The Padres embark on their inaugural road trip of 2008. First stop is San Francisco, where long-time Padres skipper Bruce Bochy calls the shots but long-time Padres nemesis Barry Bonds no longer calls home. We caught up with veteran Giants blogger El Lefty Malo to chat about the upcoming series between these two NL West rivals.
Ducksnorts: Let’s start with the elephant in the room: What does Barry Bonds’ departure mean to the Giants franchise and the city of San Francisco?
El Lefty Malo: In the context of everything else that’s happened this winter, it means the Giants should have the worst offense in the major leagues this year. They were just about there with Bonds, and adding Aaron Rowand isn’t going to make up the difference. I’m not sorry to see Bonds go. I grew up in the Bill Walsh 49ers glory years, and I heartily subscribe to Walsh’s dictum that it’s better to let an aging vet go one year early than one year late. Time to move on.
A lot of fans are agitating to re-sign him, just so the team has some illusion of offense this year. That’s a terrible, horrible, no good very bad idea.
Question for you: What do you think of the Giants’ Jedi mind-trick this spring: trying to erase all traces of Bonds. How’s that one playing down south?
Ducksnorts: I find it fascinating that MLB’s hit leader and home run leader have managed to become persona non grata. As for Bonds specifically, this was a strange off-season because national media types kept insinuating that San Diego would be a great fit for him. And I suppose if he enjoyed getting hit by large fake syringes every now and then, it just might be. And it goes without saying that nobody’s sorry our pitchers don’t have to face him anymore.
El Lefty Malo: I want to see Bonds sign elsewhere just to see if my “he’s our jerk” theory holds true. In other words, no matter how big a jerk, fans (except, perhaps in Philly) will cheer a player who helps their team. If he were hitting homers down the stretch run for the Padres, would you cheer for him?
Ducksnorts: No, and there’s a good chance I’d stop attending games altogether. I’ve had discussions with very smart people about this, and they don’t understand my stance. They tell me it’s irrational, and I’m inclined to agree, but there it is.
Shifting gears, how would you assess the job Bruce Bochy has done thus far in his brief tenure as manager? What do you like, and what could he be doing differently?
El Lefty Malo: Hard to say. Last year was a circus. This year is the real barometer. Does he put together a good bullpen? Does he preserve the arms of the young aces? Does he play the young guys over the vets? Does he keep things positive when the wheels are falling off?
I noticed comments in the press recently from Trevor Hoffman and Jake Peavy singing Bochy’s praises. Padres players seem to really respect him. Do you think he deserves it?
Ducksnorts: Bochy’s greatest strength as a manager during his time in San Diego clearly was his ability to work with veteran players. I have no doubt that Hoffman and Peavy loved playing for the guy, as did many others. Players here seemed extremely loyal to Bochy. As for playing kids over vets, the good news is that he’s been willing to do that with pitchers, which aligns well with the Giants’ organizational strength. Position players have been a different story. I don’t know if being forced to pencil the likes of Ruben Rivera and George Arias into his lineup every day on the heels of a World Series appearance jaded him or what, but Bochy had an aversion to playing his young hitters, perhaps most notably Xavier Nady. Not that Nady is great, mind you, but it might have been nice to give the guy a look.
Speaking of the young pitchers, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum are studs. Beyond those two guys, what are some reasons to get excited about the Giants in 2008 and beyond?
El Lefty Malo: ….oh, sorry, I must have fallen asleep. Did you ask a question?
Ducksnorts: Apparently not… What do you think of the Barry Zito signing, and how might his contract affect the Giants’ ability to make other moves?
El Lefty Malo: Terrible contract. He’s not even a league-average pitcher. I hoped against hope he would be when the contract was announced, but all the signs pointed to the bad. And the signs so far have been right. Maybe he’ll figure out how to return to form, but this is looking like the worst free-agent contract since Mike Hampton. How will it affect other moves? Hopefully it will keep the Giants from making other stupid free-agent moves. The next year or two, they should stay out of the market completely.
Ducksnorts: Given what you’ve seen from Brian Sabean in the past, how likely do you think it is that the Giants will stay out of the market?
El Lefty Malo: Not likely. Case in point: Aaron Rowand. It wasn’t a bad contract, in my opinion, especially in light of the Torii Hunter deal. But he’s a band-aid on an amputated limb at this point, and by the time the Giants could contend again, he’ll likely be in decline.
If they spend free-agent money in the next couple years, I hope it’s for short-term deals. It’ll be tough. To come to SF these days, free agents need to be overpaid or get extra years. Apparently the Giants wanted Andruw Jones with the type of deal LA gave him, but he wanted to play for a contender.
Ducksnorts: Yeah, the Rowand signing was a head-scratcher. As you say, it’s not a bad contract, but the fit is unusual. I also find it interesting that three California teams signed free-agent center fielders to long-term deals just a year after they’d — wait for it — signed free-agent center fielders to long-term deals (Torii Hunter, Gary Matthews Jr. in Anaheim; Jones, Juan Pierre in LA; Rowand, Dave Roberts in San Francisco).
