For the second time this season, the Padres won despite collecting just two hits. Tuesday night’s contest (recap | boxscore) might not have been pretty, but last I checked, there aren’t any bonus points for style.
Although Chris Young wasn’t at his best, he battled for seven innings and kept his team in the game. The Dodgers wasted a huge opportunity in the seventh when Russell Martin slipped rounding second on a single to right by Winston Tony Abreu. A runner on second with two out is nothing like runners at the corners with one out.
Give credit to Hiram Bocachica for hitting the cutoff man, allowing the Padres to capitalize on Martin’s blunder. Give credit also to Young for repeatedly throwing over to first and helping to wear down the runner. Between Young’s throws over and numerous foul balls off the bat of Andre Ethier and Abreu on pitches where Martin was running, the Dodgers’ talented young catcher had logged some serious frequent flier miles by the time Abreu finally put the ball in play.
From that point, it became a battle of the bullpens. You know how that ends most nights.
Kudos also to Russell Branyan for his pinch-hit appearance in the eighth. After falling behind in the count, 0-2, he took two pitches and fouled another before being plunked on the foot. Branyan then stole his 10th career base (not a bad percentage move — he hasn’t been thrown out since July 4, 2002) and scored on a Marcus Giles single, the Padres’ second hit of the game.
Scott Linebrink worked a scoreless eighth for the victory. Trevor Hoffman closed it out with his 17th save of the season and 499th of his career.
by Peter Friberg
You will not see the Dodgers score on Chris Young…
AAA
Craig Stansberry: 5 AB, 0 R, 3 H, 3 RBI; SB
Vince Sinisi: 4 AB, 1 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; BB, 3 SO, SB
Royce Ring: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR
AA
Chase Headley: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 1 RBI; HR – 10th (12 in ’06)
Will Venable: 2 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; BB, SB
Sean Thompson: 4.2 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR
High-A
David Freese: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI
Chad Huffman: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 2 RBI; 2 2B
Low-A
Cedric Hunter: 4 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; SO
Commentary:
No commentary today — sorry.
Draft Wishlist
This is not a complete draft ranking. I included players that I liked and those that I thought the Padres were or should be considering with their first 6 picks (23, 40, 46, 57, 63, and 64). And I left players off who project to be gone before the Padres pick at 23…
Matt Wieters, C, Georgia Tech — There’s a chance that Boras’ demands are scaring off suitors (supposedly: 4-year MLB deal worth $9.5M according to BA). If a talent like Wieters (who BA ranks as the #2 prospect in the draft) slips as far as the Padres, Towers and Fuson need to convince John Moores to step up and sign Matt (they can probably get a deal done with a $3-4M signing bonus + $2-4M, 4-year annual MLB contract). Boras is likely trying to get Wieters to slide to the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Tigers or another free-spending club.
Michael Main, RHP, Deland (Fla.) HS — I finally got an expert’s opinion on Main as an outfielder. He’s “raw.” He also doesn’t project as a first-rounder as a position player. His arm still warrants the pick.
Kyle Blair, RHP, Los Gatos (Calif.) HS
Kevin Ahrens, 3B, Memorial HS, Houston
Josh Smoker, LHP, Calhoun (Ga.) HS — Josh is among the high school hurlers who will probably go in the first round. However, thanks to the depth of that subset, at least one mid-first round worthy high school pitcher will probably slide into the mid-late 20′s… At least one draft expert expects Smoker to be the pitcher holding the short straw.
Pete Kozma, SS, Owasso (Okla.) HS
James Simmons, RHP, UC Riverside
Nick Noonan, 2B/SS, Parker HS, San Diego — If Noonan can play shortstop (that is reportedly not the case) he would move ahead of Kozma in my book. Even as a second base (or converted to center field?) Noonan is quite the talent.
Will Middlebrooks, 3B, Liberty-Elyau HS, Texarkana, Texas — There is no way that both Ahrens and Middlebrooks are available when the Padres pick at 23 (though one of them probably will be) and both will likely be gone by the time the Padres pick again at 40.
Kellen Kulbacki, OF, James Madison — I really want this bat in the Padres organization. He may be available with one of the later sandwich picks. I wouldn’t be upset if the Padres popped him with their 40th or 46th pick, but I’ll be thrilled if they grab him at 63-64.
Matt LaPorta, 1B, Florida
Chris Withrow, RHP, Midland (Texas) Christian HS
Nevin Griffith, RHP, Middleton HS, Tampa
Travis d’Arnaud, C, Lakewood (Calif.) HS — d’Arnaud is considered to be one of the top three defensive high school position players in the country. Travis “consistently [gets] his throws to second base in 1.9 seconds.” He also has enough bat to move off catcher, but he’s considered “too good” of a catcher to move.
