Nice to hang on for the win Wednesday night (box score). Congrats to Jake Peavy for tying Andy Benes’ career mark for strikeouts by a Padres pitcher.
The game wasn’t without its white-knuckle moments, aka the ninth inning. Several folks have noted that the Padres are having difficulty closing out games, and I’m happy (or unhappy, really) to report that it’s not all in your head:
| Player | First Half | Second Half | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IP | ERA | BA | OBP | SLG | IP | ERA | BA | OBP | SLG | |
| Statistics are through games of August 22, 2007, and are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.
Note: Linebrink’s numbers are with San Diego only. Meredith’s second-half ERA is deceiving: 7 of the 11 runs he’s allowed since the All-Star break have been unearned. |
||||||||||
| Heath Bell | 50.2 | 1.78 | .179 | .245 | .243 | 20.2 | 4.35 | .282 | .345 | .385 |
| Doug Brocail | 35.2 | 3.03 | .212 | .283 | .318 | 19.2 | 5.49 | .269 | .318 | .410 |
| Kevin Cameron | 29.1 | 0.31 | .168 | .294 | .188 | 18 | 3.00 | .296 | .366 | .324 |
| Justin Hampson | 27.1 | 2.30 | .250 | .321 | .340 | 10.1 | 6.97 | .311 | .404 | .356 |
| Trevor Hoffman | 33 | 1.91 | .162 | .203 | .274 | 10.1 | 4.35 | .293 | .370 | .439 |
| Scott Linebrink | 39.1 | 2.52 | .219 | .274 | .390 | 5.2 | 12.71 | .360 | .448 | .640 |
| Cla Meredith | 42 | 3.86 | .300 | .339 | .394 | 19 | 1.89 | .320 | .354 | .387 |
Some of this may be due to simple regression to the mean; Cameron’s first-half performance simply wasn’t sustainable. Some may be due to the heavy workloads necessitated by the presence of David Wells and, to a lesser extent, Greg Maddux, in the rotation. Presumably this is why the Padres have carried at least seven relievers all season. Still, it’s a bit disturbing that every key member of the bullpen has seen his performance decline in the second half.
On the bright side, the offense has looked great the past two nights. Mike Cameron and Adrian Gonzalez are swinging the bat well. Gonzalez is thought to be having a down season, but the truth is, almost all of that is batting average, which is about 30 points lower than it was last year. His walks are up a little, as is his ISO. If he weren’t so freakin’ slow…
Khalil Greene has enjoyed a nice series so far, as he often does away from Petco Park. His road numbers this season are .278/.313/.504. Compare with, e.g., Troy Tulowitzki’s road line of .255/.328/.366. Not to take anything away from Tulowitzki, who is a tremendous young talent, but if Greene played half his games at Coors Field, he’d be a perennial All-Star.
Finally, it’s great to have Milton Bradley back in the lineup. Is it coincidence that the bats woke up at the same time he returned? Could be, but then again…
by LynchMob
AAA
Brady Clark: 5 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 1 RBI; 2 2B (#4)
Craig Stansberry: 5 AB, 2 R, 2 H, 4 RBI; HR (#14)
Brian Myrow: 4 AB, 1 $, 2 H, 0 RBI; 2B(#28)
Casey Fossum: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
AA
Matt Antonelli: 6 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 3 RBI; BB
Will Venable: 6 AB, 1 R, 4 H, 3 RBI; HR (#6), SO
Colt Morton: 5 AB, 3 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; HR (#5), BB, 2 SO
Chad Huffman: 6 AB, 4 R, 3 H, 3 RBI; HR (#5)
Wade LeBlanc: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K; (5-3, 4.06)
High-A
Lake Elsinore 11, Bakersfield 7
Craig Cooper: 5 AB, 3 R, 3 H, 0 RBI
Low-A
No notables.
Short Season-A
Luis Durango: 4 AB, 2 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; BB
Mitch Canham: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; 2 SO
Kellen Kulbacki: 3 AB, 0 R, 3 H, 1 RBI; HBP
Danny Payne: 2 AB, 1 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; 3 BB, SO
Corey Kluber: 5.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO
Rookie
No game scheduled.
Commentary:
Who knew Casey Fossum was in the Padres organization? Very nice outing by LeBlanc!
