Comments on: Life’s Sweetest Reward

By: Johnny Utah

Johnny Utah — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:30:27 +0000

also, those who have been calling for Black to sit Edmonds against lefties are in luck as Hairston is starting in CF and Huber in LF. Also, Adrian gets his first break with Tony Clark at 1B.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/news/2008/apr/17/black-rests-gonazlez-edmonds/

By: Johnny Utah

Johnny Utah — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:28:36 +0000

#51@Geoff Young: thanks

By: Schlom

Schlom — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:14:06 +0000

#64@Field39: Do they? I'd never heard that before. I remember that they didn't schedule many day games the first season because they were worried about traffic and parking but I thought all those were resolved. I'll bet if the city restricts the number of day games the Padres can play, the team is well compensated for that agreement.

By: Field39

Field39 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:58:13 +0000

#63@Schlom: I believe the city has issues with weekday day games.

By: Schlom

Schlom — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:31:18 +0000

On a completely unrelated note, why didn’t the Padres play a day game today? Don’t they get better crowds for day games then night games?

Last season at about this time, they played a two game series here against the D-backs. The Wednesday night game drew 26,872 and the Thursday day game drew 32,224.

So maybe Moores isn’t cheap (he’d make more money with a daygame), maybe he’s just a bonehead?

By: Didi

Didi — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:29:31 +0000

re: Cla

Why do the Padres have all those other arms in the bully if Pepe Negro isn’t going to use them? I’m guessing that since Cla got a second inning which turned out bad last night (probably other games too but I don’t know), Pepe isn’t so thrill with the other arms in the pen in a 1-run game. Well, heck, I wouldn’t either given the three amigos (now two) we got in there. It’s time to send either Rusch or Ledezma down if we aren’t trusting them with a close game. The way the Padres are constructed, there’ll be few blow-outs as has been shown in the past three seasons and there is no need to carry long arms that are useless. I’m guessing Rusch is the first to go since Ledezma seems designated to occupy the spot that Hampson had last year.

By: Schlom

Schlom — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:27:54 +0000

We were talking about fielding numbers earlier. The Padres OF numbers are all over the place, according to both BR and BP.

Just using the BR.com Range Factor numbers, in the infield the Padres are above average at 1B, below average at 2B and SS, and average at 3B. In the outfield, Hairston is way above average in LF and CF, Edmonds is below average in CF, Giles is way below average in RF, and P-Mac is above average in LF. The pitching staff is way above average, led by Maddux’s unreal 13 chances in 18 innings so far (the league average is 1.86 chances per 9 innings, Maddux is at 6.5!). As noted above, they are first in Defensive Efficiency (turning balls in play into outs) and about average in Fielding % (tied for 7th with 4 other teams at .983).

In Baseball Prospectus numbers, they are below average at C and RF (92 and 95 rate, with 100 being average), average at 1B (102) and above average or way above average everywhere else — 2B(134), 3B(110), SS(123), LF(141!), CF(125) and P(120 led by Maddux’s insane 201). Hairston and Iguchi have been the best fielders, Bard and Giles are the only ones in negative at -1.

Unfortunately we don’t know exactly what all this stuff means. It could be just a sample size issue but then again the Padres have ranked high in Def Eff since moving into Petco. So maybe it’s something to do with the stadium (although they only play half their games there). Or maybe it’s the Padres pitchers are so good they create a lot of easy outs. I suspect the answer lies somewhat in between all of them.

By: Tom Waits

Tom Waits — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:10:19 +0000

Turnbow and Bush are on the outs in Milwaukee; as usual with the Brewers, it’s hard to identify a match, but if we could swing a trade with them….I’m not a big TGwynn Jr guy, but somebody who could play CF like a CF would be nice.

By: Schlom

Schlom — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:09:27 +0000

#53@Geoff Young: Ledezma has pitched in 2 of the Padres first 15 games. At this rate, he’s going to appear in 22 games on the season.

I think that’s an effective role on the team considering that if they send him down they’ll lose him to another team and that at 27 years old, he’s an important part of this team’s future.

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/poitier/135/hppylnd.wav

By: Tom Waits

Tom Waits — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:05:55 +0000

#36@Phantom: Unless you believe that millionaires and billionaires, some of whose primary business is baseball, have been willing to lose money for 100+ years as some kind of community investment (when many of the original investors would be long dead before it reached fruition), then baseball makes money. As I pointed out, it was only 6 years ago, with revenue streams that earlier eras could only dream about, that Selig claimed a loss of $512 million. That's patently nonsensical. SD probably contributed a small amount to that bogus number; the bigger fibs were the teams with their own media outlets. And again, much of the Padres' inability to maximize their revenue now is on their own heads. #53@Geoff Young: Agree. For as much stuff as he supposedly has, it's never translated into strikeouts.