Bonds and the Giants Are Not San Diego’s Team
Wed, Aug 8, 2007
by Geoff Young
If you open Wednesday’s San Diego Union-Tribune and turn to the sports section, you’ll see that the top 80+% of the front page is devoted to Barry Bonds’ passing of Hank Aaron on the all-time home-run list. Although Bonds’ achievement — regardless of how he may have gotten there — is impressive and newsworthy, the Giants don’t call San Diego home and are a complete non-factor in a very tight NL West race.
The Padres, who do call San Diego home and who shut out the Cardinals to pull to within a game of first-place Arizona, are relegated to a mere footnote. The entire bit above the fold is a (terrific) photograph of Bonds about to connect with the record-breaking homer, followed by a giant (Giant?) headline that reads, “Move Over, Hank.” If you were a stranger to San Diego and glanced at this morning’s paper, you might not even realize there is a big-league baseball team here.
I have no real problem with honoring Bonds, but for a local newspaper to do so at the expense of the team it’s supposed to be covering disgusts me. People will say that the home-run record transcends any pennant race, but I don’t buy it. Not here, not now. The Padres are one game out with 50 remaining, and local citizens deserve the best coverage possible of their team; instead they are treated to a painfully detailed account of one man’s actions as his team solidifies its status as the only irrelevant one in the division.
Padres fans deserve better than that. San Diegans deserve better than that. Everyone deserves better than that.
by Peter Friberg
The staff over at MadFriars.com visit each of the Padres’ minor league teams a few times every season. Each time they make a visit, we’ll ask a few questions and get their perspective on various topics germane to that team. By the way, if you like Padres’ minor league coverage, you must check them out at MadFriars.com.
This latest installment is from John Conniff, who recently returned from the Padres High-A affiliate, Lake Elsinore [Ed note: Due to my travels, I wasn't able to run this as soon as I would have liked; just pretend it's still the last week in July.]:
PPR: You and I have both seen the reports; some experts say Kyle Blanks has surprisingly little pop for a man his size, others say he projects to be at least a “70″ power guy. What really do the Padres have their hands on in Blanks?
MF: I believe many of these reports were based on what he did last year in Fort Wayne as opposed to what he is doing now in Lake Elsinore. He’s already has more extra base hits with the Storm than he did in his first two years of pro ball.
When speaking with Blanks, he claims he’s not doing anything dramatically different, but is recognizing pitches better and being more aggressive in hitters counts. I know this is not a whole lot to go on, but the simple fact is he’s 6′6″, at least 285 lbs. and when he takes a normal non-tentative swing the ball is going to go far.
He’ll be in San Antonio next year and the Padres are going to have to look into giving Blanks a little bit of time in the outfield with Adrian Gonzalez entrenched at first base in San Diego. We talked to the Padres earlier in the season about it and they seemed a little hesitant to do this, but Blanks may be the best right-handed hitter they have in the organization and in my opinion he has to prove that he can’t play in the outfield before becoming trade bait. With Blanks’ athleticism, arm and speed, I’m a little surprised they haven’t already tried this.
PPR: David Freese is a personal favorite, I think because I was the first person riding that bandwagon. I mentioned Blanks above and of course the Padres have Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff entrenched at first and third base, as well as several other players I loosely call “corner bats.” Where does Freese fit into that mix?
MF: Good question, but I think we’re going to see this become a bigger issue next year when both are a little closer to the majors at Double- and Triple-A. Chase Headley, as everyone knows, is having a big year, but Freese has been very solid as well, particularly in improving his OBP while maintaining his power. His defense has also been good; the man has a cannon at third. Right now I would give him a slight nod over both Headley and Kouzmanoff defensively.
I think the best indication of how good Freese has been may be in what you mentioned on Saturday night. If you add together Freese’s compilation statistics from last year and the first two months of this year he has the following between Eugene, Fort Wayne and Lake Elsinore:
458 AB, 39 2B, 21 HR, 107 RBI
You put together those numbers, you’re always going to be in the conversation.
It think the Padres have Matt Antonelli penciled in as their second baseman in 2009; the question is will they start two rookies in the lineup with either Headley, Blanks, Freese or Chad Huffman at either left field or third base?
PPR: You’re real high on Matt Buschmann. Talk about him and tell me why I should be, too.
