Green Prepares to Take the Faceoff, Er, Mound
With that Canadian accent and pedigree, you’d swear Steve Green, who grew up about a mile outside hockey-crazed Montreal, was called up by the wrong Walt Disney Co.-owned professional sports team.
“I’m the only one of my friends who played baseball--everyone else played hockey,” said Green, an Angel right-hander who will make his major league debut against the Oakland A’s today.
“I played hockey too, but I like to sleep in. When you’re young, you’ve got to get up at 5 a.m. for hockey practice. So I stopped playing hockey and started playing baseball.”
Green will never know if he could have been the next Paul Kariya, but he appears to have made the right career choice. Only 23 with three minor league seasons on his resume, Green is already in the big leagues, thanks to a split fingernail that sent Ismael Valdes to the disabled list Thursday and a power sinker that impressed Manager Mike Scioscia in spring training.
“He’s got a real heavy sinker, a good hook and great [mental] makeup,” Scioscia said. “He’s impressive when he has everything together.”
Green, who struggled with elbow problems at triple-A Edmonton last summer, is not a big strikeout pitcher. Like many on the Angel staff, he strives to get ahead of batters and induce ground-ball outs.
He will have his work cut out for him today, facing a potent A’s lineup that features outstanding left-handed hitters such as Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Eric Chavez. His counterpart will be Tim Hudson, a 20-game winner who finished second in American League Cy Young Award voting last season.
“I’ll watch every single detail of everything that’s going on [Friday night] because it’s my first time here,” Green said. “And I’m sure I’ll peek at Hudson a few times [today] because he’s pretty damn good.”
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Tim Salmon woke up with an appetite Friday morning and gained enough strength throughout the day to return to right field Friday night against the A’s after missing Thursday night’s game at Texas because of food poisoning.
Second baseman Adam Kennedy took live batting practice Friday for the first time since breaking a bone in his right hand March 8. Scioscia said Kennedy has experienced no setbacks, either pain or swelling, and should begin a three- to five-game minor league rehabilitation assignment early next week.
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Left-hander Joe Torres, the Angels’ top pick in the 2000 draft, has fatigue in his pitching shoulder and remained in Arizona when minor leaguers broke camp this past week. He is expected to start the season at Class-A Cedar Rapids when he is sound. . . . Right-hander John Lackey, another top pitching prospect, opened the season at double-A Arkansas with an eight-inning, two-hit shutout of Wichita in an 8-0 victory Thursday.
TODAY
ANGELS’
STEVE GREEN
vs.
ATHLETICS’
TIM HUDSON
(0-0, 3.60 ERA)
Network Associates Coliseum, Oakland, 1 p.m.
Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).
* Update--Hudson, the A’s ace who has a nasty split-finger fastball, is 3-1 with a 5.68 earned-run average in four career starts against the Angels, but the Angels did hand the right-hander his worst loss in the big leagues last July 21, pounding him for nine runs on 12 hits in 5 1/3 innings of a 12-3 victory.