[Ed note: Fossum only signed on Tuesday.]
Thanks, LynchMob, for once again delivering the goods! Padres go for the series win Thursday evening at Shea Stadium. IGD, blah, blah, blah…
Damn you LaMar and your level headed reasoning!
50: Since 300 million in public money was used for Petco, there’s more than an emotional issue at stake. It’s Moores’ money for operations. His place of business was 2/3 built with public money.
No, it just comes from experience in having three sons trying to get me to spend more of my money on things that make them happy.
But in responce to #50 I developed a love for the Padres when I was a kid I cant just stop caring about them because I think that the owner is a creep. The team is bigger than its owner.
Re: 53 ha like living in Japan
54: Also, the team (any team) asks for fan loyalty during the down years. They don’t want you voting with your feet when things aren’t the way you like. There’s a middle ground between accepting what the team tells you and rooting for another team.
It sounds like I’m being confronted by an angry member of the VFW in 1969. America, Love It or Leave It!
#52: I understand what you’re saying about the public funds. But from a strict interpretation, there’s nothing in the lease with the City that requires them to do anything or pay any specific amount for payroll.
First, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a quote by a Padre FO member that promised a specific amount to be spent on the team back at the time of the vote. (As an aside, they are certainly spending more than they did in the Qualcomm days.)
Second, even if they did make that promise, that promise could be legally excused by changed circumstances. Here, pick your changed circumstance: revenue sharing, baseball’s financial rules, debt financing, delay in the stadium, etc. Real or imagined, you can easily argue there are changed circumstances.
Third, absent something in the lease contract requiring them to pay a certain amount in salary, there is no recourse against the team for not spending more. The obligation in the lease is to pay rent (likely percentages of gross revenue and concessions.)
I guess what I’m saying is that rather than be pissed about management not spending more money, I prefer to waste my energy getting pissed about B(l)um grounding into a double play or inability to get a runner in from 3rd with less than 2 outs. It’s just a matter of picking your poison, I guess.
I think a lot of the whole money issue may revolve around Moores trying to recoup the money that he spent in the pre Petco years. I seem to remember a bunch of articles about how Moores was pumping in and losing a lot of his own money in those years. I also remember reading about how many millions the Padres spent in litigation and stuff because of all the Bruce Henderson lawsuits and ETC. Of course this is all speculation on my part but I have read that teams think typically spend between 70-80% of revenues on payroll. If those numbers are true then I can see Moores trying to run 5-10% below that to gain any money he thinks he lost back (even though the teams estimated value has tripled since PETCO). So by saying he is pumping his own money into the team again it’s probably refering to his own share of the profit. They are building a Dominican complex and did increase the draft budget this year so I can’t really condem the ownership of going totally on the cheap but if my idea is anywhere close to the truth it is frustrating that Moores is so set on making a certain profit margin so soon after going into Petco when his franchise value has increased so much. I understand that the actual media market of San Diego is very small but between the Park and revenue sharing they are not having any issues with money.
#56: While I try to keep politics out of my Padre comments, you would be hard pressed to find a bigger liberal or morew anti-big business guy than me. I fight with auto manufacturers to build safer automobiles for a living. But, I can choose to buy a Volvo rather than a Ford. I agree with Steve C in #54, that it’s harder to choose to be a Yankee fan when you grew up a Padre fan.
Re: 59 Hey ive seen the van you have no room to talk about automtive choice!
57: Blum grounding into a DP occurs even more frequently than the Padres telling me they’re still hemorrhaging money. My anger may go deeper, but it happens less often.
#60: You didn’t see me driving the van. That’s Sean’s car. It’s still parked in front, by the way, waiting for him to return from Japan.
59: That was more for the general pro-Moores crowd than specifically at you, it just wasn’t written well.
47: Are you crazy? No teams will agree to that, no matter how much/little money is involved. There is no way MLB will agree to that.
50,57: Well said. Enough Silent L on the field and batting 2nd.
58: Moores made enough money from his Peregrine deals, he doesn’t need any from Petco/Padres. Nobody was forcing him to pump money into the team while it was losing money. He can do whatever he damn pleases with it.
64.
