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Clips

(March 31, 2016)

March 31, 2016 Page 2 of 19

Today’s Clips Contents

FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES (Page 3) Dodgers and Angels have issues to resolve as the Freeway Series arrives

Angels' Jered Weaver tries a new approach while pitching in a minor

league game

FROM THE OC REGISTER (Page 5) Angels' Jered Weaver experiments in minor league game

Angels nearing minor league deal with starter Kyle Kendrick

FROM ANGELS.COM (Page 8) Angels confident they'll return to postseason

Weaver rediscovers slot in productive tune-up

FROM FOR THE WIN (Page 13) Former MLB megaprospect Brandon Wood begins life as a minor league

manager

FROM ESPN (Page 19)

Report: Kyle Kendrick, Angels finalizing deal

March 31, 2016 Page 3 of 19

FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Dodgers and Angels have issues to resolve as the Freeway Series arrives By Andy McCullough & Pedro Moura

After six weeks stuck in the desert, time spent completing that annual ritual of attempting to

avoid injury while determining the fringes of their rosters, the Dodgers and Angels return to the

Southland for the three-game Freeway Series beginning Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

Each club is about to enter the 2016 season with new faces in critical positions. Last season, the

Angels saw general manager Jerry Dipoto resign and missed the playoffs. The Dodgers captured

their third consecutive National League West title, but failed to advance past the first round of

the playoffs and parted with manager Don Mattingly.

The Dodgers chose Dave Roberts, a first-time manager, to lead their team in the dugout. The

Angels chose Billy Eppler, a first-time general manager, to run their baseball operations

department.

The preseason exhibition series has become de rigueur for teams in recent years, with the hope

of re-acclimating players to the dimensions of major league stadiums after so much time spent

on the spring diamonds of Arizona and Florida.

"You're in a stadium, and there's more fans and you ramp up the intensity," Roberts said. "And

you realize that the season is that much closer."

Both teams open Monday. The Angels host the Chicago Cubs. The Dodgers face the Padres in

San Diego. Neither club has finalized its roster.

The Dodgers have sustained several injuries this spring, losing Brett Anderson (back surgery) for

three to five months, Andre Ethier (broken leg) for two to three months, Mike Bolsinger

(oblique strain) for a month and Howie Kendrick (calf tightness) for at least the first week of the

season.

The injuries to Anderson and Bolsinger slashed the team's rotation. The Dodgers have yet to

determine a fifth starter. They are deciding between Carlos Frias, Zach Lee and Ross Stripling.

Stripling has been the most impressive this spring, but he also has the shortest resume. He has

never pitched above double A.

March 31, 2016 Page 4 of 19

Roberts also needs to finalize his bullpen. A miserable spring may earn left-handed reliever Luis

Avilan a demotion to the minors, leaving J.P. Howell as the lone left-hander in the group. Louis

Coleman, signed for $725,000 on the day pitchers and catchers reported, has been one of the

bigger surprises of camp. He could join Pedro Baez and Yimi Garcia as the key middle relievers,

with Kenley Jansen as the closer, Chris Hatcher as the setup man and Joe Blanton as the long

man.

The Angels have their own set of issues. With left-hander Andrew Heaney starting Thursday,

left-hander Hector Santiago on Friday and right-hander Nick Tropeano on Saturday, the Angels

have just about set their starting rotation and their bullpen. During the Freeway Series, they

must decide what to do with right-hander Jered Weaver and connect that with their relief

situation.

If Weaver begins the season on the 15-day disabled list, they can carry right-hander Cam

Bedrosian and left-hander Greg Mahle. If Weaver starts with the team, they must pick one of

the two young arms.

The lone non-pitching decision remaining is in regard to the fourth and final bench spot. First

baseman Ji-Man Choi has been the presumed choice all spring, but outfielders Todd

Cunningham and Rafael Ortega and infielder Rey Navarro remain in consideration.

It is in part a matter of versatility. Cliff Pennington is known as a utility infielder, but he has

logged almost all of his big league time at shortstop or second base. The Angels would like to

carry a capable reserve for first baseman C.J. Cron and third baseman Yunel Escobar.

They have tried Pennington at those spots this spring. They have also used Navarro at third base

and Choi extensively at first base. Choi has the best offensive resume of the four candidates.

