Wednesday Links (17 Aug 11)

One of these years I will finish my essay comparing the scrappy indie-rock band Pavement to David Eckstein. While we’re all waiting for that to happen, here are some links you might enjoy…

Padres

Offense

Defense

Prognostication

History

Whatever

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19 Responses »

  1. Forsythe, Venable and Blanks look really good. I’m not sure what the Pads are going to do with all of their corner IF/OF, but it sure is nice to have some guys that can play a little.

  2. I really hope the Padres don’t try and go the Hawpe route agian and they just stick with the young talent they have now. I would hate to see a veterain on the tail end of his career take AB’s away from Guzman, Blanks, Venable, Rizzo and Darnell next season. To be honest I would be ok if the Padres went with a pure youth movement next season and had a roster somethign like this:

    C: Hundley, Martinez
    1B: Rizzo, Guzman, Blanks
    2B: Hudson, Forsythe
    SS: Bartlett, Gonzalez
    3B: Headley, Darnell, Forsythe
    LF: Guzman, Blanks
    CF: Maybin, Venable, Denorfia
    RF: Venable, Darnell, Denorfia

    Rotation
    Latos
    Stauffer
    Luebke
    Ricahrds
    Moseley

    Pen
    Gregerson (CL)
    Frieri (8th)
    Bass (7th)
    Spence
    Thatcher
    Scribner
    Leblanc (Swing Man)

  3. @Steve C — hopefully, any FAs like Hawpe next year will be for bench depth, which I’m fine with. It would be nice if we could use something from our surplus of corner guys to get someone who can help us up the middle. The tandem of Bartlett and Hudson has not impressed so far.
    Although, I recognize that stability is nice at 2b/SS.

  4. The thing that makes me sad about this offensive surge is that I don’t really consider it a surge as much as the players playing to their expected level. Guzman has been the real surprise, but Venable, Hudson and Bartlett are all playing much better, though none are exactly ripping the cover off the ball (Bartlett: .273 in Aug, Hudson: .292). I think Jed must feel a little vindicated, because the offense on the field was substantially worst than they were on paper coming into the season, and now, the team is finally hitting more in line with what he (and I) expected. I think Buddy deserves a little credit too. With as much as he likes to play musical chairs with the lineup, having Maybin and Bartlett 1-2 and the the O-Dog in the 6 or 7 spot has worked.

    I think a few, wise FA pickups this offseason, and the team can really compete next year. I think we need to get a few more power arms in the pen, and probably a veteran inning eater in the rotation, and I think the team could be pretty good.

  5. @Nick G, veteran bench players always seem to make their way into the starting lineup over younger players. It’s one of the things that drove me nuts about Bochey ::cough:: Bellhorn ::cough:: and a trend I’m starting to see in Black.

  6. Because of Petco, the Padres are the inverse Colorado Rockies – they can pick up pitchers from the reclamation bin (Chan Ho Park, Aaron Harang, Jon Garland, etc.), make them look good and send them out to the world. Seriously, if I was a veteran starting pitcher who had a subpar year, I’d make sure to inform the Padres that I was interested.

    On the other hand, because Petco is such a different environment to hit in, we need to find guys who either fit a certain hitting style (Milton Bradley, Cameron Maybin), or are homegrown. From watching the Padres the last few years, its pretty clear that the kids are more willing to modify their hitting styles for Petco than the veterans. So, please, no more “power” hitters from the NL Central.

  7. @ SteveC

    Frieri in the 8th makes me shudder.
    With that team, there’s actually some $ left on the table. I won’t be oppossed to using it on locking up Latos and Maybin for a year or two into FA and maybe give Heath 2 or 3 years at 9/yr (just throwing a number up there) Still think that makes in the 50′s with room to spare next year (and to keep Headley).

    And I am the only one who likes Cunningham? Short swing straight to the ball (even if he does weird stuff with his hands before he brings his bat in position to hit) with good speed and can cover ground in the OF, though he’s more an emergency CF and while I haven’t looked for it, supposedly his arm is a (-). But as a 4-5th OF who will come cheap for another 3 years or more and in his mid 20′s that’s a good spot to be in. Problem is it may come down to Denorfia/Cunningham this winter.

    And this sounds strange to say, but if we like our pitching staff and we can keep up the depth to cover for pitching injuries, we actually might find it hard to spend $70 mill/yr. FA hitters aren’t coming (unless we overpay and even then….) and if we like our pitchers, who are we going to sign as an upgrade other than the top of the line Lee’s and Halladay’s of the world (who are going to be out of range anyway)? But if that’s true, it lets Jed use Moorad and Co’s $ to lock up our own talent into FA….. which is what Moorad just said he intends to do.

    So maybe there’s hope.

  8. @QUIN Cunningham and Denorfia are interchangeable to me.

  9. Yeah, except Denorfia is 30 and Cunningham 25.

  10. @Quin — I’m on board with Cunningham. He seems like he’s a decent hitter and a good defender. He would be a nice 4th OF next year.

  11. @Steve

    I think they are grooming Bass to be a starter, a la Cory Luebke (we can only hope he turns out half as good as Luebke has been). If we put him at 5, we can save a little $ on Moseley, or at least move him back to long relief/emergency starter. I think we re-sign Bell and that would push the 9-8 guys down and give us another great bullpen. Hopefully 1 pitcher emerges in Spring Training next year (Erlin/Kelly/Castro) and they bring him up for LR, and maybe later the back end of the rotation. I like the rest of your list, except maybe Venable. If he’s super-cheap then great, but he’s so hit-or-miss and he’s getting pretty old. I wish Guzman could play RF. Blanks/Maybin/Guzman would be an awesome OF.

  12. What album/era Pavement, Geoff? Slanted and Enchanted I trust.

  13. I can’t say i’m enamored with either outfielder, but I think Denorfia is a substantially better hitter. The problem with Deno is that he is one of the few players that scares me on defense, because of his ability to play balls into triples with poorly timed dives and circuitous routes to the baseball. The other side is how much everyone talks about AC, but for all the praise i’ve heard about his bat, I still haven’t seen any meaningful production. But he has a very distinct advantage by not diving for balls and missing by 4 feet.

  14. @Padrecoffey: The comparison is to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, where “Cut Your Hair” is Eckstein’s game-tying three-run homer with two out in the ninth that nobody sees coming. When 39 minutes of awful music is interrupted by 3 minutes of pop perfection, it boggles the mind and proves that anyone, at any time, is capable of anything.

  15. I have never seen consistancy like this before:
    Nathan Freiman batted .294 in 2009, .294 in 2010, and is currently .294 in 2011

  16. Geoff,

    How anyone could refer to “Crooked Rain” as 92.85714285714286% awful music is beyond me. Now, Eck, he’s 92% awful, I mean scrappy.

  17. @Stephen: Both are entertaining in their own way. Pavement’s “homage” to fellow Stocktonian Dave Brubeck is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard.