Woe, Doctor!

Take Two: Hoyer-to-Chicago confirmation

2011-10-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

Fear. That. Beard.

So, that Jed Hoyer to the Chicago Cubs rumor I was all worried about? Guess it's no longer a rumor. I'll let ESPN take it from here:

Two other sources confirmed ESPNChicago.com's report that San Diego Padres general manager Jed Hoyer will be named Cubs GM a few days after Epstein's news conference. But Padres owner Jeff Moorad emailed ESPNBoston.com's Gordon Edes late Wednesday night that the Cubs had not asked for official permission to interview Hoyer.

Crap.

Hoyer will be granted permission to leave when San Diego promotes senior vice president of baseball operations Josh Byrnes to vice president-general manager, a source said. Byrnes was GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks when Moorad was part-owner of the team. Sources said Moorad always had wanted Byrnes to return to the job, even though he respected Hoyer, who he hired in 2010.

Crappity crap.

There will be no compensation for Hoyer, a source said. Moorad and Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts have become friends since the Ricketts family bought the Cubs in October 2009. Ricketts was in San Diego on Sept. 28, which was the last day of the regular season, and did not return with the Cubs on the flight back to Chicago. Ricketts met with Moorad and sat with him, Byrnes and Hoyer during the season finale.

Waitaminute...what the hell? No compensation? Jeff Moorad is doing his buddy, Tom Ricketts, a solid and hammered out this deal as I sat in attendance for the season finale?! Oh, you've gotta be fist crankin' me. Remember this: the Theo Epstein deal is being completed with minimal harm or compensation to the Cubs' farm system or Red Sox front office because while Larry Lucchino, John Henry, & Co. were unwilling to part with the front office executives that made that team what it is today, Jeff Moorad stepped up to the plate and outlined a deal on the last day of the season that would hand his friend our general manager on a silver platter.

Let's make this crystal clear: this is not an indictment of Josh Byrnes. I think he's a very capable baseball mind and, while I'd prefer he'd remain in a complimentary capacity, he's simply not who I would prefer in the general manager's office. My issue is with the domino effect this will have on the Padres' front office and - more importantly - their scouting department. It's pretty much a guarantee that Jason McLeod and Jaron Madison are on the first flight into O'Hare.

Bottom line, fuck this Jeff Moorad guy.

UPDATE: Jason McLeod is in fact heading to Chicago but no word on Jaron Madison, there are conflicting reports as to whether or not compensation will be offered, and Bill Center is reporting in his Friday Padres Chat that A.J. Hinch will take over in McLeod's role.

Take One: Hoyer-to-Chicago rumors

2011-10-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

With those words (and accompanying article),Jon Heyman managed to spin the otherwise irrelevant and insufferable negotiationsthat will result in Theo Epstein’s journey to the Windy City into theunbearable possibility of Jed Hoyer bolting America’s Finest City for theriches of the Midwest. It’s taken a few hours for the initial shock to settle,but I’ve managed to take time away from putting my fandom up for auction on eBay(no reserve!) and provide my educated and well-reasoned take on these events.

These are my worst nightmares realized.

No, not for the obvious implications that Dreamboat Hoyermight take the next ticket out of town for a high-profile job with a high-profile,big-budget team; as a Padres fan, I’ve come to terms with being amongst thehave-nots. I won’t fault Tom Ricketts or Epstein for coveting a GMwho, although not without his faults since coming to San Diego, has managed to effectively changethe outlook of a once-bleak farm system into one that could one day yieldsustenance for a money-starved team. My nightmare fuel is derived from thesecond half of Heyman’s initial tweet in addition to this tidbit from TomKrasovic:

As several media outlets have pointed out, Hoyer’s deal withthe Padres runs through 2013, with a club option that could extend his tenurewith the franchise through the 2014 season. While answers have been hard tocome by, Hoyer took to the airwaves to “discuss” these rumors:

"I'm proud of what we have accomplished so far and I'mexcited about what we continue to build here in San Diego," Hoyer told XX-1090, thePadres' flagship radio station. "I'm busy interviewing hitting coachestoday and I'm not going to comment on media speculation."

While I’m appreciative that Hoyer went to the Padres’flagship radio station to provide an exclusive non-answer, this doesn’tnecessarily assuage all fears. It’s no secret that Jeff Moorad likes JoshByrnes – after all, he’s the one who hired him as General Manager of theArizona Diamondbacks and subsequently brought him to San Diego. The terrifying prospect, for me,is much of what I covered last week with how the Padres have handled theirmanager. Many people I trust in the baseball world seem to hold a high opinionhim, his role with the Diamondbacks notwithstanding. I have no issue with hiscurrent employment or position within the franchise, as he appears to bring awealth of experience that is highly-coveted amongst several teams with vacantGM jobs. This seems to be a case of the growing theme with Padres’ front officeemployees - the less drama, the better.

The very thought that Moorad might not be willing to holdthe Chicago Cubs over a barrel for Hoyer because Byrnes “is like a son” to him – andI’ll make sure not to mince words here – is absolute, Grade-A horseshit. Priorto this morning, it had been rumored that Byrnes was on Epstein’s short-list tocome with him to Chicago.For Moorad to protect his Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations at thecost of an intelligent, talented, and – most importantly – absolute dreamboatof a general manager has nothing but unfavorable implications.

Does Moorad harbor lingering resentment that his number onecandidate for the vacant GM job, Josh Byrnes, was still under contract with theDiamondbacks when he made the decision to hire Hoyer in October 2009? Perhaps.

Is it easier to go above Byrnes’s head with playeracquisitions and, thus, he’s merely pushing for a more-responsive marionette todo his bidding? Maybe; after all, nobody likes a fussy puppet.

Will Moorad’s insidious plot for a Sedona red utopianbaseball landscape spread to our fair city? Has he no shame? DOES HIS BLOODLUSTKNOW NO BOUNDS?!

The scary part is that I have no idea. None of us do. SinceEpstein has yet to officially accept a position with the Cubs, we’re only leftto speculate. Indications from Moorad were that requests for job interviewsfrom the other 29 teams would be denied if they were for lateral moves, yetthis rumor persists. All I’m left to go on is that this Hoyer-to-Chicago rumoris lacking a denial by Padres' ownership and that leaves Padres fans to sit inlimbo and question their faith in the franchise. What I do know is, if Hoyerleaves, this is on Moorad for having marginalized his position.

It looks like I picked a pretty trying year to buy seasontickets for the first time.

Managing expectations

2011-10-12T00:10:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest, I had to double-check to guarantee this was Doug Dascenzo & not Bud Black. It's eerie.

Another week, another coaching casualty for the San Diego Padres. As Bill Center reported yesterday:

Doug Dascenzo, who managed San Diego minor league affiliates to league championships in two of the last three seasons, departed the Padres after 13 years in the organization to become the minor league base running and outfield coordinator for the Atlanta Braves.
Dascenzo believes the Atlanta job offers him a better approach to a major league coaching position.

While Dascenzo spent the first decade of his post-playing days as a roving minor league outfield and base running instructor for the Padres, he has benefitted the most since being named the Eugene Emeralds’ manager prior to their 2006 season. His efforts earned him the honor of being named the Manager of the Year that season and was rewarded with that same postseason accolade following his 100-win, championship seasons with the 2009 Fort Wayne Tincaps and this year’s San Antonio Missions. Not all minor league success translates to the big leagues; this is as true for managers/coaches as it is for players. But, still, that last part irks me.

Now, unlike what transpired with the firing of Randy Ready last month, Dascenzo departs without any apparent philosophical differences between the manager and the front office brain trust. To the best of my knowledge, the Double-A manager will not be aided by a clubhouse-only manager to handle clubhouse etiquette, or a roving manager who reports only via hotline directly between Jed Hoyer and the San Antonio dugout in a further attempt to micromanage the hell out of this franchise. As intimated above, this is because a three-time Manager of the Year award winner and two-time championship-winning manager feels like he has no possibility of either moving up the ladder, or further building his résumé within the Padres organization.

To me, this is a terrifying development. I get that Hoyer has dedicated his focus towards rebuilding the franchise’s farm system – beefing up the Padres scouting department’s skeleton crew, doubling down on farm system depth, and draft day philosophy have all been evidence of this. For all of my bellyaching, I truly don’t mind Hoyer bringing in his guys even at the expense of franchise success stories such as Ready and Dascenzo. My issue starts at the top: with Jeff Moorad and the front office’s undying support Harry Ralston Black, Junior.

As you’ve most likely concluded from any number of my posts on Twitter, I am not a huge fan of BudBot. Don’t mistake my criticism, by all accounts he’s a highly-respected manager with great baseball mind, a personable demeanor in the clubhouse and with the press – a disciple that fell from the Scioscia Coaching Tree and I wouldn’t begin to know how all those intangibles weigh into how he does his job or how he’s evaluated. Buddy is not without his strengths as he's not without his faults. While my issues with Black’s lineup card, roster management, and overall team performance the past five seasons are issues I believe to be shared by many, my issue in this case has less to do with his perceived shortcoming and more to do with the managerial incongruity that seemingly tips in Black’s favor.

In an article addressing the completely speculative indication that Black might move to the Angels’ front office as their General Manager (otherwise known as my baseball wet dream), this phenomenon is more clearly fleshed out:

“Bud Black can manage this club as long as he wants to,” Padres CEO Jeff Moorad said Wednesday. “He’s a perfect skipper for the Padres in the near term as well as the long term.”

And, while it might be speculation on his part, Tim Sullivan revealed what he believed is Black’s greatest strength – his silence:

With two years remaining on his Padres’ contract, and two more years of club options thereafter, Black already has more job security than most major league managers. Though his hiring predates both Moorad’s and Hoyer’s arrivals at PETCO Park, Black is not some holdover desperate to hang on, but a low-maintenance leader who never complains about payroll, ballpark dimensions or decisions made by his bosses.

During his most recent Padres Chat, Bill Center didn’t do much to dispel this and said that, “when it comes to Bud, Moorad is the bottom line.” * Frankly, these are not altogether surprising revelations for me…and it’s the very reason I find this notion to be unacceptable. Don't get me wrong, I think Bud Black will be a good manager in Major League Baseball when all is said and done. I just feel that his best work will never be while he's a member of the San Diego Padres. Not to sell short his experience and accomplishments, but Black lacks a progressive approach to roster management and in-game strategy that this team needs to stay ahead of the curve; those aren't his strengths. It's not in his DNA. Give him a clubhouse to clean up, a budget that mitigates tough lineup decisions, and a tough media he can address with ice in his veins - I'm sure he'll excel. In this case, it seems clear that the front office is benefiting most from Black being the hometown guy with an extensive Major League pedigree who can smile and look into a camera all under the instruction of “don’t upset the apple cart.” **

As I said before, I don’t blame Hoyer for letting Randy Ready’s contract expire or letting Doug Dascenzo walk – they were franchise guys who might not fit into the current regime’s franchise framework. Hoyer indicated as much on the day Ready’s release became public:

"The last thing I'd ever want to do is make people think I'm holding him responsible," Hoyer said. "I hold myself responsible for that. Randy was a manager through the minor leagues and Randy wants to be a manager. He was brought here in large part because of his relationship with (players) from the minor leagues. I think he's very good with the game preparation and the mental side of hitting. I really want to bring someone in that is just a hitting guy, a real mechanic as a hitting coach, who can really help some of these young players get to that next level."

Like Dascenzo, Ready succeeded at several levels with the Padres; a respected and welcomed presence for many of the youngsters currently residing on the 25-man roster. For this, he was given a token promotion midseason in 2009 to the most unpopular coaching position in Major League Baseball as Padres’ hitting coach under the direction of the previous front office. I’ll be honest; I never liked the move. To me, what Hoyer spells out above is exactly why his promotion back to the show spelled the end of his tenure with the Padres. The position never played to his strengths or experience within the organization. Ready’s farewell phone interview with the North County Times’ Dan Hayes show a hitting coach with a far grander scope:

"Obviously, I'm disappointed," Ready said. "Anytime someone loses a job it's unfortunate. But the club made a decision and I'll move on. (The experience) was all positive. I was fortunate as a player in the organization to play with a lot of good players and to return as a hitting coach to work with good and great players. An opportunity like that doesn't come around very often."
…
"We're coming off last year where we were 27 outs from going to the playoffs," Ready said. "The park is the park. It plays fair. This year was more of a question of chemistry and not getting off to a great start."

As Hoyer mentioned, Ready is destined for far greater things and you don’t let these types of coaches/managers walk; if anything, you pit ambitious and successful individuals with a fresh outlook and a bright future against one another. This team cannot afford to sit on their hands when faced with such great odds stacked against them. In the cases of Dascenzo and Ready, the Padres decided to let them walk with flimsy excuses for greener pastures. Instead of accepting these two individuals and extrapolating their talents to provide for the greater good of the team, they seem to have been evaluated and disregarded through the limited scope of their current titles. It's the perfect example of failing to see the forest for the trees:

"It was really based on trying to get someone who can hopefullyget some of these young hitters we have, that may have stalled outa little bit, to really jumpstart these guys and maybe make somechanges mechanically that weren't happening," Hoyer said.

Just saying, but it sure seems difficult hard to jumpstart these players when the roster is admittedly full of lousy leaders, under-performers, and a manager that buries young talent.

To label Black as the “perfect skipper” who can manage the Padres for “as long as he wants to” is fantasy. Hoyer has laid the lack of leadership and clubhouse disharmony upon his shoulders, with claims that the 2011 Padres “had a few too many guys that were focused on putting up numbers and trying to get to free agency." It’s no secret that part of Hoyer’s charm is that he hasn’t shied away from blame. The bench was a wasteland, the offense was a wreck, and the pitching staff regressed – yes, he certainly shoulders some of the responsibility for a 71-91 season. So does everybody.

Why is this franchise so adamantly opposed to blaming Bud Black for their shortcomings? Why is he judged under a separate set of rules than the players, coaches, scouts, front office executives, and managers at every other level of this franchise? Thus far, if there's been a deficiency in any other element of this franchise, Moorad & Co. have been quick to sniff it out and seek to improve it. Under the direction of Black, the Padres have lost 90+% odds to make the playoffs going into September on two separate occasions. The other three years...?

Unless the Padres are paying Black solely upon his ability to earn Top 10 draft picks (the newest market inefficiency!), let's just say that with how top-heavy this franchise has become with front office executives, scouting directors, and coaches I don't think Black needs to add any additional responsibilities.

Randy Ready - better days in better uniforms.

*Center then went on to defend Bud Black by belittling those that weren’t 100% sold on him and repeatedly responding “Manager of the Year” over and over, which was…special. I only wish I were kidding.

**Sadly,the indication from Center and the majority of the local media’s response to any Bud Black criticism only helps reinforce how well this approach is working.

Fallen House, Sinking City

2011-08-04T19:17:00.000-07:00

It's August and nothing frustrates me more than the Padres already having run themselves out of the race. The trade deadline passed last week and the trade that everyone thought would happen didn't. At least Ryan Ludwick is out of here, I guess. The bright side of all of this lies in the fact that the future seems brighter than it has in a while. This season is a lost cause but I don't feel that this Padres team will lose 99 games as the '08 squad did; they will have to play much worse than they have been to accomplish this. Going into tonight, the Padres are sitting at 48 wins. The 2008 squad only won 63 the whole year. Let's hope that this current roster incarnation has more than 15 wins left in them... please. For the love of Jesus Guzman, please.

Bryant wrote a nice post on the two pitchers acquired for Mike Adams, so I won't go into detail on them, but the general consensus is that a team can never have too much pitching. This, thankfully, is not really a problem for the San Diego Padres currently with several young arms working their way up through the system. Behind Tim Stauffer, Mat Latos and Cory Luebke the Padres have several other pieces under team control for the forseeable future and adding Erlin and Weiland to the mix only makes the future of the pitching staff look brighter.

The offense has been terribly enigmatic since the team moved to Petco Park in 2004, but there is no reason to believe that a core of Chase Headley, Cameron Maybin, James Darnell, Kyle Blanks and Anthony Rizzo won't be able to sustain some sort of success on the offensive side of the ball if Hoyer can fill in the remaining spaces with equal or (hopefully) even more promising talent. Cory Spangenberg flying through SS Eugene up to Ft. Wayne two months after being drafted is hopefully a sign of things to come. Not to mention that Jedd Gyorko is already at AA San Antonio after being drafted in June 2010. This typically does not happen for Padres "prospects." I don't think I need to remind anyone of the Matt Bush's or Allan Dykstra's of the previous regime's farm system. Jed Hoyer is surrounded with a talent evaluation team that knows what to look for in young players and has a blueprint for success to follow. The Padres, in Woe, Doctor's! collective opinion, are probably in the hands of the best front office they've ever been in (from a baseball operations standpoint). If the system can start pumping out some hitters to go along with the pitching that's been developed in the last few seasons, the sustainable success we've always longed for as Padres fans will finally have a chance to come to fruition.

I've determined that the Padres need to go 35-16 the rest of the way in order to finish 82-80. For this squad (Brad Hawpe, Jorge Cantu, Ryan Ludwick), that would be HUGE. Heck, even 75-87 like the '09 team will be right on par with most pre-season predictions of how the Padres would finish. Nearly everything has gone wrong for the Padres this season (aside from being the Dodgers) and it's evident that things could be much worse. It's kind of nice to be able to lose a Clayton Richard and Dustin Moseley to season-ending shoulder surgeries and not really even have to worry about it. This is just going to open the door for the Padres to showcase Anthony Bass, Wade LeBlanc, and possibly even Juan Oramas (which is what Bryant heard) and see if any of them are going to be a part of the big picture going forward.

On one last note, I really hope that Kyle Blanks finds his swing (and ridiculous power) at the ML level again. 2009 was too promising for him to flame out the way that he has. Watching his numbers over the course of his rehab from elbow surgery and his time playing full-time between AA and AAA this year show me that he should still be considered a prospect. I want nothing more than for him to succeed and provide the Padres with some much-needed right handed power.

Padres face Kevin Correia on Sunday. Let's hope we don't get shutout.

Jed Hoyer: Seller

2011-08-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

Joe Wieland & Robbie Erlin, at a time when they dominated our AA team...probably last week.

Sunday was not only the end of an era for a couple of San Diego Padres players it provided a glimpse of Jed Hoyer in a role he had admittedly never played before - seller at the trade deadline. While he did manage to acquire a couple of pitching prospect he had coveted and was able to clear enough money to possibly ease the burden of signing some of those high-priced prospects (pretty please), it's hard to give any GM a flawless grade at the deadline. Hoyer is no different. While the decision to hold onto pitchers Chad Qualls & Aaron Harang makes perfect sense – Qualls is a good candidate to be dealt through the waiver-wire and Harang’s $5.5 million option for 2012 is making more sense by the way – holding onto Heath Bell really limits any future options to maximize value for the 34-year-old reliever. But that’s a focus for another day.

For now, let’s highlight the dearly departed. Nearly 90 minutes before the deadline, whispers around Twitter were that Heath Bell had been called into Bud Black’s office. This, of course, prompted discussion that he was on his way to the Texas Rangers – a deal deemed inevitable by just about every baseball analyst over the past few days. As we now know, this wasn’t the case; Mike Adams was dealt in exchange for two promising pitching prospects in Robbie Erlin & Joe Wieland, both of whom merely switched dugouts when the deal was completed as Double-A Frisco was facing San Antonio this weekend.

While this came as a surprise to just about everybody out there (Ken Rosenthal accidentally - and unfortunately - reported that it was Bell who was dealt for the actual return package), the return package should work out well in San Diego. Both pitchers are strike-throwing machines and while they’ve both yet to develop a good arsenal of secondary pitches and are generally flyball pitchers (most high strikeout guys are & they’ll be in PETCO Park), Erlin and Wieland are 20 & 21 year-old, respectively. In a twisted bit or irony, a once-scorching San Antonio Missions offense was no-hit by Wieland just two days prior to the trade. I’m sure you’ve likely seen their combined 2011 statistics: 251 IP, 255K, only 27 BB, and – by the way – did mention both of them will still be 21 going into 2012? That’s sickeningly impressive and I have yet to see one analyst speak ill of this trade, from both sides.

If you care to look at additional scouting reports and national sportswriters’ opinions on new-comers Robbie Erlin & Joe Wieland, I suggest you check out the following links:

Keith Law, as always, has a couple unique factoids on each player coming our way (Erlin’s command against LHH, for instance) and is generally complimentary of the moves for both sides.
Craig Elsten of 619 Sports interviews Joe Sheehan and Avenging Jack Murphy’s own Avenger In Chief. Honestly, if you haven’t at least checked out Sheehan’s take on this trade, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Some good stuff here.
Jason Parks knows his Texas League and, obviously, his Texas Rangers prospects. You should, obviously, read more about these prospects given his wealth of knowledge, but to cut to the chse he concludes that the trade “is a win-win” for both sides. Also, Parks & Kevin Goldstein both covered Erlin during their most recent Up & In podcast, and you can check out what Goldstein wrote about him just a week or so ago.

What I like most, seeing as they both have an ETA of mid-2012 or 2013 for sticking in a MLB rotation, the Padres’ rotation could benefit pretty quickly. Additionally, with Mat Latos, Tim Stauffer, & Cory Luebke still under team control for a few more years, this addition and any combination of Casey Kelly, Juan Oramas, and Keyvius Sampson, could reap benefits for years to come. Basically, our pitching just gained some much-needed depth for, hopefully, years to come while all we gave up was 100 IP from a talented yet soon-to-be expensive pitcher that doesn’t fit into our future plans.

As for Hoyer’s other draft day deal, he dealt the struggling Ryan Ludwick to the (contending!) Pittsburgh Pirates for a PTBNL or cash considerations mere minutes before the deadline. I have less to say about this one because I can some it up pretty succinctly: it’s about time. I’ll be honest, I was actually scared that somebody had screwed the pooch as talks of a “likely” deal to Cleveland fell through pretty abruptly and this didn’t get done until the last second. Don’t get me wrong, I have no beef with Ludwick as he showed up, was the consummate professional, and from all accounts a great clubhouse guy.

I guess you could categorize this as yet another win-win as he goes to the Pirates for minimal cost in the heart of a pennant race with the possibility to excel away from PETCO Park. Meanwhile, the Padres save anywhere between $2-3 million (depending on who is doing the adding & subtracting) while getting to audition the likes of Kyle Blanks & Aaron Cunningham for a potential starting job in 2012.

All in all, the moves that Hoyer did make at the deadline make perfect sense to me and will almost certainly help the Padres going forward. The issue of Bell is another story entirely – and one that will likely remain unresolved for quite awhile given the ruckus he’s created over the past 24 hours – but I’d say that the returns will benefit this club sooner rather later. However, as I intimated on Twitter, all I know is that if Jed Hoyer/Jeff Moorad don’t spend every cent saved from Ludwick on getting our top draft picks signed, I will…blog really angrily about it. Most likely, a few days or weeks after everybody's talked it to death.

Today's The Day

2011-06-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

Courtesy: Dan Hayes, NC Times

Anthony Rizzo is officially the starting first baseman for the San Diego Padres. While this move went from probable to inevitable due to the combination of Rizzo’s sustained hot streak and inconsistent play from incumbents Brad Hawpe and Jorge Cantú at the Major League level, today is the day that Padres fans the world over will saddle the 21-year-old with unfair expectations as they look to finally move from depression to acceptance in the wake of the Adrián González trade. Desperation is a stinky cologne and Rizzo’s gaudy numbers at Triple-A Tucson coupled with a poor start, especially at home, for the big league squad have created an upswell in unrealistically high expectations. Personally, I blameour local media.

And then they should pray that their first base phenom is equal to his expectations; that the .365 batting average he attained at Triple-A Tucson is an accurate reflection of his abilities and not the product of hitting at altitude on the hard infields of the Pacific Coast League.

Because there’s an awful lot riding on Rizzo’s callow shoulders; so much, in fact, that a lesser prospect might buckle beneath the strain. As the first fruit of the Adrián González deal and as a minor-league player who has generated more hype than any San Diego farmhand in a quarter-century, Anthony Rizzo arrives as a litmus test for Padres’ leadership.

