Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That Sunday was a good day to steal home in the major leagues. With an assist from Carlos Zambrano, who airmailed a pitch to the backstop as Dewayne Wise attempted to suicide squeeze, Chris Getz was credited with a steal of home in the White Sox's 6-0 victory over the crosstown rival Cubs. Zambrano followed by plunking Wise, pushing the oft-heated interleague rivalry close to fisticuffs.
"I got a good jump and pulled it off," Matthews said. "The key was getting a big lead. They're definitely not expecting it with two strikes. If there was a right-handed hitter up there, I wouldn't have even tried."
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a nod to what's ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler had a pretty good night, rolling all sorts of rare feats into one ballgame. The headline is that he hit for the cycle, the first Rangers player to do that since Gary Matthews Jr. on Sept. 13, 2006.
He also had six hits, the first Rangers player to do that since Alfonso Soriano on May 8, 2004, but that was a 10-inning game. So Kinsler is the first in team history to have six knocks in a nine-inning game.
On Sunday the Angels broke some news to Gary Matthews Jr. that most outside observers could see coming. Matthews Jr. was told he's going to be the team's fifth outfielder/DH on the depth chart behind Torii Hunter, Vladimir Guerrero, Bobby Abreu, and Juan Rivera. Matthews looked better this spring, coming off of knee surgery, and was hitting .258 with two homers and nine runs driven in, and more importantly, he looked to be at full speed while running the bases.
So he was hoping that his recovery and decent performance would be enough to get him some playing time this season, but it won't be. After he was told the news, Matthews wasn't exactly happy about it and asked the team if he could leave for 24 hours to cool off.
The Angels disabled list is filling up rather quickly this spring. It seems like everyday they're having to place another player on it. So far, it's been an affliction that's only affecting their pitching staff as the Angels have four pitchers on the disabled list in John Lackey, Kelvim Escobar, Scot Shields, and Chris Bootcheck. Luckily for the Angels, if there's an area of the team where they have enough depth to shoulder such losses, it's the pitching staff.
The other area where the Angels are extremely deep is in the outfield where they currently have six players they can plug in. Actually, make that five at the moment, because Gary Matthews Jr. may soon be joining all those pitchers on the shelf.
Outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. left Monday's game against the San Diego Padres in the first inning after rolling his right ankle while running the bases. Matthews was helped to the clubhouse by Angels trainer Ned Bergert and then taken for X-rays. The X-rays were negative and the preliminary diagnosis is a sprained right ankle.
His status will be re-evaluated today but even before the injury he was not scheduled to play again until Thursday's one-game Freeway Series in Anaheim.
You never want to have injuries in the spring, but if you're going to have them, you don't want them to be during the final week before the season starts. As I already said, though, with Torii Hunter, Vlad Guerrero, Garrett Anderson, Juan Rivera, and Reggie Willits, there are plenty of Angels in the outfield to keep the team afloat if Matthews has to miss any times.
Back in September, we learned that Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons was one of the players accused of receiving shipments of steroids and human growth hormone from the raided Signature Pharmacy in Florida. Gibbons later met with baseball's performance enhancing drug investigators, which probably wasn't as enjoyable as this Dugout, and, today, fessed up publicly for the first time in an interview with the Baltimore Sun.
"I am deeply sorry for the mistakes that I have made. I have no excuses and bear sole responsibility for my decisions. Years ago, I relied on the advice of a doctor, filled a prescription, charged the hGH, which is a medication, to my credit card and had only intended to help speed my recovery from my injuries and surgeries. I hope that my family, teammates, fans and [Orioles owner] Peter Angelos and the entire Orioles organization will accept my apologies and that we can all move on."
He was hit with a 15-game suspension for his violation of the drug policy, the same punishment meted out to Royal signee Jose Guillen. Like Gibbons, Guillen was implicated in the purchase of steroids and HGH but never tested positive for either drug. Guillen is appealing the suspension but there's no word on Gibbons' plans.
After putting together what's been a stellar season thus far, Eric Byrnes has set himself up to be a sought after free agent in the off-season. He says he's willing to give the Diamondbacks a hometown discount within reason, but not to the point where he's stupidly leaving money on the table. Meanwhile, recent reports suggest that the two sides are far apart on a deal, and that Byrnes isn't afraid to test the market:
"I'm going to stay optimistic," he said. " . . . But if it doesn't get done, it still doesn't mean that I'm not coming back. What it does mean is there's a much bigger chance that I won't be back. That's reality.
"Who knows? Something could happen in the off-season. But when you get to the off-season, we're talking about dealing with 29 other teams as well.
