Padres (12-23) vs Rockies (14-21)
Jake Peavy vs Aaron Cook
7:05 p.m. PT
Channel 4SD
AM 1090, FM 105.7, XM 188
MLB, B-R
Depending on how you choose to view the world, you can look at the weekend series against Colorado in one of two ways:
- At least the Rockies made it to the World Series.
- At least the Padres aren’t trying to defend the National League title.
Neither option is terribly appealing. Oh well…
99 Comments
So, does this mean Jody Garut is starting or playing tonight?
GY, I think it’s time for a new poll.
Gerut will arrive tomorrow.
#3@Kevin: Wait, that’s Hene. Not sure about Gerut.
#3@Kevin: Dude, I believe he is in center field as I type this.
Gerut is batting fifth.
Nice pop Gooch!
#5@Turbine Dude: Dude, you’re right. That’s what I corrected myself twice.
#8@Kevin: I think we were typing at the same time.
#9@Turbine Dude: I think we’re the only ones.
DPs have been a bane this year.
One more missed oppertunity.
#10@Kevin: Well let’s see if you and I can get it up to 100 posts!
Good pitching by Cook. Why in the world would you pitch to Agon in that inning ? In fact, you would think that Agon would rarely get a pitch to hit in this lineup.
Thank you Tod.
Well, Jody just made his first big play back in the show.
#16@Turbine Dude: That wasn’t a tough play necessarily, but he made it perfectly.
nice little play there by gerut — displayed nice form on a play that was not as easy as it looks
#17@Richard: #18@JP: I don’t think Edmonds makes that play.
Jake is in rare form so far.
#19@Turbine Dude: I’d agree with that.
God, I hope this game doesn’t go 22 innings. I got up at 3 AM today.
Observations from the bottom of the 2nd:
1. At what point do we start worrying about Khalil?. He still looks absolutely terrible, 1.5 months into the season.
2. When is the last time Josh Bard hit the ball hard? They all seem to be weak pop-ups and grounders. Once in awhile, he’ll bloop one into left for a single but he is just not hitting the ball with any authority.
I’d like to see Bud shuffle the lineup now and then by putting Iguchi in the leadoff spot, Giles 2nd, Kouz, and then AGon. Kouz would see better pitches in the 3 spot if he’s protected by AGon, rather than vice versa. It’s obviuos the current batting order isn’t working. With the Pads dismal leadoff .OBP, a 2-out walk to AGon means nothing when pitchers know that even a double by Kouz might not score him. Why throw him anything good? Yes, you might lose one at-bat every 20 games by hitting AGon in the 4 spot, but Kouz has good enough plate discipline to wait for his pitch in the 3 hole. Of course it would help if the pads had a power threat in the 5 spot, but that’s another story.
Jake, we need you to be that kid in little league that pitches all the time, and is the best hitter on the team.
This is why it is so stressed to NEVER take your eyes off the ball if you are in a seat that is vulnerable to something flying off of the field.
#24@Koo: During slumps, Billy Martin would draw names out of hat to fill out of the lineup, and it often worked. Because lineups really don’t matter.
#27@Kevin: That’s really not a bad idea when you have a pitcher like Jake that can hit!
#27@Kevin: That was usually when Stienbrenner was firing him every other week.
Oh, the Snakes lose to the Cubs today. Wow.
This means the Padres are going to win, right? Right?
Is that the asshole Joe West I see on the ump crew? Yes it is. I can’t stand that #!?$head.
OG!!!!!!!!!!
Peavy 1, Rockies 0
#28@Turbine Dude: Peavy with a lead off double and scores a run just boosts that idea.
The Pads have done a poor job with Khalil, IMO. Of course you don’t want to mess around too much with a shortstop who hit 27 dingers and 97 RBI, but they need to decide if they want a streaky hitter who pulls everything or a guy who hits for a little less power but boosts his .OBP and learns to go the other way. Alderson can’t have it both ways.
Adjusting a player’s batting stance is tricky, but with Khalil’s Sheffield-like quick wrists, he could learn to wait on pitches if his stance were adjusted. Unfortunately, it’s not something you fool with mid-season, so the Pads are going to have to have to take whatever they get from Khalil and hope he heats up with the warmer weather and NL Central ballparks.
