Texas League report
Posted on Sunday, July 6, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/230577/
Stoneman weighs in on no-no
Who better to comment on the Los Angeles Angels’ no-hitter, and loss, June 28 than former Angels General Manager Bill Stoneman ?
Stoneman threw two nohitters for the Montreal Expos, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 7-0 on April 17, 1969, and beating the New York Mets by the same score Oct. 2, 1972.
Now an Angels senior adviser, Stoneman was at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock last week for the Arkansas Travelers’ homestand with the Midland RockHounds and Frisco RoughRiders.
“You expect to win a nohitter,” Stoneman said, referring to the Angels’ 1-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers despite eight combined, no-hit innings by former Travelers Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo.
The Dodgers got their one run on two errors and a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning. It was the fifth no-hit loss by a major league team.
“I was listening to the tail end of the broadcast on my satellite radio... they said it was the fourth time since the turn of the century and I’ve been reading it’s the fifth time,” Stoneman said. “Whatever. In the history of baseball, it’s one out of five, and it’s obviously rare.... Obviously, it’s pretty frustrating.”
Stoneman, who stepped down last fall after eight years as Los Angeles’ general manager and vice president, said he doesn’t think too often about his own nohitters unless he’s asked. But he acknowledged such performances are worth noting.
“You have to be on top of your game, but you have to get a little luck here and there,” Stoneman said. “Some balls are hit hard, and some balls are hit right at fielders.”
While listening to the Dodgers broadcasters call the game, Stoneman heard an anecdote that he remembered from his own playing days.
“[Don ] Drysdale was going to pitch, the Dodgers were going to go on the road, Drysdale was going to pitch the first road game and they were going to get in real late so they sent him ahead,” Stoneman said. “Then when Drysdale landed, someone told him that [teammate Sandy ] Koufax had just thrown a no-hitter and Drysdale’s question was, ‘Did we win ?’
“ Back in those days, the Dodgers were known for not scoring many runs.”
Fore There is one big difference between being the Los Angeles Angels’ general manager and being the team’s senior adviser, Bill Stoneman said last Sunday. “My golf score is getting better,” Stoneman said. “I’m trying to figure out, I think in 25 or so years I was in the front office of a ballclub, I probably played five games of golf.... But now I’m on the course once a week usually.” Stoneman, who stepped down as general manager Oct. 16 after eight years, is one of the architects of the Angels’ aggressive offensive philosophy, and he helped develop one of the most productive farm systems in baseball.
Part of that development included the Angels signing the first of several player development contracts with the Arkansas Travelers to move their Class AA team from Erie, Pa., to Ray Winder Field in Little Rock and now to Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.
The arrangement began a parade of Travelers to the big league club. The Angels’ 40-man roster includes 26 former Arkansas players.
With their homegrown approach and hard-charging offense, the Angels won the 2002 World Series under Stoneman, have been a playoff qualifier three other times and had a five-game lead in the American League West on Friday.
“We’re happy with the way we’ve got this organization moving,” Stoneman said. “When we got here, they were selling 12, 000 season tickets, and now we’re over 30, 000.”
Stoneman said he was just “out of gas” when he stepped down and handed the general manager’s reins to player development director Tony Reagins, with former baseball operations manager Abe Flores taking over Reagins’ old job.
“It’s worked great because Tony knew the personnel,” Stoneman said. “We have more homegrown players on our club, our major league club, than anybody in baseball and he knew them.... I’m there if Tony wants me to look at something or get my opinion on it.”
Stoneman said he now makes just one road trip with the major league team, catches most of the home games and picks his spots when it comes to further travel.
“It’s a chance to stay involved and see the kids and the coaches and all that and see the people that are involved,” Stoneman said. “I’ve always loved that.”
Speaking of travel, Stoneman said he enjoys his new position because it is allowing him, for a change, to take some nonwork-related trips.
“I’ve got some things scheduled during the season I couldn’t otherwise do,” Stoneman said. “I’ve got a little fishing trip coming up, a little bit of a Canadian fishing trip.
“ I told my wife for years, she always wanted to go to the Greek isles, and I promised her that when I was retired or semiretired or something I’d take her. So we’re going to do that. You can’t do that in the off-season; it’s too cold. So we’re going to do that in the first two weeks of September.” Where’s the wood ?
The Midland RockHounds have a reputation for keeping their bats on their shoulders.
That wasn’t possible in the first game of the RockHounds’ road trip to Springfield, Mo., on Sunday.
After taking two of three games from the Arkansas Travelers at Dickey-Stephens Park, Midland, known for a patient approach at the plate, left its bats in the Dickey-Stephens visitors clubhouse when it left after last Saturday’s game.
“You could understand they might have left a uniform or two,” Travelers vice president and chief operating officer Bill Valentine said. “All of the bats were in the bat rack.”
At the urging of Texas League President Tom Kayser, the Travelers dispatched clubhouse manager Derek Braatz to Springfield with the Midland bats. While waiting for Braatz to arrive Sunday, the RockHounds had to borrow bats from the Cardinals. “If I were Springfield, I’d go through the bat rack and find some of the ones with a little rough edges,” Valentine said. Maybe that’s what the Cardinals did as Midland managed just two hits and lost Sunday’s game 1-0. The RockHounds didn’t get their first hit until after Braatz arrived with the bats midway through the game. “It’s pretty ironic, actually,” Braatz said.
On the down low Tulsa starting pitcher Xavier Cedeno wasn’t listed among the Colorado Rockies’ top 20 prospects entering this season, but he sure pitched like a prospect in June. Cedeno, a 21-year-old lefthander from Puerto Rico, went 4-0 with a 1. 26 ERA in his final four starts of the month. In his only other June outing, Cedeno made a quality start (two runs
1 over 6 / 3 innings ), but took a loss. Two of Cedeno’s victories in June came against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, to whom he allowed just two runs over 13 combined innings. Cedeno also shut down Northwest Arkansas’ running attack as the Naturals were unable to steal a base against him in either start.
In fact, they only attempted one steal.
“He’s a hard guy to run on because he’s quick to the plate,” Naturals Manager Brian Poldberg said. “He takes away some of our speed, and he’s [done ] a good job.”
Tulsa Manager Stu Cole said what has helped Cedeno’s confidence has been the infield defense behind him. Cedeno allows one home run every 12 innings, and he averages more than two groundouts for every flyout.
“He’s [made ] good quality pitches down in the zone,” Cole said. “He’s not a fly-ball pitcher. If he can get ground balls, it’s going to help him out tremendously.”
A 31 st-round draft pick by the Rockies in 2004, Cedeno is in his first year at Class AA. “OVERHEARD” “ I was just worn out. I was just out of gas. I had to face the fact this might be a good time to hand it over to someone a lot younger than I am. ” — Former Los Angeles Angels General Manager Bill Stoneman, on his stepping down to take the post of senior adviser last
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