Padres Take Third Straight Series
Thu, Apr 12, 2007
by Geoff Young
Don’t look now, but the Padres are 4-2 at home. What worked in Wednesday night’s 4-0 victory over the Giants (recap | box score)? Pretty much everything.
Greg Maddux pitched brilliantly, winning his 334th game as a big leaguer and first as a Padre. He needed just 75 pitches to complete six shutout innings before passing the baton to a still-flawless bullpen. Efficient? Yeah, a little bit. Maddux threw 73% of his pitches for strikes. He started 18 of the 23 batters he faced with a strike.
So much impressed me about Maddux’s performance that I hardly know where to start. Do I talk about the sick movement on his pitches (almost a reverse cutter) that led to four called strikeouts? Or that for the second straight game he broke a bat with a fastball barely into the mid-80s? Or maybe we marvel at the fact that he retired Barry Bonds three times in a row, on a total of four pitches. Sure, the last one was pretty well struck, but that’s insane.
Maddux is a pleasure to watch, and I couldn’t be happier that he’s finally pitching in San Diego.
The Professor also received help from his defense. With one out and runners at the corners in the third, Rich Aurilia hit a slow grounder to shortstop. Khalil Greene charged the ball nicely and made a quick feed to Marcus Giles (NOG), who got rid of the ball in a hurry to double up Aurilia and end the inning. This came on the heels of a single to left by Omar Vizquel that advanced Dave Roberts only to third thanks to a strong throw by Jose Cruz Jr.
In the bottom of the third, Cruz led off with a walk. After a perfect sacrifice bunt by Maddux, NOG singled to center, scoring Cruz ahead of Roberts’ throw. As we know here in San Diego, you run on Roberts every chance you get.
Mike Cameron then smashed a grounder down the third base line. Aurilia made a terrific diving stop but threw wildly to first baseman Ryan Klesko, who failed to come off the bag to field the errant throw, plating the Padres’ second run of the inning. Nice to see the defensive shortcomings of Roberts and Klesko working in the Friars’ favor this time.
Roberts later made up for his weak throw by robbing Cruz on a spectacular running catch at the wall with the bases loaded to end the sixth. That would have cleared the bases and broken the game wide open, though as it turned out, the four runs the Padres ended up scoring this night were more than enough.
The at-bat immediately before Cruz’ was the worst of the evening. After an intentional walk to Greene to load the bases, Geoff Blum hacked at a first-pitch, belt-high fastball and popped weakly to third. Again, thanks to the Padres’ pitching staff, it didn’t matter, but that was just terrible.
Cla Meredith, Scott Linebrink, and Doug Brocail finished with three perfect innings to seal the victory. Intending no disrespect to anyone else on the staff or in the league, it’s hard to imagine a reliever pitching better than Meredith is right now. I will be sure to cheer Tim Wakefield vigorously when the Red Sox come to town.
Incidentally, here’s what the bullpen’s scoreless innings streak looks like through Wednesday night’s game:
| IP | H | R | BB | SO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28.1 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 23 | |
| Stats courtesy of ESPN. | |||||
Wow.
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
Luke Carlin: 3 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; 2B, BB, SO
AA
No games scheduled
High-A
Matt Antonelli: 3 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; 3 BB, SO
David Freese: 3 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 3 RBI; HR
Kyle Blanks: 3 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; 2 BB, SO
Low-A
Snow wins — all Midwest League games postponed
Commentary:
Josh Bard, Rob Bowen, Pete LaForest, Todd Greene, and Luke Carlin… The Padres have an unexciting but talented, deep catching corps between the big league team and their AAA affiliate.
In the 2007 Prospect Handbook, Baseball America said Antonelli had the “Best Strike-Zone Discipline” of all Padre minor leaguers.
Old for a prospect, drafted as a 5th year senior, serious bat with questions about the glove; Freese is Kouzmanoff-redux.
Off day on Thursday, then three in Los Angeles over the weekend. Go Padres!
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April 12, 2007 at 9:27 am
Hey Geoff:
Great job on the full-time site. I have one pressing question maybe you can answer.
Is there a reason Geoff Blum continues to receive At Bats, often at crucial times? (Please don’t say he had a solid spring, because so did our AA backup utility man.) Last time I checked, Bochy wasn’t the manager anymore. I was hoping that we would see someone like Robles take the final roster spot; at least he could pinch run and play D.
Just wondering. I guess second guessing is easy.
Keep up the terrific work.
April 12, 2007 at 9:28 am
PF … nice to see you include Carlin on that list … he’s a guy that can help the Padres this year (and/or next) … it will be good if they don’t have to call him, but it’s nice to know that if the need arises, we have a replacement-level player available at such a key position.
April 12, 2007 at 9:34 am
1 … hey, what are you talkin’ about? Blum has drawn a walk, so his OBA is above 0 … that’s great “Strike-Zone Discipline”!
