Padres Month in Review: May 2006
Mon, Jun 5, 2006
by Geoff Young
Is it wrong to complain about winning more games in the month of May than any other team in the big leagues? It may not be wrong, but it’s probably in poor taste. The only ways in which the Padres’ 19-10 record can be viewed in an unfavorable light are when we compare it to 2005’s ridiculous 22-6 record during the month and when we consider that the club began May 2006 with a 13-1 run.
But realistically, 22-6 and 13-1 aren’t reasonable benchmarks against which to judge success. And by most objective measures, the Padres had a fine month of May. Hey, it was a heckuva lot better than April.
So how, exactly, did the Pads do it? Let’s take a closer look.
Reach Base a Little, Run a Lot, Get Lucky
The Padres hit .268/.337/.422 during May. As usual, they were outhomered by the opposition (35-30), but the Friars enjoyed significant advantages in batting average and OBP.
Although they were just middle of the pack in drawing walks, no pitching staff in the NL surrendered fewer bases on balls (68) during May than the Padres. Consequently, the Pads drew 29 more walks than their opponents in 29 games, or one more per game. Put one more man on base a game than the other guy, and you increase your chances of winning.
The other impressive part of the equation comes in the fact that the Padres were very efficient during May. Among NL teams, only the Braves and the Dodgers scored more runs in the month, but both did so with much better overall batting numbers.
Despite being third in the league in runs scored, the Pads were just ninth in OPS and seventh in RC/27. The only other thing the Padres did well in May was steal bases (22 for 27, second to the Mets in the NL).
The Friars were efficient, yes. However, they probably were a little lucky as well. Luck, of course, often is a crucial component of winning. We don’t like to admit that, but it is true.
Pest at the Top and a Three-Headed Monster
Individually, leadoff hitter Dave Roberts, who has become a completely different player since joining the Padres, led the charge. Roberts, a fourth outfielder type throughout his career, continues to thrive in his hometown with regular playing time. This May was no exception, as he hit .326/.407/.495 during the month, with 10 stolen bases in 12 attempts. Roberts got himself into scoring position constantly and scored 23 runs in 23 games.
(As an aside, right-hander David Pauley is the only thing the Red Sox have left to show for the deal that brought Roberts to San Diego, and Pauley was shelled last week in his big-league debut. I mention this not to gloat but to remind myself how completely wrong I was about that trade.)
The other main source of offense in May was the catching tandem of Mike Piazza, Josh Bard, and Rob Bowen. Combined, they hit .341/.393/.652 in 132 at-bats, with 10 home runs. Piazza, as we know, came on the cheap, and Bard and Bowen ain’t making a lot of dough either.
As we’ve already discussed, the Padres have gotten better production out of their catchers than any other team in baseball. Through the first few days in June, they’re at 7.80 RC/27, which is a full run more than the second place Yankees (6.73). In May, all three backstops combined to put up numbers similar to those of Piazza alone in his prime. I’ll take that any day of the week.
One other player made a pretty solid contribution off the bench, and that is Geoff Blum. In just 40 at-bats, “Blummer” hit .450/.476/.625. He also mostly rode pine in favor of the increasingly useless Vinny Castilla, who was one of the few sore spots in May, hitting just .178/.231/.192 in 73 at-bats.
To put Castilla’s futility into perspective, consider that he had as many extra base hits (1) and RBI (2) in the month as did right-hander Jake Peavy. Castilla also drew fewer walks (3) than Ben Johnson, who received four free passes in nine May plate appearances. For the season, Castilla’s batting average, OBP, and SLG have all dipped below the career marks of Rey Ordonez (.246/.289/.310).
We can gripe about Castilla all year (or as long as Bruce Bochy runs him out there everyday, whichever comes first), but let’s finish on an up note. Brian Giles, steady as always, was the other batter to post an 800+ OPS in May, hitting .284/.389/.431 for the month.