MF: I like Buschmann, I’m not sure I’m “real high” on him, but he had a nice year at Eugene last year and made a pretty good jump straight to the Cal League this year. He’s improved every month that he has been with the Storm in what is a brutal hitters league. He throws a decent fastball, change and slider, and he competes. Buschmann is an intelligent guy out of Vanderbilt and has a chance to be a back of the rotation starter. When I interviewed him I was impressed at his knowledge of both pitching and what he is trying to do to improve on the mound. Right now, outside of Wade LeBlanc and Manny Ayala I like him as much as anyone in a rather starter poor organization, especially at the upper levels.
Overall the most impressive thing about Lake Elsinore this year was that six draft picks from the 2006 draft, Antonelli, Huffman, LeBlanc, Freese, Craig Cooper and Buschmann, not only made the squad but outside of Blanks and Ayala have all been either promoted to Double-A or on the verge.
PPR: Lastly, where in Lake Elsinore should I go for good pre-game eating?
MF: I think both you and Geoff identified In-N-Out as the place to go after the game, the quintessential California dining experience for burgers. If you have a little more time before the game, go up one exit and hit the small Lake Elsinore downtown sections, some nice little Taquerias, particularly Guadalajara. Huge portions, very tasty and made me curse living on the east coast, where don’t get to enjoy that type of food.
. . .
You will not see much… It was a pretty “blah” day for Padre prospects.
AAA
Will Startup: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR
Joe Thatcher: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR
AA
No games scheduled…
High-A
Kyle Blanks: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; HR - .302/.381/.556
Ernesto Frieri: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO, 0 HR
Low-A
No significant performances…
Short Season-A
Luis Durango: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; BB - .364/.416/.497
Danny Payne: 5 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 1 RBI; 2 3B - .284/.454/.362
Matt Teague: 4.0 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, 1 HR
Rookie
No game scheduled…
Commentary:
So Matt Teague can get Triple-A hitters out but not Northwest League hitters? I say that tongue-in-cheek… Itts just interesting.
Thanks, Peter. But how did Bonds do?
Picking up where last year's version left off, the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual provides in-depth analysis of and commentary on the San Diego Padres. Get your copy today.
August 8, 2007 at 7:23 am
Here’s a recap of the National League West from a betting site.
http://www.covers.com/articles.....54&t=0
August 8, 2007 at 7:23 am
It was really nice to see the pads deliver in the 9th with a men on 2B and 3B, with one out, those where the situations that killed us last month, I hope they have turned the corner and will go back to dominance this month.
August 8, 2007 at 7:29 am
#1: Cool, thanks for the link. The Rockies have been one of the most surprising teams to me this year. I figured they would be respectable, but I didn’t expect them to be fighting the Dodgers for third place this late.
August 8, 2007 at 8:10 am
I’m the first to complain about the U-T. It’s a horrible paper with almost no original reporting that devotes much more space to ads, photos and graphics than it does to articles. However, major sports records deserve huge coverage when they are broken. The Padres’ win was great, but it was one game of 162, and August is a little early to be excited about closing to within a game of first place. I think the U-T’s priorities were in the right place on this one.
(Although if the paper with an actual writing staff to provide articles, the Bonds photo could have been much smaller and left room for more Padres coverage.)
August 8, 2007 at 8:13 am
If you get a chance, tune in the Mighty XX - Towers is pretty much saying the Wells has made his last start with the Padres…the only question is does he want to retire, be released or traded.
August 8, 2007 at 8:21 am
4: I’m not sure how familiar you are with papers, but they almost always suffer from the problems you’ve identified. Only huge papers (i.e. the LA Times, the NY times, the WaPo, etc.) can really afford to have enough staff writers that they don’t have to run AP or Reuters stories. Typically, you’re staff writers are relegated to local coverage of city events and sports.
Also, most people fail to realize that newspapers make all of their money from advertising, not readership. As such, ads are a prominent piece in any paper, as this is what keeps them alive.
I’m not coming to the UT’s defense here, but you can’t just blast it for using wire stories and ads. Every paper that is not one of the biggest in the nation also does these exact same things.
August 8, 2007 at 8:26 am
#4: Interesting. How do you feel about the fact that the U-T kept Tom Glavine’s 300th win off the front page of the sports section on Monday?
August 8, 2007 at 8:51 am
5. Blum just confirmed on the radio that Wells told him he pitched his last game for the Padres.
If all of the options to take his place are internal, Clay Hensley could become a very important part of the Padres over the last 50 games.
