There’s too much blame to go around for Tuesday night’s loss (box score) to focus on any one person or play. I should talk about it, but I’m not sure where to start.
Perhaps more troubling, the general negativity toward this team among “average fans” is starting to wear on me. It causes me to wonder things I shouldn’t wonder, like whether this city deserves a championship. It is sucking a lot of fun out of the sport, which is just bizarre. I can’t remember a time when I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed baseball.
Anyway, I’ll get over it. If you want to know why I don’t have more to say about Chris Young‘s inability to locate, Terrmel Sledge‘s brain lock on the basepaths, or Trevor Hoffman‘s implosion, there it is.
Maybe things are better down on the farm…
by LynchMob
AAA
Brady Clark: 4 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 1 RBI; 2B (#2)
Tim Stauffer: 7.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO (8-4, 4.40)
AA
Will Venable: 4 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 0 RBI; BB
Chase Headley: 5 AB, 0 R, 3 H, 1 RBI; 2 2B (#33,34), 2 SO
Nick Hundley: 5 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 1 RBI; HR (#20)
Mike Ekstrom: 5.0 IP 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO
High-A
Bakersfield 7, Lake Elsinore 4
David Freese: 4 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 1 RBI; 2B (#29)
Low-A
Dayton 6, Fort Wayne 2 (Game 1)
Fort Wayne 3, Dayton 0 (Game 2)
Cedric Hunter: 4 AB, 0 R, 3 H, 1 RBI; 2B (#18) (Game 2)
Cory Luebke: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO (1-2, 3.33) (Game 2)
Short Season-A
Luis Durango: 4 AB, 2 R, 3 H, 0 RBI; 2B (#6), BB
Mitch Canham: 4 AB, 2 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; 3B (#1), BB, SO
Kellen Kulbacki: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; BB
Danny Payne: 4 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 3 RBI; SO
Rookie
No notable performances.
Commentary:
Stauffer’s outings lately seem to have taken a turn for the better… Chase Headley rocks… can/will he help the Padres in September? Very nice outing by Cory Luebke.
Time to send down the Sledge-o-matic and call up the P-Mac Attack!
Well, I for one feel prety good about that lose and heres why. Down 4-1 in the fifth lately meant a Padre lose because we are not hitting. But last night we did hit, hit consistantly, and rallied back. The eighth and ninth were ugly but the fact that the bats rallied back in the rain, on the road, in NYC against good pitching and a strong bully is a great sign. Lets see what we can do tonight. Jake goes tonight, so lets get the good o boy some runs to work with and we should come out a winner.
Another good sign is the Pads slapped around one of the best closers in the game. 9 times out of 10 we win that game. Trevor just didn’t get it done, that’s going to happen. It sucks to throw away a game like that but at least we had some positives.
I wasn’t optimistic about winning the division but if we can pick up one game before the D Backs series next week and then go 3-1 against them we’ll be right there.
3: I think you’ve got a pretty rational take here. I completely agree that last nite’s game, though still a loss, actually gave me quite a bit of hope as a fan. My biggest concern right now is Trevor, as he’s put on a ton of men lately.
Re: 4 To be honest Trevor usually puts a guy or two on then pulls it together and gets the save, one small blip is not going to make me concerned. Bell is starting to concern me I really think Buddy has burned him out this season, you have to remember this is really his first full year in the Bigs and they have put a ton of pressure on him constantly.
While the Ch 4 guys made the top of the 8th inning look like Sledge’s fault, but is it also possible that Black called for the hit and run in that situation? If so, doesn’t the blame shift to either Black for the call or Blum for the poor execution?
Man I cant wait until next Sunday when they can call up Stanssberry and maybe (but not likely) Antonelli, Blum’s D and Giles bat has killed the Pads.
Tough loss but today is another day. That’s baseball. The negativity stems from what we perceive as underachievement. We need to get it going and last night was an example of doing just that. We were down and I thought we’d never come back, but we did twice. Just didn’t win…………Go Peavy.
Negativity? I usually post on the Padres site, and it is filled with posters who seem to revel in losses, so they can write the same “Moores is a crook†and most hated player posts, over and over. Their lack understanding is profound and anyone who questions their logic is labeled a “Front office†plant.
On this site, people have discussions, while entertaining the concept that reasonable people can differ. What a novel thought.
5: Bell’s first/second half splits are pretty bad, but he’s still striking out a guy an inning and not walking too many guys. I think it’s just a matter of his luck being bad where it was really good before.
Earlier in the year Hoffman blew a couple of saves in a row badly, and there was talk he could be done. He bounced back with like 25 saves in a row. We really shouldn’t be concerned about him, especially when it’s mainly just been singles falling in recently that have killed him.
I came down to New York for the game last night. What a miserable night to watch a baseball game.
