Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

Technical difficulties prevented me from posting this earlier, but I am on the latest and greatest episode of The Writers Radio. Big thanks to Ed and Brian for being so kind as to have me on the show! Give it a listen:

• Ducksnorts on The Writers Radio (July 19)

And to anyone who is just now coming to Ducksnorts via The Writers Radio, welcome! Have a look around and let me know if you have any questions.

With 30 home dates remaining on the schedule, three more home runs need to be hit to surpass last season’s total at Petco Park. With that in mind, I’ve added a “Launching Pad” tracker to the sidebar. If only we could do something about the fact that 57% of homers at Petco have been hit by the opposition since it opened.

On the bright side, Adrian “Hez” Gonzalez is en fuego. Two more bombs in Monday night’s snatch ‘em back win over the Phillies — one to left, one to right.

Bar bet winner: Gonzalez is the only player ever to have multiple multi-homer games at Petco Park.

Bar bet winner #2: Gonzalez has as many home runs (18) through July 17 as last year’s season leader for the Padres (Ryan Klesko).

When Merv Rettenmund was hired to replace Dave Magadan as hitting coach of the Padres, one of the hopes was that he would be able to get more out of the kids in the lineup. Rettenmund has been back in San Diego for one month now; what is he doing with the future of this ballclub?

The answer, albeit in a small sample, is very good things. Here’s a quick look at how Josh Barfield, Adrian Gonzalez, and Khalil Greene have fared this season under both hitting coaches:

Josh Barfield

The main differences in Barfield’s game are that he is doing a better job controlling the strike zone and, of course, hitting absolutely everything. There has been no appreciable change in power, which is fine because that’s not really the kind of hitter Barfield is. If even some of the gains in batting average and ability to draw walks are permanent, this bodes very well for his future. What I really like is that Barfield is doing this after the league has had a chance to see him. That’s always a good sign for a rookie.

Adrian Gonzalez

This is fascinating. Gonzalez has become a completely different type of hitter under Rettenmund. He has gone from working counts and driving the ball into the gaps to hacking his way to homers. The gains in power are pretty stunning, and it’s great to see Gonzalez step up in that area. However, the drop in plate discipline is equally stunning. This is not a sustainable approach. Best guess is that at some point he’s going to have to give back some of that power unless he wants to go the way of Carlos Pena. That said, the power surge is mighty impressive.

Khalil Greene

It’s early, but this potentially is a scary development for opposing pitchers. The batting average is way up, the walks are down a little, and the power hasn’t changed. One of the problems Greene has had in the past is not being able hit for average, hit for power, and control the strike zone at the same time. His average is now at .253, which isn’t great but is significantly better than it was a month ago. Greene needs 11 doubles to break his season high in that category. He needs three home runs to do the same there. And he needs 10 more unintentional walks to set a career mark. Oh yeah, Greene has 71 games in which to do all this. He’s not there yet, and who knows how much of a role Rettenmund has played in Greene’s recent improvement, but I like where he’s headed.

Conclusions

What conclusions can we draw after a month of Rettenmund? Hard to say. It’s clear that all three kids in the everyday lineup have stepped it up since he joined the club, but they’ve all done it in very different ways. Two have seen their batting averages spike, and one of those has improved his selectivity at the plate in the process. The third has seen his power blossom at the expense of his batting eye.

It will be interesting to see the types of adjustments each of these hitters has to make over the coming months and to what extent they are able to maintain the gains made during Rettenmund’s first month back with the Padres. At the very least — and regardless of whether you want to assign causality to their improvement since June 16 — Barfield, Gonzalez, and Greene have shown themselves, each other, the fans, and the brass exactly what they are capable of doing. This could be a fun story line to follow during the second half of 2006.

Just wanted to drop a quick note to let everyone know that longtime reader and fellow Padres blogger Hank passed away in his sleep July 1. I’m sorry that I never got to meet him in person, and we’ll all miss his contributions to Ducksnorts and the Padres community at large. Rest in peace, friend.

In case you didn’t catch it, Sunday’s game between the Padres and Braves at Petco Park featured four ejections due to the umpiring crew’s inability to do its job with any kind of reliability or consistency.

Home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman ran Padres manager Bruce Bochy and bench coach Tony Muser in the sixth after Jake Peavy apparently had struck out Chipper Jones on a 1-2 pitch that Jones clearly committed to before attempting to check his swing. The call was so obvious and seemingly non-controversial that Jones actually started walking back to the dugout. Only problem was that neither Dreckman nor, inexplicably, third base umpire Ed Hickox called it a swing.

Muser was ejected immediately, and Bochy came out onto the field to get his money’s worth. How Dreckman or Hickox could defend the call is beyond the explanation of anyone who saw the play. It is easily the worst call I’ve seen by an umpire this season, and possibly ever. It was so blatant that I couldn’t even believe an appeal to third was necessary.

Dreckman’s strike zone was inconsistent all afternoon. He simply refused to call pitches at the knee strikes and appeared to have trouble with stuff up and away as well — sometimes it was a strike, sometimes not, and it was impossible for us (and him) to guess which was which.

Attention to detail, alas, isn’t Dreckman’s strong suit. In April he was faked out by Pittsburgh’s Chris Duffy on a fly ball off the bat of Cincinnati’s Adam Dunn that Duffy trapped. Dreckman also had some “issues” in a game between the Padres and Marlins at Petco last month.

Today’s gaffe didn’t cost the Padres; they were able to give the game — and the series — away just fine without any help from the men in blue (who also ejected the Braves’ Jeff Francouer and Bobby Cox after a questionable call on balls and strikes in the seventh). Even still, it’s frustrating to watch two guys, two professionals, completely blow such an easy call. The good news is that both sides were displeased with Dreckman’s work behind the plate, so you know tapes will be sent to the league office in the hope that future embarrassments can be avoided.