Despite the clear skies and bright sunshine of Arizona, there was a dark cloud today over the Angels’ spring training home. Eighteen game winner Kelvim Escobar was diagnosed with a torn labrum in his right shoulder and is likely out for this season. Injuries have plagued the Angels this spring, but this was toughest news, by far. It makes the off-season acquisition of former White Sox pitcher Jon Garland by first year General Manager Tony Reagins that much more important.

 

Of course, this will have a trickle down effect on the Bees’ pitching staff. At this point, they knew that Escobar wasn’t going to open the season in Anaheim and had already set his replacement in the rotation with Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana, who were originally going to battle for the fifth spot. With that, it appears that Salt Lake will lose a relief pitcher that they might have had otherwise.

 

Many of the Angels’ regulars had already departed for southern California when they faced the Chicago Cubs today. It was a great pitching match-up with Jered Weaver going for the Halos against the volatile Carlos Zambrano. Outfielder Dee Brown, who will likely open the season with the Bees, belted an opposite field three run homer to give the Angels an early 3-0 lead.   Weaver was magnificent, as he allowed just one run on six hits with five strikeouts. Francisco Rodriguez allowed five runs in two-thirds of an inning, as the Cubs came back to win, but I had already left and spent the rest of the afternoon at the minor league complex.

 

After several weeks of camp, all of the players are looking at Sunday as the light at the end of the tunnel when they can leave Tempe and head to Utah for the start of the season. The Bees’ players that don’t go to Anaheim for the Freeway Series will play a morning game on Sunday, be given per diem for the next few days and many of the them will drive their cars to Salt Lake City. The Bees will work out at Franklin Covey Field on Tuesday and Wednesday before being introduced to the fans during a timeout at the Jazz game on Wednesday. The team will then head for Las Vegas on Thursday morning for that night’s season opener (7:40 broadcast time of ESPN 1230).

 

As I sit at Phoenix’ Sky Harbor Airport for my flight home on Wednesday night, there are still several roster moves to be made at both the major league level and with the Bees, so it is still too early to forecast what the final Salt Lake roster will look like. The five days that I spent here flew by too fast, as usual. It is a wonderful time to renew friendships with former players and coaches and develop new ones with guys who haven’t been with the Bees in the past. The good news is that we are now one week away from being able to hear “Play Ball!” once again with the Bees.