first pitch: 12:10 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4
matchup: Darrell May (1-2, 5.40 ERA) vs Jeff Weaver (6-7, 4.75)
previews: ESPN | CBS | Padres.com
I love it when Hee Seop Choi comes to the plate at Dodger Stadium and the crowd starts chanting “Beat LA.”
Very odd game Tuesday night. Pads won, 8-3, but it was a lot more interesting than it needed to be. Brian Lawrence threw another gem, taking a shutout into the eighth. Some spectacular defense up the middle from Khalil Greene and Damian Jackson. And a play in the bottom of the eighth in which two Dodgers scored on a wild pitch by Rudy Seanez.
Leading the Charge
Numbers. Analysis. Because if I don’t do it every once in a while, I could lose my geek cred.
Elevated from last night’s comments. Stats are through Tuesday’s game. With the usual caveats about team-dependent stats, check out who’s leading the charge.
| Name | AB/R | Name | AB/RBI | Name | AB/HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brian Giles | 5.57 | Xavier Nady | 5.21 | Xavier Nady | 16.22 |
| D. Jackson | 5.75 | Phil Nevin | 5.47 | Ryan Klesko | 19.31 |
| Xavier Nady | 5.88 | Robert Fick | 5.50 | Mark Sweeney | 23.75 |
| Robert Fick | 6.08 | Brian Giles | 6.65 | Phil Nevin | 28.56 |
| Ryan Klesko | 6.67 | Ryan Klesko | 6.97 | Brian Giles | 29.56 |
| Mark Loretta | 6.70 | R. Hernandez | 7.15 | D. Jackson | 30.00 |
| Dave Roberts | 6.73 | Mark Sweeney | 7.31 | Dave Roberts | 33.67 |
| Mark Sweeney | 8.04 | Dave Roberts | 7.77 | R. Hernandez | 33.71 |
| Khalil Greene | 8.18 | Khalil Greene | 7.85 | Robert Fick | 38.50 |
| Geoff Blum | 8.27 | D. Jackson | 9.23 | Geoff Blum | 45.25 |
| Phil Nevin | 8.57 | Geoff Blum | 10.06 | Khalil Greene | 51.00 |
| R. Hernandez | 9.08 | Miguel Ojeda | 11.00 | S. Burroughs | 224.00 |
| Miguel Ojeda | 11.00 | Mark Loretta | 12.31 | Miguel Ojeda | inf |
| S. Burroughs | 12.22 | S. Burroughs | 16.00 | Mark Loretta | inf |
(Courtesy ESPN.)
Third Base? I Don’t Know
Xavier Nady is making the third base question a bit problematic. With Sean Burroughs being third from the bottom in ISO among 169 big-league qualifiers, the Padres aren’t getting any production out of the hot corner position.
Nady, of course, played third base in college. The trouble, as I understand it, is that Bruce Bochy has concerns about Nady’s defense. I can respect that, really, because he hasn’t seen regular action at third in several years. But Burroughs is dragging the offense down and in Tuesday night’s contest against the Dodgers, he botched a couple routine throws. If he isn’t adding value on defense, then why is he in there?
I like Burroughs, and I’m not suggesting that Nady is the answer. But right now Burroughs is struggling big time. Why not at least give Nady a shot at third when Dave Roberts and Phil Nevin return? What possible harm could come of it? If it doesn’t work out, then try something else.
Free Agent Checkup
Over at Dodger Thoughts they’re looking at the early returns on this past winter’s free agent crop (methodology – see comment #180). No Padres were represented over there, so I took the liberty of throwing a little something together (stats are through Monday’s game):
Hitters
| Name | $M | OPS | G | WARP | WARP Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geoff Blum | 0.575 | 672 | 54 | 1.3 | 0.37 |
| Robert Fick | 0.400 | 868 | 32 | 0.9 | 0.53 |
| Damian Jackson | 0.320 | 732 | 48 | 1.3 | 0.37 |
| Mark Sweeney | 0.580 | 867 | 62 | 1.1 | 0.43 |
Pitchers
| Name | $M | ERA | IP | WARP | WARP Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Hammond | 0.750 | 1.64 | 38.3 | 2.4 | 0.20 |
| Dennys Reyes | 0.550 | 4.08 | 35.3 | 0.6 | 0.79 |
| Rudy Seanez | 0.550 | 2.34 | 34.7 | 1.8 | 0.26 |
| Woody Williams | 3.000 | 4.24 | 68.0 | 1.8 | 0.26 |
(Stats courtesy Baseball Prospectus; salary info courtesy Hardball Dollars.)
As Richard pointed out, the Devil Rays paid the fewest marginal dollars per marginal win last year, so take the above with the appropriate buckets of salt. Still, gotta love that bench and bullpen. I know I do. 
Okay, enough of the numbers. Let’s play some ball. Time to take advantage of the general indifference that is the NL West. A series win at Dodger Stadium would help. Go Pads!
Good news … Jonathan @ pdxbeavers.com reports the following …
Author: Jonathan
Date: 06-28-05 13:46
Was just informed that K-Rob signed with the Braves and reported to Richmond (AAA). Atlanta’s got OF depth issues, so Kerry could be back in the bigs with them at some point soon.
There was some previous discussion about trading for Zito … here’s another reason not to …
BP’s STAT OF THE DAY
Top 5 AL Hardest-Worked Starters, by Pitcher Abuse Points (PAP)
Player, Team, AVGNP, STRESS, PAP
Mike Mussina, NYA, 102.4, 23, 37,331
Sidney Ponson, BAL, 97.0, 25, 36,170
Carl Pavano, NYA, 91.3, 23, 36,063
Barry Zito, OAK, 107.1, 17, 29,042
Roy Halladay, BAL, 103.3, 16, 26,117
I think Nady should play for Nevin to get his at-bats because Nevin doesn’t give any value on defense. Burroughs is the best fielding 3B in the NL. Should Nady almost replace Nevin? I don’t know. Could he give Nady and every OF one day off a week? I don’t know, but he needs to get in that lineup.
I just saw Bochy’s comments that said something like I just said, so maybe I’m behind the curve here.
Does there need to be a picture of a half-naked guy saying he has a 5″ bigger vertical than LeBron James on the side of the blog?
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
haha…Jeff is funny.
Lynch,
Was Robinson traded to Atlanta or released?
Klesko is back in front of Giles in the lineup. Geez.
Robinson was released.
Dodgers batters through two: .250/.250/.375
Padres batters through two: .167/.167/.333
Why would you put low-obp guys in the one and two holes?
Padre lineup:
Jackson
Blum
Klesko
Giles
Fick
Nady
Greene
Ojeda
Miguel Ojeda just stole second base…
Second career stolen base.
DJ strands him…
How is Geoff Blum batting second? Blummer has been less productive than even Sean Burroughs.
Padre hitters through three: .200/.200/.300, 0.6 RC, 0 RS
Dodger hitters through three: .357/.357/.429, 2.1 RC, 1 RS
Glad May escaped that inning, but with PC at 64 in 3 IP, he won’t be going very deep today. That may be a good thing, tho’.
Way to go Blummer! Take one for the team.
Interesting that they’d drop Robinson and keep Hyzdu.
I wonder if Bochy woke up this morning and thought to himself, “I’m going to try to get two of my worst hitters more plate appearances than anyone else on the team gets today.”
Why is that interesting, Brian? Hyzdu is a far, far, far superior ball player. Also, Robinson demanded his release if memory serves.
Weaver really dominated Gilly there.
3-1 to Nady with two on and two out…
Weaver made a hell of a pitch to fill the count.
Weaver gets X to pop up. Well, damn.
Interesting because they seemed to love him (Robinson) and his rarely-used-to-positive-effect speed so much. Also, isn’t Robinson a couple of years younger?
I do, however, seem to recall that Robinson popped off a time or two about how he should be in the big leagues, so maybe he was a pain in the clubhouse. I think Hyzdu knows this is his last best chance.
Padre batters through four: .154/.267/.231, 0.8 RC, 0 RS
Dodger batters through four: .353/.353/.412, 2.5 RC, 1 RS
I’ll agree that it’s interesting in the sense that the Padres have long had some sort of weird attachment to Robinson, but like I already mentioned, I think he was able to force his release.
That’s all I was saying too — that they somehow managed to sever their crush on Robinson. Wasn’t comparing him to Hyzdu as a player (mostly because I haven’t seen either guy play).
Robinson is an absolutely terrible player. He really doesn’t even belong in Triple-A.
The outside corner for Weaver is starting to get huge. He just got a strike call on a pitch that was 6″-12″ off the plate.
DJ with a big-time RBI single.
He got around on that pitch and hit it well.
Blum follows up by flying out weakly.
Geoff Blum is a terrible fielder. He’s making me miss Sean (who is also a better hitter).
My mistake. That was Fick’s fault for not getting back to first.
Geoff Blum is still a terrible fielder, though.
Darrell May has no luck on top of not being very good. Three run home run as I type.
Third time through the lineup for May — beware.
One of those runs really wasn’t his fault. The other two really were, though.
I can’t believe the bullpen wasn’t already up after Weaver’s (should have been) double.
“What do the Padres have to do to take a series from the Dodgers?” – Vasgersian
I think that maybe instead of waiting for May/Redding to blow the lead to bring in the other, they should just ask four innings of each of them.
Why pull him after the infield single if you weren’t willing to pull him earlier?
Bochy’s in-game management skills are non-existent.
Someone remind me what else a manager does outside of in-game management and filling out a batting order… both of which Bochy is one of the worst in the game at.
Dmay has pretty decent numbers as a reliever. I wonder if his 1st-2nd-3rd time through the lineup splits are consistent with his reliever/starter splits.
I imagine they are.
Why not only ask him to get you four innings and ask Redding to get about three or so.
Robert Fick makes another bad play in the field, this time dropping a ball.
I have no idea why Bochy loves Blum in the 2 hole. I guess he just doesn’t have it in him to be creative and play Nady at third today and let Ben Johnson start, or even keep Burroughs into the lineup.
I think this much is clear. We could use another pitcher not named May/Redding. Germano could not possibly be any worse.