I, Me, Mine
Thu, Apr 10, 2008
by Geoff Young
No game on Thursday. Hey, the Padres can’t lose. 
Meanwhile, I’ve been working on a few other things:
- John at MadFriars asked me a few questions about the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual.
- I’ll also be pimping the Annual on Bases Loaded with Elliott Price. Elliott is the former long-time play-by-play voice of the Montreal Expos. This is scheduled to air at 11 a.m. PT.
- My latest article at Hardball Times examines the belief that Trevor Hoffman struggles in non-save situations.
- I’m leaving Knuckle Curve to join the staff at Baseball Digest Daily. I’ve been writing intermittently for BDD, but very soon I’ll be blogging there on a regular basis. Please make the necessary adjustments to your reality.
What else? Here’s some stuff that’s coming down the line:
- Review of Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends
(Monday)
- Interview with Rox Girl (Tuesday)
- Baseball Think Factory Padres preview (next weekish)
I also have a few other cool projects in the works, but they’re still in the development stages. Sorry to tease; I just don’t want you to think I’m slacking.
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.
April 10, 2008 at 7:12 am
Hey GY Congrats on the BDD job! Nice to hear some good news on this dark morning.
April 10, 2008 at 8:23 am
This is starting to feel like deja vu all over again: Starting pitching does it’s job but the offense struggles to score runs, especially against lousy pitchers. The lack of offense puts a lot of pressure on our bullpen and no matter how good they are (and they haven’t been all that great), they’re going to give up some runs.
I hate to be negative about a player who’s giving his all but I’m starting to feel like the best thing for this team would be an injury to Edmonds that would force them to trade for a legit centerfielder. If we’re going to carry an offensive zero in CF he needs to be a real ball hawk out there, something Edmonds hasn’t been.
April 10, 2008 at 8:24 am
I wouldn’t call sanchez a lousy pitcher but I know what you mean.
April 10, 2008 at 8:25 am
Geoff, Tango linked to your Hoffman article on his blog. Cool article, btw!
April 10, 2008 at 8:33 am
GY good article on Trevor but one thing I kept thinking was what was his loss to appearance ration on non-saves situation compared to his blown save to appearance ratio in save situations? When it comes down to it doesn’t his effectiveness boil down to if he gets the job done or not?
April 10, 2008 at 8:35 am
So last night was pathetic huh?
April 10, 2008 at 8:44 am
Two nights with no extra base hits. I’m not sure how you bang out nearly 17 hits in two games without getting more than a single. Also, 17 hits and 2 runs is just flat out unacceptable.
Bard absolutely KILLED us last night. His AB with men on 2nd and 3rd and no outs was probably the worst AB we’ve seen in a long time. The problem was compounded by the fact that Germano follows him and he just looked like he had no clue what he was doing. Then, on the sac fly that erased Edmonds, he didn’t get the ball nearly as deep as it needed to be.
April 10, 2008 at 8:47 am
Re: 5 by running the number very quickly:
Hoffman has had 607 save opportunities in his career and has only 81 blown saves.
Hoffman also has 279 non-save appearances in his career and has only lost 36 of those games.
81 BS/607 SA = 13.3% failure rate
36 L / 279 NSA = 12.9% failure rate
When it comes down to what really matters (winning and loosing) Hoffman is just as efficient in either situation. Now granted this has been over his entire career and like GY mentioned in his article there is not real pattern from year to year to set a trend to.
April 10, 2008 at 8:48 am
2. I don’t mean to piggy-back on what Anthony wrote, but I liked the Padres lineup more without Edmonds. So far it looks like everything hit out to CF is an adventure - and I liked Hairston and PMac in the lineup more.
April 10, 2008 at 8:53 am
Re: 9 Im a bit surprised that P-Mac did not get a start against Cain or Lincecum both are good righties and it would have been nice to have a another lefty in there who feasts off of righties.
April 10, 2008 at 9:01 am
9: Agreed. Edmonds has just not looked good at all.
April 10, 2008 at 9:01 am
7.
Bard wasn’t good but niether was anyone else and most of all IMO Edmonds. I’m curious as to why Bard was batting 8th and maybe that effected him some but you’re right that AB sucked.
They need to take a long hard look at Edmonds and Hairston and decide who is the better player. Hairston wasn’t really challenged when he was out there but Edmonds is playing like complete ****. I’m also afraid P-Mac is wasting away on the bench and it would be nice to get a platoon going for he and Huber.
