first pitch: 7:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Clay Hensley (5-7, 4.70 ERA) vs Ryan Madson (8-6, 5.91 ERA)
preview: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN
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With the way balls have been flying out of Petco Park lately, this should be a fun matchup. Right-handers are batting .350/.411/.520 against Ryan Madson this year. (No, that’s not an excuse to get Eric Young in the lineup.) On the other side, Clay Hensley has a 6.00 ERA over 42 innings since June 1. It’d be nice to see him get back on track. If not, I wonder what Mike Thompson is doing these days?
I would say that things are heating up in the NL West, but it’s not true — they’re just getting weird again. Seems nobody wants to suffer the indignity of winning the division. But, like last year, someone’s got to do it. And, like last year, it might as well be the Padres.
Sikorski traded to Cle for Mike Adams
Swap of Useless relievers pretty much.
A bit off topic, but check out why the Portland Beavers didn’t play in Tucson yesterday … http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/138314 … and hence are playing a DH today.
GY – you asked about Mike Thompson … Jonathan @ pdxbeavers.com says this …
Mike Thompson back to the Pads … and will be starting in place of Chris Young on Wednesday. As Young isn’t going on the DL, this looks like it might be a one and done for Thompson.
LM: Thanks for the Thompson update.
Cameron deposits one into the Western Metal Building, 2-0. Ugly pitch.
Also. Cameron has that Sosa-like hop.. I dont care what he does as long as he keeps hitting the ball like he is.
Ugly pitch? I thought how it ended up was beautiful!!!
Infield hit for Piazza. He grounded it up the middle — Utley fielded it well on the shortstop side of second base and almost threw him out. That is one slow dude.
It was so ugly, it was beautiful.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the Braves in general, and AJones in particular, are still *FLAMING HOT*!!! http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=260718124
Rollins hits one out. That’s 119 homers on the year at Petco, one more than all of last year.
Rollie Fingers is in the TV booth. He says he would’ve liked pitching at Petco.
Geoff,
The pitch to Rollins wasn’t horrible but still was in the low and in happy zone to lefties. I’m telling you, almost all of these home run pitches are in horrible spots. I’m not saying that the ball isn’t traveling better here, I’m just saying that these balls are being crushed. Absolutely crushed. This Padres staff is a flyball/fastball staff and when they’ve missed they’ve been punished here this year.
Still
2006 – 2.29 HR/G
2005 – 1.46 HR/G
Not sure what the reason is but the most of the longest home runs in this ballpark’s history have been hit this season and those balls were going out of this park no matter how the ball was carrying.
Here’s a new name for 3B … Brian Barden … he’s playing tonight against the Beavers … http://tinyurl.com/qr8pf … he’s from Oregon State, he was a *stud* here a few years ago … hit the most clutch-bomb HR (versus Joe Borchard’s Stanford team) that I’ve even seen.
GY – post his name in your blog entry tomorrow … in case SandyA reads it
ps. Oh wait, I saw Pujols’ HR off Lidge last year … *THAT* was “the most clutch-bomb HR that I’ve ever seen”
Thanks for the numbers, Ed. I’ve been listening to Mud talk about his discussions with Balsley about whether Petco is a pitchers’ park. Sometimes it takes a few years to figure out. Maybe those first two seasons will prove to be the aberrations.
I know that in the last couple years, there would be guys that said they hit balls as well as they could hit them and they didn’t go out. Still, some of the balls hit this year are going 430, 440 or in Andruw Jones’ case 453. Those balls were going out last year or this year. Maybe balls like the opposite field HR’s that Adrian is hitting wouldn’t have made it out last year but it just seems to me like the balls that are going out are going waaaaaaaaay out……like that one Mike Piazza just hit as I was typing this.
I called the Piazza shot, BTW. You can ask anyone in my house.
Hey Geoff, I think Ed Barnes’ point about the fastball/flyball staff is interesting. Your plot of HR/Game comparing Coors Field and Petco made me wonder what the plot of the ground-ball/fly-ball ratio for the Rockies and Padres over the same period would look like. I’m sure you can whip that up by the end of the game…
How much of the homerun difference is due to Klesko and Nevin being gone? It seemed like those guys were reduced to warning track power once they moved to Petco. I don’t recall guys like Sexson and Glaus having any trouble getting the ball over the fence.
But the ball is definitely carrying better this year. I can think of two or three balls hit into the battes eye area this year, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. And several shots made it onto the beach that would have died in the past. That shot into the bullpen by that scrub on Atlanta had no business getting .
If it’s due to the new buildings going up this place is going to be a launching pad in a few more years as more condos are thrown up.
How great is Barfield on the basepaths? I wasn’t even looking because I assumed it was a double.
Wow, Barfield is so aggressive on the bases. That was a double but he just kept running and got the extra bag.
I don’t see why Brocail is on the roster instead of Cassidy. Especially now.
Not a good pitch 0-2 from Embree.
BFeeder, you may be onto something:
http://www.geoffreynyoung.com/gfx/ground-air.gif
Geoff,
Again you are quick on the draw. Just think about Jake, CY, Chan Ho and Woody. Are all mostly fly ball pitchers and Jake, CY and Woody are of the extreme variety.
The Rox staff is a lot of sinkerballers like Jennings and Cook.
Great work as always with the graph but if I remember right the Padres are the most fly ball prone staff in the league. I’m sure that is no accident in the makeup of this club considering the way this park played the first two years. Also, considering how Coors has played, you get guys who keep the ball down and throw ground balls…well you see where I’m going.
Looking forward to getting you on the show tomorrow night. I’m sure it’ll be a great discussion.
Nice at-bat by Adrian against Rhodes. Fouled off a slew of two-strike pitches before singling back through the box.
Intentionally walking Barfield to get to Bard was an interesting choice.
Loading the bases for an on-base machine like Giles is also interesting.
One of the decisions worked.
Ed: Yep, I see where you’re going. It is interesting that the gap between the two staffs is larger this year than it was in 2004 or 2005. Park has been pretty neutral, but Peavy is serving up a lot more fly balls this season than he did in 2005, while CY is off the charts. He’s 2:1 the other way; just looking very quickly, I can’t find anyone else that extreme over the past 10 years. Interesting stuff.
I’m looking forward to the show tomorrow as well.
Hey Geoff,
Very nice, lightning-fast spreadsheet work! Now look at your graph and imagine what this season would have looked like without Cameron…
Oh, I really would rather not do that!
That’s a wrap, folks. Tomorrow we go for the sweep.
curious about a couple things – was the HBP on Bard intentional-looking to anyone? (I did not see it)
Also, why Brocail? I mean, he’s a nie story, but Sikorski is better at this point in time (and Adams will be, too.) I did not have access to the game, but Brocail seemed awful, and has been awful ever since he came back. And his ERA last year was in the mid-5.00 range, which makes me think he wsn’t any good anyway.
They hit him in the foot.