April 12, 2007 at 9:36 am
Nice summary, great game. I am sure OG will warm up, but we have three corner outfielders and their OPS’:
OG: 711
Cruz: 896
Sledge: 976
I do hope that Black finds some reason to “rest” OG more often, though he is playing nice defense.
Pitching: GY already summarized the relief pitching that SD has started with, of course being well covered by the national press, or maybe not.
Starters: 52.2IP, 48H, 19ER, 1.22 WHIP, 3.25 ERA; OK, but not amazing, like the relief. But without the two bad starts by Clay (with some bad umpires and defense)
w/o Clay: 43.2IP, 35H, 10ER, 1.04 WHIP, 2.08 ERA. I am quite optimistic about Clay, so am just so excited about this pitching.
April 12, 2007 at 9:37 am
Re: 1 Black was quoted in the UT today saying how great it is to have blum on the roster, and how versital he is because he is a switch hitter and can play all 4 infield spots.
Heres the only problem that I have with blacks statement, I can switch hit and play all 9 spots on the diamond I just cant do them on a major leauge level (I cant even do them on a pony leauge level) but just because Blum can play all 4 IF spots does not mean he should, he has not range and cant even get a guy home from third with only 1 out.
April 12, 2007 at 9:51 am
Game: If Cruz’s long fly ball had occurred with 1 out, I bet the runner from second could have scored after tagging up. Doc was in Guam, crashed into the wall, with no arm.
Blum hit well for a couple of months last year, but he’s not a good hitter. Last night’s final AB was flat-out terrible.
Minor leagues: I’d love to see the Padres be aggressive with Freese. Two months in Elsinore and bump him if he’s hitting.
April 12, 2007 at 10:01 am
Best thing about Blum’s AB is he didn’t hit into a DP. Not that we capitalized thanks to Big Top Roberts, but it’s telling that all I was hoping for when Blum picked up a bat was that he wouldn’t make 2 outs. He’s sort of like Black’s version of Bellhorn right now.
April 12, 2007 at 11:29 am
I know Cruz is hitting nicely and playing good defense, but I favor starting Sledge more often, who, so far, has put up even better offensive numbers. If you go with Sledge, you have Cruz has a RH pinch hitter, available for straight PH or double switching. Until you get a good RH PH (on the left side we have Branyan, PMac, Bowen and Blum), I think that should factor in the starts between Sledge and Cruz, given they seem to be about equal players in the field.
April 12, 2007 at 11:31 am
I like PMac, but our RH PH hole is not being filled and PMac does not really provide much unique, unless you start giving him some PT, we would be better served with a strong RH bench player.
April 12, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Bard with slight groin strain … http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....adres.html … hmmm, that’s not good … seems like something that could be nag’ing all season … how does a MLB catcher recover from a slight groin strain? That seems like it’d take a lot of “rest” … tough to do in mid-April … and it only get tougher as the season progresses …
April 12, 2007 at 12:19 pm
On other news: ex Padres Eaton beat ex Padres Perez yesterday.
April 12, 2007 at 12:20 pm
10: Sounds bad that groin. Too bad Blum can’t catch or he’ll be the backup to Bowen if Shakespeare has to rest.
April 12, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Is this a warning?
“Whatever Greg has done the last couple of years, you can probably expect the same thing,” the Padres manager said yesterday.
… because last year, Maddux was *very bad* in May, June, and July … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/pl.....e=Pitching … I’d prefer he not be that predictable …
April 12, 2007 at 12:38 pm
12 … if Blum’s not the 3rd string catcher, who is?
April 12, 2007 at 12:54 pm
4: Giles has actually been hitting the ball pretty well. His GB% is down from nearly 40% last year to under 30% this year and his LD% is up from 17% to 23%. He’s currently just suffering from bad luck. His LD% is higher than both Sledge and Cruz and his GB% is considerably lower than Sledge’s.
April 12, 2007 at 1:07 pm
In case you haven’t noticed, the Nationals are *bad* so far this season … here’s a comment I found …
… it’s worth noting just how poorly the Nationals have played so far this season. They’ve led in a ballgame for exactly one moment all year—when they came back against Jorge Julio in the bottom of the ninth last week. In all of their nine games, they’ve trailed by at least the score of 3-0 at some point in the game before scoring their first run. They’re not going to maintain this level of incompetence, but this team is going to be just awful, and not just at a garden-variety 95-loss level. They’ve been outscored 61-21 in their nine games so far.
… amazing!
April 12, 2007 at 1:15 pm
In a BP article about the Brewers today, I was reminded of this …
Geoff Jenkins was originally drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 24th round of the 1992 amateur draft, but he chose to attend USC rather than sign.
