What a fun win Tuesday night. Ubaldo Jimenez pitched a gem for Colorado, but Tim Stauffer was just a little better, spinning eight shutout innings en route to his second win of the season.
Stauffer also notched a career-high eight strikeouts and collected two hits, including an RBI single in the fifth. Efficient? Try 97 pitches. Works for me.
Alberto Gonzalez “drove in” the first run on a grounder up the middle that plated Kyle Phillips, who had singled with two out and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Rockies second baseman Chris Nelson made a diving stop of Gonzalez’s ball but couldn’t come up with it right away.
Phillips, running on contact, came lumbering around third to score. Nelson’s throw to the plate beat Phillips by plenty, but Colorado catcher Jose Morales couldn’t hold onto the ball. [Reader Pat notes that Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki retrieved the ball after it caromed away from Nelson and made the throw home. Thanks for the catch!]
Stauffer then smacked a sharp line drive to left-center that brought home Gonzalez for the game’s other run. I got a kick out of that because during Gonzalez’s at-bat, I kept hoping he would draw a walk and give Stauffer a chance to hit. I’m glad things worked out the way they did, but when Gonzalez hacked at a 3-1 pitch a foot off the plate, I was not quite so happy.
Heath Bell did his thing. Gave up a leadoff single to Todd Helton in the ninth (Helton is amazing, even at this stage in his career; Bell jumped ahead with two curve balls, then tried to put a 95 mph fastball past Helton, who quietly slapped it into left field) and then nothing.
I approve. If the Padres played like this every night (less the Gonzalez at-bats, which are painful to watch), I’d be okay with that.
* * *
Speaking of Gonzalez, yesterday I asked, “Is it legal to send a batter to home plate without a bat in his hands?” Reader Larry Faria mentioned an incident involving Billy Martin in spring training, so I did a little digging and found this gem:
During a 1982 exhibition game against the San Diego Padres, [Oakland pitcher Steve] McCatty stepped to the plate wielding a toy 15-inch bat but was refused by umpire Jim Quick to hit. McCatty was instructed by A’s manager Billy Martin to use the toy bat as a protest, who was furious that the DH rule was not allowed in National League ballparks.
Oh well. It was a nice idea.
* * *
Baseball America has a listing of players taken by the Padres in the draft so far. Some names of note from Day 2:
- 2nd round: Austin Hedges, C, Junipero Serra HS, San Juan Capistrano, Calif. — Draws praise for his defensive skills; made a nice throw when I saw him at last year’s Aflac All-American Baseball Classic… quoth BA‘s Nathan Rode: “I’m comfortable saying that I can do this for at least another decade and not see defense out of a HS catcher like Austin Hedges” (Rode’s colleague, Jim Callis, notes that Hedges “wants big money or else he would have been a first-rounder.”
- 4th round: Cody Hebner, RHP, Green River (Wash.) CC — Quoth Rode: “Undersized at 6-feet, 160 pounds. Very good arm speed and touched 97 this spring. Sits 90-94. Slider shows flashes of being plus.”
- 6th round: Kyle Gaedele, OF, Valparaiso — Grandnephew of Eddie Gaedel; according to Callis, Gaedele has good raw power but there are questions about his bat.
- 7th round: Matt Wisler, RHP, Bryan (OH) HS — Quoth Callis: “Easily the top high school prospect in Ohio, he has shown a low-90s fastball and promising breaking stuff.”
- 11th round: Casey McElroy, SS, Auburn — Quoth Rode: “Despite being listed at a generous 5-foot-8, 179 pounds, Auburn middle infielder Casey McElroy slugged .602 for the Tigers.”
- 20th round: Chris Haney, RHP, Dallas Baptist — Not to be confused with the former big-league pitcher or the co-inventor of Trivial Pursuit.
- 21st round: Zach Kometani, 1B, USD — Go Toreros!
These Padres draftees ranked among BA‘s Top 200:
- Hedges, 28 (video)
- Cory Spangenberg, 29 (video)
- Joe Ross, 36 (video)
- Brett Austin, 61
- Jace Peterson, 71
- Michael Kelly, 76 (video)
- Gaedele, 87
- Matt Andriese, 96
- Mark Pope, 164 (video)
- Hebner, 179
I like the Padres’ aggressiveness with the picks after Spangenberg. And given that they needed to sign whomever they drafted at no. 10 or receive zero compensation, I can live with Spangenberg.
