IGD: Padres @ Rockies (20 Apr 07)

by Geoff Young on Apr 20, 2007 (173) Comments

first pitch: 6:05 p.m. PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Chris Young (1-1, 4.30 ERA) vs Josh Fogg (0-0, 3.38 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com

What’s up with the Rockies? Oddly enough, pitching has carried them through the first couple weeks of the season. They’ve gotten surprisingly good performances out of the entire rotation except for, would you believe, Jeff Francis.

Unfortunately for the Rox, their staff just took a hit when right-hander Rodrigo Lopez landed on the disabled list due to a bum elbow. This set off a chain reaction of moves involving ex-Padres: Lopez was placed on the DL, Matt Herges was recalled from Triple-A, and Brian Lawrence was designated for assignment. Herges, incidentally, joins teammate Steve Finley as the second man ever to play for all five NL West clubs.

On offense, Matt Holliday and Todd Helton are doing most of the damage. Jeff Baker has gotten a few key hits when given the opportunity. Troy Tulowitzki and Willy Taveras are stinking up the joint right now. One of those guys will come around, and his name isn’t Taveras.

As for tonight’s starter, Josh Fogg, the Giles brothers are big fans. Brian is batting .500/.550/1.125 against Fogg in 16 at-bats; Marcus checks in at .600/.647/.667 in 15 at-bats. Also, keep an eye on Khalil Greene, who owns a nifty .358/.440/.789 line in 109 career at-bats at Coors Field.

On the other side, Rockies hitters haven’t enjoyed much success against Chris Young. Garrett Atkins owns a .231/.286/.692 line against Young in 13 career at-bats. Collectively, the current Rockies roster has hit just .158/.238/.272 against him in 114 at-bats.

Hang on to your humidors, it’s time to play ball!

Friday Links (20 Apr 07)

by Geoff Young on Apr 20, 2007 (10) Comments

I woke up this morning with the Beatles’ “Long, Long, Long” in my head. Very strange tune to have in my head, considering I haven’t heard it in years.

Anyway, you’re here for the links so let’s get right to them:

  • Former No. 1 pick Gonzalez finally finds home in San Diego (Press-Enterprise). Mostly fluffy piece on Adrian Gonzalez.
  • Q&A with Brian Giles (San Diego Union-Tribune). Giles goes into, um, a little too much detail at points, but I love this explanation of why he jokes around so much:

    To keep things in perspective. It keeps some of the fun in a game that’s really based on failure. I’d like to think it helps keep us relaxed. This game has been known to beat people down. I think that as long as you can laugh, it won’t beat you down.

  • Two new Padres blogs on the block: FriarBall and Padres Xtra Innings. Stop by and say hey.
  • The Baseball Crank has published his Established Win Shares Levels report for the NL West. His system places the Padres second in the division. Last year’s report had the Friars third.
  • Will there be a platoon in left field? (Padres.com, via LynchMob in the comments). Corey Brock answers reader mail. As others have pointed out, his suggestion of Tampa Bay outfielder Joey Gomes as a potential trade target makes way too much sense. Speaking of Corey, he and I had a nice chat last week; he’s given the book a real nice plug over at his blog. Thank you, sir!
  • GM taking closer look at prospect (San Diego Union-Tribune). The latest on Matt Latos, plus no-one seems concerned about Mike Cameron’s early season fielding woes.
  • Movie Scouting Report 3 (The Soul of Baseball, via Didi in the comments). Joe Posnanski offers “scouting reports” and more thoughts on the classic baseball flick, Major League. I love some of these details, especially about how many events paralleled what really happened with the Indians back in the day:

    One year, as every Indians fan knows, the Indians signed Wayne Garland to a big money deal. Garland didn’t pan out — injuries crushed him — but he’s a pretty great guy. Garland was so fed up with the unbearable heat in the clubhouse that he went out and bought air conditioners for the whole team. And here was the great part: Gabe Paul and the Indians management were FURIOUS. When asked about that years later, Garland’s reply was pretty simple: “It was hot in there.”

    Hard to argue with that logic.

The Padres Prospect Cedric Hunter Report

by Peter Friberg

You will not see all the notable performances from the night before, but you will see the notable performances from those who are actually prospects.