So, okay, yeah, I guess it was an enjoyable game whether we won or lost. But God I would have loved to see a win. It’s been years and years and years since I’ve gone to a Padre game and seen them win. (I can only catch one a year if I’m lucky)
For a second year in a row, the Mets fans proved to be very respectable people. The only person to give me a hard time was a little kid who saw my padres hat and jacket and said, “Booooo, Padres!” I stopped walking, clutched my heart in pain, and started to groan, “ughhh.. oouuu.. ahhhh… uggghhhhh” My friend started dragging me away so I yelled back, “Words hurt, kid! Words – Hurt!”
But back to baseball, it seemed like every single one of the pitches that got Trevor in trouble, I totally saw coming. I hate how some nights it just seems like a team totally has him figured out. Why doesn’t he get pulled in situations where he blows the save but the game still can be won? If on one night the other team has him all figured out, why not bring someone else in and see if they can stump the opponent?
Re: 11 yeah for some reason after Bard stuck out in the 8th I kind of felt like one run was not enough for some strange reason. The reason why they couldn’t pull Trevor is because Bell and Meredith had already been used so there were no other great options.
Thats a bummer that last night was the only Padre game you’ll get to goto this year.
From Friar Forecast, we should fill this out at the site:
http://www.tangotiger.net/scouting/scoutBallot_SDN.html
How does other fans’ negativity affect your enjoyment of baseball?
I can see other fans affecting you when you’re watching a game at Petco with a bunch of people who need animated hands on a scoreboard to tell them when to “make noise,” but other than that they shouldn’t be bringing you down, man!
I agree that something has to be done with the 2B situation, I don’t despise Blum like some people here but I don’t think you can make the playoffs starting him (although you can obviously win the World Series with him on your bench). I doubt that Stansberry is the answer, he’s not a bad player but although he might be better than NOG at the moment, he’s probably not as good as Blum. However, I think that they should give Antonelli a week long shot after the rosters are expanded. From September 3rd to September 9th, the Padres play 3 in Arizona and 3 in Colorado. Doesn’t that seem to be a perfect situation to break in a rookie? For a hitter, it doesn’t get much better than that.
They wont bring Antonelli up in sept for a few reasons:
1. Dont want to kill his confidence if he has a few bad outings.
2. He’s not currently on the 40 man roster.
3. I dont think they want to start his major league clock yet.
OT – a friend just sent me an email with this in it …
Let’s note something incredible that is going on — Brandon Webb’s 42 inning consecutive scoreless streak. Wow.
There are many amazing statistics about this streak, but here are some I like the most:
1) The average big league pitcher gets the first batter of the inning out 67% of the time — Webb is doing it 88% of the time.
2) hitters are batting .190 against Webb with the bases empty. But with runners on, batters are hitting .104!! In fact, batters have an OPS of .250 — that’s right, an OPS of .250. Let me repeat: that’s OBP+SLG of .250 with runners on. Stunning.
3) Webb is striking out 21% of batters when the bases are empty. With runners on, he’s punching out 29% of batters. In 42 innings over five games, he’s given up 23 hits and 7 walks.
4) Webb has thrown 3 complete game shutouts IN A ROW. The five teams he faced were FLA SD LAD WAS ATL. He faces the Brewers tonight as he tries to get closer to Orel’s magical 59 inning record.
I think it is about time to give NOG another few starts at 2B, he has been swinging better lately and the guy can at least play the position defensively.
Steve C,
I’m not saying they will bring him up, just that they should probably give him a shot. As I said, that stretch of games is perfect for an offensive player which answers your first point. Secondly, the Padres have a lot of crap on their 40 man roster (Scott Cassidy, Aaron Rakers, Oscar Robles could be dropped without any problem). However, point #3 is the most important as it gets back to what most of us are complaining about and the source of most of the negativity that Geoff is talking about — whether or not winning is the most important thing for the Padres management. I’m not exactly sure how much more money the Padres would make by making the playoffs but I’m sure that it’s a lot, at least $10m I’d bet. So wouldn’t it make sense to spend a little on the chance that you’d make a lot more?
18: As long as buddy bats him 8th, i wouldnt mind it but i would still rather see him ride the bench
Marcus Giles is not swinging the bat better, in fact he’s worse than ever. He’s 3-21 his last 10 games, .133 average in August (but his SLG% is better than it was in July, .233 vs. .190). If you watch him at the plate you can tell he’s totally lost. I remember watching him bat against Colorado in that game where they knocked around Jeff Francis. Giles came up after Francis had walked a few guys he strikes out on 4 pitches, all of which were balls. He’s gotten worse every year since 2003 which doesn’t bode well for his future. At least the Padres have control over his option year next season.
However, Giles is the best option in the field for 2B but Blum isn’t too shabby out there either. The Padres defense overall has been good — 5th overall, 4th in the NL by team defense efficiency (% of balls in play turned into outs). According to Baseball Prospectus (although defense stats might not be accurate) the Padres have been great at pitcher, 1B, 2B and LF, average at RF, bad at SS and CF and terrible at C and 3B. Again, who knows how accurate these numbers are as it seems strange that they would be great on both positions on the right side of the infield and bad on the left.