Man a real center fielder or a real hitter sounds good about now. What about both?
I can’t believe we handed a series to the Giants like that. With litterally 2 clutch hits and by clutch hit I mean even just a single in the right spot we sweep that series easily. Pretty lame showing boys!
April 10, 2008 at 9:11 am
I would not be at all suprised if Edmunds retired within the next two weeks. Following that Chase comes up to start in left and Hairston moves to center.
April 10, 2008 at 9:14 am
Re: 13 they wont move chase up, I don’t think they want to start his clock if he is going to platoon in LF. If Edmonds continues to struggle in the field he will prob get moved to left and the Pads will prob start looking for another CF.
April 10, 2008 at 9:20 am
This is a pretty funny Page 2 Coloumn, with a pretty big Trevor Hoffman smackdown stuck in the middle.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn.....d=tab2pos1
The Kosukie Fukodome bobble head crack is hilarious!
April 10, 2008 at 9:20 am
14. They have to start Chase’s clock sooner or later and if I am not mistaken, once they get past the begining of May this year won’t get him a full year of service.
As for moving to left, he is having trouble with routine plays, don’t see how that changes in left.
April 10, 2008 at 9:22 am
agree with 9.
Mike Cameron would have caught that ball. Once his supension is over. Let’s admit the Edmond mistake and move on.
April 10, 2008 at 9:23 am
Re: 16 less ground to cover, I just don’t see him retiring mid season or the padres swallowing the $6 mil they owe him this year (8 total but the Cards are kicking in 2).
April 10, 2008 at 9:44 am
18. If he is providing a negataive return, they are eating his salary weather they want to or not, and since it is a one year deal it has no effect on future flexability. It is just a matter of admitting the mistake and moving on. The other half if Jim’s ego, he looks bad out there and he knows it. I am assuming the man has some pride and right now, he is more than a little embarassed.
April 10, 2008 at 9:50 am
CBS has this news up today …
Clay Hensley, SP SD
News: San Diego RHP Clay Hensley is scheduled to throw one inning of extended spring training in Arizona on Thursday. Hensley underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his pitching shoulder in September.
April 10, 2008 at 9:52 am
Other than David Wells who was the last $4Mil + contract that the padres swallowed by either benching the player or releasing?
April 10, 2008 at 9:57 am
Re: 21 n/m David Wells was actualy making $3 mil last year.
April 10, 2008 at 10:12 am
In spring training I heard Edmonds say on 1090 XX that if the time came where he could no longer play CF he’d retire rather than move to a corner spot. I don’t think he meant retire in the middle of the season though.
If he doesn’t come around in the next few weeks the Padres will have to make a decision. If you’re paying the money either way I think it would be better to release him and go with a P Mac-Huber platoon in LF, Hairston in CF. The division is too competitive this year to allow the situation to fester for half the season.
April 10, 2008 at 10:29 am
23. I do not believe any athlete wishes to retire mid season, but sometimes that is when the truth becomes apparent. When the truth does rear its’ ugly head, an athlete needs to choose between hanging on until the last possible second, or going out a little more gracefully. IMAO. Mr. Edmunds faces that decision today.
April 10, 2008 at 10:31 am
RE: 24 you forget about Ego thogh, right now Jim is telling himself that he is better than this and he is just in a rut because he was hurt durring ST. If anything Edmonds wants to prove that he can still do it so he can retire on top.
April 10, 2008 at 10:41 am
25. I prefer to believe that embarrassment has overridden Ego and that he is meeting with KT right now.
April 10, 2008 at 10:49 am
I hate to say it but Edmonds isn’t going to retire in the next few weeks. Remember, he didn’t have much of a spring training and has missed significant parts of the past two seasons because of injuries. I still think he can still hit right-handed pitching so there is still some use for him. He had a bad game last night — but he wasn’t the only one and certainly wasn’t put in a position to succeed (against a tough lefty). Jim Edmonds of 5 years ago probably makes that final play — but then Jim Edmonds of 5 years ago would be making $18m a year so he wouldn’t be here.
I remember hearing an interview with Edmonds on 1090 earlier this spring and in my recollection, he didn’t say that he’d retire before he’d move to left field but that he considers himself a CF now but if he couldn’t handle the position he’d move to LF. It was over a month of ago so I might be wrong on that.