If you can get past Tim Sullivan channeling his inner-Nick Canepa – I mean, honestly, mentioning the Batmobile, Michael Buffer, and Martha Stewart in the first three sentences…? – you’ll see that fans and media alike are already falling over themselves for the first real bright spot of the Padres’ 2011 season. Fair or not, Rizzo represents more than just a possible upgrade to an otherwise abysmal offense; he’s Jed Hoyer’s first prized prospect to siphon through to the bigs.

Obviously, it doesn’t take a lot to weed out the crazy – a few weeks ago, I heard callers on 1090 proclaim that the front office was delaying the start of a “Hall of Fame career” – but there are several sportswriters who seem to be a bit more realistic about his projected immediate and long-term contributions. I’d like to think this hype reached a fever pitch because fans had stopped to compare Keith Law’s preseason and updated Top 25 MLB prospects lists:

17. Anthony Rizzo, 1B, San Diego: Some of this is the ballpark -- he's hitting .410/.500/.795 in Tucson -- but some is just him growing into more power. He's still just 21 ('til August), already in Triple-A, and flashing above-average defense at first. He's blocked only by the audacity of Hawpe. Previous position: No. 38

Yes, Rizzo more than halved his ranking in only a matter of months (we were also gifted with the best nickname ever for Brad Hawpe) but that’s far from a glowing review that should yield NL Rookie of the Year declarations and like-minded statements before he’s recorded a single Major League plate appearance. So what should we expect? There have been a couple names bandied about: most notably, Adam LaRoche. As Geoff Young explains in today’s Ducksnorts blog – which you should read in its entirety if you care to fully grasp the sheer absurdity of some expectations – this is a completely reasonable yet, for some reason, completely depressing expectation:

First baseman Anthony Rizzo been recalled by the Padres, and the hype machine is in full effect. Rizzo, acquired in the trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez to Boston, should feel no pressure trying to replace a hometown kid who is one of the best hitters ever to don a Padres uniform. Nor should he suffer any ill effects from playing half his games in San Diego rather than Tucson.

I have compared Rizzo to Adam LaRoche; it is meant as a compliment, because LaRoche is a good ballplayer. He isn’t great, but by definition, most guys aren’t. And yet, if that’s all Rizzo ever becomes, he risks being viewed as a disappointment.

Fair? Not really, but when folks say things like, “I predict a regular Rizzo season to somewhat resemble this: .275/.350/.550, 35 HR, 110 RBI, 90 R, 35 2B, 5-10 SB,” what are we to do?

What to do, indeed. While Young’s article might be used as a way to temper some of the enthusiasm surrounding Rizzo’s call-up (and who could blame Padres fans, as we’re not accustomed to our farm system producing highly-rated players on a regular basis), it’s important to point out that Rizzo was never considered an elite first base prospect and that his numbers are unjustly influenced by an .805 PCL-wide OPS. In addition to throwing LaRoche’s name into the hat, Young also endorsed Jeff Creps’ belief that the best comparison he’s heard has been Anthony Rizzo to Gaby Sánchez circa-2010.

Again, this might not be what Padres fans want to hear, but that equates to average defense, a 112 wRC+, a .346 wOBA, and 2.3 wins above replacement (in 643 PA). This season, Sanchez has already outpaced those numbers and has the same 2.3 WAR in only 41% of the PA. That’s not to say that his performance is entirely related to a hitting-rich league, but it does play a big part in making his contributions appear Bautistian. This feeling was reiterated by Jason Catania over at FanGraphs:

Much as I like Rizzo, I’m not quite as high on him as I was with Eric Hosmer upon his recall last month for three main reasons: 1) Rizzo is patient at the plate but is more prone to strikeouts (23% K rate in his minor-league career); 2) Petco isn’t going to do him any favors, especially since the park suppresses left-handed homers by more than 40%; and 3) he’ll probably have some trouble accumulating runs and RBIS, given his less-than-stellar surrounding cast.

…

As a guy who broke out last year with 25 HRs and 100 RBIs across Hi-A and Double-A — and who was well on his way to surpassing those numbers this season — Rizzo has a shot to post 15 bombs going forward, and he’s likely to wind up being one of the top five most impactful bats brought up between now and the rest of the season.

These are far more realistic expectations and, besides, there’s room for Rizzo to grow as a player. He’s only 21. The long and short of it is that Anthony Rizzo will be productive but likely no superstar akin to the player we dealt for him. At least not yet. This is exactly why the lofty expectations of Rizzomania get on my nerves; he’s a work in progress and his immediate contributions are beside the point. If I were a Padres fan – and I’ve been mistaken for one before – I’d preach the philosophy behind this acquisition probably as much as the player himself. It’s an area where the Tampa Bay Rays and their fan-friendly Wall Street brain trust have succeeded in winning back their fans while the Padres under the direction of noted sourpuss, Sandy Alderson, did not.

As Rob Neyer explains, the situation is quite simple:

This is sort of classic large-market/small-market story. Rizzo's a first baseman. Until last December, Rizzo was a Red Sox farmhand, and a fine (if not brilliant) prospect. But the Red Sox, because they're the Red Sox, just couldn't wait for Rizzo to develop. Not when they could have Adrian Gonzalez, who's already a brilliant player. So the Sox packaged Rizzo with three other players and traded them to the Padres for Gonzalez.

Granted, Adrian Gonzalez is better than Rizzo right now, and will probably be better than Rizzo over the next few seasons. But at some point in the next four or five or six years, Anthony Rizzo's line on the performance graph might intersect with Gonzalez's, with Rizzo's going up and Gonzalez's going down.

This isn't Jeff Bagwell-for-Larry Andersen all over again. But it's the kind of deal the Padres have to make. And Thursday we'll begin seeing if this one worked. Rizzo figures to take over at first base for the big club, with .185-hitting Jorge Cantu's playing time most endangered.

In a sport where the disparity between the have and have-nots is inexplicably linked to the relative size of a team’s market, it’s imperative to understand that Anthony Rizzo’s promotions represents so much more than immediate returns for the Padres. His production will, inevitably, be what the casual fan gravitates towards when they check their newspaper every morning and chances are they’ll be disappointed. It's just one more example of a perpetually unhappy fanbase of a historically unsuccessful team setting their gaze too low. Should we expect some healthy production from Rizzo? Absolutely. But this move wasn’t centered around the acquisition of but one player, and the fans should be sure to remember that.

Then again, I guess we should be thankful – Jed Hoyer has managed a small miracle. Padres fans, including myself, have but for a moment stopped harping about the loss of Gonzalez and are genuinely excited about the promotion of a farm leaguer. Enough to throw around god-like projections due to monster numbers at Triple-A. Will Anthony Rizzo produce enough to quiet the doubters? In the words of Mike Axisa, “nothing ruins a good article quite like ‘time will tell’ in the last sentence.”

So, I guess we’ll wait and see…?

Welcome back, KT

2011-05-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

Not pictured: a Hawaiian shirt.

2009    Donavan Tate
2008   Allan Dykstra
2007   Nick Schmidt
2006   Matthew Antonelli
2005   Cesar Carrillo
2004   Matt Bush
2003   Tim Stauffer
2002   Khalil Greene
2001   Jake Gautreau
2000   Mark Phillips
1999   Vince Faison
1999   Gerik Baxter
1999   Omar Ortiz
1998   Sean Burroughs
1997   Kevin Nicholson
1996   Matt Halloran
1995   Mark Davis

Cram it with walnuts, Gunslinger.

UPDATE: Kevin, over at Park At The Park, has delivered this gem by blending the aforementioned list of shame & modest Photoshop skills. Anybody who can print this bad boy out and proudly fly it in front of the PETCO Park faithful during any game this series will be my hero.

The Perfect Metaphor

2011-05-03T17:14:00.001-07:00

Jorge Cantú missing on a pop foul, as many Pirates fans as Padres fans, emotions ranging from fright to ambivalence to glee. Your 2011 San Diego Padres.

It's...perfect.

Something's Got To Give....... Right?

2011-04-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

Woe, Doctor! was in attendance for the last two games against the Philadelphia Phillies and are ecstatic to report that the Padres avoided a third straight shut-out, which would have been at the hands of Joe Blanton last night. Tim Stauffer was on fire last night, hitting his spots with regularity and striking out 7, including Ryan Howard three times. I think that's like 17 strikeouts for Howard in this series, yet he still managed to deliver the winning blow against Cory Luebke; thankfully, the runs were charged to Chad Qualls. My friend Idin is now holding Qualls as responsible for 3 Padres' losses even though he is only 0-2. Once again, the Padres had multiple chances to put this one away but failed to convert. Most likely because Brad Hawpe was starting at 1B last night. I'm only kidding about Hawpe but, seriously, how much more Hawpe can we be subjected to? I like to imagine Jed Hoyer throwing chairs and beer around the general manager's suite during Hawpe's at-bats. It frustrates the hell out of me that his abilities have deteriorated so quickly.

I previously mentioned that the Padres could have put themselves ahead in this game more than a couple times. In the first inning, the Padres' first three hitters reached base yet they were only able to scratch out one run. At one point, Jorge Cantu flied to what the box score states as "shallow" right field with Cameron Maybin on third and only one out but Glenn Hoffman elected to hold Maybin at third rather than go the aggressive route. At a time when runs have been as scarce as a Brad Hawpe base hit, the Padres need to capitalize on every single opportunity to score runs. From where I was sitting in Right Field, Ben Francisco wasn't in the best position to hose Maybin unless he made a perfect throw. Maybin has wheels, send him home. If he's out, at least we tried because Ludwick did to the best of his rally-killing abilities and struck out to end the inning; color me surprised.

On a positive note, Jason Bartlett collected another two hits amid his first extra base hit of the year: a triple crushed to the right field corner at Petco where every other baseball on the planet goes to die. I want to reiterate that Stauffer was on his game last night and is establishing himself as a dependable member of the Padres' starting rotation.

One last random musing, I am tired of watching opposing players come in to Petco and smashing the baseball out of the ballpark like the fence distances don't even phase them. I swear Jonny Gomes (all douchebaggery aside) pelts one off the LF scoreboard every time he comes to town. On Wednesday night, Ben Francisco and Brian Schneider (?!) both parked one to the two farthest parts of the park off Mat Latos. At what point does the front office come to the realization that the problem may actually lie in the possibility that our starting lineup no longer contains anyone with legitimate home run power? The point is, I want to see the Padres maintain long-term success, but this cannot happen until they can put it together on both sides of the ball. The pitching/defense first strategy is not working this month. Let's hope May brings better days.

I'm leaving for Mexico for the next seven days, so let's just call this venture what it actually is: "a nice, long break." I need one to let the ulcer the Padres have given me get some rest.

I hope the Padres find a way to make Roy Halladay pay for his stupid MLB2K commercial. Scoring 5 runs off of him would be a great way to do this. You heard me, Padres. Score some damn runs... please.

Banal Minutiae

2011-04-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

The Padres were finally able to break through against J.A. Happ and the Astros last night. This was especially great after having just been shut-out by Bud Norris the evening prior. The differences in the Padres' collective play in the first two games of this series was evident as the mistakes made in last night's event did not result in losing the game. A number of things were done well, and I am more than happy to see Ryan Ludwick avoid leaving 7 RISP, as he did on Thursday night.

Over the first 13 games of this season everyone has noticed that a handful of Padres' regulars are off to extremely slow starts in 2011. Most noticeably Ludwick and Brad Hawpe, both of whom have been slated to help carry the offensive workload this season. Ludwick, as opposed to Hawpe, has been hitting the ball hard when he isn't striking out so his hits are bound to start falling sooner or later. Hawpe, on the other hand, is a different story. Padres fans will more than likely remember Brad Hawpe as the Colorado Rockies right fielder whom notoriously killed Padres pitching whenever he came to town. The version of Brad Hawpe that Bud Black has been sending out to 1B this year is not Colorado's Hawpe. It pains me to watch a player that has had so much success historically struggle like this, but it's in Hawpe's body language; he's pressing and he looks dejected while doing it. What's even worse is the statistics Dick Enberg has been divulging when Hawpe comes up to bat. For instance, on Thursday night Enberg mentioned that Hawpe is a lifetime .353 hitter at Minute Maid Park in Houston, yet the Hawpe we're watching flail in the batter's box can no longer get around on an 89-mph fastball. Watching a player that was once great at baseball no longer perform at even a serviceable level is entirely frustrating. The bigger problem is that the Padres don't really have the depth right now to do anything about it, but Black can at least plug Cantu in at 1B full-time and shuffle Hawpe to the bench.

Worth mentioning is The Delorean (Kyle Blanks) has started a rehab assignment as the DH for San Antonio (AA). It's no secret that Woe, Doctor! has always been stoked on Blanks' abilities and the possibility of him playing 1B again is huge. Ultimately, he will likely end up in LF or RF because Anthony Rizzo is less than a year away from contributing at the big league level. The most important thing to take away from this is recognizing that the Padres farm system is starting to fill up with potential major league talent. This is how the Padres will eventually find sustained long-term success; and I, personally, cannot wait for this to come to fruition. Through 2 games, Blanks is hitting .400 (4 for 10) with 2 walks against 3 strikeouts. We'll be looking for him to show his elbow is fully recovered and subsequently head to Tucson (AAA) before making his way back onto the 25-man roster. Kyle Blanks has a posse; you'll see what I mean later this year, stay tuned.

There is much to be excited about when it comes to the Padres' current state and likely direction heading into the future. Jed Hoyer is in this to develop a long-term winner, and aside from a few small hiccups, he has poised the team to accomplish just that.

Mat Latos is on the bump again tonight against the Astros and he'll be looking to not lose the game as a result of two mistake pitches. He'll be going against Nelson Figueroa.

Woe, Doctor! will be in attendance at Petco Park when the Padres take on the Phillies 4/22 and 4/23. Everyone should try to make it out so the stands don't look like a sea of red. Let's go for a sea of brown, okay?

Everyone should also start referring to Gregerson, Adams, Bell as the "Gift of GAB." Because I am and avid fan of the hip-hop duo Blackalicious and it sounds cool.

Go, Padres!!

Bridges, beers, and...BASEBALL

2011-04-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

Another home opener come and gone, and I'm left to reflect on what was a pretty fantastic day. Anybody fortunate enough to be at PETCO Park yesterday as the Padres soundly defeated the World Champion (I just threw up in my mouth a bit) San Francisco Giants 3-1 was treated to a great - although, at times, sloppy - game and a memorable pregame ceremony. It's easy to go into great detail, but I'd rather just bulletpoint the day's highlights.

Pregame Ceremony: Simply put, it was incredible. Having arrived more than 90 minutes before gametime, I walked across the newly-completed pedestrian bridge, grabbed a Stone Pale Ale, and took in the sights. During the Giants' BP I watched Barry Zito and Tim Lincecum clown around in the outfield, and admired the fact that the caterpillar that currently resides on Zito's upper lip is visible from the Upper Deck. What followed next was quite the spectacle.

Aside from Dick Enberg laying on the musical metaphor a bit thick during the video introduction, things went on without a hitch. The Padres celebrated 75 years of existence by introducing players from different eras - George McDonald (1B, 1936-1944), Jim Gleason (SP, 1947-1948), Ollie Brown (RF, 1969-1972), Randy Jones (SP, 1973-1980), Gary Templeton (SS, 1982-1991), and Mark Loretta (2B, 2003-2005) - before cuing up "Hells Bells" and calling in Trevor Hoffman from the bullpen to deliver the first pitch. I've been critical of Hoffman's departure in the past and still maintain that both parties were to blame for how things soured, but all is forgiven...and I was wearing sunglasses so there's no proof I was crying.

As a fun side note, a Giants fan sitting to my right thought that Hoffman's entrance from the bullpen warranted the following reactions (in order):

Plugging his ears.
Booing - rather halfheartedly, I might add.
Turning towards the entire rightfield bleachers and pointing to his World Series Championship t-shirt while putting on his best shit-eating grin.
Getting blackout drunk (more on this in a moment).

The Battery: After a rocky first inning - and, man, that first run scored awfully fast - Aaron Harang settled down nicely and, in my approximation, was the player of the game. Limiting the damage to one run on the day, 6 seemed to be his lucky number as he went 6 innings with 6 hits and 6 strikeouts (2 walks). The PENitentiary continued to do what it does best and, while it may be early in the season, Nick Hundley continues to justify the front office's decision to step up his involvement in this lineup. He went 3-for-4, with a 2B and a run scored and likely made a new enemy in Andres Torres with the way he outed his noodle arm. A solid day for the Padres' battery across the board.

The Atmosphere: Too. Much. Fun. I've only sat in the Right Field Reserved seats on one other occasion - coincidentally, also a Giants game - and this reminded me of both that previous chaos and when I flew down from the Bay Area during college in 2004 to attend the inaugural game at PETCO Park (again, against the Giants). There seems to always be a good deal of banter going back-and-forth at the game - or, in the case of 2004, on the plane - but things remained rather civil and entertaining. Drunk Giants Fan ("DSG") I mentioned above? He couldn't take the chaos that was Madison Bumgarner and the Giants's defense collapse during the third inning and ended up passing out with his head against the retaining wall at the edge of the Upper Deck.

As you can see, not only has DSG abandoned his desire to carry on cheering, but his neighbor - let's call him Sloshy Von White Cap ("SVWC") - is passed out, drooling onto his belly. DSG was promptly escorted out and, mere moments later, SVWC was escorted out as well. If you can recall, this isn't the first time Woe, Doctor! has witnessed such madness, but it provided a comedic break that fans of both teams could laugh about.

Cameron Maybin: Okay, this may be both a highlight and a lowlight. One of the most apt statements I read about yesterday's game came courtesy of Marc Normandin, who said the following:

It's best to leave it at that.

Lastly, it would behoove of me to mention that while Tom Garfinkel insists that there are more Stone Brewing taps sprinkled throughout PETCO Park, I still insist on seeking out more local craft brew options. Mission Brewery had their new brewery's soft opening yesterday and, seeing as it's located at the old Wonderbread warehouse just east of the tailgate lot, it's yet another alternative for you Padres fans looking for a cheap alternative to the $8.25 craft beer inside the stadium walls. I suggest you head on over to the brewery, and to West Coaster who did a great job covering this and all other North County beer-related events.

Until next time, Padres fans, remember: Break Open Your Cold Ones! Toast The Padres! Enjoy This...Competitive...Organization!

For additional Padres Home Opener coverage, I suggest checking out the most recent entries by jbox over at Gaslamp Ball and Geoff Young's entry over at Ducksnorts.

Opening Day, Pt. 2: Weekend Recap

2011-04-04T23:50:00.000-07:00

It's only a matter of hours before the Padres kick off the 2011 home opener and, short of a sweep, their opening weekend in St. Louis couldn't have gone much better. For a team that has struggled notoriously in the Gateway City, having compiled a 4-14 record in Busch Stadium II prior to this season, this success might have come as a shock. Rest assured, it wasn't a dream. While one series certainly shouldn't be viewed through sand-colored spectacles with the utmost certainty that this is indicative for the remaining 159 games, it did provide its fair share of early optimism.*

Oh, hi there. I couldn't hear you over the sound of my deafening awesomeness.

It goes without saying that the hero of the weekend was the newly-acquired (former) phenom, Cameron Maybin, whose last second heroics snatched a nearly-certain victory away from the Cardinals. To grasp how phenomenal Maybin's game-tying, two-out, ninth inning home run was, consider for a moment that thanks to Matt Holliday's home run the previous inning the Red Birds were cruising with a 96.6% win expectancy when Maybin came to bat. His blast to centerfield not only tied the game, it also represented the greatest swing in win expectancy for either side to that at 36.8% - that is, until Maybin came to bat in the top of the 11th. While Chase Headley should get the lion's share of the credit for his alert baserunning - as should Ryan Theriot for his inept fielding - Maybin's single still led to a win expectancy swing of 40.7% in favor of the good guys, and put the game out of reach.

As if that weren't enough, Maybin flashed a lot of that polished raw talent that made him the highly-regarded prospect and, arguably, the most valuable trade chip in the deal that sent Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Detroit Tigers. Maybin's offense was the story, but he also appeared fairly comfortable in centerfield, leaving St. Louis with a 0.66 WPA when all was said and done. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but if this is a sign of things to come it certainly will ease my pain of seeing Tony Gwynn, Jr. celebrate in Dodger blue (okay, maybe I'll never get used to it).

While Maybin might have provided the fireworks, Nick Hundley provided similar production albeit with slightly less fanfare. Hundley departed St. Louis with a 0.42 WPA and provided a fairly good look at both his offensive and defensive improvement, as he threw out the only two runners brave enough to challenge him (I'll ignore that pesky passed ball...for now). It's a long season and I've already indicated how worrisome our catching depth has become, and with Hundley due to see an increased workload does little to curb that trepidation; but to have even the slightest bit of that burden lifted, if only for a moment, certainly provides a bit less to worry about.

DOCTOR'S ORDERS

Thanks are in order for those over at RJ's Fro for their awesome event on Sunday at the Randy Jones All American Sports Grill. Cannot thank them enough as great people were in attendance, baseball was discussed/watched, and happy hour craft brews were consumed (I love you, Ballast Point Sculpin).
We may have touched upon but a few players from the opening weekend, but Ray Lankford over at The Sacrifice Bunt goes a step further by confusing the living bejeezus out of you with even more unsightly acronyms and analysis. It's part of his charm.
In what he claims as is a "half-assed post," our resident Avenger-In-Chief explores team culture and the Padres' quest for a theme song.** Well, it's a start.
ESPN hates us. Yahoo! Sports, maybe moreso. That's cool - nothing wrong with being the underdog.

Also, and this is incredibly important, the guys over at Bring Back The Brown and 5&A Dime are kicking the weekend series against the Los Angeles Dodgers off in style with their Bring Back The Brown, SD! Tailgate Party. There will be exclusive product releases, BBQ, beer from Left Coast Brewing Co., and much more. Head on over to their site (and sign the petition, for #shit's sake), or sign up at their Facebook event page for more information/exclusive offers.

See you all for the home opener and, well, it goes without saying...but Go Padres!

* Contrary to, well, evidence of the contrary - we aren't always about doom & gloom pessimism.
** In a nod to our pre-PETCO Park Days, my vote is for The Locust's "One Manometer Away From Mutually Assured Relocation." Everybody likes a good threat to keep attendance figures up! Oh, and that idea's for free, Garfinkel.

Opening Day, Pt. 1

2011-04-02T12:30:00.001-07:00

I meant to post something about Cameron Maybin & his sheer awesomeness after Thursday's comeback win but, well, Dictator Selig* ensured that I'd be busy Friday due to his decision to schedule only six games for Opening Day and a near-full docket for Day 2 of the 2011 season. That's a post for another day, but I figured I'd at least address a couple points in brief prior to Game 2.

First, the uniforms. My. God. Just check this photo below:

Fantastic, right? I mean, they were able to digitally touch-up this archived MLB photo so that the Cardinals, their fans, Busch Stadium, and everything BUT the Padres are no longer in grayscale. They're just...boring. During the game I heard fans refer to them as NCAA uniforms, Little League, and - my favorite - two-day old human excrement. I agree with all those.

Secondly, howsabout that comeback? I know Opening Day is but one game of a long season, but we're all aware of the Padres struggles in St. Louis as they marched into town with only 4 wins in nearly 20 games at the new Busch Stadium. This is a game, an environment, and a team that the Padres don't typically win; and while I'm not indicating this is indicative of any trend going forward, it was still refreshing to see.

Anyway, writing blog posts on a smartphone isn't as easy as I thought it would be so I'll reserve further judgment of Opening Day until a later, far less relevant date. Until then, enjoy the fact that the Padres are atop of the NL West - take that, skeptics! - and enjoy the upcoming first pitch of Game 2.

* Fun sidenote: typing "Selig" on my phone prompts a smart type change to "Delight." Dictator Delight didn't have the same ring to it.

Rats off a sinking (Dream)boat

2011-03-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

I want this image tattooed on my chest, spanning nipple-to-nipple, for the whole entire world to see.*

If there's one thing we here at Woe, Doctor! have become synonymous with - aside from a scarcity of new posts - it's a love for grasping, overly dramatic puns for headlines that, oftentimes, lead to a far more level-headed response than you've been lead to believe. This post is no different.

