I can’t even begin to tell you how glad I am the Padres came back to win Thursday night. I’m not sure how much enthusiasm I could’ve faked if they’d lost to Shawn Chacon. Nice to see Khalil Greene render the umpires’ confusion regarding Josh Bard‘s 11th inning “double” irrelevant by driving home pinch-runner Rob Bowen from third.
Milestones? Mike Cameron knocked his 200th big-league homer (to win the game, no less), Trevor Hoffman nailed down save #498. And Bud Black’s ejection was his first as a player, coach, or manager. He’s now 129 behind Bobby Cox on the all-time list.
Also, it’s worth noting that the Padres finished May with an 18-9 record. Works for me.
Anyway, this is supposed to be a link post. Guess I should post some links, eh? Okay, then:
- Hoffman archiving his equipment (Padres.com, via Didi in the comments). Good read, if a little TMI in places: “Hoffman, though, said he had no plans to authenticate his underwear, promising to launder those garments in case he changes his mind.” Uh, thanks for that.
- Is Khalil a Bust? (Gaslamp Ball). Before you attempt to answer this question, bear in mind that by the end of the season, he likely will surpass Garry Templeton as the best shortstop in franchise history.
- Bush returning to the mound after struggles as a shortstop (San Diego Union-Tribune). Sure, why not. He was going absolutely nowhere as a position player. The fact that the Padres snagged him with the first pick overall in ’04 is never going to stop sucking. As long as he’s in the organization, they might as well try to turn him into something useful. Either it works and the Padres get a return on their investment or it doesn’t and, well, we’ve been resigned to that possibility for a while.
- Prospectus Q&A: Jack McKeon (Baseball Prospectus, via dprat in the comments). Former Padres GM Jack McKeon speaks. On Dick Williams: “He was a good manager with a world of experience, and he was a no-nonsense guy. He was the perfect guy for that ’84 club.”
- Deal or no deal (Yahoo! via LynchMob in the comments). Jeff Passan looks at the best and worst contracts in baseball. Jake Peavy and Chris Young represent the Padres, while Adrian Gonzalez also merits a mention.
- High school or college? Don’t lean too hard either way (ESPN, via Didi in the comments). Keith Law examines organizational preferences in the draft.
Onto the PPR:
by Peter Friberg
You will not see the original preamble in this location. It has been removed by popular demand. I wonder if you even noticed…
AAA
No notable performances…
AA
No game scheduled.
High-A
David Freese: 4 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 1 RBI; 2B – doubles machine; 18th
Low-A
Rayner Contreras: 5 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; SO
Cedric Hunter: 5 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; SO
Kyler Burke: 4 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; 2 SO
Ernesto Fieri: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR
Commentary:
It was the last day of May for Pete’s sake; of course the Padres came back to win…
Thanks, Peter.
The Padres head to Washington for a weekend series with the Nationals. No TV on Friday night, but for those who want to listen to Peavy pitch (swoosh!), we’ll have the IGD up and running around 3 p.m. PT. We’re crazy that way…
Must admit I wrote that game off in the eighth when yet again it seemed the padres could not hit the little white ball into the big green space. My wife keeps telling me to be a nice fan, and my dog was hiding because I was yelling so much. Guys are making 6k an hour and can’t hit the ball. So, needless to say I was very pleased at the extra inning heroics. Oh, ye of little faith.
i wanted to ask your opinion on OF Larry Bigbie opting out of his Minor League Contract with the Dodgers.
i think he’d be a better asset than bocachica.
i understand we need a righty off the bench, so pick up bigbie and keep bocachica.
send Sludge to AAA or release him, and option Macanulty to AAA as well.
Bigbie proved he can hit in spring training, and has continued to hit thus far in AAA.
i think itd be worth a try.
any thoughts?
heres the link to the bigbie thing.
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_6034207
2 … Sledge and McAnulty both proved they could hit AAA also … has Sledge had his chance? Perhaps … I’m OK with a bit more patience on him … I’m OK being done giving him his chance … AND for sure McAnulty has not yet had his chance! He deserves at least a couple of weeks of starts … doncha think?
Given yesterday’s BP STAT OF THE DAY …
Bottom 5 2007 AL Bullpens, by WXRL
Team, Inh Runs Prevented, WXRL
New York Yankees, -6.7, -0.726
Tampa Bay Devil Rays, -11.0, -0.219
Kansas City Royals, -6.3, 0.479
Oakland Athletics, -3.1, 0.984
Baltimore Orioles, -10.9, 1.129
… you’d think we’d be a good fit for a trade with the Yanks!
Wasn’t Bigbie a big prospect once? That might be worth a flyer.
An ode to Bo, Bo Jackson:
http://tinyurl.com/ywf4gu
as for a trade with the yanks, hell yeah let us have melky!
prolly wont happen haha. but we can hope.
as for bigbie check the stats this year so far particularly his OPS and OBP and his batting AVG.
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Larry%2520Bigbie&pos=OF&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=406933
as for Mac, hell yeah he deserves a chance but unfortunately hes just another lefty off the bench. hes a stud offensive player, im not sure hes ready yet, but sure he deserves a look.
but i absolutely cant stand sledge. he isnt hitting, he cant field, he cant run. what can he actually do?
PMac can hit. Give him the ABs that Sledge had so far and he’d have hit way better.
