first pitch: 4:10 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4
matchup: Brian Lawrence (5-9, 4.27 ERA) vs Kris Benson (6-3, 3.57 ERA)
previews: ESPN | Padres.com
Oh, goody. Games on the east coast. Games that I don’t get home in time to watch.
Lawrence’s starts this year by runs allowed:
G IP H R ER HR BB SO GB FB Pit
0-2 8 60.0 41 11 11 0 11 30 83 61 788
3-4 7 47.1 49 24 24 5 11 25 82 44 642
5+ 4 19.0 36 23 23 6 7 7 27 22 335
Gross oversimplification: Give Lawrence five starts, and two will be good, two will be okay, and one will be bad.
As for Benson, the Mets overpaid for him, but so far it isn’t killing them. He was hurt in April, and although he’s been reasonably effective since then, his strikeout rate (5.4 per 9 innings) is uncomfortably low. Benson has never been real good or real healthy. Career numbers for he and Lawrence:
G IP ERA H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9
Benson 151 938.1 4.21 9.13 0.93 3.24 6.30
Lawrence 148 860.2 3.96 9.36 0.94 2.37 5.56
Very similar lines. Lawrence is younger and has been healthier, yet Benson will earn about three times as much this year. Can you guess which guy is a former first-round pick?
Other Stuff
- Over at San Diego Spotlight, Peter makes his case for not re-signing Ramon Hernandez. He also chats with John Sickels to get the prospect guru’s take on the state of the Padres system. Good stuff.
- At Friar Faithful, Richard looks at the rookie season of Tim Stauffer (which reminds me, I have photos of him throwing in the bullpen before Sunday’s game that I need to post). Richard is trying out new methods of analyzing pitcher performance, so swing on by and give him some feedback.
- Metstradamus previews the series. Gotta respect the Eric Nolte shout out. That is old school.
- Mets Geek also serves up a preview. A few commenters are calling sweep. In favor of the Mets. Right, that’s what I said, too.
Enjoy the game. Go Pads!
Given our often punchless offense, I am getting absolutely livid about Nady. The guy has the 4th best OPS on the team (OPS is the best measure of a player’s offensive worth that I know of), behind Giles, Klesko and Sweeney. Sweeney is a platoon guy, so arguably he is the 3rd best hitter. His splits are not bad (.807 vs RHP, .912 LHP), so he can play everyday.
Arguments against Nady: slow July (OPS .756; slow but not horrid). But, if you follow that logic, then why are you playing Roberts? (OPS in July: .395; no that is not a batting average)
So how can he justify not using him? It is astonishing that he can be paid this much but continue to follow a dumb policy that is so easy to show is wrong.
It is like a guy deciding what engines will go in a race car: one goes 250 MPH, another 220 MPH. The guy keeps going with the 220 MPH engine because he feels more comfortable doing it. That guy would be fired in a second, but not in baseball.
I am hoping that Towers knows this when he is thinking about trades. Nady is classic trade bait, but am fearful they trade him away for a some less potent, more veteran and more expensive player. I would love if they would trade for Cameron to the Mets, but throw in Nevin in the deal, plus someone from our farm system. The absolute worst would be to give up Nady for someone like Cameron. Offensivly, they are similar players (Cameron a bit stronger this year, but not for his career). Move Klesko to 1B, Nady to left. If you pick up Randa somehow, then you actually have some punch.
looks like Nady will get some starts next two days according to a bochy quote on the Padres web site:
With lefties Tom Glavine and Kaz Ishii scheduled to start the next two games of the series, Bochy said he’d try to figure out a way to get a right-handed bat or two in the lineup, notably Xavier Nady.
“Nady will be in there,” Bochy said. “We’ll see if we can get something going.”
Jay: If it helps, Towers indicated at the Prospectus Pizza Feed that he’s a big Nady fan. And given the general tone of KT’s remarks that night, I feel pretty confident that he wasn’t blowing smoke.
Obviously that doesn’t make the lack of PT any better but I don’t see Towers trading Nady for peanuts.