Juan Pierre and Gary Matthews Jr. each got hearty free agent deals last year -- 5/44 and 5/50 million respectively. Even though Andruw Jones and Torii Hunter might be on the market as well, Byrnes should be able to command the same amount of money Pierre and Matthews did. The D-Backs will most likely need to open up their pocket books if they want to bring him back next year.
The same Albany narcotics agents who led raids on Florida pharmacies and "anti-aging" clinics in February hit a mom-and-pop Brooklyn pharmacy yesterday - seizing what one official described as a "mother lode" of steroids and growth hormone.
Investigators from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement surprised the owners of Lowen's Compounding Pharmacy with a sudden inspection, carrying off about $200,000 worth of performance-enhancing drugs, almost all of which had been shipped from China, Albany County Assistant District Attorney Chris Baynes told the Daily News.
Baynes said investigators took stacks of client papers, and he expects to find the names of professional athletes, as agents have in prior pharmacy raids.
"Reason holds that there would be, based on prior experience," he said.
I wonder how exactly these kind of raids go down. Do they come into the shop with guns ablaze wanting to pop a cap in the first fool who crosses their authority? Or, is it more low key?
Either way, more names coming soon. And, I'm sure they'll all completely fess up to taking performance enhancers. Because that's what they always do, right? (Note that picture is not of the bust. But, that's what I imagine it looked like in my head.)
Remember that Orlando pharmacy that was raided for steroids, HGH and the like back in February? You know, Gary Matthews Jr.'s name, among others, came up in it? We all caught up now? Good.
Two owners of a Florida business that prospected for steroid customers on the Internet, producing about $5 million in annual revenue, pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug charges in a New York court.
Greg Trotta, 38, and Brian Schafler, 34, both of Delray Beach, Fla., agreed to testify against others in the multistate investigation by Albany County prosecutors in return for sentences of five years' probation. Each pleaded guilty to felony third-degree diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions, admitting they helped get drugs in 2006 for customers in upstate New York who had no medical need for them.
Wow, they were making $5 million a year? Not too shabby. If nothing else, these guys are going to be rather forthcoming and honest about their entire operation. Which, for baseball purists out there, is a good thing. If baseball can get to the root of these steroid rings, maybe they can completely eradicate steroids in baseball for good.
Well, at least in 2006, according to PROTRADE. The fellas over there devised a formula to find out...well here, I'll just let them explain it to you.
We set out to uncover the true batting average and slugging percentage of each player in the big leagues if luck were taken out of the equation, called context neutral statistics. For example, a pop up that travels 210 feet from home plate and is 30 feet from the left field line may be caught 85% of the time and drop for a bloop single 15% of the time. If a player hits the ball with those characteristics and a defender happens to misjudge it in the air and it falls for a hit, did the batter have a quality plate appearance or was he just lucky?
Some of the biggest names in the game benefit from luck from time to time, as just 12 lucky hits over the course of over 600 plate appearances is the difference between a .278 hitter and a .300 hitter.
Mauer hit .347 last year; but if you took "luck" out of the equation his average would have been .312. Still very good, but not quite as good as .347. Some other players that grace this list: Jim Thome, Dan Uggla, Hanley Ramirez, Mark Teahen, Manny Ramirez and Gary Matthews Jr. (See it wasn't HGH. He was just lucky last year.)
Via Sports by Brooks, a site I should be reading more frequently, comes the news that Gary Matthews Jr. has hired Robert Shapiro as legal counsel for his recent entanglement in the Internet steroid ring. If you remember, Shapiro was part of the defense team that got OJ off the hook. Shapiro's statement, via PRNewswire, is as follows:
I have met with Gary Matthews Jr., whom I believe is a terrific young man, and I am firmly convinced that he has not violated any laws or any rules established by Major League Baseball.
Gary wishes to cooperate with Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Angels and any other investigative agency that may look into this matter.He is eager to tell his side of the story and looks forward to providing a statement once all investigations into the matter have been completed.
However, it is my long standing policy not to allow clients to comment while an investigation is ongoing. To do so would be inappropriate and I believe irresponsible.
There we go with that "cooperating" word again. Sigh.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
Starting Five
On Sunday the Angels broke some news to 
The Angels disabled list is filling up rather quickly this spring. It seems like everyday they're having to place another player on it. So far, it's been an affliction that's only affecting their pitching staff as the Angels have four pitchers on the disabled list in 
Back in September, we learned that Orioles outfielder 
After putting together what's been a stellar season thus far, 
They're on the prowl again, baby. After hitting up 
Remember that 
Well, at least in 2006, according to PROTRADE. The fellas over there devised a formula to find out...well here, I'll just let them 
Via 
