Posting will be light this week. Nothing much is happening with the Padres right now (aside from the signings of Allan Dykstra and James Darnell, I suppose), and a few other projects are demanding my time:
- I’m working on a quick survey of compensatory draft picks through history — We’ve already touched on Rafael Palmeiro being drafted by the Cubs as compensation for “losing” Tim Stoddard to the Padres, but how about the Blue Jays getting Shawn Green for losing Bud Black, or the Rockies getting Jody Gerut for losing Walt Weiss?
- I’m also working on the 1969 chapter of the Ducksnorts 2009 Baseball Annual — With 40 hours a week spent editing other people’s stuff, if I don’t get this started now, it’s not going to happen. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be gathering all of my notes on the inaugural 1969 team and attempting to assemble it into something coherent.
Finally, I have a backlog of research questions that I’ll study as time permits:
- The Padres and Rockies have both fallen hard this year, but one team’s attendance has suffered for it while the other’s has flourished despite a much less successful track record over the past five seasons. Why is this so?
- How does the current Padres bullpen compare with those from the past? In examining this, I’ve made some interesting discoveries that have nothing to do with performance. For example, usage shifted dramatically between 1990 and 1991, and again between 1997 and 1998. I don’t know whether this is the case throughout baseball, but it certainly was for the Padres. Anyway, there’s lots of fun stuff here, so hopefully I’ll be able to finish this before the season ends. If not, it’ll be in the book.
- Has there been a less appreciated player in baseball than Brian Giles over the past 15-20 years? After being buried in Cleveland and wasted in Pittsburgh, Giles has been dismissed in San Diego despite being one of the best performers ever to play for the Padres. He’s sort of like Ryan Klesko and Phil Nevin, but with less whining and more winning. Still, some folks prefer to rewrite history and insist that Jason Bay was destined for stardom from the beginning. (I guess that’s why the Expos traded him for Lou Collier, and the Mets traded him for Steve Reed — what rational person wouldn’t give up a known future star for such fine players?)
- Does Petco Park distort perceptions about the Padres’ strengths and weaknesses, and if so, to what degree? Hint: The offense isn’t what’s been killing the team this year.
I’m also hoping to have the Portland Beavers review ready within the next couple weeks, so hang tight. One day we’ll all look back at this season and laugh. I look forward to that day…
#49@Tom Waits: Right. It would exclude anyone that plays for the major league Dodgers from now until the end of the season, I think. I hadn’t heard it before this year, but it came up in the baseballthinkfactory discussion of the PTBNL in the Dunn trade. Cot’s transaction glossary says:
Player To Be Named Later
A transaction including a player to be named later must be completed within six months. The player may not be an active Major Leaguer player during the interval between the trade and the date the player is named. As a result, most players to be named later are minor leaguers.
http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2003/01/transactions-glossary.html
#50@Tom Waits: I’m going to have to defer to you on Darnell because I haven’t seen him play and you seem to know as much more about him from his college career than I do.
With Chalk I liked his speed, his defense and eye and if you look at his stats over the year you can see some signs of gap power. In a place like LE I think you would seem him put up much better offensive stats. He’s never going to hit home runs, but if he can hit some doubles, contiune to steal bases you will see his OBP go up.
Payne I know they like a lot and want to find out what they may or may not have.
If the Padres trade either Kouz or Headley in the off-season as I expect them to do they don’t have much depth at 3b – probably the best one is Ciofrone. They could use some more depth there.
I agree with you on Tekotte, but to me having Macias in Portland, Hunter in San Antonio, Chalk/Payne in LE and Tekotte in FW to start the season in CF may not be a bad idea to see what you do or don’t have. You can always move Tekotte up mid-season.
#46@Ben B.:
(Chalk): Eh, I’m looking as hard as I can.
I still see a .063 isolated slugging. I’d be willing to bet that a fair number of those doubles are of the leg variety in a low-minor leagues where the defenders are not always so sharp.
(Darnell): That’s just from BA and Brewerfan scouting reports. We may only have a little depth at 3b, but in terms of RF who can give you quality defense and a possibly serious bat, Darnell may be the ONLY one not currently living in the Dominican. Pushing Tekotte and Darnell would be the Headley model. Darnell I could understand putting in Ft. Wayne, because he’s less polished, but what are we really going to learn about him in Ft. Wayne? If he doesn’t hit we’ll be tempted to move him to the friendlier Cal League to jumpstart him; if he does hit, he’s older than a lot of the competition, so we need to promote him to get a better reading.
I’m giving in to LynchMob’s pressure and attempting to post an actual link from the NCTimes on Antonelli:
http://tinyurl.com/6caq3t