Friday Links (20 Apr 07)
Fri, Apr 20, 2007
by Geoff Young
I woke up this morning with the Beatles’ “Long, Long, Long” in my head. Very strange tune to have in my head, considering I haven’t heard it in years.
Anyway, you’re here for the links so let’s get right to them:
- Former No. 1 pick Gonzalez finally finds home in San Diego (Press-Enterprise). Mostly fluffy piece on Adrian Gonzalez.
- Q&A with Brian Giles (San Diego Union-Tribune). Giles goes into, um, a little too much detail at points, but I love this explanation of why he jokes around so much:
To keep things in perspective. It keeps some of the fun in a game that’s really based on failure. I’d like to think it helps keep us relaxed. This game has been known to beat people down. I think that as long as you can laugh, it won’t beat you down.
- Two new Padres blogs on the block: FriarBall and Padres Xtra Innings. Stop by and say hey.
- The Baseball Crank has published his Established Win Shares Levels report for the NL West. His system places the Padres second in the division. Last year’s report had the Friars third.
- Will there be a platoon in left field? (Padres.com, via LynchMob in the comments). Corey Brock answers reader mail. As others have pointed out, his suggestion of Tampa Bay outfielder Joey Gomes as a potential trade target makes way too much sense. Speaking of Corey, he and I had a nice chat last week; he’s given the book a real nice plug over at his blog. Thank you, sir!
- GM taking closer look at prospect (San Diego Union-Tribune). The latest on Matt Latos, plus no-one seems concerned about Mike Cameron’s early season fielding woes.
- Movie Scouting Report 3 (The Soul of Baseball, via Didi in the comments). Joe Posnanski offers “scouting reports” and more thoughts on the classic baseball flick, Major League. I love some of these details, especially about how many events paralleled what really happened with the Indians back in the day:
One year, as every Indians fan knows, the Indians signed Wayne Garland to a big money deal. Garland didn’t pan out — injuries crushed him — but he’s a pretty great guy. Garland was so fed up with the unbearable heat in the clubhouse that he went out and bought air conditioners for the whole team. And here was the great part: Gabe Paul and the Indians management were FURIOUS. When asked about that years later, Garland’s reply was pretty simple: “It was hot in there.”
Hard to argue with that logic.
by Peter Friberg
You will not see all the notable performances from the night before, but you will see the notable performances from those who are actually prospects.
AAA
Luis Cruz: 4 AB, 1 R, 0 H; BB, SO
Andrew Brown: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO
AA
Chase Headley: 3 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 3 RBI; HR, BB, SO - 5 2B & 2 HR in 13 games
High-A
Kyle Blanks: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 2B, SO
Matt Antonelli: 5 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; SO
David Freese: 3 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; BB - 10 BB in 14 games
Chad Huffman: 3 AB, 0 R, 1 RBI; 2B, BB
Low-A
Cedric Hunter: 4 AB, 1 R, 4 H, 0 RBI
Kyler Burke: 4 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 2 RBI
Commentary:
In his first four games, Hunter garnered a single hit in 15 at-bats. Since then he’s racked up 10 hits in 20 at-bats…
Headley’s starting to do his home/road thing: .217/.273/.490 at home, .419/.679/1.098 on the road.
Thanks, Peter. The Pads head to Planet Coors for a three-game set with the Rockies starting tonight. We’ll have the IGD up and running around 5 p.m. PT. 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.
April 20, 2007 at 9:01 am
re: MCameron … why doesn’t Bud or KT or Camy himself come out and make a clear statement that his eyes have been examined? I’ll bet it’s becuase they haven’t been. I don’t know if that’s a source of the events so far … but it seems like classic baseball-macho to avoid getting it checked …
April 20, 2007 at 9:04 am
PF … I s’pose at 25 years old, Stansberry’s not an uber-”prospect”, but it seems quite possible that he’ll be called upon to contribute to the Padres in 2007 … and hence worth keeping an eye on in your Cedric Hunter Reports … http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....pid=444839
April 20, 2007 at 9:16 am
Agree about Cams eyes, but who knows how the club house works. Can a trainer simply approach a player and say, get your eyes checked, or even the manager? really, he could have lasar surgery and be playing again in three days. There is a lot of macho undercurrent and unwritten rules in baseball. Maybe questioning a guys eyesite is a line you don’t cross.
April 20, 2007 at 9:20 am
“Nude humor is my forte.” –OG
April 20, 2007 at 10:45 am
I like the Stansberry signing, he has some power, and was rated the Pirates top defensive prospect a couple of years ago.
April 20, 2007 at 12:20 pm
DodgersSim blog has the Dodgers, Padres, and Diamondbacks as favorites in tonight’s NL West games. They also give the nod to the Red Sox over the Yankees in their first grudge match of the season.
vr, Xei
April 20, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Under one of my many pseudonyms, I get GY a mention in the BP chat:
http://www.baseballprospectus......chatId=290
Does it count as tooting my horn if I’m really tooting Geoff’s? And why does that make me giggle like a 5th grader who just heard his first dirty joke?
April 20, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Thanks, TW. Actually that entire chat was interesting. The charts on Burroughs I found particularly — what’s the word I’m looking for — depressing?
Also, for the record, I’m not sure Ducksnorts is the first baseball blog; I’ve seen that in print a few times, but I can’t say whether it’s true. I do know there weren’t a lot of folks doing this stuff back in the day.
Anyway…
April 20, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Part of me would like to cut the Padres some slack if Burroughs was stubborn, but the bigger part of me wonders why they didn’t address the problem in the minors leagues. Like, you’re not getting promoted to the majors until we see some improvement here.
It’s a bigger concern if they weren’t aware of his minor league spray charts. A team has to know its own players better than anyone.
April 20, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I seem to remember a lot of fawing over Burroughs’ ability to go the other way from Tony Gwynn and others. I had the impression that this was Dave Magadan’s philosophy. Maybe I’m wrong about Mags but I know the announcers were always praising Burroughs if he hit a grounder through the 5.5 hole because it drove me crazy. Going with the pitch is fine but you’ve got to learn to turn on the ball at some point.
I think his swing gradually got worse until his last season here when he was inside out on everything. Wasn’t there a lot of talk here about how he may have just been a guy who peaked early? He was always physically ahead of other people his age and never had to develop the skills to compete when everyone else caught up to him. Makes sense to me.