first pitch: 7:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4
matchup: Brian Lawrence (7-12, 4.58 ERA) vs Sunny Kim (2-2, 5.18 ERA)
preview: ESPN | Padres.com
Five observations from Friday night’s game:
- The Jake Peavy bobblehead they gave away bears an eerie resemblance to some generic white guy. Also, the head bobbles.
- Adam Eaton isn’t quite ready for prime time. In the third inning, he led off by walking pitcher Jeff Francis after jumping ahead in the count, 0-2. Leadoff man Cory Sullivan followed with a double to right after also falling behind, 0-2. Eaton’s stuff looked okay, but the command isn’t there yet.
- This winter, the Padres need to pick up some more arms. In the outfield. It’s embarrassing to watch opposing baserunners repeatedly run at will against the guys that are out there now. Dave Roberts was supposed to help the defense, but he’s overmatched as an everyday center fielder. Brian Giles does an okay job. Everyone else – Damian Jackson, Ryan Klesko, Eric Young – is a converted infielder who looks a bit lost out there. I hate to say it, but I miss Jay Payton.
- Brian Fuentes owes Garrett Atkins a nice steak dinner. Miguel Olivo absolutely scorched a pitch down the third base line that Atkins turned into a rally-blunting double play in the ninth. Roberts, inserted as a pinch runner for Xavier Nady, was the lead out on that play. Curious to bring a guy in to run at first base and not have him steal second.
- The Rockies are the only team in the NL West that won, so the Padres continue to lead the Battle of Who Could Care Less.
I agree about the outfield with one exception. Eric Young has been excellent in left field.
I agree with the fact that Young is probably a better outfielder than infielder.. There is just one problem. His arm, already not the strongest, has been significantly weakened by the collision with the centerfield wall and has not fully recovered. Any ball hit to left is a green light to take extra bases.
I agree that inserting Roberts should have signaled a steal or at least an attempted steal. There is the fact that Olivo swung at the second pitch and hit into a double play that might have had something to do with Roberts not attempting a steal.
Actually Klesko was a converted pitcher. With Atlanta he was a left fielder and never played more than 20 games at 1b in any one season until his last season with Atlanta. In 1999 he split time between 1b and lf and was traded the next season to the Padres. The Padres made him an everyday first baseman…so I dont actually consider him a converted infielder.
Young has been just so-so in LF. His arm isn’t up to the task and he seems to miss a lot of balls that drop foul near the wall. Both are probably due at least in part to his shoulder injury.
Klesko was a first baseman all through the minors and only moved to the outfield to accommodate Fred McGriff. Unfortunately, Ryno never really adapted well to the outfield. I love his level of effort out there but he just makes everything look so difficult.
speaking of outfield throws, did everyone see Jr make that throw on ESPN highlights? I laughed my butt off…
of course the guy did hit two homers last night. I suppose that softened the blow. lol
Personally, I think Klesko gets a bum rap as a poor outfielder. I have seen a heckva lot worse playing left field every day. Manny Ramariz anyone?
btw, something I didnt know until this discussion was that Klesko played 1b all through the minors and didnt play outfield. Kinda ballsey for the Braves to bring him up and stick him in the outfield in the majors if he never played there in the minors. Strange even. But it seems that is what they did. Checked Richmond 92/93 and sure enough, Klesko was the firstbaseman. tks..
Klesko is better in the outfield, where his athleticism and effort help him cover his ass, than he is at first base, where his footwork makes him close to unplayable. Of course, his defense at first could never be bad enough to cost his team more than 6-8 runs a year.
At this point in his career, his bat has declined to the point that he wouldn’t be an asset even if he were a good defender at either of those positions.
Speaking of bad outfielders, the two worst I’ve seen were Lonnie Smith and Kevin Reimer.
Smith, despite his tremendous speed, was horrible, as he was generally running in the wrong direction. And he couldn’t throw AT ALL.
As for Reimer, all I can say about his defense is that you had to see it to believe it.
Hank: One of the things I really like about the Braves is that they’re not afriad to think outside the box. Sacrificing a little defense to get Klesko’s bat in the lineup was a great move at that time.
Lance: Klesko, like Nevin, is pretty much a DH at this stage in his career. As for Smith, yeah, he was pretty brutal. There’s a bit in Bill James’ managers book that talks about him in LF. One of the things he mentions is that Smith had exceptionally small hands and couldn’t get a good grip on the ball.
Andre Dawson trying to play the outfield toward the end of his career was pretty bad, especially if you remembered watching him when he was great.
Greg Luzinski.
Agreed, Kevin. The Bull was no gazelle.
Speaking of Bill James on Lonnie Smith, he had a great paragraph or two about him in one of the Abstracts. He was saying that Smith was so used to screwing up that he was great at recovering; nobody overran a flyball more than Lonnie Smith, but because of that, nobody was better at reversing fields and getting the ball back into second. It was quite funny, I really can’t do it justice here in a couple sentences.
(It’s an example of how much I hate people [like Vasgersian] who think James is just a stat guy. The guy is a helluva writer.)
I think we were talking about Klesko getting a bum rap as an outfielder and he makes a great catch to save a homer.
could be all for naught, but you cant fault the effort
How about that Xavier Nady against power righthanders who also have decent location on their sliders/curves? Can we please end the X-periment until the team has clinched the division?
We just started our string of playing the west and it ain’t looking so good right now.. dropping two straight to the rockies isn’t very conducive to winning the division.