Blum, Bocachica, and a Slice of History

Eight series wins in a row? Really, I had no idea. Greg Maddux brought his A-game on Wednesday night (recap | boxscore), and Geoff Blum and Hiram Bocachica led the offense en route to a —

Say what? Blum and Boca-who-ca?

Yep. Blum drove in four runs on the evening, doubling his season total. All four came batting right handed. That’s four more than he collected from the right side in 2006.

I diss him because I love him. You know, anything I can do to help and all that.

Or whatever.

I have no explanation for Bocachica. His name is fun to say, and he helps ease the pain of “losing” DH Jack Cust. Works for me.

Trevor HoffmanThen there’s Trevor Hoffman. He became the first ever to reach 500 career saves with a scoreless ninth and we’ve got the pictures to prove it. Hoffman doesn’t have the stuff he once did, and he seemingly doesn’t care. He just goes out there and gets the job done. I expect he probably irritates the heck out of opposing hitters and fans in the process.

This is the part where I should tell you what Hoffman means to the Padres and baseball. But I won’t because a) you already know and b) everything I come up with sounds trite and sycophantic. Still, if you want a clue, just bear in mind that during the post-game interview, all Hoffman wanted to talk about was his teammates, the fans, and getting a ring.

(Somewhat lost in the history was Heath Bell‘s seventh-inning performance. Two pitches, two outs, threat ended. Bell saved this one as much as Hoffman did, and I’ll bet Hoffman would say the same. And he wouldn’t care because the bottom line is a Padres victory.)

The Friars find themselves in a virtual tie with Arizona (mistakenly referred to by many as “the surprising Diamondbacks”) and have a chance to sweep LA on Thursday. Oh yeah, Jake Peavy is pitching in the finale.

Enjoy. As we know all too well, it ain’t always like this.

Padres Prospect Report

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

No games scheduled

AA

Chase Headley: 5 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 4 RBI; 2 2B, HR, BB, 2 SO – .354/.434/.646
Nick Hundley: 4 AB, 2 R, 1 H, 1 RBI; HR, BB, SO

High-A

Matt Antonelli: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI – .304/.401/.470
Wade LeBlanc: 7.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 SO, 1 HR

Low-A

No games scheduled

Commentary:

Okay, he’s not just talented; he’s clutch. Down by one with two outs and two runners on base, Chase Headley comes through with a two-run homer. It was his second homer and third extra-base hit of the game. Kevin Kouzmanoff‘s glove doesn’t warrant moving him off third base, but Headley’s bat needs a place in the 2008 Padre lineup.

Wade has been ridiculously dominant this year. He wasn’t a top prospect coming out of college and he wasn’t considered a top 10 prospect this past off-season. Yet all he’s done is dominate the hitting-friendly Cal League:

6-2, 1.82 ERA, 69.1 IP, 45 H, 17 R, 13 ER, 13 BB, 68 SO, 3 HR

***

I swear I didn’t do this intentionally…

With the draft today, there is some interesting symmetry in this PPR. Four names listed are above: two from the 2005 draft, and two from the 2006 draft — all from the Sandy Alderson/Grady Fuson regime.

Draft Stuff

San Diego selections (#23) in Mock Drafts:

Jonathan Mayo (MLB.com): James Simmons, RHP, UC Riverside
Kevin Goldstein (Baseball Prospectus): Joe Savery, LHP, Rice
Jim Callis (Baseball America): Simmons

***

I don’t know what to make of it. All of the experts remind us that the Padres have a history of taking collegiate players. However, Kevin Towers and Grady Fuson have both gone on the record to note that the strength of this year’s draft is its high school talent. Now both James Simmons and Joe Savery are legitimate first-round talents. So it is completely reasonable and likely (if somewhat un-sexy) for the Padres to go with one of the above pitchers…

Now, as for the “what if” portion…

After originally being projected as the #2 overall pick, Rick Porcello is likely to do an Andrew Miller slide. Last year, Team Boras realized they were not going to get the money they wanted for Miller from the top teams in the draft. So they asked for the moon. In doing so, they scared several teams away until the Tigers popped Miller with the sixth pick and signed him to an MLB deal with a $3.55M bonus. Boras and Porcello are reportedly asking for deal similar to the $7M MLB deal Josh Beckett got with the Marlins in 1999.