In the aftermath of a 72-hour utility infielder merry-go-round that saw Kevin Frandsen released, Everth Cabrera promoted to the 25-man roster Sunday, and Alberto González acquired via trade Monday from the Washington Nationals - with Cabrera subsequently shuttled back down to Triple-A Tucson - one thing has been made abundantly clear; Jed Hoyer might have a fairly unsightly blemish on his otherwise impressive Padres' résumé. It's no secret that the sophomore general manager for San Diego has won us over with his sexy looks and even sexier brain (braaaaaaains), but the wholesale clearance of our once-overflowing bullpen depth and the giant debacle which is the team's bench depth provide major chinks in our young GM's armor. That's not to say that I do not see the necessity of dealing from a position of strength or being a bit thrifty with limited financial resources, just that there are currently major depth issues wreaking havoc with an otherwise promising foundation.

To be fair, I may carry a slight bias due to what I'm sure is a sense of rejection and longing for defensive wizard Tony Gwynn, Jr., but team depth has become a growing concern for me. The Padres benefited in 2010 from what was arguably the strongest bullpen in baseball and a bench that, at times, held the team's head above water as the starting eight battled with lingering health and efficiency issues. As Opening Day is nearly upon us, it concerns me that Bud Black will be relying upon a bench that features (brace for it) Jorge Cantu, Chris Denorfia, Cedric Hunter, Gonzalez, and Rob Johnson. While I believe Gonzalez to be at least no worse than Frandsen and Cantu should likely provide a decent spark offensively, I don't sense the same versatility I did with Jerry Hairston, Jr., or the experience of players like Matt Stairs and Yorvit Torrealba. Simply put, while there's definitely some upside - lest we forget, Hunter should cede power once Eric Patterson and Aaron Cunningham, both coming off monster Springs, are healthy - this bench feels like a collection of reaches. More importantly, it doesn't feel as if the bench is collectively geared to provide any certain tools; it simply seems...scattered.

What's more interesting to me are the decisions in the rotation and the bullpen. Granted, injuries have made BudBot and Hoyer's job a bit more difficult as camp closes, but I find the addition of Cory Luebke to the bullpen to be a curious one. Curious in the fact that for a team that's admittedly hamstrung by their limited resources they have decided to start Luebke's clock as he plays a cursory role in the 'pen. Perhaps he's not fully stretched out and, coupled with Mat Latos starting his 2011 season on the 15-day DL (cue mercenary jokes...now!), this is but a temporary setback before a promotion to the rotation after the first few weeks, but I still don't fully grasp the logic.

Not to be confused w/our digital recreation of the sneeze heard 'round the world, this is a bursa sac injury.

I'll admit, my outlook could differ entirely a week into the season, as I'd expect to see as much last-minute roster shuffling as we have the past few days. It just seems strange that in reflection of a team that came one game short of a playoff berth just a few short months ago, that such seemingly minute details - think: "Stauffer might be too valuable to start" ("Mission Accomplished," indeed) - could be entirely overlooked. That's where I come in, a voice of dissent so I can brag about it if I'm right in the future. At the very least, I figured I'd voice my concerns and provide evidence that Dreamboat Hoyer is - contrary to legend - actually human.

Which might actually make him sexier.

DOCTOR'S ORDERS

This is a new section I'm trying out. It allows me to post new Padres news and up my post count all while linking to those who work harder than me. Win-win-WIN.

I'm probably the last to repost this, but it doesn't make it any less important. The fine people at RJ's Fro are putting on quite the shindig Sunday, April 3rd at the Randy Jones All American Sports Grill. Both Woe, Doctors! (yes, there's two of us) will be there and so should you.

Gaslamp Ball documents the continued disappearing act of Everth Cabrera. Banner edition.
The Chula Vista Little Leaguers/Future Padres that brought the last (first?) significant championship to San Diego? No longer a focal point on the backside of the scoreboard. Tenth & Island reports that space is now dedicated for a cram-it-down-your-throat "Team of the Military" banner tag team. I feel more patriotic already.

* Our good friend, drinking buddy, and previous WD! contributor, David, deserves all credit for this masterpiece. Good work, kind sir.

Chase Headley, protein shakes, & that ol' San Diego Fan pessimism

2011-03-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

The Tweet that spawned the ire of - well - one person. We don't have a lot of followers.

I should probably get this out of the way immediately – I have a reputation as an unabashed Chase Headley homer. I’m likely the first one to congratulate him with gratuitous praise directed through my TV and I’m first in line to post excuses for him across many a message board as he’s slogged through three seasons of unbalanced or unmet expectations. That’s life when you favor “The Savior.” So, as the Padres’ number one prospect posted his second consecutive lackluster year offensively, the blame fell squarely on those responsible for his formerly-slender shoulders: John Moores, Kevin Towers, Sandy Alderson, and…Kevin Kouzmanoff.

Rising through the Padres farm system, Headley was seen as a prospect with excellent mental makeup and poise at the plate coupled with excellent instincts and hands in the field. In an effort to shed the label of “on-base maven,” he added somewhere between 15-25 pounds of muscle (depending on the source) prior to the his 2007 AA season and ended up adding “legitimate power threat” to his other tools while leading the San Antonio Missions to a Texas League Championship and, for his efforts, the Texas League Player of the Year. It’s here that the crystal ball gets a bit murky. Despite posting excellent numbers in 2007, the logjam at 3B provided by fellow slugging prospect Kouzmanoff moved Headley to LF and, with this, a slimmer Headley to patrol the park.

We all know how Chase's outfield experience went ("awful" isn't a strong enough word), and he found himself back at the hot corner following last year's deal that sent Kouzmanoff and Eric Sogard to Oakland in exchange for Scott Hairston and Aaron Cunningham - supposedly, still sans the muscle that made him the legitimate slugger than had propelled him up the prospect ladder in 2007. The results were, from an offensive standpoint, disappointing...the very definition of average.

Now, as I mentioned before, Headley has always been seen as a solid-but-not-great defender and his move to the outfield was one necessitated by a lack of options; Kouzmanoff is far less of an athlete and Headley was merely deemed the lesser of two evils when push came to shove. One knock on Headley, even as he was beating down the doors to the bigs as a Baseball Prospectus five-star prospect, has been his range; just take these choice quotes from Kevin Goldstein's "Future Shock" write-up on the Padres system prior to the 2008 season:

His baseball intelligence and instincts add to his total package, and he has good defensive fundamentals.

Headley is not much of an athlete. He's a below-average runner, and while he makes the plays he gets to, his range falls a bit short.

The Padres are moving Headley to left field this spring in order to get his bat into the lineup, and he'll be given the opportunity to earn a big-league job. The logic of that decision is that neither he nor incumbent third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff is an especially good defender at the hot corner, but Headley is more apt to succeed in the outfield.

Granted, this isn't to say that Headley couldn't have developed into a good defensive 3B as he had the instincts and soft hands as a building block. More has been done with less. And while I don't think that one year's worth of defensive data is necessarily indicative of anything in the grand scheme of things*, Headley did post the league's best UZR for a 3B last season at 16.5. What's more, according to Baseball-Reference, Chase and his 1.5 Defensive WAR was the tenth-best in franchise history and the most valuable defensive contribution of any previous Padres' third baseman. This could be the result of any number of things, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that the muscular deficiencies that Headley brought to the plate hindered him in the field. Did his smaller frame contribute to his meteoric rise as a defender? Perhaps, but we don't really have much at the Major League level to determine this.

All of which brings me to 2011. When pictures arose from the Padres' open photo shoot back in early February that depicted a hulked-out Chase, the Internet chatter was palpable...

I like to imagine this photo captures Chase challenging the photographer to a fight.

...and a handful of days later, Corey Brock confirmed what we all had hoped for:

Chase Headley is here in camp looking stronger. He's weighing 222 pounds, up from the 212 he weighed a year ago at this time. He said his playing weight got down to 201-202 pounds a year ago when he wore out toward the end of the season. We talked mostly of his struggled hitting right-handed last season. He thinks that he'll be better from that side in 2011.

So, Headley showed up about 10 lbs. heavier than he did for camp in 2010 in an effort to sustain a bit of strength and stamina down the stretch. Is this significant? We - fans, bloggers, media personalities, the front office, teammates, coaches, and Chase alike - all seem to think so, and I wouldn't mind if he traded in a bit of his newfound defensive prowess for some power. Now, I'm not sure that Headley has lost a step in the field (or on the bases), but I'd still assume the front office expects his defense to tail off a bit both due to natural regression and because he spent the entire offseason trying to retool offensively. Either way, the prospect of Headley bashing the ball like the Cerrano of old ** is enough to make this schoolgirl giddy. The concern is, at the cost of what?

Which is what brings us to the $2,325,000 question: what does it all mean? As was originally intended, I merely wanted to rouse debate over which Chase Headley Padres fans would prefer: the Mild-Mannered Chase Banner, whose defensive wizardry was poetry in motion, or the slugging muscle of the Incredible Hulk. I've made no bones about my love of all things defense, but it would be remiss of me to deny that Headley's more valuable to this team as the middle-of-the-lineup slugger he was projected to become - even at the loss of some Gold Glove-caliber defense. And that's even if he has to sacrifice one for the other; I'm merely operating under the assumption that the kind of weight he put on was centered towards his offseason regimen to get back to his slugging roots.

At this point, it's unclear how things will shape up over the course of the next 162 games, or what steps Chase might undertake to strike a balance between his two selves. Chase is far from the enigma that Kouzmanoff has become, but we've still yet to see him hit his stride as any one sort of player. Just as how an innocuous Tweet curious as to how Headley will balance his latest transformation from string bean to hulking slugger doesn't draw a line in the sand as to how I believe this newfound weight will shape his 2011, I don't believe a diving play Sunday, charging in to field a bunt, and four singles (2 from the right side!) have erased all doubts created during the past three seasons.

One way or another, as Spring Training winds down and the regular seasons gears up, we'll get to see the kind of ballplayer The Savior has grown up to be. Chances are he disappoints somebody...and I'll be the first in line to make an excuse for him.

More homers & less of the sissy bat flip, plz.

* For that matter, I'm not thoroughly convinced that UZR is the tell-all defensive metric it's oftentimes made out to be. But that's neither here nor there.

** That's sort of a Charlie Sheen reference! We're so hip and relevant without appearing like we're trying too hard!

The Wet Blanket

2011-02-28T16:18:00.000-08:00

I hate kids.

It’s no secret that the topic of Adrián González has been markedly absent from our pages for the past several months. That’s partly due to our neglect to update on a regular basis, and partly because I despise retreading a tired subject. It’s no secret that González was looking for greener pastures (see what I did there?), and his tenure with the Boston Red Sox should prove to be more offensively and financially fruitful than his time in the unfriendly confines of PETCO Park. However, lost amongst the talk of our new top prospects and ballpark estimates surrounding González’s next contract is something that I’ve seen go mostly unreported; Adrián González was, and continues to be, a wet blanket.

Unreported, that is, until Sunday. Twice in as many days, the Union Tribune published comments from former teammates that indicated – surprise! – their undisputed offensive leader wasn’t necessarily a leader when it came to charisma in the clubhouse.

The Padres will almost certainly employ one of the most marketable players they’ve had in the history of the franchise in ways that will affect their fans as well as players and front office.

“Like Tony Gwynn, Trevor is the face of the Padres and will always be the face of the Padres,” said Heath Bell, the closer who succeeded Hoffman in that role.

“Last year, we didn’t have that. Adrian Gonzalez was not Tony or Trevor when it came to how the fans felt. There was no face of the Padres.

“So having Trevor return does a number of things for the Padres. One, it shows this organization is a class act. Two, Trevor is a class act. He’s going to be great for the players on this team who never saw him as a Padre.”

Now, that's not to say that González and his numerous charities across San Diego County wasn’t a class act both on and off the field, but it’s no secret that he has the personality akin to my pet rock, Khalil. If there was one knock on Adrián it was the fact that for all his proclamations about how San Diego was his home, the Padres hardly seemed like his team; or maybe you could argue that their deadly boring personality was a product of his influence. If you doubt that Heath Bell's sentiments documented above are an outlier, it's reiterated by ex-teammate/current-Padre, Jorge Cantu:

Mexico's fans cheered Cantu like no other player in the WBC.

"I am proud of that," the 29-year-old Cantu said Monday afternoon at the Padres camp. "There was a rabid following at the WBC. I don't know totally how to explain why that is, but I have some ideas.

"I'm the kind of person who doesn't hold anything back. I interact a lot with my countrymen at games. Maybe it's a little charisma. I'm a firm believer in winning over the crowd.

"And I grew up in Mexico. I signed to become a professional while I was playing in Mexico. Adrian is a great person and a great player, but he is more conservative than I am. Sometimes with my countrymen, they want to see passion."

Lest you mistake this as sour grapes, rest assured that I don't view this as an indictment on González's motivation or performance individually as a player (that's an argument for another day) - I just tire of the vanilla personalities. Of all the offseason moves by Jed Hoyer, none pleased me more than his signing of Orlando Hudson - and not just because he was a significant upgrade from David Eckstein statistically. The guy is engaging and it spills into everything that he does. Just watch any game where Hudson is miked up - and, trust me, there are a lot of them - or the fantastic "Rome Correspondent" segment he did while a member of the Minnesota Twins last season and tell me the guy doesn't have the respect and attention from fans and teammates alike.

I have no idea how personalities and team chemistry factor into on-field production; it's an incomprehensible variable with no formula to dictate how it might impact a team's performance. But I've always viewed a clubhouse as toeing the fine line between professionalism and stuffiness, and I'm not so sure that a team as young as the Padres can thrive with the proverbial stick up its ass. I commented last season that while I liked that veterans helped reel back Mat Latos from the brink of immature outbursts and egoism he was prone to during his abbreviated debut in 2009, I didn't care to have his personality neutered entirely...even Bell seemed a bit reserved. I'm glad to see that, for the sake of rivalry and fun, Latos has stepped out of his shell and provided just enough ego and showmanship to make this team one that's fun to identify with.

Thank Lucifer - our ace pitcher has a personality.

It certainly isn't a marketable quality to have no outspoken team leaders; no wonder, two years later, a banner boasting the Little League World Series Champions from Chula Vista still hangs on the backside of the scoreboard. Let's hope that changes going into 2011.

My favorite day of the season

2011-02-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

Ah, team photo day. Where Heath Bell gets to swing a bat...

...Cameron Maybin adds yet another photo to his growing portfolio of awesome pictures...

...and Jorge Cantú gets to show off that beautiful Dartanian he must have spent the whole winter grooming to perfection.

Enjoy.

...And Everyone Showed Up On Time

2011-02-20T18:16:00.001-08:00

So now we're heading into the last week of February and the road to Opening Day is shorter by the day. News out of Peoria is all 24 position players arrived to camp by the mandatory reporting deadline, Friday 2/18. From the outside looking in, 2011 is shaping up to be a great year for the San Diego Padres; everyone appears to be on board with Jed Hoyer's approach.

There are so many different factors over the course of a baseball season that will contribute to the Padres' on-field performance. The most glaring hole on the Padres' roster going into the upcoming season is, obviously, the absence of Adrian Gonzalez. Hoyer has made several additions to the team with the hope that better performances from the likes of Ryan Ludwick and (hopefully) Kyle Blanks, the Padres will be able to compensate for the production that Adrian has since taken with him to Boston. If anything, the current set of players has a much better chance at being equally, if not more, successful as the 2010 squad. Ray at The Sacrifice Bunt did a great job of outlining how this may be accomplished.

So many different things are going to have to come together in order for the 2011 Padres to duplicate the performance that saw them in sole possession of first place for 131 out of 162 games in 2010. However, I have not been this excited about our team going into the season since before the 2008 season that saw the Padres lose 99 games. I cannot wait to see how Will Venable handles the full-time job in RF and the 600 or so PA that come along with it. Not to mention we'll get to see if Cameron Maybin develops into the Mike Cameron-prototype that he has been attributed to. Orlando Hudson and Jason Bartlett will provide a much more bearable double-play combo that the Eckstein-Cabrera (or JHJ or Miggy Tardust) debacle that existed in 2010.

Additionally, I'm 100% on board with giving Nick Hundley the full-time job at Catcher; he deserves to demonstrate whether or not he will be the long term solution there. He handles the pitching staff well and I do not see any reason why the pitching staff will not be able to at least come close to their collective 2010 performance.

The bottom line lies in that the team appears to be on the same page with Bud Black and the front office. They have a collective goal of not just lasting until the last game of the season, as was the case in 2010. The overall sense of focus and determination are prominent amongst the players and I cannot wait to see what happens this year.

Only 43 more days!

Courtin' Garf

2011-01-31T10:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday night was the Padres Town Hall Meeting and, for the second year in a row, both Woe, Doctors! were in attendance. Whereas last year our attendance predated the existence of the site, this year was rife with opportunity to take in some carefully scripted information and regurgitate it here, even though most of you were probably also in attendance.

Our journey began with my favorite part of these events - free stuff; namely the ballpark parking. I like free things (a trend that will be revisited throughout this night). Upon making our way to the very end of the block-long line for entry, I note that the Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge To Nowhere is damned near close to completion. It also looks oddly asymmetrical and makes the $10 parking at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel a viable option instead of the expensive inconvenience it has previously been. After being hung out to dry on a high-five opportunity by the Friar (seriously, what the hell man?), we bounded up the stairs and waterfall at the Home Plate Gate entrance to the sweet smell of bleach and chlorine before grabbing...more free stuff. This time, in the form of hot chocolate.

I like my beverages strong and/or free.

(Non-alcoholic) beverage in hand and a $2 hot dog loaded with fixins in the other, we watched highlights from the Wednesday's Padres Awards Banquet. Having already procured the results from the interwebs the night previously, the only enlightening thing I took from these highlights was that I really want Matt Vasgersian back in the booth as his talent is absolutely wasted on MLB Network. As the highlights faded, the Padres' current brain trust strolled to the stage with uproarious applause reserved for reigning NL Manager of the Year, Bud Black.

Look at him...smugly taking it all in.

Owner Jeff Moorad quickly got down to business as he praised the front office, coaching staff, players, and fans for making 2010 memorable by concluding that a season of 90+ wins has only occurred four times. In 41 years. Thanks for reminding us, dick. All standard operating procedure, including the rumored introduction of the recently-retired and most recent front office hire, Trevor Hoffman. #51 came out to a standing ovation and quickly re-introduced himself, assuring us that the past two seasons away from San Diego had been difficult on him and that he would keep his mouth shut, but ears open to absorb as much as he could in his new role with the franchise.

While it was a bit of a tug on the heartstrings to see him back and provided a great deal of finality to his brief hiatus from San Diego, it was quickly back to business. Hoffman was followed by yet another new hire, Orlando Hudson, who provided a two-minute introduction to those in attendance and we later found out had flown to San Diego for only 36 hours in order to be a part of this and the awards dinner. If those in attendance didn't like him before, they certainly appreciated him more afterward...and if any of you don't like Hudson, I'll hunt you down and kick each and every one of you in the throat because O-Dog is awesome.

Dreamboat Hoyer took to the microphone reiterated his belief of building through the farm system and, nonchalantly, mentioned that the most recent Top Prospects list from Baseball America had the Padres' system at #9 in all of baseball (suck it, haters). I was expecting a bit more of a crowd reaction when he began discussing the necessity of dealing Adrián González, but the crowd had been plied into complacency with flashy introductions and free beverages. Following that, Tom Garfinkel discussed at length the increase in ticket sales, reduction of costs, and the inclusion of a Bud Black bobblehead night. They then unveiled the new uniforms, donned by some of their best young prospects:

(L to R) Casey Kelly, Simon Castro, Anthony Rizzo, James Darnell, Logan Forsythe, Jason Hagerty.

Garfinkel did strike gold on awarding unanimous top prospect Casey Kelly the unfortunate nickname of "Matt Leinart," (Mark Grant would be proud) and I'm sure to refer to him as such from now until the day he gets dealt for more prospects. It's the circle of life. Anyway, they had these poor guys stand there to be eye-gouged by impatient fans for several minutes before ushering them back to the clubhouse and following a rousing speech thanking the fans - and an extended period of applause for Jerry Coleman and...Ted Leitner? - the brain trust took questions. There's no bother getting too involved in these as they seemed like awfully convenient talking points that in no way resembled last year's shit storm of obnoxious fan commentary, but this is what I took from it:

Outside of a World Series championship, the highest priority is bringing an All-Star Game to San Diego. This was especially bad timing as it was just revealed that Citi Field will likely play host stadium to the event in 2013. I blame this whole mess on dictator-in-chief, Bud Selig.
The Padres' TV contract with Cox Communications is set to expire at the end of 2011 and, with it, the front office is looking to negotiate a deal that will enable cable customers with other companies to be able to finally tune in. Garfinkel also spoke of his disdain for the current contract and lack of resolution regarding the ongoing contract negotiations between Cox and AT&T in lieu of the FCC ruling last year, but revealed this will also likely provide a boost to team revenue/spending.
Everybody is pissed about the way last season ended, so stop asking.

As the questions waned and the staff informed those in attendance they could now walk around the outfield, I realized that Garfinkel had gotten off to easy. Sure, improved sales figures across the board coupled with lower costs for consumers may have appeased the crowd...but not me. I had to know - will there be new uniforms in 2012?

"Hey, Garf - sign this yogurt parfait?"

I confronted the King of Breakfast Town with a resolved purpose to put an end to the hinting and unsubstantiated rumors that makes up the weekly Padres Chat hosted by Bill Center and this is what I was told:

There are no plans for a complete uniform overhaul in 2012. They might tweak the design a little, but they like what they have now - namely, the new gray away jerseys - and will likely stick with them for a few years.
The 1978 Padres script they unveiled for the Tucson Padres is not a trial run for anything on the big league level. Everybody loves that script, but the Padres ran a focus group and they found that the bow tie and the '78 script could not coexist.
Brown is out. If the Padres do return to an old look, it would likely be a take on the 1948-1949 PCL Padres look popularized by the throwback uniforms they wore in 2005-2007. He did reveal, however, that they were more keen of the "red, white, and blue" color scheme if they were to tweak anything at all.

While I would take these with a grain of salt as the Padres aren't going to jeopardize merchandise sales by announcing that the $160 or so you spent on an authentic MLB jersey is going to be on the scrap heap next season, it was an interesting discussion nonetheless. So, there you have it - play-by-play of a well-scripted yet entertaining event followed by, I guess, a Woe, Doctor! exclusive on the future of Padres uniforms.

I think, for an encore, we should break the 2011 breakfast menu for Breakfast at the Park.

Going gray

2011-01-26T15:02:00.000-08:00

In an offseason littered with important news, none have really shocked me. Yes, the hometown heroes moved their Triple-A team to Tucson in an effort to eventually move them more permanently to Escondido in 2013, acquired Cameron Maybin, dealt Adrián González for prospects, and signed a new double play combo through at least the 2012 season…but all these were to be expected as roster holes and team finances necessitated these changes. That’s not to say they’re not important, just that my enthusiasm has been tempered due to the fact that tomorrow marks a day all (sane) San Diego Padres fans have been looking forward to since the team stole a page out of the Milwaukee Brewers’ fashion magazines 7 long years ago. That’s right, I’m talking about new frickin’ uniforms. Bill Center roused this dormant beast of a topic during last Thursday's Padres Chat…

Sand is out, gray is in on the road uniforms. The Padres will announce next Tuesday that the Sunday camouflage uniforms will change to the Marine Corps digital brown camouflage colors. From a distance, they blend into the background.

…and, today (a day late might I add), it becomes a reality. This is a day meant for celebration and – if you’re made of money – an annual upgrade to yet another authentic game day jersey. With that, I present to you the most anticipated news of the PETCO Park era:

Barf.

That’s right – gray. Jeff Moorad and his breakfast loving cronies have taken the one remaining bit of uniqueness of the Padres’ current uniforms and taken it to pasture along with the other San Diego uniform gems of yesteryear (Turn Ahead The Clock Night, obviously, excluded). This news is old hat if you follow the guys over at RJ's Fro, as an interview with Moorad and Tom Garfinkel last January revealed their desire to go gray; it's disappointing all the same. Gone are my dreams of a sand and brown kit.

