first pitch: 1:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Mike Thompson (3-2, 4.62 ERA) vs Joel Pineiro (6-7, 5.34 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN
While looking for something completely different, I stumbled onto a cool feature at ESPN that allows you to view information about the Padres lineups this year, including stats by batting order, lineups this week, and games by position.
| Order | 2006 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | .275/.345/.414 (5th in NL OPS) | .270/.341/.426 (7th) |
| #2 | .257/.324/.388 (12th) | .258/.336/.357 (12th) |
| #3 | .288/.395/.399 (11th) | .262/.358/.408 (15th) |
| #4 | .251/.325/.418 (15th) | .279/.366/.455 (11th) |
| #5 | .254/.324/.398 (14th) | .267/.357/.406 (11th) |
| #6 | .238/.306/.433 (11th) | .270/.320/.425 (13th) |
| #7 | .258/.313/.401 (9th) | .268/.328/.430 (5th) |
| #8 | .247/.280/.375 (11th) | .260/.330/.381 (6th) |
| #9 | .222/.264/.353 (1st) | .169/.245/.218 (11th) |
| Stats through June 24, 2006, and courtesy of ESPN. | ||
Changes from last year to this year, in a nutshell:
| Order | OPS diff (2006 – 2005) |
|---|---|
| #1 | -8 |
| #2 | +19 |
| #3 | +28 |
| #4 | -78 |
| #5 | -41 |
| #6 | -6 |
| #7 | -44 |
| #8 | -56 |
| #9 | +154 |
Pretty much neutral at #1 and #6, slight gains at #2 and #3, fairly substantial losses at #4, #5, #7, and #8, and monumental gain at #9 (thank you, Chan Ho Park).
- Useless but unbelievable fact #1: Padres #9 hitters have a higher SLG (.353) than Florida’s #5 hitters (.345).
- Useless but unbelievable fact #2: Padres pitchers are holding the opposition’s leadoff hitters to a .215/.276/.283 line, with 0 homers.
Anyway, in light of the eight homers hit at Petco Park Saturday night, here’s what I was looking for when I got distracted by that other toy:
| G | HR | HR/G | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petco Park | 39 | 77 | 1.97 |
| Coors Field | 37 | 68 | 1.84 |
I know it’s been talked about before, but that still looks really weird to me. Just for the record, 1.46 homers per game were hit at Petco Park last year, as compared to 2.10 at Coors Field. Think about that for a second: Every other game at Petco this season features a homer that didn’t happen last season.
Padres go for their fourth straight series win this afternoon against the Mariners. Mike Thompson (3.92 K/9) and Joel Pineiro (3.93 K/9) square off in the finale. Look for lots of contact today at Petco.
Go Pads!
So..when did they move Petco to Denver? 2 more home runs already today…
Report for Eugene … the Emeralds held their home opener last night before a pretty good sized crowd of 5100+ … always a *special* place in my heart for “Opening Day” (even if/when it’s at “night” (sun was still on the field at the 7pm start and it was 90+ degrees out), and even when it’s in late-June
The game itself wasn’t very fun for the home town fans … http://tinyurl.com/rp48h … losing 6-2 to the Spokane Indians, who came into the game 0-5.
The anticipation, for me, was to see Matt Antonelli, the Padres #1 pick (17th overall) in the recently completed amatuer draft. He’s listed at 6′ 200 lbs … and he looks every bit of that. After hearing about “not a power hitter”, I was afraid we’d got ourselves a lightweight, but he’s got good size now, and appears to have room to fill out!
At the plate, his first AB (with 2 outs in bottom of 1st and Spokane already up 3-0), he didn’t see any pitches close the strike zone (except on the 3-0 count), so he took the walk. His second AB was long, with many foul balls, worked the count full, before striking out on a (very) inside fastball (ie. methinks it was ball 4, but he was ceratainly leaning in after fouling off a steady diet of down and away off-speed stuff). Third AB he pop’d to SS on 2nd pitch, and 3rd AB hit a routine can-o-corn to the CF’er … so, not a productive game at the plate … as has been his pattern so far as he’s only hitting .158/.360/.158 (ie. good plate discipline, as is the book on him, but no pop yet). I didn’t see it yesterday, but the stats say Matt has 4 SBs already, with 0 CS … so he’s doing what he can.
At third base, the only tough chance he got was early in the game, the hitter hit a high bouncer off the dirt in front the of the plate and the ball obviously went up into the low sun and Matt lost it, he made a good/quick recovery but his throw to first was late … ruled a hit and rightly so. He made one other routine play … his presence out there looked good … nothing much else to tell from 1 game.
The surprise of the game was seeing the pro debut of Chad Huffman, the Padres 2nd round pick out of TCU. He started in LF and batted 6th in the lineup. First AB was a routine flyout to RF, next a sharp grounder to 3B who went to 2nd for a force and Chad beat the DP attempt at first. Then, leading off the 7th, Chad hit a *BOMB* over the wall in the LCF power alley … his first pro hit was a HR! His last AB in the 9th led to a walk … r*e*s*p*e*c*t
The dissappointment of the evening was that the Emeralds didn’t send up a PH’er in the bottom of the 9th with 2 guys on and the 8th and 9th hitters making the 2nd and 3rd outs of the inning.
2 other hitters of note: David Freese (9th round pick out of South Alabama) bang’d a double and Craig Cooper (7th round pick of out Notre Dame) hit a sharp single to drive him in. Both those guys looked good at the plate.
In case anyone reading this was also at the game, I was the guy that won the inaugral frozen t-shirt challenge after the bottom of the 6th inning … that victory won me a pair of box seats at a future home game, so I’m sure I’ll be going down for at least one more game
Make that 4 HR’s today … 3 for the good guys … but score is tied 4-4 after 5 full …
Pitches-strikes – J Pineiro 81-53; M Thompson 97-62.
Ground balls-fly balls – J Pineiro 6-5; M Thompson 11-5.
Batters faced – J Pineiro 21; M Thompson 27.
Thompson has faced 30 batters.
3 UBB, 1 IBB, 3 K, 5 LD, 5 OFF, 11 GB, 1 IFF, 1 Bunt.
The “batted ball run value” of that is 0.758 runs.
Piniero faced 25 batters.
1 UBB, 5 K, 2 LD, 8 OFF, 7 GB, 2 IFF.
The “batted ball run value” of that is -1.321 runs.
Vinny lacks the ability to go the other way, huh?
Also, there’s something horribly wrong about Vinny pinch-hitting.
Sherrill faced 3 batters.
1 K, 1 OFF, 1 GB.
“” -0.353 runs.
Ibanez swung four times, made contact only once.
Damn. Sexson’s 2nd home run of the game…
Adkins walks Carl Everett on strike three. Good job, Nauert.
Richard … who is “Nauert”?
Paul McAnulty with HR #10 today for Portland … http://tinyurl.com/fdzgj
Will Venable with HRs in the 9th and 13th for Ft Wayne (his 2nd & 3rd) … http://tinyurl.com/ej6qg … now that’s a good afternoon for the Midwest League All-Star!
Matt Antonelli update … Eugene won 8-4 today … http://tinyurl.com/grjc7 … to run their record to 5-2 … Antonelli DH’d and went 1-for-3 + 2 walks … the one hit was a triple, his first XBH of the season …
Side note: Catching tonight for the Spokane Indians was former Padres farmhand Billy Killian … I noticed at the game last night … he’s a small dude … same as Kottaras … playing backup catcher at Short-Season A ball’s gotta be tough … the dream must seem nearly over (note: I just watched “The Rookie” with Dennis Quaid, very recommendable).