Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 24, 2006
Young Angels

DailyNews.com updates the condition of Dallas McPherson's hip:

With pain and frustration behind him - for the most part - Dallas McPherson can now work on supplying the Angels' coaching staff with a little headache. McPherson is one of the early arrivals to spring camp, and if he can show he is completely healed from a hip injury, he could force the Angels to scramble their preliminary lineup plans.

So while Chone Figgins looks like the Opening Day third baseman, Darin Erstad looks destined to return to center and Casey Kotchman takes over at first, a productive and healthy spring from McPherson could see the Angels playing musical chairs at those positions.

"I'm able to go through a normal day here," said McPherson, who had arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur in his left hip late last season. "We'll see how things go when we start games and I'm doing back-to-back stuff, but right now I think I'm ready to go."

I really like what the Angels did this winter. Very quietly, they got younger. Finley and Molina are gone, Kotchman and Mathis are going to be everyday players, and McPherson is looking to get significant playing time. That's three players 25 or under moving into the lineup. And if McPherson can play third, I suppose it's possible to get Erstad's bat out of the lineup with Figgins moving to center (although that may not be the best defensive alignment).


Posted by David Pinto at 08:36 AM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Dallas is in a pretty good spot this year. If he performs well in spring, I think he will split time at DH with Rivera. Although I don't think he will get a starting defensive job to open the season, any Angel injury will likely result in Figgins moving to fill that position and thus an opening of the third base spot for Dallas.

Of course all the above is predicated on good health, which is not assured, as well as continued improvment on offense, which I think is likely.

Posted by: Mac at February 24, 2006 02:58 PM
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