When Headley comes up they are going to have 4 outfielders for 3 jobs (Headley, Hairston, Giles, Edmonds). I would think that Headley would play everyday (if not, they’d keep him down). Hairston will probably play most days too as he’s the youngest and will be here next season. Since CF is the most likely place for him to play, why not move him there now and get him more experience especially since it doesn’t appear that he’s much worse then Edmonds at the moment.
April 10, 2008 at 10:52 am
I’m not ready to give up on Edmonds yet. Obviously, his best days are behind him. I’ve seen enough of him in St. Louis to know that he is a clutch performer. He does his best when people doubt his ability. That’s why he wanted out of St. Louis. LaRussa wasn’t guaranteeing full time work in center and he did not want to move to left or fully platooned in center.
I expected him to sit against some lefties especially since he just returned from the DL. It would have been nice to see Huber in there last night.
He will have a hot stretch…hopefully soon. Maybe if others would have gotten the job done in recent games, the losses wouldn’t be tied to his return.
April 10, 2008 at 11:00 am
You know who else is done? David Ortiz. Seriously, he’s hitting .091 right now (3 for 33). The Red Sox should just release him and put in a platoon of minor-league journeymen at the DH spot. Miguel Cabrera can’t hit either, he’s hitting .125 right now and has made 2 errors in the 4 games he’s played at 3B. What a terrible decision by the Tigers to sign him to a long term contract extension.
April 10, 2008 at 11:09 am
29.
Comparing Jim Edmonds at almost 40 to David Ortiz and Miguel Cabrerra is a little ridicules. I can see where you are going with it and that it’s too early to fully asses the situation but come on.
Edmonds was a big gamble by the front office as a solution in center and so far the gamble looks more like a bust. Comparing him to two superstars that are out to slow starts isn’t really the same thing now is it? Especially when one of those 2 superstars is adjusting to a totally different league and has never been the gold glove type of fielder Edmonds has.
April 10, 2008 at 11:15 am
It’s been a week. Jim Edmonds is not going to retire based on a bad week. The Padres are not going to eat $6 million based on one bad week.
April 10, 2008 at 11:16 am
29: You are equaling Edmonds to those two? Besides, the discussion is not his hitting. It’s mostly his fielding. And I don’t know why Bud put Edmonds in the lineup yesterday. His split has been bad in recent years.
April 10, 2008 at 11:29 am
#31: Thank you.
I’m assuming #29 was sarcastic. If so, I tried to make this same point in Tuesday’s post: We simply don’t have enough data points yet to reach any firm conclusions. Right now all that’s clear is that Edmonds came off the DL too soon. Whether he can shake off the rust remains to be seen. Granted, Father Time is working against him in a big way, but it’s premature to write him off now. Bud Black showed us last year that he’s willing to stick with a guy who is struggling, and Edmonds has a much stronger track record than Kouz did at the time. Yeah, I know Edmonds is older and has the injury history, but still, five games is way too early to give up on a plan.
April 10, 2008 at 11:32 am
33: I’m not in favor of giving up on him, but I think the Padres need to consider the possibility that Edmonds might not be the answer in CF.
In terms of the comparison to Kouz, Kouz wasn’t a liability in the field while he was struggling the plate. Edmonds is almost the opposite at this point. He’s not slugging, but he’s got a decent BA right now. However, his D is hurting us (and when we can’t score runs), that’s worse than not hitting.
April 10, 2008 at 11:37 am
MadFriars reported this minor deal yesterday …
The Padres traded Jose Oyervidez to the Houston Astros for a player to be named later.
… just fyi.
April 10, 2008 at 11:38 am
30,32: It was a joke of course but you can’t take too much away from just one game (although it wouldn’t shock me if Ortiz completely fell apart, he doesn’t exactly have the body type for longevity).
I don’t think that it’s out of the realm of possibility that Edmonds can hit 280/380/450 against right-handers. That’s better then P-Mac can do (although probably not worth the extra $5.5m) and probably Hairston too. That certainly has it’s uses, especially considering that after May 1st (or whenever) the Padres are going to have three fragile outfielders and one newly moved from 3B.
April 10, 2008 at 11:41 am
Like Jeff said above, it would be less of a concern if the Padres had won the games.
I’m surprised still that Bud didn’t put the Padres in a better position to succeed such as sitting Edmonds against LHP last night or as a commenter last night on putting the batter on first base to set up a double play with a runner on second and one out.
April 10, 2008 at 11:46 am
36: But…but…Ortiz is clutch, no?
