IGD: Padres vs Astros (17 Aug 07)
Fri, Aug 17, 2007
by Geoff Young
| time: | 7:05 p.m. PT |
| tv: | 4SD |
| sp: | Jake Peavy (13-5, 2.23) vs Woody Williams (6-12, 5.09) |
| pre: | Padres.com, SI.com, B-R.com |
Ladies and gentlemen, the people have spoken. It is their will that Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” shall be the cheesy ’70s song to lead the Padres onward in their quest for supremacy in the NL West, Major League Baseball, and the known universe. May the memory of Brad Delp serve them well along the way and carry them toward their ultimate goal…
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 17, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Brandon Webb is ridiculous. He’s got 40 shutout innings in a row and is working on getting to 42 by the end of the game. 93 pitches, two outs in the eighth.
August 17, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Woody Williams is at the end of his career (love ya Woody). Let’s keep the runs coming. Let’s raise some averages and most of all win.
August 17, 2007 at 7:23 pm
GY, I think that Boston song is lame for baseball (I like Boston). We need a song that rocks!
August 17, 2007 at 7:25 pm
My wife would have called that one a ‘corn on the cob.’
August 17, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Jake’s lips read: “God, that makes me mad!”
August 17, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Jake is dealing tonight, but he’s not pitching efficiently enough.
When Quis started talking about Zambrano’s new contract - 5 yrs, $91M - I again thought about how hard it’s going to be to resign Jake. That’s not going to be a fun negotiation.
August 17, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Damn, he got ALL of that.
August 17, 2007 at 7:49 pm
At least the umps saw Cammy catch that one!
August 17, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Do our announcers have college educations? They are removing all doubt every time they open their mouths.
August 17, 2007 at 8:09 pm
At least we are back to square one.
August 17, 2007 at 8:11 pm
9: are you talking about the periodical table of contents
August 17, 2007 at 8:14 pm
#11: No, their knowledge of light speed and distance.
August 17, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Or, lack thereof.
August 17, 2007 at 8:21 pm
If Cammy gets hit, best be in the ass. Hurts less.
August 17, 2007 at 8:28 pm
9 - they are, um, passionate for the game. It’s best that we not ask them for much more than that
August 17, 2007 at 8:31 pm
#15: At least Matty V. comes off as being somewhat educated beyond baseball.
August 17, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Does anybody know if Jake is in contention for this year’s CY Young Award? Or, who else would be even close?
August 17, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Woody has that look on his face like: “Shit, I’m gonna be the 3rd out again.”
August 17, 2007 at 8:48 pm
11 strikeouts is good
August 17, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Jake Peavy is so awesome. If the Cy Young were given out fairly, he’d be the runaway leader at this point, but since it’s mainly about having lots of wins, and being on a good team, and finishing the season hot, he’s probably only one of the guys in the mix at this point.
August 17, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Thanks Ben.
August 17, 2007 at 8:53 pm
We really need this run to give Jake the win, so he keeps up with the NL wins leaders, so that he does win the Cy Young. Actually, his contract increases if he does win the Cy Young, so it actually is better for the team if he’s screwed out of it. Anyway, I digress, we need to score here.
August 17, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Way to go, Blum. Anytime I think anything remotely nice about you, or suggest there maybe is a possibility that you’ll come through, you go and mess everything up. So you suck, Blum.
August 17, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Well, that pretty much sucks.
August 17, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Hi all, as you may know, Nick Schmidt is down, possibly headed toward Tommy John surgery. I recently wrote an article where I broke down his mechanics:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/m.....cks-21-30/
my quote:
“As I mentioned in the Jarrod Parker analysis in Part 1, I have something of an issue with the idea that durability and size are as closely related as many in baseball think. All things being equal, I’ll take the bigger guy (assuming he’s athletic), but Schmidt does something that would scare the hell out of me in terms of his durability long-term…..
Did you catch how quickly Schmidt stops his arm after release? He slams on the brakes pretty quick… Schmidt? No thanks.”
There was also this writeup on this paper:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....inors.html
“General Manager Kevin Towers said Nick Schmidt, shut down this month because of an elbow injury, raised no health concerns before the Padres selected him 23rd overall in the draft in June and guaranteed him $1.29 million. “(The doctor) thought he was one of the healthier guys he had seen,” Towers said. A former professional player, Carlos Gomez, who does video analysis of pitchers’ mechanics for Harballtimes.com, had red-flagged Schmidt before the draft, writing that the left-hander’s abrupt finish “would scare the hell out of me in terms of his durability.” Said Towers: “From a delivery standpoint, we didn’t send up any red flags.”
Just wondering…your thoughts?
Carlos, aka Chadbradfordwannabe
August 17, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Yeah Carlos, why did we sign a cripple going into 3/4 of the season?
August 17, 2007 at 9:18 pm
25 … Carlos - what’s your track record? In other words, how many pitchers over the past 10 years have you given a thumbs down to and how many of them have gotten injured versus how many of them have contributed to an MLB team?
August 17, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Good question LM.
August 17, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Nice DP.
August 17, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Is that the first time the claw has hit a batter.
Awww nice throw mang!!!
