Two quick notes about comments:
- I love the discussion that’s happening every day and I’m especially glad to see so many new names in there this year.
- Time constraints make it difficult for me to jump in as often as I’d like, but I do read everything and get inspired by what you have to say.
Anyway, just thought you should know. Let’s link…
- Marse Joe’s last hurrah (Hardball Times). Steve Treder examines the tail end of Hall-of-Fame manager Joe McCarthy’s career.
- Sabermetricians: Help! (Sports Central). Brad Oremland, like many folks these days, wants to know which of today’s statistics are worth using. [h/t BBTF]
- Mike Adams: Better Than Your Team’s Closer (Baseball Nation). Adams gets love from someone other than a Padres fan. [h/t Gaslamp Ball]. Here, too [h/t reader Didi]… I smell conspiracy.
- Predicting Shutdowns and Saves (FanGraphs). And it’s not just Adams… as you know, the entire Padres bullpen has been great. Again.
- A Soria Subject (Baseball Prospectus). Mike Fast checks in on the former Padres farmhand. What is Craig Stansberry up to these days, anyway?
- Less from Latos (Inside the Padres). From Tom Krasovic’s article:
Chipper Jones sees a Mat Latos who is less aggressive than the Mat Latos who pitched against the Braves twice in 2009 and once last year.
It’s one man’s opinion, but I’m not sure I like that. Maybe we are seeing 2006 Jake Peavy again?
- Does Roberto Alomar belong in the Hall of Fame? (Hardball Times). Yes.
- Do Good Minor League Systems Lead to Major League Success? Part 1 (Beyond the Box Score). I haven’t digested this yet, but it looks promising.
- The BA Experts Pick: Our Draft Experts Select Their First Round (Baseball America). Fun stuff for the draftniks…
- Life Lesson with Tom Watson (Joe Blogs). The obligatory Posnanski…
- How difficult to develop a 50-game winner? (SweetSpot). Sweet-Spotter-in-Chief David Schoenfield examines the last three 50-game winners developed by each National League franchise. Peavy is the obvious first choice for the Padres, but can you remember the other two?
There you go. Talk and stuff…
Jones points to Latos being less aggressive, Kraskovic suggests the possibility of dead arm from being overused last season. I have heard Bud Black and Latos himself talk more about trouble locating his pitches. If he’s unable to locate his mid-90′s pitches on the corners and the results are leaving the ballpark, then yeah he’s going to be less aggressive in using those pitches. I don’t know if dead arm from last season is behind his location problems unless he’s altering his delivery to compensate for some discomfort. I remain hopeful that it’s just a mechanical issue with his delivery that they can work out.
One JoePos link leads to lots of reading …
This one about the Royals and payroll really resonates with me …
http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2011/04/lowest-payroll-in-baseball.html
… ie. I wish the Padres (and all clubs) would stop wasting big bucks on players that are not good … with the caveat that I understand that sometimes it’s hard to tell a player is not good until after you’ve signed him to a contract.
http://baseballmusings.com/?p=67649
So it seems that nobody is saying what is painfully obvious to me: that Nick Hundley screwed up on the bases on both of the “disputed” infield-fly plays. Both during the game and on the post-game, the guys talked about the rules and the defensive strategy.
But the thing is, in both cases, if Hundley had just stayed glued to the bag, it would’ve been one out, not a DP (well, on the second one, the Dodgers may have had a shot at throwing out the guy at first, but Hundley made it an easy DP).
I love Hundley. He’s arguably my favorite position player on the Pads. So I’m not trying to run him down. It’s just that when a player screws up like that, I think it needs to be pointed out.
Wow, that collision in the Ft Wayne Wizard OF a couple of weeks has really turned tragic …
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/30/four-top-padres-prospects-minor-league-disabled-li/
Williams will miss the rest of the season after surgery to repair a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
Williams and Tate were injured when they collided while chasing a fly ball during the first week of the low Single-A season at Fort Wayne.
Cumberland is being treated for vertigo; Oramas has been bothered by spasms in his neck.
The Padres are hoping that Tate and Oramas will return to action around June 1.
… and Cumberland’s vertigo situation sounds very serious also
Mosely with a W? Be still my heart!!!
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=310501119
Hey, GY, dust off some of the “May” stories from a couple of years ago when the Padres were unbeatable in May … let’s do that again!
And I don’t know much to trust Leitner and his radio buddy, but they said Hawpe is looking better … can that be?
not that i’d notice but perhaps Hawpe got a new haircut or something to be looking better…
oh, man, Cumberland just can’t catch a break, if not one thing is another that puts his career once again in neutral gear. Wow, i hope Williams will get better.
didn’t see the Hundley baserunning but if that’s true, he probably was called out by the coaches already…i hope.
new may like old may, LM? can’t be worse than april.
last year standing at this point:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings/_/date/20100502
re: last year … RS/RA = 115/79 on 5/2/2011 … 84/96 this year … ie. it’s not just the offense that’s worse this year … easy to forget how lights-out the pitching was last year …
LM: let’s not get carried away. Not very often that a team managed to pitch light out a la Padres’ April 2010. Both Giants and Cardinals were better at run preventions than the Padres in the same month. Of course, see Giants’ pitching in Sept ’10 and be awed.
The pitchers gave up 17 more runs than last year’s staff in April, that’s approximately about 25% more. Had the offense in last month only about 25% worse than last year’s 115 RS, the team would’ve scored about 23 fewer runs, putting the team RS/RA at about 92/96 this year, with the record being closer to .500.
So, yeah, the pitching is worse as expected but the offense is even worse than expected. For a better comparison, see Mariners’ record April ’10 to Padres’ April ’11, and understand why the two teams are ‘natural rivals’. We are trying to ‘better’ their terrible season from 2010…and on pace.
On a positive note, the Padres beat the Dodgers on the road.
oops, that should have been ‘expected record being closer to .500′ – editor.
on the win – nice but disconcerting:
The Padres scored their seven runs despite going 26 consecutive batters without a hit from the second inning, after they scored three runs off Dodger starter Jon Garland, into the ninth. (Dodgers Thought)