April 10, 2008 at 11:46 am
MadFriars is also reporting that Carillo is throwing a lot in extended spring training and will soon begin pitching in games there … and after about a month of that, he’ll go to Portland … which should be some time in May … good news!
April 10, 2008 at 11:47 am
34: Outside of San Diego, most people think that Kouzmanoff’s defense is terrible. Not sure whether that’s true or not as he certainly doesn’t look terrible (although he does have a tendency to make porr throws on routine plays) but he grades out as poor in both BP Fielding Runs and in Win Shares.
Of course, it’s not a fair comparison because Kouzmanoff is coming into his prime and Edmonds is declining but it’s too early to give up on a plyaer after just 5 games.
All that being said, I still think the wise decision would be to swap Hairston and Edmonds in the field and sit Edmonds in favor of Huber against left-handed pitchers. Plus that would make the bench really strong. It’s not like Edmonds is a key player anymore because it appears that Hairston can play CF.
April 10, 2008 at 11:53 am
I agree with you guys saying that it is too early to accurately judge Edmonds but after experiencing such a steep decline the last 3 or 4 seasons and 5 games of pure **** in the field so far this year I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibilities to start looking at the situation a little closer. How many more games can we watch with Edmonds performing like he did last night? I imagine that he has about another week to show he can still get to sharply hit balls and not let balls bounce off his glove before something is done.
April 10, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Of course Edmonds is going to have a “significant” decline considering that his 2001-2004 peak was about as good a 4 year stretch by any center fielder in baseball history. Even in last year’s terrible season he still hit well in August and decent in Sept/Oct:
http://www.baseball-reference......ates-month
I think lost in all the Edmonds bashing is the performance of Heath Bell. Again, it seemed like his velocity was down — Gameday had his fastballs at 90-91 in his second inning. His last four pitches were all curveballs, including that hanger that crappy Dan Ortmeier (in his first career major league AB as a right-handed hitter against a RHP as he just gave up switch-hitting) hammered to the wall. That’s a far more serious problem then Edmonds’ poor fielding in CF as he might not play much after Headley gets recalled.
April 10, 2008 at 12:09 pm
A longer feature on Greg Maddux in ESPN Magazine, different than the one I posted yesterday.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3336514
Padres bullpen catcher Ben Risinger, perhaps bored with the persistent perfection of it all, turned to bullpen coach Darrel Akerfelds and said, “I bet I could catch him with my eyes closed.”
April 10, 2008 at 12:10 pm
“… his 2001-2004 peak was about as good a 4 year stretch by any center fielder in baseball history.”
You sure you want to stay with this statement?
April 10, 2008 at 12:18 pm
#42: Yeah, Bell is a concern right now. I wonder how quickly the Hoffman naysayers will turn on him as well.
April 10, 2008 at 12:25 pm
29: The fact the Cabrera is a bad 3B isnt sarcasm though haha. Dude can HIT, but he cant play the IF anymore.
April 10, 2008 at 12:27 pm
40: I know that people aren’t high on Kouz’s D in general, but I guess I should have articulated my point as follows:
During April and the beginning of May, Kouz’s D didn’t appear to cost us any games. He was farily consistent in the field.
Edmond’s D HAS cost us games (granted, this isn’t all on him as we should be able to muster more than 2 runs with 17 hits). His offense has been passable, but his defense is hurting us right now.
I think they’ll stick with Edmonds through the month and re-evaluate at that time. Anything less than a month wouldn’t be due dilligence. I’m not sure what the Padres will do if Edmonds isn’t able to demonstrate more consistency, but I do think they will do something.
April 10, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Too early to give up on Edmonds. I believe I picked him to only play like 50 games or something in the pre-season predictions so I’m not on his badwagon. I’m ticked right now that we’re losing games we should easily win. My anger is with poor clutch hitting, just like last year. Repeat. Poor clutch hitting. We’ve had more than enough chances. We’re only 2 weeks in so who knows how it’ll shake out?? BUT….losing these games will only make it harder down the stretch to catch up.
April 10, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Check this out…
http://interactives.signonsand.....esmanager/
April 10, 2008 at 1:09 pm
44: Definitely. Look up his stats again (his five year run from 2000-2004). He’s not at the level of Griffey, Mays, Mantle or Dimaggio, but he was at least as good as Duke Snider (I’m not going to go way back and compare him to Tris Speaker and players from before the War). He was better then Kirby Puckett and Bernie Williams from the 90’s. Lately, he’s been at least as good as Andruw Jones and better then Carlos Beltran, Grady Sizemore, Curtis Granderson or any current center fielder. I’m sure I’m leaving people out, but Edmonds, especially in 2004 was really, really good.
