MILWAUKEE -- Shane Robinson was obtained by the Angels on March 31, hours before the start of the three-game, exhibition Freeway Series against the cross-town-rival Dodgers. When he took the field that Thursday, the 31-year-old outfielder had gone 13 days without seeing any live pitching.
"It was kind of nerve-wracking," Robinson said. "It's a tough spot to be put in."
Robinson opted out of his Minor League deal with the Indians a couple of days earlier, because they had too many outfielders for him to even see the field in Spring Training. When Robinson joined the Angels, he had just returned from Boston, after the latest -- and, he hopes, last -- of a string of surgical procedures undergone by his young daughter, Harper, who was born with esophageal atresia, a condition where the esophagus isn't properly connected to the stomach.