AAA

Luis Cruz: 4 AB, 1 R, 0 H; BB, SO
Andrew Brown: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO

AA

Chase Headley: 3 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 3 RBI; HR, BB, SO – 5 2B & 2 HR in 13 games

High-A

Kyle Blanks: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 2B, SO
Matt Antonelli: 5 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; SO
David Freese: 3 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; BB – 10 BB in 14 games
Chad Huffman: 3 AB, 0 R, 1 RBI; 2B, BB

Low-A

Cedric Hunter: 4 AB, 1 R, 4 H, 0 RBI
Kyler Burke: 4 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 2 RBI

Commentary:

In his first four games, Hunter garnered a single hit in 15 at-bats. Since then he’s racked up 10 hits in 20 at-bats…

Headley’s starting to do his home/road thing: .217/.273/.490 at home, .419/.679/1.098 on the road.

Thanks, Peter. The Pads head to Planet Coors for a three-game set with the Rockies starting tonight. We’ll have the IGD up and running around 5 p.m. PT. Happy Friday!

1969: Padres Drop Final Game of Inaugural Road Trip

by Geoff Young on Apr 20, 2007 (1) Comments

April 20, 1969, San Francisco: Giants 3, Padres 2 (box score)

The final game of their inaugural road trip saw the Padres send Tommie Sisk to the mound. The Giants countered with right-hander Bobby Bolin.

After trading single runs early, the Padres and Giants remained deadlocked until the bottom of the sixth. In that inning, with two on and two out, Bolin stepped to the plate and promptly smacked a two-run double to left.

The Padres came back with a run of their own in the eighth. Singles by Al Ferrara, Ed Spiezio, and Tony Gonzalez closed the gap to 3-2, but Ollie Brown grounded to third to end the inning.

In the ninth, Chris Cannizzaro singled to center with two out to give San Diego one last chance. Any hope the Padres had, though, was short-lived; Nate Colbert, batting for Jose Arcia, flied to left to end the game.

Trivia: Colbert hadn’t yet found his groove as a big-league hitter; after making the final out in this game, he owned a .149/.169/.162 batting line over 77 career plate appearances, with 33 strikeouts and just 2 walks.

Elsewhere in the world: Tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins played his final concert at the North Park Hotel in Chicago; the jazz legend died a month later at age 64.

IGD: Padres vs Diamondbacks (19 Apr 07)

by Geoff Young on Apr 19, 2007 (212) Comments

first pitch: 12:35 p.m. PT
television: none
matchup: Jake Peavy (2-0, 0.90 ERA) vs Livan Hernandez (1-0, 1.80 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com

It’s probably too early to call this a trend, but there’s reason to be encouraged by Jake Peavy‘s performance so far in ’07. Forget the ERA, and look at pitch efficiency:

Date IP TBF #PIT P/PA P/IP
Apr 3 6 23 98 4.26 16.3
Apr 8 7 28 103 3.68 14.7
Apr 14 7 26 100 3.85 14.3

Again, who knows whether Peavy will be able to sustain lower pitch counts over the course of a full season. Wouldn’t it be nice if he could?

A Lot Can Go Wrong in a Game

by Geoff Young on Apr 19, 2007 (15) Comments

I don’t have the heart to watch this one a second time on TiVo, so we’ll have to rely on my impressions of Wednesday night’s game (recap | box score) as viewed from the upper deck. Scary proposition, I know, but there it is.

