Is it me, or has this been a long week? I dunno, maybe it’s the heat. Or maybe I’m getting old.
Anyway, TGIF. Onto the links:
- This time, Greene’s injury not serious (North County Times). Khalil Greene hurt his left middle finger while swinging a bat in the fourth inning of Thursday afternoon’s game against the Astros. He’s listed as “day to day.”
- Park due for transfusion because of blood loss (North County Times). Yikes. Sounds like Chan Ho Park is going to be okay, but this is scary stuff.
- Was 4 San Diego afraid to criticize Walker, Padres? (San Diego Union-Tribune). Jay Posner isn’t happy with the way Channel 4SD handled (or didn’t handle) the story of Todd Walker’s two errors in his Padres debut at third base Wednesday night.
- Baseball’s Slugging-est Catcher (Baseball Crank). No surprise, it’s the “washed-up” Mike Piazza. The Crank uses 200 plate appearances as his cutoff; if you use 150, Piazza slips to #2. Right, Josh Bard jumps ahead of him.
- Conversation with ex-Beaver Jason Bay (PDX Beavers). I love Bay’s attitude about being bounced around from organization to organization before finally finding a home in Pittsburgh: “I’m not trying to prove anybody wrong; I thank them for giving me a chance to go somewhere and do better.” Good stuff, as always, from Jonathan and the folks at PDX Beavers.
- Cirillo suggests balls at Coors Field waterlogged (ESPN). Because tin-foil hats are cool.
- Projection Roundtable (Hardball Times). Forecasting future performance in baseball players can be tricky business. David Gassko moderates a discussion among several folks who attempt to do just that, as they offer insights into some of the issues and challenges they face. This is the opener in a five-part series. Unfortunately the other four parts aren’t linked, but you can search for them.
- Hometown? (Washington Times). Regular reader and commenter Kevin Brewer has written an article about MLB’s “Hometown Heroes” promotion which, among other things, allows fans in D.C. to vote for Brian Schneider and Livan Hernandez but not Walter Johnson or Frank Howard.
- Penny Wise, Dollar Foolish: Overpaid, Underpaid Players (Athlon Sports). Bargains on the Padres are Adrian Gonzalez and Trevor Hoffman. Not so much would be Park and Ryan Klesko. I think you probably could add Greene and Josh Barfield to the list of bargains.
- Les Paul & Mary Ford – At Home With…. (YouTube). I confess, I’m hooked on YouTube. Someone has posted a series of TV bits from the ’50s featuring the legendary Les Paul on guitar. I never get tired of this stuff.
Shameless Plugs
- San Diego Padres Organizational Tree. Based on a suggestion from reader Coronado Mike, I’ve whipped together a little something for us. It’s in beta, so any corrections, enhancement ideas, and general kibbitzing are welcome and appreciated. Once we’ve got this thing looking like we want, I’ll display it more prominently so folks can use and enjoy.
- Also, as a reminder, we’ve got a Ducksnorts meetup scheduled for Sunday, August 20 (details). We have about a half-dozen or so folks confirmed right now. Leave a comment or drop me a line if you’re interested.
That’s all for now; more as it happens.
Bleeding stomach, yikes. Lost half his blood, sounds bad. Don’t want to think about the other symptoms. I’ve heard stomach ailments are common in Korea, where as incidents of heart attacks/strokes/Chol are faily low. Anyway, all the best to CHP. what wrong with Giles these days? Heard Flan talk about is tap foot (timing) being off. Maybe he’s giving to many Padre hugs.
Geoff-
That family tree is really fun to look at. Thanks for your work on it! It’s fun to look back at Padres history like this.
I was looking at Phil Plantier’s name and remembering how excited that I was to acquire him from the Sox that season and being so thrilled with his ’93 season. Without him, maybe we don’t end up making the trade that brought Caminiti and Finley to San Diego.
One thing that I thought might be cool would be to put a timeline of GM’s/year across the top of the organizational tree. It would give us an idea of how long the players stayed in the oranization and a sense of which people are responsible for the Padres that we have.
Nice job on the org tree, Geoff! Pretty good so far.
Here’s some stuff that could be added:
Under Chan Ho Park, Phil Plantier came over from Boston for Jose Melendez.
Under Ryan Klesko, Gene Harris came over from Seattle for Will Taylor.
Hope this helps. It looks pretty complete!
another good article explaining waivers came out
link: http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2006/08/death_taxes_and_1.php
also will anyone else be at America’s worst stadium (Shea) for the Mets-Padres series?
I’m going to Shea on wed
also if you look at Baseball prospectus’ front page today:
Bottom 5 2006 NL Left Fielders, by VORP
Player Team EqA VORP
Eric Young SDN .000 -5.9
Jason Ellison SFN .219 -4.3
Chris Roberson PHI .000 -4.2
Jared Schumaker SLN .000 -3.6
Ryan Langerhans ATL .247 -3.2
____________
I know some people probably don’t like we keep getting rid of the “veteran presence” but I really think bringing guys who can competently play and are young will help out in the long run.
oh that sucks Eric I think I might be going Thursday but def. Tues.
