Friday Links
Fri, Feb 24, 2006
by Geoff Young
Clearing off the old desk. Before I forget, though, Baseball Prospectus’ Jonah Keri was good enough to stop by on Thursday and tip us off in the comments to a “Spring Training Feed and Padres/Mariners Game with Kevin Towers and Bill Bavasi” taking place Sunday, March 5, in Peoria.
Due to a prior commitment, I won’t be able to attend, but as those among us who made it out to the feed with Kevin Towers at Petco Park last summer will attest, you’re in for a treat. Get full details at BaseballProspectus.com or shoot an email to Jonah at jonah_keri@baseballprospectus.com to reserve a spot. Be sure to get in touch with him by Monday, February 27.
So, there you go. Onto the links:
- Peavy a little busier as pitchers, catchers report (North County Times). This one is from last week, but I love this quote from Peavy: “I want to get more sound… I want to be more in tune with my body and my mechanics, to cut down on my mistakes.” For as good as he is, the kid is never satisfied.
- Hensley headed for bullpen (Padres.com). We’ve already touched on this in the comments. I’d prefer to see him get a shot at the rotation, but there are too many veterans with big contracts ahead of him in the pecking order. And it’s not like there won’t be any opportunities during the season.
- Klesko confident at first (San Diego Union-Tribune). Longtime reader Anthony pointed us to this one in the comments. With regard to his defense, Klesko asks the unanswerable question, “Why do you think I get called the Pick Master?”
He held a job at the downtown ballpark
Pickmaster of Petco
He had a spot near the old brick landmark
Pickmaster of Petco
But on the day when the pitchers came
All those old fly balls looked the same
He rumbled down for a change of scenery
Hello, Pickmaster of Petco
(Apologies to Trip Shakespeare for destroying their song.)
- Sikorski prepared for strong spring (Padres.com, hat tip to Nick G. in the comments). Learn a little more about one of the newer members of the Padres pitching staff.
- Heck, learn about a couple more of ‘em.
- Estes’ health a concern for Padres (San Diego Union-Tribune). Kevin Towers on the southpaw’s “low” price: “A lot of it is probably the ankle… It probably scared some people off.” In this case, “ankle” is a euphemism for “5.43 ERA over 600+ IP since Opening Day 2002.”
- Petco Park introduces ban on smoking (San Diego Union-Tribune). This is freakin’ awesome and probably deserves a post of its own.
- Baseball America has released its 2006 Top 100 prospects: 1-50 | 51-100. RHP Cesar Carrillo checks in at #88. He is the Padres’ only representative, and he’s ranked too low.
Okay, that’s enough for one week. Don’t forget the Baseball Prospectus feed and we’ll talk more on Monday. Rock over San Diego, rock over London. In ‘N’ Out - That’s what a hamburger is all about.
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February 23, 2006 at 11:59 pm
He probably got that nick from all the balls he had to run and PICK UP after dropping them.
February 24, 2006 at 7:33 am
Another link for the list:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/m.....tom-third/
Hardball Times ranks the off season moves by each franchise. This is the bottom 10 teams as you might gather from the link.
February 24, 2006 at 8:19 am
Paul R. (who occasionally posts) and myself walked through BA’s Prospect Handbook. BA ranks the Padres as the 28th best (3rd worst) farm in all of baseball.
It wasn’t until we got to 20-21 that we felt the Padres weren’t better…
The bottom third:
20. Houston
21. St. Louis
22. Philadelphia
23. Kansas City
24. Washington
25. Toronto
26. Oakland
27. Seattle
28. San Diego
29. Cincinnati
30. New York (NL)
BA ranks our top as
1. Carillo
2. Kottaras
3. Barfield
4. Johnson
5. Headley
Now Johnson and Headley both project to be VERY solid regulars and do not deserve to be discussed in the top 100, but I think Carillo and Barfield ABSOLUTELY should both be top 100 guys.
And I think Carillo should be around 40-50. FoxSports.com is also listing prospects and has the Padres’ triumvant at:
53. Barfield
62. Carillo
77. Kottaras
Perry admits that Carillo’s ranking is conservative and I think Barfield’s is too high (maybe mid-70 to low-80s), and I’m not sure Kottaras is a top-100 guy (maybe top 125ish). But it is nice to Padres getting more love.
February 24, 2006 at 8:51 am
Washington’s ahead of the Pads? Isn’t their system pretty barren? Is that b/c of Zimmerman?Didn’t think the Pads’ was that bad . . .
Of course, I could be a little biased on my assessment. I’ll have to look through the BA site when I get home.
February 24, 2006 at 8:54 am
I’d be interested to see where SD ranks in offseason moves — I’m thinking we’re in the low teens. If nothing else, the Pads were very aggressive.
February 24, 2006 at 9:13 am
Thanks, Peter, for passing along that FoxSports.com list. This looks more reasonable to me, although I still think Carrillo might be too low.
February 24, 2006 at 12:14 pm
I’m curious on the smoking issue, Geoff. I don’t smoke, so it’s not a big deal, but it really wasn’t a big deal when they designated smokers to their own area’s around the park for me, either. I rarely had to walk through those area’s, and didn’t care when I did. If anything, it seems to me if they are going to force smokers to leave the ballpark, they’ll be hanging out near the gates, or somewhere in the general vicinity where I’ll have to walk to get into the park / out of the park.
It just seems to me that this “solution” will force more people to be exposed to second hand smoke, rather than keep it away from people.
Again, I had no problems with people having a patio somewhat away from the non-smoking fan, in an outdoor facility.
Just my two cents.
February 24, 2006 at 4:06 pm
BP also has released their Top 50 Prospects:
http://www.baseballprospectus......cleid=4774
Barfield - #49
Kottaras is an Honorable Mention (they have 15 HM in addition to their Top 50)
No love for Carillo
February 24, 2006 at 4:29 pm
Smokers are easy to pick on. Even those that smoke know its a nasty habit. I think letting folks drink at ballgames is much more dangerous to your fellow fans than letting them smoke. What about second hand smoke from walking out in the parking lot with 20 thousand cars starting up? I have quit smoking but it still gripes me to see the prejudice against smokers.
February 25, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Wow, either Kevin Towers is psychic or just incredibly lucky:
(Brian) Lawrence was diagnosed with a torn labrum in his right shoulder. The injury was discovered in an MRI conducted Friday night, team doctor Bruce Thomas said Saturday.
Thomas said the best-case scenario has Lawrence returning after midseason; at worst, the right-hander will be out until September.
“Theres tests done for range of motion, for strength, theres provocative tests to see if he might have a tear of his rotator cuff or labrum. He passed all that with flying colors,” Thomas said. “In fact, he had no symptoms. We do feel he that he hurt himself in his first bullpen.”
http://www.wvec.com/sharedcont.....B1NGD.html
Of course there’s no way of knowing if he would have sustained the same injury if he stayed with the Padres but since it happened so soon in camp I would think it must have been on the verge of tearing.
February 25, 2006 at 7:25 pm
I’m still whining about having “HOLD”s as a stat in the Ducksnorts2 fantasy league at Yahoo … anyone else in that league that wants to jump on my anti-HOLD bandwagon, please do so … NOW is the time!!! HELP!!!
February 27, 2006 at 3:27 pm
That’s so sad about Brian Lawrence. I was looking forward to having him bounced back this season with the Nats.
LM: Forever HOLD your peace.