Chronicles of the Lads

THREE RECEIVER SET
The Angels appear to be ready to give Josh Paul a roster spot, meaning they would start the season with three catchers -- all of whom hit righthanded. Bias against lefthanders, once again!

In seriousness, Scoscia wants to be able to pinch run for Los Dos Molinas more often, and Paul is not that bad of a runner, so he could pinch run early in the game, saving Shane Halter and Chone Figgins (the Official Legs of Tim Salmon ... actually, I like that. I'm going to start calling Figgins "Legs.") for later.

I sure can't think of a team ever carrying three catcher when not even one of them can hit from the left side; in fact, it's hard to come up with teams that carry three catchers. I like the idea, though, especially is Scioscia is aggressive with pinch-running and -hitting. The one concern is that the only bat off the bench belongs to Jeff DaVanon. I might prefer to keep a guy like Robb Quinlan around who might actually be able to hit; Legs Figgins can play a number of positions and makes Halter redundant.

Here is how the roster is shaping up thus far:

C (3) -- Molina, Molina, Paul
IF (6) -- Erstad, Kennedy, Glaus, Eckstein, Halter, Figgins
OF (5) -- Guillen, Anderson, Guerrero, Salmon, DaVanon
SP (5) -- Colon, Washburn, Escobar, Lackey, Ortiz
RP (6) -- Sele, Shields, Weber, Rodriguez, Donnelly, Percival

And boom, there's your 25; if Donnelly opens the season on the DL, that likely creates a spot for Derrick Turnbow. Not a bad looking group to start the season, though I would be tempted just to dump Sele and keep around the aforementioned Quinlan or somesuch.