August 8, 2007 at 9:07 am
7: I was just going to mention that. I think UT is just not very good paper and they know that to sell a few more copies, they needed the Barry Bonds HR to be the headline since the rest of the nation are talking about it.
This makes the UT not that different from any other newspaper. The problem is that the UT does this often to the point that somebody, as Geoff mentioned, not familiar with the Padres wouldn’t know they exist for that one day. Fortunately, it’s only one day. And the Tony Gwynn coverage was rather excellent.
As a baseball fan, I’d rather have had Tom Glavine’s 300th win on the front page than Bonds’ record HR on the front page, though.
August 8, 2007 at 9:09 am
8: Wow. Boomer is retiring, then.
August 8, 2007 at 9:22 am
1, 3: The Rockies are a machine. I remember thinking I thought they would be good (great offense, did not know their pitching well), but they got off to such a poor start, I thought “whatever is wrong with them is still wrong.” I guess I was wrong.
Since May 21, when they slipped to 9 under, winning percentages:
Colorado: .563
SF: .500
Arizona: .475
SD: .474
LA: .465
So they have been quietly playing the best baseball since late May. I kept pulling for them to lose to avoid a 4 team race, but here they are. This ought to be a wild division until the end.
DBacks: have been very lucky, but that luck is in the bank and they are playing better to match their fortuitous record, so they will tough.
Rockies: rolling
Padres: all of the re-tooling is keeping us in the race; if Clay can be decent and Germano keeps it together, we’ll have a shot
Dodgers: full of talent, but poor pitching and too much PT for some veterans, but they can re-bloom
SF: out of it, but no roll over, so those games will be tough
Again, thankful for the smarts of the organization. Our minor league system is getting re-stocked and our major team has locked in a few core players (AGon, Peavy, Young), but this division’s minor league talent, aside from SF, sounds very, very deep. It is going to be tough to stay competitive in this division for the next 5 years. Even though KT did not give up much for the re-tooling, this is probably one of our better years to shoot for the division title, so glad we made those moves.
August 8, 2007 at 9:31 am
I realize paper’s make their money from ads (I even place ads in the U-T for my clients). I realize wire stories are common. I also realize that the U-T is a complete embarrassment as the only daily paper for one of America’s largest cities.
I no longer support it with a subscription, so I was not aware of the Glavine issue. It certainly would warrant being on the front page of the Sports, though clearly Bonds’ record is a bigger story.
August 8, 2007 at 9:32 am
Also, just thinking about the trade with NY. Given that Bell has developed into what Linebrink has been for us (knocking on wood for it to continue) they basically turned Johnson and Adkins into Inman, Ledezma, Startup and Hatcher. We’ll see how all those guys play out, given neither Adkins or Johnson can get any PT in NY, that is a nice exchange.
August 8, 2007 at 9:59 am
Apropos of nothing, Geoff Blum is batting .321/.392/.443 since May 1:
http://www.baseball-reference......20:974:sum
August 8, 2007 at 10:05 am
I guess we’ve found our second baseman!
August 8, 2007 at 10:31 am
I work for the U-T’s competition, so I have no burning desire to defend it, but the paper did send Chris Jenkins to San Francisco. Yeah, not an expensive plane ticket, but papers these days are seemingly cutting just about everything they can. The U-T have Krasovic, Center, Jenkins and even Posner doing stuff on the Pads and MLB. And Canepa and Sullivan filing columns. Not too thin a staff.
August 8, 2007 at 10:40 am
Its interesting that the Padres only have two publications that travel with them on every road trip, the UT and MLB.com
The NC Times is only at home games.
I agree with most of what is written, the UT is a small town paper masquerading as a big city newspaper, but in terms of the Padres they seem to do a so-so job. They have the game story, a smaller notes one and an occasional column with a brief once a week report on the minors.
They do deserve some credit, Krasnovic was the first to break the story on Wells being released.
August 8, 2007 at 10:44 am
I admit that local sports coverage is the exception to the U-T’s worthliness. That and the comics were what kept me subscribing (as is probably the case with most people).
Moving on the to Padres…Geoff Blum is the man these days. How thin does your line-up have to get before Blum is the guy carrying your offense?! Answer: as thin as the Padres’ line-up. So long as they can keep him out of the outfield (Sunday was quite an adventure), he just might prove to be an asset.