Overall, how happy are fans in San Francisco with the job Sabean has done?
El Lefty Malo: It’s all “what have you done for me lately.” Until 2003 he was a local hero. Now he’s a goat. He’ll need to show serious progress with this rebuild before opinion turns again.
A few questions for you:
What’s your biggest worry about the Padres this year?
Ducksnorts: The outfield, the back end of the rotation, and the strength of the NL West, in that order. Scott Hairston looks legit to me, but I’ll be surprised if both Jim Edmonds and Brian Giles survive the season unscathed. Even if they do, it’s not clear how much they’ve got left. If they can get on base, great; otherwise… As for the pitching, it’s good but not nearly as good as many people seem to think, and beyond the front three in the rotation, there’s a lot of uncertainty.
Incidentally, Tom Verducci at SI.com recently called Edmonds the most overrated player in the National League. I’m not expecting much out of him — above-average defense and the ability to draw walks — but do people seriously think this is the same guy who dominated in St. Louis a few years ago?
El Lefty Malo: I haven’t seen Verducci’s article, but such a statement seems like strawman bashing. I don’t think anyone expects Edmonds to do much — or play much — this year…
The Padres are starting to show age. Should Kevin Towers tear down and rebuild if this season doesn’t go well? If so, who are the keepers? (I assume Peavy is one.)
Ducksnorts: Towers sort of has been tearing down every year since the Padres moved into Petco Park. Aside from a few core players, they really haven’t doled out a lot of long-term contracts. The few guys who have those deals are the keepers: Peavy, Chris Young, and Adrian Gonzalez for sure, maybe Khalil Greene (he recently signed a two-year extension but has been reluctant to go longer). Kevin Kouzmanoff may be pushing himself into that territory as well.
El Lefty Malo: It seemed at the time Petco was built to keep Bonds in the yard. Now that he’s out of the picture, should the Pads bring the fences in a bit? I’ve suggested the same thing with Mays Field, especially that dreaded 421-foot fence in right-center, but my readers shouted me down.
Ducksnorts: They actually did move the fence in right-center in about 10 feet before the 2006 season. Based on how well the Padres used Petco Park to their advantage last year, I’d be reluctant to change the configuration. The Padres accounted for 61.5% of all home runs hit in their own park in 2007, which was the highest mark in the big leagues. They’d never done anything like that before, but assuming they can keep it up, I’m happy with the dimensions.
There you have it. Thanks again to El Lefty Malo for stopping by, and here’s hoping for a great series.
I know it’s the wrong thread, but I’m curious to know what people think about the Jake Peavy doctoring the ball bit. I was at the game on Saturday and it didn’t appear to me that he had unusual movement on his ball. It more seemed that he was just ferociously attacking hitters and trying to put them away as quickly as possible.
If he had struck out 16 people, I’d be more suspicious.
Funny thing is, and this is just from watching one game. The Giants have some talent in AAA – pitching and position wise.
Geoff – great read. Thanks for putting that together.
Who are we facing in this series? I assume we’ll be seeing Cain and Lincecum, but will we see Lowry as well?
We should, at the very least, take 2 out of 3 from the Giants in this series. We could, and probably should, sweep.
El Lefty Malo needs to reach further back into history. Walsh’s dictum was Branch Rickey’s dictum — and I’m sure it goes back further than that.
It seems to me that any discussion of changing Petco needs to start with understanding it. To me, we want a pitcher’s park. Do we want this much of one? Perhaps not. We’re not trying to draw big name hitters — never be able to afford them anyway — but I’d hate to see players leave because of the fences.
I think what we’re looking for to optimize the park without sacrificing overall effectiveness:
1. Get some cheap RH power. Players like Hairston and to a certain extent Greene haven’t been hurt as much by the ballpark as we all assumed.
2. Fast OF who can cover some ground. We’ve done an awful job of this aside from Cameron. It really needs to be a priority.
3. Hitters with flatter swings. I think Adrian is a great example of a player who has both power but not too much loft.
4. Speed on the basepaths. The issue is that speed is almost always overvalued, but it is important to us. Not just basestealing but first to third on singles. The easiest place to improve is more guys like Hairston — deceptively quick. Antonelli will help.
5. We can take advantage of certain types of pitchers, like CY, who will be better for us. Every pitcher will get better, but fly ball pitchers should be more of a deal.
Geoff, you mentioned in your other thread that the rule that let Furcal score on Saturday should be changed. I’m not so sure that’s the way to go. If it’s changed, what’s to prevent a rightfielder from catching a fly in foul territory and then hopping into the stands so as to prevent a runner on third from tagging up and scoring? I think the rule has its purpose, and it just came out to bite us this time.
