Happy Friday, and welcome to an extra special “you did all the work” edition of our weekly link roundup. Enjoy!
- Meredith keeps chin up despite Year 2 struggles (North County Times). In addition to the stuff on Cla Meredith, we learn that Milton Bradley “might not be ready to start until Tuesday in New York.” Can someone remind me why he wasn’t placed on the disabled list?
- Joyner plans no major changes (Padres.com, via LynchMob in the comments). I found this quote from new hitting coach Wally Joyner fascinating:
My hope is that we can continue what Merv [Rettenmund] has already done and what they have established. It’s nothing we’re changing.
Seems to me that what Rettenmund did got him fired, but maybe that’s me…
- Reader Masticore317 has posted HOF pics. Sweet!
- Low payroll doesn’t hurt some teams (FOX Sports, via LaMar in the comments). Dayn Perry looks at the payrolls of clubs that would make the playoffs if the season ended today. The Padres (24th) and Diamondbacks (26th) have the lowest among the 10 teams. Perry mentions San Diego’s geographical desirability as a key factor in luring free agents and keeping costs down but misses the more obvious and salient point that, for the most part, the front office has done a nice job of identifying and procuring good free agents. Of course, Towers also has made some excellent trades for cheap players that have become franchise cornerstones.
- The best and worst of the NL West (Hardball Times, via Didi in the comments). John Beamer reviews the contenders in the National League’s toughest division.
- Drama at Gaslamp Ball uncovers the worst defense of the worst trade rumor I’ve heard in a very long time. Tell ya what, let’s make it Marcus Giles for Javier Vazquez and cash. Yeah, I know that’s ridiculous. Backatcha… [Tip o' the Ducksnorts cap to reader Phantom.]
- A Look Back: The Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez to Padres Trade (Beyond the Boxscore, via Rain Delay in the comments). Mike Pinelski re-examines a franchise-changing deal. In the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual (operators are standing by!), this trade just missed the top 5 of Kevin Towers’ tenure as GM. It since has passed Brad Ausmus/Andujar Cedeno for John Flaherty/Chris Gomez, as well as Bip Roberts/Bryan Wolff for Wally Joyner/Aaron Dorlarque. In the book, I noted that “three years from now, this may well be the best trade Towers has made,” and I stand by that assessment.
- Garrison adjusts to new Padres surroundings (Princeton Packet, via LaMar in the comments). Fluff piece on left-hander Steve Garrison, one of three pitchers acquired from Milwaukee in the Scott Linebrink deal.
- Different Rules. Same Outcome. (Baseball Prospectus, via Ben B. in the comments). We had some great discussion on the MLB draft this week, and Rany Jazayerli offers his thoughts on the current slotting system. David Pinto, meanwhile, advocates dissolving the draft altogether, which isn’t such a bad idea given that the current system is pretty well failing at what it is supposed to accomplish.
- Pound (Your Head Against a Wall) Foolish (Dodger Thoughts, via Didi in the comments). Speaking of the draft, it’s not just small- and mid-market teams that aren’t paying the big bucks for some top guys.
- Baseball’s Particle Accelerator (Slate, via Padre Mike in the comments). Nice to see some mainstream love for the Gameday data revolution.
There you go. Now over to LynchMob for the PPR…
by LynchMob
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
Paul McAnulty: 4 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 3 RBI; HR (#3), CS
Tim Stauffer: 6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO (7-4, 4.69)
AA
Rained out.
High-A
Inland Empire 13, Lake Elsinore 10
David Freese: 5 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 4 RBI; 2B, HR (#15)
Craig Cooper: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI
Low-A
Cory Luebke: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 SO – yow!
Short Season-A
No game scheduled.
Rookie
Geoff Vandel: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO (5-2, 3.90)
Commentary:
McAnulty is just a couple of days off the DL. Edinson Rincon’s two-game hitting streak came to an end.
Thank you, sir! The Astros are in town for three over the weekend. Old friend Woody Williams gets the start Friday night against Jake Peavy. Assume the rest to be obvious…
Re: 49 maybe the 10 mil was taken out of context maybe the FO said “We have a $10 mil dollar draft budget as long as thats what it takes to sign everyone for slot money”
49: If Colon only wanted 3rd/4th money, I’m surprised we didn’t get him. He was rumored to want a 1st/1st supp/2nd rd bonus.
A solid draft is exactly how I see it. With all those picks and all that money, we had a legitimate shot at a great draft.
Part of the problem isn’t the front office talking so much – although they could stand to be less specific – but their shock when people pay attention. The Towers “crapshoot” comment really irks me in that regard. All the procedures they’ve talked about, all the due diligence they do (or claim to do), all the rationalized effort they told us about going into the draft, and then to try quieting people down by saying none of it really matters.
51: What’s the advantage for the Padres of other teams signing the players they draft? If the Cubs or Orioles spent 2 million more on their draftees than they wanted, it doesn’t hurt them in any way.
#53: Talking less would solve most of those problems. They wouldn’t tell us about process up front or have to try and explain themselves after the fact. Come to think of it, being less forthcoming with the public might help improve organizational efficiency.
54 … every team has a budget, don’t they? Prolly the Cubs and O’s budget is >> Padres … but it’s still a budget … and so any $$ that comments made by the Padres cause other teams to spend on the draft means they have fewer $$ left to spend elsewhere … like I said, it’s a stretch, but it makes some sense to me … to say “it doesn’t hurt them in any way” seems too simple … $2M is a lot of money no matter how you slice it!
One more response from Manuel in the BA chat:
56: 2 million is tiny in baseball terms. And the teams that are paying more are teams that can afford to. The teams that consistently spend more on their draft and farm system are also big players in free agency.
55: They wouldn’t need to be less forthcoming if they were more forethoughtful.
It’s not the telling us about beforehand that bothers me. It’s telling me about one process, doing something else, and then acting like the process wasn’t really important in the first place.
Re: 57 I have no idea how signing Latos has anything to do with signing Toledo. The Pads had the budget to sign him they just didnt want to pay him over slot and he had the leverage of going to college and trying again in 3 years.
#55: My proposed verbiage would be, “A plan has been developed for that purpose, and we intend to execute it to the best of our abilities.” I think that response would cover just about everything.
#59: I dunno, but at least one expert doesn’t seem to think Toledo deserves the attention he’s getting.
57: It wasn’t an either-or decision with Latos and Toledo. We already had Latos. Our scouts thought enough of Toledo to draft him in the 3rd round. We paid last year’s 3rd rounder 415,000. It doesn’t matter what “some teams” thought of Toledo, it matters what the Padres thought of him. If they saw him as a 160 pounder with little projection, why’d they pick him? Harvey was still there. So were a bunch of college pitchers.
61: The organization that expert works for ranked Toledo the 151st best draft prospect.
Nobody’s said he’s a can’t-miss prospect. Most of the guys we drafted, including the polished college pitchers, won’t see the big leagues. That would seem to make it even more important to hoard talent.
Not signing a third round draft pick seems like a funny thing to make such a big fuss over.