Now, many would argue this far from qualifies as a heated topic as I'm sure traditionalists love the return to the away grays from the bow-tied sand road kits that I’ve come to love. Gone are my dreams for the Padres claiming sand and/or brown as the San Francisco Giants have done with orange, the Seattle Mariners with teal, and the Tampa Bay Rays with…plaid. What may be even more maddening is that for the time being the Padres brass have even abandoned such colors for the aforementioned Triple-A affiliate Tucson Padres as well:

Don’t get me wrong, while some iteration of the 1978-1984 Padres script is a fantastic blend of something borrowed/something blue, Moorad has indicated on multiple occasions that when the AAA team moves to North County they would likely try to incorporate styling points from yesteryear. He hinted – and Gaslamp Ball (sort of) confirmed – this may even include adapting “Friars” as a possible team name. Many hoped this would also include the reintroduction of brown, but these two announcements have me less than optimistic. It doesn’t help that the logo itself looks like they tacked on a stock desert clip art preloaded in Microsoft Office 2003 on top of it…or that the team colors are some strange Frankenstein monster combination of the Padres’ home plate/wave logo and the Portland Beavers’ recently retired uniforms.

Unfortunately, it seems the closest the Padres will get to bringing brown back to the big league uniforms is through the changes they’ve made to his year’s much-maligned Sunday camouflage alternates, which the team unveiled yesterday:

And while the Padres have yet to officially release the caps that go along with these alternates, several sites have been quick to note that Lids stores across the county are carrying this bad boy:

I remember purchasing a fashion cap almost identical to this authentic one a few years ago so it will be nice to get a fresh one after years of use on the co-ed softball field. While Center – again, in last week's Padres Chat – speculated that the rumored 2012 overhaul to the Padres uniforms could see the reintroduction of brown due to the "new camos are more brown given the shade of the Marines desert camos," I'd say the recent updates won't have me holding my breath. I'm not really convinced of any connection and would say the real change will come in the form of the script; if at all. I will say, however, that the complete abandonment of sand in the Tucson design disappoints me and the thought that this might actually be a trial-run for a new Padres kit in 2012 terrifies me. After all, while the team has adamantly declared that they want to create a worldwide brand/recognition for the interlocking 'SD,' the team still implements their home plate logo - complete with that very same light blue.

For all the hubbub about these new jerseys I think I’ll still be sticking to the Padres’ retro collection; which will now include the recently-deceased (and highly underrated) sand away uniforms. May they, and the retro-colored dreams of countless Padres fans, rest in peace.

To my delight, the authentic sand jerseys are now discounted as a clearance item on the MLB.com Shop. $119.97 after an additional 10% discount at checkout until January 31^st. May they also be available at a discounted price at the Padres FanFest Garage Sale.

33 More Days...

2011-01-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

Until pitchers and catchers hold their first workout of Spring Training 2011, that is. Life will return to normalcy; baseball will be back. The offseason for the San Diego Padres has been transpiring a bit differently than I am used to. That is to say that Jed Hoyer has made a great deal of moves with the hope that the Adrian-less Padres will be able to compete in 2011. At this point, the casual San Diego Padres fan is likely not very happy with the current state of the roster. This would be largely due to the fact that Adrian G0nzalez now plays first base on the east coast of the United States. I can empathize with these fans, however, I am looking forward to the upcoming 2011 season more than I have in either of the past two years. Hoyer has done his best to improve the team by acquiring players that will remain under team control for the forseeable future. He is not handicapping himself, or the payroll, with bad free agent contracts; not that the Padres' front office has ever really been keen on doing this in the past either. Goes without saying, and I'm loosely quoting Geoff Young of Ducksnorts, "Hoyer has a plan. I don't know what it is, but he definitely seems to." This is why he was hired to be the General Manager of this team: he knows his [stuff].

As an aside, the one move of this offseason that I am bummed about lies in the Dodgers' free agent signing of Tony Gwynn, Jr. This is only because I am a huge Gwynn fan in general, and I understand why he had to go, but still... ugh. I wanted to see him succeed on the San Diego Padres so badly you would think that he was my son, but I digress... Time goes on, so does baseball. Needless to say, I am more than happy with the Cameron Maybin as a replacement (improvement?) acquisition.

Back to Spring Training on the horizon, I don't think Jed Hoyer is finished assembling his roster just yet. If you follow Twitter you've more than likely heard the Padres are close to adding Chad Qualls (Kill me, please.) and possibly Gregg Zaun. The Zaun signing makes sense because Rob Johnson needs to show something other than what he did in Seattle before being handed the backup catching job. As far as Qualls is concerned, however, I am just going to pretend that he is not a member of this team until the point in time when he no longer is (just like I do with Oscar Salazar).

The spot where I feel Hoyer has succeeded most with his array of moves is up the middle. Orlando Hudson, Jason Bartlett and Cameron Maybin, as opposed to David Eckstein, the three-headed monster that was Cabrera/JHJ/Miggy Tardust (Yes, a Saul Williams reference... sort of) and Gwynn/Denorfia sounds much, much more bearable than what was endured for the majority of 2010. Hudson/Bartlett has to be up there with one of the best double-play combos the Padres have ever had. As far as CF is concerned, I am happy with anything that will keep Chris Denorfia from diving all over the place out there. Not to mention, Cameron Maybin has the potential to serve as the Padres' centerfielder for years to come.

I want to get into the pitching right now, but I've reached my word-count limit and coach is yelling at me.

It's almost time!

A desperate plea to Jed Hoyer

2010-11-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

Dear Dreamboat,

The Florida Marlins brain-trust consisting of owner Jeffrey Loria and GM Michael Hill must be the type to put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, because they are in the giving mood. After dealing away the Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin in consecutive days last week, they seem to be doing all they can to be both charitable to the needy and over-indulgent to the privileged. In a matter of hours, they have managed to lock up a catcher both unable to field or get on base (career .301 OBP and 6.5 BB%) coming off a career-year in John Buck to a three-year, $18 million contract* and dealt away the undesirable and unsignable Dan Uggla to the division-rival Atlanta Braves for All-Star** Omar Infante and reliever Michael Dunn.

I don't mean to sound critical or anything, but the Marlins' front office might be the worst in baseball - NAY! - in all of sports. The deal last Saturday which netted Maybin in exchange for relievers Edward Mujica and Ryan Webb is undoubtedly the Marlins' only move of the offseason thus far that can't be seen as a complete, utter disaster. If you're a cynical Fish fan, you might even call that a win. No more than a few weeks ago, reports came out of Chicago that Loria had even considered dealing their 21 year-old superstar in waiting, Mike Stanton, for White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén. Yeah, the 21 year-old right fielder that posted a 122 wRC+, .248 ISO, and 7.1 UZR that looks like this:

With this in mind, I give you but two words: Bud Black.

While others are likely considering the Ol' Gunslinger's offerings of Stephen Drew and Justin Upton, I'd strongly consider taking advantage of Loria's charity. The future NL Manager of the Year might not have a Twitter account, but he does have a World Series ring. So, I beg of you, if critics across the baseball world are busting chops over teams that don't inquire about a guy like Upton - as awful and nonsensical as it may seem, isn't it more realistic to inquire about dealing for Stanton? I mean, in a world where Loria can do all the things listed above and Stanton can hit a ball as magically as this...

...is it truly improbable?*** Do the right thing.

Sincerely,
WD!

* Some are reporting Buck's contact as three years, $16 million. So, yeah...what a savings!
** No, that's not a type-o.
*** Probably.

Maybin: Part Deux

2010-11-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

There's no shortage of awesome pictures on a Google image search for "cameron maybin."

So I realize that yesterday’s post focused more on the negatives, but we are a blog for the weary and disenfranchised. It takes a lot to turn this perpetual frown upside-down. However, for however much Saturday’s deal for Cameron Maybin may have potentially handcuffed the Padres and Jed Hoyer for our remaining open roster spots, I absolutely love this deal. There’s a lot of love for Tony Gwynn, Jr. on this blog, so much so that it culminated in a heartfelt plea (yes, we actually do stoop to that level) to give The Younger a good deal of playing time even during his darkest hours. That being said, Gwynn is 28 years old with a career wRC+ of 83 in just over 1,050 PA. He might be a magician with the glove and may have even had a down year offensively in 2010 – but there’s only so much he can do to compensate for his negative value at the plate.

Lucky for us, even while Maybin might not have been able to put it all together yet at the Major League level, he’s at his worst a suitable alternative for AJ (hell, he even sounds like both Gwynns – seriously, check it out). As FanGraphs bothered to do the legwork on the research, I'll let them do the talking:

Heading into his age-24 season, he’s got a bit of experience under his belt. He has 610 plate appearances in the big leagues over the last three years, where he’s hit .246/.313/.380. That’s not great, but it’s not abysmal either, especially for a center fielder. Over what amounts to one full season’s worth of playing time in the majors, Maybin has been worth +1.7 WAR, making him a slightly below-average player.

For what it’s worth, Gwynn posted a 1.7 WAR in 2010, albeit in far less PA (339). However, at his best, he might be the CF Padres fans have long-coveted ever since Mike Cameron departed us. As it currently stands, he’s currently a minor upgrade over what we have now as there’s still room for improvement:

If this were Maybin’s true talent strikeout rate, I’d understand why the Marlins traded him – he’s unlikely to ever turn into more than what he is now with these contact problems. However, Maybin’s strikeout rate in Triple-A the last two years has been significantly lower – just 19.5% in 2009 and 18.5% this year. He had significant contact issues in the low minors, but has seemingly made some strides in that area, at least against minor league pitching.

If Maybin can get his whiff rate down to a more manageable 25 percent or so, then he’s a viable starting center fielder in the big leagues. At that point, he wouldn’t be much different of a player than B.J. Upton, for instance. Can he get there? Maybe, maybe not. But the Padres were wise to take a shot on him, as young, cheap, up-the-middle players with some offensive upside aren’t usually available for just bullpen help.

The interesting part, for me, is that the Marlins were so indecisive with such a young talent. As a player on a team who relies on young, raw talent and who breezed through the minors with a featured role in Baseball America’s Top 10 Prospects list from 2007 – 2009, you’d think they’d have more patient. You would be wrong. As an interesting comparison, when Maybin was drafted 10th overall in the 2005 Amateur Draft, he was the second high school prospect to come off the board behind #1 overall pick, Justin Upton. The next two picks behind Maybin were also high school standouts – current budding MLB stars Andrew McCutchen and Jay Bruce.

If we were to view Bruce as the high-water mark both according to his minor league output and what he did last season – his third – with the Reds, given the opportunity, Maybin might fall somewhere between the two. Maybin’s 610 career plate appearances are around half those afforded Bruce (1,412) and McCutchen (1,146) and he’s the youngest of three (he’s one day younger than Bruce). For Florida to jettison him without much of an audition seems odd, given he was the centerpiece in the 2007 mega-deal that dealt Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit. He's hardly been given a shot and, amid his struggles, has shown promise as both a defensive and offensive entity; all told, his 322 PA last season were the most legitimate shot he's had at breaking into the big leagues and his "disappointing" 85 wRC+ still outpaces Gwynn's career average.

So where are we now? Well, Hoyer dealt for him, so I'd expect him to get the majority of the playing time in CF and at the top of the lineup where he'll, hopefully, be able to showcase the rare blend of speed and power scouts/critics have raved about for years. As Keith Law points out, it was a move of necessity:

The Florida Marlins get some probability in their pen, but the San Diego Padres make the bold move here, trading two relievers whose value may be higher because they pitched in Petco in exchange for the type of high-upside, athletic position player that isn't present in their system right now.

The Padres get a lottery ticket, but one where the winning combination of numbers represents a rather ideal player for Petco: Cameron Maybin is a plus defensive centerfield with the kind of huge raw power that can transcend the home run-depressing environment of their home field. What makes him a lottery ticket despite abundant tools is that his approach is a mess and not something easily remedied.

I couldn't agree more. I feel this is a trade of necessity for a franchise like the Padres and, regardless of the outcome, it's the sort of move that I believe has defined Hoyer as a man that's an absolute perfect fit for the GM role...which is to say, it's very unlike the way a two-year deal with Geoff Blum and shopping young talent like Stephen Drew and the aforementioned Justin Upton defines Kevin Towers.

Let's just say I'm happy Arizona can now feel our pain.

Maybin & the Hot Stove (something something...cooking metaphor)

2010-11-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

"Who's happy to have me patrolling CF...? YOU ARE!"

Not to appear as if we missed the boat on this one, but by now everybody has heard of the first shot across the bow for Jed Hoyer and his now Peter Brand-less crew during this offseason’s Hot Stove. The seemingly perennial Baseball America Top 10 prospect, Cameron Maybin, will be donning navy blue and sand (or is it violet and grey?) for 2011. In exchange for the former 10th overall pick, Hoyer sent Edward Mujica and Ryan Webb packing – a move that I both love and loathe. Because of my issues regarding brevity (I don’t like it), I will be breaking this into two parts – partly because our T/P (Tweets/Posts) is hovering near 347.00 – starting with what we’re left to deal with.

BETWEEN A ROCK...

It goes without saying that dealing from the bullpen, an extreme strength for the club in 2010, is a necessity if the team has any hopes to upgrade some of the other holes in the roster. While the Padres boasted what one could argue was one of the best overall pitching staffs in the game – their 3.66 FIP and 3.82 xFIP both ranked mere fractions of a point behind the Braves for the best baseball – the heavy lifting was done by the bullpen. The ‘pen accounted for 72.7 wins above average and was easily the best in the league. The rotation? Well, their 78.4 wins ranked them a ghastly 26th – nearly 100 points below the league-leading Red Sox (178.2) – and clearly shows that beyond Latos and Richard, the team got by with a little luck and a lot of good relief work.

Therefore, one could argue that dealing with the depth of our bullpen would be a good thing – especially for the upside of a five-tool player like Maybin. Here, I have mixed feelings. On one hand...

The Padres did well in this trade, dealing from a position of strength. Their bullpen was, by many measures, tops in the majors this season. Webb and Mujica played roles in that, but the Padres managed to keep their top three guys: Heath Bell, Mike Adams, and Luke Gregerson. Quality bullpen arms might not be easy to come by, but the Padres do have a history of finding undervalued relievers. They can find ways to replace Webb and Mujica. At the same time, they’ve acquired a young player who, while not as promising as he was two years ago, still has a chance to make an impact in the majors.

The Marlins are clearly banking on the 24 year-old Webb, who posted an impressive 7.3 wins for the Padres, to build upon his 2010 success and either anchor the back end of their bullpen or possibly even to compete with Leo Núñez and Clay Hensley as the Marlins’ closer next season. Personally, I like Webb’s potential as a guy with a set role as opposed to a swing man due to his ability to strike out too few and walk too many, but he’ll be a solid addition to Florida’s bullpen. As for Mujica, despite his impressive peripheral stats – including a ridiculous K/BB of 12.00, a number that just so happened to match his 18 inning debut for the Indians in 2006 – Padres fans know him as a bit susceptible to the gopher ball (1.81 HR/9 in 2010). Beyond that, he provided a pedestrian .2 wins and those strikeout numbers should come back down to Earth if his career averages have anything to say about it.

While the loss of these two relievers is of little concern with me as the core remains intact, I’m more concerned with what it means going forward. As I mentioned above, the rotation is a black hole after staff ace Mat Latos and, to a lesser extent, Clayton Richard. There are a lot of holes to fill and Hoyer has indicated that Cory Luebke is likely to start next season with Triple-A Tuscon. That’s before even getting into the disaster that is our middle infield. As North County Times columnist Dan Hayes notes, there are still quite a few hurdles to clear between now and Spring Training – especially when the Padres are likely to field a team with a “$40-42 million payroll.”

Both outfielder Ryan Ludwick and closer Heath Bell are in their final arbitration years and each can expect to make about $7 million.
Chase Headley and setup man Mike Adams will both earn about $2 million.
Right-hander Tim Stauffer is expected to earn $1 million in his first season of arbitration.
Outfielders Scott Hairston, Tony Gwynn Jr. and Chris Denorfia are all due raises via arbitration, too, though it's likely that the Padres will only keep one.

If Hayes’ predictions of a $40-42 million payroll are correct, he opines “that leaves Hoyer $10-11 million to acquire a second baseman, shortstop, two starting pitchers and a backup catcher.” He goes on to suggest that the Padres could jettison Ludwick in order to gain some payroll flexibility. This all seems increasingly realistic and, to me, this is a dangerous proposition. Ludwick, while showing some promise in years past, had a lackluster debut for the Padres and his stellar 2008 is looking like an outlier instead of a trend. To deal him on the premise of freeing up some money for other acquisitions would have to be seen as dealing low; as his performance doesn’t necessarily dictate we’d get a good haul in return. That leaves a few more trade chips: Adrián González, Bell…and Headley.

I’m all but certain that González will remain a Padre through this offseason, as there is ticket revenue to be considered and the Padres are coming off a 90-win season; a perceived fire sale in which the club just missed the playoffs just won’t fly. As for Bell, the team just took a huge bite out of what made them a playoff contending team down the stretch. To deal Bell now would carry the same implication and, unfortunately, the team would be dealing him at a time when the market is rich with experienced relievers.

That leaves Headley, which seems incomprehensible given that his league-leading 16.5 UZR and 4.6 WAR could still be retained at what many would perceive to be a bargain price. But the Padres are not every team, and the fact that he’s heading to arbitration as a Super Two candidate takes a considerable bite from a discount payroll. What little depth the Padres have in their farm system, they do actually have some options at 3B with Logan Forsythe and James Darnell. While the potential downgrade might not be ideal, it would clear payroll and pave the way for what seems to be a growing belief that Headley’s inevitable pay raise and light hitting makes him not long for this franchise.

Overall, Hoyer’s decision to deal for Maybin is one of high-risk, high-reward. While the Padres certainly need to upgrade the OF, they have severely depleted their ability to make any further moves to fill the remainder of this roster. While Maybin may not perform as the future All-Star many believed he might become, there is still room for improvement - especially in CF. Just no more of this...

...please.

NEXT: Acquiring a true, five-tool talent? Who do you think we are…the Marlins?!

(Escondido) Condors Will Soar!

2010-10-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of: BallparkForEscondido/JMI

Pardon my lack of updates over the past several weeks, but I couldn't bring myself to bombard Padres fans with any more bad news. In lieu of a season wrap-up or what to expect for 2011, I figured I'd mark the momentous occasion of breaking up my two week pity party and finally crawling out of the depths of my parents' basement (I ran out of my year's supply of Easy Mac and watermelon-flavored Boone's Farm) by presenting fans with some uncharacteristically good news.

While speculation has run rampant over the future of the Padres' AAA franchise, it seems as if the team is that much closer to calling North County home. In a statement provided today by Portland Beavers' owner Merritt Paulson, it appears that Jeff Moorad and his ownership group are poised to purchase the team for relocation to Escondido. Here's what Paulson had to say:

We have entered into an agreement to sell the Triple-A franchise to an ownership group led by Jeff Moorad, owner of the San Diego Padres. The deal is expected to close in December of this year and is conditional on baseball’s approval.

What this means is that, as expected, the Portland Beavers’ move will not just be temporary. As I have expressed many times, moving the team from the Portland area represents a professional and personal disappointment for me. It was not the outcome we anticipated and expected. It remains my strong belief that just as the Beavers returned to Portland in 2001 after being moved to Salt Lake City in the 1990s, Triple-A baseball will again return to Portland; only this time the return will be to a permanent baseball-specific ballpark home where the franchise can flourish and succeed. I remain committed to aiding in that effort as I can.

Granted, the final approval for a ballpark in Escondido is far from a done deal and this is but the first step in finalizing any deal - but it's a great first step, seeing as the team's future was still uncertain even after reports surfaced a few months back that the Triple-A affiliate would be sharing The Diamond - the home of Padres' Single-A affiliate, the Lake Elsinore Storm - for the upcoming season in 2011. However, even with that knowledge, there are problems that still plague this project. While not insurmountable, the Escondido City Council had to delay a vote until October 27th on the $50 million ballpark due to unforeseen real estate issues and soil contamination on the proposed ballpark site. Another issue, however, was the future ownership of the franchise and it looks as if with the sale to Moorad's ownership group this has become a non-issue:

If the memorandum is approved Oct. 27, the council will consider approving the environmental and financial portions of the deal on Nov. 30, Pfeiler said. That timeline is required because Dec. 1 is the deadline for Moorad to finalize his purchase of an Oregon minor league team that would move to Escondido.

Ferguson said another positive step has been the investment team's willingness to agree to a "cost cap" for the project, which would ensure the city would not spend more than $40 million on the ballpark and no more than $50 million total when infrastructure upgrades are included.

With one of but only a few remaining hurdles cleared, it looks more and more likely that we could be seeing the Padres' Triple-A franchise playing in Escondido sooner rather than later. I guess the next great debate is how many beer-affiliated promotion nights they'll get nearby breweries Stone, Port, and Green Flash involved in (hopefully a lot) and what the new team name should be (you know my vote).

UPDATE: If you have the time to, be sure to visit BallparkForEscondido at the Escondido Street Fair this Sunday, October 17th. Also check out their website for further developments.

Things We Lost in the Fire

2010-10-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Sirs,

That wasn't how we planned it. Stretching this thing out until Game 162 only to get shut out in your final game of the season was a huge (HUGE) letdown. To make matters worse, nobody was able to write one of those "Dear John" letters** to you guys on Yahoo!'s Big League Stew because you stayed in contention all the way to the end. Thanks. And to end it with a loss to Jonathan Sanchez?! Really? I feel like I did in 2007 when "Rocktober" forced the Padres into the 13th inning of (and to the losing side of) a one-game playoff with Colorado and Matt Holliday's chin. The 2010 Playoffs without the San Diego Padres will be a tough pill to swallow, but after seeing what Roy Halladay did to the Reds today, it may be for the best. The offseason for the Padres this year will be a busy one, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Now, I would like to point fingers and I would like to be upset with this team yet I find myself reveling in the fact that we have successfully avoided another 63-99 campaign, like in 2008. Everyone and their mother(s) has/have/are saying that this Padres team has defied the laws of physics by winning 90 games. This is the first Padres team to win 90 games since '98, and we all remember how that ended. Some of us (mainly Heath Bell) may have gone a little overboard embracing the "underdog" role, but it seemed to keep fuel in the team's collective gas tank for 90% of the season. Problem is, 90% of the season will not guarantee a playoff spot. Duh. Again, I would like to point fingers but I am not a professional baseball player, nor do I work in the Padres front office, so I won't.

If I have to pick one high point from this season, I will go with Tim Stauffer finally getting the opportunity to pitch every 5th day towards the end of the year; one can only hope that he will be a rotation mainstay well in to the future.

Jed Hoyer has said some things so far that I am 100% on board for, and I am looking forward to his plan for the 2011 team to take shape. If anything, the team's 2010 performance has provided Hoyer with a bit more flexibility than he likely would have had if the team had finished with another losing season.

It is so easy to forget that the Padres were winners from 2004-07, or each of their first four seasons in Petco Park. A 99-loss season can make anyone forget a couple of division winners, I suppose.

Eventually, I will get around to discussing the team's performance in 2010 in more detail. I'm still kind of bummed out, though.

I'm one of those people that still holds out hope Everth Cabrera has not already become another Mike Caruso. Yeah, I said it.

All that being said, I will be counting the days until Spring Training 2011.

Also, please don't give up on Tony Jr. just yet, okay?

It was fun while it lasted.

**Actually, SDPads1 from RJ's Fro has written a letter to the Padres since I posted this. Check it out.

September Is Coming

2010-08-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

*Hurry back, buddy. CF isn't the same without you..

The Padres have been winning constantly of late, with the exception of yesterday evening, and are two wins away for equaling their win total for all of 2009. 73-48 with 10 days to go in August is no joke. August ending and September rolling around means that rosters will be expanding for the teams around MLB. I enjoy this time of year because it gives us a look at players on the horizon in our system that we may not actual witness in a live setting, being that our minor league affiliates are spread out across the country.

