first pitch: 4:35 p.m. PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Justin Germano (0-0, –) vs Anthony Lerew (0-0, –)
preview: Padres.com | SI.com
Both teams have recalled right-handers from Triple-A for the second game of this series in Atlanta. Justin Germano and Anthony Lerew once were considered hot prospects by their respective organizations.
Germano, a 13th-round pick of the Padres in 2000 who since has bounced around a bit, ranked #13 among San Diego Prospects according to the 2003 Baseball America Prospect Handbook:
While he’s not overpowering, he has three potential average-or-better pitches and the best command in the system. His top pitch is a curveball that has been compared to Roy Oswalt’s. He also throws an 88-89 mph fastball that could pick up velocity because he has a lanky build, wide shoulders, and a quick arm.
In the 2004 edition, Germano slipped to #15:
His overhand curveball is occasionally a plus pitch, but Germano’s arsenal is average across the board. San Diego hoped that his lanky build and quick arm were harbingers that he’d add velocity, but his fastball has stayed at 86-88 mph and tops out in the low 90s.
Germano’s stock rose the following year, when BA ranked him #7 in the system:
Germano is a strike-thrower with an advanced feel for pitching. His fastball features good movement, and he can ratchet it up into the low 90s at times. His out pitch is his curveball, an overhand bender that he can break into or out of the zone.
This progression got Germano traded to Cincinnati as part of the July 2005 deal that brought third baseman Joe Randa to the Padres. Germano made two appearances for the Reds in 2006 before being shipped to the Phillies for left-hander Rheal Cormier. San Diego claimed Germano off waivers in March 2007, and now, nearly three years after making his big-league debut with the Padres, the prodigal son returns.
On the other side, the Braves picked Lerew in the 11th round of the 2001 draft. BA ranked him #21 in 2003, #9 in 2004, and #5 in 2005. Without going into great detail about Lerew’s repertoire and ascent to the big leagues, I’ll note that both he and Germano are just 24 years old. And not to be a downer, but to take an honest look at how both organizations have fared at developing players in recent years, here is a list of guys from those three BA books who have gone onto play regularly in the big leagues:
Braves
- Adam Wainwright, RHP
- Wilson Betemit, SS/3B
- Andy Marte, 3B
- Macay McBride, LHP
- Jeff Francouer, OF
- Scott Thorman, 1B
- Horacio Ramirez, LHP
- Kelly Johnson, SS/OF
- Adam LaRoche, 1B
- Ryan Langerhans, OF
- Brian McCann, C
- Matt Belisle, RHP
- Chuck James, LHP
- Kyle Davies, RHP
Padres
- Xavier Nady, OF
- Khalil Greene, SS
- Josh Barfield, 2B
- Jason Bay, OF
- Shane Victorino, OF
- Akinori Otsuka, RHP*
*Although technically considered a prospect, Otsuka had significant professional experience in Japan’s major leagues before coming to North America.
I don’t mean to slag the Padres here — I’m sure they’re well aware of their poor recent track record — but it’s instructive to note just how much a team can help itself by drafting and developing quality players. The Braves have done a remarkable job of continually replenishing from within, and the Padres would do well to emulate their example. Many of us will be watching closely next month as the MLB draft unfolds on television for the first time and the Friars try to make 7 picks among the first 88 work to their advantage.
Meanwhile, we’ve got a game to play. Go Padres!
124 Comments
I work for the aztecs, and earlier this year Phil Nevin attended one of the games while i was working and got me thinking about how i’m still confused to this day as to how a 22 home run hitting (in limited playing time, for 3 different teams mind you) guy like himself could be unsigned right now.
now i understand hes not ever going to be a gold glovesman, or a good runner but the guy can really hit, and he does it from the bench.
and like you said in an earlier discussion this week, the padres bench(parts of it) isnt very good, and completely lacks a decent right handed bat. so whats the confusion, is it money? i wouldnt think money would even come into play since he doesnt have a job and all. hes not even THAT old hes like what 36 or something?
but since we have such a glaring need for an upgrade at the right handed side of our bench i just dont see the holdup.
maybe that makes me crazy. i dont know. any thoughts on this?
and of course, go pads.
Not sure Jason Bay should be on that list. 1000 of his first 1300 minor league AB’s were in the Met’s system.