  • David Wells pitched a beautiful game. Honestly, I don’t know that he’s capable of much better and I don’t know that we have the right to ask for anything more than what he gave last night. The only runs that scored against him came as a result of poor defense or questionable officiating. Wells kept Arizona hitters off-balance all night.
  • Brandon Webb appeared to be elevating his pitches in the first inning. The Padres probably should have taken better advantage of that, because the defending Cy Young Award winner promptly settled into a serious groove. It also seemed like he threw a lot more breaking balls and off-speed pitches than usual. I’m doing this without looking at any numbers, but when I think of Webb, I think of a guy who constantly pounds the bottom of the zone with a deadly sinker. The quality and quantity of his secondary pitches caught me a bit off-guard, and judging from some of the swings by Padres batters, I’m not the only one.
  • I’m a little concerned about Mike Cameron. The Snakes scored their first run essentially because Cameron again got a horrible read on a routine fly ball off the bat of Stephen Drew to start the game. Even with his speed and athleticism, Cameron couldn’t quite recover. Drew never stopped running and was credited with a double. According to the U-T, that was the fourth ball Cameron has lost this week. Could be selective memory, but I don’t recall him misplaying four balls all last year. Needless to say, if Cameron can’t remember how to play center field, the Padres are, to get technical, totally hosed.
  • There was a stretch during the middle innings where the approach of Padres hitters went down the toilet. At one point at least three, maybe four, guys were retired on Webb’s first pitch. News flash: Webb is a damn good pitcher; he doesn’t need any help.
  • I didn’t see the check swing call in the seventh that went against Wells, but I had a decent view of the force play at second base. Dana DeMuth ruled that Marcus Giles (NOG) had pulled his foot off the bag. From where I sat, it looked like the runner might have beaten Khalil Greene‘s throw, but that NOG held his ground. Although Wells did a tremendous job to get out of the inning with just one run, it shouldn’t have come to that.
  • Folks from out of town are welcome to attribute my complaints to general SoCal wimpiness, but it was really freakin’ cold at Petco last night. Cold, damp, and the winds were swirling. It felt like Candlestick. I mention this not because of any impact these conditions had on me, but because balls were not carrying last night. In the eighth, after the “other” Chris Young clanked a fly ball off the bat of Brian Giles (OG), Cameron just laid into one. Off the bat, I thought it had a chance to leave the yard. Worst case, I figured it would split the gap in right-center and score OG. No such luck. Young caught the ball with ease, well in front of the warning track.
  • Did we really get the same Kevin Kouzmanoff that everyone says can hit but not field? I ask because so far he’s playing terrific defense and looking lost at the plate. Someone needs to throw him and Greene nothing but breaking balls in batting practice.
  • First criticism of Bud Black. In the ninth, Pete LaForest singled to right to open the frame. With Trevor Hoffman due up, Black sent Geoff Blum to the plate and Rob Bowen in to run for LaForest. With a 13-man pitching staff and Russell Branyan already out of the game, this left Jose Cruz Jr. as the only position player available. Still, Blum had won the previous game and if Brandon Lyon hangs a breaking ball, lightning might strike twice. The flaw in this thinking has to do with the situation. I’m not a huge fan of the sacrifice bunt, but if there’s ever a time to employ a one-run strategy, it’s with a guy on first and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth. You need that runner in scoring position. Given that fact, wouldn’t it make more sense to let one of the starting pitchers come up and do the job? First off, presumably they’ve spent more time working on their bunting; second, loathe as I am to say this, Blum might come in handy later. The only things I can figure are that a) Black assumed the play would work and wasn’t concerned about burning two of his three available position players in the name of making an out or b) he didn’t want to tip his hand by having a pitcher standing at the plate. In my estimation, for whatever that might be worth, neither was a good reason to burn Blum and Bowen on a sacrifice attempt. To be clear, I have no problem with the strategy Black employed; given the situation, it made perfect sense. Where I take exception is in the tactical decision to use resources that might better be deployed elsewhere. When Blum came to the plate to lay down a bunt, for a brief moment, I thought that somehow Bruce Bochy had snuck back into the dugout.

Frustrating game. This is a good Padres team, but they’re not good enough that they can give the opposition extra opportunities and still expect to win games.

Padres Prospect Report

by Peter Friberg

You will not see all the notable performances from the night before, but you will see the notable performances from those who are actually prospects.

AAA

Cesar Carrillo: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR — is that progress?

AA

No games scheduled

High-A

Matt Antonelli: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; 2B
David Freese: 4 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 2 RBI; BB, SO
Kyle Blanks: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI
Chad Huffman: 4 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 0 RBI

Low-A

Cedric Hunter: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; 2B
Orlando Lara: 4.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO, 0 HR

Commentary:

I’m in Atlanta, so it’s either too late or too early (according to my body) and I have to be in a class all day (though I may be at Turner Field tomorrow).

I’ll commentate another time.

Thanks, Peter. Day game on Thursday, no television. We’ll have the IGD up and running by 11:30 a.m. PT. A win would be good…

1969: Padres Fall to Perry Again

by Geoff Young on Apr 19, 2007 (0) Comments

April 19, 1969, San Francisco: Giants 5, Padres 3 (box score)

Any hope the Padres had of building momentum based on the previous night’s victory evaporated quickly. In a rematch of the April 13 contest in San Diego, right-handers Dick Selma and Gaylord Perry went to battle at Candlestick Park. Perry had won the first matchup, due in part to an astounding 18-to-4 ground ball to fly ball ratio.

This time, the Padres struck early. With two out in the first inning, Tony Gonzalez and Ollie Brown drew walks. Bill Davis followed with a single to center, giving the Padres an early lead. Perry then caught Cito Gaston looking to end the inning.

In the bottom of the first, Selma ran into trouble right away. The leadoff batter, third baseman Cesar Gutierrez, stroked a double to right. With one out, a Bobby Bonds single to left tied the game. Bonds proceeded to steal second base, putting himself in scoring position for Willie McCovey.