August 17, 2007 at 9:22 pm
I thought that had been strike 3. Sorry.
August 17, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Oh look, Blum is the potential tying run….
August 17, 2007 at 9:36 pm
B(l)um will f*ck this up.
August 17, 2007 at 9:36 pm
OK, Blum. It’s getting to be the magic hour of the season. Do your thing!!!!
August 17, 2007 at 9:36 pm
I am way behind on mlb tv
August 17, 2007 at 9:37 pm
33: Are you saying that would be out of character for him?
August 17, 2007 at 9:38 pm
#36: Not at all. And he does f*ck it up. Later.
August 17, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Bleh tomorrow is another day
August 17, 2007 at 9:50 pm
27 … Carlos … I didn’t mean for the tone of #27 to be standoffish … I appreciate the analysis you did … if you don’t have a track record, you appear to be off to a good start!
Question for you … what makes you say “possibly headed toward Tommy John surgery”? … all I’ve read says “shut down for a month” … of course, that was the precursor for Carillo also …
What % of pitchers that get TJ surgery come back better? Put another way, how much hope is there that if Schmidt does have TJ surgery that he will still contribute to the Padres in the future? (and the same question goes for Carillo)
August 17, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Sources tell me that he has a torn UCL and well, TJ is what you do with a torn UCL….
Didn’t take the question to be standoffish. Your question is very valid as I have no track record.
As to what % come back?—no idea
August 17, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Madfriars reported last night that the Padres sign’d Brady Clark to a minor league deal … couldn’t hurt, I s’pose …
40 … can you post a link to a video clip of Schmidt? how does a pitcher stop his arm after release? why wouldn’t coaches have already changed that? THANKS for coming to Ducksnorts to discuss Nick Schmidt …
August 17, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Schmidt is a great example of why this kind of analysis is both valuable and best left to people like Carlos who really know what they’re talking about. When Schmidt was drafted I looked at a few videos and liked what I saw because he seemed to keep his pitching arm relatively low. That just illustrates the old saw about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. Looking at the clips in Carlos’ article it’s frightening how abruptly Schmidt stops his arm. How does a pitcher make it all the way through college with mechanics like that, and how does a major league team not see there’s a problem?
It’s particularly troubling because I thought the main selling point of drafting a guy like Schmidt was his durability. Great work as always Carlos. If I was running a team I’d be looking for opinions from you and some of the other mechanics gurus before every move.
August 17, 2007 at 10:43 pm
41: One thing I’ve learned from reading Carlos’ work and that of others is that professional pitching coaches are shockingly ignorant of biomechanics. I would imagine it’s even worse in high school and college.
Carlos: Have you looked at Peavy’s mechanics? His follow through has always bothered me. He seems to whip his arm across his body rather than drive it down but maybe that’s due to his low three quarters delivery.
August 17, 2007 at 10:56 pm
43 … do you, or Carlos, know anything about Balsley’s knowledge of biomechanics? he seems to be an above average pitching coach (but granted that assessment is anecdotal on my part) … and i wonder how much, if any, input he had on the draft board …
also, one more question for Carlos … what are your biomechanics credentials? … and how do you assess the knowledge of biomechanics of professional pitching coaches?
(and i wonder how anyone can be “even worse” than “shockingly ignorant”?)
August 17, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Lynch-If you go to that article link I posted, you’ll see clips of Schmidt.
In terms of credentials, all I can tell you is that I’ve done my research since I’m no Ph.D in it. Basically, I have learned from what I’ve been taught and have researched. I’m honestly not as interested in “injury stuff” as I am in maximizing arm speed and performance, so I tend to like pitchers that are more aggressive and yes—higher-risk than most.
Hence my endorsement after the draft last year of Lincecum–risky? yes. An excellent example of rotational efficiency? absolutely.
As to Peavy, he’s been on my list of projects for a while, but haven’t gotten around to do it. Peavy is a guy who again, is risky, but would you rather have Peavy tone it down and throw 87-88mph or less?
Yeah, risky… but hey, I love his aggressive mechanics.
And Anthony, thanks for the props. But I really don’t consider myself a “guru,” just a very interested, very researched observer. I’d say be very weary of annointing someone as a “guru”, but hey, thanks dude…LOL
IMO, pitching coaches, for the most part, are WAY behind in terms of knowledge of biomechanics. My pitching coaches, even at the pro level, basically spew out the same crap over and over.
August 18, 2007 at 9:16 am
45 … I see pictures of clips at the HBT web page … but I don’t see any links to click on that will roll video … am I missing something?
re: Linececum … I thought you said you had “no track record”
Carlos … what are your plans for pursuing your interest in “maximizing arm speed and performance”?
Who were your teachers … and how/where did you do your research?
Pitching arm health and performance are obviously 2 very complicated and valuable subjects … and it sounds like you think that even MLB teams under-invest in research/knowledge in these areas … why? In other words, do you think that these are areas that are ripe for a team getting a competitive advantage? … and, assuming so, are any teams going in that direction? … and if none, what will it take for some team to see opportunities? (I guess I gotta believe that some teams either have or are seeking those opportunities, so I guess I’m asking for your view on the history of those efforts)