Quick word on the book before we get to links. I’ve completed drafts of three chapters; two more are very close to being done, another is at about 40-50%, and I’m just getting started on “2007 in Review.”
On that last point, I’ve gone through the past 14 months or so of blog postings and highlighted some of the most important points. From that, I’ve created a rough outline. Next steps are to flesh everything out, follow up on research inquiries I made several months ago, etc.
The outline is a bit ambitious, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to give everything the attention it’s due, but I shall do my best. To that end, and kind of the point of me telling you all this, we’ll be entering “terse mode” (for those of you who played “Zork” and other such games back in the day) over the next several weeks.
I’ll keep posting every day, but because my focus needs to be on the book right now, sometimes it will be little more than a prompt. Other times, it might be an excerpt of a draft I’m working on at that moment. I’m not sure. I just know that I may not be as “visible” for a while, and… well, now you know, too.
Okay, that wasn’t very quick. Links, anyone?
- Padres sign Iguchi (Friar Forecast). MB likes the signing of Tadahito Iguchi, and so do I. Even without crazy plays like this one, he’s a useful guy to have around until Matt Antonelli is ready. It’s a 1-year deal for $4 million; not a lot of risk there.
- Padres, desperate for outfield help, targeting Pirates’ Bay (ESPN, via Coronado Mike in the comments). Old rumors. Jason Bay doesn’t excite me much these days. The Padres will find someone, or several someones, to play left field next year, just like they did in ’07. Center field is the concern, and Bay doesn’t help there.
- 2007 Sabermetric Year in Review: San Diego Padres (Stastically Speaking, via Friar Forecast). Mostly review material, but well done.
- Tom Krasovic chat transcript (San Diego Union-Tribune). In response to a question about the aforementioned Bay:
Pirates will want a lot. He’s the face of their franchise. And the fans there would revolt if they don’t get a lot for him. You’ve got to feel for Pirates fans. Not much hope there.
- San Diego Padres Top 20 Prospects for 2008 (Minor League Ball, via Didi in the comments). John Sickels has posted his list. It seems very reasonable to me (I’m more down on Chad Huffman than just about anyone, which hopefully means I’m wrong). Sickels really likes the relievers taken in the Rule V draft.
- Economic principles guide free-agent contracts (Yahoo!, via Schlom in the comments). Vince Gennaro talks about this year’s free-agent class.
- Right on the sweet spot (Friar Forecast). MB offers his thoughts on what strategy the Padres might want to employ this winter.
- The 2008 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot — A Roundtable Discussion (ArmchairGM). David Pinto, Dayn Perry, Dan McLaughlin, Matt Sussman, and Rich Lederer discuss the relative merits of this year’s crop of nominees.
Mitchell Report
This whole thing disgusts me. So many questions. So many visceral reactions, so few considered responses. I find myself wondering, among many other things, what, if any, impact the recent actions against Marion Jones might have on the course MLB chooses. But mostly I’m just irritated with everyone involved, myself included (hey, every ticket I buy helps support the system).
- The report (MLB). Yep, a 409-page PDF file to curl up with by the fire. You, your honey, a cup of hot chocolate, and the Mitchell Report. Good times.
- Thumbnails of players mentioned in Mitchell Report (Yahoo!). Yowza, that’s a lot of names.
- More Mitchell Report (Knuckle Curve). Calling my own number. I’ve read only parts of it, but these are some very preliminary thoughts.
- San Diego Padres named in Mitchell Report and all of the uses of the word “buttocks” (Gaslamp Ball). Dex lists the former Padres mentioned. Matt Herges? Gary Bennett?
Finally, for a bit of levity on a Friday, I present the timeless Cindy und Bert (thanks to my friend Alan for the heads-up). Happy happy, yo yo.
50: I for one would be thrilled if my kids ended up like Tony Gwynn. If he really were to do everything possible for his career he would have gone to the American League to DH in like 99.