Bonds needn’t have bothered. McCovey launched a home run to right that pushed the Giants ahead, 3-1. The Padres had scored a total of 16 runs over their first 10 games, so Perry and the Giants must have been liking their chances right about now.

The club from San Diego, though, didn’t go down without a fight. The Padres scored a single run in the fourth on a Chris Cannizzaro ground out and another in the sixth on a homer to right off the bat of Brown. The Padres had tied the game.

Bonds led off the bottom half of the frame with another single to left. This time he scored from first base on another McCovey blast to right. Why sprint when you can trot?

The Padres put just two more runners on base the rest of the way. Brown knocked a two-out triple to right-center in the eighth but was stranded, and Ed Spiezio walked with two down in the ninth. But Nate Colbert, pinch hitting for reliever Dick Kelley, struck out looking to end the game. Remarkably, Perry’s ground ball to fly ball ratio in this contest (16:2) was even better than it had been in his previous start against the Padres.

Trivia: McCovey finished with a career .263/.500/.947 line in 28 plate appearances against Selma.

Elsewhere in the world: A group of African-American students occupied Willard Straight Hall at Cornell University; Jesse G. James was born.

IGD: Padres vs Diamondbacks (18 Apr 07)

by Geoff Young on Apr 18, 2007 (162) Comments

first pitch: 7:05 p.m. PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: David Wells (0-1, 7.00 ERA) vs Brandon Webb (1-1, 5.21 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com

Not that you’ll hear anyone complain, but I’d like to know what the schedule makers were thinking here:

Date Time (PT) Location
Apr 15 5:05 p.m. Los Angeles
Apr 16 5:05 p.m. Chicago
Apr 17 11:20 a.m. Chicago
Apr 18 7:05 p.m. San Diego
Apr 19 12:35 p.m. San Diego
Apr 20 6:05 p.m. Denver
Apr 21 5:05 p.m. Denver
Apr 22 12:05 p.m. Denver

What, no game in Ulan Bator on Monday?

Better Ways to Get There

by Geoff Young on Apr 18, 2007 (29) Comments

Yeah, I’m happy that the Padres won on Tuesday (recap | box score). Actually, relieved is more like it (pun only partially intended). The bullpen coming through with nine innings of two-hit shutout baseball is huge. I still can’t believe the Mets had no use for Heath Bell.

Still, this Mike Cameron losing fly balls in the sun/lights thing is getting a little old. So is leaving 17 runners on base. A win is a win, but this game shouldn’t have been close.

Some of it was dumb luck. Beyond being irritated, there’s not much you can do about Rob Bowen lining hard to Matt Murton in right with the bases loaded to end the third, Neal Cotts pouncing on a Marcus Giles bunt to nail Bowen at third base, or Adrian Gonzalez‘ double to right in the ninth taking a fortuitous bounce to keep Cameron from scoring the go-ahead run.

Batting with Runners in Scoring Position, through April 17, 2007
  AB BA OBP SLG
Padres 119 .252 .328 .345
Opponents 116 .302 .387 .414
Stats courtesy of ESPN.

But some of it also was emblematic of a problem the Padres have been having in the early going. With the usual caveats that apply 14 games into a season, here’s a trend I’d like to see reversed:

This team isn’t the type that can overcome a lack of execution. There isn’t a lot of firepower in the lineup. We’re proud of the guys we have, and for the most part I think that’s justified. But when you see a team that features the likes of Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Alfonso Soriano, it puts things into perspective.

The Padres don’t have anyone in their lineup like those guys. There is no fallback plan in case of poor execution. This team has to get the job done with runners in scoring position. The bullpen is fantastic, but at some point (preferably before we have to rely on Geoff Blum‘s 14th-inning heroics) you have to score runs. One good way to do that is by converting existing baserunners into runs.

Anyway. I shouldn’t be so grouchy after a win. Yeah, I’m still happy about the outcome, but I can think of a lot better ways to get there.

Padres Prospect Report

by Peter Friberg

You will not see all the notable performances from the night before, but you will see the notable performances from those who are actually prospects.

AAA

Jared Wells: 3.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 5 SO, 0 HR

AA

Sean Thompson: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 6 BB, 4 SO, 0 HR

High-A

Matt Antonelli: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; BB, SO, SB
Kyle Blanks: 4 AB, 1 R, 3 H, 2 RBI; 2B, HR, BB, SO, SB
Matt Bush: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; 3B, 2 SO

Low-A

Cedric Hunter: 2 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; BB
Andrew Underwood: 6.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO, 0 HR

Commentary:

I’m beginning to think Wells topped out in Double-A… At one point I thought he could be a #3 starter. Last year I thought he might still be a shutdown set-up guy. He’s pushing that cup of coffee away from himself before he takes a sip.