2 … similarly for Victorino, right? I think we Rule 5′d him from Dogs … then sent him down … and then Phils Rule 5′d him from us … something like that …
didnt seem like the friars ever really thought much of victorino when he was with them.
1: ask Texas, Chicago and Minnesota, all who have jetisonned him one way or another after SD did. Whatever worked for him when he was very good has changed. Bat speed? Pitch recognition? Ability to hit the inside fastball? I don’t know, but I would not hold your breathe for a re-birth.
4: we had Shane on a rule V pick, meaning keep him on the roster or lose him. He was not ready: he was over-matched with ML pitching at that time, so had to let him go.
Nervous and excited about seeing Germano’s return. It seems like he has one pitch: the curve. I am hoping he can place the other pitches well enough to get by, but it seems like an impossible task. Here’s hoping our bats show up tonight.
Regarding GY’s assessment of our farm, it is something I would guess they would HAVE to get right soon. Fuson is supposed to be good and we have the stats guys, so either we have gotten very unlucky or not paid enough attention.
Any site people recomment to rate the draftees? It is seems so hard, I doubt I could thoughtfully second-guess any of their choices, but am hopeful that we do well.
To clarify, these names are from BA’s books. Bay was #12 on the Padres list in ‘03, Victorino was #21 and ranked behind Kennard Jones among CFers in the system. Oops.
And yes, it is a bit damning that two of the players on the list of Padres came from other organizations.
#1: Padres have talked about Phil at least twice in the last two years. The first time was at the trade deadline last year, when it looked like a certainty he’d be brought in to play 3rd base. Rumor was that some of the players said, “No.”
Also, I heard SA talking in the spring about Phil being a possible option for a right handed batter off the bench and a 3rd catcher. Again it went nowhere.
I, for one, always liked Nevin. He had a good story, riches-to rags-to-riches-to-rags sort of thing. He was one reason to watch the Padres in the dark days, though.
OT … speaking of Victorino … did anyone else see the Sunday night game on ESPN? He pull’d a fast one and the umps bit … he got into a pickle and ran into Vizquel and got the ump to call interference on Vizquel … which, imo, was a *very* bad call … most disappointing that none of the other umps overruled it … I understand the change to the “baseline” rule, but it was still a bad/wrong call … and I notice that it didn’t make the video highlights posted at mlb.com …
I’m watching Bonderman pitch for the Tigers now as we count down the minutes to the Padres game, and I’m struck by how similar he is to Peavy in pitching style. Both have low to mid 90s fastballs that they use to set up devastatingly tight sliders, which come in in the mid to low 80s. Bonderman gets a lot of K’s swinging chasing that slider as it breaks out of the strike zone too. It looks like Peavy has an advantage with more movement on his fastball when he wants it.
Lynch, the defensive players cannot impede the runner IN ANY WAY. So unless the fielder has the ball or the runner leaves the baseline to force the collision, he will be ruled safe on defensive interference…
After 1st inning …
Pitches-strikes – J Germano 16-10; A Lerew 12-6.
Ground balls-fly balls – J Germano 2-1; A Lerew 2-1.
Batters faced – J Germano 3; A Lerew 3.
11 … my belief is that Victorino went out of his way “to force the collision” … I’m guessing that the ump would say that this did not take him out of “his” baseline (defined as 3′) … but I thought his intentions were blatent …
I’m kinda bum’d that now that the Padres get to face a minor-league pitcher, that KK sits … seems like today might be an opportunity for him to feast …
Re: 14
I’m excited that Branyan is actually starting over someone batting .108.
Lerew is apparently something of a sinkerballer, so it makes sense to let Branyan, a lefty and someone that can lift the ball, hit against him.
‘Bout time for Mike.
After 2 …
Pitches-strikes – J Germano 25-16; A Lerew 26-16.
Ground balls-fly balls – J Germano 4-2; A Lerew 2-2.
Batters faced – J Germano 6; A Lerew 6.
… they’re not lookin’ like minor leaguers …
Way to take advantage of that extra strike, Mike.
17 … YOU ASKED FOR IT!
19 … explain? (for us non-viewers)
Ball 3 on a 2-2 count was a very generous call for Mike.
Did I just notice that NOG grips the bat like one would a golf club? i.e. inter-locking pinky fingers.