Nick Hagadone, LHP, Washington
Todd Frazier, 3B/OF, Rutgers
Nathan Vineyard, LHP, Woodland HS, Cartersville, Ga.
Jordan Zimmerman, RHP, Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Sam Demel, RHP, Texas Christian
Neil Ramirez, RHP, Kempsville (Va.) HS
Grant Desme, OF, Cal Poly
Josh Donaldson, C, Auburn
Thanks, Peter!
Greg Maddux gets the call Wednesday night agains the surprising Randy Wolf. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. PT; you know the rest…
I also wouldn’t mind taking Brackman relatively early-top-3 rounds-but I think that Boras is going to command an unreasonable amount for him.
I can think of two comps for Brackman-guys who had huge stuff, but just didn’t succeed and post the kind of numbers that they should have in college: Justin Verlander and Jason Neighborall.
Verlander was a guy I really did not want the Padres to consider #1. He had huge stuff, but was a bust in college, getting knocked around consistently by Ivy League teams. Turns out, the Tigers knew how to fix a flaw in his delivery and now he’s a superstar.
Neighborall was the same way, but now is one of the worst pitchers in organized baseball…some truly astounding ugly numbers in the D-Backs system.
I think that a guy like Brackman is where you really trust your coaching and scouting staff. If somebody thinks that they can fix him, he’s worth whatever Boras will charge. If the Padres take him, I’ll be really excited because I don’t think Fuson and co would take him if they didn’t see a correctable flaw.
I think the draft is going to give all of us a good idea about the trading deadline and FA next year
51: Verlander had a lot better peripheral numbers than Brackman, though. Otherwise I agree with your assessment. If you think you can fix him, an athletic maybe 7 foot tall pitcher who throws in the high 90s is worth the money.
Kevin Goldstein of BP has us taking Joe Savery with 23.
Well BP has the Padres taking Joe Savery which I’d be ok with….although it would sure be nice to see them take Porcello if he were still available as BP is suggesting.
Heard the theory you can keep your backup SS at AAA. SCRATCH that.
I wonder if Michael Main will drop to us at 23.
56: The theory is that you keep a “true” shortstop in reserve at AAA, the guy with enough defensive chops to play there everyday if you lose your major league starter for 2 weeks or more. On your 25 man roster you have a utility infielder who “can” play short for a short time, but his defensive prowess isn’t the most important part of his game.
Blum actually qualifies as an appropriate backup infielder. He’s just being misused offensively.
55: Ditto. Porcello at 23 would be great. So would Main (57).
55. Porcello would be nice, but I think he might eat up the entire draft budget by himself.
60: Close to half for the signing bonus, then the major league deal part comes out of the annual payroll. A big check, to be sure.
Sorry, everybody. My posts are being held up. GY is doing yeoman’s work getting around his filters, but when they’re inserted they screw up the numbering.
Alderson on 1090 right now….claims they aren’t scared by Boras
Alderson is on XX right now…
1. Not scared by Boras
2. If someone slips today’s rules allow us to take a chance on that player
3. If we draft a guy & don’t sign him we get that number pick +1 next year (i.e. unsigned 46 in this year is 47 next year)
If Wieters falls, the Padres seem prepared to take him as I suggested.
Peter’s last:
2. Yes, but I’m pretty sure that only works for one year. The next draft you either sign your make-up pick or lose it.
65.
Consider me on the bandwagon!!! I have a hard time believing he falls but I seriously hope he does. If we got him signed I might officially be over the whole Matt Bush thing.
67 … good point … it was interesting to hear SA at last year’s BP Pizza Feed talk about “the whole Matt Bush thing” … he made it clear that that happened before the regime change … I infer’d from that that not only will he not let it happen again, but he realizes that it was a big enough deal for fans that if gets an opportunity to help us “be over” it, he’d do it.
Teams with a lot of picks, like the Padres, could really mess with Boras by selecting one or more of his players, use most of their draft budget on other non-Boras players, and then have Boras accept slot or rot. This could also be a way of equalizing pick numbers over a period of drafts, provided the team could take the PR hit of not signing said draft picks.
Not saying I advocate doing this just to spite Boras, but I don’t think teams in the Padres’ position have any reason to be intimidated by him this year. Smaller market teams with fewer draft picks have more reason to worry about selecting a Boras client.
re 66: teams shouldn’t have too much of a problem with a use it or lose it compensatory. Counter strategy would be to take a riskier sign with the regular pick, and take a signability guy with the compensatory.
Talking about Wieters is nice and all, but with almost everyone saying he goes to the Nationals at 6….might be time to think about other choices.