The roster shuffling may have already kicked off this morning with the activation of David Eckstein from the 15-Day Disabled List. Ryan Webb was shuttled back to Portland to make room for Eck, and in a subsequent move, Everth Cabrera optioned to Portland, as well, with OF Luis Durango taking his place on the active roster. Say what you will about Cabrera at this point, but we must remember that he is still only 23 years old and only has 37 ABs in the minors above A-Ball; he will find his way back into the Padres starting SS position in the future. As for Durango, I am happy with the move because he has done nothing but reach base in his brief stints with the big club. Between '09 and '10, Durango has collected 35 plate appearances and has reached base at a .515 clip; which is insane and completely unsustainable, but just the type of player we need in our lineup to set the table for Gonzalez, Ludwick, Headley, etc. Bryant will disagree with me about Durango because he feels that Luis is a defensive liability, however, I still attribute that to small sample-size. Not everyone on the Padres can patrol the outfield like AJ.

Now, back to September. Our current 40-man roster contains a number of players that could be called up when rosters expand September 1. However, there are more than a few that have likely played themselves out of a call-up: Steve Garrison is hurt in Portland, Cesar Carrillo and Radhames Liz have both been more than underwhelming at AAA this year, as well. Cesar Ramos and Adam Russell may find themselves on the active roster again in September, but I think we have pretty much seen what we can expect from them. Lance Zawadzki has been demoted to AA San Antonio since we last saw him and Dusty Ryan is hitting .173 in 231 AAA ABs. Truthfully, Aaron Cunningham is the only player currently on the 40-man roster that will see any significant playing time come September. I would be surprised if Aaron Poreda got a look, being that he cannot hit the broad side of a barn in AAA (32 walks and 4 hit batsmen, to 19 Ks in 24.1 IP). Craig Italiano (who came over along with Ryan Webb in the first Scott Hairston trade with Oakland) was recently activated from the DL at AA San Antonio and has been putting up some great numbers this season, but still walks a few too many batters; he may get a September look, though.

The few players that I would like to point out as possibly seeing some time in September are Kyle Phillips, Wily Mo Pena, and Mike Baxter. Phillips and Pena have been RAKING at Portland and Baxter has shifted into high gear over the course of the last month. In 148 ABs since being acquired, Phillips is hitting .364/.403/.486 for the Beavers and Pena is right there along with him: .319/.388/.505 and 5 HR in 91 AB for Portland. When the Padres signed Pena to a minor-league deal I had forgotten that he is still only 28 years old; the guy can crush the ball. What's better is that Phillips and Pena essentially offer younger/more upside solutions to Matt Stairs and Oscar Salazar, respectively. I don't see it being too difficult for either of them to offer at least the same amount of production as Stairs/Salazar have both underwhelmed this year.

Mike Baxter, on the other hand has started to look like more than a 4-A player, at best. After the last torrid month or so of his, Baxter is hitting .301/.380/.514 in 422 AB and 16 HR to go along with 20 SBs. Baxter is 25 years old, so it's kind of now or never for him, but he bats left-handed and can play both corner OF positions and 1B. Before the second half of the minor-league season I had written him off as another Chad Huffman, but at this point he looks like he might be able to contribute to the Padres as a bat off the bench and fourth outfielder.

It is also worth mentioning that Cedric Hunter has successfully made the jump from AA to AAA after falling off of the prospect radar. I would like to see him on the roster in September, but the OF picture in San Diego has become kind of crowded, even with AJ landing himself on the DL for the remainder of the year.

All right, that's enough from me for now. I'll just leave you with a few random items here at the end:

If you have some time, you should check out The Official Blog of Matt Antonelli. As you probably know, he has been having trouble recovering from injuring the hamate bone in his left hand. He is a funny guy and I am really pulling for him to recover and, hopefully, play some second base for the Padres in the future. Check it out.

In light of Roger Clemens being indicted, I would like to suggest the investigative report that was written about the whole fiasco by some NY Daily News investigative reporters called American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime. I am by no means a Clemens-hater, but the way that he goes about vehemently denying any involvement/use of steroids/HGH is beyond belief. Anyway, it's a good read and sheds some light on an incredibly dark situation.

I'm going to the Lake Elsinore Storm game tonight to watch Jaff Decker drop some more bombs on the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

The Padres are at Milwaukee again tonight. Show Kevin Correia some love.

"While you're walking around trying to keep people out of hell, I'm walking around trying to keep hell out of people."

Taking in a non-Padres game

2010-08-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

The smog subsided and the odor of petroleum fumes faded in the cool winds and friscalating dusk light...

Last night, I did what I’ve never done before – caught a game at Dodger Stadium.* That must seem like an odd decision seeing as:

I swore I would never visit this hellhole.
This was Dodgers vs. Rockies. The Padres – in case you’re living under a rock – just wrapped up a sweep of the Cubs and were inbound for a three-game set in Milwaukee (where they will engage in a battle of wits in order to conclusively determine which team wears blue and sand the best).
I swore I would never visit this hellhole.

Rest assured, I’m not a closeted fan of some other NL West opponent; my in-laws have ties to Colorado and my brother-in-law just so happens to be in the country and wanted to catch a baseball game. Personally, I felt this was the perfect opportunity to test the waters as my allegiances wouldn’t be under attack from family members and I could root against both teams (hey, when you’re at least 10 games up on either opponent, you’re entitled to say whatever you want). It’s like scoreboard watching; only instead of hoping one team will beat the other you wait for a plane to crash into both dugouts.

The night began routine enough. Accompanied by my wife and armed with my passive aggressive dig at both NL West opponents, I hopped on the 5 and checked Google Maps to update my route – 89.1 miles, which advised me could be done in 1 hour, 38 minutes. Sweet! I’d get there in time to shout lewd comments in the direction of Alyssa Milano, count how many v-necked guests the Jonas Brothers brought with them, and – hopefully –catch Tommy Lasorda in time to give him a giant bear hug (he looks like he needs one). Unfortunately, I forgot that Los Angeles can only be viewed in perpetual traffic time and after 2 hours and 35 minutes, a lot of cursing, and one burned out clutch getting into the parking lot later we arrived at our destination…seven minutes before game time.

My first impression from the moment we turned off the 110 exit onto Stadium Way? Chávez Ravine and Dodger Stadium are a pretty fitting representation of Los Angeles. It’s a giant mountain of dirt and filth with a stadium nestled in the basin of the caldera; its only discernable qualities from the freeway being the parking lot’s lampposts and a line of cars as far as the eye can see. After dodging cars filled with underage kids feverishly trying to down their last gulps of Buttershots, we arrive at the gate where I am given – what best I can tell – was a serious groping/near-cavity search (in which I received no “I’ll call you” or promise of breakfast) as we enter prior to first pitch.

At his point I can safely say, and I’m sure anybody else that’s been to Dodger Stadium would agree with me, the experience is incredibly surreal. The place is just empty until at least the third inning. I thought this was a baseball myth; that the amount of cars that put me at standstill and I followed into the ballpark had to unload somewhere. Nope. I was able to take two trips to the beer line where I left my seat, paid for my beer ($12 for a 16 oz. Sam Adams?!), and was back within two minutes. Total ghost town.

Throughout the game, I also noticed the insane amount of advertising at the park – not just signage, but on the Jumbotron. I was first blessed with a preview of Going The Distance and then a surprise appearance from the E! News hosts, who told me the Code of Conduct for Dodger Stadium – complete with celebrity references and where to reach them on Twitter and Facebook! During the innings, they had shots of varying celebrities - Jordin Sparks, Nikki Sixx, OK Go - decked out in Dodger blue in front of the "My Town" slogan flashing on the screen. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that advertisement plays an integral role in baseball, but I didn’t even get the feeling that I was attending a game. It felt like I was watching it on TV and that the ballpark experience was absolutely non-existent and I believe I was most disappointed when the crowd finally started filling in, as I was met with zero hostility from the hometown fans when I began chanting “fourth place Dodg-ers!” at the top of my lungs. Nobody even offered a retort. Granted, I wasn’t in what I would call a hostile section, but it was disappointing nonetheless.

That’s not to say the stadium wasn’t appealing in other ways. For instance, I enjoyed the new renovations and the fact that I didn’t have to lay down paper to sit down as I was half-expecting to. The renovations they’ve done to brighten up the park and open up the stadium really takes advantage of the smoggy view you get beyond the CF fence, which was nice. The fans, in all honesty, were far more tame than any that I have previously encountered at Qualcomm and PETCO Park, so I don’t know if their spirits have been broken or the Rockies don’t warrant a lot of hostility but, all in all, not a bad baseball experience.

I won’t even get in the horror that was eating my first Dodger Dog.

Actual baseball observations from the game:

Troy Tulowitzki is unbelievable defensively. He made two plays in the fourth inning, the first in which he ranged over the middle and made an off-balanced, spinning throw to nail James Loney at first and the second was a shot deep into the hole, where he lunged to grab it and then gunned a perfect strike while airborne to get the speedy Reed Johnson at first. Simply uncanny and seemingly effortless on his part.
Ted Lilly tossed an unbelievable game - a complete-game, 2-hit shutout in which he struck out 11 while only issuing 2 walks. It wasn’t even fair.
Ted Lilly cannot handle the bat. Feeling that bunting into a double play earlier in the game wasn’t enough, he decided to implement a little trickery during his next bunt attempt; pulling the bat back and swinging away, only to pop out to the catcher.
Nobody likes Matt Kemp. After the Dodgers got two men on to start their half of the sixth inning, Kemp rocketed a ball to 3B, where it was snagged and he was tossed out easily. Despite absolutely killing the ball and hustling down to first, nobody in the dugout even looked at him – leaving him a path right down the middle of the dugout to the clubhouse, where he retreated into until the top of the inning.
Miguel Olivo had the best temper tantrum I’ve seen in quite some time. After striking out on a pitch that the MLB At Bat application told me was very much on the corner, he got the attention of home plate umpire Laz Diaz and then proceeded to slam the bat down on the plate, confront him face-to-face, throw the bat down in front of him, and then argued for a solid minute before being ejected. All in all, a pretty awesome spectacle.

Who knows, I'll be up in the Bay Area the first weekend of September. Maybe I'll continue my passive aggressive recaps following a Giants vs. Dodgers game.

*You probably could save time and read something Padres-relevant by going on over to RJ’s Fro or Avenging Jack Murphy for their recap of a (somewhat) recent Dodgers vs. Padres affair but, well, that’s your prerogative.

The pick that never was

2010-08-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

"I'm very proud of the guys we signed. We were exceptionally aggressive today." – Jed Hoyer

If you’re just now searching for draft results, I’ve got some bad news for you; this blog is less than a reputable news source and that quote from Jed Hoyer is a tad misleading. Whether you have been living under a rock or the post-game win/post-draft disappointment blackout you suffered has rendered all memories from yesterday completely useless, I feel it is my duty to tell you that our first round pick, Karsten Whitson, will likely be removing the Padres from his groups list on Facebook, as he failed to come to terms with the club.

“I’ll be honest, we’re really surprised,” Padres General Manager Jed Hoyer said an hour after the deadline passed. “I think all along we expected to reach an agreement with Karsten. We had hundreds of conversations before the draft and every indication was that it would be a quick sign.

“We offered him a fair deal. But there was a point after the draft where his worth skyrocketed and it never came back to reality.

“I thought it would be done in days. I feel great about how we handled things. At the end we were fairly far apart. When we started, we were not far apart.”

So, yeah.

I’ve found that the reactions on this one are divided. Both sides are disappointed in the club’s failure to secure Whitson; yet while one group is aware that next year’s compensation pick (#11 overall) will be from a stronger draft class, likely resulting in fairly little drop-off in talent and generally not resulting in a huge loss for the franchise, the other believes it offers a glimpse into a front office that is both cheap and inexperienced. While I understand the frustration behind Whitson becoming the first unsigned first-round pick in franchise history, personally, I don’t understand where this latter sentiment comes from. The Padres went above slot to sign several other players and they signed ten of their top twelve picks. If that’s not a solid financial commitment, I don’t know what is.

More than anything, however, it frightens me to believe that nothing this franchise does will ever overcome their frugal reputation:

There’s simply no way this is a good decision. The good decision is to just sign everyone with major league upside, costs be damned. Get a ton of young talent going, and become the Rays of the NL. If Kevin Correia’s 2009 season was enough to pay for most of Stephen Strasburg’s draft bonus, that’s an incredible market inefficiency to exploit. It sounds like a lot of money, but if two of Whitson/Cates/Barbato/Vanegas panned out, then the Padres wouldn’t need to spend a bunch on Jon Garland types. The Padres didn’t sign everybody, and they most importantly didn’t sign their best draftee. The question is how bad of a decision this is, how easily it can be corrected, and how likely Hoyer is to correct it. How bad is it? Pretty bad, but not the sort of thing that will turn the Padres into the Astros by itself. How easily can it be corrected? Easily; just draft another high-upside arm with the 11th pick next year and sign him. How likely is Hoyer to correct it? It’s anyone’s guess; he doesn’t have much of a track record on it, but the one major item on that track record doesn’t inspire confidence.

For clarification’s sake, the money being referred to in the sourced post is Fangraphs’ dollar valuation and, frankly, it’s simple misconceptions such as what’s seen above that scares me into believing that nothing this franchise does will ever overcome their frugal reputation. First and foremost, using Kevin Correia’s 2009 $10.9m valuation has nothing to do with Stephen Strasburg’s draft bonus; in fact, even Fangraphs agrees that comparing the two is criminally inaccurate. To assume that because there’s a dollar sign attached to the front of it we’re about real-life dollars and cents is my biggest issue with this. Whitson failing to sign for just over slot at a rumored $2.2m bonus doesn’t mean that he merely has to produce at above that value at the Major League level for one season – it disregards salary, arbitration, free agency…essentially everything associated with the real-life factors of baseball economics. Some sites even place the difference between their dollar valuations at roughly one-third above their actual average annual value.

To think that the Padres front office isn’t sick over their failure to sign Whitson is my biggest pet peeve. I’m not looking to coddle or console them (okay, possibly Dreamboat Hoyer), as they’re grown men with years of baseball experience I can only dream about. But I really don’t see what they did wrong here. They did their homework, dedicated the manpower and effort, and in the end didn’t budge from what they believed was a fair deal. It certainly wasn’t due to a lack of effort:

"The relationship part was really good," Karsten Whitson said. "Talking to some of those guys, having them come in the home, I felt welcomed ... even before they drafted me. I felt a sense of trust there, a sense of ease. They were easy to relate to. That made it easy for me just to talk to them."

In past seasons, the front office run by John Moores and Kevin Towers bungled one draft after another; drafting inferior players, spending unwisely, and – my biggest pet peeve – drafting pitchers for their “pitchability.” I still don’t know what the means, but I believe it had something to do with troubled arms and dashed expectations.

Yet, the Padres went out and drafted Whitson – who was ranked fifth overall by Keith Law in his annual Top 100 – looking for the most bang for their buck. I can understand the disappointment with failing to sign our first-round pick, but I’d rather they didn’t overspend in the madness leading to the deadline. Maybe it’s just me, but when it comes to the bonus I’m most confused by the decision of Whitson. I actually found Law’s post-draft opinion to most closely resemble my own:

Whitson's decision to turn down the Padres is the most puzzling, as it appears to have come down to money alone, and it's hard to see him beating the Padres' offer -- which was slightly better than slot -- in the 2013 draft. And that's assuming that there are no radical changes to the system introduced in the next collective bargaining agreement, such as hard slotting. Beyond the immediate considerations of the draft, is there a better place for any pitcher to ply his craft than Petco Park?

Really, it comes down to money and, truthfully, I don't see how you can have it both ways. Fans complain if the Padres don't draft the absolute best player available, and now it's a problem that the front office didn't offer more money. If Whitson is misguided in his decision, as many people tend to agree with, then why are the Padres in the wrong for deciding to pick a number and stick to it? Sure, the amount Padres reportedly ended up spending on our entire draft is an ugly number without Whitson, but I don’t see it as indicative of any lack of dedication towards our farm system or the draft process in general. I like that the front office showed restraint and didn't do one of two things:

Draft an underwhelming player in order to get him in quick and cheap.
Think the smartest way to solve things - from a PR standpoint and from a franchise building standpoint - is to simply throw more money at it.

It's one thing to invest in the future, it's another to pay above cost for what they had already priced and valued within reason. I don't like the idea of the Padres simply spending money to do so, regardless of what it says about them from a PR standpoint. To me, it makes total sense that the Padres had a number from the offset and stuck to it. It sounds like Whitson and his people went enough beyond that number and the Padres were willing to negotiate, but not without reason and restraint.

Good for them, next year isn't exactly a weak draft. You can call it cheap, I simply think otherwise - I don't think the Padres need to apologize for offering this kid, roughly, around $2.2m. Whitson and his agents used the opportunity afforded to him by the utterly ridiculous draft deadline to price himself up to comparable high school arms and, eventually, negotiated themselves out of the Padres’ price range. The Padres had leverage in this situation the same all the same, and they simply refused to take the bait. Now, instead of reporting to a team that might have paid him slightly less than he demanded but with the opportunity to turn it into a bigger payday in the best pitchers’ park in baseball, he will hone his skills in college (a decision I will never criticize) in attempt to improve on his draft slot and the salary he was offered this in 2010.

That’s far from a financial guarantee and a gamble when it comes to his health and development, but it’s also his decision…even if it is a questionable one.

Let's talk about feelings

2010-08-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

Oh, it is on.

At least, it should be on.

It feels like it has taken ages, but somebody seems intent on challenging Barry Bonds for the “Most Hated Giant” crown; and it’s none other than perpetual trade bait, Jonathan Sánchez.

"We're going to play San Diego, and we're going to beat them three times," Sanchez said. "If we get to first place, we're not going to look back."

...

The fact that the Giants lost three of four in Atlanta while scoring eight runs didn't deter Sanchez, who added, "We are definitely going to make the playoffs."

What about the fact the Padres are 7-1 against the Giants?

"That was a long time ago," Sanchez said. "Doesn't matter. We've got a better team now."

Ignoring the fact that the Giants hold but a slim lead in the NL Wild Card and trail by a game and a half in the NL West, he’s not necessarily wrong. The team has improved dramatically since wunderkind Buster Posey supplanted Bengie Molina at catcher. What’s more, he did toss a no-hitter against San Diego last season (save for ol' reliable, Juan Uribe it would have been a perfect game), and during the clubs’ first two match-ups this season he recorded 15 K, 4 BB, yielding only 2 ER over 15 innings. That being said, both of those games ended similarly – tagged for the loss in a 1-0 Padres victory. Besides Matt Cain, there might not be a single Giants pitcher that knows such great personal success against the Padres with such little reward…

…and these are all reasons why the Padres should be absolutely fumed. This coming Sunday – during which his team was intent on shedding all doubts that their offensive outburst in July was nothing but a mirage – a day where Sánchez took the mound for a lackluster 89 pitches over 4.0 IP and was lifted for pinch-hitter extraordinaire and rotation mate Cain (a scintillating 4-for-42 on the season) during the Giants’ 6-3 loss. There’s a thing called timing, and Sánchez doesn’t seem to have grasped it.

I mean, finally, a rivalry that wasn't media-created with our Spring Training roommates and "natural rivals" of the Northwest, the Seattle Mariners. This is just what this franchise needed - a real rivalry involving a real pennant race. Sure enough, just listen to this scathing retort by Jerry Hairston, Jr.:

“But y’know, I guess that’s his opinion”

“We play baseball in San Diego, we focus on our business, we don’t worry about anybody else. We know they’re a good team, we respect them, and we feel we’re a pretty good team as well.”

“It does kinda shock you, because normally an everyday player would make a comment because he’s got control of what he does every day.”

“It’s a little surprising. He may have been frustrated, y’know, of how they played in Atlanta. But y’know, hey, he could also say he’s very confident in his team. He has every right to be, but we’re very confident in our team. We feel that we’re a very good ballclub and we feel we’re poised to make a run.”

“He said what he said, and I guess we’ll just leave it at that.”

Whoa – don’t hesitate to turn the passion up to 11, guys. I mean, that may be as vanilla a response as could possibly be imagined. Hell that was so well-orchestrated, Crash Davis would be blushing. I'm not expecting Hairston to be spitting fire or anything, but I expected at least a little bit of finger-pointing while whispering "scoreboard." Taken out of context, you'd have a hard time believing the Padres were even in first place. As for Sánchez, there might have been a more venomous reaction from his own clubhouse:

Manager Bruce Bochy said some Giants were giving Sanchez a "hard time" about his statement, and not in a good way. The teammates were said to be annoyed that Sanchez made his bold prediction after he lasted only four innings and allowed four runs in a 6-3 loss to the Braves on Sunday.

For the most part, Bochy did not want to get involved. When asked for his reaction to Sanchez's comments, he said, "That's between you all and Jonathan. I don't know if it was frustration with his start. We're just focusing on the Cubs."

When asked if he likes that kind of confidence from his pitchers, Bochy said, "especially when they're on the mound. That's when you want to see it."

Granted, this is much ado about nothing – baseball feuds of this nature are few and far between and there would be very little bite to any sort of retaliation given baseball’s reluctance to let any of these issues be resolved on the field (see: retaliation pitch). It shouldn't be asking too much to expect one high-and-tight when Sánchez steps up to the plate, or a Latos fastball firmly planted in Posey's ribs but this is the world we live in thanks to Dictator Selig. My concern is while the nonplussed nature of Hairston, Jr. is not surprising for a veteran leader, I want it to keep the youngsters grounded – not neutered.

"I love being the underdog," Latos said. "Some people still doubt us as a team. I don't really understand it. Basically, all year we've been in first place."

Oh, poor Mat Latos – while well-instructed, somebody needs to tell these guys that the underdog card only words so long as you’re not in first place and the national media isn’t on your jock.

Sigh…at the very least, I expected more from our very own Nuke LaLoosh.

UPDATE: Heath Bell responds...and it's disappointing.

R.I.P Baseball (1846-2010)

2010-07-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

I'll make this short and sweet considering it's an off day and everybody is glued to what I'll now be referring to as "As The Werth Turns" (somebody has some serious explaining to do for that initial phone call). I spent time today catching up on what I missed yesterday - the 2010 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. I know it's been downhill since Rickey Henderson was inducted but, man, when did MLB jump the shark?

These seemed pretty fitting viewed in succession. Just induct Bert Blyleven next year before I lose my faith in humanity, okay?

Dealing with the D(evi)L

2010-07-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Uploaded MS Paint re-enactment of the "tug" that broke our 7 subscribed readers' hearts.

Today, the San Diego Union Tribune broke the news that Mat Latos might be heading to the DL after the break.* While this had been hinted at only a couple days earlier, the general feeling was that Latos would be shelved temporarily in order to limit his innings, as the organization is handling the franchise's golden arm as carefully as possible. As a matter of fact, they've made it quite clear that they'd be limiting his innings. Last season, then-GM Kevin Towers struggled with the idea of promoting him for this very reason:

"I just think he's still inexperienced. He's never thrown more than 55 innings [in one season]. Even though he's flat-dominated, if we bring him up, he would could end with 150 or so innings. That's more than triple what he's used to."

"To me, a good barometer is to no more than double the innings," Towers said.

Latos had hurled 53.1 IP at the time and ended up being shut down in September, after throwing 50.2 IP (making him ineligible for rookie status this year by two measly outs, a fact that still irks me) for the Padres and 123.0 IP overall. With Towers' ouster coming only a couple months later, Latos' trio of handlers - Jed Hoyer, Bud Black, and Darren Ballsley - all expressed similar trepidations towards marching Latos to the mound until his arm fell off.

This, from a March 16th interview...

"I don't think there are hard and fast rules," General Manager Jed Hoyer said yesterday. (But) we have to be very careful with our investments.

"You look at guys who have been abused over time and you see the falloff later and you realize that often times that one magical season in their early 20s isn't worth giving up a potentially great career."