It’s easy to critcize the deal that brought Giles to the Padres, but at the time, Jason Bay hadn’t shown anywhere near his current level of ability and the Pads desperately needed an elite offensive performer, which they got in Giles. It’s nice to think that we could have known that Bay would develop as he has or that the Pirates would have accepted someone else in lieu of him, but these are fantasies. Giles’ years of 35+ homer production are well behind him — heck, he may never hit 20 home runs in a season again — but the guy is a tough out, consistent, and a great presence on a ballclub (sorry, I haven’t figured out how to quantify that last one).
What the heck, now that I’ve gone into full ramble mode, I’ll mention Alan Drooz’ piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune suggesting that maybe now is the time to move Giles (hat tip to Gaslamp Ball). My personal feeling is that it’s going to be exceedingly difficult to deal Giles for someone who brings anywhere near as much to the table as does he.
It’s always fun to think of deals like Victor Zambrano for Scott Kazmir and fantasize that the Padres could move Giles for a young stud who will be part of the foundation for years to come. And if the Padres didn’t figure to be in the thick of a pennant race all summer, it might be even more fun to indulge in those fantasies.
But right now I’m a lot more interested in solving the third base problem. That’s why reader Jay’s question of whether Rob Bowen can play third base speaks to me more than any speculation about Giles’ future. Yeah, Bowen at third might be as much of a fantasy as a potential Giles deal, but at least it addresses a need and is something that could happen without the cooperation of any other organization.
Geez, how did we get here? I take a week off and my mind goes haywire. Moving on…
Who Are You, and What Have You Done with My Pitching Staff?
Ironic that pitching was supposed to be the weak point of this ballclub. In May, the Padres led all of baseball in ERA (3.58), WHIP (1.17), and BAA (.241). They were second in K/BB (2.94) third in OPS (707), and fourth in walks allowed (68). As with the offense, a little luck played a part, as the Pads’ DIPS of 4.11 was only seventh in the big leagues.
On an individual level, aside from the obligatory black hole at the back of the bullpen (aka Jiwon Browerton), only Alan Embree (4.91) posted an ERA over 4.10. Jon Adkins came up from Portland to join the ranks of relievers who materialized seemingly out of nowhere to pitch effectively for the Pads. When Woody Williams hit the DL, right-hander Mike Thompson took his place and did a pretty convincing imitation of the veteran.
Clay Hensley averaged 6 2/3 innings per start in May and notched an ERA below 3.00. Jake Peavy struck out 13 batters in one game and a franchise-record 16 in another. Chan Ho Park continued his resurgence, and the starter with the highest ERA in May, Chris Young, took a no-hitter into the eighth in his last start of the month (incidentally, he also took one into the sixth in his first start of June).
I don’t have much else to say about these guys. Almost without exception, they did a great job in May.
What Next?
As of today, June 4, the Padres find themselves 4 games out of first place despite a 30-26 record. Inexplicably, the NL West has become one of the toughest divisions in baseball. I’m still not convinced there’s a 90-win team among the lot, but it’s becoming more difficult for me to defend that position with each passing day.
For the Padres to continue to be a threat, they’ll need to do a few things. The first is to keep pitching the way they did in May. That will go a long way toward minimizing any other areas of weakness. The pitching was a little “lucky” last month, but some of the luck can be attributed to strong defense. So the Pads will need to continue to flash the leather to give their pitching staff every opportunity to remain “lucky” going forward.
On offense, the main challenge will be to keep the veterans healthy. That means regular rest for Roberts, and not overexposing any of the options behind the dish. I adore what the catchers have done, and I’d like to see their success continue. As a group, most likely they are playing over their heads. Then again, Bard and Bowen are young enough that some of this improvement may be real. Perhaps more importantly, both appear comfortable with their playing time and have proven capable of performing at a high level despite limited at-bats.
The one potential sticking point is third base. Castilla is done, but nobody is admitting it yet. Unfortunately he’s got a reputation as a clubhouse leader (and a nice guy — I don’t enjoy slamming him because he seems like the kind of player you’d like to have around your youngsters so long as he’s not hurting your team with his performance) and I fear that Bochy is going to wait until it’s too late to make a move with him. We talk about Justin Leone, but he’s no spring chicken and there’s no guarantee that he’d succeed if given the chance; beyond Leone, there aren’t many viable options, which is why the Bowen idea intrigues me.