Angels' Jered Weaver tries a new approach while pitching in a minor league game

By Pedro Moura A few small children, their guardian nearby, sat on the grass berm beyond the left-field wall at

Tempe Diablo Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

In front of them, Jered Weaver faced the Oakland Athletics' Class-A team. He gave up a single

to the first hitter he faced. He walked the second. And the fourth, 24-year-old outfielder Tyler

Marincov, hit a three-run home run that landed a few feet from the family.

March 31, 2016 Page 5 of 19

Weaver was relegated to a minor league start while his teammates had the day off. But after,

he said something clicked. He took risks he does not normally take, throwing his changeup to

right-handed hitters, and inside to left-handers.

"When you're throwing the stuff that I'm throwing, you have to invent some stuff to keep

people off balance," Weaver said. "It was pretty fun, actually."

Weaver needed 24 pitches to get out of the first inning and 61 for the remaining five innings.

He struck out four batters and walked one, giving up five runs, including two home runs.

The right-hander, who has been hindered by neck and shoulder nerve tightening this spring,

hopes to make his next start in the major leagues. It could come between April 7 and 11.

Short hops

The Angels were nearing a minor league contract with 31-year-old right-hander Kyle Kendrick,

Colorado's opening-day starter last season. He would begin the season as triple-A rotation

depth. He has a 4.63 earned-run average in nine big league seasons, including a career-worst

6.32 last season.

The Angels acquired left-hander Chris Jones from Baltimore in exchange for prospects Natanael

Delgado and Erick Salcedo. Jones, 27, has never pitched in the majors and has a 3.12 ERA in

triple A, where he will probably start the season.

Cincinnati offered left-hander Chris O'Grady back to the Angels. They selected him in the Rule 5

draft in December. The Angels have three days to decide whether to take him back.

FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Angels' Jered Weaver experiments in minor league game By JEFF FLETCHER / STAFF WRITER

TEMPE, Ariz. – With the reality of his vanishing velocity having firmly set in, Jered Weaver is

experimenting.

After a six-inning outing in a minor league game Wednesday, Weaver said he made some

pitches he had never made before, specifically the way he used his changeup.

March 31, 2016 Page 6 of 19

“When you are throwing stuff that I’m throwing, you have to invent some stuff to keep people

off balance,” Weaver said. “It was pretty fun actually.”

Facing a team of Oakland A’s Class-A players, Weaver gave up three runs in the first, and two

over his last five. He gave up five hits in the game, with four strikeouts and a walk.

What’s next remains unclear. The Angels have Garrett Richards and Andrew Heaney scheduled

to start the first two games of the season, on Monday and Tuesday. The first opening for

Weaver would be next Thursday, on seven days rest.

Weaver said he hopes he can compensate for the extra rest with extra throwing, rather than

another minor league game. If he does pitch another minor league game Monday or Tuesday,

he could still join the Angels rotation by April 10 or 11.

“I don’t want to go to another minor league game,” Weaver said. “Those things get a little

grueling. But whatever they think is best is what I’ll do.”

Weaver was pitching in a minor league game on an Angels off day, with the rest of the team

having left Arizona for the Freeway Series in Southern California.

After missing a start earlier this spring because of a sore neck, Weaver needed another outing

to get his pitch count up. He threw 85 pitches in six innings, which was roughly his goal. Beyond

that, the results weren’t what mattered to Weaver.

He gave up three runs in the first inning, all on a three-run homer on a changeup that drifted

over the middle of the plate.

“I felt terrible after that first inning, but something kind of clicked after the second,” Weaver

said. “Better tempo. Better location.”

And the new pitches. Typically, changeups are thrown to opposite-handed hitters, and away. So

for Weaver to throw changeups to righties or inside to lefties was unusual. Weaver got a called

a third strike to a lefty to end the sixth.

March 31, 2016 Page 7 of 19

Of course there is also the fact he was facing Class-A hitters, so they may not be the best litmus

test, since they don’t think like major league hitters.

In fact, Weaver was trying to “set up” a hitter with a high fastball on an 0-2 count later in the

game, and he hit a homer.

“That would have hit him in the neck,” Weaver said, “and he hit it for a homer. I wasn’t even

expecting him to swing.”

Weaver, who said he’s not ready to pitch that way in a major league game, nonetheless felt it

was a good day.

“After that first inning I didn’t think it would be that fun, but it’s always fun when you find

something,” Weaver said. “You can locate and putting the ball where you wanted. I started

pitching instead of throwing like I was in the first.”