I prefer it when bad-hitting pitchers strike out looking … as Germano did … it at least forces the pitcher to throw 3 pitches that that the ump calls strikes …
17 … hey, TD, anything you want to ask for now?
23 … I’d be very surprised if so …
25: I didn’t ask for that HR, but I’ll take it! I’m pretty sure I saw NOG inter-locking his fingers, which is kind of unusual but not impractical. It sort of creates one big hand.
That was a pretty decent 3rd inning.
25/17: Yeah, I’d like to ask for a Padre tap handle for my kegerator!
After 3 …
Pitches-strikes – J Germano 36-24; A Lerew 56-32.
Ground balls-fly balls – J Germano 6-3; A Lerew 2-3.
Batters faced – J Germano 9; A Lerew 12.
This kid is pitching pretty good against a noteworthy Braves.
did anyone sign up for mlb.tv’s premium package? is it noticeably different??
Cameron again? For the love of corn.
After 4 …
Pitches-strikes – J Germano 57-35; A Lerew 72-41.
Ground balls-fly balls – J Germano 8-4; A Lerew 3-4.
Batters faced – J Germano 14; A Lerew 16.
… anyone else thinking we should PH for Germano this inning?
Sledge HAMMER!
Crudge!!!
Crudge! That was one helluva stroke. Awesome.
Sledge Bomb!
nice…
Crudge just blasted that ball.
31 – yes, and yes
40: okay, cool, I’ll check it out over memorial day… or, you could simply email me your login and password and I can check it out now!!.
don’t think you can be logged in at the same time as me
41 … nice try!
40: I’m totally with you. I can actually read teh names on the unis with Premium.
The only bad thing with Premium is that it seems to be more prone to interruptions in the feed.
Into the dugout in the sixth, not bad. They must really be counting on Smoltz and Hudson to kick ass the next two days.
44 – yeah, I’ve noticed that, but the benny is that you can blow it up full-screen and it’s watchable
4-4 Dodgers/Marlins bottom 5
45: I retract this statement.
After 5 …
Pitches-strikes – J Germano 71-44; A Lerew 91-54.
Ground balls-fly balls – J Germano 9-5; A Lerew 3-6.
Batters faced – J Germano 18; A Lerew 20.
… wow, I’m impressed! But I don’t know what I’d push my luck too far!
42: not true. just proved it on my login on Mere’s computer (which, it turns out has waaay better picture quality than mine)
Two AAA pitchers going head to head and such a low scoring game. Go figure.
But then again, I’m pleased and surprised that the Braves let Lerew hit in the bottom of the 5th … so what do I know …
Marlins just tied up the Dogs … 4-4 now in bottom of 5th …
53 … sorry for the “old news” … i missed 47 … but it always fun to scoreboard watch …
Current BABIP for the game for both teams combined: .037. Both pitchers do seem to be throwing well and limiting well hit balls, but obviously they have gotten some luck.
Marlins up 5-4 now after 5.
Marlins up 5-4
espn.com is showing the Marlins up 5-4 in the 5th.
Gets Chipper on a come-backer? Nice … that seemed like a key AB …
Should Sledge have gotten to any of these balls?
56-58: Ha! I win.
60: The hit by A. Jones, no. The hit by Renteria, well, he had a chance, but it would have been a great play to make the catch.
Key out for OG
Nice catch by Giles. We need to start hitting this kid.
Francoeur’s stats with 2 outs are simply insane.. good thing we got him out!
Thru 6 …
Pitches-strikes – J Germano 86-56; A Lerew 98-60.
Ground balls-fly balls – J Germano 10-6; A Lerew 4-7.
Batters faced – J Germano 23; A Lerew 23.
… these guys are grizzled vets now …
Has anyone else bought a Tony G. brick?
65 … good point! http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7594/situational;_ylt=AjQJWKzKr4v_9NxTq6.HIYuFCLcF … with men on and 2 outs … .407/.515/.778 for a 1.293 OPS … whew!
67 … I did … that’s gonna be fun to see every time I go to Petco …
69: We’ve never gone to the Park at the Park, but will make it a point to when they’re done installing everything.
Germano’s out. Brocail’s in. Gameday just updated.
67: My family bought one as well. Father’s Day present for me pops.
I’d say that Germano did a pretty phenomenal job. On the other side, Lerew gave up 2 hits, buuuut, they were both homers!
