Drive-by posting 

Posted 12:06 PM by Sean
Awright, so I'm busier'n the proverbial one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest these past few days (Prov. 5:12-16), so the posting, she suffers. Time for bullet points!

• Can we agree that the jury is, in fact, still out on Ervin Santana? Can we actually, in fact, agree that the jury is going to need standing reservations at the Ramada and an open account at the Chinese delivery place around the corner? The guy looked lost as all hell for the first couple of innings last night, then seemed to settle in and pitch reasonably well, but I'm thinking that everyone's going to breathe a little easier once Kelvim Escobar returns from the DL.

• Stoneman says he's "not in a trade mode," which is to be expected given his history and the Angels' lack of glaring holes. They need a DH, true, but no GM in his right mind is going to part with a premium prospect to get a DH when the manager is already trying to find playing time for something like 11 potential full-time players. And no opposing GM in his right mind is going to pick up Finley or Cabrera's contract right now. Meanwhile, that same link also indicates that High-A phenoms Brandon Wood and Howie Kendrick are strong possibilities to be promoted to Double-A Arkansas this summer. Fine. I guess that means that Alberto Callaspo and Erick Aybar get promoted from Arkansas to Salt Lake? Gee, that'll be swell for Brian Specht and Zach Sorensen, who will presumably be promoted to the Angels' AAAA farm team on the Moon.

• Okay, no, actually I see where Sorensen is now getting some time in center field. I suppose that's smart, since at least one outfield slot should be up for grabs in 2007.

• Tim Salmon's been mooning around lately. He's got the itch. But it looks bad for him to return in this, his final year under contract; he'd basically need to be ready to start a rehab assignment by early August, and then be content with a part-time role through September. It will be interesting to see what he does in the off-season: retire, sign for a vastly reduced salary with another team, or accept a non-roster invite to Angels' spring training, since they'll never be able to offer him a guaranteed spot.
  

• Today's game - Byrd v. Santana - is a pretty important one to win, I think. The Angels need to play the good teams tough, especially at home. They've done so with Texas, so far, but what I've seen against the White Sox, Red Sox, and Twins has been somewhat disappointing. Taking this series would be a good step towards establishing the Angels as belonging to that top tier.