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus projects Porcello to slide all the way to the Tigers with the 27th pick.

I’m nearly dead-set against giving high school guys MLB contracts, but Porcello might be worth it. And keep in mind that while Porcello wants a Beckett-like contract, his bonus would still be in the $3-4M range. And the Padres could conceivably get him signed with a considerable bonus without the MLB contract.

Obviously it’s not my money, but can you imagine the following draft (BA rankings in parentheses):

23 Rick Porcello, RHP (4)
40 Nick Noonan, 2B/SS (41)
46 Travis d’Arnaud, C (49)
57 Zach Cozart, SS (59)
63 Wes Roemer, RHP (65)
64 Kellen Kulbacki, LF (66)
81 Grant Desme, OF (99)
87 Jordan Zimmerman, RHP (97)

Now do I expect the above? No, if we exchange Porcello for Savery or Simmons it will still be a nice draft and a lot more likely…

Thanks, Peter! As a reminder, I’ll be liveblogging the draft (not specifically from a Padres perspective) over at Knuckle Curve. Feel free to follow along, or just keep doing that thing you do right here. I’m sure all of our fine observers will have plenty to say as the draft unfolds, and Peter and I will certainly share our thoughts tomorrow, if not sooner.

I am so geeking out on this, it’s not even funny. Seriously, if I don’t stop the caffeine flow right now, things could get ugly.

Series finale tonight at 7:05 p.m. PT. As is our custom, we’ll fire up the IGD about an hour before then. Blah blah blah. Am I still talking? Shut up already. Okay, I will. See you at the IGD…

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276 Responses »

  1. It’s Schmidt *sigh* Cheap-skate Moores.

  2. Great another “safe” pick…..the difference between Schmidt and LeBlanc is ???

  3. Wow, in our “full commitment to the draft” year, we take the 30th most talented player left on the board. And 30 is stretching it.

    It will take some bold decisions with our later picks to make up for picking Mike Bynum again.

  4. 103: Perhaps the better question is the difference between Schmidt and Ramos is:?

  5. #103: LeBlanc has had success as a pro. Sigh…

  6. According to Bryan Smith at Baseball Prospectus, we can look forward to a “successful back-end start by 2010″. Ooh boy. Can’t wait.

  7. Well at least we got our average stuff college lefty out of the way early this year….wait Schmidt doesn’t have great control

  8. Man that sucks! The good news is… We are going to have a minor league system full of pitchers with the exact same skill set! Passing on Porcello is one thing but Main or Smoker or someone with some upside just sucks. Honestly I would have rather taken Brackman!

  9. 109: Well, we can still hope for a chance at Brackman later in the draft. Smoker and Main and Porcello aren’t going to be there, though.

  10. And the Rangers nab Main. I hope the Padres really see something in Schmidt that isn’t immediately obvious.

  11. Well, maybe the good news is that Texas took Main … and we can fleece them again in a coupla more years after Main struggles a bit ???

  12. #113: Now you are glass-three-quarters-dude. ;-)

  13. 112: Schmidt probably would have been there for our first supplemental pick. Take the guy you’re afraid WON’T be there. And if you miss out, what did you miss? A lefty who throws 88 mph. I don’t believe for a second that he’s got 92 mph in that arm, not unless there’s a jet engine parked at second base blowing towards home.

  14. BA says about Schmidt:

    Schmidt was a second-team Preseason All-American, but he has since bypassed such pitchers as Jake Arrieta and Wes Roemer who rated ahead of him. He doesn’t have wow stuff, but he’s a big, durable lefthander who has been a No. 1 starter in the rugged Southeastern Conference since he was a freshman. His stock took a mild hit last summer, when his stuff was down a notch with Team USA. That was mostly the result of being tired after working 117 innings as a sophomore at Arkansas, but it didn’t stop Schmidt from winning the championship game at the World University Games in Cuba–a tribute to his competitive nature. He was a workhorse again this spring, exceeding 100 innings before the end of the regular season. Schmidt pitches off an 88-92 mph fastball and backs it up with a solid changeup and curveball. While he doesn’t have a swing-and-miss pitch, he does a fine job of using his 6-foot-5, 230-pound frame to drive his pitches down in the strike zone. He won’t be a No. 1 starter but should become a good No. 3 for the club that gets him toward the end of the first round.