Brocail’s pitching pretty good so far.
69&72: You realize that park will be there for our great-grandchildren to see those bricks.
I’m glad Germano is out … NICE JOB, obviously … a bit surprised Brocail’s in … I’m not totally sold on him yet … but he certainly has a “hot hand” … so … I’m guessing we’ll see Meredith in 8th?
I sure do. Our brick is a simple thank you message.
We’ve got one in the Petco brick pavillion and now we’ll have one for Tony.
We’ll have to buy another one once that Trevor Hoffman guy gets inducted…
Fairly quick game tonight.
Bell’s up in the bullpen. I’d like to see Bell pitch the final two innings, since Hoffman has pitched the previous 3 days. Bell’s had really low pitch counts his past several outings, and I’d bet he could take care of it pretty easily.
78: Ditto.
Good to see Brian with a solid at bat against a lefty.
How have Adrian’s ABs looked tonight? The 0-4 on the scorecard doesn’t look so hot …
76: I wished that I had bought one for the Petco brick pavillion. Will definately get one for Trevor as well. Ours is a simple “Thanks Tony” with me and my wife’s name below. The $200 one.
81: He’s had some good cuts, just no luck.
82: We decided to splurge so we bought the uber-brick with the Tony sihlouette.
Our brick is something like:
“Tony, a brick
Could never say
enough. Thanks.”
With our family name at the end.
What the hell was that KG?
My video feed decided to crap out, so I missed it. What happened?
What a freaking play by NOG!! Sweet blue jesus!
That was the most unorthadox tag I’ve seen. Good job by NOG!
Khalil made a diving stop, went to flip the ball to his throwing hand, and just flipped it into the air past the hand.
85 … I presume that has to do with Diaz’ “single to SS” … what happened?
Damn, so much for that.
Damn.
That ball was hit hard, got to the wall without a problem.
90: Diaz was sliding into 2nd and NOG dove over him and made the tag at the same time.
crap!
C’mon Bell, stop it here.
Oh, this is not good.
Grrr. Bell is getting hit hard tonite.
We’ve gotten so spoiled with this bullpen.
double crap
walking Chipper to get to Andruw? Does Chipper have killer numbers against Bell or something? I guess we were playing for the DP . . .
Geoff, waiting with bated breath for my 2007 Annual to shop up in the mail.
This doesn’t bode well for us, especially with how crappy we’ve swung the bats tonite.
102: show
Nice play by Adrian to end the inning.
Thank you Jeff Franceour.
#102: Thanks, TD; I hope you enjoy it.
105 … can you describe?
101: You can’t win there. You have to pitch to somebody and those three guys can kill it.
Doesn’t it seem like every time this bullpen gives up a run or two it’s in coughing up a lead? (Give these guys some cushion every once in a while, offense!)
107: I’m sure I will.
Wasn’t Soriano the voodoo guy in the movie “Major League?”
Three guys hitting .250 or below in the ninth, followed by a guy at .206 if one of them gets on.
Sigh…
Sean Thompson with a nice outing tonight at AA San Antonio … http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2007_05_08_sanaax_coraax_1
Um, where did my two brilliant posts go?
108: First of all, the play doesn’t happen if Franceour doesn’t chase a ball at his ankles and outside on a 2-0 count. He grounded it to Adrian, who stepped on the bag and threw home to catch Chipper Jones in a rundown between third and home.
Khalil has not looked good on this road trip.
One of them was about the perception of mine that “every time” this bullpen gives up a run or two it’s in coughing up a lead. (Give the pitchers some cushion for once, offense!)
Shit.
We should have won this game. Germano pitched his heart out. We seriously need to figure out how to get the bats going.
…And it’s tied up in Florida again.
113 … I “lost” a post earlier this evening also … GY … can you check to see if a couple of posts are stuck/hung/whatever on the server?
116 … agree … assuming your point is that the bullpen is far, far, far from being a problem/issue … it’s just that a “blown save” is so visible … and painful … it get very magnified … but the slow death of not getting many hits is the problem …
Note to Padres hitters: choose better times to hit your home runs (like when there are runners on base) and stop hitting line drives / fly balls right at fielders. Also, stop having weak swings while ahead in the count.
Sincerely,
-Ben
#119: Got ‘em. Sorry ’bout that!
Fish win!
120: Right; notice the quotes around every time.