Friday Links (2 Mar 07)
Fri, Mar 2, 2007
by Geoff Young
Happy Friday, folks. We’re playing games again. Man, does it feel good to say that.
- Gonzalez contract imposed by Padres (San Diego Union-Tribune). Seems to me there are better ways to save a few thousand bucks. I sure hope this doesn’t cause problems when they try to work out a long-term deal. Hey, maybe Todd Walker can float him some cash.
- Peavy sharp as Padres beat M’s 4-3 in charity opener (San Diego Union-Tribune). Right-hander Jake Peavy worked 2 scoreless innings, throwing 19 pitches — all fastballs and changeups. Here’s your first box score of the spring. The two teams hook up again today at 12:05 p.m. PT, and don’t you know I wish I could be there.
- Thompson hoping for less travel in 2007 (North County Times). Of his status as Portland-to-San Diego frequent flier champ, right-hander Mike Thompson says, “I hate to be that guy, but at least I am that guy.”
- Despite ‘awkward swing,’ Padres high on third baseman (North County Times). More love for the Mashin’ Macedonian. Hitting coach Merv Rettenmund is taking a hands-off approach to Kevin Kouzmanoff’s swing:
He’s a very smart kid. He knows this swing. For me to walk up and tell him do this and do that, it wouldn’t be very smart. I just want to see him go up there and get his feet on the ground, and when he can feel relaxed, take some swings and see how it goes.
- Friars announce plans for Gwynn statue (Padres.com). It’s scheduled to be unveiled on July 21.
- Maddux, Wells more alike than you’d think (ESPN). Nice work from Jerry Crasnick includes this gem: “One guy is standing in line for his Hall of Fame plaque, while the other waits in line for the keg to be tapped.” [Tip o' the Ducksnorts cap to the gents at Gaslamp Ball.]
- Batter Up: San Diego Padres (Out Of Left Field). Amusing look at the Padres from Ottawa-based Neate Sager. Seriously, anything that references Enzo Hernandez is okay by me.
Also, we’ve got a new poll running today. We’re looking for the number of homers Khalil Greene will hit in ‘07.
That’s all for now; more as it happens. Go Padres!
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.
March 2, 2007 at 8:37 am
GY - wouldn’t it be cool to drive up to the Gwynn statue unveiling ceremony in a limo that is then headed to Cooperstown? Just a thought
March 2, 2007 at 8:46 am
At noon my 3 sons and I are headed to Peoria. Mariners tomorrow — A’s Sunday. Weather’s supposed to be mid-70’s to 80’s, unlike the rainout we had last year. Baseball’s back. Life is good.
March 2, 2007 at 9:48 am
Anytime you can use Enzo Hernandez, Wally Whitehurst, and “Steve Garvey is not my Padre” in the same article, you are really rocking!!!
March 2, 2007 at 9:55 am
Skinny Tony or Fat Tony?
March 2, 2007 at 10:19 am
Re: 4 I vote fat, more to love! plus i’m to young to rember skinny Tony.
March 2, 2007 at 10:21 am
I feel like now would be a good time to finally announce that I went to high school with Adrian Gonzalez. That’s right. Oh yeah.
March 2, 2007 at 10:59 am
Steve, old buddy old pal, could you throw me a little cash? The Padwes tweated me vewy unfaywrlee.
Sincerely,
Adrian
March 2, 2007 at 11:49 am
First game of the year on ESPN and I’m already sick of their coverage. “Analyst” John Kruk claims that when he was with the Padres he once wore #44 in spring training and that the club has since retired the number because it belonged to Willie McCovey. I guess Kruk has never seen Jake Peavy pitch. Seriously, what are the criteria for hiring these clowns?
March 2, 2007 at 11:59 am
Re: 5
I’m casting my vote with you.
Fat Tony all the way!!
March 2, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Yes, but John Kruk has one of the best lines of all-time…after having a testicle removed b/c of testicular cancer, he wore a shirt to the field saying
“Let me play or I will take my ball and go home”
March 2, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Geoff…it does not get much worse than what Ted Litner just said…he was talking about 3 years ago when Rey Ordonez was in camp with the Padres…he said “me and a lot of other guys thought Ordonez was Ozzie Smith without the bat.”
Huh???
March 2, 2007 at 12:38 pm
FREE P-MAC!!!!
March 2, 2007 at 12:38 pm
While I don’t consider myself a P-Mac fan…and am not on the Free P-Mac bandwagon, he did just go yard.
March 2, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Re 13: dont like greenie or P-Mac which padres do you like CM?
March 2, 2007 at 12:42 pm
#1: LM, I like your thinking.
