It’s fascinating to me that with a week left until Opening Day, we still do not know who’s in the rotation behind Jake Peavy. Two of Dewon Brazelton, Shawn Estes, Chan Ho Park, Woody Williams, and Chris Young will start the season in the bullpen, but which two remains uncertain. Young has struggled but the company line is that it’s the usual Cactus League blahs and there is nothing to see here, keep moving.
His experience in the World Baseball Classic suggests that Park can be effective in relief. He has come out of the bullpen 46 times in his big-league career, primarily in 1996, and posted the following line: 71 IP, 4.82 ERA, 10.52 SO/9. But he’s pitched in relief just twice in the past eight years, and in one of those outings (against the Padres in September 2001), he failed to record a single out. All of which is a long way of saying, we don’t really know.
Williams also has experience out of the bullpen, working 90 games in relief from 1993 to 1996 while with the Blue Jays, and once with the Cardinals in 2003. His record: 139 IP, 4.01 ERA, 7.45 SO/9. But again, all but 2/3 of those innings were compiled when guys like Sid Fernandez and Cecil Fielder still roamed the big leagues.
I won’t bother running Brazelton’s numbers because they’re uniformly terrible. We’re pretty much going on faith in spring reports with him. As for Estes, he’s only made one appearance out of the ‘pen in his career.
Other areas potentially impacted by the rotation shuffle include the bench and bullpen. Apparently the Padres still haven’t committed to going with 11 or 12 pitchers. The middle relief situation remains wide open. And on the bench, Adrian Gonzalez or Ben Johnson looks to benefit if the club carries an extra position player. (Remarkably, Mark Bellhorn is the current projected backup to Ryan Klesko at first base.) On the bright side, I suppose, reserve outfielder Terrmel Sledge launched a 400 foot homer off San Francisco southpaw Jack Taschner on Sunday.
So, about the rotation behind Peavy? I guess we’ll find out when we get there.
Fernandez and Fielder roaming the big leagues. Like the vanished Giant Sloth or Woolly Mammoth, these behemoths are gone forever.
Sid Fernandez sounds exactly like James Woods. Watching the MLB TV broadcast last season I could have sworn that Mel Proctor had Woods in the booth with him as a special guest. Nope, El Sid.
Looking forward to the day when we assemble a pitching staff based on ability, not on the magical Petco effect. “Wasn’t that guy in a horrible car accident that left his pitching arm hanging by two flaps of skin?” Yeah, but he should be able to post decent numbers in Petco.
I have to admit I was excited about Belhorn the first two weeks of ST when he was putting up great numbers, but since then he has cooled way down and is currently hitting a whopping .179 and playing shaky defense at best. Why are the Padres keeping Belhorn when they have Blumer who is also a switch hitting utility player who is better defensively and has so far put up better numbers at the plate. With only five bench spots available it just doesn’t make since to keep them both.
It makes 800,000 worth of sense. The money is guaranteed for both of them and they were both signed as free agents, so we need their permission to trade them.
We sure don’t need both. Bellhorn seems the more likely to accept a trade, Blum has those three little girls to think about.
Permission to trade them? Is there something I don’t know about? I thought Klesko was the only player on this team with a no-trade clause.
I’d love the idea of getting rid of Bellhorn. We really don’t have anywhere to put the guy anymore. Having AGon on the bench for late inning defensive help at first base is a lot more beneficial to this team than having another player that can play both 2nd and 3rd base. We already have those spots filled with Blum and EY. Why do we feel the need to carry another player to cover these positions?
The last bench spot should either go to AGon or Ben Johnson. I’m leaning towards Gonzalez.
To be honest I think that the padres should release both Belhorn and EY, don’t get me wrong I love EY as a leader and as an all around good guy but realistically he can only play 2B now because of his arm and with Castilla, Klesko and Roberts all having injury issues in the past it would be nice to have a back up 1B and another OF on the bench, it would also be nice to keep Leone who is a natural 3B and has shown a great bat during ST.
When you sign a free agent, you can’t trade them until June 15 unless the player gives his permission. It’s to stop you from signing players you have no intention of playing.
Park also has a no-trade clause, backed by nobody wanting him.
I’d rather have Bellhorn than Blum. Bellhorn has better OBP skills and has shown more power. But of the two, Bellhorn seems like he’d be more ready to go. Cardinals?
Thanks for filling me in Tom. I didn’t know that rule. Bellhorn does have an ability to get on base, but he is a hack defensively. His numbers at 3B are awfully bad. Plus, he had a big drop off last season offensively, and he’s not looking all that good this Spring either.