April 10, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I have zero confidence in this bullpen right now. Bell isn’t what he was last year. Meredith wasn’t what he was in ‘06. Even if Hensley makes it back, is he ever going to be as good as he was in ‘05? Thatcher has looked shaky. I haven’t lost all confidence in Hoffman but we all know he’s not what he once was. The other three guys are only being used in mop-up duty. What a waste to have three mop-up guys on a team that plays mostly close games. I’m waiting for one of Towers’ under-the-radar signings to emerge. Adam Bass? Mauro Zarate? Who’s it gonna be? Dirk Hayhurst had a nice outing in AAA last night (3.1 IP, 0 R, H, 2 BB, 7 K) but he’s never been considered much of a prospect. I really don’t feel very good about our season right now. Bad offense + Bad bullpen = very looooooooong season
April 10, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Will Carroll @ BP says this in his UTK column today …
Mark Prior made it through a BP session. Last time out, he couldn’t and came up sore afterwards, so this is progress.
April 10, 2008 at 1:35 pm
50.
You know who else was good 4 seasons ago?
Jeremy Burnitz 37 HR’s & 110 RBI’s
Vinnie Castilla 35 HR’s & 131 RBI’s
Moises Alou 39 HR’s & 106 RBI’s
Miguel Tejada 34 HR’s & 150 RBI’s
Adrian Beltre 48 HR’s & 121 RBI’s
Scott Rolen 34 HR’s & 124 RBI’s
Steve Finley 34 HR’s & 94 RBI’s
Shoot… Phil Nevin 26 HR’s & 105 RBI’s
The list can go on and on and the only point is that 2004 was a long long long time ago and it was the end of an “era” of sorts for baseball. Not to accuse anyone of doing anything fishy of course
. Edmonds had a fantastic year and if it were not for Rolen and Pujols taking a lot of votes he probably would have scored an MVP but that was again, a long long long time ago. Yes maybe that season skewed his decline a little the fact is he isn’t the same player and it doesn’t even look close. He needs to play better quickly or else I’m afraid he will be riding pine or flat out released. If he has another week like his last I think a change happens soon.
April 10, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Are we blaming last night’s loss on Edmonds’ defense? That seems harsh as certainly no other player on the team would have caught that ball. Was there another game that his glove lost?
As far as the bullpen goes, I woudn’t worry too much about it. The Padres haven’t had a bad bullpen is a while so it’s probably just temporary. As far as Bell goes, I looked as his velocity from the games he pitched in San Diego this season and they were 95-96. In San Francisco it’s been 90-91 (although it could be a stadium gun thing although I think I read that they are all the same). I’m seeing if I can find the data from last season.
April 10, 2008 at 1:40 pm
44: cough… PED’s cough…
April 10, 2008 at 1:48 pm
53: I wasn’t saying that since he was good in 2004 he’d be good this season. Just that of course his stats are in decline because his 2004 was so damn good. He had no where to go but down. Also, don’t compare those players to him, he was the 2nd best player in the majors that season behind Bonds. (slightly worse hitter then Pujols but he played CF instead of 1B).
Do people think that P-Mac is a better player right now? It’s not like he would have even come close to that ball and he may not be any better as a hitter.
April 10, 2008 at 1:49 pm
50: Yes, Edmonds was quite good. But “about as good” sounds like you were putting him in the same class as the all-time greats. Not only is he not in that class, but his peak wasn’t as good as, say, Dale Murphy, who won back-to-back MVP awards.
April 10, 2008 at 1:50 pm
54.
It’s probably not fair to blame the loss on Edmonds but damn if he wasn’t a factor. I also think it’s off base to say nobody else would have caught that. It would have been a nice catch for sure but Edmonds has nowhere near the speed Hairston does (did you see him run from 3rd to home? Adrian might rival him in a foot race!) and that catch would have been a lot easier on a right handed player like Scott. I will give you that Hairston probably would not have gotten it but I also have no clue how decent a CF’r Hairston is because I have not seen him in a situation anything like that.
April 10, 2008 at 1:51 pm
45: LM and I are already sharpening our knives.
April 10, 2008 at 1:51 pm
56: P-Mac wouldn’t have been playing center. Did you really think someone meant that? P-Mac in left, Hairston in center. Or Gerut in left. Or Headley in left.