#11: CM, that is hilarious. For the record:
Ozzie when he left SD: .231/.295/.278, 66 OPS+
Rey when he arrived in SD: .248/.291/.311, 61 OPS+
March 2, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Huge fan of Kouz…expecting big things…love the pitching staff…I may have a man crush on Maddux…Would love to spend a day in the locker-room with the Giles brothers in there…
I see P-Mac as a classic fan favorite, someone who looks like us and we can see ourselves in, but not an everyday big leaguer…
I think my dislike of KG has more to do with his over-ratedness in San Diego than it does with his below league average hitting the last two years or his flashy “Chris Gomez” defense…
March 2, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Sounds like P-Mac made a nice throw to cut down a runner at the plate…
March 2, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Another positive note: Giants are doin’ well today … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=270302126 … NOT!
ps. Hey, Peter … check out that box score … says Ryan Braun has 3 HRs already this spring???
March 2, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Darn it, CM, do we have to compare KG’s park-adjusted OPS to other NL SSs again? Krasovic, who may have a KG man crush, has beat that horse many times.
March 2, 2007 at 9:00 pm
GY, are we in dire need of a skinny Tony/fat Tony poll or what? I vote skinny Tony!
March 2, 2007 at 9:01 pm
I like Brock’s first 2 paragraphs about Jake …
http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com.....mp;c_id=sd
ps. Single-game tickets to Padres home games at PECTO Park will go on sale on Saturday at 9 a.m. PT.
March 3, 2007 at 7:58 am
Lynch, don’t rub it in…
For those of you not “in the know” I was aware of Braun since he was freshman of the year at Miami as a SS. Coming into his Jr. year, I talked to some people who said he should be available in late 1st-to-1st Supp rounds… And I thought he was EXACTLY the type of player the Padres should take. And I talked all about Braun. All he did was blow up and go #5 overall…
Re: Kruk - Another great line he had: When he was a player a woman saw him smoking and was flaberghasted that an “athlete” would smoke. He replied, “I’m not athlete, I’m a baseball player.”
He & Morgan are paradoxes. As players they were sabermetrically sound. As analysts they reject it entirely. Idiots both.
March 3, 2007 at 8:08 am
My college afflicition this year is Kellen Kulbacki.
In 7 games so far this year he’s hitting: .520/.567/1.000 3 2B & 3 HR, 4/4 BB/SO ratio
For those of you thinking his 7 games’ worth of stats is too small a sample size, he hit approximately .470/.570 /.960 last year… And BA called him the 40th (or so) best collegiate draft prospect going into the year.
March 3, 2007 at 11:41 am
23 - another KK … http://www.jmusports.com/Team/.....p?TeamID=3 … nice, but he’ll be fighting the perception that James Madison U is “small school” …
March 3, 2007 at 12:02 pm
#16 RE: P Mac - probably Billy Beane will take him and is “non- athletic body”for a souped up closer ala “Money Ball”. Personally, I like him over Todd Walker off the bench if he doesnt win the LF start. He can absolutely rip it. The ball he hit in THE LA GAME in the 10th inning was hit as hard as any that night, was a foot or so short in deep right center, and silenced the crowd momentarily. T. Walker isnt that type of threat.
March 3, 2007 at 1:55 pm
LM, I hope he’s unable to fight off that perception is still available with one of our many 1st Supp. picks.
Here’s the knock on Kulbacki, even though he’s producing at insane levels, he’s playing against subpar competition. Now if he has a second straight year w/ that sort of gaudy numbers, he can’t be dismissed. He doesn’t project as a top 1st round pick, but he could slide into the back the first round… (which is the same thing I was told about Ryan Braun at the beginning of the 2005 college baseball season).
March 3, 2007 at 3:16 pm
26 - Braun was at Miami, so no chance of not being noticed … seems like KK^2 could …
Another W for Padres over at Peoria … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/bo.....=270303112 … Sledge with the GWHR … 1-0 … good news: Padre pitchers issued no walks … bad news: Padre hitters didn’t get any walks …
March 3, 2007 at 3:18 pm
KK lived up to his initials today … 2 K’s in 3 ABs …
March 3, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Box score as “R Robles” playing some SS … who dat?
March 3, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Robles = NRI
March 3, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Back from the game. While Kouz didn’t get a hit, he played a solid 3rd. 5 chances I remember. 2 tough ones, one of which he made, diving to his left, getting up and still getting the runner at first. The other, diving to his left with full extension, getting his glove on it, but only able to deflect it to short. If he plays like that all year we’ll be more than happy with his defense.
March 3, 2007 at 6:24 pm
30 - what’s his first name? … this isn’t “Oscar” is it?