Nobody was forcing him to put money into the team you are correct but if he wanted the team to be profitable he had to get a new stadium which meant a vote if it was going to be paid for at all by tax payers. The best way for him to bring a vote to the public was with a winning team. He is a business man first and wants his team to run more like a business than a hobby that he is willing to pay for.
BTW
Darren Smith just mentioned Ducksnorts on XX!
re: 64 sounds like Moores would need a tax shelter then? hmmm I wonter what he could use to hide his money?
I really dont think I would have a problem wiht moores if he didnt cry poor all the time, he did a great job by hiring SA, the team is doing well, the payroll is not terrible (hey we could be the Royals) but it pisses me off when I give my hard earned money to a multi-millionare who cries poor every chance he gets.
68.
Totally agree. By the time I’m done at the game I usually spend $30-40 on beer and food alone. That doesn’t even count the tickets because I usually get them for free but somewhere along the line someone paid for em.
Re: 69 goto the gasslamp before much much cheaper
First, there is little if any evidence that the team has been actually profitable since moving into Petco. The Forbes reports properly understood demonstrate that the team is not making money in Petco, and those reports aren’t even recognized by the so-called spinmeisters of MLB. The Padres are bringing in more money overall, and they are spending more money overall.
Second, it seems elementary to me why Moores is writing a big check this year. The Dominican Academy is a large expense, not the type of thing you normally do every year. When you exceed prior draft budgets by quite a bit, well then you might just have to write a check to cover that difference. They have also talked about having made improvements to Petco Park this year; no idea what those were but those might also not be a normal expense. Expenses incurred in relation to Tony Gwynn’s HOF induction also not a normal expense. Makes sense to me in a relatively stagnant revenue area, where the Padres currently are.
Third, the interesting thing to me is the characterization of the statements from the Padres front office. Alderson appears to be doing his best to explain the situation, and also appears to get a little frustrated by the incoherence and silliness of some of the so-called criticism. Those who are skeptical of or outright predisposedly hostile to Alderson’s explanations call them “excuses” or “spin” or “lies” or worse.
I dunno, I wouldn’t characterize Moores and SA’s comments as “crying poor”. I think that what they’re doing is saying, “look, we’d like to be able to spend more money, but the financial reality is not there right now.” It’s not like they’re not spending ANY money. I mean, we could be the Marlins with they’re ridiculously low payroll. At least there, you have no doubt that the guy is fleecing the team.
As someone else said, it’s his money, he should spend it as he pleases. Moores is not Mark Cuban. He can’t just dump money into the team because his heart is in it. He’s a businessman, for better or worse. He seems to have recognized that to be more successful, he needs to improve his product. As a result, we’ve had 3 winning seasons in a row and we’ve won back-to-back NL West titles. I can’t really see how else he could be improving the product.
70.
Yeah I eat gaslamp all the time because I live down here. I want ball park grub when I go to a game.
66: “Ducksnorts. A better source for information than this radio station. Oops, shouldn’t have said that out loud.”
68: The “crying poor” meme of the sketpic is lame as well. Acknowledging the relative financial position of the Padres vis-a-vis larger market teams, and the resultant difficulty in competing for free agents, is not crying poor. They don’t dwell on it, and since Petco, the front office explanations usually only come out after ill-informed rants on the radio or in the newspapers or other commentary.
71: According to Alderson, Moores has been writing big checks every year since Petco opened and is on the hook to do so for the next few years. That’s why it starts to sound like excuses – are there 15-20 million in one-time expenses every year? Unlikely. It’s like a never-ending series of flags that get run up the flagpole to see who salutes. All this when the Padres are actually drawing better, at higher ticket prices, and have increased revenue (compared to the opening of Petco) from XM and MLBAM.
General rule of thumb, according to my cousin who was an accountant many years ago with the Buffalo Bisons(at the time the AAA team for the Pirates) is that the average customer will spend approximately half of their ticket price on concessions.
So if the average ticket is $29 then the average customer at Petco buys about $14.50 in food/drink….to me that seems accurate.