  15. At least we got Latos, at least we got Latos.

  16. 114: That sounds like the glass is actually empty, but, wait, if we look closer we can see that their are actually air molecules in it, making it full.

  17. I think it’s clear they took the guy most likely to take slot money. The stinker is that they probably consider Latos their “upside” pick as the extra first rounder., even though he only cost 1.2, which of course is coming out of *this* year’s draft budget even though he was drafted last year

  18. 118: And dark matter, don’t forget dark matter. That stuff is everywhere.

  19. The part that bugs me about Schmidt is he doesn’t have good control. What exactly are you going to get by on if you don’t have a “swing and miss” pitch and you don’t have good control?

  20. Well looks like Porcello falls into Detroit’s lap

  21. I do like Schmidt better than Simmons. They can make up for this by taking some risks with those supplemental picks. Take Burgess next and I’m smiling again, my usual sunny self.

  22. Interesting to see where Fuson/Guyton go from here

  23. As a soph:

    5-2, 1.69 ERA in 53.1 IP, 29 H, 13 R, 10 ER, 22 BB, 67 SO, 2 HR

    As a Jr.:

    11-3, 2.69 ERA in 124.0 IP, 84 H, 42 R, 37 ER, 51 BB, 111 SO, 9 HR

    I should have included him in my draft list from yesterday, but I thought he’d be gone when we picked. Would I rather have Porcello, of course, but Schmidt has had a lot of success and not just this year. He is a “safe” pick but he’s also a solid if “unsexy” pick.

  24. Well rotoworld likes Schmidt to be in the majors by the end of 2008….for whatever thats worth

  25. 122

    The Rich get Rich-er!

  26. 123: Prepare yourself for a Simmons/Roemer pick next.

  27. TW if they do, I’ll SCREAM. Burgous was phenomenal as a Jr. but is striking out like crazy at the H.S. level. He & Borbon are highest on my bust list.

  28. 125: Those stats definitely are not too shabby for a kid coming out of the SEC.

  29. Urgh. I can’t believe the pick.
    No swing and miss stuff. That’s not a good sign, is it?

  30. 129: He didn’t stop knowing how to hit. I’d be willing to bet that he’s bored with HS. Plus-plus bat speed, plus-plus power, plus arm.

  31. 129 Part Deux: We have ample safe polished college players in the system. We have nobody who projects as even a 30 HR hitter, let alone a 40 HR, let alone a legitimate RF 40 HR hitter.

  32. 129.

    It’s been well reported that he was pitched around his senior year. I think TW might be right on with him getting bored at not seeing pitches to hit so he might have started to hack at everything. He still hit over .350 didn’t he?

  33. “We’re not afraid of Boras. We just honestly thought that Nick Schmidt was a better pitching prospect than Rick Porcello.”

    The supplemental round needs to start soon so I can get happy or dive deeper into depression.

  34. Matt Harvey still available?

  35. 136: XM radio is predicting Harvey to the Yanks

  36. #135: A quote like that almost makes me wish we were afraid of Boras.

  37. Nevermind, they took Brackman. Would we want to go after Harvey?

  38. Grady Fuson on XX in a few minutes. I hope they ask him something/anything about Porcello but something tells me it’s just going to be to talk about how great of a pick Schmidt was. yay

  39. Maybe they saw schmidt and thought Jason had somehow worked his way into the draft.

  40. 135.

    Is that a real quote?

  41. Noonan to the Giants in the supp round with the 32nd pick

  42. Schilling’s got a no-no through 7….

  43. Maybe someone will lay down a bunt

  44. 147: Where’s Brenly when he’s needed to set the rule?

  45. 142: No.

  46. Kellen Kulbacki with No. 40 by the Pads. Good call or bad call?

    According to the scouting brief:

    Kulbacki had a huge sophomore season when he hit .464 with 24 home runs. He’s followed it up with an outstanding junior season, good timing for a year with a weak college hitting class. While not a bad defender, it’s definitely his bat that will carry him, and it should carry him quite far.