Joe Randa hit his first homer as a Padre Friday night, a three-run bomb against Jim Brower. You may be wondering, after 21 games with the new club, how does Randa stack up against his predecessors? So far, not so good:
| Player | G | AB | BA | OBP | SLG | Inn | FPct | RF | ZR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geoff Blum | 34 | 97 | .309 | .404 | .546 | 231.2 | .965 | 3.20 | .833 |
| Sean Burroughs | 69 | 244 | .258 | .333 | .307 | 603.1 | .964 | 2.83 | .812 |
| Joe Randa | 21 | 84 | .226 | .270 | .345 | 177.0 | .956 | 2.19 | .737 |
| Damian Jackson | 8 | 27 | .148 | .179 | .259 | 53.0 | .889 | 1.36 | .800 |
| Xavier Nady | 3 | 9 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 18.0 | 1.000 | 3.00 | .667 |
| Padres | 121 | 461 | .252 | .324 | .356 | 1085.0 | .962 | 2.73 | .803 |
| Stats are through Friday, August 19, and are courtesy of ESPN: Offense | Defense Note: Robert Fick and Mark Loretta have also seen action at third base, combining for three innings total. |
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No team in all of baseball has seen their third basemen score fewer runs than the Padres (44) this year. Only the Royals (.099) have a worse ISO than the Friars (.104) at the hot corner. Four teams have lower OPS at the position, and eight have lower RC/27. What’s stunning about the latter is that seven of those eight teams are in the playoff hunt!
| Team | RC/27 | W | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| SD | 4.03 | 60 | 61 |
| Was | 3.98 | 64 | 58 |
| ChA | 3.97 | 74 | 45 |
| Min | 3.82 | 65 | 57 |
| Ana | 3.63 | 70 | 52 |
| Phi | 3.53 | 65 | 58 |
| Fla | 3.42 | 64 | 57 |
| KC | 3.16 | 38 | 82 |
| Cle | 2.71 | 66 | 56 |
| Stats are through Friday, August 19, and are courtesy of ESPN. | |||
A few thoughts:
- The combined record of these nine teams is 566-526, good for a .518 winning percentage (bear in mind this includes the worst team in MLB).
- The AL Central is to third basemen what the NL West is to winning games.
- Think the Angels miss Troy Glaus?
- The White Sox needed Geoff Blum more than the Padres did at the time of the trade.
- The Padres might need Blum more than the White Sox do now.
- Can you imagine how good the Indians would be if they had even a warm body at the hot corner?
I don’t know if I feel better or worse after looking at all that, but there it is.
My thanks to Joe Randa for costing Brower his job. With a little luck, Kolb will give up a meaningless homer today and he’ll be shipped out next.
Braves called up Joey Divine today, their first round draft choice. He might actually get a shot at closing out some games. 16th rookie on the Braves roster this year.