| time: | 4:05 p.m. PT |
| tv: | 4SD, ESPN |
| sp: | David Wells (5-7, 5.18) vs Braden Looper (8-9, 5.23) |
| pre: | Padres.com, SI.com |
I would totally rip on Cardinals starter Braden Looper here, but the truth is, David Wells has been even worse. Looper actually has decent numbers at home (3.51 ERA, .251/.309/.374). He also gets lit up pretty well after 50 pitches (.333/.392/.527), which raises the question of why he’s not in the bullpen, where he’s been all his career, but I digress.
Wells? I dunno, it’s probably the plate umpire’s fault. Go Padres!
And now we’ve cleared the bench…i guess we’re throwing in the towel tonight. If we’re gonna lose, it can’t hurt to give Cameron some rest and for OG to get to rest his ankle a little more.
Khalil doesn’t like being in second place in team HRs.
I’m going to put a decent portion of the blame for that inning on Black as well. How is he not aware at this stage that Wells loses it really quickly? Why did he not pull Wells after Pujols hit, when the game was still close, when he could have gone to an actual good reliever like Meredith to get out of there?
53: Agreed. Black left him in way too long, and also is the guy who replaced him with Thompson to make it so there is little chance of a comeback.
My biggest fear is that if the Padres make the postseason, Black gives Wells a start. Though, you have to hope Towers puts an end to the Wells experiment soon.
GEOFF – don’t know if you’ll see this post, but I just completed your write-up about the trading deadline moves. Absutely fantastic stuff. It’s this kind of writing that keeps so many of us excited to check your write-ups each day. Great stuff Geoff.
The problem is, we don’t really have better options than Wells. I guess there is Hensley, but then if anyone gets injured we’re stuck with someone like Mike Thompson starting.
Cards are wearing #32 on their right sleeve. Does anyone know who that is and why they are wearing it?
Side note: I just realized this game is also on ESPN. Not a good day to be on national TV.
57: Josh Hancock, I would assume
I like to think that we’re winning: 2 innings to 1….
It’s even more of a blowout than that, Marsh. It’s 3 innings to 1!
60: I was going by net score per inning… still, I like the enthusiasm!
61: Ah, good thinking. It’s how they determine record over the course of the season (11-0 wins don’t count for any more than 3-2 wins do); why not apply it to this specific game where it helps us?
Anybody still watching on Ch. 4, did you just hear someone, Matt I think it was, go on a bit of a rant in the booth that was supposed to be muted out, but there was an open mic somewhere that caught a few choice profanities? Right after his remark about the El Camino. Pretty hilarious – I rewound the TiVo to listen to it a couple of times.
62: Yeah, let’s hope we’re going to hold this “victory” at 3-1…..
wait, I’m a moron… of course we’re going to hold it… St Louis gave up and doesn’t even want to hit in the 9th… NICE… big victory.. 3-1…..
Maybe that’s why Black didn’t take Wells out until he had given up 7 runs and put us way behind: we had already lost the inning, so what was the point in trying to limit the damage done.
Well, looking on the bright side…Thompson went 4 innings and gave the rest of the pen a night off. Bradley is one day closer to being healthy, and so is Chris Young for that matter. The boys showed some good power with the bats. And hopefully Black has another data point to use when considering how to handle Wells…namely, get him out of there at the first sign of trouble.
66: Perhaps he was trying to stretch Wells in order to save the ‘pen given the innings they recently had to pitch.
Another great start tonight for Will Inman at AA San Antonio.
Also, I guess to have to trade talent to get talent (Bradley) but it still hurts to lose Andrew Brown. He has incredible stuff. He has struck out five of the six batters he faced tonight against the Rangers and has been lights out since he was called up a month or so ago.
Sad to see Wells continue to perform so poorly. I hope once CY is back in the rotation Wells is let go and Hensley is ready to pitch like he did during the second half last season. Germano is not great, but he is fine as a 5th starter, decidedly a better option than Wells.
The most disturbing thing about how Wells is pitching, to me, is the way Black handles him. As so many have pointed out so many times, Black stays with Wells, and Maddux, too, for too long. I think his background as a pitcher may lead him to be too slow to pull a guy. Still, it’s his rookie season and he may learn and develop.
