ANGELS NOTEBOOK: ANGELS INFIELDERS VIE FOR POSITIONS.Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer TEMPE, Ariz. - With Cactus League games set to begin Friday, one of manager Mike Scioscia's tasks this spring is to determine who will be on his bench. He has seven players vying for the starting job at second base, leaving the others to battle for a utility infielder A utility infielder is a baseball player, usually someone who does not have a regular starting role on the team, who is capable of playing more than one of the four defensive infield positions: second base, third base, shortstop, and less typically first base. role. Scott Spiezio Scott Edward Spiezio (born September 21, 1972 in Joliet, Illinois) is a Major League Baseball player with the St. Louis Cardinals. He is the son of former Cardinal Ed Spiezio. is the only one with a major-league contract and started 59 games last season for Oakland. Justin Baughman Justin Baughman (born August 1, 1974, in Mountain View, California) is a retired professional baseball player who played 2 seasons for the Anaheim Angels of Major League Baseball. , having recovered from a broken leg, could give the club some speed, but he hasn't played since suffering the injury in a Mexican Winter League game in November of 1998. The others in the hunt are Jason Bates, Pat Kelly, Benji Gil, Carlos Garcia and Trent Durrington. ``The key for the guy making our team as a utility player is being able to play shortstop,'' Scioscia said. ``If you can play shortstop, you can play second and hold your own at third. Whoever can play short will be huge in who makes the team.'' Baughman can play shortstop, but if he doesn't make the team as the starter at second, he'll likely go to the minors so he can play every day to make up for the time he lost to the injury. Garcia, Bates Bates , Katherine Lee 1859-1929. American educator and writer best known for her poem "America the Beautiful," written in 1893 and revised in 1904 and 1911. and Gil have recent experience at shortstop. Spiezio, Kelly and Durrington do not play there. --Beating ASU ASU Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) ASU Appalachian State University ASU Arkansas State University ASU Angelo State University ASU Alabama State University ASU Australian Services Union : Garret Anderson had two hits and starting pitcher Scott Schoeneweis struck out four in two innings as the Angels beat Arizona State 7-3 at Tempe Diablo Stadium Tempe Diablo Stadium is a baseball field located in Tempe, Arizona. It is the spring training home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the home field for night games of the Arizona League Tempe Angels. . Darin Erstad and Gary DiSarcina had one hit each and Bengie Molina had a hit and two RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in as most of the Angels regulars were finished by the third inning. Reliever Greg Keagle, who pitched in the Tigers organization last season, pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Schoeneweis appeared in 31 games last season with the Angels - all as a reliever - but Scioscia said he should be included in the battle for starting spots along with Ramon Ortiz, Jarrod Washburn and Brian Cooper. ``He's in the mix, no doubt about it,'' Scioscia said. ``He obviously has the arm to pitch in the major leagues. And I think with his maturity and makeup as a pitcher he's going to be good.'' --Short hops:Jim Edmonds was excused from Wednesday's workout and game because of personal reasons involving his children. He's expected back today. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion