first pitch: 5:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4
matchup: Woody Williams (4-5, 4.14 ERA) vs Wandy Rodriguez (4-3, 6.55 ERA)
preview: CBS | Padres.com
Padres lost again, keeping the rest of the division close. Remember these games come September. Here’s your Thursday matchup:
AB BA OBP SLG
Williams vs current Astros 223 .300 .359 .484
Rodriguez vs everybody 179 .313 .390 .547
Current Astros have hit eight homers against Williams; fortunately, five of those are off the bat of the injured Jeff Bagwell. Among the healthy, Adam Everett (.429/.429/.571 in 14 AB) has had the most success.
Rodriguez is a 26-year-old southpaw making his eighth big-league start. Don’t let the fact that he’s left handed fool you. Lefties are hitting .415/.520/.854 off him, with four homers in just 41 at-bats.
I dunno, maybe a sweep wouldn’t be all bad. Shame can be a tremendous motivating force.
I’ll be at Elsinore tonight for first-round pick Cesar Carrillo’s pro debut so talk amongst yourselves. Go Pads!
65 Comments
Here’s an interesting fun-fact that I haven’t heard mention of during all the talk about Burroughs struggles … JJ Furmaniak has been playing 3B at Portland this year … and he’s been selected for the AAA All-Star game … wonder if the Padre’s braintrust is considering giving him a shot?
I know he’s not exactly tearing the cover off the ball this season … http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Furmaniak%2C%20J%20%203B&pos=&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&did=milb&pid=434583 … .264 AVG, .328 OBP, .433 SLG … I wonder how those MLE? The .433 SLG has to be better than Burroughs .298, doesn’t it?
BTW, if you want to chance to see JJ play, the AAA All-Star game will be on ESPN2 on Wednesday July 13th @ 7pm!
BP’s STAT OF THE DAY
Top 5 NL Catchers, by Value Over Replacement Player (VORP)
Player, Team, EqA, VORP
Paul Lo Duca, FLO, .266, 16.8
Jason Larue, CIN, .274, 14.9
Ramon Hernandez, SDN, .263, 14.2
Brian Schneider, WAS, .271, 14.0
Damian Miller, MIL, .261, 13.9
The Roberts trade keeps looking better. Payton has been DFA’d, Vazquez traded to Cleveland:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2102714&CMP=OTC-DT9705204233
Wow, Boston really wanted to get rid of Vazquez … KT told us why, didn’t he!
Wandy’s off to a rough start …
- D. Roberts walked
- D. Roberts to second on wild pitch
- E. Young doubled to right, D. Roberts scored
Pads up 1-0 fast …
Ramon’s in the lineup …
D. Roberts cf 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 .275
E. Young 2b 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 .375
B. Giles rf 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .297
R. Hernandez c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .280
R. Klesko lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .266
X. Nady 1b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .266
D. Jackson 3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .284
K. Greene ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .253
W. Williams p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .316
Well, that was pretty lame from our 3-4-5 guys …
- B. Giles grounded out to first, E. Young to third
- R. Hernandez struck out swinging
- R. Klesko struck out swinging
Woody survives the 1st … with only a BB to Biggio …
Pitches-strikes – W Williams 26-14; W Rodriguez 24-12.
Ground balls-fly balls – W Williams 1-1; W Rodriguez 1-0.
Batters faced – W Williams 4; W Rodriguez 5.
Roberts: full extension.
Kevin – tell me more! I’m back in Oregon … not watching on TV …
LM, I guess Towers didn’t tell Shapiro the story he told us at the Pizza Feed.
I feel like such an insider!
Biggio’s got Woody’s number … 1-1 tie now early in bottom of 4th …
Biggio passes Roberto Alomar in hits. Remember when Alomar was the greatest 2B of his generation, and a mortal lock for 3000 hits?
His competetion (Knoblauch, Baerga, et.al.) all tailed off. All except Biggio, who I would guess has surpassed him.
Sorry, LynchMob. Roberts made an incredible grab a couple innings back. Lance, I think Biggio is definately the best 2b since Joe Morgan.
Biggio for mayor!
In their absolute prime, Alomar, Knoblauch, and Sandberg were at least as good, perhaps better. But I might take Biggio over any of them, for a career. Grich was great, but forgotten.
DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!
NAAAAAADYYYYYYY!!!
Nady: home run. Sweet!
I’ll take Alan Wiggins.
Kevin – you’re a bit much of a homer
btw, if you’re an Alan Wiggins fan, then are you also a fan of Stanford Women’s Hoops?
Let’s not forget Padre greats Darrell Thomas, Juan Bonilla, Tim Flannery, and Dave Campbell.
Actually, Campbell was a better player than Flan, and a MUCH better broadcaster.
Actually, as much as one can be a fan of women’s hoops, I am. I think her name is Candance, right?
Wiggins’ daughter is at least a better citizen than Alan was, RIP.
He was sure fun to watch, wasn’t he?
Rally in progress, BTW.
dang…that was a nice job by woody to wait on that pitch
Flannery gets points for giving up No. 6 to Steve Garvey when came aboard.
Greene hits everything hard to left
Candace Wiggins is a top-flight volleyball player as well as Pac Ten Frosh of the Year in Bbasketball. I think she was even Player of the Year in the Pac 10.
I’m impressed, Lance. She is a regular Natalie Williams.
Lance – RIGHT ON! Dave Campbell in his prime as a broadcaster was MY FAVORITE! Stinkin’ DUI …
Kevin – Candice … http://gostanford.collegesports.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/070105aaa.html … and http://gostanford.collegesports.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/032405aab.html … Go, Candice!
Was Wiggins really a poor citizen? I thought that he was a pretty good guy, intelligent too, who just got mixed up in drugs.
We need a big offensive night like this one.
I, myself, am a pretty good guy, and intelligent. I was once mixed up in drugs, however. Although those days are long gone, I was a terribly bad citizen during that time. The two often (although not always) go hand in hand.
Meanwhile, the rally continues.
7-1 and counting. A sweep would have killed me.
A two-DONG inning for Nady? We shall see.
I guess not. Backwards K for Nady.
Hello! Is this thing on?!?!?
I see your point, Lance.
You OK, Lance?
I heard Burroughs could be sent down to work things out.
Come on, guys, let’s hear some chatter out there.
Hey batter! Hey batter, batter, batter!
Woody’s day is done …
Pitches-strikes – W Williams 102-66
Ground balls-fly balls – W Williams 5-6
Batters faced – W Williams 21
5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 Ks, 2 HRs
ERA now 4.10 … well done today, Woody!
Seanez strikes out 13.97 per 9 innings, according to the tv graphic. That’s second in the NL.
I’ve got to head out … so far, so good, boys!
wow…what the heck happened to Seanez. 9 walks all year, then suddenly can’t find the plate for 8 straight pitches
Yeah, that was ugly.
From The AP: C Ramon Hernandez came off the disabled list Thursday and was inserted in the starting lineup. Hernandez, who had a sprained left wrist, had been out since June 18. “He feels pretty good,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We’ll keep an eye on him for a while.” … Miguel Ojeda, the Padres’ backup catcher most of the last two seasons, reluctantly went down to Triple A Portland to make room for Hernandez. Ojeda hit .261 with eight home runs and 26 RBI in 62 games last year but was hitting only .137 with no homers and six RBI in 43 games this season. “He obviously was disappointed,” Bochy said. “But he needs some at bats and playing time.”
DJ has shown some nice strokes this year. Looked pretty good poking that low-outside pitch to right.
I think Ojeda has some hitting talent. He was playing just too infrequently. Here’s hoping some AAA ab’s will do him good.
Had to step out for a bit. Is it really 7-5 now? I ask only because Leitner and Flannery only give the score every 2 or 3 innings.
yes, it is.
one out (Death).
2 outs (taxes).
3 outs (Hoffman).
Minute Maid has to be the most oddly shaped ballpark in the NL…
Lynch, Furmaniak’s line translated to the Majors is not as good as Burroughs’.
Richard, howza bout a Furmaniak feature at Future Friars?
Either tonight or tomorrow morning.
Damn, Richard, you’re a badass.
Lookin’ forward to it.
It’s up: http://padresminors.blogspot.com/
Sweet win. Hopefully we can build on that momentum going into Coors Field.
Pix are up from Carrillo’s debut tonight:
http://www.all-baseball.com/ducksnorts/archives/019534.html
Sorting through my notes, should have some commentary together within the hour. He looked good.
Commentary added:
http://www.all-baseball.com/ducksnorts/archives/019534.html
we thought OUR injury problems were bad, check out LA’s lineup yesterday:
O Robles SS
J Repko CF
J Werth LF
O Saenz 1B
A Perez 2B
M Edwards 3B
C Ross RF
M Rose C
Good point, Eric. You know you’re in trouble when Werth is one of your starting outfielders…
We have had our share of injuries, but my assessment:
Loretta: anyone notice he had an OPS of .732? If we lost Loretta getting back on track, that hurt, but giving up .732 was not that bad. I hope he hits better when he gets back, but his power had disappeared before his injury.
Young: not talked about much, but his absence really hurt. Versatile and good punch.
Eaton: his wins sound better than his pitching, but he forces us to go to our 6th starter, and there is not much there. So that has hurt a lot.
Hernandez: not having a great offensive season (OPS = .732), so getting Fick’s some AB’s was not all that bad.
Nevin: benching Nevin to give Nady and Sweeney AB’s? His injury helped us.
So, aside from Eaton, and to a lesser extent Young, our injuries have not hurt us that badly. What has really hurt us is the fact that aside from Giles, Klesko and Roberts, none of the “everyday” hitters have been getting it done consistently. When Sweeney and Fick are keeping the offense strung together, we have problems.
Greene? Making Bay’s ROY award seem highly justified (Bay is .950 OPS, btw). Burroughs? What happened?
Throw in light hitting from Nevin, Hernandez, Loretta (and replacements), and we have a sickly offense. Not sure why that gets better, but I hope it does.
Here’s to hoping that Nady gets 4 HR’s in the Colorado series. If he does that, he will have 14, and barring any more from Klesko, he would be the team leader in knocks. Even Bochy cannot bench the team leader in HR’s, not to mention his much fewer PA’s. Right? Please tell me I am right…