Notes: Santana sliding through spring

03/13/2006
PEORIA, Ariz. -- A productive offseason for Ervin Santana was apparent Monday afternoon.
With his slider and breaking ball working against the Seattle Mariners at the Peoria Sports Complex, Santana held the M's to one run on four hits through four innings in his third start of the spring, getting the win in the 6-3 game and improving to 2-0.
His slider is an improvement from last season, where he said it worked only "sometimes."
"But now every time when I go to pitch, I feel the difference," Santana said.
That difference didn't come from the help of Angels pitching coach Bud Black, either.
It came from hours of work this winter that provided a new-found control with his pitches.
On Monday, with everything working, he wanted to go more than four innings, but Angels manager Mike Scioscia wouldn't let him. However, the skipper was impressed with the location of Santana's fastball and breaking ball.
"Ervin had great stuff and had it in the zone," Scioscia said.
Goal oriented: Like many ballplayers, Santana set goals for the 2006 season, but he's staying mum on what they are.
Cy Young Award? "No."
Two-hundred strikeouts? "No."
Three-hundred? "No."
Thirty-five starts?
"I'm not going to tell you," he said.
Standing his ground, Santana said he'll share some insight on his progress during the All-Star break, but nothing until then.
Day to day: Garret Anderson's sore left heel has been progressing slowly, Scioscia said after Monday's game.
What was originally thought would keep Anderson out of the line up for a couple of days has lasted a week and could be longer. But Scioscia isn't concerned. If the injury takes a couple more days to heal, then so be it, he said.
Anderson has been taking batting practice and throwing, but there's no timetable for his return to the lineup.
"Even if he does miss a little time here, there's plenty of games left for him," Scioscia said. "He doesn't need that many at-bats."
Scoiscia couldn't pinpoint the exact time of Anderson's injury, but it began to flare up around last Tuesday. After improving for most of last week, it got stagnant late in the week, but improved again this past weekend.
The missed time won't impact Anderson's status for Opening Day on April 3 against Seattle. If this was the regular season, Scioscia said Anderson would be playing.
"Its moving in the right direction," he said. "However long it takes, it takes."
Trying his hardest: With his Angels' future not yet set in stone, Kendry Morales has been making strides to show Scioscia he's ready to be a big-league first baseman.
Offensively, Morales looks like he's already there.
On Monday, he upped his batting average to .423 with a 1-for-2 day with a walk.
Scioscia has been impressed with Morales' work ethic during camp. The 22-year-old has been putting in extra time with first-base coach Alfredo Griffin learning the nuances of the position. Already, Scioscia has seen the difference. Scioscia noticed that Morales is "getting more and more comfortable there, every time he's out there."
"I think that there's probably a role in our club that he might work his way into before his defense is where you are looking for it to be," Scioscia said. "Right now, we're excited about his upside and developing him to the max of his upside. If we have to adjust down from that, we will. He's making a lot of strides at first base."
Ouch: In the third inning Monday, Santana caught a line drive off the bat of the Mariners' Jeremy Reed, resulting in a bruised palm and wrist.
After he game Santana had ice on it, but didn't seem concerned. Scioscia said Santana was fine coming out of the game.
Reassigned: The Angels reassigned six pitchers to Minor League camp on Sunday. Tim Bittner, Dan Davidson, Matt Hensley, Tommy Mendoza, Alex Serrano were non-roster invitees and Steven Shell was on the 40-man roster.
Ripping it: Jose Molina hit two doubles and finished with three RBIs in a 2-for-3 day. ... After running for Orlando Cabrera in the fifth inning, Erick Aybar went 2-for-2 with a double and scored a run. ... Vladimir Guerrero went 2-for-3 with a double and a single, raising his average to .417 on the spring. ... Howie Kendrick continued to make a name for himself, coming off the bench in the seventh inning to go 1-for-2 with one RBI ... Robb Quinlan knocked in two runs with a double, going 2-for-4. ... Tim Salmon went 0-for-3 Monday. That's 0-for-7 for the last two games.
Up next: As the Angels go for their third win in a row, Hector Carrasco (0-0, 3.86 ERA) will take the mound against Kansas City's Runelvys Hernandez on Tuesday at 12:05 p.m. PT in Surprise, Ariz.

Source: http://anaheim.angels.mlb.com/