first pitch: 10:05 a.m. PT
television: none TBS
matchup: David Wells (1-1, 6.03 ERA) vs Tim Hudson (3-1, 1.70 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com
I’m supposed to talk everyone down from the ledge today. Hard to do when the team is playing like crap (with apologies to any crap that may be offended), but if we take a step back from the ledge, a larger picture emerges:
| Year | W | L | RS | RA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference. | ||||
| 1984 | 18 | 16 | 152 | 153 |
| 1996 | 21 | 13 | 183 | 132 |
| 1998 | 23 | 11 | 178 | 134 |
| 2005 | 18 | 16 | 153 | 159 |
| 2006 | 18 | 16 | 141 | 139 |
| 2007 | 18 | 16 | 147 | 129 |
See? It’s not so bad. I mean, it is, but it isn’t; you know?
Now fire up some coffee and sit by the Internet; we’ve got a game to play. Go Padres!
But that same formula isn’t going to win the NL West this year. We need to hit better just to stay close this year. What’s with Green, back to being a statue. Just one time I’d like to see him knock over the water cooler. Not sure, but I suspect baseball requires a little hostility to play.
Geoff, your virtual blackboard should probably be more focused:
I will hit a fly ball with a man on third and less than 2 outs
I will hit a fly ball with a man on third and less than 2 outs
I will hit a fly ball with a man on third and less than 2 outs
I will hit a fly ball with a man on third and less than 2 outs
I will hit a fly ball with a man on third and less than 2 outs
Mike Cameron, grab some chalk
#1: True, but the point is that we’ve got 128 games left to play. Anything can happen. Also, I don’t know about the hostility thing. Tony Gwynn never struck me as particularly hostile, and he did okay. As for Khalil, I’d rather see him play well on a consistent basis. Knocking over a water cooler doesn’t take much talent and it doesn’t get the runner in from third.
Can Adrian hit twice in the order? I think may be the only way to get some more O
Re: 1 & 3 if hostility wins games then Milton Bradly should be making A-Rod type money.
Guess I’d just like to see a little fire in Greene. Hate when he strikes out and just walks away like like no big deal. Show me you care big guy. Sure he does. If green ever did knock over the watercooler, it would be front page news in the UT.
1: …And it certainly isn’t going to get us past the first round of playoffs again.
Not sure if anyone else feels the same way, but I find myself rationalizing what I’m seeing this year, using cliched expressions like “We’re not firing on all cylinders”, “Things will fall into place”, etc, all presupposing that we’re a dominant team, but we just don’t know it yet.
The other thing it presupposes is that we’re sticking with what we’ve got for a while – that those players who have gotten off to a slow start will come around. Aside from needing a right-handed bat off the bench, I haven’t heard much comment on the personnel changes that would make this team stronger. Of course, we don’t want our ballplayers to worry about their jobs, but it would be nice to hear what’s going on in that deal-making brain of Towers, if anything.
6: Khalil has been able to get runs in via sac fly this year. Cameron and Kouz have certainly struggled at this.
Khalil is struggling mightily on this road trip (I personally wonder if it’s because he doesn’t have his own cage to warm up in), but his K rates appear to be down from last year. He’s walking a lot more and he’s putting the ball in play.
Cameron is probably the last person on our team I’d want to see in a sac fly situation. He just cannot get it done.
Although I completely agree with 3&5 I think I know exactly what you mean PM. It would definitely be nice to see Khalil show some sort of emotion after he swings and misses horribly on a pitch way out of the zone. I guess when I watch him hit his lack of “visible” enthusiasm just makes me feel like he’s content with what he’s doing. His whole changing stances and swings at this point is freaking annoying as all hell. I mean it’s cool when your name is Cal and you rack up well over 3,000 hits and do it. But when you have going on 4 years of underwhelming mediocrity at the plate maybe it’s time to take some advice from your hitting coach and try to learn something. I was watching that channel 4 “one on one” special with him a while back and he just seemed so cocky and content with doing things “HIS” way. He talked about proscouts wanting to make him a catcher and how “he would never play catcher” and how it was so insulting they suggested that. I guess his attitude just rubbed me the wrong way after watching that. If he was hitting like Ryan Howard or Joe Mauer then I could care less if he didn’t know who the hell Merv *Retunmund* even was but I have a hard time believing that anybody in the bigs let alone Merv would advise him to aproach his at bats the way he does. He’s been swing at the same horrible pitches for over 3 years and he’s still not hitting them. Sorry to go on another rant but KG pisses me off a lot more than he doesn’t piss me off.
Here is a little story. I watch pretty much all the games on channel 4 when they are on. Over the past 2 seasons I have turned my fiance into a Padres fan and she starting to become an actual baseball fan. Well every once in a while she asks me why players or coaches do certain things or what certain pitches do or what the hell a balk is and “why would Chris Young Balk to 3rd base when nobody was standing there?”. She’s learing and it’s pretty freaking awesome. Anyways, the other day KG was up and of course struck out on a low and away slider and she turns to me and says “Why does he always swing at those? Man if I was on the other team that’s the only pitch I would throw him because he always swings at them. So the moral of the story is that when my new to baseball fiance notices that KG swings at the same bad pitches every at bat there is an issue!!!
Wow that was a lot!!!! Sorry guys
Re Cameron: I started longing for Magadan as hitting coach. When Cameron struggles, he tries to pull everything, and he becomes an easy out. He did it during the worst of his slump, but, in an occasional at bat or a couple of games, start using all of the field. Last night it was back. I don’t get that. I wanted the suicide last night when he was up there.