April 10, 2008 at 1:53 pm
47: I agree. They should give Edmonds some time. He will have to make it clear he’s not getting it done, and I think he will make that clear.
April 10, 2008 at 1:55 pm
54: I thought the Channel 4 pitch speeds were provided by the pitchF/X system. I know the Carls Jr pitch tracker is. I’ve noticed many times the announcers will give the velocity based on the scoreboard reading, which is a radar gun, and it will be different from the broadcast number.
FWIW, pitchF/X had Bell topping out at 91 out of the hand. That’s definitely a problem. They had Germano at 87, which sounds right. I don’t think it was a calibration issue.
April 10, 2008 at 1:57 pm
56.
P-Mac has more upside and will probably be a part of this teams future. He also doesn’t cost $6 million and he might be a better hitter who knows?
April 10, 2008 at 2:06 pm
We all just need to take a deep breath on Edmonds…5 games doth not a story tell. Does he look bad, yes, but so do a lot of guys 1 week into spring training. He can usually still get to the ball in the OF, he will hit 7 hr’s this season, and be fine overall. Is he as good as he used to be, no, but as was pointed out last week, our expectations are low.
April 10, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Re: 63 thats pretty much how I feel.
April 10, 2008 at 2:18 pm
64: I’d say our offensive expectations are low. We at least expected him to be decent to good in the field. Unless I’m completely mistaken about that.
April 10, 2008 at 2:28 pm
57: I don’t want to start a whole thing here but Edmonds in 2004 was way better then Dale Murphy in 1982-1983 when he won his back to back MVP Awards. If you weren’t going to give the award to Bonds in 2004, he was certainly the 2nd best player (it’s hard to compete against one of the all-time great seasons). Not too many CF’ers have had a season with an OPS+ of 170 — Mays and Mantle obviously have a bunch, Griffey and Duke Snider each have one, no recent CF has had one (A-Rod in his monster season last year was at 177). Even Hank Aaron only had 5 seasons better then that and he played RF.
62: The Channel 4 speeds are always different then the pitch F/X system. From my understanding the pitch F/X uses two different values, the one out of the hand (the one I always use) and the one when it crosses the plate (which is usually 5-6 mph lower). I went back and looked at one of Bell’s games last season, on Sept. 27 against the Brewers. His velocity was consistent at 95-96 in a two inning stint. The same with every game this season except for the last two in San Francisco where it was 90-91 every fastball. Since in two different stadiums (Milwaukee, SD) he’s been the same and in SanFran he’s been 5 mph lower, it makes me think that there might be a difference in the guns, not his actual velocity since that’s such a drop.
April 10, 2008 at 2:32 pm
If P-Mac is part of the future, that’s a pretty bleak future. Unless you mean as a bat off the bench. Unless they send down a pitcher (unlikely since the Padres have carried 12 pitchers the past few seasons) he’s probably not going to be on the team after they call up Headley unless he passes through waivers which I think is unlikely since he does have some utility as a bat off the bench. Unfortunately he doesn’t fit in that well here since he’s left-handed and not a great defender (they already have two OF’ers like that).
April 10, 2008 at 2:32 pm
64: Then he should be doing this in “Spring Training” not on the major league club. We seemed to be managing fine without him. There was no reason to rush him. He should still be playing in LE or Portland doing his “Spring Training.” Why have him get the kinks out on the ML club?
April 10, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I’m trying to figure out why Edmonds plays so shallow. a) His arm is gone. b) He unrealistic about his ability to go back on the ball. Maybe it’s the later since he’s unrealistic about his ability to score on fly balls to short LF. Got to respect Benji for playing within himself on that double turned single.
April 10, 2008 at 2:37 pm
68: Assuming they bring up Headley.
April 10, 2008 at 2:38 pm
70: He said in the paper this morning that he wanted to prevent a game-winning single. I guess he never considered a booming fly ball as a possiblity.
April 10, 2008 at 2:38 pm
67: Or he’s hurt. Technically they don’t use a gun for pitch F/X but I get your point. They’ve had some problems with calibration of the system but the fact that they had Sanchez as high as 93 seems to indicate it was working correctly for everyone else. I think when he’s healthy Bell throws harder than Sanchez.
April 10, 2008 at 2:38 pm
68.
P-Mac’s future with this team or in baseball in general is a lot less bleak than Edmonds is at this point.
