Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

I was working on something a bit more ambitious this morning, but it doesn’t appear to be ready — and between you and me, I’m not sure it ever will be. So instead, with the Padres in New York for three, and one of the big stories (at least from a certain city’s point of view) being the return of Mike Piazza to the Big Apple, I figured now might be a good time to start thinking about next year’s catching options.

Not that we can do anything about it, of course, but it’s always fun to play along at home. First I’ll throw out the tale of the tape, then I’ll offer my thoughts (such as they are), and then you’ll offer yours. And we’ll just keep doing that until the IGD magically appears this afternoon.

To the contenders:

*Age as of June 30, 2007.

Mike Piazza

Piazza’s offense and defense have been better than advertised this year. We were led to believe that he didn’t have much left in the tank, but an 879 OPS would indicated otherwise. We were told that he couldn’t withstand the rigors of catching and that even if he could, he was no great shakes behind the plate. But with careful usage by Bruce Bochy, himself a former big-league backstop, Piazza has held up quite well. And the defensive issues have been overblown by folks who think a catcher’s arm is the only way to judge how well he plays the position. In most other aspects, Piazza’s been just fine back there.

Piazza and the Padres have an $8M mutual option for 2007. Despite all the praise I just heaped on him in the preceding paragraph, and intending no disrespect, I don’t see how it would make sense for the Pads to exercise their option with so many other, um, options to fill the position next year. Piazza’s presence in San Diego has been tremendous, but I can’t justify bringing him back at that price.

Josh Bard

The contracts of Bard and Bowen are up at the end of the year, but I suspect neither will command a huge amount on the open market due to their limited track records. And I can’t imagine the Padres balking at a guaranteed deal with Bard, as they did with Miguel Olivo last winter. Bard’s overall game is much more polished than Olivo’s and the club seems to have confidence in Bard when he’s out there.

The downside to Bard, of course, is that there’s nothing in his minor-league background to foreshadow the offensive numbers he’s posting this year. It’s entirely possible that 2006 is a fluke and that he’ll regress to the mean. Then again, he could be another late-blooming catcher, a la Paul Lo Duca. I’m not sure what it would take for the Pads to re-sign him, and I’m not sure what I’d want to offer if I were them, but I do know I’d be pretty comfortable with him as the starter next year if Kottaras needs a little more seasoning.

Ryan Bowen

Bowen, as ever, remains intriguing. He’s relatively young and he has good plate discipline. He also can drive the ball on occasion. If only he could play third base.

But I digress.

The main issue with Bowen is that he’s largely untested. With Bard serving as Piazza’s primary backup this year, Bowen has been used mostly as Piazza’s designated pinch-runner/defensive replacement in late innings of games. Bowen has put up some nice numbers in limited time, but there’s a lot we don’t know about him. I’d love to see him come back next year, but it seems to me he’s at a point in his career where testing the waters might not be such a bad idea. He’s no worse an option for a big-league team that needs a catcher than Olivo was this past off-season.

George Kottaras

What can we say about Kottaras that hasn’t been said already? Offensively, he doesn’t have much more to prove in the minors. He controls the strike zone and drives the ball into the gaps, which is a nice combination. Defensively, by most accounts Kottaras isn’t quite there yet, and there are concerns about his size. He’s only played 14 games above Double-A, and he’s not exactly old, so there shouldn’t be any great hurry to bring him to the big club. That said, if all of the other options don’t work out, Kottaras probably could hold his own if needed. I’d prefer to see him back at Triple-A, at least for a while, but he’s close.

I guess when all is said and done, I’d want Bard as the starter in 2007, with Bowen (or someone else if Bowen walks) as backup. Stick Kottaras back at Portland to start the year, and if anything happens to Bard, bring up the kid and see what he can do.

Whatever the future holds, it’s a good situation to be in — and a far cry from the days of Wiki Gonzalez, Gary Bennett, et al.

That leaves us with one open question: What would you do?

Nice win Sunday afternoon against the Nationals to take the series and remain in first place by two games over the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. I still don’t understand why a guy with Jake Peavy’s stuff has to get so cute when he’s ahead in the count, but oh well.

The Padres are off Monday before embarking on a three-game series in New York against the Mets on Tuesday. While we’re waiting for that, I’d like to formally introduce the San Diego Padres Organizational Tree that we first took a sneak peek at on Friday.

In a nutshell, the organizational tree shows all current Padres big-leaguers and key minor-leaguers (Baseball America’s Top 30 prospects, top picks in the June 2006 draft, and anyone acquired in a trade), and links each of them back to their source. A simple example would be Josh Bard, who was acquired for Doug Mirabelli, who was acquired for Mark Loretta. Others, such as the Chan Ho Park and Ryan Klesko lines, are more complicated.

For each current Padres player, I identify whether he was drafted by the team, acquired via trade, or signed as a free agent. For all players (even Russ Spear, about whom I can find precious little information — this transaction dated March 9, 1995, is pretty much it), I identify which general manager is respsonsible for bringing him to San Diego. In a couple instances (Doug Brocail, Phil Plantier), a player appears twice on the tree as part of different transactions, so you see, e.g., Plantier listed as being brought here by Joe McIlvaine in the December 1992 trade with Boston, and by Kevin Towers in the January 1997 free agent signing. Also, all players who reached the big leagues are linked to their page at Baseball Reference so you can view their entire careers if you’re so inclined.

At best, this organizational tree will provide a useful resource for fans of the Padres and baseball in general. I know of a few others in existence (Will Young’s Twins org tree inspired mine, and I found trees for the Yankees and Red Sox via the Baseball Graphs Blog) and would love to see more.

At worst, this tree will serve as a reminder of the fine work the oft-maligned Randy Smith did during his tenure as GM of the Padres under extremely difficult circumstances. Smith’s contributions paved the way for the playoff teams of 1996 and 1998 under his successor, Kevin Towers. In addition to acquiring Andy Ashby and Trevor Hoffman despite having zero leverage, Smith also engineered the deal that brought cornerstones Ken Caminiti and Steve Finley to San Diego. To take nothing away from Towers or any other key figures, Smith’s role in getting the Padres back to the World Series cannot, and should not, be underestimated.

I enjoyed researching and assembling this organizational tree and, now that it’s built, I intend to keep it updated so we can continue to refer to it into the future. I hope you find some value in the tree; as always, I welcome your input — if you notice any errors, omissions, or potential enhancements, please let me know in the comments or drop me a line.