Chronicles of the Lads

CATCH-UP ROUND-UP
Very little has been going on as I've tried to re-join the world of the living. However, Josh links to this Steve Bisheff article in The OC Register (registration required) that says it's official that Darin Erstad is moving to center. What's more, The Legs will move to third, and Dallas McPherson might DH.

This isn't just idle columnist speculation; Mike Scioscia is quoted as saying "It's our plan to start spring training by playing Erstad in center field. We want to give it a long look. We think it gives us a lot more versatility."

Bisheff goes on to send a little snark the Angels' way, saying their offseason moves aren't gonna cut it. Well, we could be a lot worse off than:

Figgins, 3B
Cabrera, SS
Garret, LF
Vlad, RF
Rivera/McPherson, DH
Kotchman, 1B
Erstad, CF
Mathis, C
Kennedy, 2B

Just guessing at what the lineup would be. I would prefer switching O-Cab and Kotchman ... either way, that's a pretty unspectacular offense, but Kotch and a healthy McPherson should make it an improvement on last year. All-in-all, I'd say this is good news.

***

There's been typical shifting in the Angel minor league staff this offseason. With former AAA manager Dino Ebel joining the big club as third-base coach, the Angels' Parallel Universe Catcher of the Eighties, Brian Harper (just imagine Bob Boone with a goatee for the full effect) will take over the Salt Lake helm. Charles Nagy will be the pitching coach at AAA, so let's hope catastrophic arm injuries aren't contagious.

Ken Patterson, a former Angel lefty who is not Bob Patterson (a former Angel lefty), will be the pitching coach at AA Arkansas, and Eric Owens, a pretty sorry fourth outfielder for the Lads a few years ago, will be the hitting coach at Low-A Cedar Rapids. Tyrone Boykin moves up from managing Rancho Cucamonga to the Arkansas team, which is where he managed before being moved to Rancho last year.

With our former roving pitching instructor, Mike Butcher (middle name: Dana), off to Tampa Bay and Joe Maddon, Keith Comstock takes the position (he was at Arkansas last year, and originally drafted by the Angels in 1976). Rob Picciolo, whom I'm shocked to discover played with the Angels in 1984, is the new roving infield instructor, and former Angel Craig Grebeck (aka David Eckstein 1.0*) moves from being the hitting coach at Mesa to being the hitting coach at Rancho.

A few other former Angels have minor league jobs: Jim Eppard, a singles-hitting lefty first-baseman in the late 1980s, is the hitting coach at Salt Lake; Keith Johnson, who served a short stint as Mike Scioscia's laundryman in 2000 (Keith had played for Mike in the Dodger system), is the hitting coach at Arkansas; and Erik Bennett, who threw one-third of an inning for the 1995 Halo squad, is the pitching coach at Rancho.

Not much commentary on that stuff, just an FYI about a lot of former Angels still getting paychecks from baseball teams.


*I ran a version of this chart last year when the Angels first signed Grebeck to coach, so here's the update:

            Grebeck      Eckstein
Inches          67           66
Pounds         148          170
AVG           .261         .282
OBP           .340         .351
SLG           .356         .362
OPS+            87           89
BB/SO         .832         .926
AB/SH          40.6         45.8

Eck actually put some distance between he and Grebeck with a solid 2005 campaign. But last year they were nearly identical, I swear!