Backup Backstop Bedlam
Wed, Jan 4, 2006
by Geoff Young
So this is the new year.
And I don’t feel any different.
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance (in the distance).
I hope you had an excellent New Year. Welcome to 2006. Let’s get back into it, shall we?
Padres have signed catcher Todd Greene and invited him to spring training (U-T). Like Doug Mirabelli and David Ross, Greene is a career backup who has power but doesn’t make contact often. It may amuse (or infuriate) you to know that Mirabelli is #7 on the list of 10 players most comparable to Greene through age 34. Quoth GM Kevin Towers: “We could keep three catchers.” Um, yeah; that’s probably a good idea considering none of these guys has ever played even 100 games in a season.
If you’re looking for a bright side, I suppose it’s that all three of the Padres catchers are upgrades from Gary Bennett, who was Ramon Hernandez‘ predecessor behind the dish in San Diego. But that’s not really much of a bright side, is it? The Padres didn’t give up a big-league starting second baseman to get him, so that’s good.
Ten years ago, Greene was a top prospect, notching a grade of B+ in John Sickels’ 1996 Minor League Scouting Notebook. In fact, Sickels ranked him as the #45 prospect in baseball, just ahead of Eric Ludwick and behind (you’ll love this) Chan Ho Park.
Okay, enough ancient history. What else is happening?
- Hey look, someone on the East Coast has noticed what the Padres are doing this winter and likes it.
- Mike at Baseball Insights isn’t so sure about the Padres bullpen. He cites the loss of Akinori Otsuka, Chris Hammond, and Rudy Seanez, and notes that Clay Hensley will have to pitch a lot of “crucial middle innings.” Personally I still favor the approach of finding good, cheap talent, which is exactly what Otsuka, Hammond, and Seanez were. Next year someone will be lamenting the loss of Steve Andrade and Brian Sikorski.
- According to Padres.com, the Friars are close to inking “longtime nemesis” Shawn Estes (tip of the cap to reader Mike in the comments). If this goes through, we’ll dedicate a separate rant to it. For now I’ll just note that Estes hasn’t had an ERA better than league average since 1997, has walked 100+ batters all four times he’s pitched enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, and won’t get to face the Padres anymore. Park is #4 on his list of most similar pitchers through age 32.
- The results of the 2005 Sports Blog Awards - MLB are in, and Ducksnorts finished #12. Congratulations to The Cub Reporter and thanks to all who voted for Ducksnorts. We’ll get ‘em next year.
- Finally, at LynchMob’s request, I’ve added a link to the Ducksnorts Frappr! map over on the right so you can take a look at where your fellow readers are located. We’ve got 44 people on the map, ranging throughout the United States (and even Vienna, Austria!). Feel free to add yourself if you’re not on the map already, and enjoy!
Picking up where last year's version left off, the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual provides in-depth analysis of and commentary on the San Diego Padres. Get your copy today.
January 4, 2006 at 7:45 am
I agree, these backups are good ones.
Who is the starter again?
January 4, 2006 at 8:02 am
I worked for the Boise Hawks (used to be Low A affiliate of the Angels) the year after Todd Greene was there. Basically, he had achieved instant legend status among the townsfolk. He won the MVP of the league in 1993– 71 RBI in 76 games.
Maybe he can re-kindle the magic of 1993 this year.
January 4, 2006 at 9:39 am
Maybe the Boch can catch a few. They might need a bigger catcher’s mask for that head of his….
January 4, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Geoff, you might want to add a little side rant to your more general upcoming rant about Estes. There are rumors on univision.com and ESPN’s spanish language site that we have reached agreement with Jose Lima. I can’t say how underwhelmed I am with this landfill diving, as opposed to more general dumpster diving, to find starting pitching. This can all be traced back to our panic trade for Randa last season giving up Germano and then selling Oxspring to Japan. If we still had these two, then perhaps we would not have to contemplate a rotation ending with Estes/Lima/Park. Every time I am ready to move on from the Castilla and Lorretta deals, something like this comes up. As is said on another board, vomit in the mouth.
January 4, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Please let the Jose Lima rumor be false! Can you imagine a rotation with Park, Estes and Lima? Sounds like the rotation of the Pirates or the Royals — candidates for contraction, not a possible division winner. On the bright side, maybe there will be sightings of Mrs. Lima around town!
January 4, 2006 at 2:44 pm
From Rotoworld:
Jose Lima said he has agreed to a one-year, $1.7 million contract with the Padres.
