Angels recalled OF Peter Bourjos from Triple-A Salt Lake. The Angels aren't wasting any time here, as Bourjos will start in center field and bat ninth against the Orioles on Tuesday night. The 23-year-old was batting .314/.364/.498 with 13 homers, 12 triples and 27 stolen bases in 102 games with Triple-A Salt Lake. With elite speed and excellent defensive skills, he was ranked as the organization's No. 2 prospect by Baseball America coming into the season. It isn't clear how much he will actually play with the big club, but his speed is worth a flier in AL-only leagues.
I assume he will be getting regular playing time? do the angels then rotate the other OF or does one of them become a bench player? I imagine both Hunter and Abreu remain regular players. who loses out with Burjos playing, Juan Rivera? Hideki Matsui?
Torii Hunter(notes) took great pride in his status as one of the best defensive center fielders of his era. He won nine consecutive Gold Glove awards through last season.
But he put that all aside Tuesday and moved to right field to make room for center field prospect Peter Bourjos(notes). The speedy Bourjos, 23, was promoted from Triple-A and made his major league debut in center field Tuesday with Hunter starting in right (and Bobby Abreu(notes) in left).
The move, Hunter said, was his idea.
“I didn’t sleep for three, four days. I prayed about it, thought about it,” Hunter said. “I think we need to do something different.
“I could say I want to go for that 10th Gold Glove. … But sometimes you’ve got to slap pride in the face and all that individual stuff—the Gold Glove stuff—you can let that go. All I care about is winning. … If this makes the team better, I’m going to do it.”
It’s not that Hunter had become a liability in center field, but making up for the limited ranges of corner outfielders Abreu, Juan Rivera(notes) and on occasion Hideki Matsui(notes) had taxed Hunter’s 35-year-old legs. The effort on defense had begun to take away from his offensive contributions, Hunter conceded. He was 16-for-73 (.219) in the 20 games before Tuesday’s move with only four RBI in his previous 22 games.
“I can stay in center field and try to run all day. But it takes longer for me to recover, and that really hurts the team because I can’t feel my legs after running so much,” Hunter said. “Let him run. He’s 23, 24 years old—they don’t get tired.
“I still can play center field. I still feel I’m really good out there. But I think we’re better with him out there running around.”
Manager Mike Scioscia said Bourjos will be given a chance to take the center-field position and run with it. Hunter will not be moving back and forth.
“Peter’s going to play center field. You’re not going to see Torii flip-flopping back and forth on a given day,” Scioscia said.
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by SpecialFNK » Tue Aug 03, 2010 7:59 pm 