I don’t know that there is an easy solution to the hot corner problem. And I fear that this may be the difference between winning the NL West and coming up just short.
I like to be right about stuff, but not always. This is one of those cases where I really hope I’m wrong. Does Castilla have a miracle left in him? I don’t think so. If not, can and will the Padres do anything to address the problem? (And I don’t mean acquiring Joe Randa.) I’m an optimist in most things, but I have a hard time envisioning positive outcomes to this situation.
That said, and because I hate finishing on a down note, 19 victories are in the books for May, and that’s more than anybody else can say.
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.
June 5, 2006 at 4:31 am
G,
Can you give me the definitions for the 3 averages you use in your May review. I believe the first is batting average and I also believe one of the numbers is slugging % …thanks!
VA Padre Fan
June 5, 2006 at 5:01 am
Excellent analyis as always, Geoff. I guess we can look at the month any way we want, but I will take a 19-win month anytime.
One thing you forgot to mention about Chris Young’s last two starts though — isn’t he like 6′ 10″ or something?
All kidding aside, I’m really hoping that Sikorski does a decent job and the the black hole at the back of the bullpen is gone.
All the teams in the West have their deficiencies, but Arizona and the Dodgers are pretty solid. And I think SD is right up there with them — it’s going to be a tight race.
June 5, 2006 at 6:54 am
You forgot the part about Vinnie’s defense - his throws to first are always right on target. After a couple of years of Sean Burroughs, whose throws were usually “close enough”, it’s nice to see a 3B hit the first baseman in the chest with his throws.
That being said, Vinnie had his worst game of the season on Wednesday. Two botched plays at third in the first inning led to five runs, and then getting thrown out at home to end the game trying to score the “run before the tying run”. WHAT WAS HE THINKING?
June 5, 2006 at 6:54 am
Wednesday? I meant Saturday. D’oh!
June 5, 2006 at 7:15 am
Welcome back, Geoff. Judging by the length of that post, you’re well rested.
Good to have you back.
June 5, 2006 at 7:22 am
Hell, at this point I think I would take Joe Randa back! Honestly, if you look around the league it’s hard to find anyone available to trade for, assuming the Padres went that route. Koskie is available but not that great. The Cubs will probably unload Aramis Ramirez at some point but there’s no way San Diego has enough to trade for him. I say why not bring Leone up and see what he can do (there’s some complication with that because he’s not on the 40-man roster). He might be having his career year, which for him might be an MLE of 270/330/420, which would be adequate. Or, I suppose you could play Blum or Bellhorn there. But that would be too easy.
June 5, 2006 at 8:20 am
VA: Sorry ’bout that. Here you go: OBP, on base percentage; RC/27, runs created per 27 outs (Bill James stat, fairly complicated formula), BAA, batting average against; DIPS, defense-independent pitching stats (another sabermetric measure based on the theory that pitchers don’t have the ability to prevent hits on balls in play — this is an oversimplification; there’s more info at Voros McCracken’s site.
Marshall: Good point about Castilla’s throws. Then again, I miss Burroughs’ ability to reach balls more than two steps away.
Pat: Well rested, indeed. And disappointed that USD wasn’t able to pull it out last night against Fresno State. Almost, but not quite.
June 5, 2006 at 8:29 am
Does it bother anyone else that we don’t have a constant line-up? Seriously I don’t think anything gets me more pissed than when I turn on the game or look at a box score and see different names every night! All I want is a set line-up for a couple of weeks. I know righty-lefty matchups are an important but I swear I think Bochy goes overboard. I honestly don’t know why Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Barfield are not playing everyday with subs only coming if they get injured. These guys need to learn how to work through and get over slumps without being replaced. This is the first full year in the bigs for the both of them and they are both reguarded as the future so why not just leave them the hell alone. I honestly would rather see Gonzalez and Dave Roberts struggle against lefties (looking at the stats D.R. is doing great against lefties but Bochy still hates playing him) and have Barfield get as many at bats as possible while playing great defense than have Belhorn and Young be mediocre at best. If there is any position to have a platoon at it’s 3rd. I don’t mind seeing Castilla, Blum, and Bellhorn fight that one out because we get ZERO production from that spot and we have no player that has been labeled as the future playing there. I understand the catcher thing because all 3 of those guys have played really well to this point but I have a feeling that Bowen is going to be the odd man out at some point and that sucks because he is the youngest and looks like he could have a lot of potential. And I’m sorry but that Bowen to 3rd idea isn’t going to work! If KT and Bochy were too scared to play Nady at 3rd (the position he played well all through college and was drafted to play) there is no F-ing way I see them taking a chance on Bowen over there when he has no experience. I’m not saying it’s the wrong thing to do because I like the guys bat a lot I’m just saying look at the management’s track record and you can see that it’s not going to happen.