$1.7 milion?? I’d maybe give him a spring training invitation to throw batting practice. That can’t be true can it, guaranteed money for Lima Time?
Maybe it’s a diversion to make the Estes signing look good by comparison.
January 4, 2006 at 2:47 pm
1.7 million for Jose Lima is the report. Are you friggin kidding me? All I can say is, David Wells better be on the way and the trade better be sending Woody to Boston. 1.7 million!?!?!? This is the same guy that was 5-16 last year right? Just over 5 inn. per start? 219 hits in 168 inn.? 31 homers allowed? 61 BB to 80K? Save money by sending Loretta to Boston to sign Lima?Univision.com must be high, that’s all I can say.
January 4, 2006 at 5:06 pm
I think Towers is trying to follow the Giants model: sign expensive older players to fill whatever holes you might have. However, he is forgetting one thing — we don’t have Barry Bonds! I say fire Towers right now. If he is so lacking in imagination that he actually pays more than the league minumum for Jose Lima then he is too stupid to run a major league baseball team or even the Padres. Didn’t he learn anything from last year? Pedro Astacio was a free pickup and in this park he was decent. If you can find one Astacio you can always find another one.
January 4, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Oh yeah, according to Baseball Prospectus, Lima was the worst pitcher in baseball last year. If that’s worth $1.7m than all pitcher contracts signed this offseason are bargains.
January 4, 2006 at 5:59 pm
I hold out hope that word of Lima’s signing is wrong. So far I’ve only seen one source reporting this deal.
January 4, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Maybe KT is filling up on the trash in order to send some pitching to the BoSox to get Wells… Hopefully one or two of these guys will pan out to round out the back of the rotation…
January 5, 2006 at 5:41 am
I can’t in good faith really root for a team with Castilla and Lima on it. (Sigh) I mean I still will, but it doesn’t exactly get me excited for 2006.
January 5, 2006 at 6:49 am
I can root for Castilla. This Lima thing is strange, though. Not to pour gas on the fire, but he had a 1.66 WHIP last year in 169 innings. 1.66!!!
What does this clown add to the staff, exactly?
So much for that 1.5 million we “saved” in the Loretta deal, huh?
January 5, 2006 at 8:47 am
In today’s U/T, Towers said the Lima rumor is “nonsense”. Too bad he also didn’t say that about signing Shawn Estes.
January 5, 2006 at 8:57 am
The Fathers: You beat me to the news by 5 mins. NO LIMA — confirmed with a story from the KC Star (you may have to register to view it, I forget):
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/.....551693.htm
January 5, 2006 at 9:15 am
I am feeling a great sense of relief after reading that KC article. Thank goodness.
January 5, 2006 at 9:47 am
So the Dodgers got Jae Seo and the Padres got Estes? What the heck?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....id=2280265
Thankfully, no Lima Time for the Padres. This is sad, but the Friars do have backup catchers. I’m hoping the lineup will improve by the time Spring Training is over.
January 5, 2006 at 9:48 am
You gotta love agents:
“You can’t give up on a guy who, at one point in his career, won 21 games,” Klein countered. “He’s shown he can.”
I hear Steve Carlton and Randy Jones are available.
January 5, 2006 at 10:43 am
Great point, anthony. Which got me thinking, the Koreans are really into baseball AND cloning. Do you think if we got them a sample of Walter Johnson’s DNA…?
January 5, 2006 at 10:52 am
Hey — who started that Lima rumor anyway? That was one nasty prank.
January 5, 2006 at 10:56 am
Wow - I’ve supported a TON of our moves so far this season… Estes? No comment…
January 5, 2006 at 11:03 am
Steve Carlton. Hey, why not?
On another note, we’ve got 50 people now over on the Frappr! thang. Pretty cool.
January 5, 2006 at 11:40 am
Estes. Jaysus. And Park is still in the rotation as of now.
Their combined SNVA last year was -2.4. Only (only!) -.6 of that was Estes. So he sucks less than Park.
We need a comeback from Woody in the biggest way.
This post contains references to suck and big Woodies. Make your own jokes.
January 5, 2006 at 11:59 am
I think the Red Sox should give the Pads Wells for Williams straight up. They owe the Pads one after the Loretta deal.
January 5, 2006 at 12:05 pm
At least Estes was cheaper than Ryan Franklin:
http://www.philliesnation.com/.....akin_1.php
Not that it makes me feel much better, but yuck.
