That Strange Feeling We Sometimes Get
Tue, Apr 8, 2008
by Geoff Young
Two quick observations about Jim Edmonds and Tadahito Iguchi:
- Mike Cameron looked lost in center field last April.
- Marcus Giles hit .327/.376/.459 that same month.
What we’re seeing from Edmonds and Iguchi right now may not mean much in August in September. In other words, we still don’t know what we’ve got…
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April 8, 2008 at 8:09 am
Damn you and your reason! Baseball is all about snap judgments!
Seriously though, I’m really liking Iguchi. He’s got a better (more stable) track record than NOG and I really like his approach at the plate and in the field.
As for Edmonds, color me un-impressed. I don’t expect anything out of the guy offensively, but I at least thought he’d be able to catch a few fly balls.
April 8, 2008 at 8:32 am
Well it might be nice for Iguchi to mix in a walk every once in a while, I doubt he continues to hit .333 all year when his lifetime average is .277.
It does look like they should get a .280/.320/.420 year out of Iguchi, with good defense at 2B that’s workable, but nothing that we’re going to remember after watching Antonelli for a couple of years.
I hope Edmonds is just getting adjusted to the big league’s again, showing some sort of power/patience would be nice though
April 8, 2008 at 8:36 am
I’ve tried to temper my dislike for Edmonds, but I really don’t think he’s healthy…I was at the game yesterday, he didn’t look like he was moving real well to the ball. He was getting lousy jumps too, FWIW…
Iguchi looks good, but so did Giles last year. Like Geoff, I’m reserving judgment for now, but early returns look good.
April 8, 2008 at 8:37 am
I’m generally a fan of the Towers braintrust, but is anyone really surprised that Edmonds doesn’t apparently have much left? I mean, really.
That being said, I don’t mind being proven wrong.
FREE REGGIE WILLITS!
April 8, 2008 at 9:27 am
GREAT point Geoff!!!
I still don’t know what to realistically expect from Edmonds over the course of the season but that is an excellent comp.
Edmonds does look shaky but then again he did pretty much miss spring training so I am not throwing out the white flag yet.
April 8, 2008 at 10:20 am
4: Anyone but Willits
April 8, 2008 at 10:20 am
6: What do you have against Willits? The dude would be a perfect fit on this team.
April 8, 2008 at 10:46 am
thought this was very funny…
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn.....ast/080407
Notice the slam on Trevor for the Padres “rejected t-shirt”
April 8, 2008 at 10:47 am
Free P-Mac. Why shop out of town when there’s a perfectly fine useful player in town?
Padres’ Ozzie is on this list:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/m.....ince-1957/
April 8, 2008 at 10:50 am
Even if Iguchi’s offensive production falls off from his current levels, I love his defense, and hope the Padres will consider keeping him around in 2009.
April 8, 2008 at 11:11 am
Another funny:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn.....ise/080407
April 8, 2008 at 11:16 am
Fair point on Iguchi, but loving it nonetheless. Edmonds, though, gives me pause. Mike had some weird plays last year, but often in the variety of losing deep, lazy flyballs in the sky. He still took good routes on balls and would still cover a lot of ground. Edmonds is taking bad routes to balls, letting grounders get by him (Cameron never, ever did that). I expect him to improve, because it does not seem it can get worse given his track record, and hope it is an injury, but if he still hampered by injury, he should not be playing.
I don’t like it because he indirectly cuts out P-Mac (b/c Hairston is hitting so well), who I am loving the more I see of him. Great eye for the plate, good swings. Hopefully we’ll see a little power.
April 8, 2008 at 11:30 am
7.
Seriously! I totally agree. No, he doesn’t have power but I think Willits would be awesome here. Most power doesn’t play well at petco in the first place so why not have a guy that plays good defense, is fast, switch hitting, and does nothing but get on base and hit.
Yeah, anyone but him! Sounds horrible.
April 8, 2008 at 11:32 am
It can only get better.
http://tinyurl.com/54uweb
April 8, 2008 at 11:45 am
14: That’s truly amazing. Who would have ever thought that with a bully ERA that high that we’d be sitting at 5-3?
I think Buddy really needs to reevaluate how he’s using his ‘pen. If it’s a tie game and you put on the first two runners, you gotta get pulled. You’re just playing with fire, otherwise.
April 8, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Whatever happened to Freddy Garcia? Anybody?
April 8, 2008 at 12:19 pm
16 … http://rotoworld.com/content/p.....mp;id=2739 … looks like he’s a FA … just not yet healthy … but he’s talking to BoSox … hmmm … good find, Didi!
April 8, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I must admit, I’m a Willits fan….and I think he’d be great for SD. Further, he’s sitting while an overpaid mediocrity in Mathews Jr. is playing.
I think a dash of speed would help divesify the Padres’ attack also.
April 8, 2008 at 12:30 pm
7: He couldn’t hit a ball out of a little league field he isn’t very good in CF either (no better than Hairston). I watched him play most the year here in Anaheim. He never looked good in their OF as a CFer, I don’t think he will be any better at Petco. I guess he has “heart” and “plays the game hard” he makes Rex Hudler proud. I don’t see the need for a powerless corner OF.
April 8, 2008 at 12:34 pm
19: That’s wierd, because I’ve seen and heard nothing but good things about his CF defense. As I understand it, he and Nathan Haynes were redundant quantities (although Willits has a much higher OBP).
We don’t always need guys in our lineup who can mash. Having better OBP would probably help us better set the table for our power guys (who, with our current lineup, are nicely distributed throughout the lineup).
Can anyone point to any fielding metrics about Willits?