Any good pitcher knows how to work over a dead pull hitter (Pujols and Barry are rare exceptions), so a batting stance adjustment would benefit Khalil, as well. Easier said than done, and if the Pads had other legitimate power threats they could be content to bat Khalil 7th or 8th, but it seems like Alderson wants Khalil to change of his own accord. With his current batting stance, though, it’s never going to happen.
Shawn Estes is getting the start on Tuesday versus the Cubs.
Love the guy, but Adrian needs to stop striking out so much.
Terrible at bat by Adrian striking out without seeing a single pitch in the strike zone.
I could swear he slid across the plate before the throw to 1st there!
from C.Brock at mlb.com -
The Padres will likely jettison a left-handed relief pitcher on Saturday when left-hander Sean Henn joins the team. Henn was claimed off waivers from the Yankees on Friday.
Henn, 27, was 1-0 with a 0.84 ERA in eight appearances this season between Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Class A Tampa.
He was designated for assignment to create a roster spot on April 30, when the Yankees signed catcher Chad Moeller to a Major League contract.
San Diego left-handed relievers Joe Thatcher (0-4, 6.75 ERA) and Glendon Rusch (1-2, 6.62 ERA) are the most viable options to be moved off the 25-man roster in order to accommodate Henn.
#39@Turbine Dude: It doesn’t matter, can’t score unless he reaches safely.
RE 27: I think the Pads current position in the standings is clear evidence that lineups DO matter. There may not be an exact formula — one manager even likes batting the pitcher in the 8 spot — but when your current lineup isn’t working, what’s the harm in making a change or two?
#42@Koo:
No, it isn’t, actually. Not to me, at least.
#41@Field39: I’m sleep deprived dopey right now. But, I thought the run would count if it was mad before the out as long as it wasn’t a flyout or a tag up situation.
Re 42: Sure, there are many factors, but the choices the Pads have made on who and what type of hitter bats where in the line up are certainly a component of their poor start. That’s why a smart guy like Greg Maddux can sit on the bench and call pitches and pitch location with amazing frequency — and why he has been so successful for so many years.
D’Backs lost, Dodgers are losing — this is where the Pads start to make their move and sneak up on the division.
#42@Koo: It’s been proven that they really don’t. The Padres position the standings is because half of their lineup is horrible. There’s no way to put them in a pleasing order.
#46@Koo: Yeah, maybe if they wear the cammies the rest of the season, no one will see them sneaking up.
I wouldn’t mind seeing if Chip Ambres has a good major league year or two in him. Ambres has quietly put together a good start to 2008. He hit his 6th homerun tonight at Omaha.
Is Helton smiling or grimacing?
This is getting ugly.
May have been a good idea to walk Helton.
#52@Turbine Dude: Or not…
#51@Field39: NOW it’s getting ugly.
$^%$&^ another night another loss
Just terrible luck for Jake tonight… little flair over Gooch, then a little 87-hopper seeing-eye single.
Of course, when you’re offense is as bad as ours, those seem like grand slams.
#56@Richard D.: The two walks didn’t help.
Well that’s the way it goes this year, apparently.
Re 47: Proven? Tony LaRussa might disagree, as would Billy Beane. So batting your high OBP. speedster 8th, your pitcher in the cleanup spot and your power hitter leadoff would yield the same results as a traditional lineup?
One only needs to look at how the philosophy of putting together a winning team has changed in the past twenty years to understand that very little has been proven in baseball. I don’t know whether you consider Khalil Greene part of the “horrible” half of the lineup that the statistics-crazy brain trust of the Padres put together, but there is a clear reason why he isn’t batting in the top half of the order.
Here is a typical Padre situation. Two on, no outs, and this will end up a DP.
#60@Turbine Dude: See.
#59@Koo: I’m not saying some ways of filling out a lineup aren’t better than others. There are.
But every extensive study, like the ones by Bill James, have said that if you put the lineup in any order, a team will score amount of runs over the course of a season.
