I'm thinking there was a sale on thesauri 

Posted 2:03 PM by Sean
Today's Angels-Rangers preview at ESPN.com describes Bartolo Colon as a "burly righthander," "burly" being the selfsame epithet used to describe Kelvim Escobar a few days back by the Register. Time to start a burlywatch! Or maybe change the name: The Los Angeles Burlies of Anaheim.

This post brought to you by Kellogg's Irrelevant-O's, the Breakfast of Bloggers!

Alumni Notes 

Posted 4:39 PM by Sean
As Opening Day looms, a quick look at the springs put together by the dearly departed:

Eckstein (Cardinals): .393/.485/.518 (56 ABs), 1 HR. Bill Stoneman better pray this is a fluke.
Glaus (Diamondbacks): .424/.455/.847 (59 ABs), 7 HR.
Guillen (Natty Natty Nationals): .268/.292/.500 (56 ABs), 3 HR.
Ortiz (Reds): 3.78 ERA (16.2 IP), 21 H, 4 BB, 7K, 1 HR.
Sele (Mariners): 4.57 ERA (21.2 IP), 17 H, 6 BB, 11K, 1 HR.
Percival (Tigers): 3.46 ERA (13.0 IP), 12 H, 2 BB, 11K, 2 HR.

If it's Opening Day, this must be the DL 

Posted 8:59 AM by Sean
Kelvim Escobar will join Tim Salmon and Adam Kennedy on the DL to start the season, but appears to be recovering quickly from the right elbow soreness that landed him there. It's a little infuriating, however, to read something like this in the article:

Escobar, who could begin throwing again in a few days, might miss only one start because the Angels will not need a fifth starter again until April 19.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but use your freaking heads, guys. Escobar isn't a traditional fifth starter - it's not like they were planning on skipping him in the rotation whenever they had an off day. Had Escobar not been placed on the DL, he would have started on April 9 versus Kansas City, and then again five games later, April 15 at Oakland. The Angels don't technically need a fifth starter between the 9th and the 19th, but Escobar sure as hell will miss more than one start.

Update: As Halofan points out, Escobar is eligible to return from the DL on the 15th, so theoretically he could pitch on that date and only miss one start. But I doubt the Times people were contemplating that when they wrote that paragraph, or else why mention the April 19 date at all?

I double-dog dare them to go through with it 

Posted 8:53 AM by Sean
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Lake Elsinore Storm are now the "Anaheim/Los Angeles/San Diego Storm of Elsinore," "and they swear it's no April Fool's Day joke."

Sure.

The team's splash page still carries the new name, for whatever that's worth. None of the other pages (including the news releases) mention it.