USC football: Mitch Mustain signs baseball contract with White Sox

Former USC quarterback Mitch Mustain dreamed of one day playing in the Super Bowl. But now Mustain, who has not pitched since his sophomore year in high school, is thinking about the World Series after signing a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox.

“This is my one shot and I have nothing to lose,” Mustain, 24, said in a phone interview.

Mustain will report to the White Sox’s spring training facility in Arizona in March. He will take part in the extended spring training program and, if he progresses, will likely be assigned to a rookie league team after the June draft.

It's the latest chapter in an athletic career that has featured many twists and turns.

Mustain was a high school football legend in Arkansas and started eight games as a freshman at the University of Arkansas in 2006. That season, however, was full of controversy surrounding Mustain, former Coach Houston Nutt and others, and Mustain was among several players who left the program.

Mustain transferred to USC in 2007 but never won the starting job. He started only one game — the Trojans’ 2010 loss to Notre Dame at the Coliseum.

Mustain had hoped to play in the NFL, but his prospects for getting drafted or signing as a free agent were not helped by a February 2011 arrest in the San Fernando Valley on suspicion of selling prescription drugs. He completed a pre-file diversion program and did not face misdemeanor charges.

Mustain had a brief stint with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League last summer. The Georgia Force of the Arena Football League announced in October that it had signed Mustain.

Those plans, however, were put on hold after a recent pitching session that Mustain said occurred “as ironic as it sounds” in a bullpen at the University of Arkansas.

Mustain had been working out last year in preparation for a possible shot at baseball, but stopped throwing in November.

“I didn’t think it was going to happen,” he said.

Angels' Tyler Chatwood coming of age early

 

As Dan Haren stood in front of his locker following Sunday's win over the Chicago White Sox, the conversation quickly turned to how dominant he and Jered Weaver have been this season. But Haren was quick to force the name of another Southern California native into the conversation.

"Hey, Tyler Chatwood's in there too," he insisted.

A nervous Chatwood, a 2008 draft choice out of Redlands' East Valley High, gutted out five innings in his big-league debut at Angel Stadium during the last homestand, but he was much improved in his second outing, going seven strong innings to beat the White Sox over the weekend for his first major-league win. And it was something of a historic victory too.

Not only did it make Chatwood (at 21 years, 122 days) the youngest Angels pitcher to win a game since Francisco Rodriguez in April 2003, it made him the eighth-youngest Angels victor of all time. Only six other Angels starters have won a game at a younger age, and the last to do that was Mike Witt 20 years ago.

And while Chatwood is already pitching like a veteran, he's been handling himself that way too. Asked about pitching on the same staff with West Covina's Haren and Weaver of Simi Valley, the right-hander smiled and said, "It's an honor to be in the same rotation with guys like that."

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Angels stay hot in win over White Sox

-- Kevin Baxter in Arlington, Texas

Photo: Tyler Chatwood. Credit: Jerry Lai / U.S. Presswire.

Rookie Tyler Chatwood pitches Angels to 7-2 win over White Sox

Rookie Tyler Chatwood held the Chicago White Sox to a run on five hits through seven innings Saturday, and Howie Kendrick and Hank Conger each homered, driving in three runs apiece, to lead the Angels to a 7-2 victory at a wet and chilly U.S. Cellular Field.

Chatwood, called up from the minors to replace the injured Joel Pineiro in the rotation, waited out a 2-hour 10-minute rain delay before taking the mound in a windchill that dipped below freezing. But neither the elements nor the White Sox seemed to bother the hard-throwing right-hander, who faced just one batter over the minimum through four innings.

The White Sox broke that spell on Carlos Quentin's first-pitch home run in the fifth, but that proved to be just a bump in the road for Chatwood. Mixing a four-seam fastball that touched 96 mph and a slow curve in the high 70s -- and aided by three double plays -- Chatwood was in command all evening.

The Angels jumped in front in the second inning when Vernon Wells doubled -- his first extra-base hit since opening day -- went to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch that bounced just a few feet in front of the plate.

But Wells probably figured it was worth the gamble since the Angels had just five hits in their last 39 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

An inning later the Angels gave Chatwood a little more breathing room when Brandon Wood bounced a lead-off double off the wall in left and scored an out later on Kendrick's fifth home run of the season. Kendrick added a run-scoring double later in the game, making him one of four Angels to finish with at least two hits. For the second day in a row Maicer Izturis had three hits while Conger and Wells had two each.

After Quentin's 414-foot blast deep into the left-field bleachers got Chicago on the scoreboard, the Angels came right back in their next at-bat with Conger following two-out walks to Alberto Callaspo and Mark Trumbo with a three-run home run. The Angels' final run came in the seventh when Kendrick drove home Izturis, while the White Sox's last score came on Paul Konerko's two-out solo homer in the ninth off Rich Thompson.

For the Angels the win was their fourth in a row and eighth in 10 games following a 1-3 start.

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Jered Weaver makes history in latest start

Hank Conger gets third straight start at catcher

Angels reliever Fernando Rodney has another scoreless outing

-- Kevin Baxter, reporting from Chicago

Photo: Angels starting pitcher Tyler Chatwood delivers a pitch against the White Sox in the first inning Saturday in Chicago. Credit: Jerry Lai / US Presswire

Angels, White Sox almost ready to play

Some good news and some bad news out of Chicago.

The good news is the tarp is off the field at U.S. Cellular Field, and the Angels and White Sox are expecting to start play at 5:15 p.m. CDT after a two-hour rain delay.

Now for the bad news. The temperatures, which dipped to 33 degrees with a stiff wind, are still hovering in the mid 30s and could drop further. And there's still a chance -- albeit slight -- of more rain later Saturday night.

-- Kevin Baxter in Chicago

White Sox's Jake Peavy impresses even the opposition

Although Angel Manager Mike Scioscia was most concerned with the comeback bid of Scott Kazmir, his starting pitcher Friday, he couldn't help but notice how well the White Sox's Jake Peavy threw in Chicago's 3-1 Cactus League loss in Tempe, Ariz.

"Peavy looked great," Scioscia said. "He was finishing his pitches. That was impressive. These guys were saying they didn’t expect that."

"These guys" would be White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen and his coaching staff.

That's because Peavy had surgery in July for a detached latissimus dorsi muscle, a procedure no baseball player has ever come back from. Friday the right-hander faced the minimum six batters in two innings, giving up a walk but erasing that runner on a double play.

That got Kazmir's attention too.

"It's no surprise to me he's out there, doing what he's doing," Kazmir said. "He's a hard worker, a guy who will go out and challenge you no matter how he feels. He wasn't going to throw in the towel."

Peavy, a former Cy Young Award winner, tore his shoulder pitching against the Angels in July and hadn't thrown again in a game until Friday. Using a modified delivery that puts less strain on his right arm, Peavy threw 26 pitches, striking out Maicer Izturis to start the first and Vernon Wells leading off the second.

-- Kevin Baxter in Tempe, Ariz.