48: I used to be heavily involved as a referee on the indie circuit. I bowed out this year. It was fun while I was in college, but with an 8 to 5 job, my weekends became too important for me to journey all over Southern California for $20 and a potential injury.
50: Couldn’t you use the “it’s simple to sit here and pass judgment” defense on any lawbreaking activity? I’ve never robbed a bank, but even if someone robbed it to feed his starving family, that doesn’t make it ethical. I agree with the basic conceit of your posts — let he who is without sin cast the first stone — but I think it’s a little tedious for you to sit here and attack people who just want to root for people who abide by the law and the rules of the game. It’s naive to expect a player to be clean, but it isn’t naive to hope for it.
From what I’ve seen, Geoff Jenkins is plus defender.
He ranked pretty highly among left-fielders in Pinto’s Probabilistic Model of Range:
http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/023979.php
Another name up near the top: Scott Hairston!
45: You’re kidding right? Tone is so hard to determine…
Phantom, maybe I’ve seen you. I used to really follow wrestling and would read socal uncensored religously daily and would head out to lots of wcwa and upw shows.
Of course you being in wrestling lets us know why you are so forgiving of steroids.
52: I think you kind of proved my point — you just compared using steroids to robbing a bank. That’s exactly what I’m trying to counter — too many people are equating them. I understand that probably no one who reads this blog played sports at any high level, I doubt that anyone even played Div I sports. I think if you did, your perspective might be changed.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a 2008 lineup of:
1. RF-Giles
2. 2B-Iguchi
3. 1B-Gonzo
4 .3B-Kouz
5. LF-Jenkins
6. SS-Greene
7. C-Bard
8. CF-McLouth?
I put Gonzo in the three hole simply to stagger the lefties and the righties.
Any thoughts on an ideal, yet realistic 2008 lineup?
55: I used to post on SCU as PhantomPretender. I never worked a WCWA show becuase the only show of theirs I ever attended was their last one when Pearce started the riot. I mostly did AWS, some Rev Pro and Rev X, EWF, WAR, and a few others. I was pretty close to the New Japan people for a while and I used to do a lot at their offices in Santa Monica.
55: Also, the best bump I ever took was a running dropkick from Austin Aires. It was at a War show at the dojo in Santa Monica in a singles match against Adam Pearce. I never saw the footage, but from what I heard, it looks like Aires absolutely killed me with the kick. It helps that he actually did dropkick me just below the chin…
I’m surprised I’m as ambivalent towards steroids as I am, given the things I used to hear about Masters when he was at UPW. I also got pretty close to some of the New Japan guys and was bummed when I found out some of them did steroids. Being that close to them though, I also understood why they did it because they wanted to make it so bad.
MLBTR reports we’ve signed Glendon Rusch and wonders with Estes, Hensley, and Germano if we’re done in terms of starting pitching.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/12/padres-sign-gle.html
Re: 61
I would be very surprised if Josh Towers is not signed in the next few days.
I like the fact that the Padres are picking up these low cost, potentially high impact pitchers. Every pitcher is going to look better then he really is pitching in Petco so I think the Padres should maximize this by picking up as many pitchers as possible. Then, if some of them pan out, they can trade them for things they need.
On related note, I’m hoping the Padres pick up Mark Prior. I can’t imagine that he’ll cost much but he has as much potential as pretty much any starter available. 2003 was a long time ago but I think it’s worth a gamble that he might have another season like that still in him. He’s still pretty young, only 8 months older then Jake.
The SF Chronicle is reporting the Diamondbacks got Haren fot a 6 prospect package built around Carlos Gonzalez.
63: They also traded Jose Valverdge to the Astros for Chris Burke, Chad Qualls, and Juan Gutierrez.
This still doesn’t concern me all that much. Maybe it should, but it doesn’t. Is there much left in the D’backs farm system at this point?
Re: 64
Do you think Houston would have taken Hoffman for the same package?
Wishful thinking, I guess.
