Greene Feels at Home Away from Home
Tue, Mar 13, 2007
by Geoff Young
The UT ran an article about Khalil Greene the other day. Tom Krasovic’s piece talked a little about Greene’s defense, his freak hand injuries, the strange fixation on his personality, and his severe home-road splits.
Today I’m not interested in his glove, his broken bones, or his even demeanor. Today I’m looking at how he has performed at and away from Petco Park.
| PA | BA | OBP | SLG | ISO | XB/H | PA/HR | BB/PA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 745 | .236 | .306 | .361 | .125 | .303 | 49.7 | .090 |
| Away | 745 | .277 | .340 | .507 | .230 | .497 | 24.8 | .067 |
| Stats courtesy of ESPN. | ||||||||
Weird that Greene has the exact same number of plate appearances home and away since the Padres moved downtown. Anyway, I didn’t realize just how much power he’s been flashing away from Petco Park — some players that had roughly the same ISO in 2006 are Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Nick Johnson, Miguel Cabrera, and Garrett Atkins.
To his credit, Greene seems to realize that he hits for more power on the road and has adopted a much more aggressive approach there. Let’s look at the yearly breakdowns:
| PA | BA | OBP | SLG | ISO | XB/H | PA/HR | BB/PA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 276 | .241 | .345 | .338 | .097 | .236 | 92.0 | .134 |
| Away | 278 | .301 | .353 | .543 | .242 | .481 | 23.2 | .075 |
| Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference. | ||||||||
Greene showed zero power at home in Petco Park’s first year of existence. Check out the walks, too. That rate at home is about what Kevin Youkilis did last year, while the road numbers are in line with Jose Reyes’ 2006.
| PA | BA | OBP | SLG | ISO | XB/H | PA/HR | BB/PA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 242 | .256 | .285 | .399 | .143 | .333 | 40.3 | .045 |
| Away | 234 | .244 | .308 | .465 | .221 | .538 | 26.0 | .060 |
| Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference. | ||||||||
Greene continued to show good power on the road. The patient approach at Petco Park disappeared, although he made some gains in the power department. Still, his overall numbers remained a bit shaky.
| PA | BA | OBP | SLG | ISO | XB/H | PA/HR | BB/PA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 227 | .210 | .282 | .346 | .136 | .349 | 37.8 | .086 |
| Away | 233 | .280 | .356 | .507 | .227 | .483 | 25.9 | .086 |
| Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference. | ||||||||
So, the power away from Petco Park appears to be legit. Greene’s road ISO is consistently above .220 and his XB/H is consistently above .480. In fact, his road ISO generally is among the best in the NL. In 2004, he was between Sammy Sosa and Jeff Kent, in 2006 the names were Adam Dunn and Lance Berkman, and last year they were Mike Piazza and Dan Uggla.
None of this should be taken as an apology for Greene or for Petco Park. He plays half his games there; he needs to learn how to use it to his advantage. Until he does, Greene’s overall numbers will continue to keep him in the company of Pedro Feliz and Miguel Olivo rather than the elite power hitters of the game.
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 13, 2007 at 8:28 am
Not to hijack my own thread, but I’m also playing with this del.icio.us thing:
http://del.icio.us/ducksnorts
FYI…
March 13, 2007 at 8:59 am
Hey, Jon Knott hit a HR off Matsuzaka yesterday.
March 13, 2007 at 9:04 am
Geoff, how does Greene’s number on the road minus the Colorado Launching pad? I recall that he slugs up there. Just a thought. Then again, he does have to play at Dodgers Stadium and Whatever-Phone-Co Park.
March 13, 2007 at 9:20 am
Great question, Didi. He has done a ton of damage at Coors Field. Career line is .358/.440/.789. His XB/H there is .615, and his PA/HR is 11.4. He’s also hit real well at BOB/Chase and PhoneCo.
March 13, 2007 at 9:25 am
Do you think we could show the Rockies those numbers and get them to take Greene for Tulowitski? Hey, it’s spring, a guy can dream.
March 13, 2007 at 9:28 am
Tulowitski is “is nursing a bruiswed wrist” … quite a comp for Greene …
March 13, 2007 at 9:30 am
Update on Marcus Giles …
The Padres had targeted Marcus Giles’ return for yesterday or today, but Black said Giles might not play until Friday. The clubs wants the second baseman to be fully recovered from a right quadriceps strain, which first sidelined Giles on Saturday. Giles, who is 6-for-15, took batting practice yesterday.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....notes.html
March 13, 2007 at 9:32 am
2 more OF assists for McAnulty yesterday … he “threw out Joe Crede at home and Rob Mackowiak at third after taking over in left field.”
March 13, 2007 at 9:49 am
Here’s some good/interesting news …
Coming off two erratic outings, reliever Andrew Brown overcame a single and a wild pitch to throw a scoreless inning.
Brown hit 99 mph on the radar gun.
March 13, 2007 at 10:41 am
Khalil most likely received so many base on balls at home during the 2004 season because he he hit in the 8 hole for half of the season. He was more aggressive on the road, but he also spent a lot of time in the 7 hole too, so maybe Bochy flipped him from 7 to 8 hole depending on which park we were playing in.
