Flagship Phil this Sunday chronicles the death of Nick Adenhart.
Basically, it's a recycling of the 12,868 articles written late last week by others about the odd amount of tragedies that have happened to the Angels over the years. Shocker!
As least Phil didn't write nonsense on par with Randy Youngman of the OC Register. Mr. Youngman thinks that the Angels can be inspired by tragedy the same way Loyola Marymount was 'inspired' by the death of Hank Gathers. Criminy.
Just a few nuggets this week from Phil, all taken from Phil's Whispers. He keeps his ear to the ground...
The Cubs were very surprised that Rule 5 pick Donald Veal pitched well enough in spring training to stick with the Pirates. He pitched in and out of a big mess in his big-league debut. If Veal gets it together, the Cubs will regret losing this wild lefty with stuff.
Do you really give points to a guy that get out of jams entirely of his own making?
He gave up...oh, heck. Just see Veal's inning for yourself.
It was 8-1 when he came in. He promptly gave up a dinger to Molina and walked three. It's like giving credit to a guy who pees all over the kitchen floor but had the common courtesy to mop it up. He's still a kitchen floor urinator after all is said and done.
Oh yeah, in Spring Training, Veal pitched 14.1 innings, walking 15! And gave up 8 earned runs.
So please tell me who from the Cubs' 40-man roster should have been left unprotected for the Rule 5 draft instead of Donald Veal. 28 year-old slappy-hitter Sam Fuld? Crap. I forgot. Sam Fuld is still a viable prospect in Phil's world.
Veal, in the last two years in Double-A, started 57 games. He had a 4.77 ERA with a 1.56 WHIP, averaging five walks per 9 innings. He's just a guy who happens to be a lefty and hasn't shown an ability in four years in the minors to hit the strike zone. That does not spell 'regret' in any book even if he does happen to become productive.
And he made the Pirates roster. That's just one step up from receiving a 'participant' ribbon.
The Dodgers' Albuquerque rotation — Eric Milton, Shawn Estes, Jeff Weaver, Miguel Pinango and Eric Stults, before Stults was called up Friday — has more big-league experience than their big-league club. That wouldn't be a bad place for the Angels to seek short-term help.
Eric Milton, Shawn Estes, Jeff Weaver and Eric Stults. Those four guys have never been used in the same sentence as "quality short-term help."
Wait. I just used them in a sentence that way. And that's the only way they ever will be from this point until the end of time. Yes, give up a mid-level prospect for one month of that badness.
The Yankees and Mets will wish they had signed Derek Lowe instead of A.J. Burnett and Oliver Perez, respectively. The Dodgers will miss Lowe more than they seem to think. He was just as good as CC Sabathia down the stretch last season.
Umm...the Mets signed Perez (a terrible signing by any measure) after Lowe picked Atlanta. It wasn't an either/or. And there was no sign from Lowe that he wanted to pitch in the American League again at his age. None.
He's 35 and got a four year deal at $15 per. The Dodgers currently have these commitments through 2013. McCourt has been screaming "poor man" from the highest mountaintops for the last few years and has a gazillion guys hitting prime arb years soon (not to mention the oodles of bad contracts to deal with. See: Schmidt and Pierre, not to mention the $17.8 million left on the Andruw Jones contract). Please tell me how the Dodgers could have committed that money to Lowe and still remained solvent ("in this economy...")?
On the Mets' option. Jerry Manuel's weird. He's just an odd bird. And when Lowe was making a decision, gauging the Mets' commitment to Manuel probably played into that. Also, nobody knows how Citi Field is going to play. The dimensions are the same as Shea but the foul territory has been dramatically reduced. That could spell trouble for pitchers, especially ones like Lowe who essentially pitch to contact.
First Edition of Power Rankings For Morons this week! Just posted.
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