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt//2007SD_-N.php
Re: 22 blum has NO range, and he’s the Ryan Klesko of 2B’s he makes standard plays look like web Gems
6: I assumed it was a hit and run with Sledge. It sure looked like it because Blum swung at a horrible pitch very low trying to protect. It seemed like bad luck that the pitcher would throw such a crappy ball 2-1. We had a hitting line of 329/409/541 in the game. We ought to have scored more than 6 runs on that.
Hoffman blowing a game is a bummer but not too worrying. What is worrying is that he made the Houston game a bit too interesting and now this.
For those interested in Bell’s splits regarding the ASB, here they are:
Pre: 50.2 IP, 31H, 14BB, 53K, 1 HR, 0.89 WHIP
Post: 22.1 IP, 22H, 8BB, 20K, 2 HR, 1.45 WHIP
50.2 IP seems very high. Incredible numbers, but it would have been nice to somehow get that spread around a bit more.
The only upside of a journeyman pitcher suddenly finding his stuff against the Padres is the next likely candidate is BLaw. I continue to like him and wish we had claimed him. I would take BLaw over Hensley/Ledezma right now.
Regarding the frustration, it clearly appears to me that the team is focused on rebuilding the farm system while trying to compete as well. But it does appear to be a finesse; do the best we can do now, make cost effective gambits as we can (Bradley, Barrett, Ensberg, Mackowiak) to improve the team, but don’t do anything that constricts the club financially or erodes the talent depth. It is quite an accomplishment that they are doing both: competing and improving the farm system, but there is some truth to the complaint that they are not making moves to win this year or the next.
It does appear that they are hoping to slip into the playoffs and see what happens, but hopefully be getting stronger over the next few years as the talent matures. But that strategy, while prudent, can frustrate a fan who recalls the city plunked down big cash for Petco, but have not seen a big shift in salary. Winning percentage has been solid but not dominant.
Part of the charm of the A’s was that they had a crappy stadium, geared much more the Raiders, and really had limited financial means, and made it work. When you take public money into your private enterprise, as with Petco, you open yourself to people asking, “What are you doing with my money.” It was not just smart fans who paid, but even the guys who call into XX. I live in SF, so never listened to XX (nor pay any local taxes), so I think you have to put up with it.
Now, spending blindly to “win now” is a recipe for disaster. But the payroll caution, coupled with trying to enforce the slots payments on drafts, suggests “Yes, we are doing our best but only opening the pocketbook so wide.” If this was all private money, I would say OK, use your best judgment. But with the public money, I do think they ought to at least set expectations. Are we a) doing the best we can but are overhauling the organization to compete more cost effectively in the future (example 1, Arizona); or, b) we are trying to win now, but have not seen any reasonable deals to bring the talent we need to SD. That is why we have not spent the money. It seems like they are doing a) but pretending to be doing b).
24: Part of the problem with a slow rebuilding and overhauling process is that our best chances to win are in the next two years. It’s likely we’ll lose far and away our best player two seasons after this one, so 2009 kind of needs to be an all in season.
It’s interesting that the Pads could be so respectable in defensive effeciency yet, if not “bad,” then at least subpar up the middle with KG and Cameron.
I think BP’s defensive stats are almost certainly wrong on Greene. By UZR, he was 9 runs above average at the all-star break and he’s been well above average over the last few years.
On the topic of Stauffer’s recent successes in AAA…anyone think the fact that there is some opportunity with the Wells release has “lit a fire” under Tim? Maybe he’s just one of those guys who if they perceive a ceiling don’t focus as hard or perform as well?
Re:27…or could it be, as a few of us suspect and have argued, that KG is overrated?
Last night was tough…I looked at my friend last night and said I have a bad feeling about closing it out tonight…sure enough…and it sounds like I was not the only one. Hey, at least we scored some runs in a decent pitcher’s park!
Free Pat the Bat!!!
29: I dunno man, I really think it’s tough to make an argument that Khalil is over-rated on D. I think the best way to measure his effectiveness is to ask the pitching staff who they would rather have at short. I’m willing to be most of them would pick Khalil over most SS in the league.
re 30: Seriously why does everyone always ask that question? No one here doubts that the pitching staff would pick KG over Blum, but compare KG to others in MLB and you might get a different answer.
29, 30: Pitchers will almost always publicly say their own players are great defenders. The Yankee staff will tell you straight-faced that they don’t want anybody behind them but Jeter, based only on his glove.
Crap. Meant 30, 31.
Young’s hurt again. It’s the back. He’ll miss his next start against the Phillies, but it’s unknown whether or not he’ll go on the DL. Needless to say, uh oh.
http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070822&content_id=2163689&vkey=news_sd&fext=.jsp&c_id=sd
I’d personally take Adam Everett over Greene. Tulo might be up there. I’m sure there are a couple of other guys you might consider. Still, he’s an elite defender, I think.
31: I thought I had phrased my post to indicate that it should include the whole league.
From what I’ve seen/heard of Tulo, it seems like he has a stronger arm. I’m not sure how his range compares to Khalil’s.
One can only imagine the cries over his ineptness with the bat had the Padres had Adam Everett at SS instead of Khalil Greene. Everett is awesome with the glove but meek with the bat.