August 8, 2007 at 10:47 am
re:11 - As long as we have Peavy and Young pitching for us as starters, we have a competitive baseball team. It is far, far easier to find a #3 or #4 starter than a #1 or #2, and when you can pencil in 400+ IP of top 10 ERA pitching and 60 starts, you have a very solid foundation each year you can do that. Regardless of what talent each NL West team has in their farm system, having two proven aces is worth much more. Given the cost of FA front line starters (when they are available, which is almost never), we probably have $40 mil/year worth or pitchers in Peavy and Young locked up at a fraction of that cost.
August 8, 2007 at 10:50 am
Sorry Geoff…you can’t compare the Glavine milestone with 756…not in the same league.
I happen to think that 756 is/was the biggest record in all of sports. No other number is more recognizable. When it goes down, regardless of rumor/innuendo/accusation/dislike, it is really big news deserving of really big print. I did not see the paper, as I have been traveling for the past 5 days, but based on how you described it, I am surprised that it did not take up 25% of the very Front Page.
August 8, 2007 at 10:57 am
17. There was no news broken. The possibility of it was just floated. Big difference.
August 8, 2007 at 10:58 am
17: For what it’s worth, the NCT beat writer usually covers NL West road games, even Denver. I know Hayes was there on the last visit.
August 8, 2007 at 11:10 am
21. I don’t know. I agree he did speculate some, but he also did some solid legwork in following it up.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....adres.html
22. I like the NC Times and know they do go to the NL West trips, just not to the NL Central or NL East usually.
August 8, 2007 at 11:28 am
On the UT, I pretty much only read Krasovic.
August 8, 2007 at 12:16 pm
The U-T’s football coverage is pretty good which probably says that there is much more local baseball coverage on the internet than football. In fact, I don’t think I read (or know any) Chargers blogs although I’m sure they are out there.
In the paper today, Towers mentioned that they aren’t too worried about Schmidt being shutdown as it’s more a function of his long season than anything else. I certainly hope that this is true because I don’t think there is any way for them to be successful if they keep throwing their draft picks away. I was on record as saying that they should have drafted Porcello, I hope this is not another Matt Bush situation where they get killed by going cheap.
August 8, 2007 at 12:19 pm
As far as Porcello is concerned, he’s still unsigned. There is a pretty decent chance that Detroit won’t sign him and he’ll be available again next year.
August 8, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Speaking of the draft, this is interesting (and free):
http://www.baseballprospectus......cleid=6545
August 8, 2007 at 12:30 pm
20.
I agree with you that Bonds has the most important record in sports. With that said Glavine may be the last pitcher to ever get that. They don’t compare but I think because of A-Rod getting 500 and Bonds going after 755 and 756 Glavine’s 300th got less pub than it deserved.
August 8, 2007 at 12:31 pm
The Padres had a nice little $3 million or so gap between their budget and what they actually spent. If they had spent what they said they were going to ($10 million), they could have had a decent shot at signing Porcello. And, hey, worst case scenario, they get the same pick again next year, when they probably won’t have as many picks to sign and could more afford to spend on someone that fell.
August 8, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Padres got their league leading 16th shutout last night. Interesting that the next closest team has 9. Pretty amazing disparity.
Plus, I haven’t seen anything that says Boomer is officially released. I’m thinking they’ll wait until they see what happens with CY and Germano.
August 8, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Re 30: From padres.com
http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com.....mp;c_id=sd
August 8, 2007 at 12:57 pm
“San Diego general manager Kevin Towers told XX Sports Radio on Wednesday that the 44-year-old left-hander [i.e. Wells] will not make his scheduled start Saturday in Cincinnati and that his career with the Padres is likely over.”
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/articl.....red=rss_sd
I can’t imagine a team trading for Wells at this point. Hopefully he’ll retire so the Padres can honor him before a game later this season. The fans love Boomer, and I think it would be a nice moment for him. I’m glad I got to see him in his last good start.
August 8, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Dave Cameron of USSMariner wants the M’s to pick up Wells to replace Horacio Ramirez in the rotation. I doubt any team will actually pick him or that any trade would involve anything of value, though.
http://ussmariner.com/2007/08/...../#comments
August 8, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Suppose MLB will pull a Rafael Palmeiro on Bonds? You know, bask in all of the publicity of a milestone (3000 hits, 756 home runs) and then, two weeks later, say he failed a drug test earlier in the year.