March 13, 2007 at 10:49 am
Nevermind my theory on switching between 7 and 8 hole depending on the ballpark. Greene did not hit outside of leadoff or 8 hole until the end of July in ‘04. After that, he spent about a month leading off or hitting in the 7 hole until he was injured and lost for the rest of the season. So yeah, I say his high walk rate was due to his approach of leading off or hitting in front of the pitcher.
March 13, 2007 at 11:59 am
In today’s USA TODAY there is a large article about Mark Sweeney. In the article, he gives his all time team of the people he’s played with. It includes several Padres:
C: Tom Pagnozzi
1B: Wally Joyner
2B: Mike Gallego
SS: Ozzie Smith
3B: Ken Caminiti
LF: Greg Vaughn
CF: Willie McGee
RF: Larry Walker
Closer: Trevor Hoffman
Starting Pitchers: Andy Ashby, Todd Stotlemyre
March 13, 2007 at 12:27 pm
walker over gwynn seems odd but then again I have an extreem bias
March 13, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Out of respect for the Padres, Geoff, and all Ducksnorters, I should remove myself from any discussion of KG today. This is not to say that I will not participate in the discussion in the future, but today would be a day that I get in trouble with a few KG lovers and possibly banned from posting for a while…
Steve C, I have heard a lot of people LOVED playing with Larry Walker. And we know at least one that hated *Fat* Tony (retains the name despite his relative lack of girth at the time). Please let it be known that I have a Tony Gwynn shrine in my office, my first daughter will carry the middle name “Gwynn”, and I am flying to Cooperstown to be there for his induction…
March 13, 2007 at 1:05 pm
#2: I love the quote.
Jon Knott led off the third with a homer to right-center, and Jason DuBois hit a two-run shot to left-center in the fourth. After each batter swung, Matsuzaka turned around and stayed expressionless as he watched the ball fly over the fence.
“Judging from what I experienced, throwing high fastballs and high sliders can tend to be a little bit dangerous,” he said with a grin.
#14: KG is way better than Jeter.
March 13, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Khalil’s eyes must light up when he looks ahead on the schedule and sees a road trip to Phoenix and Denver. Yes, everyone’s production ticks up a bit in those places, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Khalil, with due sample size caveats, steps it up several levels…
At BOB & Coors combined:
Greene - 1169 OPS (191 PAs)
Next best current Padres (w/ enough PA’s to matter):
T. Walker - 957 OPS (410 PAs)
B. Giles - 939 OPS (434 PAs)
In fact, Khalil abuses these parks like the very best…
M. Cabrera - 1292 OPS (95 PAs)
B. Bonds - 1175 OPS (575 PAs)
K. Greene - 1169 OPS (191 PAs)
T. Helton - 1124 OPS (3400 PAs)
A. Pujols - 1081 OPS (176 PAs)
March 13, 2007 at 1:24 pm
15: Only defensively.
March 13, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Today’s lineup features Brian Giles in CF. Is this a spring training thing only, or is Giles going to play CF to give Cameron days off? Is Giles capable of not being horrible out there?
March 13, 2007 at 2:01 pm
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/bo.....=270313127
Wells gives up HR to Helton in 1st … MANNY with a HR in 4th … currently 5-3 Padres in top of 4th …
March 13, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Brocail almost starts the first spring training brawl ever by beaning Matt Holiday after he had beaned Tulowitski on Saturday. Someone in the Rockies’ dugout started yelling at Brocail, and Brocail walked toward the first base line and started yelling back. Ultimately everyone was separated and calmed down without any punches thrown.
March 13, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Colorado announcers share that in fact it wouldn’t have been the first spring training brawl. Apparently there was one earlier this year when Todd Jones threw behind someone, although it sounded like there weren’t any punches thrown. The benches just emptied.
March 13, 2007 at 2:23 pm
And now Jeff Francis and Clint Hurdle are ejected! Francis threw behind Kouzmanoff, which could have just been a wild pitch, but the umpire tossed him out. Hurdle came out to argue and got tossed too. Exciting times at spring training.
March 13, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Heath Bell’s stuff is filthy. His fastball got up to 97 and he his curveball/slider looked great.
March 13, 2007 at 3:09 pm
I’m a big Heath Bell fan … drafted him last year on my roto team … so why hasn’t he gotten “filthy” results?
March 13, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Are they gonna go extra innings? 5-5 after 9 …
March 13, 2007 at 4:49 pm
All tied after 10 … call it a day and go home … bleh …
March 13, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Pause in my self imposed moratorium…
Re: 17…While I am one that thinks Jeter’s Gold Glove was an absolute joke, I would say that those two are actually not that far apart with the glove…but we all know what I think about the current Pads SS…
Moratorium back on…
March 13, 2007 at 7:03 pm
27: Greene is roughly average while Jeter is below average.
March 13, 2007 at 10:32 pm
GY … care to create a Ducksnorts group at one of the March Madness places? I like espn.go.com … but I know that many of us already have Yahoo logins … it’s a fun distraction …
March 14, 2007 at 10:14 am
Richard, with all due respect, “roughly average” is about what both of them are. KG ranges to his left better than Jeter and Jeter to his right better than KG. KG has the better arm. Both are overall average to below average with the glove…flashy, but not more than average/below average.
March 14, 2007 at 10:30 am
Hey, something else that’s interesting. I hope the defense would be good for the Padres’ pitchers this season, too.
http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/019545.php
March 14, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I respectfully disagree. Greene is closer to average than Jeter.