Re 5 – #1 “Players like …Greene haven’t been hurt as much by the ballpark as we all assumed”
Huh? Greene has the following splits (three-year splits 2005-7):
Away: .273/.328/.500
Home: .227/.273/.371
You could argue that NO ONE is hurt by PETCO more than Greene…
***
Rain Delay, no offense, but the Giants minor leaguer system is awful, especially at the upper levels…
Guys I hate to criticize, but we need to research our positions first, not make generalizations on small sample sizes.
Maybe Greene has been hurt, but it may be more style than anything else. Recent park factors make hitting to LF in Petco actually easier than average to hit an HR.
So I wonder if it’s his blooping style, or maybe just the batter’s eye, etc. But RH power hitters actually have done pretty well as long as they can pull the ball. And Khalil does that.
WAY OT: Besides his change up, what other pitches does LeBlanc throw?
8: Khalil is an extreme flyball hitter (37.9% last year, 5th highest in the majors) so Petco absolutely kills him. He hits his share of home runs at Petco but he makes a ton of outs when balls just hang up and get caught.
Yeah, I’ve always thought it had something to do with the way Greene puts the ball in play … what appears to me to be a lot of high, lofty balls. I mean, if you’re Adam Dunn that might be fine in Petco, but Khalil doesn’t have that kind of power. I would guess that, due to the air/wind/etc, high fly balls (even well hit ones) are hurt more by Petco than other kinds of fly balls.
‘Course, I really don’t know.
#6: Well, presumably the rule would be modified so that a similarly nonsensical result couldn’t arise from it. To charge a guy with an error for catching a baseball is just so wrong.
And now it looks like the error has been removed from Bard’s record. I’m still not thrilled with the rule, but that particular aspect of it really offended me.
12: The thing that really bugs me about those types of call is no one ever explains them to the crowd. We were all trying to figure out what the heck was going on. How hard is it to just have the PA announcer tell us what the decision was?
Re:12 so they charged the run to Peavy?
#14: The next batter, Loney, doubled, so Furcal would have scored anyway, but yes. Here’s what it looks like at B-R.com:
Foul Popfly: C (Behind Home); Furcal Scores/No RBI
It’s not an error because Bard caught the ball. It’s not a sac fly. What the heck is it? Fielders choice? I mean, I guess Bard could have exercised his “choice” to drop the ball, in which case Furcal wouldn’t have advanced.
What a goofy rule…
Well despite is dimensions, Petco looked great on TV yesterday with the blue sky and the city in the background. They really should have more weekend day games. Be intersting to see is the resturants and bars do better after a day game. Makes sense, no? Get out the game at 4:30, time to eat. Get out at 10:30, time to go home.
Hate to say, but dodgers look good. But, if we can get Kent and Jones jawing at each other in the clubhouse, might take them down a notch.
Should beat up on the giants. My Giant friends are really down in the dumps about them this season.
15: Agreed. Reading that line from BR makes it seem like Furcal tagged and scored with nobody covering the plate. Of course, then that would technically be a sac fly.
I receive text messages every time someone scores and at the end of every inning. I believe I signed up for the service through XX Radio. At any rate, they described the event like this:
V.MLB (CORR) SCORE 1 run, defensive indifference. Rafael Furcal scores from 3rd. Dodgers 1, Padres 4. (AP)
Thanks, Geoff for the interview. And thanks Rain Delay for the report.
Yup, I think Ramos’ days are numbered.
Wasn’t that rule a new one a.k.a. Jeter rule? It’s weird in this instance but I supposed it made sense at the time to add to the rulebook.
Actually they flashed an explanation on the scoreboard before the bottom of the 7th I think. But yeah, if you weren’t looking at the scoreboard you would have missed it.
#17: So, did Bard sliding into the dugout look “indifferent” to anyone?
20: lol, we were sitting in LF and we were thoroughly confused. I wonder how much of that ruling ended up being the Joe Torre factor?
By the way, I propose a nickname for Iguchi: Tiggy.
Re: 21 Tiggy?
21: I still vote for Gooch haha
#1 – If you find something on his hand, so what? if you find something on the ball, that’s another story… and I think that something that dark would definitely show up on a white baseball, no? I think the media is just trying to make something of nothing.
I still don’t understand why the Padres didn’t just argue that Bard’s leg ward in the dugout when he caught the ball and therefore he was out the field of play when the catch was made so it shouldn’t have counted. They replay looked to me like he was out over the dugout line after he made the catch.
13.
I totally agree!!! Everyone in the seats near us was wondering WTF is going on and it would be nice to print something on the screen or get the PA guy on the mic.
25: Doesnt the rule say they cant go out of play even AFTER the catch?
26.
Yeah that is the rule i believe. But if he was out of the field of play when he made the catch doesn’t that make it a no catch?
#3, 18: Glad you enjoyed the interview.