Angels nearing minor league deal with starter Kyle Kendrick

By JEFF FLETCHER / STAFF WRITER

TEMPE, Ariz. – The Angels have agree to terms on a minor-league deal with Kyle Kendrick, who

will provide rotation depth at Triple-A.

Kendrick, 31, was in camp with the Atlanta Braves until they released him in mid March. He will

remain in spring training until he builds up his pitch-count, then pitch at Triple-A Salt Lake City.

A veteran of nine major league seasons, Kendrick has a career 4.63 ERA in 253 games, including

212 starts.

He spent last season with the Colorado Rockies, posting a 6.32 ERA in 27 starts. His best

seasons were 2011-12, when he had a combined 3.61 ERA for the Philadelphia Phillies, splitting

his time between the rotation and the bullpen.

March 31, 2016 Page 8 of 19

Kendrick is the second Triple-A starter the Angels have added this week. They traded for left-

hander Chris Jones from the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday.

The Angels rotation depth has been stretched with C.J. Wilson and Tyler Skaggs both being not

ready to start the season.

FROM ANGELS.COM

Angels confident they'll return to postseason By Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com

ANAHEIM -- One game. In spite of everything that went on last year -- the Josh Hamilton drama,

the Jerry Dipoto resignation and the dreadful month of August -- that is all that separated the

Angels from a spot in the postseason. One game.

It prompted some lamenting.

"There's something in here that every single guy could've done to improve that one game,"

Angels right fielder Kole Calhoun said.

“It comes down to every game means something," center fielder Mike Trout added. "Maybe it

was one game in April when we were up and we made a mental mistake or we had a chance

late in the game. Every game counts."

The Angels' 2015 season began with three months of perpetual mediocrity, which turned into

an uplifting run of 17 wins in 20 games, which somehow spilled into a 19-loss August, which

then morphed into a resurgent, inspiring final four weeks.

The Angels lost the regular-season finale to the Rangers in Arlington -- one day after arguably

the greatest comeback in franchise history -- and finished one game behind the Astros, who just

barely held onto the American League's second Wild Card spot.

March 31, 2016 Page 9 of 19

Billy Eppler, introduced as the general manager on the first day of the Angels' offseason, swung

a big trade for shortstop Andrelton Simmons, added a few accent pieces and, at the behest of

ownership, stayed away from the big-name left fielder, prompting pundits to cast the Angels

aside as mere afterthoughts.

But the Angels are strident in their belief that this group is good enough to return to the

postseason.

Speaking toward the end of camp, veteran closer Huston Street expressed confidence that the

Angels actually "got better" since the end of 2015. He was told that is not the popular opinion.

"I know," Street said. "But I don't understand that. I think we did."

Street raved about the acquisitions of third baseman Yunel Escobar, a better defender than the

metrics might have indicated, and utility infielder Cliff Pennington, who brings far more

experience to the role than former Rule 5 Draft pick Taylor Featherston.

Hector Santiago talked about how the two biggest concerns heading into camp -- left field and

second base -- have provided the most encouraging signs, with Daniel Nava apparently back on

track at the plate and Johnny Giavotella seemingly improved on defense.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia brought up "seeing some of our young bullpen emerge," a credit

to Mike Morin, Cam Bedrosian and Greg Mahle turning in solid springs. And Scioscia said he's

most excited about "chemistry from the offense, which really hurt us last year."

The Angels received Major League-worst production from their left fielders, didn't provide their

best hitter, Trout, with nearly enough RBI opportunities and ultimately finished 20th in runs

scored last year.

"There's absolutely no doubt that we have to swing the bats better," Scioscia said. "That's a

given."

March 31, 2016 Page 10 of 19

Escobar and Nava, who will be the Nos. 1 and 2 hitters on most nights, have been on base more

than half the time this spring. Albert Pujols, batting cleanup, has homered a team-leading five

times in his return from November foot surgery. And the likes of Calhoun, Simmons, Giavotella,

Craig Gentry and C.J. Cron have provided their own indications that this lineup may not be as

bad as initially perceived.

The rotation has taken its lumps, with Jered Weaver throwing his fastball 80 mph and C.J.

Wilson no longer even playing catch, but the Angels have depth there.

"I just like the brand of baseball we're running out there," Eppler said. "It feels like a pretty

good brand of baseball."

Whether that is merely eyewash or a sign of improvement will be tested soon enough. One

thing that is almost certain, though, is that the AL West will only be tougher.

"A hundred percent," Santiago said. "Last year, I would say we were the best division in the

American League. And I think it just got better."

