first pitch: 10:05 a.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Dewon Brazelton (0-1, 34.71 ERA) vs Jason Vargas (0-1, 9.00 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN.com
The Padres look for the sweep on Thursday against a Marlins team that fields a lot of players that probably don’t belong in the big leagues yet. With a 2006 salary lower than that of 12 major leaguers (including San Diego’s Chan Ho Park), the club that MLB franchise-wrecker Jeffrey Loria is trying to move to San Antonio doesn’t figure to be competitive this season.
I caught most of Wednesday’s game on TiVo last night, and here are a few observations:
- If Loria’s intent is to kill the value of his franchise in its current market, he’s doing a great job; in just their second home game of the season, attendance was listed at 8,994. That might be generous — you could actually hear individual voices in the crowd on the telecast, very reminiscent of a spring training contest.
- Terrmel Sledge showed surprising (to me) opposite field power, lining a ground rule double into the left field corner in the first inning.
- Brian Giles, Khalil Greene, and Adrian Gonzalez all hit balls that very well could’ve been homers at Petco. Giles hit one to the wall in dead center, about 430 feet from home plate, that was caught by center fielder Eric Reed. Greene and Gonzalez both knocked shots off the scoreboard in left field; Greene’s went for a double, but Gonzalez’ was hit so hard that he was held to a single. So when you see that Gonzalez had four singles in the game, understand that one of them almost left the yard.
- Except for the second inning, Chris Young looked sharp. In the second, with a 2-0 lead, he walked the first two batters and then served up fly balls to deep left field off the bats of Dan Uggla and Chris Aguila that stayed in the park. I really thought Aguila’s was gone off the bat (well, not really because I already knew the outcome — but he put a charge into that one). That was pretty much the only trouble Young was in all day. The only “hit” he allowed was a grounder down the third base line that Vinny Castilla waved at and deflected. It wasn’t an easy play but it’s one that a big-league third baseman should make (and I expect Castilla would be the first to tell you so).
- Although Greene hasn’t drawn a walk yet this season, he is working counts, pacing the club at 4.21 pitches per plate appearance through the Padres’ first seven games. Josh Barfield is second, at 4.17. Miniscule sample, but encouraging nonetheless.
Another early start today, as Dewon Brazelton tries to prove that his Padres debut was a fluke. He’s also looking for his first road victory as a big leaguer, having started his career 0-15 with an 8.22 ERA in just under 100 innings. Youngster Ben Johnson is expected to make his first start of the season against southpaw Jason Vargas. Let’s get the sweep!
78 Comments
Sledge is intriguing to me. I know the Red Sox were in love with the guy, and tried to get him from both Washington and Texas.
He had a pretty good rookie season, and I think picking him up was a solid move.
I have no idea what he’s like defensively, though — haven’t really seen him play that much.
Here’s a different take on the game, from the FL sun-sentinel.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-martop13apr13,0,3099766.story?coll=sfla-sports-front
Looks like the Fish aren’t taking enough pitches for Joe Girardi. Hopefully, Brazelton can get himself together, and the Pads can sweep it today.
Methinks there may be some trouble in LA LA land. This article is kind of funny, actually. A small disagreement (in the papers) between Alomar and Tomko.
http://www.dailynews.com/dodgers/ci_3704701
And here’s my last link (can you tell I was on Olney’s blog today?)
John Shea is a writer for the SF Chronicle, and a sometimes contributor to ESPN. He is the only person at ESPN that picked the Pads to win the division.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=2404925
NG – thanks for the links!
Bochy has EY playing left and Johnson in CF (batting 8th) . . . interesting.
Mirabelli is hitting cleanup . . . double-interesting
I can’t wait for Cam to get back so I can forget about having to worry about EY starting every other game.
On-Field delay. Umpire being replaced (injury)
This is a similar lineup to one I saw over at Peoria in early March … and Mirabelli hit a bomb of a HR that day from the clean-up slot …
Anyone know what is going on in the game? My gametracker still has Vargas pitching to Barfield . . .
Sledge is a solid player – in his rookie year he had just an awful start, but Frank stuck with him and he hit around .280 the rest of the way. The only reason he wasn’t pegged to start for the Nats last year before the injury was their obsession with having a fast speedy leadoff hitter. Given a full year, he’d be a fine #3 OF. Why isn’t he starting today?
Some Expos credit for yesterday’s win Sledge, Castilla, Chris “Minaya traded me for Einar Diaz” Young were all former franchise players.
