Probaseball

Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler won't be broadcasting Angels games anymore. Physioc and Hudler have been told jointly by FS West and the Angels that they will not be part of the Angels' on-air team next season. A statement by Fox and the Angels said that Rory Markas and Mark Gubicza will be the television voices for the team on FS West and KCOP next season, and Terry Smith and Jose Mota will do the radio on KLAA AM 830. Physioc, 54, who has called baseball for 25 years for the San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds and ESPN, said the news was "a total shock.

With his self-described "reality check" behind him, Howie Kendrick is looking forward to the Angels' new season, and by that he means the full season. Kendrick began 2009 with a career .306 batting average but slumped badly three months into the season. Hitting only .231 in early June, he was sent to triple-A Salt Lake. It was a loud wake-up call for Kendrick, who everyone agreed was pressing too hard. And after he was called back to the big leagues in early July, Kendrick made the most of it. The Florida native batted .351 from July 4 through the end of the season, lifting his average to .291 for the year, and hit safely in 22 of his last 27 games.

When word trickled out of Nicaragua in November that Vicente Padilla was shot, his agent said the bullet only "grazed" his leg. Some graze that was. Pointing to a spot high on his right thigh, Padilla said, "It went in here." Touching the back of his leg, he continued, "And it went out the other side." Padilla said the wound healed in about two weeks. Padilla laughed several times as he recounted the incident, in which the pitcher was accidentally shot by a friend who was trying to fix his gun for him at a shooting range.

Clayton Kershaw beamed as he recalled the events of the previous night, from how he and Sandy Koufax compared the sizes of their hands at the Nokia Theater to his hourlong conversation with the legendary left-hander on the flight back to Arizona. "It was pretty awesome," Kershaw said. "To sit there and talk to him for an hour was unbelievable. I learned more on that one plane trip than I have in a long time." Kershaw was invited by Manager Joe Torre to participate in his on-stage conversation with Koufax in Los Angeles on Saturday night, which was moderated by Times columnist T.J. Simers . The event raised $700,000 for Torre's Safe at Home Foundation.

In its nearly 50 years, St. Michael's Abbey in south Orange County has welcomed scores of men who believe they were called to the priesthood. Most often they are young men who've prepared for this much of their academic lives. Occasionally, they are professionals who've chosen St. Michael's path that leads away from the world -- what adherents call "the hidden life" -- over the pleasure and glamour of their own lives. "There have been lawyers and academics," said St. Michael's Father Ambrose Criste.

Johnny Rivers came to Angel Stadium. He sang two songs, "Blue Suede Blues" and "I'll See You in My Dreams." Did you know that Rory Markas was a good friend of Rivers? He was. Rivers sang for Markas on Thursday night at Angel Stadium. Rivers had met Markas many years ago, when Markas was still a Clippers broadcaster. They became such good friends that Rivers came to sing in Markas' honor. Did you know that Markas had a girlfriend, a tiny woman with a strong voice, who had to be encouraged to date Markas?

Clayton Kershaw might still be a couple weeks away from his 22nd birthday, but veteran catcher Brad Ausmus said that the Dodgers left-hander is already doing something that he has seen only one other pitcher do. That pitcher was Roger Clemens. So when Ausmus was asked why Kershaw has been so dominant so early in his career -- a 2.79 earned-run average that ranked fifth in the National League last season -- he started to talk about the Kershaw's bullpen sessions. "A lot of young guys with bullpens, they're just going to throw and throw, throw and throw and throw their pitches until it feels right," Ausmus said.

If you would like to see the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium in June, the Dodgers would like you to buy tickets to at least 13 other games this season. The Dodgers will put single-game tickets on sale March 6 but will not sell individual tickets to the Yankees series, scheduled June 25-27. The Dodgers are reserving those tickets for fans buying season seats or packages of 14, 21 or 28 games, the team announced Monday. Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch said the team anticipates demand sufficient to sell out all three games via ticket packages.

When the last out of the American League Championship Series was made in October, the Angels trimmed almost $51 million from their payroll, as Vladimir Guerrero, Kelvim Escobar, John Lackey, Bobby Abreu, Chone Figgins, Darren Oliver and Robb Quinlan headed for free agency. Knowing his 2010 budget would be roughly the same as 2009 -- the Angels finished last season with a payroll of about $113 million -- the savings would seem to have given General Manager Tony Reagins all sorts of flexibility this winter.

Big Glove. It's not a spinoff of a popular HBO series, it's the new mitt Angels catcher Mike Napoli will try this spring. Napoli has better-than-average power for a catcher, but he went into a defensive slump last season, struggling so much with his throwing and receiving skills that Manager Mike Scioscia in August held a lengthy closed-door meeting with the catcher. "He was trying to get me to step up my game," Napoli said. "He was trying to make me a better catcher."