Bigbie may not be a bad pickup but the last thing the pads need is another left handed bench player.
Send Down Sledge
Cut Blum
Send Down Hampson
Call up Stansberry
Bench
Robles L
Bocachica R
P-Mac L
StansberryR
Branyan L
Bowen S
BTW, Sledge also hit very well in the minors last year so Bigbie’s numbers may not be as good either in the ML. After all, he didn’t stick with the Rockies either.
Sledge is at 100 AB’s and is barely over the Mendoza line. His OBP is over 100 points higher than his average but when your hitting .210 thats not say much.
9: Oh, yeah, I forgot about that fact. How convenient. Must wake up…grumble…grumble….
I like the cut Blum idea.
bigbie is proven, he just had a bad knee.
and he can actually field compared to sledge and sledges OBP and OPS have never been as monster as bigbies.
and i like the cut blum idea too we’ve already got Robles anyways.
so cut blum, cut sledge.
honestly if they could find a better backup catcher id be down to cut bowen too hah.
Bowen’s OBP vs .BA is even better than Sledge’s.
I am getting tired of Sledge either rolling over and hitting a weak grounder to the right side or striking out. What business does the .210 Sledge have swing at the first pitch in the ninth after the Giles walk. Heck, he almost hit into a double play. Take a pitch “Crudge” especially after the free swinging Giles walks on pitches way out of the strike zone. Also, on a different note, want to pull for a longshot (only 3 years as a pro) undrafted prospect who may have a legitimate shot to help the Padres, how about 24 year old SS Ray Chang (.329) of the Portland Beavers ?
To those of you joining us for the June 9 meetup at Petco, tix just arrived.
To those who haven’t hopped onboard, we still have a few seats available…
Just got my tix to the Eugene Emeralds Opening Day (Sunday, June 24th @ 4pm) … hoping Latos will be the SP … AND I want to make a comment about Latos … let’s not get too sky-high over this guy … he’s not a “#1 pick” … he’s starting his pro career at Short-Season A-ball … that’s *VERY* low in the minors … Ft Wayne will be a step *UP* … the number of even top-prospects that make it from this level to the Padres is very small … and, unless the guy is a *stud*, it takes a while. I’m just saying: get excited? yes! think he’ll help the Padres before 2010? probably not. The glass is only half-full, at most
17: At least, the glass is half full now as supposed to be almost empty.
6 … *THANKS* for the link, Didi …
HEY EVERYONE … PLEASE read the ‘Ode to Bo’ that’s in comment #6 … it’s a quick read … and it’s RIGHT ON!
I saw Bo play a game vs the A’s at the Oakland Colliseum that I’ll never forget … he did it all … hit a HR that was a mamoth blast … and played the awesome defense … the play I’ll never forget is that he threw out a runner at the plate, who started the play at 3B … really … I saw it … just pure fun!
Here we go, I found the box score … http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK199008300.shtml … which has the play-by-play details … the runner was Terry Steinbach in bottom of 7th … and Bo HR’d in top of 8th … in a game in which he’d already done the walk+SB+score thing, plus thrown out a runner at 3B (trying to advance from 1st on a single) … plus made 4 other catches in LF …
Ya, Bo was STUD … Superman? Perhaps
Cool Hoffman article… http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=2889753
It’s pretty much the same article written about Trevor 100 times before but it’s always nice to see a Padre article on the front page of a big website!
Hey Peter & TW or any of you other guys that seem to know a bunch about some of the draft prospects going into next week. Do any of you guys know anything about Michael Burgess? I read this… http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/highschool/05/31/michael.burgess/index.html and thought he sounds interesting.
BA doesn’t seem to think a lot of him saying that he tends to swing and miss a lot but that was really it. Any thoughts?
Thanks guys!
The Professor:
http://www.sportsline.com/print/mlb/story/10203587/1
I think a lot of Burgess. You don’t see many people compared to Sheffield in bat speed, but Burgess is supposed to be in that class.
The swings and misses might be worrying, or they might be a kid bored with his level of competition and just trying to see how far he can hit the next one. Tremendous power and has hit some of the top HS prospects.
http://tinyurl.com/33xogk
I’d sure as heck rather take him at 23 than Simmons or any other Polished College Pitchability dude.
23.
Thanks a lot for the link TW
Not that I really know a whole lot about the prospects and all but out of all the stuff I’ve read so far I think this kid is who I am pulling for at 23. I would love for the team to go out and take a high risk/reward athleticism type of guy. His power sounds crazy but having having ability in the field and a strong arm wouldn’t hurt in Petco either.
Or we could/should be able to find a trading partner from this list … today’s BP STAT OF THE DAY …
Bottom 5 2007 NL Bullpens, by WXRL
Team, Inh Runs Prevented, WXRL
Chicago Cubs, -4.5, -0.450
Cincinnati Reds, -15.0, -0.444
Colorado Rockies, -10.7, 0.116
Philadelphia Phillies, -3.6, 0.269
San Francisco Giants, -8.0, 1.297
The Phillies are the only team I see the pads trading with. The Cubs and reds are way to far our of the NL central race and will start looking to next year, the rockies and Giants are in the NL west and I dont see them trying to make the padres better.
A little musical number:
http://tinyurl.com/2b52zs
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