June 5, 2006 at 8:42 am
KRS1: You’re almost certainly right about Bowen at third. Just to be perfectly clear, I haven’t heard anyone within the organization suggest such a thing. It was an idea thrown out by a reader and is the kind of outside-the-box thinking I love. That said, I’ll be stunned if it’s implemented or even considered.
One thing to bear in mind about people is that, according to a cognitive scientist I’m currently reading, “we are spontaneously conservative when it comes to winning, and adventurers when we face loss” (Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini). If the overall situation were more desperate (e.g., the Royals), management might be more inclined to try something truly radical. With a mostly successful season to date, minor tweaks are more likely.
June 5, 2006 at 9:11 am
Man, does that sum us up for the past several years. Not just us, most baseball teams.
Unfortunately for the Royals, even failure is not making them adventurous. They’ve already decided Huber can’t possibly be a major league catcher and they’re stacking up future first basemen/DH like a mountain man stacking up wood for the winter.
June 5, 2006 at 9:24 am
Baseball America has predicted the first 15 selections in tomorrow’s draft. Last year they were freakishly accurate for the first round.
Not sure if the article is subscriber-only. I’ve been logged in all the time to BA since Friday.
http://www.baseballamerica.com.....61615.html
Players we’ve been rumored to be interested in who BA predicts will be gone by our pick (17) are:
Billy Rowell, HS 3b
Max Scherzer, rhp, Missouri
Chris Marrero, HS 3b
Travis Snider, HS 1b/OF
They don’t have Matt Antonelli, 3b from Wake Forest, in those first 15 picks. We’re supposed to have him on our board.
It looks like there’s an outside chance a talent like Drabek could fall to us. If he does, do we have the stones to grab him?
June 5, 2006 at 9:38 am
Towers was willing to play Nady at 3b. He wasn’t willing to fight Bochy over it. That is not an endorsement of Towers.
June 5, 2006 at 10:25 am
Nice summary, Geoff. Your comment about Vinny being a nice guy does soften my hatred of seeing him out there and swinging at the first pitch for yet another soft grounder to SS, but he is a huge hole.
Bringing up the Nady and 3B thing drives me insane. How could you not try that? Instead you give away decent prospects to get listless Randa, who does a Burroughs imitation with the Padres. Then you see Nady post .815 OPS with regular PT (granted not at Petco), makes you cringe that such a simple solution to at least TRY was sitting there but could not be done.
Let’s hope the Brewers stay ill for a bit longer.
June 5, 2006 at 11:11 am
Re: USD
I don’t follow the Torreros as closely as you do, but it was an exciting and somewhat disappointing season from my pov. They impressed everyone early against UT, but then couldn’t win their conference. Still they did make it to the CWS and won at least one game (not sure how that all played out), which is pretty darn good for a small, private university. I’m a proud alum.
June 5, 2006 at 11:36 am
Pat - USD didn’t make it to the CWS … they made it to a Regional … winners of Regionals go to a Super-Regional … winners of Super-Regionals go to CWS … I think that’s the right language to use … making the Regionals is quite an accomplishment in itself!
