Nice win Sunday afternoon against the Nationals to take the series and remain in first place by two games over the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. I still don’t understand why a guy with Jake Peavy’s stuff has to get so cute when he’s ahead in the count, but oh well.
The Padres are off Monday before embarking on a three-game series in New York against the Mets on Tuesday. While we’re waiting for that, I’d like to formally introduce the San Diego Padres Organizational Tree that we first took a sneak peek at on Friday.
In a nutshell, the organizational tree shows all current Padres big-leaguers and key minor-leaguers (Baseball America’s Top 30 prospects, top picks in the June 2006 draft, and anyone acquired in a trade), and links each of them back to their source. A simple example would be Josh Bard, who was acquired for Doug Mirabelli, who was acquired for Mark Loretta. Others, such as the Chan Ho Park and Ryan Klesko lines, are more complicated.
For each current Padres player, I identify whether he was drafted by the team, acquired via trade, or signed as a free agent. For all players (even Russ Spear, about whom I can find precious little information — this transaction dated March 9, 1995, is pretty much it), I identify which general manager is respsonsible for bringing him to San Diego. In a couple instances (Doug Brocail, Phil Plantier), a player appears twice on the tree as part of different transactions, so you see, e.g., Plantier listed as being brought here by Joe McIlvaine in the December 1992 trade with Boston, and by Kevin Towers in the January 1997 free agent signing. Also, all players who reached the big leagues are linked to their page at Baseball Reference so you can view their entire careers if you’re so inclined.
At best, this organizational tree will provide a useful resource for fans of the Padres and baseball in general. I know of a few others in existence (Will Young’s Twins org tree inspired mine, and I found trees for the Yankees and Red Sox via the Baseball Graphs Blog) and would love to see more.
At worst, this tree will serve as a reminder of the fine work the oft-maligned Randy Smith did during his tenure as GM of the Padres under extremely difficult circumstances. Smith’s contributions paved the way for the playoff teams of 1996 and 1998 under his successor, Kevin Towers. In addition to acquiring Andy Ashby and Trevor Hoffman despite having zero leverage, Smith also engineered the deal that brought cornerstones Ken Caminiti and Steve Finley to San Diego. To take nothing away from Towers or any other key figures, Smith’s role in getting the Padres back to the World Series cannot, and should not, be underestimated.
I enjoyed researching and assembling this organizational tree and, now that it’s built, I intend to keep it updated so we can continue to refer to it into the future. I hope you find some value in the tree; as always, I welcome your input — if you notice any errors, omissions, or potential enhancements, please let me know in the comments or drop me a line.
32 Comments
Very cool.
Interesting. Enjoyed looking at, recollecting names, trades. Thanks.
I just heard Arizona got Livan Hernandez… Sweet!
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2542289
Here is the link to the Hernandez deal.
Sucks to be in first when it comes to waiver deals. Can’t block anyone. Still a solid pick-up for a team that needs some pitching. Livan’s been on fire for several weeks now. Come on Padres, make a move! The Dodgers are right back in it thanks to a unforeseeable winning streak.
How is it sweet a divisional rival just picked up a starting pitcher who absolutely owns the Padres?
From Scott Miller at CBS:
Hells Bells times 30 a year: San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman, now only 12 saves away from Lee Smith’s all-time record of 478, becomes the first major leaguer to collect 30 saves in 11 different seasons. AC/DC ought to pay this guy for keeping them relevant.
Pat: How do you figure that Livan owns the Padres?
The Padres were hitting .308 the past 3 seasons against him.
Sure, this last outing was dominant and he may have been dominant during his Giants days but he’s not the pitcher he was then.
Sweet tree, Geoff. Remembering some of the trades was absolutely amazing. I think Matt Thompson needs to be bold.
Thanks, Geoff.
Didi, it does not worry me if the pads own hernadez or not because the pads may face him once maybe twice more this season, its just the fact the the D-backs will have a quallity pitcher who gives them a good chance to win every 5 days.
GY, nice organizational tree. I agree it would be nice to see other teams have the same thing. I think you can get a pretty good idea of which general manager is doing a good job by analyzing the team and how it was configured, i.e. trades, who picks the best players in the draft, free agency, etcetera. Nice work!
That tree is awesome. Funny that Park seems to tie back the farthest.