April 8, 2008 at 12:43 pm
20: I’d rather see Giles/Hairston/P-Mac out there. But I think they will stay with Edmonds. Unless Edmonds goes down with a season ending injury, I don’t see them acquiring another CF during the season. Willits can take a walk but that is about where his production ends. His speed is ok, but he gets caught stealing quite often as well which is counter productive. Its not what we need from a corner OF. Its Brian Giles (not so far this year Giles lost his patience) with ZERO power.
April 8, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Giles was benched for off the field reasons last year, so he’s not a great example.
April 8, 2008 at 12:54 pm
While point 2 is perhaps reason for some tamed enthusiasm, what I’m really worried about is attendance.
Yesterday - only 8 games into the season - and literally NO ONE was filling the stands at Petco. Appalling!
Sorry Geoff, I couldn’t resist.
Anyway, I actually had the same thought about Iguchi yesterday, but I’m not too worried. As Richard mentioned, NOG had more problems than just his on-field play. I just get a better all-around feeling from Iguchi - whatever that counts for.
April 8, 2008 at 1:38 pm
22 - I didn’t know this…can you explain?
April 8, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Giles was way better in his prime then Iguchi — it’s not even close (take a look at his 2003-2005 period, he was definitely a top 3 2B in the NL). Injuries killed whatever career he might have had. Iguchi was pretty good last season after being traded to the Phillies — maybe he can carry over that form this year. I don’t see why a 280/350/430 season isn’t possible.
I wondering if moving Edmonds over to LF and Hairston back to CF isn’t the best move. That’s obviously the long-term solution and if Hairston is even close to Edmonds defensively then why not make the switch. I think that Edmonds can still hit and he might be better suited for LF at this point in his career (he still has the picture perfect swing, not too many batters look better). If Edmonds just plays against right-handers he can still be productive (he hit 295/404/543 in 2006).
If Barrett is out for the season, that’s certainly going to hurt since they don’t have an adequate back-up and I don’t think they want to play Bard everyday (and he never has played more then the 118 he was in last season). They still have some players that would pass through waivers I’m sure (Gerut, Robles, Myrow, Ledezma, Gonzalez) so they could bring up Hundley or trade for someone.
April 8, 2008 at 1:40 pm
25: They’ve already said that the’re going to bring up Morton since they won’t have to make a roster move.
April 8, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Morton is just getting called up on the hope that Barrett just misses the 15 days. I’m not sure he can be the backup if Barrett misses the rest of the season — Hundley probably isn’t the answer either.
Who else is out there? I’m sure the Orioles would give away Ramon Hernandez if the Padres paid the rest of his contract although that’s likely too much ($16.5m the next two seasons with his buyout). Kenji Johjima’s contract runs out after this season and the Mariners have jeff Clement ready to take over, he might be an option if and when the Mariners fall out of the race.
April 8, 2008 at 2:42 pm
NOG was better before they started testing for steriod too… But not as good since. Coincidence?
I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised at how well Hairston played CF (look better than Edmunds - so far) perhaps on the level of Jay Payton…
April 8, 2008 at 3:16 pm
27: There is no reason to trade for Ramon. He’s no better than Morton or Hundley at this point. Johjima isn’t going to leave Seattle.
What’s the rush in trying to trade for a back-up catcher?
Switching Hairston and Edmonds might be a good idea but I don’t see that happening. We’ll see if Edmonds is still lost in a couple of weeks. I think he’s not quite healthy yet. Another rehab might be in order for his legs.
April 8, 2008 at 3:38 pm
#27: Piazza’s not busy. I wouldn’t be surprised that the Padres give him a call, if Barrett is out longer than 15 days.
April 8, 2008 at 3:54 pm
30: I think that the Piazza idea has a bit of merit as well. On a team that also has Huber, he might be a redundancy, but that also could encourage Black to use Piazza as a PH, a position that he’d be great at. I think that he’d probably be OK as a once a week catcher as well and shouldn’t come too cheap.
What about making him CY’s personal catcher and just punting SB’s every 5 days
April 8, 2008 at 3:59 pm
24: Sort of forgot that wasn’t public…
April 8, 2008 at 4:02 pm
31: It’s certainly an interesting possibility, though I wonder if at this point in his career if Piazza represents that much of an improvement over Colt Morton. For reference their “Equivalent” lines from PECOTA:
.229/.318/.437 and .259/.315/.454…
April 8, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Damned Arizona, another streak of four wins in a row. Remember that from last year. They would get hot and win 5 in a row just when the Padres were getting off the schnid. Looks like the snakes are at it again this year.
Ramon, as I recall, he doesn’t block home plate too good. But he can hit from what I remember.
April 8, 2008 at 4:18 pm
32 - You dishing the dirt or what?
April 8, 2008 at 4:46 pm
If we are looking for a “back-up” catcher I think Morton or Hundley would be fine. We dont need to go after other teams’ starting catchers when we have in-house options for a back up. Hundley is more than solid defensively and has an ok bat.
April 8, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I dont know if this was mentioned yet but Leblanc struck out 11 in 6 innings in his AAA debut. He gave up one run.
April 8, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Not sure why Morton isn’t more than adequate as a backup catcher. He seems to have a good defensive reputation, which teams value in a backup catcher. He has a lot of power and some good patience, and PECOTA has him projected at a .256 EQA (around league average). Almost every other team in baseball is doing worse than him at backup catcher (Dodgers’ backup Gary Bennett is projected for a .207 EQA).
April 8, 2008 at 6:47 pm
35: Yeah, no. Nothing to see here…