They can get the runners on, but can’t do anything with it.
Riddiculous… how freaking FAT was that pitch to Kouz, up in the zone, over the middle… how the hell does he get on top of that and beat it into the ground?
Man, I need to stop caring about this year’s team… when do pitchers and catchers report to camp in ‘09?
#59@Koo: Many things have been proven in the past 20 years and beyond in baseball.
#62@Kevin: the same amount of runs, I mean.
I hope there are more changes comng soon, this team is flat out horrible.
Just for the sake of argument, but would Kouz have seen a first pitch slider after the walk to Iguchi if AGon was batting behind him? And to go a step further, would Kouz have swung at the first pitch slider?
#68@Koo: Maybe. But over the course of a season, it wouldn’t matter. Lineup protection, except in extreme cases like Barry Bonds batting ahead or in front of another batter, is largely a myth.
How does Gerut look at the plate tonight?
#68@Koo: That’s like asking the man who’s wearing two watches for the time.
#70@Koo: Nervous.
Rouch almost threw that into right field. Luckily AGon was able to grab it.
Quintenilla made one hell of a play to got Greene! Holy crap Cha Cha!
Will they ever win another game?
Please let this be Rusch’s final appearance in a Padre uniform.
That has to be the final nail in G.Rusch’s Padre’s coffin.
re #71
My point is that a pitcher can afford to get behind in the count with a curve or a slider if the guy hitting next poses little threat. If AGon is up next, I don’t want to be behind in the count. If I miss on my slider first pitch, I have to come in with a fastball next pitch — not what I want to do. I don’t necessarily mind getting behind Iguchi with AGon next, though. Although he is a patient hitter, he isn’t going to beat me with a bomb, so I can start him off with an off-speed pitch and come back with a fastball 1-0, 2-0, and not worry. Kouz scares me a little more.
When you are a big time star like Rush, you don’t cover first base.
far fetched prediction : The Pads send down Thatcher, outright Rusch and bring up Portland Beaver Edwin Moreno.
I may have given up on this season, but I haven’t given up on the Padres nor the love of the game.
The Padres are 3-21 on balls in play. This is easy to do when you hit two line drives all game.
Greene got a gratuitous (sp?) call on that turn at second. He was now where near the bag.
Iguchi has great hands and turns a sweet double play but his range seems to be average at best – I have never seen a stretch where so many bloopers,grounders, line drives are just out of his reach.
1 run on 3 hits…welcome home padres. Nice to see you haven’t changed since you were here last.
This season feels so “Major League II w/Randy Quade” with us all showing up and them always losing.
Nice HR for Kouz. Those just aren’t happening at the right times.
#86@Turbine Dude: Agreed…. a meaningless HR in the 9th doesn’t make-up for his GIDP’s earlier.
No singles for the Padres tonight. They needed more hits like the Rockies had in the 6th.
#86@Turbine Dude: I believe the appropriate term is, “Back up the truck.”
#89@Field39: How about “lets get the bulldozers in here and turn this place into a parking lot.”
#89@Field39: Mabey if Black made the team watch that movie, it would give them some sort of inspiration. A little voodoo in the locker room.
I must be distraught to mispell the word ‘maybe.’
Get rid of Merideth for a left hander.
Scott Brocail is having a good year so far in Houston. Really good numbers actually.
Can we get the preseason predictions up on Edmonds? Maybe GY posted it and I missed it tonight…..been away from TV and internet.
#75@Field39:
I posted a day or two ago that they would finish the season at 12-150, and nobody responded.
To answer your question- No, they will NEVER win another game.
#94@JP:
Is Scott Brocail the son of Doug Brocail?
#93@Turbine Dude:
If they swap Meredith for anything other than a prospect, I will blow up Petco. We need a lefty like we need a fucking hole in the head.
Accumulate as much young talent as possible, sift throught it to figure out which of the kids can play, and ONLY THEN MAKE A RUN AT THE REST OF THE DIVISION. I am not interested in perpetual “above-averagedness”. I want to win a gawdamned World Series before I die!!!!
No, brothers but he was talking about Doug