June 5, 2006 at 11:36 am
Kevin Goldstein at BP had these nice things to say today …
Chase Headley, 3b, High Class A Lake Elsinore (Padres)
A second-round pick last June out of Tennessee, Headley was one of the more attractive options last June to teams who value performance, as he hit .387 for the Volunteers with 63 walks in 238 at-bats. Headley got off to a very slow start for the Storm this year, batting .238 in April without a home run, but the stick has since come alive. Since May 19, Headley is 22-for-64 (.344) with six home runs, including two homers on Saturday and another on Sunday. At .283/.374/.465 and rising, Headley joins what is a number of breakout seasons in the Padres system, one that still has some work to do but is definitely in better shape than it was two months ago.
June 5, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Not to beat it into the ground anymore but there was a pretty sweet little mention in the U.T. this morning about how Padres scouts made the final decision of Stephen Drew as a 3rd baseman in 2004 for the #1 pick. It also mentioned that signability was the reason he wasn’t chosen because he was looking for around 5.5 million to sign but that nearly 2 million was saved in 2003 when Tim Stauffers arm trouble affected his contract value. So if you add the 2 Million we saved on Stauffer and the 3 Million we signed Matt Bush for I’m guessing we could have gotten him signed. Blah Blah Blah… Yeah I know that it doesn’t matter now and I don’t wanna seem like a huge complainer I just want to see some more urgency on building towards the future and not just lateral moves with vetrans that might get us to another 83 wins this season and another laughable post-season. At this point I would rather see some young guys take their lumps and loose games but be experienced pro’s in a season or 2 then see a bunch of so-so ageing vetrans play boring baseball and have virtually the same team season after seaon.
On a brighter note I even with Termel Sledge being in Portland at this point I think Kevin Towers pulled off an awesome trade to get Chris Young for Aki and Adam Eaton. Eaton is overated and going into FA and as much as I liked AKI and would love to have him still here I think our bullpen is doing just fine. C.Y. is perfect for our park and I think he is starting to build a lot of confidence which for Padres pitchers and their normal lack of real run support is pretty key.
June 5, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Not sure you can ever complain too much about Matt Bush. You tell your scouting organization they can pick who they want, then change your mind days before the draft?
At least Drew ONLY has a 367 OBP with a 502 slugging. In AAA. Two years after he was drafted. He’d make a sweet 3b, plenty of range and arm strength.
June 5, 2006 at 12:39 pm
If you were K.T. what would you try to do at 3rd base?
I guess you could bring up a guy like Leone and see what he can get done. Leave Blum, or Bellhorn out there. See if Vinny gets it together. Or make a deal for someone.
Honestly if it were up to me I think you have to try to make a deal. There is Dallas McPhereson, I’ve heard Hank Blalock might be availible, and I know that there are a bunch of teams with young promising 3rd baseman at the AAA level we might be able to make a play for.
Play G.M. for a second. I’m curious what other Padres fans think about the situation.
June 5, 2006 at 12:41 pm
SI projects the Pads will pick SDSU’s Justin Masterson.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.....aft/1.html
The whole Bush-as-first-pick-thing was a fiasco. Unbelievable. Maybe the kid will turn into a serviceable pitcher or something.
June 5, 2006 at 1:06 pm
McPherson might be available. The Angels like him but worry about his health and his love for the strikeout.
I don’t see how we could afford to get Blalock.
Bochy will not play Leone at 3b as long as Castilla, Blum, and Bellhorn are around. Leone could be our Craig Shipley, can play anywhere as long as you don’t expect him to play short or second a lot, give you some power, but with Bochy’s decision-making process there’s no reason to bring him up. Start Bellhorn full-time. Cut Castilla.
June 5, 2006 at 1:08 pm
I would bring up Leone. He may not be a real prospect but it’s hard to imagine him being any worse than Vinny. The problem is that Bochy would continue to play Vinny over the youngster, the only way to ensure he plays a rookie is to get rid of all other options so we’d have to release Castilla and eat his salary.
My second option would be to let Bellhorn play 3rd. Again it’s hard to see how he’d be any worse. In either case I’d be working overtime to drum up a legit 3b.
June 5, 2006 at 1:10 pm
“As with the offense, a little luck played a part, as the Pads’ DIPS of 4.11 was only seventh in the big leagues”
Not necessarily luck. The Padres have one of the best team defenses in the league and play in a park that suppresses batting average on balls in play. Padre pitching should outperform their DIPS.