It feels like the team can get into a collective funk pretty easily, swinging early and making quick outs. It seems to me that if the pitcher is cruising, take a few pitches. If he is throwing a meatball that begs a swing, OK, but if he is, how come we don’t hit them like meatballs?
We got a bit unlucky in this series: given the bulk of runs have come from solo HR’s, our BA with men on base and with RISP is horrid. That is bad luck.
Also, both base running outs last night were not bad decisions by the runners. Giles was safe but came off the bag. Blum’s was a bit more questionable, but you can see the value of man at 3rd with 1 out with the 8 and 9 guys coming up vs. second base. And it was a reasonably close play.
#6: Didn’t John Olerud receive the same criticism throughout his career?
True story: Last March, I almost broke my hand hitting a chair in frustration at something I’ve long since forgotten. Over a year later, my hand still isn’t quite right. I don’t know if I showed that I cared, but I wish like hell I hadn’t hit that chair.
#7: Totally. This isn’t 2003; these guys have talent, they’re just not showing it.
Also, it is frustrating to lose 1-run games (we are 6-9 this year after being 30-22 last year), but that does come down to luck, often. Heath Bell and Meredith both gave up 2 runs in late innings, something I doubt they are going to do too often in the season, but are going to do it at some point in the season.
We are still in this race and have a good team. The one thing that does bug me is that given our offense is based on balance (solid 1-8 vs. stars), is that when a couple of players are consistently putting up poor AB’s (not results, but bad swings, pitch recognition, trying to pull everything, etc) it often seems to go on and on, without adjustments. Our offense cannot support that. We need all 8 producing decently. I am not sure what the coaches can do about it, but I would love see more consistent discipline in the approach to the hitting, and let the results fall where the fall.
11: The chair wins every time. It’s much better to throw things when you’re upset, you still get the gratifying effect of destruction while minimizing bodily injury.
That is, of course, assuming you don’t throw said object at someone else. That would probably increase the likliehood of bodily injury.
I don’t understand hitters who get into slumps and try to pull their way out. Camy must know that he should go with pitches, yet sometimes he refuses to do that. We are on the outside looking in, these breath hitting every single day, yet the approach taken is little league at best. Maybe they know something we don’t. Anyway, we will not win the West hitting this way, no way. The West is better this year, just look at the standings.
Minus Adrian, OG and NOG the rest of the team is hitting .209 ????
Figure in walks, that is about 2 hits every 3 days out of 6 positions.
15: Ugh, I hate listening to other teams radio broadcasters. I have such a hard time following what the hell is going on.
Speaking of Adrian, I’m working now on a piece about him for THT. He turned 25 on Tuesday. Here’s his age 24 line: .316/.376/.543 with 33 HR.
3 broken bats thus far, that does not bode well for the boys.
C’mon Khalil. We need a run here.
Damnit. Hard hit ball right at Jones.
Blech.
nice play by OG to hold Chipper to a single
And the Braves convert.
23 – imagine that
Geez, Wells has nothing today
Awesome. Up 2-0 in the first with one out. Wonderful.
Boomer throwin BP, eh?
I hate to be negative, but that 2 spot the braves put up looks insurmountable the way the O has been going of late.
28: Especially when Cameron flies out harmlessly on the first pitch.
Cameron, if you’re going to make an out, at least K so that Hudson has to throw some pitches.
Also, I hate Andruw Jones.
It’s hard to see a lot of hope in this team right now. I guess the positive is that the Cardinals are coming to town tomorrow. Of course, Pujols has raked in the past at Petco, so I’m not sure how much comfort that will be.
Back-to-back walks to get to Chipper Jones, great.
Apparently we just like to put men on so we can stare at them and wonder why they don’t score.
Argh Khalil, you couldn’t have done that with a man on third?!
34 – Phantom, you don’t hit the ball with men on base! You might hit one of them and cause an injury! Much safer to wait until no one is on base, then hit away.
30 … be careful … i’m actually hoping he’s a padre next year!
HOLY FREAKING CRAP! CAMERON GOT A HIT WITH A MAN ON!!!
After 3 …
Pitches-strikes – D Wells 56-36; T Hudson 37-24.
Ground balls-fly balls – D Wells 3-4; T Hudson 5-2.
Batters faced – D Wells 15; T Hudson 13.
#36: I will hate him less if he’s a Padre.
Did Cameron just drive in a run?!?
39: I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that my little radio transmitter just informed me that he did.
But who knows, it is satelite radio. It’s probably run by the Martians.
KOUZ!!!!!
A Kouz missile!
Kouz!
#31: A little more reason for hope now, eh?
Okay, who is this team, and what have they done to my Padres? 7 hits by the 4th inning, Cameron and Kouz driving in runs? Whats going on here?
42: Best call ever. Cetainly beats “an A-bomb, from A-Rod.”
45: I was saving it for a home run but an RBI double will do nicely.
42 … nice job on your blog again, Anthony, thanks!
Dogs lose … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=270510128 … Lowe pitched 8 shutout innings … then gave up a 3-run HR in bottom of 9th …
48 – can’t tell you how broken up about that I am. Poor Dodgers.
Question: if Kouz gets an RBI double, but it happens at o-dark whatever on the west coast and no one is watching, did it really happen?