Not a big issue right now, but I read that Iggy will NOT bring us a compensatory pick next year when and if (see link below), he leaves. I am not sure why he wouldn’t, but that is what I read. The link refers to the possibility he could stay for 2009. If he signs for another year (2009), then I am sure he would bring a pick if he signs with someone else after that
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/padres/20071213-9999-1s13padres.html
57: That lineup looks about right. Against a lefty starter, it would look more like:
Giles
Iguchi
Gonzo
Kouz
Greene
Hairston
McLouth
Bard
Plus, I’m still holding out hope for a two-year contract for Cameron. Then I think we’d have:
Giles
Iguchi
Gonzo
Kouz
Jenkins
Cameron
Greene
Bard
Re: 67
I like it vs. lefties even more.
That’s not good news for the Padres regarding the Dback trades. Not much of a return for Valverde but what can you get for a 65IP pitcher these days? Phantom, who cares what’s left in their minor league system. Right now, Byrnes and Hudson are the oldest of their position players at 31 and 30 (next season). The rest of the team is filled with young players (although Snyder will be 27). For a rotation they have Webb, Haren, Davis, Owings and someone else and their bullpen likely won’t be very good — simply because I expect that most of pitchers will take a step back from last season. The real worry is their offense as they didn’t hit at all last year and you’d expect them to improve. They won the division last year and just added one of the better pitchers in baseball without giving up a thing that helped them last year. That spells trouble for the Padres.
Re: 69
If Arizona uses Tony Pena as closer, do you still think he will go into that uncomfortable crouch between pitches?
Don’t enjoy the thought of Haren with the D-backs. Now they’ve got a 1-2 punch comparable to ours.
On the flip-side, the Athletics have been pretty good about unloading pitchers “at their peak” in the past…..
66: Do you have a link for where you read that? I know this year the Phillies couldn’t offer him arbitration as part of his original contract when he came over from Japan, because otherwise he would have been under club control for 6 years like any other player. I wonder if he put a clause like that in this year’s contract too.
Re: 72
Hopefully he turns out more like Mark Mulder than Tim Hudson.
66,73: Never mind, I found it. “According to the Padres, they would not qualify for a compensatory draft pick if Iguchi departed through free agency next offseason,” from today’s U-T.
72: I wouldn’t say he’s been pretty good. He made a good deal for Mulder, trading him away when he was 27 (about the same age as Haren is now) for Haren, Kiko Calero and Daric Barton. However, that same off-season, he traded Tim Hudson (29 at the time) for Juan Cruz, Dan Meyer and Charles Thomas. The Mulder trade was good but the Hudson trade was awful. Mulder had one great year for the Cardinals the year he was traded but has been hurt and awful since then. Hudson was good in the odd years after the trade and bad in 2006. He’s also traded Aaron Harang (for Jose Guillen) and Ted Lilly (for Bobby Kielty) away in the past few years. With that track record, we probably should be worried, not relieved.
Looks like Oakland is going back to being the Triple A’s…
76: I was thinking of the Mulder and Hudson deals, as well as letting Zito go in free agency. I don’t think it matters what they got in return, but how the players performed after they got to their new teams. I’m too lazy to look at stats, but my impression is that each has come nowhere near putting up the stats that they put when they were in Oakland. Hudson had a decent year last year, but it seems he’s had several mediocre seasons as well.
Well, Cameron is out as an option in centerfield. I think now we’ve reached an appropriate time to panic about next year.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/weblog/2007/12/padres_no_on_cameron.html
79:At the top of that same link click to see a report that the Padres are very close to acquiring Edmonds.
I don’t think there is any free agents out there of any note that can play every day. So the Padres are going to have to trade for one. So instead of just giving up money for their CF, they are going to have to give up both money and players. Not exactly sure that’s the greatest plan in the world but I guess we’ll wait and see. I don’t think they can trade for McLouth and sign Geoff Jenkins. That would make their team too left-handed wouldn’t it (Giles, AGon, Iguchi, McLouth, Jenkins)?