… and their platoon OF nickname is “Menchkins” …
April 12, 2007 at 1:38 pm
As I’ve said before, the Nationals will challenge the 1962 Mets as the worst team of all time. It’s possible they sprint past them. Dmitri Young is starting at first base.
April 12, 2007 at 1:41 pm
From Buster Olney’s blog:
The Padres have had seven relievers work out of the bullpen this year, and they are all right-handed, and have all been better than good. San Diego’s bullpen has combined for 28.1 innings and no runs allowed, a modern-day record at the outset of a season.
http://insider.espn.go.com/esp.....ILC-INHEAD
April 12, 2007 at 1:42 pm
4:
Who cares about national media exposure?
Playing well and winning is it’s own reward. I’ll take a World Series title with no exposure.
April 12, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Bard to DL, LaForest up from Portland:
http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com.....mp;c_id=sd
April 12, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Eeek… Geoff, what do you know about this kind of injury? Is it really something that can be 100% cured from 14 days of R&R or are we in real trouble here for the rest of the season as some previous people posted?
April 12, 2007 at 2:23 pm
16 … here’s an interesting description of the Nationals …
a polyglot of real talent and journeymen so dusty you can’t tell what color their boots originaly were.
… from Christina Kahrl @ BP.
April 12, 2007 at 2:28 pm
22 … not sure if you’re refering to my comments or not … I’m not a doctor, nor played one on TV … I was worried they’d not DL him … I like that they are biting the bullet and going the DL route … a heavy dose of R&R now in order to get healthy Bard for May-thru-October sounds good to me!
And if LaForest doesn’t help, they can give Carlin a look-see …
April 12, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Time for Bowen step it up like Bard did last year when Piazza sat. As long as he can hit around .250 with an occasional extra-base hit, it shouldn’t be too big of a blow. He’s legit on D and can throw pretty well.
April 12, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Is Black really going to put Bowen in the cleanup spot with Bard on the DL. It is bad enough that we have Bard in the cleanup spot, (rather have him 6 or 7). Should be interesting to see what happens
April 12, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Wait, can’t we get Phil Nevin or Robert Fick behind the dish?
April 12, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Blum was only playing since Kouzmanoff is unavailable until probably Friday, which is the same reason that Blum was playing 3rd last night. They are rather weak in the bench as it includes Branyan, Blum, Bowen, McAnulty, Cruz/Sledge. Not too imposing as they really only have one good bat (Cruz) vs. lefties so if he has started, they only have Blum on the bench who is slightly better against LHP but really not much of a hitter. The main problem is that they are carrying 12 pitchers — why exactly is that necessary? They need to send down Thompson to AAA, sitting on the bench watch other people pitch probably isn’t the greatest recipe for improvement. With the Padres pitching they could easily carry 11 pitchers and probably 10 for games at home and at LA and SF.
April 12, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Didn’t LaForest get a lot of playing time this spring? How did he look? Sure would be nice to have Kottaras.
I think Black is working under the assumption that Blum is a major league quality backup infielder and will use him as such until proven otherwise and/or provided with a better option. I agree with Schlom, send Thompson down and bring up Robles or scrounge up a Damian Jackson type.
April 12, 2007 at 3:27 pm
29 … I think both LaForrest and Carlin are better overall players *at this moment* than Kottaras … I’ve read recently that Kottaras’ defense is non-existent … so I’m not lookin’ back at all … catcher is the one position where we have some high-level organizational depth at this moment …
April 12, 2007 at 3:30 pm
29 … you can see spring stats at http://www.usatoday.com/sports.....spring.htm … it shows Laforest hit 378 / .439 / .730 in 37 ABs … so that seems to have earned him this first call-up … 4 doubles, 3 HRs, 4 BBs, 13 Ks …
April 12, 2007 at 3:32 pm
29 … at Portland, however, he was only 2-for-18 … one of those hits was an HR … http://web.minorleaguebaseball.....pid=425526
April 12, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Don’t we have Green doing a rehab assignment from that shoulder separation in spring training? He might not be quite ready, but he’s a right hander hitter and a back up catcher. Seems that if his shoulder is better, he would be the replacement.
April 12, 2007 at 4:16 pm
LaForest is a decent player. He never got a chance really to show he COULD play. He was thought to be a 20 homer guy at one point in the bigs.
The Padres do not have a weak bench, on the contrary, I think it’s one of the stronger ones in the league. I don’t think Blum is any great shakes but he’s better than the Chris Woodwards of the world. Plus, WORLD SERIES HERO.
April 12, 2007 at 5:42 pm
33 … re: Todd Green … most recent news I find is as of end of Feb … “at least a month” … http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....notes.html … if healthy, he would be a good callup right now … so I’ll bet he’s not healthy …
April 12, 2007 at 7:42 pm
I like LaForest too…hoping he’s completely healthy now after a lost 2006.