Los Angeles Angels Of Anaheim Baseball Team

All-Star pitcher Ervin Santana was diagnosed Sunday with a sprained ligament in his throwing elbow and will open the season on the disabled list, a potentially significant setback for a team already thin on starting pitching. Santana, 26, projected as the Angels' No. 2 starter after a 16-7 record and a 3.49 earned-run average in 2008, experienced tightness in the elbow after pitching an inning in an intrasquad game Tuesday.

Coming on the heels of Ervin Santana's elbow injury, it has to be somewhat discouraging for the Angels to hear that pitcher Joe Saunders is feeling some residual effects from the shoulder tightness that slowed him earlier this spring. But after giving up two runs -- one earned -- and four hits in three innings of a 5-4 exhibition loss to Oakland on Monday, Saunders, who went 17-7 with a 3.41 earned-run average last season, said his shoulder problems are not serious.

from tempe, ariz. The spring-training office of the most secure leader in professional sports looks like the bedroom of a 12-year-old boy. Flung across the desk is a bat. Looped on the end of that bat is a catcher's mitt. Sitting next to that bat is a crumpled baseball cap. Hanging in a locker are baggy baseball sweats surrounding a pair of blue jeans. Above that locker hangs the perfect explanation. Scioscia, 14.

Minor league shortstop Hainley Statia and first-base coach Alfredo Griffin both returned to Angels camp Thursday, Statia a little bummed and Griffin a little stunned. Statia was a member of the Netherlands team that upset the Dominican Republic -- twice -- in the World Baseball Classic to advance to the second round, but a minor hamstring injury knocked the slick-fielding defender out of the tournament.

With opening day approaching and the economic crisis deepening, Commissioner Bud Selig says he is increasingly concerned about how significantly baseball might be affected. "I used to think we were recession-proof. I really did," Selig said during the Angels' 6-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs. "This is different. Some economists are saying it's the worst downturn since the Great Depression."

Gary Matthews Jr., who ranks no higher than fifth on the Angels' outfield depth chart, said Sunday he does not wish to accept a reserve role this season. "My goal is to play every day," Matthews said. "I hope that's here. "I don't intend to sit around and play a couple times a week like last year." The Angels signed Matthews to be their regular center fielder two years ago, for $50 million over five years.

While most of the Angels enjoyed an off day Thursday, the Kelvim Escobar Rehabilitation Project continued to blaze a trail through the team's spring-training complex. Escobar, who missed all of 2008 because of shoulder surgery and wasn't expected back until July, threw 30 pitches of batting practice to six hitters, and the right-hander looked so good he was penciled in to pitch in a minor league game Monday. "He looks great," said Mike Butcher, Angels pitching coach.

There is little more Matt Brown can do to win a big league job. The corner infielder was six for six with two home runs and a run-scoring triple in the Angels' 18-12 exhibition victory over Kansas City on Sunday, improving his average to .543 (19 for 35) with a team-leading 15 runs batted in this spring. But when the Angels open the season April 6, Brown, 26, will probably be in Salt Lake to start his third season at triple A.

Gary Matthews Jr. looks pretty spry, especially when he's hitting prodigious home runs such as the two-run blast that highlighted the Angels' 10-5 exhibition victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday. But the switch-hitting outfielder isn't getting any younger. "I'm 34, and you don't play forever," said Matthews, who appears fully recovered from off-season surgery to repair the patella tendon in his left knee. "It's not like I'm 24 and have time to sit around and waste years.

The Angels are baseball's version of Barack Obama: sure of themselves, confident in their course, calm against criticism and the stormy tides of doubt. The big difference? The president, judging by the monumental test he aced last November, knows how to seal the deal, which is something the current crop of Angels -- regular-season monsters, postseason patsies -- are still working on. We won't know until October whether they've mastered winning when it really counts.