August 8, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Interesting article by David Pinto on the save stat:
http://www.baseballprospectus......cleid=6567
I think it has merit.
August 8, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Farewell, Boomer.
For some reason it’s a little sad to me although after watching him pitch Monday it was clear that he’s done - he has no out pitch to speak of. This precludes him from being used out of the ‘pen, too - he gives up so many hits and puts so many balls in play that he could only start an inning, and even then he’d need a big lead.
Still, though, 230 wins for a guy who couldn’t even be remotely described as an athlete is pretty darn good. Congrats Boomer, on a fine career.
Re #11: The most important stat you need to look at with regards to wins and losses is run differential. Go look it up. Notice something interesting? That’s right, the Diamondbacks have given up 40 more runs than they have scored, and the Padres have, by far, the best RD in the division (and in the NL, too.)
You could look it up.
August 8, 2007 at 3:02 pm
35. I agree with the article, especially the idea that a save should be awarded to a pitcher who actually saves another pitcher by coming in with men on base in any late inning. However, awarding the save based on which pitcher in a game improves his team’s likelihood of winning the most would only make sense to stat geeks (no offense). It is a stat that deserves study–especially by managers who save their best reliever to start the ninth rather than to get key outs in the 6th or 7th (and to agents representing middle relievers)–but very few fans would understand it. Besides, it would greatly diminish history’s appreciation of Trevor!
August 8, 2007 at 3:18 pm
37: Yup, there is that downside. I guess, Geoff is going to have to go shift thru the stats for Hoffman.
A good read all around. That and this:
http://tinyurl.com/yvfwcb
August 8, 2007 at 3:41 pm
36:
I agree that Pythagorean stadings are often more important than the real ones, until the season is over, that is. Even then, they Pythagorean standings can help examine a team’s season.
I keep the Pythagorean stadings in a spreadsheet and update them after Sunday’s games. The Red Sox are consistently No. 1 now, and the Yankees are No. 2. The Padres were consistently third in July. Now they are about sixth overall.
August 8, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I can’t complain about the U-T’s coverage, let alone be disgusted by it. Geoff said it himself - there are 50 games left. The Bonds story isn’t as big as it could’ve been, but it’s still huge. Glavine’s now #21 in career wins. I don’t expect front-page coverage until he passes the immortal Mickey Welch or Old Hoss Radbourn next season.
August 8, 2007 at 4:09 pm
#36
What tends to happen is that the Pythagorean standings (run differential) “catches up” to teams as the season progresses. Witness the Yankees - their RDs were always terrific this season, so it was just a matter of time before they were back in the thick of things, and they are - 5 games out as of today.
Very rarely - and maybe never, as I don’t have the means right now to do an in depth analysis - does a team win a pennant while being outscored by its opponents by 40 runs.
August 8, 2007 at 4:15 pm
I agree completely. Another team like the Yankees is the Cubs. Their run differential was great all year. And now they are fighting for first.
I think there has been one team to win a division with a negative run differential, but I’m not sure if that’s true or which team it was.
August 8, 2007 at 4:20 pm
#42: Five teams have taken their division with a negative run differential. The ‘87 Twins won it all despite being outscored by 20 runs during the regular season:
http://www.baseball-reference......1987.shtml
August 8, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Well done. Maybe that’s because the Twins had a couple very good starters and little after that in the rotation. Blyleven, Viola and, I believe, Les Straker was the No. 3 guy in the playoffs.
What are the other teams?
August 8, 2007 at 5:47 pm
#44: Can’t remember the other teams; they’re in my notes for the book somewhere. I know that the ‘94 Rangers led the AL West and had a -84 differential when MLB cancelled the season.
August 8, 2007 at 8:33 pm
The 1997 Giants are another: -9 runs (80-82 Pythagorean), finished 90-72.
http://www.baseball-reference......1997.shtml
August 8, 2007 at 11:51 pm
RE 36 & Wells: Don’t be fooled by the obese Wells who has been around for many years now. Once upon a time David was a fine athlete; he just found a niche where he could survive, and even excel, without maintaining the high level of connditioning normally associated with being a top athlete.
August 8, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Peter and Geoff, thanks for adding the excellent minor league coverage to DS! DS is the best place for Padres baseball, imo, and adding the great minor league analysis being provided by Peter has made it that much better.