Orange County Register

John Lackey and Ervin Santana are on the shelf, and Kelvim Escobar is being gently eased back into action.

Cause for concern for Angels fans? Certainly.

That’s 60 percent of what should be the best rotation in baseball, and now Dustin Moseley, Nick Adenhart and Shane Loux appear destined to follow Joe Saunders and Jered Weaver to the mound when the bell rings in a week.

But, having a history of covering the Angels that dates back to the early ’70s, and thus knowing the franchise medical and training staffs and their work, the alarm bells aren’t going off for this reporter just yet.

If one looked up the word “precautionary” in the dictionary, the photos of Dr. Lewis Yocum and trainers Ned Bergert and Rick Smith would probably illustrate the definition.

Back in the ’90s, shortstop Gary DiSarcina once confided in me that he had a bad cold, but didn’t want to say anything “because Ned will probably make me sit out two games.”

Well, DiSarcina played, and I kept the confidence … until now. Forgive me, Gary.

The Angels’ medicos are experts at protecting players from themselves. So if you have Lackey or Santana on your Fantasy roster, and there’s room to keep extras, hang onto them. Bill Plunkett will keep us all updated.

Recent baseball posts:

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.