The Astros are on the rise, the Rangers are healthier, the Mariners are retooled and the A's are

relentless. The Angels, with the consensus worst farm system in the game, need to stay healthy.

And after failing to produce a winning record in three of the past four Aprils, they would also

benefit from a good start.

"We have to go out, we have to play our game and we have to take it one day at a time,"

Calhoun said. "I know it's as cliché as it can possibly be, but there was probably a game in April

that we blew, that we should've won, that was the difference in the season last year. People

don't think like that because we have 145 games left. But every one of these games, man, come

down to the wire. They can make or break you."

March 31, 2016 Page 11 of 19

Weaver rediscovers slot in productive tune-up

Despite poor line, Angels righty finds success 'pitching instead of throwing' By Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Jered Weaver didn't really want to be here. All of his teammates were back in

Southern California on Wednesday, but the Angels' longtime ace was stuck in Arizona because

he needed to make one more start. It would come against eager, aggressive, impatient Minor

League hitters. And it would begin with a 24-pitch first inning that featured a prodigious three-

run homer.

But then something weird happened.

Weaver actually started to have fun.

"It's always fun when you find something and you can locate and you're putting the ball where

you want to," Weaver said. "I started pitching instead of throwing."

Weaver completed six innings against low-level A's Minor Leaguers in what he hopes was his

final tune-up start before the regular season. He gave up five runs on five hits and a walk,

striking out four and throwing 85 pitches, 63 for strikes, on the main field of a desolate Tempe

Diablo Stadium.

Weaver left a changeup out over the plate for the first-inning homer, but then he found his arm

slot -- the one that clicked for him five days earlier -- and felt a lot better. He gave up another

home run on an 0-2, up-and-in fastball -- "It would've hit him in the neck," Weaver said -- but

otherwise not much.

Weaver even threw changeups on the inside part of the plate, which he never does.

March 31, 2016 Page 12 of 19

"When you're throwing the stuff that I'm throwing, you have to invent some stuff to keep

people off balance," Weaver said. "It was pretty fun, actually."

The Angels are starting Garrett Richards on Opening Day and Andrew Heaney in Game 2.

Weaver, who has started Opening Day each of the last six years, could pitch at any point from

April 7-11. The 33-year-old right-hander could face hitters at Angel Stadium and then begin the

regular season in the rotation, but that will be manager Mike Scioscia's call.

"I hope that's all that we do," Weaver said. "I don't want to go to a Minor League game. Those

things get a little grueling. But whatever they think is best, that's what I'll do."

It's been a rough spring for Weaver, immediately following a tough summer.

Weaver entered camp hopeful of rekindling some life on his fastball, but he has thrown it

mainly 79-81 mph, as many as five ticks slower than his average from last season. Weaver

previously underwent a precautionary MRI exam on his neck, which basically revealed that he

can continue to pitch through tightness, and he has spent most of Spring Training playing catch-

up.

Weaver believes the only thing left to do is build strength, after spending so much time

focusing on flexibility.

"It's kind of like a rubber band," Weaver described. "You stretch it out too much and it doesn't

really snap back. I think that if I just strengthen up that rubber band, it should be good to go."

Overall, Weaver assessed, his Wednesday was "pretty good."

"Something clicked there in that first inning mechanically," Weaver said. "I was pretty happy

with it after the first."

March 31, 2016 Page 13 of 19

FROM FOR THE WIN

Former MLB megaprospect Brandon Wood begins life as a minor league

manager

By Ted Berg

PEORIA, Ariz. — Baseballs dart around the infield on a back field at the Padres’ spring training

facility as a group of minor leaguers take grounders and rifle throws around the diamond. The

sport’s brutal probabilities suggest that few, if any, of these players will enjoy substantive Major

League careers, but from up close, that seems impossible. The infielders show off impossibly

quick feet and soft hands and cannon arms at every opportunity. They’re so good.

Brandon Wood was better.

Now 31, the former first-round pick stands with a group of fellow coaches behind home plate

smacking grounders at the players. At an age when many of his former colleagues and

teammates enjoy seven-figure salaries and all the trappings of the Major League lifestyle, Wood

is preparing for his first season as a Class A manager. When the big-league Padres leave to start

their regular season this week, he will stay behind in Peoria to coach in the Padres’ extended

spring training camp until June, when he heads north to Pasco, Wash. to take the helm of the

Tri-City Dust Devils of the short-season Northwest League.