Both Hoyer and Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley expressed reservations about adopting arbitrary numerical limits yesterday both believe stress is not so easily quantified but the consensus in the Padres' camp is that Latos' workload will grow modestly in 2010, probably to about 150 innings.

"Once he gets to 150, you have to be careful," Balsley said. "It's common sense."

...this from May 25th...

"The health of the individual player is the most important thing," General Manager Jed Hoyer said Monday. "We think this guy can have a long and potentially special career. Were looking at him making 25 to 27, maybe 28 starts. I think were likely to find pockets during the year when we can give him some rest."

...and, again, on June 14th.

"More of an eye is being kept on Mat just because of where he's been the last couple years, said Black. "We have to watch him.

"He's been injured a little bit in the minor leagues.

"We can be creative as we move forward."

Asserting that the team can "be creative" moving forward is what I'm afraid will draw interest from Major League Baseball. The Padres have repeatedly indicated that Latos will have a limited workload for the 2010 season and a potential shift to the 15-day DL after the All-Star Break reeks of roster abuse. It's not like this is unprecedented former Padre and maddeningly inconsistent and current Buffalo Bisons pitcher, Oliver Perez was handled in a similar manner. While the New York Mets struggled for several weeks to get the struggling Perez to accept a minor league assignment, a conveniently-timed knee injury sent him to the DL right as his spot in the rotation came up. Perez insisted that he felt fine and the Mets rushed him to an MRI machine. Bud Selig's office later cleared the Mets, but the attention paid to this dispute was definitely a black eye for the organization.

Granted, the circumstances surrounding each pitchers DL stint couldn't be more different, but this is where we stand with Mat Latos. On Sunday, Black stated that, "Mat's doing great...he feels fine." No indications of any lingering health concerns or anything other than the extended break Black and the organization had intended to give Latos as they managed a three-man rotation. Then comes the news from today's UT:

During his June 27 start against Florida, Mat Latos felt a tug in his side.

Although he has pitched 18 scoreless innings since, that "tug" could lead Latos into going on the disabled list this week as part of the Padres' desire to limit his innings and appearances over the second half of the season.

Now, either Bud Black is the worst manager in the history of the game (a possibility that I'm not excluding), or he has it in for Mat - as the hottest pitcher on a playoff contending team shouldn't be throwing 105 and 90 pitches in his next two respective starts if he's dealing with an injury. It's inexcusable if true, and damning if not. I don't expect anything to come of this from a disciplinary standpoint even if it does get investigated, but I have to admit that I am perturbed by the Padres decision to potentially go down this route.

Why can't Latos stay on the roster while taking his rest? If the front office is concerned about the health of their rotation and/or bullpen, there are still plenty of moves they can make to shuttle players to-and-from San Diego; it's not like they haven't done it before and, frankly, it would be nice to see what some of these players could do out of the pen. At the very least, it could also afford the Padres an early opportunity to see what some relievers could do as they feel out any potential offers for Heath Bell. I'm not skirting the issue that Latos could actually be injured, but this was handled wrong regardless - especially after months of careful planning and preferential treatment.

Whatever they choose to do, I'm sure there are smarter people than me working on it I just wish they didn't have to potentially put a negative spotlight on what is otherwise an encouraging season thus far.

* Yes, I'm aware that several Twitter posts alluding to a potential Latos DL stint** were aired to much scrutiny on Monday morning, but this is the first official confirmation of said incident.

**And, no, I don't consider Twitter a reliable news source. It's for making witty 140 character comments or as evidence that most celebrities and sports figures are awful human beings.

The All-Star Break: Some Much-Needed Rest

2010-07-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

Today's rubber match with the Rockies bears some significance in that the Padres are clinging to a 1.0 game lead in 1st place atop the NL West. Clayton Richard is being asked to channel his inner-Mat Latos and fend off only the second three-game losing streak for the Padres this season. I don't know about everyone else, but this has already felt like a long season; in the best way possible, however. The Padres have been playing great baseball this year and deserve to be atop their division, as their run differential of +70 has allowed them to play in line with their Pythagorean record. So many aspects of the game have gone well for the Padres this year and directly correlates to their run of success. We have only fallen out of first place once since taking over the top NL West spot on April 20th of this year. Clayton Richard will be aiming to keep us there going into the All-Star Break after today.

The last series in D.C. and the first two games of our current series have been cause for concern due to the abhorrent amount of home runs given up by the Padres pitching staff in the last 5 games. The Padres are 1-4 on the current road trip, as a result. In Game 1 of the Washington series, Ryan Zimmerman blasted two bombs (one off Luke Gregerson, who has become increasingly human in the last week and a half), and in Game 2 Adam Dunn was just retarded, knocking 3 home runs out of Nationals Park. The home run barrage has, of course, continued in Colorado because the Rockies play "baseball" in a giant pinball machine. The one promising factor of the Washington series, however, was that the Padres, themselves, combined for 7 (yes, 7!) home runs in the series. Chase Headley has also started to hit like a 3rd baseman lately, and Adrian Gonzalez has continued his MVP-worthy level of play. Notwithstanding the fact the Jon Garland and Wade LeBlanc have started drinking from the same Gatorade jug as Kevin Correia, all signs point to the Padres scrapping their way to more wins in the second half. The bullpen is going to benefit heavily from the All-Star break and I have all the faith in the world that Jed Hoyer will pull off a deal that gets this team over the hump.

I recently heard that Bud Black mentioned he hasn't noticed anything wrong mechanically with Luke Gregerson. Black thinks he may be overthrowing his slider, and I think the All-Star Break is going to be a big help for him to get back on track.

Another thing in the Washington series that also bothered me (aside from losing 2 out of 3, of course), was Bud Black's usage of Oscar Salazar as a pinch hitter in two key situations where Everth Cabrera would have been at the plate (Salazar produced an RBI-ground out and a line-out to left field in the two appearances). First thing, Everth is a switch-hitter, so the "matchup" logic does not work here. The first night, they announced Matt Stairs as the pinch hitter first, so Washington countered with a lefty which brought Salazar to the plate instead. The second night, however, right hander Drew Storen was on the mound. Okay, Oscar Salazar is hitting .226/.314/.292 with 3 (THREE) extra-base hits on the year; Everth Cabrera, on the other hand, is supposed to be our SS of the future and he should be afforded every opportunity to play out of his slump. Leaving him at the plate in these key situations provides key opportunity for this to occur. I'm not working in the Padres front office, but Edgar Gonzalez provided more value off the bench than Oscar Salazar does; not to mention he is just cooler because he's Adrian's brother and he doesn't wear batting gloves that resemble the team mascot of the Wichita State Shockers.

Aaron Cunningham is developing into an everyday Right Fielder right before our very eyes. Woe, Doctor! could not be happier about this. He is providing a boost to an offense that can use one from anywhere that it might originate. Please do not send him back to Portland when Will Venable comes back from the DL.

I guess that's enough from me right now. I really, really do not enjoy Colorado baseball when it is played at Coors Field in Colorado. The Rockies continue to be the team most likely to win an inordinate amount of games in a row to win the division every year. It's annoying.

I could not be more proud of the Padres than I am right now. The second half of this year is going to be exciting, and I am stoked that I may have an opportunity to attend a meaningful playoff game (to myself, anyways) this October.

Chicks dig teams that win the rubber match, Padres.

Go get 'em!

A (somewhat) open letter to UT editor Jeff Light

2010-07-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

As an author and co-founder of Woe, Doctor! I believe it is our duty, nay, our privilege to use our reputation and prestige as one of the most infrequently updated Padres blog on the Internet as a soapbox for the common man. Being a safe-haven for the weary and disenfranchised Padres fan carries with it the moral obligation to address the concerns of our readers (all six of you) and take our message from the basements of our mothers to the streets.

With that in mind, I have decided to address the growing disdain for local sports coverage – especially for all things Padres-related – by sending this crudely-constructed, syntactic nightmare of a letter to new San Diego Union Tribune editor, Jeff Light.* Dude, you have no idea the kind of shitstorm you just walked into.

Jeff -

I appreciate the fact that you took time out of your busy schedule to address some of the biggest concerns I've had with the UT as of late. Understandably, the Internet is a wonderful tool for research and breaking news and long have I believed that the UT - and SignOnSanDiego in particular - haven't necessarily taken advantage of this technology. I have seen marked improvements as of late but, if I may be so bold, I would like to address a couple concerns that I have had specifically with your Padres coverage.

I know sports coverage is likely low on the totem pole in comparison to delivering other breaking news across the county, but I think it goes without saying that local sports fans are evolving beyond the stereotype that they barely bother to check the box score before their morning surf. The Padres Forum on the SignOnSanDiego.com webpage is evidence of this, and there are hundreds of active members that crave new information on their hometown team. In particular, with new ownership striving to make this team a contender on an annual basis, there is an increased interest in the foundation and future of our franchise – fans that cannot wait to hear about the team’s minor leaguers and news down on the farm. As of now, quite frankly, news on our minor league system is lacking.

There are hardly any injury updates, roster call-ups, or statistics save for an occasional sentence or two or a brief blurb in Bill Center’s column. While I appreciate the effort, the depth of the aforementioned information is lacking and is generally already common knowledge for days prior to it being posted. I happen to run my own Padres blog, which I update infrequently, but the information I receive is through regularly-updated Twitter feeds and free resources such as Baseball America, Fangraphs, and dozens of other sites that I feel the UT should be able to use just as effectively in order to provide better insight than what it already does. It went unannounced that our top prospect, Donavan Tate, had been injured for several days. Personally, I find that lack of coverage to be extremely disappointing.

I understand that staffing is a concern, but one of your pledges was that digital reporting “must be active, expert and immediate” as to engage us, the readers, “in real time.” You even singled out sports coverage for the Chargers and Padres as one of your focuses in this change. I’m not asking for pages and pages dedicated to the minor league system, but most of the information that I do receive is found from amateurs, on your forums, in the “Down on the Farm” thread. Perhaps employing a Twitter blog roll, or even a dedicated staffer to follow RSS feeds on our minor league system could be a big step in the right direction. For a team that has pledged itself to build from within and take full advantage of the resources before them through the draft, it’s a bit ironic that the major metropolitan news source that covers them isn’t utilizing these resources as a research tool for better sports coverage.

Anyway, I do appreciate your time and while I don’t expect a direct response, perhaps if you get a chance you could address this growing concern on the forums (my username is “fifthandlaurel”). For the record, I will also be posting this letter on my blog and on the forums in order for any potential readers to comment on it. Hopefully the reader response at both sites may help influence any future change.

Thanks for your time and concern,

Bryant Webster
http://woedoctor.blogspot.com/

* If you need somebody to help out, I'm more than willing to take money and press access in return for my services.

Arms race

2010-06-25T22:54:00.000-07:00

Mired in a better-than-normal yet worse-than-most year at the plate, the offensively challenged Padres have apparently decided to go out and acquire…another arm. This, according to Tom Krasovic:

Don't be surprised if the pitching-rich Padres trade for a starting pitcher next month.

Despite leading the majors in ERA, the Padres are quietly sizing up the pitching market. They're extra interested in potential free agents. They think a pitcher who experiences their ballpark and support staff will want to stay in San Diego.
The Padres are stretching out pitcher Tim Stauffer in the minors and expect him back in July. But Chris Young, out since April because of a bum shoulder, is still a question mark.
Workload limits could cramp the team's rotation during a pennant race. Sophomore starters Mat Latos, Clayton Richard and Wade Leblanc have never pitched a full season in the majors. Padres general manager Jed Hoyer vows to protect his young arms, especially Latos. The 22-year-old has emerged as the team's best starter. Hoyer was with the Red Sox when they shut down young Clay Buchholz to protect his arm. He won't red-line Latos.

That's right, the team that leads MLB in most pitching categories and will have a difficult time finding room on the 25-man roster for Tim Stauffer upon returning from the DL wants more pitching. Now, while most people cringe at the thought of less offense whenever they attend a ballgame, I am quite the opposite. Does it matter that the Padres' staff has a league-leading xFIP (3.80, and the only team with a sub-4.00) and is top-five in nearly every other relevant statistical category? Not good enough. I was at the 17-2 home opener and, while incredible, I would have much rather watched Mat Latos come within a deflected comebacker of a perfect game.

Apparently, the front office seems to love pitching duels and low-scoring games as much as I do and – frankly – nobody should really be surprised about it:

When Nick Hundley’s eighth-inning drive is snared on the warning track in left-center field, Hoyer allows, “That’s probably a home run in 29 parks,” but qualifies this observation with a quote from his job interview, in which he said that he would rather move Petco Park’s fences back than closer to home plate.

…

“Pitching depth can evaporate faster than anyone can imagine. I’m not ruling anything out, but you have to be careful when you start trading your quote-unquote ‘pitching depth.’ Everybody wants pitching depth. I’d rather have pitching depth than bring in one more bat that may not help us in the long run. I’m not saying I won’t do it, but it’s risky. We have a guy like (starter) Mat Latos who’s going to have some breaks in his season; he’s not going to pitch 200 innings for us.”

Frankly, I found the news to be pretty uneventful. As early as May, fans, print media, and bloggers alike (Woe, Doctor! included) had seemingly found common ground in their critique of the then NL-best Padres – their paltry offense. While little has changed, it’s time to own up to the fact that the foundation for this team’s success is their dominance on the bump and the team should play to that strength; exploit it even. Jed Hoyer realizes this, we realize this, but the difference is that he is not convinced that this foundation is strong enough.

Therefore, while trade rumors of the Padres acquiring another have bat ranged from hopeful (David DeJesus) to desperate (Jermaine Dye), Krasovic has suggested the Padres look towards struggling Baltimore for a solution – and his name ain’t Luke Scott:

The Padres or another National League club should try to strike a buy-low deal for Orioles pitcher Jeremy Guthrie.

"Yes, I'd love to play in San Diego," Guthrie told West Coast Bias, even before I could ask him.
Guthrie, 31, would benefit from getting out of the American League East. Plus, he's a West Coast guy and, carrying marks of 3-9 and a 4.28 ERA, shouldn't be expensive.
With a straight face, Guthrie said he enjoys being an Oriole.
"I'm not going to ask for the Orioles to trade me," said the Stanford man, an Oregon native who lives in Utah. "Baltimore is a great city. I have great teammates, and my wife and I enjoy it here. It's not something where I'm sitting around and hoping something happens. The only thing I can control is to pitch well enough to be desired."

While I’m not entirely sold on Jeremy Guthrie, I love the enthusiasm (and thoughtful response) and I do approve of the idea of going after another arm; for more than the perspective of insuring our young arms through the rest of the season. Going after a player who is still cheap and under contract for at least one more season allows for them to pitch at PETCO Park and improve their value as a free agent, and to us as both a trade commodity and chum for compensation round picks down the line. For a team that has certainly improved down on the farm the past couple seasons (and, in my opinion, this year appears to be no exception) it could always use more depth and what better way than to bolster a staff that is already among the league’s best? While Kevin Towers seemed to have a preternatural ability to conjure arms out of thin air (besides wearing Hawaiian shirts it may have been his only skill…but credit where credit is due), Hoyer is using power in numbers.

It’s a bright move and it affords the front office the opportunity to take advantage of the ballpark’s ability to gloss up a turd for the trade market for more than just immediate dividends on the 25-man roster. Repeated often enough, they might just strike gold.

The State Of Our Outfield: What's It Gonna Take?

2010-06-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

Interleague Play is nearing its end for this season and MLB is speeding towards the season's All-Star Break. The San Diego Padres are still atop the National League West and Mat Latos, after tonight's performance against Tampa, isn't showing any signs of coming back down to Earth anytime soon. Pitching and defense is the trademark of the Padres and it has propelled them to a 41-29 record and 1st place three-quarters of the way through June. I have no doubt that the Padres will continue their current level of play as long as our pitchers continue their dominance of opposing hitters. One glaring problem that must be addressed lies in the current state of our outfield production.

Going into the 2010 season, the Padres looked to have a handful of young outfielders poised for breakout years based on their performances toward the end of 2009. Unfortunately, Kyle Blanks, Will Venable, and Tony Gwynn Jr. have not been able to live up to those expectations (although AJ has turned it around in June, YES!). I am by no means ready to write off any of these three outfielders, however, I was informed that Anthony Jr. has the 3rd highest OBP of all the players in the starting lineup today against Tampa Bay and he was hitting .184 (!) going into this month. Will Venable has shown flashes of stardom, missing the cycle by one hit twice and demonstrating an adequate ability to get on base at other times. Kyle Blanks has not been himself all year and he was striking out at a rate never seen from him at any other level in the Padres organization, and now he's likely out until mid-July with a strained elbow.

Collectively, the outfield rotation of Scott Hairston, Gwynn, Venable, and Blanks is batting a combined .219 in 598 at-bats. Hairston is second on the team with 7 home runs and Gwynn/Venable have combined for 25 stolen bases, but, beyond AJ's outfield defense, there hasn't been much more than inconsistency from the group.

With the arrival of summer, the hot stove league has started to heat up and the Padres have been amongst the rumors as being "potential buyers" when the trade deadline arrives. With the performance of our outfield and the rest of lineup excluding Adrián González, it seems likely that Jed Hoyer may end up moving a couple arms to land an outfield bat. At this point it is evident that Matt Stairs isn't providing the power boost off the bench that he is capable of, and although Luis Durango and Aaron Cunningham have both had some success in recent cameos on the active roster, a trade outside the organization seems the most likely scenario for drastically improving the outlook of the Padres' outfield.

The most appealing name that has been linked to the Padres via MLB Trade Rumors is David DeJesus of the Kansas City Royals. DeJesus has put up a slash line of .323/.395/.485 and can field all three outfield positions. His bat would slide nicely into the Padres lineup before or after González, the only problem is deciding who Hoyer would be able to send to Kansas City in return for his services. In addition to his production, DeJesus is on the books for only $4.7 million for 2010, and has an option for $6 million in 2011. He fits well within the Padres budget, and be could just what we need to maintain our position atop the NL West. He's also been linked to the Giants in rumors and I would hate to see him go to a team within our division.

It's going to be interesting to see what Jed Hoyer does to improve the Padres offense in the coming months. In the meantime, let's give it up for Mat Latos maintaining his dominance on the mound. This has been one of the most exciting seasons of Padres baseball in a while up to this point.

And just in case you needed it, here is further evidence that the San Diego Padres bullpen is superior to your team's bullpen:

Episode IV: A New Hope

2010-06-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since our last post, but what better way to get back in the swing of things than a live blog of the First-Year Player Draft? I'll be here all afternoon as MLB Network has decided to televise today's action (be still, my heart).

3:40 PM - Jeff Morad name-dropping the Padres' front office while being interviewed by Hazel Mae, followed by an awesome shot of the Padres' Draft Room (it looks like they're in a broom closet) - Chris Gwynn in the front row. I'm liking this newfound attention.

3:42 PM - By the way, from what I could tell, all Padres' representatives are proudly wearing the SD pin.

3:50 PM - I want to be a MLB scout.

3:56 PM - "Adrian Gonzalez...from Chula Vees-ta, California." Yikes.

4:03 PM - Somebody needs to give Bud Selig speech lessons. Guy can't pronounce anything correctly.

4:04 PM - I'm upset that Selig and MLB feels the need to treat their draft like the NFL. Especially with the mock diamond at Studio 42, if feels very...Little League.

4:10 PM - Um...Washington? You're doing it wrong. Bryce Harper is introduced as an OF (also, why does it matter that Harper's dad thinks that his best position is SS?). Even when it's a no-brainer, Washington messes it up.

4:21 PM - All dreams of the Padres getting SS Manny Machado are officially dead. Drafted third by the Baltimore Orioles.

4:35 PM - I'm about done with John Hart's "analysis."

4:37 PM - NL West Watch: Arizona Diamondbacks select Barret Loux, a RHP out of Texas A&M. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised to see him go this high.

4:47 PM - It's great to hear that pitchers coming out of college at 6'4" or 6'5" are durable, whereas with the Padres it's known as "elbow surgery."

4:49 PM - Finally. Padres are on the clock.

4:53 PM - Padres select Karsten Whitson, a RHP out of Chipley HS. Since MLBN would rather slob on Bryce Harper's knob a bit more, here is FanGraphs' blurb on Whitson (and all other picks thus far):

Whitson has a fastball that can hit the mid-90s but his slider is one of the best in the draft. The right-hander is athletic (He was a good prep basketball player) and fields his position well. He has a quick, short arm action. Whitson, who has been on the prospect circuit for quite some time, is committed to the University of Florida.

4:57 PM - Why is Mike Rizzo getting all this credit for drafting Harper? It was a no-brainer, just like Stephen Strasburg last year.

4:58 PM - Hart calling Whitson a pitcher with good upside, with "no real risk."

5:02 PM - Ray at The Sacrifice Bunt (the Star Wars references as blog titles are pure coincidence, I swear) drew attention to this more thorough look at Whitson, courtesy of Crawfish Boxes:

Summary
Karsten Whitson is the very definition of "big, athletic, projectable right-hander", and we've seen over the past couple drafts that this is something scouting director Bobby Heck loves.

Whitson has already been clocked throwing as hard as 96 MPH, though he generally sits in the 91-94 range. Many scouts believe that he has room for more velocity, both by filling out his projectable frame and by cleaning up his lower body mechanics. He also mixes in a slider which flashes plus potential and a changeup which projects to be above average in time. Though he has some minor mechanical flaws, his delivery is easy and repeatable, and his command projects out to above average as he gains more experience.

Floor
The attrition rate on high school arms is still high, and though it has improved in recent years, they are always a risk to bust. Whitson is safer than most, though, as he's big and durable with easy velocity and a secondary pitch which is already a plus at times. Assuming he makes it to the big leagues, his floor is probably as a closer, working off his good fastball and slider. The hope, of course, is that he becomes a frontline starter, and that's where his ceiling comes into play.

Ceiling
Although all of his pitches require some projection to reach that level, Whitson has the potential to have three above average-to-plus pitches, including a chance at a borderline plus-plus fastball if his velocity develops the way scouts think it will. Although his command is a notch below average right now, much of that is due to inexperience, and it's thought that his athleticism and repeatable delivery will allow him to develop above average command down the road. If everything works out, Whitson could be an ace starting pitcher, and many believe he's the safest bet in this draft class to do so other than Jameson Taillon.

5:10 PM - Yasmani Grandal has a beautiful swing from both sides of the plate.

5:30 PM - If I were a Texas Rangers fan, I'd probably be upset with drafting Jake Skole...but then I'd realize they have another pick at #22.

5:41 PM - Wally Joyner as the Angels' representative. Wally World is officially dead to me.

5:42 PM - "Los Ange-lees Angels of Anaheim." Ugh.

5:52 PM - Paul DePodesta weighs in on Whitson:

Sometimes you have to take your shot.

Karsten is a 6'4", 215lb right-hander from Chipley, FL with a fastball that runs between 90 and 95 mph. His main secondary pitch is a relatively polished slider that has been unhittable at the amateur level. While he has shown some feel for a changeup, he just hasn't needed to use it much up to this point, but we anticipate that he'll have a solid one going forward. A great competitor, Karsten pitches with an attitude, and I mean that in the best way possible.

As this year's big league team illustrates, we're going to win here in PETCO with great pitching, and we feel Karsten has the chance to pitch at the top of a rotation. Like any high schooler, it is going to take a while for him to develop fully, and we'll have a defined plan to increase his workload over the years to prepare him for the rigors of an ML season.

This pick doesn't come without risk, but that goes for any amateur player. In this instance, though, we have the chance to develop a dominant starting pitcher.

Now it's time to sit back and watch the next 40 picks and continue to strategize for tomorrow.

6:06 PM - Oh yeah...there's a Padres game on. Hamels takes a no-hitter into the seventh, only to see Gonzalez break it up with a go-ahead HR and Scott Hairston follows it up with another. Wade LeBlanc pitching scoreless ball through the seventh. 2-0, Padres.

6:14 PM - NL West Watch: San Francisco Giants select OF Gary Brown, from Cal State Fullerton. MLBN pegs him as their future lead-off hitter with plus speed, while I see him more as a guy who - despite hitting .438 last season - needs to draw more walks in order to make use of his legs.

6:25 PM - The playful interaction between Selig and the MLBN hosts lead me to believe he has been drinking.