Sorry Ryguy — didn’t see your post. Thanks for the info . . .
re: Sledge … he’s still not 100% healthy, as far as I know … when I saw him in a couple of spring games in early March, he was not running well at all … so I’m not surprised that he’s not in the lineup daily …
Braz walks lead-off Marlin …
Hey Brazelton, say hello to Portland for me.
After getting Cabrera …
M. Jacobs homered to deep center, D. Uggla and H. Ramirez scored
… ooops!
Brazelton gives up 3 runs in an inning, and his ERA goes down.
As Mel Allen would say: “How about that??”
Anyone watching this? Is Braz still throwing at 88-90? I thought he was supposed to throw in the low 90s at least.
AGon has show surprising power to left field, but I love his ability to go the other way. It’s a shame that he has more power to left than Burroughs did to right. Let’s get those two runs in Vinny!
Ben Johnson now has a 1.000 OBP
For one AB at least, Braz can swing the bat. Nice to help himself.
Dewooooooooonnnnnn!!!!!!
Just caught up with the game. Brazelton is reminding me of Tankersley. Here’s the salt in my wound… just dropped Jacobs from my fantasy team yesterday.
A little off topic, but I just wanted to pass on word about Slingbox. I’m sitting here at work watching the game on the right hand side of my screen off my TV at home. My oldest son teaches English in Korea and watches the games as well, thanks to the DVR. Picture is crisp and no delay, unlike MLB.TV.
Wow, Brazelton even has a bat like Tankersley’s.
Nice a 1-2-3 inning for Braz. It’s obvious a little confidence can go a long way.
Pitching stats thru 2 full …
Pitches-strikes – D Brazelton 27-16; J Vargas 36-17.
Ground balls-fly balls – D Brazelton 2-4; J Vargas 0-4.
Batters faced – D Brazelton 9; J Vargas 10.
… Braz getting FLA out in 2nd lowers his ERA to 24.92!
LaMar, slingbox is only for local tv right? cause I’m in NY so I don’t think I can get a slingbox for watching padre games. Also I’ve heard other good things about slingbox too.
dprat … who did you drop Jacobs for?
Bucs tie things up vs Dogs … 2-2 thru 4
Never even heard of slingbox– what is it?
LM,
‘Cause Brad Hawpe became available.
Ryguy, yeah, you have to have Slingbox hooked up to a local tv, but then you can pick it up remotely from anywhere in the world. I hooked up my son’s computer here before he left for Korea. Due to the time difference, I hooked him up to the DVR so he can watch when it’s convenient. Ouch. 5-2. Had him by 15 feet at the plate if Mirabelli holds the ball.
NG, Slingbox is a magical little piece of technology that gets wired from your cable/antennae into the Slingbox, then output to the tv. The slingbox then picks up your signal and puts it into the internet protocol. Once you’ve established a connection in your home network, you can pick up your own tv signal anywhere in the world you have a high speed internet connection. It has a little remote on the computer screen that you can control your cable box and turn it on, change the channels, record to the dvr, playback your dvr. I’ll admit it’s a little odd when I’m watching the tv and my son in Korea starts changing stations. No monthly fee, just the original price for the hardware, about $250, or so. I just had business in South Carolina and watched the Padre games there off of Cox Channel 4.
nice.
Okay seriously now that the floodgates are totally open; can we see Tim Stauffer over Dewon Brazelton?
Thanks for the info on Slingbox, LaMar.
Homer to Uggala. This is awful. Is anyone warming in the ‘pen? Park, maybe?
Cassidy is in now.. put a position player in there.. like Rob Bowen.
I agree Ry. There’s little reason to wishcast Dewon at this point. Call up Stauffer or Etherton. They can’t be any worse. If Dewon is going to continue to post Redding-esque numbers, he should do it in Portland. He’s been ripped in two starts now by sub-par offenses. The experiment has to be declared a failure. We can’t afford these starts if we are trully “competing.”
Cassidy picks off Cabrera??? Doh …
Maybe we can trade Braz for Oliver Perez?
I meant to include this link …
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=260413123
… Perez had trouble with Cody Ross today … yuck.
I would take Perez back in about 2 seconds — no matter how crappy he’s doing.
I guess one of the issues is that he’s lost velocity — doesn’t look the same as ‘04.
And now Aguila is CS’d … good job Mirabelli!!!
Final #s from Braz …
IP H R ER BB K HR Season ERA
D. Brazelton 4.0 6 8 8 4 0 2 24.16
Pitches-strikes – D Brazelton 76-43; S Cassidy 21-14; J Vargas 88-46.