Re 76: I have heard Moores say as recently as 2005 that he didn’t have to write a check for the first year of Petco; can’t recall whether it was on regular TV or those cheesy Jane Mitchell one-on-ones. In today’s UT, Alderson does not say that Moores is writing checks every year at Petco. However, if Alderson is saying what you said he said, I assume it is on the XX interview. Don’t force me to listen to that again, it would unnecessarily pain me to listen to the horrid callers trying to harangue Alderson.
Meanwhile, one of the greatest threats to the Padres getting a playoff berth are the Phillies, who lost again today. I could care less if the Padres win the West or get a Wild Card berth, I want the Padres in the post season with Peavy and CY as the one-two punch and let the chips fall where they may.
77.
I think that is WAY low for PETCO. Maybe because I get free tickets in expensive sections from work and from my friend with way too much money but everyone around me is always throwing down tons. $14.50 isn’t 2 beers. Maybe you are right because my opinion is really just based on my perception but that just seems low to me.
I heard SA on XX on Monday. He was saying that we project to about 150,000 more fans at the games this year over last year. He also said you could calculate about $25/person for the ticket. But, that equals $3,750,000 — hardly enough for a power hitting outfielder. Although SA didn’t say, I’m assuming that $25 per person was ticket only. If 77 is right, then that gets you to over $5.5 million.
Season ticket prices for some levels were increased for this year. (Mine were not, so I don’t know how much the increase was.) I heard it was about $2 per seat per game.
In any event, there is some additional revenue. However, who knows how that money will be used and if it will be used to lower the owners’ cash calls.
David Wells is apparently going to sign with the Dodgers.
82.
That’s rad! Don’t we play them a bunch still?
77: I think the ratio could be reversed for minor league teams. A good seat at many AA ballparks is 5-8 bucks. The beer’s cheaper, but it’s not a buck except on Thirsty Thursdays.
Um. Thirsty Thursdays.
84.
I suddenly am having crazy urges for hot dogs and draft beer!
Note about 84/77: that stat is actually for MLB venues as well, at least it was about 15 years ago with the Indians
#83. Don’t be so quick. We seem to have trouble with slow junk ballers who have high ERA’s with the rest of the league.
Rob Neyer’s blogged about Sullivan’s column. He’s a Sandy fan. Shocking. I love the comments following Sullivan’s piece. “Padres suck.” Yeah, don’t watch the Pirates much, eh?
#49: This is a great idea, except for the fact that it has exactly zero chance of happening. What else?
re 89: I have an idea that is equally as good as the silly idea of demanding the franchise open its books:
Blame the citizens of San Diego for not fully subsidizing Petco, like other cities did for their teams and new ballparks. If the Padres didn’t have yearly interest payments, they could have an $85 million payroll.
Oops, in 64, I meant 49 not 47. The chance of opening the books is nil. Why should they anyway?
I don’t remember the Chargers opening the book either.
OK, onto the games. Dodgers won, Cubs lost, the Padres can gain 1/2 game on the D’backs. Let’s go, boys!.
BTW, the Dbacks has played 2 more games than the Padres so far. Interesting how that happened.
89: Teach Alderson not to sound like a pompous ass in interviews? Really, this sounds like the admonition that we can’t suggest the Padres spend more money to improve their drafting. Teams that spend more than us on the draft typically draft better than we do. But it’s off-limits because…..because we won’t do it?
90: If the Padres hadn’t signed a loan that prevented prepayment, they wouldn’t have fixed debt payments. I’m sure they’re not possibly writing off debt payments for tax purposes, but Sandy probably thinks we wouldn’t understand.
91: The Chargers don’t claim to be running at a deficit, either.
92: Listening to Alderson, I really didn’t think he sounded like a pompous ass. I thought he sounded like a reasonable person dealing with the kind of people who call into a sports radio talk show and the kind of people who host such a show.
93: If Alderson didn’t think there was a problem resulting from his radio appearance, he wouldn’t immediately go to Tim Sullivan to issue a correction. The response to his interview among people I’d consider to be reasonable, thoughtful fans has been at least 50% negative.
#92: People are welcome to suggest opening the books, but they shouldn’t be surprised when it doesn’t happen. I’m with you that Alderson might not be the best guy to talk to the public because a lot of folks seem to have issues with his approach, personality, whatever.
#93: Yep, pretty much.
#94: I expect he was aware of the negative reaction, but, like many of us, he’s a little baffled by it.