January 5, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Mike Rose was just released by the Dodgers. In 2004 with Oakland’s AAA affiliate, he put up a .407 OBP with a .401 SLG.
Should the Padres pick him up?
January 5, 2006 at 2:20 pm
San Diego Padres re-sign RHP Dewon Brazelton (1Y-$500K+incentives). Why in the world do we need Estes for so much money?
January 5, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Belli will hit bombs for you guys, but if you don’t think he can do it, please please PLEASE send him right back here to the Sox.
…please?
January 5, 2006 at 3:25 pm
Didi, it can never hurt to have another backup catcher. I say let’s go get Rose!
January 5, 2006 at 3:26 pm
That would fit with KT’s apparent strategy for catchers and starting pitchers: quantity over quality.
January 5, 2006 at 3:31 pm
We’ve committed about 64 million next season.
On Opening Day 2005 the payroll was 67. It went up with bonuses, Randa, etc.
Just by avoiding marginal signings we could have saved 3 million. Not trading for Mirabelli and his inflated starter salary would have helped, too.
Let’s say our “cap” is 68 million on Opening Day 2006. By being smarter at the bottom end we might still have 8 million to play with. B. Molina and J. Weaver are still out there. Maybe they won’t sign one or two year deals, but maybe they would. I’d rather have the room to find out than have marginals like Blum, Bellhorn, Estes and Brocail on the roster.
January 5, 2006 at 6:02 pm
I agree with Tom. Weaver is looking pretty good right now. Although I would bet he’s looking for at least $8 million per, especially with the Washburn signing.
I’m not so much against the Estes signing, other than the fact that I think the guy is a total wuss.******* Actually, just looked up his stats on baseball-reference, and they’re pretty bad. Another guy off the scrap heap . . . .
January 5, 2006 at 9:44 pm
OT - funny review of the Rose Bowl … http://sports.espn.go.com/espn.....ons/060105 … which, for a football game, was pretty good entertainment!
January 5, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Not to kill the mood even further, but Estes and Park both have worked 90+ innings in 9 different seasons; here’s how they compare in ERA+ (best to worst):
SE__CHP
130 132
100 115
100 115
92 105
86 105
84 93
80 86
78 85
74 75
Park may not even be the worst pitcher in our rotation next year.
January 6, 2006 at 7:44 am
Thanks, Geoff. It’s hard to extract any nutrition from my breakfast when your chart makes me vomit.
We need another starter like a tar addict needs his next fix.
January 6, 2006 at 8:16 am
Anyone wanna speculate what our 2006 PDX roster will look like?
C - Pete LaForest/Dave Ross/Miguel Ojeda
1B - Tagg Bozied/Jack Cust
2B - Josh Barfield/Bobby Hill?
SS - ?
3B - Corey Smith
LF - Paul McAnulty
CF - Freddy Guzman
RF - Kennard Jones
Reserves:
3B - Justin Leone
1B/OF - Jon Knott
1B - Greg Sain
OF - Dustin Delucchi
IF - Ben Risinger
SP - Tim Stauffer
SP - Kenny Baugh
SP - Jose Oyervidez
SP - Dewon Brazelton
SP - Brian Sweeney/Mike Thompson
CL - Dale Thayer
RP - Scott Cassidy
RP - Brian Sikorski
RP - Brandon Emanuel
RP - Craig Breslow/Jack Cassel/Ryan Meaux
January 6, 2006 at 10:10 am
Derek - I’ve cross-posted your query to http://www.pdxbeavers.com/forums/list.php?f=1 … there’s folks there that will be able to fill in the gaps and/or confirm …
January 6, 2006 at 10:25 am
Second base at Portland depends on spring training. My guess is Bobby Hill. We’ll probably keep Blum and Bellhorn, so we lose a little speed but pick up some power.
If Barfield is in Portland, then the Loretta trade breaks through the dimensional wall and becomes even more of a travesty.
We might as well move Smith to the OF now. He’s not a 3b. Leone is, and Leone has some offensive skills. He should start at 3b. Not that he will, but he should.
Risinger’s played some short before, but a better defender would be a smart move. We’re probably not going to find one who can hit, anyway, so let’s give Stauffer and (later) Carrillo all the support we can.
January 7, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Stupid Olivo signed with the Marlins.
I don’t know for how much, however, if Wes Helm is only getting $800K + incentive based on his 95 games played last year, why couldn’t the Padres give Olivo the money paid for Estes?