April 10, 2008 at 2:47 pm
73: Bell’s fastball generally lives in the 93-97 MPH range so the fact that hes only at 90-91 could be he is hurt. But it is interesting that at Petco he was 95ish.
April 10, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I agree with Geoff and CMike, people are jumping the gun with Edmonds. It may be right, but it’s too early to tell conclusively.
April 10, 2008 at 2:48 pm
75: Last night I saw him hit 94 a couple times
April 10, 2008 at 3:03 pm
It’s kind of foolish to compare Edmonds and McAnulty because P-Mac isn’t going to on the active roster and most likely not even on the team after they call up Headley. Logically, he’s the only one to get sent down (unless they get rid of a pitcher which seems doubtful). You could argue that P-Mac is the better hitter, but that’s doubtful since he hit 262/347/374 in Triple AAA while Edmonds was 252/325/403 in the major leagues (in a pitchers park as well). P-Mac might be a better hitter but probably not and he is a much worse fielder. He’s not going to be the LF of the future (that’s Headley) nor is he likely to be the future RF. So where exactly does he fit in?
April 10, 2008 at 3:08 pm
78: Assuming they bring up Headley
If P-Mac and Hairston are both playing well, I can see them keeping Headley down for a full season in the OF at Portland.
April 10, 2008 at 3:10 pm
76: I am fine with waiting and seeing and it being to early to tell, but why do we need to conduct this experiment and the Major League level? He obviously could had used more time rehabbing.
April 10, 2008 at 3:15 pm
78: Using P-Mac’s numbers from last year is not exactly fair. In 2006 in AAA he his .310/.388/.521 which was in line with the rest of his numbers.
April 10, 2008 at 3:18 pm
81. That about sums it up.
April 10, 2008 at 3:21 pm
78.
It is pretty foolish to compare P-Mac and Edmonds I agree. The problem is that I think you were actually the one that brought the two up in comparison in 56. I have no clue why you did it but you asked an opinion of two guys who are totally different players and in two totally different stages in their playing career.
The way I see it is that P-Mac is still 27 and has shown promise as a hitter. If it’s with this team or with another I think P-Mac has a much better future going forward than Edmonds. Jimmy is what like 37 or 38? He isn’t really a hitter anymore and the hope going into this season was that he would be an decent 1 year CF stop gap. The jury is still out but the early reports don’t look great. They don’t even look bad they look horrible.
I have no clue what the future holds for P-Mac but I sure would like to some day find out. I do know he can hit, he can play multiple positions at a decent level and if a guy like Jack Cust can maintain a part time job in the bigs P-Mac will have a future somewhere.
Edmonds on the other hand, his future is Mai Tai and pain killer cocktails out by the pool enjoying the fruits of a very good career.
April 10, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Neither Edmonds nor McAnulty is going to start much after Headley gets called up, I think we all agree on that (barring injuries). McAnulty is going to get designated for assignment when that happens, unless one of the outfielders is on the DL, I think we can all agree on that. If McAnulty has the promise that many of you think he has, there is no way he is going to clear waivers so he’s going to get traded. So regardless of whether you think McAnulty is the better player right now (and I certainly don’t agree) it doesn’t really matter.
Even if that weren’t true I’d keep Edmonds around over McAnulty because he is the better defensive player and the outfield defense is going to be seriously weak when our outfield consists of a newly converted 3B, a converted 2B, and Brian Giles.
April 10, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Actually we can compare Edmonds and McAnulty. It’s pretty clear that Edmonds is the superior fielder and I doubt that it’s that close. I’m not convinced that McAnulty is the better hitter as they were both terrible last season although Edmonds was a lot better. The question is how much Edmonds has slipped vs. how much McAnulty has improved. Again, I don’t think it’s wishful thinking for Edmonds to repeat his splits from 2006 against righties (although I would never give him ABs against lefties). Personally I don’t think McAnulty could match those. The problem is that he’s simply not going to be given the chance. Do to the fact that the Padres think Edmonds is the better player (plus he’s making $6m) he’s going to be given the opportunity to succeed until Headley gets recalled. Even if he doesn’t hit at all, because of the money thing and the fact that he’s better defensively, he’s more likely to stay on the roster then McAnulty.
April 10, 2008 at 3:50 pm
84.
Yeah, I’m not sure that we agree on much then. I don’t think it’s a for sure thing that Headley gets called up. Headley will come up if we need him and I am sure if it gets to that point P-Mac will have been already given a chance.