Go Padres!
Garrisson has been pretty impressive with the Storm! I am liking the Linebrink trade. I really think Thatcher should be on the big league club. He had some fielding jitters, but Thompson proved he wasnt any better fielding the position.
It’s obvious that Wells is done. Maybe the Pads could pickup a vet that clears waivers like a Steve Trachsel. If they can get one decent arm in this rotation to take Well’s spot in the last 2 months and if he has 4 or 5 decent starts than they win the West. The Padres will hit better in the last 2 months so the usual marginal quality start will do. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a decent starter to surface.
Wells still has a low walk rate, but his low strikeout rate combined with low ground ball rate are leading to a lot of hits. His peripherals are still better than Hensley’s or Thompson’s, so I’m not sure what our alternatives are. A guy like Trachsel probably isn’t the answer since he’s actually striking out fewer batters than Wells while issuing more free passes and inducing roughly the same amount of grounders.
Well’s actually has a lower WHIP than guys like Livon Hernandez or even Dontrelle Willis but he has been so incredibly bad over the last four or five starts that you have to wonder, at 44 years old, this is the end. How many more starts does he get is the big question ? I personally think he is done but we shall see.
74: He has so few walks partly because guys have no reason to work the count. What’s his oBA? Something like .320, I think. Dude is finished.
And even though he has low walks, he has been walking guys at a higher rate than ever before, or at least at a higher rate than when he was a young pitcher learning how to perform at the ML level.
Wells looks done to me. He doesn’t have any zip in his fastballs, his curveball is no longer being called strike and if he can’t spot his pitches (walking more batters than his career rate), he is competely toast. All hitters had to do were wait on their pitches to hit and swing away.
Pepe Negro has been terrible in handling Wells since the ASB. He left him in the game too long and unwilling to pull him with the first sign of trouble. Even his comment from yesterday’s game was terrible. Pepe thinks that Wells was mostly unlucky other than two hits. I think one can only be unlucky for so long. Granted, Silent L wasn’t helping the cause with his lack of range but when a pitcher gave up hits in a row, it’s time to pull the plug, unlucky or not.
Yesteday’s game was a typical Pepe’s slow pull in Wells’ start. Up 3-0 after 4 IP, Wells went back and couldn’t get any out, gave up the lead and Thompson had to come in to get the rest of the 12 outs anyway. Pepe could have put Thompson in before the game went out of hand but he didn’t. Thompson, btw, did an good job in relief while giving the rest of the bullpen some rest.
In previous Wells’ start, Pepe let him go back to start the 6th inning after a 5 IP 2 ER work and Wells proceeded to gave up 3 more runs to put the team further in the hole while getting only an out. The bullpen had to come in early anyway (again) and hold the score. The Padres went on to tie the game to go on and lose in extra innings.
The Houston game was a terrible start for Wells from the beginning and he got pulled after 3 IP. He wasn’t pulled after 3 IP 6 ER in the Phillies game. He, in fact, singled at the bottom of the 3rd and went back out in the 4th inning and was pulled after getting one out and giving up another run. I was at the Phillies game and didn’t see any bullpen activity in the 3rd inning. I’m guessing that Pepe was hoping that Wells would be able to get 6 more outs.
I understand that the bullpen has been used a lot over the last two weeks or so. Part of that was the bad starts by Wells. David Wells, as we know, has diabetes now and he is 44 years old. His health and stamina has been needing even closer monitoring than before. For a manager to fail to do a better job with David Wells is detrimental to the team’s success, and the player’s health and ego. As a manager, Pepe should change his handling of David Wells when the cost of that consistent handling are the diminishing chance for the team to win games and the depletion of the bullpen.
When Clay Hensley returns to the rotation, I’m all for pairing David Wells and Justin Germano in the same game. Have Wells start the game with a strict pitch count and no more than 5 IP maximum, preferable only 4 IP. Relieve Wells with Germano to pitch from the opposite side and go as far as he can. Perhaps, this will give both players the best chance to succeed and the team a better chance to win those game while still preserving one player’s health and ego, and keeping the bullpen fresh for other games.
#55: Thanks, Marsh. Much appreciated!