I almost posted about the Plantier thing as well, but the transaction mentioned on the organization tree is actually his second stinit with the Padres after he resigned with us as a free agent, not the initial trade with Boston.
Maybe I should let it go, but I am still really annoyed by the non-deal involving Betemit. He seemed to be the best possible option, and he goes to a division rival. He has a nice .978 OPS in 4 games with the Dodgers (who have won all their games since getting him, plus two before he played). If Walker can actually play 3B and gets a .800+ OPS for us maybe it works out, but I still think it was the best option, did not cost too much, yet we did not take it.
GY, if your looking for YouTube without the copyright infringement and porn, check out vmix.com. Similar concept, much better execution, in my humblest opinion.
Anyone know our record in games where Roberts starts? Seems to me we sit him WAY too much. Then again, he’s fragile, so maybe we’re babying him a bit.
I have a question maybe someone can answer. Do prospects (AAA, AA, A minor leaguers) have to go through waivers also?
I belive so KRS1 but im not 100% sure.
Peter spoke with Jamey Newberg about the prospects going through waivers thing and his understanding was that anyone on the 40-man roster has to go through waivers.
I was hoping for a late Kotteras and other prospects for Josh Fields trade. Looks like no dice as both are on the 40.
I have a feeling (Hope?) that the pads will try and go after Crede in the off season. The sox have made it very clear that fields will be manning thier hot corner in the future.
Does anyone know a web site that shows what players clear waivers?
Thanks guys. I was thinking of Fields too. Oh well!
Who do you think the Pads’ will call-up in September?
It seems like a lot of people are really eager to trade Kottaras. I hope we hang onto him. Catcher isn’t an easy position to fill. I know it looks like we have an illusion of depth at the position at present, but Bard and Bowen aren’t anything to get particularly excited about. Methinks Kottaras is.
People might be ready to heave tomatoes at this suggestion, but why not bring back Joe Randa? He’s a good glove and he’s been hitting pretty well in Pittsburgh. I assume he’d be ultra-cheap.
re: Carillo on balls @ Coors … BP’s Joe Sheehan (whom we met at the BP Pizza Feed) has a great take & analysis related to it …
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5386
btw, whassup with the “nice” comments? … I’m thinking they are spam’ing … trying to get us to click on their link … WARNING!?!
Ryguy – thanks for posting BP’s “worst LF’ers” … I’m happy that their list is out-of-date
I hope the pads will call up
Wells
P Mac
Leone
Stauffer
Kottaris
Cassidy
Sweeny
I think they will call up
Sledge
PMac
Cassidy
Sweeny
Jon Knott and Jack Cust have both had outstanding years as well. Wonder in a little more OF depth might help down the stretch. Gotta say, not real high on our pitching depth in the minors. Carillo’s hurt, Wells and Stauffer have been pounded lately. On the other hand, Brazelton has been pretty freaking dominant in his last three starts (including his 9 inn 1 hitter before he hurt his back and subsequent rehab stint in the AZ league).
I forgot Brazelton. Both Knott and Cust cant play OF in petco.
In September Knott and Cust wouldn’t be playing OF in Petco, although they could in an emergency. They’d be here to pinch-hit.
There’d need to be roster moves, because not every possibly valuable player in Portland is on the 40. But if its handled right we could bring up a lot of role players.
Here’s the Ben Maller report on Crede and Fields: “Why are the White Sox unwilling to trade Triple A third baseman Josh Fields, even though his path to the majors is blocked by Joe Crede? Apparently because Crede is 2 years away from free agency and the Sox want to see if they can sign him to a long-term extension. If they can, Fields will be moved this winter. If they can’t, Crede will be traded and Fields will take his place.”
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/15195617.htm
Geoff,
Arthur Lee, lead singer of the band Love. died today from Leukemia.
I saw them (well, a reincarnation of them) a couple of years ago. Four-piece horn section, string section, three back-up vocals and six or seven members in the band. They played “Forever Changes” from start to finish. Simply fantastic.
I’ll be at Shea on Wednesday as well.
By the way, I’m a pretty regular reader but dont post very often, so hello everyone from Jersey!
Also, I do think that that was Plantier’s first stint with the club. The trade to Houston was after his first 3 seasons with San Diego. Then we got him back from Houston in a smaller deal a few years later. Then he came back as a free agent yet again and was traded to St. Louis that time.
Huh, tough position for Crede to be in, not much bargaining power. My money’s on Crede being traded, unless he is completely enamored with playing in Chicago or for Ozzie.
