Padres Preview at CGBB
Fri, Mar 23, 2007
by Geoff Young
I’m probably somewhere between San Diego and Peoria by the time you’re reading this. With luck, there isn’t any rain.
Today’s post is another Padres preview, this one at Chad Gramling’s Baseball Blog (thanks, Chad!). We’ve also got links at del.icio.us if you need your link fix.
Or just talk about whatever is on your mind. Happy Friday!
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 23, 2007 at 6:49 am
Roster contest update:
If I’m looking at everything correctly, Daniel Conroy and Dann are the only two people left with a shot at getting the every spot right. Everyone else is currently down a guy or two.
March 23, 2007 at 8:13 am
Tell me about it. It blows. I thought fr sure that Ring would make it in a a lefty.
March 23, 2007 at 9:21 am
Re 1: From my calculations, it looks like Daniel Conroy is the sole leader at this point. He still has all 25 of his choices in camp and a possibility at the moment.
Apparently Ring being sent to the minor league camp snagged all but 2 of the entrants. Whodufthunkit?
March 23, 2007 at 9:33 am
Of course, thats not to say that Mr. Conroy has it locked up, because if the story on the Pad’s site is correct and Cassidy & Strickland go to the minors, then it could be a 5-6 way tie depending on what happens to PMac, Branyan and Walker. Wow, how exciting, almost as exciting as spring training itself! Unfortunately, It appears as though I am out of it.
March 23, 2007 at 10:09 am
Not sure I understand why Ring went down either. Maybe it just means Black doesn’t share Bochy’s obsession with the LHP.
Can anyone provide a list of whose still in camp?
March 23, 2007 at 10:49 am
This article goes into who’s likely to be the bench and bullpen guys at the start of the year.
http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com.....mp;c_id=sd
“The seven relievers who break camp would likely be Heath Bell, Doug Brocail, Cameron, Trevor Hoffman, Scott Linebrink, Cla Meredith and Mike Thompson. Scott Strickland and Scott Cassidy are also in the mix.”
Black also said he’s not worried about the lack of a lefty in the pen and that he thinks Linebrink, Meredith, and Bell could have good success against lefties. That Meredith part is a little weird, since lefties put up a .708 OPS against him, compared to a .299 (!!!) OPS by righties. So I’d stick to mainly using Meredith against righties. Linebrink, however, dominated lefties, limiting them to .578 OPS last year. He actually faced more lefties than righties last year.
March 23, 2007 at 11:04 am
Chad Huffman is the 7th best corner prospect in baseball according to PECOTA. It likes that he destroyed the Northwest League last year, even though he was old for it, and that he is not the typical unathletic Moneyball hitter-only (he was TCU’s backup QB).
March 23, 2007 at 12:28 pm
5: They’ve stated previously that they plan to take the best 7 pitchers regardless of handedness.
March 23, 2007 at 12:28 pm
8: And by they I mean Paul DePodesta.
March 23, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I was really hoping Andrew Brown would make it…but he’s not having a good spring at all. I know he’s out of options, so it would really suck to have to release him.
March 23, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Masticore, This is, to the best of my knowledge, who is left in camp. (not including 2 players I can’t think of right now):
Bard, Baxter, Bell, Blum, Bowen, Branyan, Brocail, Brown, Cameron-K, Cameron-M, Cassidy, Carlin, Cruz, Deago, Estes, Giles-B, Giles-M, Gonzalez, Greene, Hensley, Hoffman, Huffman, Kouzmanoff, Morton, LaForest, Linebrink, McAnulty, Maddux, Meridith, Peavy, Sledge, Strickland, Ramirez, Thompson, M, Walker, Wells, Young
There may be a few people on this list that have been re-assigned, but I can’t find any reports on them. I do know that there are at least two more people at camp that are not on my list.
March 23, 2007 at 1:14 pm
11: Thompson, M should be Thompson-M
March 23, 2007 at 6:46 pm
11: thanks for the info!
March 24, 2007 at 10:03 am
Yo … I’ve got 2 extra tickets to tomorrow (Sunday)’s Padre game (@ Peoria vs Giants) … $15 seats … out in rightfield. The game was a near sellout when these tix were purchased so I’m guessing it’s a sellout by now. If you’re interested, drop me an email at imhl58 at hotmail dot com …
The weather forecast for tomorrow is SUNNY and these seats are in the sun …
March 24, 2007 at 10:42 am
Unrelated to everything here, but I read the Giants report today in the Chronicle. Guess who’s hurt? (It doesn’t give an timetable for Doc, though.)
March 24, 2007 at 10:48 am
15 - Yup, I just read in the paper that Roberts has a sprained joint between his right clavicle area and the sternum … I bruised my sternum a couple of years ago and it was an odd injury (everything seemed fine until I tried to do something, like swing a golf club, then YOW!) …
March 24, 2007 at 10:51 am
A few thoughts from yesterday’s game @ Phoenix vs A’s … it felt like it was the A’s vs the B’s since only Sledge, Cameron and KK were regulars … Sledge had a couple of good looking swings … Cruz’ HR was a nice shot but all his other ABs looked like the weak hitter I expected to see … I didn’t see Branyan get a good swing all day (I missed 1 of his ABs) … none of the pitchers looked good …
March 24, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Check out who HR’d for Padres today …
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/bo.....=270324125
Matt Antonelli … yippee!
(note: this was the game over in Yuma)
March 24, 2007 at 5:11 pm
18: Cool news.
March 24, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Photos from Friday, Padres @ A’s:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/g.....78/detail/
March 24, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Photos from Saturday, Padres @ Brewers:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/g.....48/detail/
March 24, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I am confused about Jose Cruz Jr.’s pants situation. When I saw him in spring training a couple of weeks ago, I thought he was wearing his pants up with stirrup style socks. Yet in those pictures he has long pants that cover up his socks completely. What gives?
Oh, and awesome pictures, Geoff.
March 25, 2007 at 8:43 am
GY - you were right (how/why do i doubt
) … Sledge hit his 6th HR over at Yuma yesterday … goodie!
March 25, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Just wanted to throw in a note saying that I received my copies of the book yesterday and it looks even better holding it than it does reading the bits and pieces that I have online.
Can’t wait to read the whole thing, the foreward from Sandy Alderson is very impressive and I love the picture on the front cover.
Well done Geoff…you should be proud of how it turned out…
March 25, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Khalil homered and doubled today. He’s got 5 homers this spring now. Maybe this is the year he puts it all together and stays healthy.
March 25, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Heath Bell continues to be awesome, with 2 hitless innings and a K.
March 25, 2007 at 8:10 pm
25. He’s certainly making a strong showing this spring. How do his stats this spring compare to previous campaigns?
March 25, 2007 at 9:19 pm
In his rookie year of 2004 (his best season so far), he lit it up with a .956 OPS. In 2005 (his worst season), he scuffled to a .570 OPS. Before today’s game, he was OPS-ing 1.159 this year.
March 26, 2007 at 8:12 am
I sincerely hope that Khalil can roll this success into the regular season.
If he’s able to hit with the same consistency this year as he has this spring (12 game hitting streak, I believe?), he should have a very solid year.