Also in the event Headley came up… Honestly if what we have seen from Edmonds is any real indication I probably wouldn’t keep him over P-Mac either. What is the incentive? So your left field defense would be better? Left field is where you hide your not so special defensive players that can hit so I don’t see a huge advantage to keeping a guy who (MIGHT!!!) field better but won’t hit and has no future value. If you designate P-Mac you loose him plain and simple. A guy you drafted and brought up in the system and by most accounts is the type of hitter you try to develop and has performed well at the minor league level. If you get rid of Edmonds you loose a declining player at the end of the line who had no future beyond 2008 in the first place.
I guess we can agree to disagree and I’m totally fine with that.
April 10, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Quotes from Schlom today…
“Do people think that P-Mac is a better player right now?”
“It’s kind of foolish to compare Edmonds and McAnulty”
“regardless of whether you think McAnulty is the better player right now (and I certainly don’t agree) it doesn’t really matter”
“Actually we can compare Edmonds and McAnulty”
Seriously Schlom I don’t really care anymore. You can’t convince me that Edmonds has more future upside than P-Mac so it’s futile to keep stating the same things over and over again.
April 10, 2008 at 4:08 pm
84: Not all converted players are equally good or bad. Brandon Inge who was a third baseman then a catcher then a third again is manning CF in Detroit and managed to do fine and even gunned down a runner at the plate last week.
From what we have seen so far, Hairston is not so bad at CF. Going a whole season…I don’t know, just as I don’t know if Edmonds is going to get worse or better. I think all this discussion would have been moot if the games were won. The question still stand as to why if Edmonds is not completely heathly that he’s rehabbing at the ML level where all the games count. Could it be that the season is young and the offense was expected to have scored more runs (as it should have)? Defensively, it’s not like Edmonds is new to the NL Parks, so the most likely conclusion is that if he’s healthy, his skills are declining. Still 5 games is too small a sample to draw a final judgement but the concerns are valid.
The 12-man rotation is really getting tiresome so far. Three mop-up pitchers are luxuries the Padres can’t afford. They can’t hit for a lick either.
April 10, 2008 at 4:16 pm
McAnulty was a 12th round pick in 2002, it’s not like he’s ever really been in the Padres plans. I think’s he’s overachieved, only other two players from that round have even made the majors (Brandon Fahey got 300 AB’s with the Orioles and Mike Esposito got 3 starts with the Rockies in 2005. It’s a lot easier to get PT with those teams then it should with the Padres now).
I’m not exactly sure what you see in McAnulty — every corner outfielder in the majors has numbers like that from the minors (Scott Hairston only had one year worse then P-Mac’s best for example). I’m certainly rooting for him — I’d rather see him with a bench job then Jody Gerut for example (at least Gerut has had a full season in the majors). You have to respect someone who wasn’t that highly regarded when he was drafted and has managed to claw his way to the majors — but a team that feels like it should contend can’t give AB’s to a player like that. It goes back to what we were talking about a few weeks ago — is this the Padres or the Royals/Pirates? Losing teams give full-time jobs to fringe prospects, not teams that contend.
As far as Headley goes, he’s getting called up within the next couple of weeks. They already said his bat is ready and he can learn to play the outfield just as well here as he can in Portland. And it looks like they are going to need his bat. If they aren’t going to call him up that means they are writing the season off and they might as well play Edmonds and hope that he does well enough that they can trade him to another team for a prospect.
April 10, 2008 at 4:28 pm
87: Browse around Baseball Reference minor league pages and you will find a bunch of outfielders that hit just was well as McAnulty the past few seasons. Should we go and pick one of them up because their “upside” is better then Jim Edmonds?
http://minors.baseball-referen.....p;sort=OPS
There were 41 last season and 77 in 2006.
How long is P-Mac’s leash? He started off hot, going 4-9 in his first three starts but went 0-3 in his last start, a loss against the Dodgers. Should we give him one more start before we call up Jody Gerut?
April 10, 2008 at 4:37 pm
90.
Why would we go out and get one of “a bunch of outfielders that hit just was well as McAnulty the past few seasons” when we already have McAnulty? That doesn’t make sense.
I think Paul deserves a decent chance to play regular before you judge him completely. He was one of our best hitters all through spring training and did well to start the season when he was getting AB’s. I’m not saying he is going to be a starter or will turn into a all-star type i’m just saying that with his bat and his age he has a lot more upside for the future than Edmonds does. Edmonds will not be here next year and in one capacity or another I can see P-Mac on the team. If not this team than another.
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