I’m not going to read much into the spring, not when the competition is Blum. They both have long enough track records that I’ll go on the career numbers. I do suspect that teams will have more interest in Bellhorn anyway, and we’re in trouble if either one of them gets a lot of playing time.
At least Bochy isn’t talking about 3 catchers anymore, but 12 pitchers, what does that do for us? I don’t see how adding more bad pitchers makes us any better. May as well accept the badness of the staff and do what we can to improve the offense.
I don’t think there’s going to be a trade market for Bellhorn or Blum. The Red Sox have Graffanino on waivers, there doesn’t seem to be any interest in backup middle infielders. Just eat the contract and release one of those guys. It’s like when you buy produce and it goes bad. Are you going to eat rotten bananas because you spent money on them or throw them out and get something fresh?
My guess on the rotation
Peavy
Young
Estes – because he’s a lefty, gotta have a lefty
Chan Ho – based on the WBC and the big contract
Brazelton – good spring and I think they want to see if he can turn it around.
Woody goes to the pen and will take over for whoever fails in the rotation.
On Bellhorn v. Blum. Neither is good defensively. Blum is a much worse hitter, though.
Belhorn .170 average would disagree with you, blum can hold his own in the field, he’s just not an every day player.
I said a week or so ago that I don’t know why the Padres insisted on keeping both Blum and Bellhorn since they are virtually interchangeable. I would prefer to keep Bellhorn because of his better offensive potential, but if push comes to shove, Blummer wins out. He’s –in increasing orders of irrationality–a SoCal local, World Series hero, and has triplets! Plus for some reason I get this sense that he’s treated like a rock star by certain types of Padres fans.
Now that Barfield has all but won the second base job, The Padres should just bite the bullet and release Bellhorn. If we need a second basemen in a pinch, we can rely on a combination of Blum, Young, or Bobby Hill. I would prefer to keep Bellhorn as Vinny insurance, but I think we are fooling ourselves that Blum won’t get first crack at that job as well.
Bellhorn vs. Gonzalez is an easy decisions. I don’t think it’s a huge surprise that all this talk of AGon suddenly making the team coincides with Klesko receiving a cortisone shot.
Blum’s career OPS: 705.
Bellhorn’s career OPS: 752.
Bellhorn had a peak of 885 and chipped in an 818 two years ago.
Blum’s full season peak was 807.
Bellhorn has the better career EQA and has been better recentlyl.
Bellhorn has better defensive stats at 2b, 3b, and SS. That’s Zone Rating. I wouldn’t even count that in Bellhorn’s favor, but Blum doesn’t have any defensive edge.
You still have to go with Bellhorn if you have the choice. He’s been a good regular player as recently as 2004. But we probably don’t have a choice. We balked on the Loretta trade to begin with, then we accumulated 2b like a crazy old lady going after brass buttons.
Hardly any age or speed difference.
Bobby Hill was released. Did he resign a minor league deal to play in Portland?
Some team might trade for Bellhorn. Graffanino hasn’t drawn much interest, but he’s making 1.2 million more than Bellhorn. Pay 200,000 and Florida might like him, they can’t honestly think Uggla is worth wasting time on. Or Minnesota, their chances of competing would be better with a department store mannequin than Tony Batista. Bellhorn has his flaws but he’s no department store mannequin.
Want a shudder? We could see a Bellhorn-Barfield-Greene-Blum infield playing consecutive games behind Woody, Park, and Brazelton.
Yeah but Bellhorn strikes out a lot, I can see certain members of Padre management concluding that Blum is a better hitter because he strikes out less. Fortunately it’s not entirely the manager’s call, right?
Just got word that Sikorski has been released.
Well, that’s $200K down the tubes.
Heard the Angels are looking for a LH bat and are willing to trade a middle reliever (Yan or Gregg).
I say: How about both for Klesko?
People are never happy. We eat Sikorski’s 200,000 guarantee, we were dumb for signing him. We refuse to eat salary on veterans, we don’t know when to cut our losses. 200,000 is what the team spends on Gatorade and sunflower seeds in spring training.
Would you take Alfonzo back for Klesko? Because the Angels are not going to spend 10 million dollars for him.
Give the Angels Klesko and $5 million for whatever we get back and we’re still ahead of the game. I hate to be so down on the guy but he could be this year’s Nevin.
$200K on Gatorade and seeds. Any idea how much they spend on Double Bubble?
Klesko has a no trade we just have to face it, he will be a Padre untill November.