Chronicles of the Lads

ACE WASHBURN
Jarrod Washburn, quoted yesterday at MLB.com (and also, I believe, in the OC Register):

"(Members of the media) are the only people who call people aces. We don't walk around the clubhouse going, 'Hey, Ace.'"

I find the idea of the players walking around the clubhouse going, "Hey, Ace" fairly amusing, and I have decided that "Ace" should be Washburn's nickname.

The Angels have a dearth of good nicknames; in fact, there aren't that many good nicknames at all in baseball as a whole. Tim Salmon has Kingfish, which isn't bad. David Eckstein is the X Factor ... okay. Vlad is The Impaler, which is disgusting but unavoidable. Steve Physioc likes using A.K. for Adam Kennedy, but that's an abbreviation, not a nickname. He also calls Troy Percival El Toro, which I never really liked, and sounds like something Physioc made up to sound cool.

I can't really think of a good nickname for Bengie Molina. His main physical characteristic is being fat, but it's probably not very nice to call him Fat Molina. Besides, if you heard that Fat Molina got a base hit, wouldn't you just think, "Is there a skinny Molina?" Chub Molina?

I can't think of a good one for Erstad or Glaus, either. I suspect Jose Guillen will inspire nicknames like Whiff or End of Rally, but we'll see. And it seems like Garret Anderson shouldn't be too hard to peg down (and no, Physioc, G.A. doesn't count); you'd have to come up with something relating to his smoothness afield, or his dependability at the plate. Cadillac? Old Reliable? Actually, I'm pretty sure those are taken, so I have no idea ...