I don’t see an “R Robles” that played milb last year … http://www.minorleaguebaseball.....p;q=robles
March 3, 2007 at 6:25 pm
31 - LaMar … thanks for the update! How many spring games you gonna make?
March 3, 2007 at 10:25 pm
LM–We’re here just today and tomorrow. we’re leaving after tomorrow’s game. I would have given you a more detailed description of today, but I don’t even try to keep score in spring games with so many substitutions. Most of the time the announcer isn’t even sure who’s in there. Today he made a mistake and announced the ”final” score in the middle of the 9th. Mariner fans were not happy, since they still had their last at bats that hadn’t been used, since they were the home team today. Pretty funny..
March 4, 2007 at 2:09 am
I don’t think anyone has referenced this yet, but BP has its depth chart analysis up now, which projects runs scored, runs allowed, and record for a team based on PECOTA forecasts and the way it sees the depth charts of each team. It has the Padres finishing 86-76, two games back of the division winning D-Backs. (PECOTA loves the Arizona’s Chris Young, Stephen Drew, Carlos Quentin, basically every young player on the D-Backs.)
Reason for optimism with these projections: PECOTA seems too pessimistic on Padres’ starting pitching health estimates. Their forecast has Jared Wells starting 11 games. If Jared Wells starts 11 games and the Padres still go 86-76, that would be awesome.
Reason for pessimism: The forecast has Khalil getting 80% of the playing time at SS. If that drops, we’re stuck with more Blum, and that’s a painful dropoff.
Reason to really, really love these predictions: Dodgers predicted to go 81-81.
March 4, 2007 at 2:43 am
Also, to put that record in perspective, it’s tied for 2nd best in the NL with the Phillies for the BP projection. The Mets come in at 85-77.
March 4, 2007 at 2:30 pm
It projects Peavy with 3 fewer starts than last year, Young with 5 fewer, Maddux with 8 fewer and Hensley with 5 fewer.
Last year Peavy, Young, Maddux, Hensley and Wells combined for 141 starts and this year PECOTA is projecting 120 starts out of them. Pessimistic? Yeah, a little.
March 4, 2007 at 2:37 pm
So…
NL West: Arizona (88-74)
NL Central: Chicago (86-76)
NL East: Philadelphia (86-76)
NL Wild Card: San Diego (86-76)
March 4, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Don’t panic … but when was the last time Meredith and Hoffman both gave up runs in the same game … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/bo.....=270304125
March 4, 2007 at 5:28 pm
34 - LaMar … what’d you see at today’s game?
ps. Did you drive? How long is the drive from SD to Peoria?
March 4, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Hurts a bit to see “V Faison” in the A’s part of the box score … I know it shouldn’t hurt too much … just a wonder …
March 4, 2007 at 9:08 pm
LM, it’s about 6 hours to Peoria, depending on how long you stop on the way.
March 4, 2007 at 9:41 pm
I’ve been telling anyone who’ll listen that the Dodgers don’t scare me, it’s the D’Backs. In an e-mail conversation I had with Rosenthal, he agreed…
March 4, 2007 at 9:42 pm
I told a buddy of mine today that the Padres will probably win 87-90 games and finish1st or 2nd… The team is better, but so is the talent level in the NL West.
March 4, 2007 at 10:00 pm
The Diamondbacks are easily the scariest team in the NL West this year. Hopefully their talented young guys all fail miserably, but I don’t see that happening at all.
March 4, 2007 at 11:13 pm
OK, the d-backs definitely have a boatload of young talent positionally-speaking, but even if they all succeed this year, you still have to have pitching to win.
After Webb, a bona fide stud, you have Johnson, who obviously has the potential to be great, but who also has serious health and age issues which could leave him being no better than an average or below average #2 starter.
Then they go to Davis and Hernandez, proven innings eaters, but not quality 3 or 4 guys by any means. And I don’t even know who among the rest of the pitchers on their roster projects as the #5. Cruz? Daigle?
It’s not a very impressive staff, nor an impressive pen, which is important when you play in their home park (actually it’s important in any park these days).
March 5, 2007 at 7:14 am
LM: a glitch kept me from the game yesterday. but I can pass on what my sons saw. Maddux was not sharp, pitching out of a bases loaded jam in the first. PMac made a spectacular diving catch. I asked if it was a Klesko highlight reel play where he misplayed a routine fly onto ESPN. They reported that it was a legitimate great play. Mac’s giving it a run for the 25 man roster with his HR, throwing out a man at home and making plays in left.
March 5, 2007 at 9:53 am
47 - thanks for the update … love the new about Paul McAnulty, aka The Hammer!