The new head of the baseball players' union is taking a cautious stance toward blood tests for detecting human growth hormone in ballplayers despite this week's landmark case of a British rugby player who tested positive for the substance, which is banned by Major League Baseball. "The fact that there has been a positive [result] that an athlete has chosen not to challenge is a factor that raises the profile" of potential HGH testing in baseball, Michael Weiner , executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn.

Clayton Kershaw might still be a couple weeks away from his 22nd birthday, but veteran catcher Brad Ausmus said that the Dodgers left-hander is already doing something that he has seen only one other pitcher do. That pitcher was Roger Clemens. So when Ausmus was asked why Kershaw has been so dominant so early in his career -- a 2.79 earned-run average that ranked fifth in the National League last season -- he started to talk about the Kershaw's bullpen sessions. "A lot of young guys with bullpens, they're just going to throw and throw, throw and throw and throw their pitches until it feels right," Ausmus said.

Rafael Furcal had his first normal off-season in three years. Because Furcal didn't spend any time on the disabled list last season, he didn't play winter ball in his native Dominican Republic. There were no games to make up, no instincts to regain. "Playing in the Dominican Republic is a huge help, but I had almost 700 at-bats last year," the shortstop said. "We thought it would help me more if I rested over the three months of the off-season because of how much I played.

Newly acquired Angels starting pitcher Joel Pineiro said Friday that while he's eager for the season to start, he needs spring training to get his trademark sinker behaving the way he wishes. "Sometimes when I'm throwing it, it's moving too much out of the plate so you've got to find that good release point where you can be around the plate," the right-hander said. "I'm still working on the location, making sure all the pitches are where they need to be. Everything's good, I'm working hard and can't wait until the games get started."

The questions regarding James Loney have never changed: Will he ever hit for power? If so, when? "I feel this is the year," Loney said Friday, the day of the Dodgers' first full-squad workout of spring training. Loney, 25, drove in 90 runs for the second consecutive year last season -- but also hit only 13 home runs for the second consecutive year. Reporting to camp looking leaner but more muscular, Loney said he is under the 215 pounds he weighed in past springs. "I feel stronger," he said.

It was only an eight-minute session of live batting practice with no speed gun, but Ervin Santana's fastball looked lively and he broke two bats Thursday, fueling optimism that the Angels right-hander can regain his 2008 All-Star form. "I feel good -- I don't have to lie about my arm," said Santana, who was slowed by an elbow sprain much of last season, when he was 8-8 with a 5.10 earned-run average. "I'm letting the ball go." When Santana was 16-7 with a 3.49 ERA in 2008, his fastball hit 96 mph regularly, and his off-speed pitches were sharp.

Randy Wolf never has been confused with Johan Santana. However, the Dodgers' recent decision not to offer salary arbitration to Wolf raised concerns among fans. The Dodgers led the major leagues in attendance last season, advancing to the National League Championship Series for the second consecutive year. Wolf was their most dependable pitcher, and yet the Dodgers decided they could not afford to risk him accepting a one-year contract at an uncertain price. As Wolf, John Lackey, Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay have joined new teams, the pitching-depleted Dodgers have imported no player more significant than utility infielder Jamey Carroll.

With one eye on the shaky market and another on his injury-filled track record, infielder Maicer Izturis forfeited a shot at a starting job in free agency in favor of a guaranteed $10 million from the Angels. "He's never had the security of a guaranteed contract, much less a multiyear guaranteed contract," agent Peter Greenberg said. "He's very happy." Izturis, 29, set career highs in virtually every offensive category last season, batting .300 with eight home runs and 13 stolen bases.

The saying in the Dodgers' locker room used to be that if you wanted to get Jonathan Broxton to talk, you had to talk about hunting. Well, now there's another subject that perks up the gentle giant: his 8-month-old son Jonathan Brooks . "Stood up at seven months, straight up," Broxton said, using his hands to illustrate the point. "He's a beast." In addition to being a new father, Broxton has a new two-year, $11-million contract. "It's been the time of my life," he said.

If you combine Erick Aybar's speed and durability with Maicer Izturis' plate discipline and consistent contact, you might produce a hybrid player who is a reasonable facsimile of Chone Figgins, one of baseball's best leadoff hitters. That is why it might take two top-of-the-order hitters to replace Figgins, the highly productive third baseman who left to sign a four-year, $36-million deal this winter with the Seattle Mariners. "Ideally, you'd like to have one guy anchored in the leadoff spot -- it makes it better when you have guys who are into their roles, and the lineup becomes clean," Manager Mike Scioscia said.