Overall, there seems to be more of an emphasis on upside than in some past drafts. Next steps are to sign these kids and hope the player development folks can turn them into big leaguers.
Just because I actually saw, at least part of, the game last night, it was Tulowitski (probably totally butchered the spelling of that) who made the throw home. Nelson dove and had the ball carom off of him and since he was still recovering from his dive, Tulo picked up the ball and made a hurried throw home, which luckily short hopped the catcher allowing Phillips to score.
On Helton: He’s been quietly turning into a Tony Gwynn Lite for years now. He’s morphed himself from a power hitter to someone who regularly goes the opposite way for singles and doubles. What a brilliant transformation he’s managed to make. Instead of stubbornly trying to maintain his power hitting status once his back couldn’t hold up to it, he’s adapted and overcome. I still have a hard time calling him a Hall of Fame player due to the Coors inflated numbers of his early career, but there’s no doubting he’s had a great career!
Holy Cow! Grandnephew of Eddie Gaedel! I guess if he has trouble with the bat, he could just draw the walk like good, old Grand Uncle did.
Crap, you’re right, it was Tulo (I somehow had it in my head that a guy with his arm couldn’t have made such a poor throw). Thanks for the catch.
As for Helton, his age 33-37 looks a bit like Brian Giles’:
In a recent interview, Trevor Hoffman identified Helton as his toughest out.
Rizzo on the way …
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AutqjBv.UbyLAYHq2pj42b4RvLYF?slug=ap-padres-rizzo
it’s too bad the offense couldn’t back up the great outing by Richard too. It might have been his best outing of the season, and he still took the L.
Between Rizzo coming up (they have it on padres.com, im pretty sure its no longer a rumor at that point) and Hundley finally back from the DL, I think the lineup might produce a little bit more. And with the SP finally figuring it out at Petco, maybe a little winning too. It’ll be interesting when Maybin comes back, especially since Venable is really starting to hit down in Tucson. Sounds like 5 OF for 3 spots…maybe Hawpe and Denorfia can split time at 2B until Orlando gets back lol
Someone asked about Barbato the other day … this Q&A with McLeod at MadFriars answers the question …
How has John Barbato looked in extended and is he on target to go to Eugene?
Jason McLeod: He is on target for Eugene. For the most part he has had a really good extended spring, he has his routine down and is now used to pitching every fifth day.
http://padres.scout.com/2/1078221.html
@Lynch – I did… thanks.
I can’t say Moseley’s pitching performance (5 ip, 3 runs) was wasted today, but it’s disheartening to see another runner at third thrown out at home on an infield grounder. It’s happened about a half dozen times, and must be leading the majors. I can only assume Bud is trying to be aggressive, but given the lack of success, shouldn’t the strategy be re-evaluated?
so why is Pepe Negro keeping on inserting Gonzalez and Patterson in the lineup while Tekotte and Forsythe are warming the bench to their best abilities?
is he matching the pitcher to the fielder? and if so, is that enough reason to keep two out producers just for their supposedly gloves?
Not a big deal at all, Geoff! Like I said, I just happened to be wathcing the game for a change. Wish I could watch more often, but am relegated to radio for the time being.
@didi – Tekotte was sent back down
thanks, PadresFuture.
Gaedele and market inefficiency: interesting read.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-next-market-inefficiencies-little-people-in-baseball/
Funny article, Didi. The Padres have a potential short middle infield in Tucson, with Hoffpauir, 5’9″, at second, and Everth, 5’10″, at short. Everth used to be 5’8″ but keeps growing in the media guide. Peavy was 6’0″ here, but now he’s 6’1″ in Chicago. If Steve Garvey were still playing, he’d be 6’3″ by now. This is why there’s a market inefficiency in little people: you can sign them when they’re short but by the time they hit the team media guide, they’re tall enough to play basketball. It happens horizontally too – Tony Gwynn weighed only 199 lbs. the last ten years of his career.