Shifting gears a little, one idea I have for the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual is a chapter devoted to three or so former Padres that didn’t make our lists of top players in franchise history (2007 Annual) but whose accomplishments deserve attention. I’m knee deep in the 1969 season, so one of my subjects will be outfielder Ollie Brown.
This leaves two more ex-Padres to consider. With no real guidelines other than they cannot have appeared in last year’s book, who should we profile?
Here are a few names to help get us started:
Other resources that might prove useful:
Go nuts…
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.
Lemon Grove Co-Ed Slow-Pitch Softball
Becky Friberg: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 2 RBI – Clutch performance for someone who didn’t want to play. Thanks Honey!
AAA
Pete LaForest: 5 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 4 RBI; HR, 2 SO – played 3B
AA
Will Venable: 4 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; BB, 2 SB
High-A
Matt Antonelli: 2 AB, 2 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 3 BB
Brian Giles: 5 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 3 RBI; HR, SO
David Freese: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; 3B
Low-A
No significant performances…
Short Season-A
Jeremy McBryde: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 1 HR
Rookie
Yefri Carvajal: 3 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 2 RBI; 2B, SF
Geoff Vandel: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR
Orlando Lara: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR
Dylan Axelrod: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR
Commentary:
LaForest playing third base… Interesting. Is he Rob Deer or what? His 18 homers place him in the top five in the Pacific Coast League. His average… not so much. Laforest is hitting .204/.324/.535…
Brian Giles also had an outfield assist. I heard one of the Mighty XX talk show hosts mention that he was surprised that there has been so little talk about Giles’ impending return. He’s right; there hasn’t been much of a buzz surrounding Giles’ return. And while Giles’ 2007 numbers are not good (.276/.347/.347) I do think he’ll be an improvement over Sledge/Cruz.
Thanks, Peter. No game Thursday. Be excellent to one another…
45: Jack Cust put up a 1.000+ OPS in the majors….
48: Looks like we want the badass rep, trading for the “problem” players haha. I still think bradley is a 4th outfielder now we will have an outfield full of 4th outfielders plus cameron. We still need to make that big move for a corner outfield bat.
48.The Royals nixed a deal five days ago: Bradley for Leo Nunez, who has been on the 60 day DL because Bradley recently hurt his oblique. Stay tuned on this deal for a guy with a $4M contract.
45:yes, you keep violating that Cust-ban and we have to keeping checking and seeing stats like RISP w/2 outs14ABS/10RBI and1.542 OPS 8). Maybe it will be all good, since Bradley is available because of Cust per Sporting News. Is there anyone out there who would have honestly objected to a Cust for Bradley swap 2 months ago?
48: I think KT is definitely trying to make a run “this year”. I’m fairly impressed that we got him for just a minor league pitcher (although who that ends up being will be interesting), but we’ll see how Bradley, if the deal goes through, fares as a Padre. San Diego has a pretty good club house and I’m sure that someone like Cameron would help Bradley iron out any potential issues.
If we get Bradley, I think we’re done. However, I wouldn’t mind dealing a weak prospect to get Mark Loretta as a potential back-up for the stretch run. The Padres would love to have Lo back and this would allow us to jettison Geoff “I can’t tell my ass from a hole in the ground” Blum. I just read an MLBTR article that names Loretta as potential trade bait.
My vote goes to Dan Walters. He went from playing catcher for the Padres to patrolling the streets for the PD. He was wounded and paralzyed in the line of duty; he still lives in San Diego.
Guys, Blum isn’t a good enough to be a starter, no one says he is, but as a group, we are far too harsh on him. He is a decently useful bench player…
Absolutely Bip. That guy was amazing… Hands-down my favorite baseball player of all time.
- He was with the club longer than McCovey, Alomar, Vaughn, Ozzie, Sheff, the Crime Dog, Fernandez…
- He played 7 different positions at far above average ability, and near GG at 2B.
- He hit anywhere in the order with extra-base power, and was the best leadoff hitter in Padre history.
- One of the best base-stealers in the NL.
- Regularly scored 100 runs.
- A 300 hitter.
- And an absolute GAMER — played injured all the time (though he usually injured himself by playing so hard), and played wherever and whenever the club needed him.
- Has the record for longest at-bat because he would foul off so many pitches for the team to see, and to tire the pitcher out.
- Was Team MVP
- Did all this at like 5’7″ and 160.
Honestly, if you are talking about players that were Padres, and not just rentals for a few seasons, you have to talk about Bip…
58: Bip on Bip: “Absolutely Bip.”
That’s a better Rickey impersonation than I could manage. Or its getting late. Perhaps both.
#54. You have to look at this as trading Barfield for Kouz and Bradley. Cust found his place in baseball as a DH in the AL. On the Athletics blog, they are asking if we want Piazza back. They were also wondering if Beene was going to trade Bocachica for himself, if only he was to be named as the player to be named later.
52: If we’re getting Bradley, there’s little chance Towers is making a move for another corner outfielder. Unless he does something like package Crudge and a minor league prospect to a non-contending team, but I really don’t see that happening.
55: If we get Lorretta, Marcus goes on the bench. I wouldnt mind having Marcus come off the bench, theat makes our bench pretty stong.
I don’t think Loretta is a viable backup SS. Then again, I don’t think Blum is either.
I vote for Sexto Lezcano, if for no other reason than he lived next door to Marsh and I for over a year in Tierrasanta.
Other than that, I think the Rupert Jones call out is perfect – LOVED that guy when I was like 10 yrs old.
62: It ain’t 2004 anymore.
65: It aint 2003 either, Lorretta has looked much better than Marcus the last 2 years
There is no way that Ausmus was better for the Pads than Bip.
#67: You’ll get no argument from me…
67, 68: Nor from me. Roberts was a great hitter for the Padres who could move around the diamond without hurting you. Ausmus was…..good-looking, I guess, and he hit well in 1995.
And, honestly, who was a better lead-off man for the Pads? Quilvio was good, but not as versatile. Rickey was OK for the Pads. Really, I think Bip was the best leadoff guy we’ve ever had…