Ground balls-fly balls – D Brazelton 6-6; S Cassidy 1-0; J Vargas 1-11.
Batters faced – D Brazelton 22; S Cassidy 4; J Vargas 21.
How bad could that inning have been if the Marlins hadn’t run themselves into 2 outs? There’s no reason to play little ball against Brazelton or Cassidy, they’re going to give up the hits.
Why not just let Cassidy go another inning? Now the Pads have to PH for Hensley . . .
By the way, for anyone outside of SD, the Sunday Pads-Braves game is on TBS .. . .
Nick G, I’m tellin you, let Bowen pitch one. and also .. I thought the Fri-Sat games are also on TBS
Well I guess Brazelton is not quite as good as his stats from last year indicated
Why do we need to call up anyone to replace Brazelton? Estes will be coming off the DL soon, right?
Peavy
Young
Woody
Estes
Park
JS – were you being facetious, refering to his 7.61 ERA … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/6786 … or did he have some minor league numbers that would suggest something “good”?
No, checked on Braves.com. The braves have Turner Sports network or something like that now. So usually only 1 out of every 3 braves games is on TBS.
It’s really annoying. I would love to see all three games this weekend.
Too bad Loretta isn’t still around — he’s got a nice pitching record. One game with the Brewers, 0.00 ERA.
Blum could probably pitch.
dprat – always good to grab a rox if/when available … i’ve got ‘em both (jacobs & hawpe)
No, LM that was sly humor for the stat junkie…
JS – I like it!
Do Padre players have a propensity to hit fly balls just for fun? I mean how many flyouts do they have today?
JS — I appreciated that joke.
An 8 something ERA for Dewon actually sounds appealing right about now.
I agree with jesse … probably not a good idea to callup Stauffer yet … I’m a big Stauffer fan … but he ain’t ready!
Crap. Bellhorn’s in.
Game over.
For those of you keeping score at home:
Bellhorn has 6 ABs this year. He’s Kd 4 times.
Here’s the pitching stats thru 6 full …
Pitches-strikes – D Brazelton 76-43; S Cassidy 21-14; C Hensley 26-13; J Vargas 100-54.
Ground balls-fly balls – D Brazelton 6-6; S Cassidy 1-0; C Hensley 0-1; J Vargas 2-13.
Batters faced – D Brazelton 22; S Cassidy 4; C Hensley 5; J Vargas 25.
… which says that Florida pitchers have induced Padres hitters into 13 fly outs thru 6 … plus Johnson to open the 7th … fyi.
One of each major kind of out in the 7th … a flyout + a K + a groundout … I see no trend here
if you’re the Padres you won the series: 2 of three.. pretty convincingly in the 2wins.. so I guess this is just the let it go kinda loss…
better than losing by one?
It wouldn’t matter. Any games on TBS would have been blacked out in San Diego anyway. Only FOX, ESPN, and Ch4 can broadcast Padres games in the San Diego market.
What the hell is EY doing on this team? Can anyone tell me? Is he a better right handed option in left than Ben Johnson? He’s a thousand years old!
Jesse, that is a valid question.. I have no idea why EY is there.. and I wonder what will happen when Cameron comes back:
A. Send Ben Johnson down
B. Release Eric Young
C. Release Bellhorn
D. Send down a pitcher
Heads-up … Hoffy’s gettin’ another IP …
Ryguy – I’d say you’ve got ‘em listed in order of probability …
I think they would release Bellhorn first. Young can “play” LF and serve as that 5th OF if BJ goes back to Portland.
Somoene needs to inform Bochy that pinch hitters don’t have to come in alphabetical order.
Young has hit LHP his whole career, including last year. I don’t know why he’s been used as a starter over Johnson this season.
He’s like a habanero chili. Used appropriately, very good. Used too much, trip to emergency room.
Again, why EY in LF? Termel must be hurting.
What’s the thinking behind letting Andrade go and keeping Cassidy?
Anybody?
The Padres may see Sledge as a platoon player, and they might be right. Doesn’t explain why EY got so many at-bats against RHP.
Not sure there was much “thinking” about Andrade. He was the more valuable part of the Burroughs trade, he was better than Cassidy or Sweeney, probably going to be better than Brocail even before Doug’s heart situation, and we tossed him out like a used kleenex.
dprat – Hawpe justified your move tonight
Yes, indeed he did. And a great day for your team, no doubt, with both of those guys.
Nats option’d Wiki Gonzalez to Class AAA New Orleans today.
I’m hearing Steve Tracshel might be available. Apparently, he’s in Willie Randolph’s doghouse for some reason . . .