Thompson faced Luke Hochevar (#1 pick in the 2006 draft) who posted the following line:

7.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 SO, 0 HR

The San Antonio Missions have been hitting fairly well and Hochevar shut them down — impressive.

Antonelli’s performance does not deserve mention here by itself. But since he just got back onto the playing field, he’s here.

Lake Elsinore Storm first baseman Kyle BlanksPeople tell me that Kyle Blanks doesn’t have the athleticism to play anywhere but first base (which for a 260+ lbs guy doesn’t surprise me) but then he goes out and steals another base (he’s supposedly a freak of an athlete for his size) and people tell me he doesn’t hit for enough power to stay on first base (as a 19 year old in the Midwest League he hit 20 doubles and 10 home runs in 308 at-bats). Baseball America rated him as the 30th best Padres prospect. I called him #8.

In his first five games, Hunter went 1-for-19 with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. In his last three he’s gone 3-for-8 with 3 walks and 1 strikeout. We might as well just call this, “The Cedric Hunter Report.”

There you have it. The gents return home to face Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks on Wednesday night. Given the bullpen’s current condition, getting David Wells into the seventh inning would be real nice. Go Padres!

1969: Santorini, Padres Stop Losing Streak

by Geoff Young on Apr 18, 2007 (0) Comments

April 18, 1969, San Francisco: Padres 3, Giants 1 (box score)

After dropping five straight, the Padres came out swinging in this one. With the help of two passed balls by Giants catcher Dick Dietz, San Diego scored two runs in the first. Roberto Pena scored the first run, with the second coming on a Cito Gaston double to right that drove home Ollie Brown.

Staked to an early lead, right-hander Al Santorini went to work. Santorini, a first-round pick of the Atlanta Braves in 1966, was making his second start of the season and just the third of his big-league career. Through the first four innings, he allowed only walks to Dietz and Willie Mays.

The Padres added a run in the fifth. Brown knocked a one-out triple to center, and Gaston drove him home with a sacrifice fly.

As for Santorini, after surrendering two singles in the fifth and one more in the sixth, he finally gave ground in the seventh. With one out, Jim Ray Hart drew a walk. Jim Davenport followed with a single to center. After a wild pitch moved the runners up 90 feet, Hal Lanier grounded to second to plate Hart for San Francisco’s first run. Santorini then retired pinch hitter Bob Burda on another grounder to second to end the inning.

The Giants, though, didn’t go down without a fight. With Billy McCool on the mound for the Padres, Dietz led off the ninth with a double to right-center. After a Hart groundout, Davenport drew a walk.

Preston Gomez then summoned right-hander Frank Reberger to face Jack Hiatt, who had been announced as a pinch hitter for Lanier. Giants skipper Clyde King countered by sending lefty-swinging Dave Marshall to bat for Hiatt. Reberger induced Marshall to fly to left for the second out of the inning.

Reberger proceeded to walk pinch hitter Don Mason, loading the bases for Mays. Now a few weeks shy of his 38th birthday, Mays no longer was the force he once had been. Still, he’d hit .289/.372/.488 the previous season and still could put a charge into one every now and then.

On this day, however, Reberger beat Mays. Struck him out to end the threat and the game. The Padres had won for the first time in more than a week and improved their record to 4-6 on the young season.

Trivia: Mays and Reberger faced each other nine times. Mays reached base on five of those occasions. This marked the only time Reberger ever struck out the Hall of Famer.

Elsewhere in the world: Apollo 11 was being prepared for its journey to the moon; an aging Mae West appeared on the cover of Life Magazine.

IGD: Padres @ Cubs (17 Apr 07)

by Geoff Young on Apr 17, 2007 (273) Comments

first pitch: 11:20 a.m. PT
television: none WGN
matchup: Greg Maddux (1-1, 3.18 ERA) vs Wade Miller (0-1, 13.50 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com

What a bizarre schedule. Night game in LA, followed by two in Chicago, followed by another back home. Seems like there should be an off-day somewhere — Monday would have been a good time for that.

Ex-Cub Greg Maddux goes for win #335 Tuesday afternoon at Wrigley. After what Jason Marquis did to the Padres last night, I’m reluctant to say anything negative about this afternoon’s starter, Wade Miller.

Here’s to better times. Go Padres!