First off, congrats to the Chargers on their fine season. Even though they fell a bit short, they came a lot farther a lot faster than most people could have imagined (myself included; I had their best case as 5-11). What a great year for pro sports in San Diego. This was the first time both major franchises finished with a winning record since 1992, when the Padres went 82-80 and the Bolts were 11-5.

In fact, this is just the third time ever that the Pads and Chargers have finished with winning records in the same year:

       Pads  Bolts
2004  87-75  12-4
1992  82-80  11-5
1978  84-78   9-7

Geez, you could actually make a case for 2004 being the best year ever in San Diego pro sports history. I suppose you could go with 1963, when the Chargers won the AFL championship. Then again, there were only eight teams in the entire league.

Anyway, as noted in the comments of Friday’s entry, the Padres have signed LHP Chris Hammond to a 1-year deal worth $750k.

Hammond came up through the Reds organization back in the early-’90s as a starter. He had one decent season with the Marlins, in 1995, posting a 3.80 ERA over 24 starts. He then worked his way out of the big leagues after three starts in 1998.

Hammond re-emerged with the Braves in 2002 as a full-time reliever. After nearly four years out of the big leagues and in a new role, he posted a 0.95 ERA in 76 innings. He followed up with ERAs under 3.00 for the Yankees and A’s in the following two seasons. Here is Hammond’s stat line since resurrecting his career:

   IP  H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9  ERA  WHIP
192.2 8.13 0.47 2.57 6.63 2.06 1.189

In a market where the likes of Antonio Alfonseca, Rheal Cormier, Dustin Hermanson, and Bob Wickman are commanding $2.5M per year, I’ll take Hammond’s production for that price any day of the week. Sure, he’s 39 years old. But Cormier is 38, and here’s what he’s done the last three seasons:

   IP  H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9  ERA  WHIP
225.2 7.38 0.68 3.31 6.46 3.31 1.188

Not bad, but is that really worth 2 years for $5.25M? I dunno. But I’m pretty sure I’d rather have Hammond at $750k for 1 year.

I know some of Padres nation isn’t thrilled with the relative inactivity of the home club this off-season, and that’s understandable given what other teams are doing. In the coming days and weeks we’ll take a closer look at what exactly the Friars have done and how the current version compares with last year’s squad.