June 5, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Unfortunately, it is not too hard to imagine Leone being worse than Vinny. Leone is a butcher with the glove at 3b. He has also cooled off tremendously, posting the ML equivalent of Vinny Castilla/Sean Burroughs numbers at AAA the last month or so.
All that said, if the Padres cut Castilla, I hope they call up and give Leone a chance to show what he’s got. A Blum/Bellhorn platoon should also provide more production than Vinny, and shouldn’t be too much of a drop defensively, since Vinny has no range any more.
June 5, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Leone’s a “butcher with the glove?” Says who? I’ve seen scouting reports that say exactly the opposite. 8 errors at Portland may mean he’s kicking the ball or that he’s getting to balls that the archaic Castilla could not.
He’s got enough glove that he’s played short and second base before. He played short just the other day.
His numbers tumbled in May because hits stopped falling. He still drew 11 walks, 2 more than Castilla has all year.
June 5, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Not having seen Leone at all, how many of those errors were throwing errors that a good fielding 1B like Gonzalez would have saved?
I’d settle for the same OPS as Vinny if he could at least see more than one pitch per at bat.
Maybe Vinny will turn it around but it’s getting to the point where it just seems hopeless. At least with a younger player there’s always hope.
June 5, 2006 at 3:28 pm
I think we touched on Bochy’s worst traits as a manager — his inability to trust (or even play) young play and his overall inflexibility with the lineup (playing E.Young against lefties even though he’s probably done and Ben Johnson is a much better option overall). Bochy does has his strong points - especially the bullpen as the Padres have almost always been able to put together a good bullpen on the cheap — but his dealings with the offense and young players leave a lot to be desired. His problem seems to be that he gets “locked in” with managerial choices and nothing will change his mind — EY will bat leadoff and play LF against lefties even though he is the worst of the 3 options of Roberts, Johnson, EY. McAnulty got starts at 1B even though Gonzalez wasn’t hitting at all. Bellhorn starting against lefties even though he’s better against RHP; and most annoyingly, his complete and total lack of faith in Ben Johnson. Bochy track record with young players makes the Giles trade much more defensible — even if we held onto Bay it’s unlikely he would have either played or thrived here.
June 5, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Just because he played short and second before doesn’t necessarily mean he had the glove to do so. Minor league teams try stuff all that time, a la McAnulty at third. I’ve read scouting reports indicating that Leone is a below average glove at 3rd, and really isn’t a good defender overall, so I guess it depends upon which reports you read. Be glad to look at the scouting reports you have read though, much better to be balanced.
Yes, Leone has had hits stop falling for him, but he also had a crazy BABIP in April (around .440), so we could be seeing regression to the mean. He still has something like a .330 BABIP overall, so further regression is possible. For May, his XBH were way down, walks down a lot, and strikeouts up. He might have been pressing once pitchers started pitching around him, and he has been dropped down in the order a little since Cust and Johnson have heated up.
June 5, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Tom: I totally agree. Bochy seems oddly quirky though. He does fall into patterns but they are not totally predictable. On offense, I think he has a strong bias towards veterans and/or defense. While he buried Nady and now Johnson, he seems very comfortable with both Barfield and Greene. While both are solid players, he seems to let them go out and do their stuff without yanking them, even if they struggle hitting. AGon fits this as well. Greene and AGon are excellent defenders, Barfield very good. I don’t know Johnson’s defense, but Nady’s was adequate without being great. So it seems like 1 run allowed due to bad defense is much worse than 1 run gained through good hitting.
He will play crappy defenders if they are a “Veteran Starter”. Klesko in left, Nevin at 1b, Vinny at 3B, etc. He will stick with these guys no matter how bad the numbers get. We know what happened to Nevin last year, but he never sat him. Klesko was horrid in the second half, but he would still get all the PT. Vinny has been so miserable it has forced some platooning (with more veterans, but better hitting ones).