6:32 PM - NL West Watch: Kyle Parker, OF for Clemson University, selected 26th overall by the Colorado Rockies. Yet another two-sport star, Parker is considered by FanGraphs to be a "tough sign" due to his status as Clemson's starting QB but has the raw power to project as a starting corner OF.

6:35 PM - NL West Watch: The Los Angeles Dodgers took RHP Zach Lee from McKinney HS. He's currently committed to LSU as a QB.

6:37 PM - Peter Gammons questions the Dodgers' ability to lure him away from LSU, while taking a swing at their front office, "this is a front office that wouldn't offer arbitration to several key players...he's not going to take less than Casey Kelly's $3 million."

6:39 PM - In response to drafting Lee, Keith Law just writes, "wow."

6:51 PM - ...and Heath Bell, with his usual flair for the dramatic, closes out the Phillies for the 3-1 win.

Well, that marks the end of the first round and while I'll be watching the Compensation Round coming up next, the only NL West team with a pick is the Rockies at #47 overall. If you want to keep updated, I suggest you all follow over on FanGraphs' 2010 MLB Draft Selection.

Blog Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

2010-05-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

Today, for the first time in my life, I had a sports writer from a major metropolitan newspaper imply that I’m an idiot. Rest assured, it’s a benchmark day in my life to have Tim Sullivan call me out. One might ask what leads such a scribe to set down his pen and address a lowly rube such as myself. Well, I called his most recent article “dumb” on the Union-Tribune’s message board.

In Sullivan’s latest, he outlines the offensive woes of our young lineup – including Adrian Gonzalez, Everth Cabrera, Tony Gwynn, and Kyle Blanks. Blanks becomes somewhat the focus of the article, with Sullivan highlighting his prolonged slump as well as making comparisons to Mike Schmidt’s rookie campaign (where the Phillies stuck with Schmidt, who ended the season with an average below the Mendoza Line and went on to tear the cover off of the ball pretty much every season thereafter). Sure, that’s kind of a leap. And really, he’s not saying Blanks is going to be Mike Schmidt, just drawing a one-in-a-million comparison. And it’s not like he wasn’t making any good points:

The question confronting Hoyer and manager Bud Black is how long to allow a Kyle Blanks to keep flailing at the big league level before showing confidence in him becomes counterproductive.

This is an excellent point. However…

Six weeks into their season, they remain committed to a course that never did run smooth; entrusting their fate to an inconsistent (arguably overmatched) young core while resisting the kind of patchwork players who might yield more predictable results.

What does Sullivan mean by this? Well, from here he discusses the recently released Pat Burrell, whom he describes in this manner:

Two years removed from a 33-home run season with the Philadelphia Phillies, Burrell and his .202 batting average have been designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Fair enough, but let’s also note that Burrell is one year removed from a 14 HR, .682 OPS season. Furthermore, let’s also note how Burrell is bored by small markets and their fans who don’t care about winning, and was complaining about being a DH, even though he signed with Tampa Bay to play that position. Surely, Burrell would be a great fit in San Diego. Since, Sullivan has indicated via the Signonsandiego.com forums (in response to my post) that he doesn’t want the Padres to sign Pat Burrell and was merely throwing his name out there, apparently, because you (the reader) wouldn’t have thought of it first.

He does, however, seem to support the second name thrown out – Jermaine Dye. It’s the second time in five days that Sullivan has crafted an article around potential left fielders, both in which Dye has been the primary focus. Tim continues to plead his case, pointing out the 27 home runs Dye hit last year, indicating the ONLY drawback as being potential rust from Dye’s layoff. Though, that is far from being the only drawback to signing Jermaine Dye. First of all, in the case of both Dye and Burrell, you have players whose noted power numbers were attained in two of the most homer-friendly parks in baseball; Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia and US Cellular Field in Chicago. Surely, these numbers wouldn’t translate to the most offensive-suppressing ballpark in MLB, would they? I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say “no.” The bottom line is that both men are aging outfielders whose best defensive days are behind them. Jermaine Dye’s UZR over the last four seasons averages out to -21.59, while Burrell’s -13.66 isn’t much more impressive.

With a team riding their pitching AND defense to a fantastic 23-15 start, one has to consider whether it makes sense to sign either one of these players whose bats might not be able to make up for the defensive liability. Furthermore, (and Sullivan does point this out in his first article on the subject, though absent in today’s article) Dye fell completely on his face in the second half of 2009. 20 of those home runs were hit before the All-Star break, combining with an OPS of .942, 15 doubles and a .302 average in 291 at-bats. In the second half, 7 home runs, .590 OPS, 4 doubles, and a .179 average in 212 at-bats. Was Dye hiding an injury in the second half, going into free agency? It’s a possibility. Do I think bringing in Dye is a completely terrible idea? No, but I’m not a huge fan of it. I also don’t think one should imply that the Padres are married to a failing philosophy if they don’t sign him. Not after 37 games in what was widely considered to be a rebuilding year. And let’s add that with Dye, this is a guy who was (at times) holding out for a deal between $4-5 million this offseason and, as Bryant pointed out in an earlier article, felt that $1.5 million was something to scoff at.

Other names Sullivan has floated:

- Carlos Lee: Another terrible fielder, declining hitter, and signed to a stupid contract.

- Jose Guillen: Not a great clubhouse guy, and a bat very much on the decline. Sullivan’s con here is that his $12 million contract “would seem prohibitive.”

To be fair, Sullivan makes the case that picking up another man’s (expensive) garbage is the road to ruin. I can’t argue with that, given our history. Everything said, I’m not even considering the tone in comments such as “Another part, obviously, relates to his salary expectations. Yet even if the fiscal issues could be surmounted, philosophical barriers would remain.” Padre Homer’s article over at The Sacrifice Bunt focuses on the attitude of the local media in regards to the Padres and how it perpetuates a certain “us vs. them” mentality in the media and with casual sports fans. The Padres are in first place, with the second-best record in the National League. Can we hold off on the articles discussing the inaction or calling into question the motives of the front office until after the point where we slide into second or third, and not after the first THREE GAME losing streak since the middle of last August? I feel like it's stirring the pot simply for the sake of stirring the pot.

Getting back to the stupid internet nonsense, I fully admit that I was immature with my tone in my initial post. Though my intent was to joke around a bit on a message board, I don’t disagree that my tone was out of line. When Tim responded to the thread, I re-worded my argument and extended to him the apology he deserved for my tone. If my intent was to engage him directly, I wouldn’t have written him in international language of the Stupid Internet Asshole, that’s for sure. So, I politely disagreed with his article, and with his response where he implied that I was an idiot…and how, as a paid employee of the Union Tribune, he has sources and I don’t, or whatever.Given that he has posted again since my apology, further commenting on how people should be “civil” when engaging him, I’m going to take it that he doesn’t feel he owes me an apology for the personal jabs. That’s fine, but it also goes to show that:

Tim has a hard time backing up the nonsense he writes in the Union-Tribune without resulting to personal barbs.
He takes it very personally when he’s corrected or challenged.
He feels that storming onto your employer’s message board with all of the grace of Orson Welles recording a fish stick commercial is engaging a reader in a civil manner.

Your local media, at work.

David Rose is a guest contributor who is a friend of Bryant's, a loyal Padres fan, and former contributor to Signonsandiego.com's ill-fated "Padres Xtra Innings" blog. Don't remember that? Neither do we! We thank him for his contribution. Please voice your concerns/feedback in the comments section below or, as Tim Sullivan had requested, via e-mail.

View from the top

2010-05-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

I'll admit - this view from the top of the National League standings is incredibly nice. Even when it's sputtering, the offense manages to push just enough runs across and while the pitching staff is in flux due to Kevin Correia's awful family tragedy and Tim Stauffer's WebMD miracle, the team still manages to win with strong pitching performances. But another victory, another question and this time it comes from the top with Jed Hoyer. During a recent interview with local radio station XX1090 [big ups to Gaslamp Ball for transcribing this so I can skip the part where Darren Smith talks], Hoyer preferred to skip the congratulatory butt-pat for the team's early success and focused on how the team could get better:

Frankly we've been fortunate to score as many runs as we have given some of the guys we've had struggling. The way our pitching staff has thrown has allowed us some patience. At some point our hitters will have to pick up our pitchers. We're not going to continue to pitch at this rate all season. I think it's unrealistic to think that.

It's about time somebody said it. Going into today's game, the Padres bullpen rates in the top five in several categories such as - and, yes, I'm cherry-picking here - ERA (5th, 2.70), BAA (1st, .191), and K/BB (1st, 3.05). All this comes while being 10th in the league with 110.0 IP, a figure that is a bit troubling going forth. In contrast, while our starters seem to post similarly impressive numbers, they are ranked 22nd in the league with 191.1 IP - keep in mind, not one of the teams ranked below the Padres has an ERA below 4.40. This simply cannot stand.

Yes, the team is producing victories at a historic pace*, but the offense is absolutely sputtering. My movement to give Kyle Blanks and Tony Gwynn, Jr. more opportunities to turn it around as impact players in the lineup, now, seems a bit foolish as they seem best suited towards the bottom-end of the lineup if not perhaps as platoon or with the bus-bound in AAA. The same could be said for Will Venable. While I still believe a lot of the offense's problems stem from Bud Black's mismanaged lineup cards, it's tough to blame him with the amount of scuffling from guys this organization was counting on to pull their weight.

What's worse, is that such problems have seemed to create a call from the local media to consider free-agent Jermaine Dye as a potential option to supplant our slumping outfielders. I'm all for improvement, but Dye is a player who felt that playing for $1.5m was beneath him despite his deteriorating defense and enormous second-half slump. And while I'm not one to put too much weight into clubhouse chemistry, I certainly don't feel that the combined veteran leadership of BudBot, Adrián González, and Dye will mesh well with what seems to be a pretty tight-knit group of guys. My real concern remains how long Hoyer continues to wait. As he told Tim Sullivan:

“I’m trying to think about this task rationally,” Hoyer said. “We do have a team with young players and you’ve got to have patience. There are very few players who come into the big leagues and make that fast, easy adjustment.

“In order to be successful, we’re going to have to get good performances out of the young guys. There are a lot of good things that come with youth, (such as) athleticism and fewer injuries. You have to live with some ebbs and flows.”

I won't pretend I know if the Padres are looking to improve by looking outside the organization (although, if things continue to deteriorate, I would like to see Aaron Cunningham, Chris Denorfia, and Luis Durango at least get a chance on the 25-man roster), but if Hoyer understands the strain the staff continues to see with a continued lack of run support, it makes you wonder how patient he can continue to be.

* According to the Sporting News, "Pegged for last in the NL West, the Padres have pitched and scratched their way to first place and, at 20-12, are off to their best start since they went to the World Series in 1998." Let the comparisons begin!

Padres' AAA affiliate coming to North County?

2010-05-06T02:32:00.000-07:00

This news comes completely out of left field, but according to the North County Times, the Padres are looking to call North County home for their soon-to-be evicted AAA team.* What's more, Jeff Moorad and company seem to have targeted the Cal State University San Marcos campus as a potential spot for relocation.

"We do have interest in placing a minor-league franchise in our territory, and the only territory that makes sense is North County," Jeff Moorad, vice chairman and CEO of the Padres, said Wednesday.

Moorad declined to say "which municipality has contacted us." However, Cal State San Marcos public information officer Margaret Lutz confirmed the school has discussed the matter with the Padres.

"There has been one meeting, all at high levels," Lutz said. "They are only in the conceptual stage."

Obviously, it's hard to get excited over one meeting (just ask the Chargers), but the declaration that Moorad is actively scouring North County for the best possible place to move the AAA franchise is great news by me. Merritt Paulson, the majority owner of Shortstop, LLC which owns both the Portland Beavers and Portland Timbers, seems to be in the middle of a messy divorce (it's contagious with this franchise) with the city of Portland and it was inevitable that the Padres would be dealing with this issue sooner rather than later.**

I'm going to miss PGE Park and all that came with having a Padres' affiliate in Portland, as I've visited quite a few times (in 2005, I was in attendance to view the rarest of the rare...a Sean Burroughs HR!), but I am ecstatic about the possibility of being able to attend a minor league baseball game after a ten minute drive or a short trip on the Sprinter. Additionally, it solves the ballpark crisis that CSUSM has seen in recent years, as the team has alternated between fields at Mission Bay High School and San Marcos High School. Not that I believe a $35 million to $50 million stadium is the only option, but it would be nice to kill two birds with one stone.

If there is any concern that I have - and it's not a unique one - it's the viability of having the Padres move their AAA team within 50 miles of the Lake Elsinore Storm, their Single-A affiliate.

"We're aware the Padres are looking to locate a franchise in North County," said Dave Oster, president of the Storm. "It's a touchy subject because we're family with the Padres.

"But any decision would affect our business."

Oster said recent studies showed that as much as 12 percent of the Storm fan base comes from North County, more specifically Escondido, Oceanside, Carlsbad and Fallbrook.

"This is all very fresh," Oster said. "It's all in the forming stage, but I would expect the Padres to do the right thing."

Again, growing up in North County, it was a treat to take the trip up to Lake Elsinore. Both because it was a great opportunity to see the club's farmhands firsthand and because it allowed fans to whet their appetites for a new baseball facility as PETCO Park slipped further and further behind schedule due to countless delays and litigation. I'd hate to see the trust and hard work they've put in over the past decade for the big league franchise betrayed by significantly cutting into their market.

I trust that the current ownership group will handle all aspects of this impending move in a respectable manner and, hopefully, this can be resolved sooner rather than later...after all, we all know what happens when a San Diego sports team starts talking new stadiums.

* It's mentioned briefly in the North County Times article, but PGE Park is undergoing major renovations as it becomes an all-soccer facility. This has been in the works for awhile, as the Portland Timbers are being added as an expansion team in the MLS for the 2011 season. Exciting news for most of you, I'm sure.

** Paulson has been trying for years to move the Portland Beavers to...sigh...Beaverton. Basically, when he had trouble nailing down anything other than a tentative stadium deal with the city of Beaverton, he threatened not to finalize the stadium deal with Portland. This makes him, to put it lightly, kind of a dick.

May Flowers Bring June Showers, or Something Like That

2010-05-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

It's been some time since I last posted, but I'm done with stressing over school and ready for summer. The Padres are on the verge of winning their 6th (Sixth!) straight series tonight. So many things have come together at this point in the season, it's extremely difficult to continue doubting this team's abilities. The starting pitching has been more than serviceable, and the bullpen might as well be throwing knives at home plate because they have been murdering batters all season long. I think Luke Gregerson's opposing batters split speaks for itself: .115/.148/.135. Um, yeah, note to opponents: do not even bother taking a bat to the plate when Gregerson is pitching. Another interesting item to note: Geoff Young pointed out that Chase Headley is 3 for 3 with 7 RBIs when opposing pitchers have intentionally walked Adrián to take their chances on him. Please keep that up, sir.

As Bryant recently pointed out, we decided to finally see what Toyota Terrace is all about last Thursday since they now allow indentured servants to enjoy the section in the company of the higher-ups of society. It was definitely worth it, being that we were 4 of roughly 20 people sitting in the entire section that night. Not to mention, the Pads seemingly slapped what seemed like 30 singles on the way to a 9-0 shutout of the Crüe. The Padres shut out the Brewers in 3 of 4 games last weekend!

After the Padres conclude the series with the Pop Rocks tonight, they head to Houston for 3 games, followed by San Francisco for 3 more. Beginning May 14, the Padres will be hosting the team that I LOVE to hate: the Los Angeles Dodgers. I live for Padres-Dodgers' series because Petco Part always gets swarmed by Dodgers fans and I will be there in Left Field Reserved yelling at any Los Angeles resident within earshot. Even though I hate to make the comparison, the Padres-Dodgers rivalry is my own, personal west coast version of the Yankees-Red Sox (and now Rays) never-ending ESPN parade; except way better because it's the Padres. Duh. Be there May 15 for "Beat L.A." t-shirts.

Now a few fun items to mention:

Sean Gallagher is on the disabled list for a sprained toe. Ryan Webb has been called up to act in his stead. I'm not exactly ready to write Gallagher off. If we decide to DFA him at some point, I have no doubt he will get claimed by another team. This dodges that bullet for now while he gets things figured out.

Everyone's second favorite utility infielder (not really) Luís Rodríguez just signed a minor league deal to go stand behind Jake Peavy once again. Not that this is breaking news or anything, but I thought it was funny to pretend that Peavy recommended Rodríguez to Kenny Williams or something.

Please read this on MLB Trade Rumors if you get a moment. The very thought of this as a possibility for the Padres this season gives us even more reason to expect good things out of this team all year long.

Since I had previously mentioned that Ubaldo Jimenez is a beast, I wanted to mention that jbox of Gaslamp Ball pointed out that Tony Gwynn (or the father of Anthony Jr., whichever you prefer) said the following of Jimenez: "He’s one of the first guys I’ve seen since I retired that I wondered, could I hit him?"

As an aside, I am deeply sorry to report that Dave Roberts has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. I was so surprised and saddened to hear about this, but all signs point to Roberts catching it early. I wish him the speediest of recoveries.

On to another subject, I'm fairly certain Bud Black reads Bryant's posts because AJ is back at the top of the order where he belongs and has responded extremely well so far, as a result. It just doesn't make any sense to keep him buried in the 8 slot.

Padres/Rockies at 7:05 tonight. Let's hope for a repeat of last night, only with some capitalizing with runners on base added to the equation. Clayton Richard, for the win.

"Forgiveness is the release of all hope for a better past." - Buddy Wakefield

Two games, one Beerfest, and a weekend-long hangover

2010-05-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

SPOILER ALERT: Besides being an amateur baseball blogger, I am also an amateur beer enthusiast. From this point forth, you may find this post to be heavy on beer puns/talk and lacking in baseball. Bottom line, leave this to the professional amateurs.

Apologies for not reporting earlier but, as Melvin over at The Sacrifice Bunt informed me as we waited in the impossibly long line at the HOF Bar after I admitted that I hadn't taken any pictures at Beerfest, I am new to this whole blogging thing (I think he actually scoffed, rolled his eyes, and called me an "amateur"). However, armed with hastily-taken smart phone pictures and only the lingering effects of what can only be described as the mother of all hangovers, I feel that I can finally report back with the knowledge that the inaugural Padres Beerfest...was awful. But more on that later.

DAY ONE: Pre-game Warm Ups

My co-conspirator on this site was unable to attend Friday night's game due to prior softball arrangements, but that did not stop us from going Thursday night. Knowing that only I would be able to attend Friday's Beerfest, we decided to break in my liver and participated in the first annual Woe, Doctor! Truncated AleSearch. Our adventure began with a visit to the Scripps Ranch Ballast Point, where we enjoyed the fruits of somebody else's labor with bottles of Cantillon Fou' Foune and 2003 Port Brewing Cuvee de Tomme (before it was brewed at The Lost Abbey), as well as tastings of Ballast Point's own Sculpin IPA (on cask) and their ginger-infused Big Eye IPA.

After these indulgences, we regrouped at Pizza Port Carlsbad where they were having a Russian River tasting night. After sampling the goods (Supplication, Temptation, Consecration, and Rejection) and collecting our take-home logo pint glasses, we decided it was past due for our trek to the ballpark.

Suffice it to say, the ballgame was phenomenal - mainly due to the outcome. E and I decided to dish out the duckets for the now not-so-exclusive Toyota Terrace seats which, in all actuality, turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. After a full day of indulging in some pretty tasty beverages, we figured there was no better way to reel in the day than by being served caviar and Cristal while we hollered at the peasants below from our pricey seats. However, the Toyota Terrace regulars turned up their monacles at us and not only did we fail to have a menu littered with foie gras, apparently they didn't seem to take the same satisfaction that we did in having $5 beers and hot dogs delivered to us while we screamed, "our first trip to PETCO Park will be your last!" at Ryan Braun.

Go figure. Either way, our thirst quenched and our appetites for a Padres' victory satisfied, we relished the fact that the inaugural Woe, Doctor! Truncated AleSearch - though not heavily attended - was a resounding success. Furthermore, it was a good warm-up for what would turn out to be a rather disappointing showing for Tom Garfinkel at Friday's Beerfest.

DAY TWO: The Liver Is Evil & Must Be Punished...Just Not Here

I'll be honest, the event was a great idea executed by people that, frankly, had no idea what they were doing. Again, I feel TSB nailed it with their account of the festivities (they're professionals, dammit!) - marred by huge lines with no discernible endpoint, lack of inventory, and a less-than-impressive beer selection, the general them of Beerfest was more "hurry up and wait" than it was "get your drink on." To his credit, Garfinkel apologized to the crowd of still-sober patrons and promised to get it right next time, which is more than I could ask for as my expectations were pretty low to begin with.

If Beerfest is to be saved, allow this veteran of many a beer festival to offer a few suggestions:

Check IDs before people are admitted into the event, not at the front of the beer line. A simple ID checkpoint and a wristband should be sufficient.
Ditch the themed tie-in. This event should be about the beer, not about getting the Broken Lizard comedy team onto the field with t-shirt launchers. San Diegans love their beer...not all of them loved Club Dread.
Allow the brewers to control their own tents. Not sure if Garfinkel and company were hamstrung by liquor laws on this one, but having the food services people work the taps was an awful idea.
More kegs, please.

As it was, I was only able to grab a $6 "pint" of Lagunitas IPA before the kegs blew, and the line at the HOF Bar deterred me from further inebriation. At one point, we even tried leaving in order to get in a pint or two at Neighborhood prior to first pitch, but the line to leave was even longer than those at the tents. Defeated and sober, I decided to get in a few photos before running off to find an elusive tap of Stone beer (a story for another time). Following yet another Padres victory*, we decided to mourn what could have been by heading out for some great beers at Hamilton's Tavern, in South Park. It was here that we finished up a great game and a disappointing experiment with pints of New Belgium Love, Avery 14'ER ESB, and Gouden Carolus Easter 2010. Basically, just a few key items that were lacking at Beerfest - decent beers.

* When I'm in attendance, the Padres are 3-0 and have outscored their opponents 29-2...you're welcome.

When it rains, it pours

2010-04-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

As everybody in San Diego lamented a rain-soaked end to the Padres' 8-game win streak yesterday afternoon, today came even stormier news - the Philadelphia Phillies extended Ryan Howard for the ghastly sum of $125 million over five seasons. Not only does this make Howard's $25m average annual salary second behind only Alex Rodriguez ($27.5m), it scares me to think of what kind of money Adrián González, Albert Pujols, and Prince Fielder will be making as they are all superior players. While I'm a bit surprised by the Phillies' rush to lock up Howard at a significantly inflated rate as Jayson Werth reaches free agency a year earlier, it shouldn't do anything but reinforce the inevitable - González likely won't be wearing a Padres uniform beyond 2011, possibly sooner.

A little over one year ago, Mark Teixeira signed a 8-year, $180 million dollar deal with the Yankees, a figure that Adrian's agent, John Boggs, deemed to be the starting point for all negotiations. At first, I thought this was little more than a power play for an agent whose client list doesn't boast a lot of star power. After all, the Yankees won't be involved in negotiations and the market will be saturated with other options at first base; but maybe he was onto something after all. At this point, for all I know, JBA client/former Padre/current Dodger knuckleballer Charlie Haeger is the next Phil Niekro.

Ironically, when I first heard this news, I clicked over to JBA Sports and this is what I saw:

Granted, that MLB News feed updates live from MLB.com, but it doesn't get much more telling than that. Needless to say, I think the Phillies overpaid significantly and, as a result, I believe that the Padres' front office has got to be breathing a collective sigh of relief; even the most pie-in-the-sky optimists can't justify Jed Hoyer and company spending anywhere between $20-$25m on one player. In short, the inevitable just became that much easier for the fans to swallow...or at least forces them to confront the reality that González is of better use to San Diego as a bargaining chip to build a better overall team over time.

Sad as it is, the bottom line is that deserved or not González's next contract will make him a very rich man and it won't be in navy blue and sand (unless, somehow, the Brewers end up signing him).

UPDATE: Well, it didn't take long for Boggs to spin what is being widely regarded as a bad decision by the Phillies into pure gold for his client.