I agree FF
Steve,
The waiver process is pretty secretive…there is not really a repository of info on who cleared and who did not, it is also virtually impossible to find out who is on waivers…Really protects the teams and the players best interests.
Bleh, thanks mike thats kind of what I had come to figure.
We have a Washington Times writer who posts here? That is so cool! Good article Kevin.
Nice day for X … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=260804116 … I’m still a fan!
Kevin’s article inspired me to go and vote on the Hometown Hero. Some very strange names out there. I voted four times. I had to vote once for RJ and once for Dave Winfield. I couldn’t not vote for Tony as THE Hometown Hero though, so I voted for him twice. No disrespect intended to Trevor, but my history with the Pads was largely during the 70′s and 80′s, whereas I drifted away from baseball during the 90′s and have only recently returned to a more active fan role. So there you go, more about my following of the Padres than you ever wanted to know.
Random thought: I just realized that since we released Vinny, Adrian Gonzalez is the only player on the 25-man roster who is of Latin descent. I don’t want to come to any controversial conclusions here, but I would think that the Padres would have to be the only team in the big leagues that has a roster with only one Latin player.
Also, Adrian wasn’t even born in a Latin country, but Josh Barfield was…
let’s also remember in the first years of testing Bryan that many “latin’s” tested positive. there were a few controversies on that. but also I think the Padres are working on their DR presence, Moores and Alderson I heard a few weeks back were scoping and choosing their site in the DR to build soon. I think that is one of the next steps for the Padres but that is an arduous process. You’ll need to give the Padres a lot of time to build their presence in the latin american countries and maybe they’ll use some of the $$ to build the farm and not sign free agents.
Also. I think I’ll be there Tues/Thurs. so sorry guys. any other DS-ers going to be there? Where’s everyone else?
Yeah they’re definitely working on trying to develop some talent from the Dominican. In the 2006 media guide they have a diagram of the complex they’re building there. I’m obviously no expert on baseball complexes in foreign countries, but it looked like a nice place to me. Expecting any major league players to come from there anytime soon would be a mistake though.
I can’t even remember the last Dominican player the Padres have had. But they have had quite a few Venezuelan catchers named Hernandez recently.
Pat – our HH views align … ‘cept that I’ll *never* vote for Winfield … he took the money and ran … and I’m still hurt/bitter … just that I prefer to take that rage and vent it via my aspiration of getting #6 down off the Petco wall! At least Winfield’s hat in the HOF is a Padre hat … bleh, still a bad taste in my mouth …
OT – here’s a fun view of the state of closers in MLB … http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5844778
OT – similar for starting pitchers … http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5841160 … with no Padres in Top 20 (CY was #20 last week) …
Anyone hear about that waiver claim on Andruw Jones? If it’s the Dodgers we’re officially F’ed!
depends on what the dodgers are willing to give up
I would give up my left arm!!! NO JOKE.
KRS1 – I don’t know what you’re getting work’d up about … no way the Dodgers will just claim and get Andruw … it’s common for teams to put in a claim and then the waiving team “revokes” the player from waivers … not sure how the details of that work out … but that’s the basic idea … if the Braves waived Jones, it’s for the purpose of making it so that they can trade him … the Dodgers (or any other team) putting a claim on him is for the purpose of blocking that trade … that’s all …
KRS1′s left arm for Andruw Jones. I think that the Padres would make that deal if Atlanta would provide a little salary relief.
Dodgers can have Andruw and his goofy grin.
LM, so in essence, the dodgers then offer some crap like Jeff Kent for Jones, the Braves say “Eh….no”, and the deal is dead? If I’m understanding correctly, then how many times can a player be waived?
I know it’s not likely he will be moved but when I break it down it seems possible. Jones is a Boras guy and a FA after 07 so he’ll probably comand lot’s of money. They were a couple of reported deal prior to the deadline. The Braves put him on waivers and awarded a claim to some team that is still not been determined.
I’m not getting worked up I promise all I’m saying is the Dodgers obviously want to compete for the division and they have lots of talent in the organization to offer in a legit trade.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com has something up about it.
and yeah I’ll throw my left arm (shoulder and everything) on the table for Andruw.
A few thoughts:
–First, thanks to all for the feedback on the org tree. I’ll be making some tweaks and fixes to it over the weekend. I keep going back and forth on whether to include guys like Will Taylor and Brad Pounders even though they never made it to the Show. What the heck, might as well have ‘em in there, right?
–Eric and RyGuy, I hope you guys (and others) are able to get together at Shea; that would be sweet to have a Ducksnorts meetup out there. Pix would be nice.
–LM: Yep, that’s spam; my filters catch most of it, but not all. I’ll give it the boot when I get home. Also, I’m glad to see X doing well in Pittsburgh. First base probably is his best position long term, and expectations aren’t exactly high over there.
–BG: Thanks for the note on Lee, a musical genius who will be missed. Glad you had the chance to see him live. I regret that I never did.