The D-Backs gave up their #’s 1,3,7,and 8 BBA prospects for Haren. What SD prospects would match those? and would you have done that? (Peter, etc.)Of course Arizona is stocked with young players at the ML level so it isn’t a level question.
80: This has not been a good day for Padres fans. The D-Backs get Haren and we say goodbye to Cameron and replace him with a 37 year-old Edmonds. Standing pat is not working out for us. Next I am sure that we will see in the official announcement heralding the signing of Rusch, that he will compete with Hensley, Germano, and Estes for the 5th spot. Where’s the money allocated to Fukudome going to be spent? According to the Krasovic blog posting, we were only going to pull this deal for Edmonds if we got salary relief. Looks like we will be saving it for the deadline, again.
It’s really going to suck when Jenkins signs with Philly. I like Headley, but I have no great expectations that he will be that good this year while skipping AAA.
re:80
looks like edmonds for cash, minor leaguer. i wonder who we r giving up
84, Kras updated the post, we traded David Freese for him. Sorry Peter.
Re: 82 the Padres prospects that would matchup with that by the BA ranks are Headley, Latos, Hunter and Blanks, and no I would not do that. Also you have to figure that the D-backs farm system is better than ours so thats an even higher price. But if they draft well it will not make a huge difference in an already deep farm system and with a team with alot of young talent.
I stand corrected. It’s going to be a very left-handed lineup for the Padres next season. Gonzalez and Iguchi were both as good or better against lefties last season, Edmonds was terrible (although he was pretty terrible all-around), Giles was terrible (I wonder what his splits were against lefties at home, probably around 200/325/300), and it won’t matter if they sign Jenkins since Hairston will platoon, if not start. On the plus side, Kouz and Bard killed lefties last season and it didn’t matter to Greene.
Their outfield defense is going to be pretty bad if Edmonds doesn’t recover from last season though. It’s a huge downgrade to him from Cameron although LF should improve. This is certainly a gamble for the Padres as it looks like Edmonds has nothing left — 257/350/471 in 2006, 252/325/403 last season — a huge drop from his numbers from 2000-2005.
Re: 85 wow Freese for a one year broken down 37 year old rental, I was wrong yesterday in saying that SA and KT would not panic.
Re: 86 sorry those rankings were from Minor League Ball
88, Let’s hope that Antonelli takes to center like a duck to water.
I don’t think Freese had a whole lot of trade value. He’s spent his age 24 season only in Single A, doesn’t have a ton of power, and is completely blocked by younger and/or better players in Kouz and Headley. I think Bruce is right in that they decided that they’d rather have Antonelli in CF then 2B — which makes sense in that CF is a harder position to fill.
86: Most likely because we see Headley better than Carlos Gonzo. But can you imagine Haren in SD’s rotation?
Re: 92 would be nice and I can see why the D-backs did it. My point was that the Pads have a nice farm system now but it is a very limited one so I would not give up four of my top ten prospects in any one trade.
Re: 91 I agree with your Freese points I guess I would say anthing more than Mike Thompson would be to much for Edmonds, and I just really dont like the fact that we are renting a broken down Vet for a year.
Don’t you think we could have gotten DeJesus for Freese and maybe a mid level arm like Breit?
Edmonds might play ok defense but he’s washed up.
Re: 95 exactly my point, its like we burned one of our top 15 prospects for a one year rental.
Does an OF of Edmonds, Jenkins (if he signs) and Giles really make anyone wonder when single game tickets go on sale?
Freese isn’t a top 15 prospect. If he is that says more about the Padres system rather then his skills. His chances of making an impact in the majors is about zero. He’s going to be 25 next season and he hasn’t had a single AB above Single A. He has essentially zero trade value.
98: No. I am not sure when the front office added Sabean and Colletti to the staff. That would be the all-geriatric OF though. This team would also have NO speed whatsoever.