"I'm very happy for Ryan Howard," Gonzalez's agent, John Boggs, told FanHouse on Monday afternoon. "Obviously this bodes well for Adrian Gonzalez, because it validates the fact that he's worth that kind of money or more."

Similar to his misunderstanding that "Teixeira money" exists even if the Yankees aren't involved, I fail to see how this validates anything other than teams are getting less and less responsible with their finances. He's probably right - González will get paid a lot of money...but that's different than being worth upwards of $25m a season.

Weekend In Review

2010-04-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Padres have concluded their weekend series with the Cincinnati Reds today. It looked as if they were ready to sweep their third straight series before Mike Adams had another implosion in the 8th inning today. The best thing to take away from this 8 game winning streak is that the Padres are running on all cylinders in every aspect of gameplay. Adrian Gonzalez homered in every game against the Reds, and now has 6 on the season. For the most part, the whole team continued doing the little things and came away with another series win.

The Padres are tied for the NL lead in stolen bases with 20. They have been successful in 83.3% of their attempts. A much different story than Padres teams in recent years.

The pitching staff has a 2.87 ERA in 163.0 innings pitched.

Chase Headley is batting .371/.421/.500 for the month of April and does not look to be cooling off. He is also cutting down on his strikeouts, and his increased production has shown that the Padres finally have someone to protect Adrian in the lineup.

The Padres are now on their way to Florida to take on the Marlins for a 3-game series before returning home to face Milwaukee going into the weekend. I will be in attendance for the 4/29 game against MIL.

The 8-game winning streak got me thinking about the Padres early on during the 2009 season. From May 15-25 in '09 the Padres won 10 straight games. The 2009 team was out of contention by the All-Star break, however, the team responded to their summer futility by ending '09 on a 37-25 run. I would love to say that this recent run of success goes a long way to show that this year's team is ready to compete, but I feel better remaining cautiously optimistic. The Padres need to rebound tomorrow against the Marlins and show that they can bounce back from a hard loss like today's against Cincinnati. Mike Adams will be fine, but it is hard to see him struggle being that he had a sub-1.00 ERA last season. Mat Latos goes tomorrow against Josh Johnson and he will be aiming to build on the success of his last start in which he went 7.0 innings allowing 4 hits and no runs.

It's nice to see the Padres in first place with April almost in the books. May will see the Dodgers come to Petco Park for the first time this season. The Padres will be giving out "Beat L.A." t-shirts at the May 15 game. From what we've seen so far this season, this Padres team has the talent to compete with the rest of the NL West division; especially if we keep allowing less than 3 runs a game and continue with the timely hitting we've been seeing lately.

One last note, Joe Thatcher was activated from the 15-day DL resulting in Cesar Ramos being returned to Portland.

Go Padres!

Seriously... It's 10-0, Padres over Reds right now..

2010-04-23T18:09:00.001-07:00

Seriously..

Hope springs eternal...during a winning streak

2010-04-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

Butt-slaps and poorly-choreographed bouncing all around, San Diego fans, because the Padres busted out the brooms and swept away their second straight series against an NL West opponent and propelled themselves into first place. The team's pitching and defense is clicking on all cylinders and, amazingly, the 5-2 series clincher actually saw the Padres' team ERA go up during this six game winning streak from 0.98 to 1.64. Bottom line, the team is winning and a lot of it has to do with the improvement of the pitching staff. Through the Padres' first nine games, their starters posted a 4.44 ERA whereas that during their current winning streak it's a minuscule 0.75 and not one starter has allowed a HR during that span. Hell, even San Francisco skipper Bruce Bochy was dumbfounded when Jonathan Sanchez managed to one-hit the Padres on Tuesday and failed to come away with the win:

I haven't been in a game like this - one hit and you come away with a loss," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "To have that many opportunities, it's tough to do.

"They are very upset," Bochy said of his players. "There's no way we should have lost tonight's game."

Maybe it's the fact that when he was in the twilight of his managing career here in San Diego, Bochy's club could only win after mustering at least double that hit total, but it's quite the testament to the resiliency of this pitching staff. However, I'd be a lot more excited about this if it weren't for the fact that it was absolutely necessary for them to be this dominant as the offense has sputtered.

Tony Gwynn, Jr. saw his first start in nearly a week and it seems that hitting eighth in the lineup - at least temporarily - helped improve his focus at the plate, control over his speed, and the plus defense we've missed with Scott Hairston patrolling CF (he recorded the #5 Web Gem for the night!). Maybe it's that Tony The Younger has been pressing, maybe the five games Hairston saw in CF lit a fire under him, or maybe it's because the San Diego Chicken wasn't there. I really don't know. All I know is that it seems to me that the Padres are dealing with a cursed leadoff slot in the lineup as, prior to today, the Padres' leadoff hitters have been an absolute black hole for production; posting a paltry .338 OPS. I believed David Eckstein carried some blame for the Padres' poor start due to his 2-20 performance over the team's first five game and, likewise, the performances of Gwynn and Everth Cabrera as the team's table-setters over the first two weeks of the season have been less than inspiring.

This is a young team and I expect these kind of things to happen. Which makes me feel conflicted to hear Jed Hoyer say something like this:

"Buddy told [Tony] he was going to play Scott for a few days and give Scott a chance to get his feet underneath him. Y'know, I think, with Tony he's hit in some bad luck this year so far, he also started out really slowly in Spring Training for the first five or six games during spring and then really turned it on. So, it is too early to talk about things like that, and I think that's the nice thing about the depth that we do have we got a chance to play Scott for three or four games in a row. Now we go to Tony and we don't think there's any falloff either way.

We have a lot of confidence in Tony, and he had a rough stretch, and we're pretty confident that he'll bounce back and play well here."

This is encouraging, but not so much when asked whether Anthony is a youngster who should be riding the bench:

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, I think Tony is 27 or 28, he's been around baseball for a long time. With Tony I think that he's gonna be given a lot of chances to play everyday. We obviously want him playing everyday; he's a very good defensive outfielder and against right-handed pitching he's proven he can get on base, so that's what we really want.

But certainly, if Scott's playing well, we'll play the hot hand and if that means Tony's on the bench then that's what it means. In general, we have a ton of confidence in Tony and like I said, it's a bad five or six game stretch and everybody's going to have those over the course of a season."

All of this is true - Anthony is not among the call-ups who are fresh off the farm. But this confuses me for two reasons: 1) Hairston, while playing better than Gwynn, hasn't exactly lit the world on fire, and, 2) It doesn't sound like Hoyer has confidence in Gwynn in the least. If everybody is going to have bad five or six game stretches, how come Eckstein was allowed to hit his way out of his slump to start the season while Gwynn got benched for several games?

I'll admit that while I understood the Padres' reasons for bringing in Anthony in May of last season, I wasn't necessarily a huge fan of the move. I completely overlooked the impact that his defense brought to his table and, honestly, I still don't believe stolen bases are as important to this team as intelligence on the basepaths (as the abundance of Padres caught stealing and pick-off victims can attest to). That being said, while Gwynn might be pressing at the plate, his value in the field is undeniable - in just under 840 innings, Hairston has posted a UZR/150 of 6.9 whereas Gwynn has posted 12.3 in just over 1,200 innings.

I'm all for Bud Black playing the proper match-ups - not just in centerfield - but this reeks of overreaction, finances, and/or favoritism. I'm willing to concede that Eckstein's contract is a product of Kevin Towers and the previous regime; his status as both clubhouse and fan favorite Rally Monkey may impede any decisions to eat his contract for the time being. But Hairston was a decision made by Hoyer and he's a player whose splits suggest he's better as a platoon player and, certainly, as a corner outfielder. I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but the thought of Hoyer doing his best Billy Beane impersonation by using Black as an extension of his own voice is no less scary than Black doing his best Bochy impersonation by starting veterans over his more athletic youngsters.

Either way, it is but a few weeks into the season and we may look back at this in just a few weeks and laugh - whether that be with me or at me remains to be seen. I certainly won't claim to know more than our front office and those who do this for a living (despite claims to the contrary...ouch), but it's food for thought. Until then, I guess we'll let Anthony exorcise the demons that must come with the immortal figure of his father glaring at him from beyond the centerfield wall.

MLB Divisional Unalignment? Thanks, But No Thanks

2010-04-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

Yahoo's Jeff Passan just wrote an article about the concept of divisional unalignment in Major League Baseball, as a means of restoring competitive balance. The proposed format would realign competition for the playoffs to the way it was before the strike in 1994; meaning no more divisions, just two leagues once again. This means no more wild cards, and no more AL Central teams in the playoffs anymore. Passan's proposal is outlined as follows:

Get rid of divisions. Get rid of unbalanced schedules. Get rid of inequality. It’s quite simple. Make two leagues, the American and National, with no geographical split. The AL has 14 teams and the NL 16 or, for true equitability, each league goes with 15 and baseball turns interleague play into a season-long event. Either way, the teams with the four best records in each league make the playoffs.

There are good arguments out there both in favor of and against divisional unalignment. My biggest problem with it revolves around the fact that one of the main proponents driving the proposal stems directly from the stranglehold on the AL East by the Yankees and Red Sox. Unalignment should not be put into effect simply because the Orioles and Blue Jays haven't been able to compete in the division for a decade. The Rays in 2008 are a perfect example of why I like divisional play in its current state. As Passan put it:

At 10-3, the Rays sport the best record in baseball. They have won seven in a row, including their last four at Fenway Park, in which they made the Boston Red Sox look like a small-market collection of compost. The Rays are a brilliantly constructed, deftly run, shrewdly managed, overflowingly talented team.

The Rays became the team they are today over a long period of time. I feel that there are a handful of teams in MLB right now that are on the brink of following in the Rays' footsteps; the Padres being one of them. Organizations like these are setting an example of what it takes to win over a long period of time without generating the revenue of the Yankees/Red Sox, etc. The current divisional structure has created a number of situations that require "small-market" clubs to take other avenues toward achieving long-term success. I would much rather see the Padres win the World Series while the roster is stacked stacked with talent from our own system, as opposed to 25 Boras clients.

If divisional unalignment were to occur, my biggest disappointment would surround the new scheduling practices. Under the new system, the Padres would play the Dodgers, Giants, and Rockies only 10 or 11 times over the course of a season. I live for the games between the Padres and Dodgers each year. The current divisional alignment makes this rivalry one of the most exciting in the National League. The proposal would still allow for playoff races, but I don't ever want to the Padres going into the final series of the season needing to take 2 out of 3 from the Nationals because both teams have the same record and are vying for the 4th playoff seed.

With the collective bargaining agreement coming up for renewal, the concept of divisional realignment/unalignment will be an important issue to monitor throughout the process of renegotiation. Personally, I don't mind things the way they are. Maybe we can kick the Diamondbacks out of the NL and into the AL West? I wish I were that lucky.

How do you feel about divisional unalignment in MLB?

Padres are up 2-0 as I'm writing this. Get out your street sweepers, please.

Good night, and good luck.

Our Condolences to the Family & Friends of Keli McGregor

2010-04-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Rockies Team President Keli McGregor has died at 48. This sort of thing seems like it has been happening way too much lately.

Keep his family, friends, and the Colorado Rockies organization in your thoughts today.

Next Up: Operation Panda Destroyers

2010-04-19T08:01:00.001-07:00

What a great weekend! The Padres completed a sweep of the Diamondbacks yesterday afternoon, and will look to continue this run of success against the best record in the NL West San Francisco Giants. The series will feature Clayton Richard, followed by Mat Latos and Jon Garland. Up to this point, the Giants have played considerably well notwithstanding that six of their first twelve games were against Houston and Pittsburgh. Their pitching has been phenomenal; even Barry Zito. I'm stating the obvious here, but the Padres will need to continue getting on base and coming through in clutch situations if they hope to build upon their success against the awesome Arizona bullpen. Oh, and by awesome I mean terrible. The Padres would like to thank (in no particular order): Bob Howry, Aaron Heilman, Jordan Norberto , Juan Gutierrez, and Leo Rosales for the ego boost.

Adam Russell was the odd man out in the LeBlanc call-up. According to Bud Black, "he'll be back."

Joe Thatcher is looking like himself again at Portland, but he isn't missing as many bats as usual. He'll be back with the big club soon.

Keep in mind that Scott Hairston is notorious for being a Giant killer. I remember when we first acquired Hairston in 2007 and he ended up hitting 7 home runs against the Giants in only 50 at-bats. He was integral in getting the Padres to the 163rd game that season. Not to mention against the Rockies in that game, he homered to send it to extra innings, then homered AGAIN to put us ahead leading up to the Trevor Hoffman implosion and, well, you know the rest. Anyways, count on Hairston being in the lineup for the majority of this series.

I am so thankful for Jerry Hairston Jr. at this point because it makes me forget about this guy:

The Giants series will end up being a fairly decent barometer for measuring how the Padres will perform moving forward. If Headley can keep hitting the ball while batting behind Adrián González like he has been, the offense will keep running at this level. Everth Cabrera and the other lead-off-by-committee members need to get on base at a much better rate. Overall, the pieces seem to be coming together and I'm hoping we'll show the Giants that the Padres are finally a force to be reckoned with once again.

Random Thoughts: LeBlanc Starting Today

2010-04-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

It appears that Wade LeBlanc is being recalled from Portland to fill the vacancy in the rotation today. I'm not entirely surprised with the decision, but I am somewhat disappointed. As my colleague posted a few days ago: Tim Stauffer should be getting the start today; but who didn't see this coming when Stauffer was brought in to pitch a garbage 9th-inning on Thursday night against Atlanta? I'm hoping that Stauffer will get his shot back in the rotation at some point this season, but I cannot help but feel that the Padres are trying to shop him by putting him out there more frequently in relief scenarios. Now, like Stauffer, LeBlanc had a solid Spring performance: 1.96 ERA/0.96 WHIP over 23.0 innings and 4 starts, but Stauffer is the one with the track record at the major league level. Furthermore, LeBlanc has been pedestrian in his first handful of starts at Portland this season. I could argue this until I'm blue in the face, but there is a reason why Jed Hoyer makes these decisions and I don't... yet. Haha.

The last two nights of Padres baseball have been exciting to watch; for the most part, this is the team we expected to see coming out of Spring Training.

I didn't actually realize it, but Everth Cabrera had made 107 straight starts at SS for the Padres before elder Hairston gave him the night off yesterday.

Joe Thatcher is set to come off the DL soon, and I am curious as to what this will mean for César Ramos.

Sorry to burst the bubble of all you Eckstein lovers out there, but his recent performance in the last couple of games (4 for 9, 2 runs scored, an HBP, and no strikeouts) should be viewed as an anomaly; not as a case to keep him in the second slot of the batting order.

Ubaldo Jimenez scares me. In fact, it is hard to argue that the NL West has not become one of the most talented divisions in all of Major League Baseball. Pretty exciting stuff.

Now go watch Wade LeBlanc cook up some rattlesnakes for lunch!

Tomahawks Can Be Lethal

2010-04-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

Extremely disappointing end to the series with ATL last night. Mat Latos didn't throw terribly, although he was having some issues locating his pitches. The Padres had the bases loaded in both the 3rd and 4th innings but could not capitalize. At least we didn't strike out to end the inning either time, though. Chase Headley took the cover off the ball but hit it right at Troy Glaus, allowing Tim Hudson to escape unscathed on one of those occasions.

I want to talk specifically about Atlanta's half of the 8th inning, because playing like that wins ballgames. Mike Adams issued a lead-off walk to Chipper Jones. No reason to panic, but then Adams didn't even give Larry a look and he was 3/4 of the way to second base by the time the ball got to Yorvit Torrealba's hands. Jones may have well just led off the inning with a double. Adams gave him second base. Lame. It seemed all was well after Adams got Brian McCann to foul out to Headley and then struck out Glaus. Not the case, however, because the Braves were on fire with two outs all night when Yunel "almost the Padres SS" Escobar laced a single to left to plate Chipper Jones. Jason Hayward, who I think moonlights as Batman on weekends, then doubled over the head of Kyle Blanks to score Escobar and effectively kill another piece of my team spirit. I feel that Hayward's knock was catchable had Scott Hairston been out there. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about Kyle Blanks, but I'm getting worried that this will end up being failed-left-fielder-conversion-experiment #2. The Braves took the outcome of this game into their own hands and showed why they will likely win 90 games this year.

The Padres need to turn it around this weekend against the dreadful Tucson Rattlesnakes.

If you're at Pizza Port Carlsbad in the near future, try their Nacho Borracho IPA. IT IS AMAZING.

Until next time, keep the faith as they say.

Wednesday Night Recap

2010-04-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

There isn't much to say about last night's loss to Atlanta. It's no secret that offense has been a problem for the Padres for a good number of years. That being said, how much longer must we wait until Bud Black removes David Eckstein from the second slot of the batting order? Who is going to step up and offer the protection that Adrián González needs in order to avoid leading the league in walks again? Opposing pitchers will continue walking Adrián and challenging Kyle Blanks to do something about it. He hasn't at this point. It's early, but still.

Chase Headley got picked off by Tommy Hanson, contributing further to the Padres hopes of getting caught leaning at least once in every game this season.

Everth Cabrera finally drew a walk to go along with his 11 Ks to start the season. He also stole another base. I'm not too concerned about him ending up like Mike Caruso.

The Padres need to win the rubber match today. Check out Latos' line against ATL in August '09.

I hate when the Padres lose.

See ya when I free ya.

Starting Stauffer

2010-04-14T10:17:00.000-07:00

It's not difficult for me to admit that I've never been the biggest Tim Stauffer fan. To me, he represents one in a series of questionable top draft picks, albeit one with definite top-tier talent as a prospect but one with a nagging arm injury that he disclosed to the Padres prior to the 2003 draft in which they selected him fourth overall. Granted, a lot of this could be put on the Padres' training staff for electing, twice, for rest instead of surgery but the bottom line is that after his call-up late last season it seems as if he has finally found a spot on the 25-man roster; a spot which, late last season, he seemed to have earned as he started 14 games and posted a 3.58 ERA over 73 innings (and, yes, I know that is a bit deceptive due to the 4.67 FIP he posted but I'll get to that later). The question that I have is, given Chris Young's newest trip to the DL, "why is Stauffer still in the bullpen?"

Corey Brock, beat writer for the Padres, got to the bottom of this issue and chose to investigate further, publishing an article yesterday which was aptly titled, Stauffer might be too valuable to start. Waitasecond...wha'? Nick Canepa, Brock is not. It must be a combination of something in the water and the 17-run outburst we saw Monday here in San Diego that has caused its sports media to go off the deep end, because this sort of reasoning makes absolutely no sense:

One name that will merit strong consideration is Tim Stauffer, who is already a part of the pitching staff, has a background as a starter and would seem the easiest move when you consider it won't require a roster shuffle.

The only hang-up? Stauffer has, in the first week of the season, shown to be so good and so important in his current role of long reliever that the Padres might be tempting fate as well as risking overworking the rest of the bullpen by moving him into the rotation.

Ignoring for a second that this is based off of 5 innings worth of evidence - and I hate to be the one to point this out - but the reason Stauffer's shown to be so valuable is that he came in during an extra-innings game and did what no other reliever in the 'pen (save for, perhaps, Cesar Ramos) could do. Eat innings. Therefore, isn't the real reason Stauffer been so good and so important is because he's pitched quality innings? Ergo, wouldn't he be more important as a starter, where he has the chance to impact more of the game?

What really gets me is how Brock manages to overlook the paramount concern that I have; it overworks the bullpen if you replace Young in the rotation with an inferior call-up, which is pretty much what would have to happen if you went to Portland for starting pitching. For me, it again calls into question Black's managing strategies:

Black, a former starting pitcher, is mindful of pulling a pitcher between starting and relief pitching. It's something that's not for everyone, he said.

In 1986, Black opened the season in the starting rotation for the Kansas City Royals. But four starts later, and after manager Dick Howser decided closer Dan Quisenberry wasn't faring well against left-handed batters, Black ended up co-closer for a while, saving nine games.

"You have to mentally prepare differently," Black said. "Most relievers have to be ready mentally every night. That's different than if you're a starter. Your days are structured leading up to your next start.

"You've got to get in the right mental frame of mind. There is a different style of pitching as a reliever."

This is ludicrous. Stauffer is a starter by trade and one of the biggest demons he's had to face during his tenure with the club has been the lack of structure leading up to his next start due to injuries. However, when given a chance to start last season, he managed to show some of the promise that made him a first-round pick. It doesn't seem like Stauffer has suffered from this different "frame of mind," but a different premise of managing - one where Bud Black arbitrarily institutes his own past experiences to justify bad managing decisions.

(I haven't yet come to peace with his decision to live out his days coaching behind Mike Scioscia in Anaheim by placing Eckstein #2 in the lineup, so you can bet I'm not okay with this.)

But maybe it's more than that:

If that's indeed the case, the Padres could recall left-hander Wade LeBlanc from Triple-A Portland to make a start.

One of my biggest gripes during Spring Training was that of the eight pitchers vying for a rotation spot, Stauffer seemed to be given the least amount of interest. This team, given its relative youth and payroll, has very little to lose in regards to giving an extended look to young players. However, Stauffer pitched the least amount of innings (15.1) and made the least amount of starts (1). However, LeBlanc recorded 23.0 innings of work and made 4 starts and, in all fairness, rewarded that trust with a 1.96 ERA (second behind Latos) and a rather surprising strikeout-to-walk ratio of 17:3. That being said, Stauffer still has the higher ceiling and LeBlanc has done little at the AAA over his first two starts to inspire much confidence as, despite his 15:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, he has posted a 7.20 ERA.

My belief is that Stauffer has been, and will continue to be, on a short leash. Injuries have decimated his longevity and perhaps the front office does in fact believe that he simply can't handle the task of preparing every fifth game or going more than the requisite couple of innings a long-reliever would be required to handle. There are indicators that Stauffer might not be a longterm answer in the rotation - his 4.67 FIP last season is less than awe-inspiring, as is his 1.56 K/BB - but it's besides the point. Those numbers still eclipse those of LeBlanc and, given his struggles thus far in AAA, it makes more sense to promote Stauffer to the rotation and fill his spot in the bullpen with a young, promising arm that has yet to be given a good look at the Major League level.

If the Padres want to do right by its fans and its players, the best thing to do is to give the starting job to a player who has earned it. In this young season, Stauffer's performance in Colorado proved to be the difference between a bad and atrocious start to the season:

Then Saturday in Colorado, Stauffer pitched three scoreless innings in a 14-inning game, three important innings because it allowed Black to hang onto Bell to work the bottom of the 14th inning in San Diego's 5-4 win.

"That was huge," Black said. "Stauff pitched great. I really liked his mix of pitches. He did a tremendous job [there], where every pitch is critical.

"He pitched outstanding. I think that he realized the magnitude of each pitch. Every pitch was thrown with a purpose."

Bud Black has indicated Stauffer has pitched with a purpose; it's time he rewards him in turn by giving him a shot in the rotation.

Braves at Padres, 7:05 PST

2010-04-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

Some notes for tonight's game:

Game 2 of 3-game series: Clayton Richard v. Tommy Hanson.

The Padres will need to get on base early against Hanson if they want any shot at repeating Monday's behemoth performance. More walks, less backwards K's please.

Clayton Richard has pitched solid so far in PETCO Park since coming here last year for he whom will no longer be mentioned (or ever be mentioned on this blog, EVER).

Keep in mind, Chase Headley has hit safely in EVERY game so far this season. Methinks he is enjoying playing third base full time, finally.

As noted by Friar Forecast, the Padres should stop focusing so much on stealing bases. Maybe we'll stop getting picked off so much as a result. It's been kind of ridiculous up to this point if you've been watching.

The results of the season-opening road trip were mixed, but I'm thinking that Monday's Opening Day performance put a few of the doubters to rest for now. 2 out 3 from the Braves would be spectacular going into the next series against the Tucson Sidewinders; I'm putting all my money on the sweep though.

I've been trying to see if there's any pictures on the internets of Edgar Gonzalez #1 (Not the other two pitchers floating around the league) in Japan yet. No dice:

Go Padres!