“He was one of the best players I ever saw,” says Tigers catcher Bobby Wilson, Wood’s frequent

teammate and roommate while both players were coming up in the Angels’ system in the

middle part of the last decade. “I thought me and him would be playing together forever.

Obviously it didn’t work out that way.”

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“You expected a homer every time he came up to the plate,” says Angels starter Jered Weaver,

who first played with Wood at Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga in 2005. “He was not only

talented offensively, but he was a great defensive player as well. Good guy. Team guy.”

Wood hit 43 home runs for Rancho Cucamonga in that ’05 campaign, leading the California

League by 15 homers despite being nearly three full years younger than the average player at

the level. He finished the season in the Arizona Fall League, where he tacked on another 14

homers in only 29 games. A 20-year-old shortstop smashed 57 home runs in 163 games against

mostly older competition.

After the season, Baseball America ranked Wood third among all prospects in the sport, just

behind Justin Upton — the outfielder who recently inked a six-year, $137.75 million free-agent

contract with the Tigers — and ahead of current big-league stars like Justin Verlander, Prince

Fielder, Jon Lester, Ryan Braun, Andrew McCutchen, Cole Hamels and Dustin Pedroia, to name

a few.

The same outlet put Wood atop its list of the Angels’ Top 10 prospects that year, citing a rival

manager who dubbed him “the next Cal Ripken.”

“In minor league games in Rancho Cucamonga, they pass the hat around in the crowd after

homers — people throw in dollars, 10 bucks, so on,” Wilson recalled. “As minor league guys, we

didn’t have any money, and it seemed like he hit a home run every night we were home, so

we’d go to Buffalo Wild Wings and have food on Brandon every night.

“We’d go home and play video games, and talk about it, and he was kind of like, ‘I don’t know

man, it’s just kind of happening.’ It was special to see, and special to be a part of.”

March 31, 2016 Page 15 of 19

The 2006 season brought more big power numbers, as Wood knocked 25 longballs for Class AA

Arkansas. He tacked on 23 more homers at Class AAA Salt Lake City in 2007, appearing in a

handful of games for the big-league Angels as an injury replacement and a September call-up.

But things began to go awry in 2008 when Wood got his first extended look in the Majors.

Unaccustomed to irregular playing time, the 23-year-old managed only a .200 batting average

and a .551 OPS across 150 at-bats. He continued his dominance of minor league pitching

whenever he returned to Class AAA ball, but struggled in every turn at the Major League level.

“That’s when the doubt started to creep in,” Wood told USA TODAY Sports at Padres’ camp last

week. “You rack up numbers, and you start looking at your numbers over the course of three

seasons of playing once every ten days. Reporters come up to you and ask why you’re not

hitting, and you start believing you can’t hit, when you know — if you take a step back — you’re

not getting consistent at bats. It’s pretty tough as a young player and a power hitter to put up

numbers in that role.

“I kept on thinking it was mechanical — ‘I’ve got to fix these mechanics.’ Mechanics, mechanics,

mechanics. ‘I’ve just got to work harder, take more ground balls, take more swings in the cage.’

And it wasn’t the case. I needed to take a step back and really evaluate where my mind was

going. I should have focused a lot more time on that.”

“He was a different guy,” said Wilson, who played with Wood on the Angels in 2010. “He was

trying to be something that he wasn’t. As a young guy on that club, it’s not an easy place to

play. There’s a lot of pressure to win there, because that’s what they wanted to do — they

wanted to win. If you’re there, you’ve got to perform right now. It wasn’t a team he was coming

into that was rebuilding, it was a team expected to win the division, and that pressure kind of

built on him.”

March 31, 2016 Page 16 of 19

Wood now recognizes that anxiety, more than any physical limitations, prevented him from

Major League success.

“On opening day, 2010, when I started at third base for the Angels, something just came over

my body,” he remembered. “I was light-headed. I felt like I was going to fall over — no control

of my body parts. Looking back, it’s because I wasn’t breathing. I’d go probably 90 seconds

without taking a breath.”

At 25 years old that season, Wood set a new career high with 226 big-league at-bats. To say

they did not go well would be an understatement. Wood’s 2010 campaign — just one year after

he hit 22 home runs with a .910 OPS in Class AAA ball — stands as perhaps the worst offensive

season in modern Major League history. His .382 OPS is the lowest by any player with at least

200 plate appearances in the season since 1912, the heart of baseball’s Deadball Era.