Here’s a Piazza link from Newsday. The first of likely several, now that Piazza and the Pads are heading to play the Mets in NY.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/printedition/ny-spsunspec064841764aug06,0,1679952.story?coll=ny-sports-print
That was a completely sarcastic “sweet” Pat!
Steve, also a chance to lose every 5 days.
Livan is better than Russ Ortiz but he’s no Maddux with the Dodgers.
I’m more worried about the blues than the snakes.
Some insights into the workings of the waiver process from today’s Livan trade …
The Nationals tried to force Livan Hernandez through waivers so they could make a deal with any team, but Arizona blocked the move, limiting Bowden’s options.
… interesting stuff. As Bruce pointed out above, Padres can’t block many folks … can they block the Mets, I wonder?
Didi
I agree thats LA is the team to watch because they made them selfs alot better at the deadline, but hernandez is better than almost every one on the D-backs staff with the exception of webb.
Didn’t Andrew Jones hit the waiver wire last week. That dude is a fine player. But I guess no team wanted his large contract. don’t the Yanks needs center fielder. We got one, thank you very much.
I think I remember hearing that Jones did get claimed, but a deal couldn’t be worked out with the team that claimed him so he was pulled off waivers. Can someone confirm that?
Here’s an article on Jones and the waiver wire, it says a team claimed him but does not speculate on the team:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14191085/
I read in Olney’s blog last week that it may have been the Astros that claimed him.
Re: Piazza article in ND….
20 minutes up the coast, looks out his window at the ocean, I’m guessing del mar. He and Fins, and lefty probably have a regular poker game in the off season.
Wade LeBlanc with yet another good start @ Ft. Wayne … http://tinyurl.com/nh9mm
Lots of Padre farmhands mentioned in this week’s BA PHS … http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/hotsheet/262126.html …
On the good side: Will Venable (in the team photo) and David Freese (helium watch)
On the bad side: Jared Wells and Colt Morton … which won’t surprise any farm-watchers …
Emeralds win with just 2 hits … http://tinyurl.com/lo4vd … this was a good W …
Klesko with 3 ABs for the Storm tonight … http://tinyurl.com/rjfxw … 2 K’s …
Yea the papers put out some sunday articles on Piazza so they were probably around the locker room friday/saturday in San Diego assembling their stories. I’ll be at the game Tuesday and I think Piazza will get an ovation, I’m sure he’ll be waiting for it too. I know I’ll be in my Padre uniform still honoring him, he’s one of the top catchers of all time, and even when/if jose reyes or david wright steals off him.
It’s also worth mentioning for tomorrow’s game that the Padres need to keep Jose Reyes off the basepaths and they have done a good job so far..
Jose Reyes
Career v. SD 54PAs .184/.273/.203
(** lowest AVG and SLG v. any NL team)
2006 v. SD 18 PAs .118/.167/.118
ROAD Padres
Road 06 .283/.347/.452 270 R 57 HR 45 SB 11 CS
Home 06 .249/.319/.388 234 R 53 HR 44 SB 9 CS
anyone going tomorrow write on this board!
Why does it not surprise me that Klesko struck out twice against an A ball pitcher?
Hi Didi,
I was recalling, perhaps incorrectly, some comments from the announcers which talked about Hernandez’s past performance against the Pads being very good. Also, his career numbers are pretty impressive: 8-1 in 15 starts with a 3.24 ERA. Not sure about your .300 BA number, but in the small sample size of three starts over the past three years, one per year, he’s pitched well in two of the three.
krs1: Ah, sarcasm. I always have a difficult time picking up on humor which relies heavily on tone of voice and facial expression over the internet.
I’ll be at the game on Wednesday for our yearly Padres intake. Tried to get tickets for Tuesday but the seats weren’t very good so it ended up Wednesday instead.
Strange – saw five people over the weekend at the Jersey Shore with Padres hats or shirts.
Two had a shirt with #21 on the back – but I don’t see a #21 on our roster. Forgive my shortsightedness, but who would that be?
Geoff, this is great stuff. I love the tree, especially seeing those long roots back to the early or mid ’90s. In addition to the analytical value, there’s some real nostalgia in there.
Geoff, you should link to the tree somewhere in the right-hand navigation column, especially if you keep it up-to-date.
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[...] About a week or so ago, I received an email about a San Diego Padres Family Tree that he created. He was inspired by Will Young who had compiled one for the Twins. Thinking this idea was cool, I decided to try and do one for the Tigers which you can find here. [...]