first pitch: 12:35 p.m. PT
television: none
matchup: Jake Peavy (2-0, 0.90 ERA) vs Livan Hernandez (1-0, 1.80 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com
It’s probably too early to call this a trend, but there’s reason to be encouraged by Jake Peavy‘s performance so far in ’07. Forget the ERA, and look at pitch efficiency:
| Date | IP | TBF | #PIT | P/PA | P/IP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 3 | 6 | 23 | 98 | 4.26 | 16.3 |
| Apr 8 | 7 | 28 | 103 | 3.68 | 14.7 |
| Apr 14 | 7 | 26 | 100 | 3.85 | 14.3 |
Again, who knows whether Peavy will be able to sustain lower pitch counts over the course of a full season. Wouldn’t it be nice if he could?
I was looking at the AskBA column … http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/askba/263712.html … and was reminded that, while we got KCamy in the Rule 5, we also lost Joakim Soria, who is now the closer for KC … the Padres’ org does know a thing or 2 about relief pitchers …
McAnulty in LF for the Beavers tonight … http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2007_04_19_srcaaa_poraaa_1 … Germano on the mound …
Chase Headley with HR #2 at AA San Antonio … http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2007_04_19_sanaax_mroaax_1
Cedric (The Great) with 4 singles … http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2007_04_19_burafx_ftwafx_1 … but whassup with DH’ing?
Matty V has a ways to go. His devotion to fielding pct drives me up the wall. (It’s scary up there.)
Good win for the Pads today. Two weeks, 16 games into the season, and although we would obviously like the record to be better, the team’s played well.
The best things so far:
Marcus Giles has been great offensively and defensively, much better so far than Barfield was last season – and Barfield was pretty good.
Peavy, aside from today’s start (and it was a day game, so he should get a little leeway; see 136 for the begining of this thought process/thread) has been really good.
Maddux – Pretty good- 1 amazing start, 1 start in which he made 2 bad pitches and an uncharacteristic WP, and 1 start in which it was 40 degrees and crazy wind.
Wells – 2 great starts, one in which he got shellacked. If he starts 25 games and is great 2/3 of the time the Pads will be in good shape.
Greene has been hitting for power, albeit impatient. The bullpen is very, very good. Bell looks awesome. A-Gon is going to be an all-star one day. Jose Cruz has been invaluable off the bench.
Bad things:
Kouzmanoff has just looked terrible. It’s not just bad outcomes – he has terrible at-bats. It might not be a bad idea to give him a couple weeks at AAA, just to mash on some weaker pitchers and develop some confidence. Because right now he looks totally over matched.
Mike Cameron has been really bad, offensively and defensively. All of his history suggests he’ll pull through, but I worry about his age. If we don’t have him then we have no center fielder to speak of.
Clay Hensley has been terrible. Like, hiding an injury terrible. I really hope that’s not the case, because the Pads next starter is Thompson, who has been beyond terrible.
Bud Black hasn’t particularly distinguished himself positively or negatively yet. He seems to let his starters absorb some beatings, but that may be due to the shortened pen the last few days than anything else. He also seems to love Jose Cruz, Jr., which is okay for now, when Cruz is going well, but may be tragic once Cruz starts his descent into being, you know, Jose Cruz, Jr.
Signing Russ Branyan for this season might be the best move the Padres made this off season, when all is said and done.
Blum is living off a couple great postseason at-bats. That’s it. That’s the list. He’s not good otherwise.
206 – nice link … thanks …
207 – agree … one major “bad thing” you left off = defense vs baserunners … we’ve given up a lot of SBs …
208 – gotta believe that KT sees & knows this … and is working to improve here … I think the solution will be a trade where what we give up is $$$ (ie. we’re not likely to have players that we are willing to give up because of their value to this year’s team, nor are we likely to have players that others are will to take because of their future value) … and those kinds of trades probably are not yet available … we gotta wait until some team decides to punt 2007 …
207 … re: KK down to AAA … Stansberry played 3B for Portland tonight … and hit his first HR … and is now hitting .370 … with OPS ~1.000 … seems like he could fill in while KK gets his feet under him … perhaps if the situation doesn’t improve in a couple of weeks … and Stansberry is still doing well …
#209 -
SBs don’t really amount to much – something like 15% of SBs lead to a run scored. It’s less than that against a good pitching team. Maddux is going to the HOF and he never cares about SBs. It’s frustrating to watch teams run at will, but in the long run SBs are only slightly negative, unless they really impact a pitcher’s psyche. And even if SBs were a huge problem, I’m not sure what we would do to fix the problem….both Padres catchers have average to below-average arms vs. runners, and with Young and Maddux in the rotation, SBs are going to be a given.
Also, with parity, I’m not sure where the Pads are going to find bench reinforcements better than what we have now. Perhaps the Astros deal Ausmus, but that’s a minor move. I think SD is better off with their current roster, managed correctly.
Diamondbacks, Padres and Dodgers all predicted to win by DodgerSims tomorrow. vr, Xei