With pitchers, he seems much more rational. Peavy, Perez, Geranamo, Tankersly, etc, all got big AA to Bigs jumps, often in tough games (I remember Perez vs. Yankees). He plays them, then they often go down to AAA for tuning, etc. He seems to use his bullpen well, the Brower fixation being an inexplicable exception. My one gripe is that he is a bit structured with the Cassidy = 7th (if necessary) Linebrink = 8th, Hoffy = 9th to protect a lead, even if one is struggling a bit. Generally these guys have been very good, so sticking to that structure has worked well, but if one of these guys really started to suffer, I fear he would be slow to adjust.
He seems to be a bit cavalier with his pitching choices when nursing a small deficit. 8th inning of a 1 run deficit, facing the heart of the order, and he will call up the 5 or 6 guy, often allowing the other team to expand the lead, which seems dumb. Leverage is important even when behind. But he does not do this so often that it really bugs me.
Go Pads!
June 5, 2006 at 4:29 pm
To say that Bochy isnt aware of the problem with Castilla is a little nearsighted. It should be apparent to the casual observer that Castilla has been getting reduced playing time. A closer look reveals that in the last 17 games, Castilla has started just 8 of them. Bochy is aware of the problem he just doesnt have any valid options to replace him. Everytime he gives Blum or Bellhorn extended playing time they have one or two good games and then go in the tank. It seems to happen every time.
June 5, 2006 at 4:31 pm
We are all dancing around what we know will happen at 3B this year, the pads will stick with the three headed monster of Vinny/Blum/Belhorn until late August when they will trade 2 AAA pitchers who have as much of a shot at making a steady gig in the big leagues as I do and get another over aged under producing veteran to play out the rest of the year ala Joe Randa, Rich Aurilia, Brian Giles, Miguel Olivo, the list goes on. Look for Roger Deago/ Jack Cassel for David Bell trade some time in the near future.
June 5, 2006 at 4:49 pm
This may seem like an odd solution but we have heard rumors on 1090 that Roberts is on the block, if this is true it would leave the pads without a leadoff man, if the pads do trade Roberts they could bring up Hill to play 3B and leadoff (.297/.406/.792 splitting time with Leone at 3B in AAA) also they can bring up Johnson to take over in left (or move Giles to left and play Johnson in right), but i guess that puts us back in the Burroughs debate
June 5, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Funny, I was just thinking the other day that Roberts would be great trade bait. Veteran, proven clutch in the playoffs, hitting much better than ever before, Johnson can take over for him. They need to get something good for him, trading your leadoff hitter when you’re in the race probably wont go over well with the fans.
June 5, 2006 at 5:22 pm
you would have to trade him to a contending team looking for a leadoff guy who needs OF help so maybe the tigers or angels, and maybe the yankee’s if they get desperate
June 5, 2006 at 5:52 pm
Leone’s walk rate was nowhere near “way down.” In April he walked 13 times in 101 plate appearances; in May it was 11 in 109.
Hank, I don’t care if Blum or Bellhorn goes into a funk. Their funk is better than what Castilla can do now. His bat looks slow as ever, even after the mechanical “fix.”
June 5, 2006 at 8:34 pm
What?!?
“It’s easy to critcize the deal that brought Giles to the Padres, but at the time, Jason Bay hadn’t shown anywhere near his current level of ability and the Pads desperately needed an elite offensive performer, which they got in Giles. It’s nice to think that we could have known that Bay would develop as he has or that the Pirates would have accepted someone else in lieu of him, but these are fantasies. Giles’ years of 35+ homer production are well behind him — heck, he may never hit 20 home runs in a season again — but the guy is a tough out, consistent, and a great presence on a ballclub (sorry, I haven’t figured out how to quantify that last one).”
He hit 20+ HR in AAA w/ nice BB/SO #’s, came up and put on a defensive show on a Sunday afternoon in CF @ Arizona while homering in the game as well…
I don’t think there was ANY question Bay would do well… That said, while I didn’t like Bay in the trade, I still liked getting Giles. A lot!
June 6, 2006 at 7:31 am
Thanks for the info LM. I just thought of any post season play as CWS, like the NCAA Tournament in Basketball, you still made the tournament even if you don’t make it to the Final Four, but I guess Baseball is different.