“I struggled a lot, mentally, with my own expectations of where my career was going and what

it should have been,” Wood said. “It took a toll on me. Every day, losing sleep, the anxiety that

comes with it — you were Mike Trout coming through the minor leagues and you didn’t pan

out. It was kind of hard for me to swallow.”

“Something didn’t click for him when he got to the big leagues,” Weaver said. “It was hard for

him to dig himself out of the hole. He worked his butt off trying to find it, but something just

didn’t click.”

The Angels waived Wood early in the 2011 season. He caught on with the Pirates, where he hit

a bit better than he had in Los Angeles but still not enough to match his tremendous prospect

pedigree. He spent 2012 playing Class AAA ball in the Rockies’ system but failed to succeed at

that level like he had in the past. He returned to Class AAA in 2013, this time for both the

March 31, 2016 Page 17 of 19

Royals’ and Orioles’ farm clubs, but collapsed offensively. Finally, in 2014, after a 25-game stint

with the Atlantic League’s Sugar Land Skeeters — in which he hit .098 with a .314 OPS — Wood

realized his playing career was over.

“The first game of independent ball, the anxiety set in,” he said. “And it prevented me from

doing what God made me able to do. Once I knew I couldn’t do it in independent ball, I said,

‘It’s time,’ and I came to peace with it. I started to accept some of the things I did well, and I

look back on my career with more of a smile now than a lot of doubt.”

Wood spent the 2014 season away from baseball, contemplating his next step and learning

how to cook. Spending time in the kitchen and working a barbecue grill, he said, helped him

clear his mind and focus again. He even considered enrolling in culinary school before he heard

about a job opening in the Padres’ system.

“I always envisioned myself playing until I was 40,” Wood said. “So when it was over, I was kind

of just in limbo: What’s life after baseball? What do you do? All I’ve done is play baseball since I

was five. My parents took care of me when I didn’t have a job. I didn’t have to do anything but

play baseball. So it was a bit of a struggle for the year that I took off.

“Once I started going through the interview process, I realized this is something I feel like I can

do. And my experiences of being one of the best players coming up in the minor leagues, and

struggling as bad as anybody at some points in the big leagues, I feel like I can reach out to any

and every player about any situation they might go through.”

Wood’s willingness to discuss his own battle with anxiety and expectations in the Majors seems

to reflect, in some ways, baseball’s continued shift toward coaching aspects of the game that

extend beyond the physical and fundamental. This spring, Wood has worked with Padres exec

March 31, 2016 Page 18 of 19

Jason Amoroso to develop routines aimed at preventing the mental struggles that ruined his

promising playing career.

“What I want to bring as a manager to these players is open up 100% about myself and my

struggles and what led me to not be able to reach my goals,” he said. “What distractions got in

the way, and what things kept me from really developing into the player that I should have

been… The self-doubt, the self-talk, the expectations that I put on myself, the loss of

confidence. A lot of things play into that. And that’s really why I feel like God has put me in this

position, first and foremost, to help every kid going through what I went through.”

And so it appears Wood’s unrealized potential as a player now gives him limitless potential as a

manager. No one in the world better understands the weight of big-league expectations and

what they can to do a talented young player. Wood said he hopes to someday coach or manage

in the Majors, and that he aims to emulate Jim Tracy — the former Rockies manager who Wood

says “managed 30 different personalities with 30 different personalities within himself.”

That starts here, in Peoria, in his interactions with all the young players Wood watches and

coaches and counsels every day. He knows what it looks like when players are struggling the

same way he did, and he recognizes how important it is for someone to help them out of it.

“I can see it in kids’ faces, because I’ve been through it,” Wood said. “So I can grab them before

they even know it and say, ‘Hey, let’s take a deep breath. Baseball is what we do, but it’s not

our life.'”

March 31, 2016 Page 19 of 19

FROM ESPN

Report: Kyle Kendrick, Angels finalizing deal

The Los Angeles Angels are finalizing a deal with right-hander Kyle Kendrick, Fox Sports is

reporting.

The 31-year-old free agent signed a minor league contract with the Atlanta Braves and was

invited to spring training but was released on March 12.

Kendrick allowed 14 hits and 10 runs, nine earned, in only 3⅔ innings in his failed attempt to

land one of the last two spots in the Braves' rotation. He also walked three batters.

Kendrick has a lifetime record of 81-81 and an ERA of 4.63. He was 7-13 with a 6.32 ERA for the

Colorado Rockies in 2015.