He does make the most sense given the situation behind the plate in the farm system.
http://tinyurl.com/2z6jgl
KT got some props.
71:
Yeah, I’ve got to think that there is no way that Weiter’s falls to usat 23.
Even if Porcello falls to us, I’m really leery of giving a high schooler a major league contract. I wouldn’t mind drafting him and making him a well-above slot offer, but I don’t want to start his clock that early or feel pressured to call him up before he’s ready.
Yeah I think Porcello wanting a big league contract and actually getting one are two very different things…..a week ago Latos wanted 3.2M
74.
Good point!
72 … thanks for the link … re: “organization depth”, OK, they don’t have “depth”, but as of NOW, they’ve got more “legitimate prospects” than they did at the start of the season … until we got April and May under our belt, Antonelli and Headley were *not* “legitimate prospects” … ie. prospects that can be described as “the top-end minor-league prospects that will allow them to compete with, say, the Dodgers, if, say, Mark Teixeira or Andruw Jones or Miguel Cabrera or Alex Rodriguez or Torii Hunter or Jermaine Dye or Carl Crawford or Troy Glaus come free.” … but I think they are *NOW* … and if that’s what it takes to get one of those guys for a 2007 push into the post-season, then I’m all for it!
Re: 76 they are “legitimate prospects†but they are still A ball prospects and A Ball prospects dont get the players you just mentioned.
the only chips the pads have at the moment are Hensley/Germano, any and all of the relivers in AAA and Headly.
77: Headley’s in AA and as Alderson on XX today, once a guy is having success in AA he’s essentially MLB-ready. Now do we have a lot of guys like him? Of course not, but let’s not get all ‘doom & gloom’ on us…
see post 78, all im saying is that you cant get alot for A ball prospects, let the storm guys play in AA for a few months and have the same kind of success and then they will become the kind of trade bait that can get you the guys mentioned.
79 … BINGO, PF (or is it LN now?) … I think Steve’s post (#77) helps me make my point … the perception from prior to the start of this season is that all our prospects are in “Low Minors” … and clearly Headley has improved his stock to be a legitimate chip in a trade of the magnitude that we’re talking about (ie. for a BIG GUN). And I’d bet that Antonelli is right on the border of being such a chip (much moreso than the other guys at Lake Elsinore) …
In fact, if we do make such a trade, I’m betting that we’ll see MUCH gnashing-of-teeth here for giving up a prospect as good as Headley for a “3-month rental” … my point is that I’m up for that … this 2007 Padre team is THAT close to being a team that can go all the way … they are very poised to trade a lot of potential-future-value for a lot of now-stud-bopper-value.
I’d think Huffman would have more value then Antonelli…especially for an American League team
82 … I don’t necessarily disagree with you … the key reason I’m saying what I’m saying is that Antonelli was VERY highly regarded a year ago … ie. he was a FIRST round pick … and now he’s doing well in High-A … I don’t know that Huffman has yet done enough to pass Antonelli in the perceived-ceiling-competition …
DRAFT CHAT … I listened to some of John Manual (from BA) on XX earlier today (post #44) … he was VERY high on Joe Savery, LHP, Rice … which prompted me to ask a friend of mine who’s a HUGE Rice fan and, I’ve found, is a very good judge of baseball talent … here’s what he said (after reading this comment at BP http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6306) …
I agree that the game vs. TCU was his best of the year—he wasn’t blowing them away but was clearly in control of the game. I didn’t realize he’d had any surgery… sounds like maybe some sort of scope procedure. I also didn’t realize he was hitting 96 mph against TCU. It seems like he’s been low 90s all year, which is good enough to get to the majors if you’re a good lefty and can hit your spots with all 3 pitches. My observation is he tends to get his off-speed pitches up or in the dirt, but against college hitters that’s usually good enough. I still say he doesn’t have the toughness of a Townsend, the polish of a Humber, or the overpowering stuff of a Niemann. So they’re thinking maybe a sandwich pick… I guess if he hit 96 that’s not unreasonable. And I suppose you could say that earlier in the year he didn’t have his best stuff but was still very effective, which is a positive indicator…
… one reason this is of interest to me is that Savery got taken by the Mock-Padres in the Sickles Mock Draft recently … with pick #57 … ymmv …
Yeah, I listened to some of Manual on XX today as well. I’ll admit that I didn’t know about the surgery either. And while shoulder-surgeries scare the hell out of me, if Manuel dismissed it, it’s probably dismissable… His lack of K’s still worry me – HUGE red flag, but maybe the recovery was why…
According to MGL’s UZR, Cameron was the best Center Fielder in the NL last year and Giles was the best Right Fielder in the Majors.