Game 3

by Geoff Young on Apr 03, 2003 (Comments Off) Comments

Housekeeping

Good news: After two days and much correspondence with tech support, ducksnorts.com appears to be out of DNS purgatory. Woo-hoo! Seems the domain was moved to another machine, but nobody told the DNS (domain name server).

Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. Meantime, check out what you may have missed:

In other news, since pictures of Petco Park are now accessible from the navigation bar, I’ve replaced the link in that little green box at the top of the blog with a short listing of what I’m listening to and reading at the moment. This may or may not interest you, but I’ve seen other folks do it, and I’m nothing if not derivative. Hey, it’s more honest than pretending to be original.

But enough of that silliness. Let’s talk baseball.

Game 3

Death by papercuts, this one.

San Francisco 5, San Diego 3 (ESPN)

The Good

  • Pads drew nine walks. Getting on base is half the battle.
  • Xavier Nady hit his first big-league homer. The ball landed in the next section over from us, a couple rows up. Basically about 20 feet away from where we sat. Having watched him the past couple years at Elsinore, I’m thrilled to have been in attendance for his first bomb as a Padre. I’ll not soon forget that.
  • Sean Burroughs continued to have (mostly) good at-bats.
  • The infield defense was brilliant, turning three double plays and generally getting it done.
  • The bullpen was solid, working five innings of one-hit ball.

The Bad

  • Oliver Perez. He was all over the place, walking six in four innings and uncorking back-to-back wild pitches in the second. Of the 21 batters he faced, 9 of them went to three-ball counts. That’s terrible, as is 45 strikes against 42 balls. I don’t think this is what anyone had in mind when they talked about efficiency. Perez needed just 25 pitches to get through the first and fourth innings, but a whopping 62 for the second and third. Four games above A-ball before reaching the big leagues. He has a world of potential, and one game doesn’t mean a whole lot, but this is not encouraging.
  • Xavier Nady in right. This isn’t really fair, because he almost made a spectacular catch of a Marquis Grissom drive to end the third. Instead, he dropped the ball when he hit the wall and three runs scored. That’s your ballgame right there. He also allowed Ray Durham to take third on a fly ball by Jose Cruz Jr. that wasn’t particularly deep. I do worry a little about his arm. Anyway, Nady almost made a tremendous catch and he did hit his first big-league homer, so we’ll cut him some slack. :-) But I had to mention it.
  • LOB: 12. Like I said, getting on base is half the battle. Driving ‘em in is the other half. There was absolutely zero clutch hitting last night. The Padres aren’t an offensive machine; they need to make the most of what opportunities they get. And last night, it didn’t happen.

The Ugly

  • Giant fans. With the exception of the gentleman sitting directly in front of me, they were a pretty unruly lot. On the plus side, they seemed to have mastered the phrase "he’s a bum" by the end of the evening. Gotta give ‘em props for that.
  • Garlic fries. Best ballpark food ever, but the aftermath ain’t pretty.

More on the game:

Today: Dodgers. Kaz Ishii vs Jake Peavy at the Q. Game time, 2 PM. Television: none.

Game 2

by Geoff Young on Apr 02, 2003 (Comments Off) Comments

I made a joke yesterday involving David Lee Roth. I said that he would be peforming with a puppet show at Viejas in June, when in fact only Roth will be appearing. It was wrong, and I apologize.

The good news is there will be other puppet shows.

Housekeeping

Well, we seem to experiencing some domain problems here. If you’re reading this and it’s actually April 2, chances are you got here by visiting ducksnorts.geoffreynyoung.com or geoffreynyoung.com/ducksnorts. For reasons not altogether clear to me, ducksnorts.com is having a bit of a problem just now. The technical folks are working to get that fixed, and I’ll let you know as soon as it’s resolved. Of course, if you’re attempting to access the site via ducksnorts.com, then you can’t read this anyway so what’s the point?

Well, the point is I wanted to let you know that (a) it’s me, not you; and (b) if you know of anyone who can’t get here, send ‘em to one of the other URLs. Apologies for the incovenience, and with luck we’ll get this all sorted out soon.

Game 2

Would you believe 160-2? Yeah, me neither.

San Francisco 8, San Diego 1 (ESPN)

Not much to write about last night’s game. Jason Schmidt dominated, Barry Bonds hit a ridiculously long homer off Mike Bynum, and that’s pretty much it.

Adam Eaton looked real good at times, but got himself in trouble by working behind in the count too often. In fact, that’s when the Giants did the bulk of their damage against him:

hitter   inn count result
-------------------------
Santiago  2   3-1    HR7
Cruz      4   2-1    HR9
Aurilia   4   3-2    2B7
Alfonzo   4   1-1    2B8

That fourth inning was a killer. Eaton started strong and finished strong, but had a heckuva time the second time through the order:

                    AB H 2B HR BB SO
1st time thru order  9 1  0  0  0  1
2nd time thru order  8 3  2  1  1  1
3rd time thru order  5 0  0  0  1  1

Eaton had a couple of good battles with Bonds. He made him look bad on a couple of pitches in the fourth before issuing a walk. And he struck him out on a beautiful breaking ball to start the sixth.

Other positives for the Pads:

  • Sean Burroughs is swinging the bat very well. He hit a shot in the second right at Ray Durham and lined a sharp single to right in the fifth. His only weak at-bat came in the eighth, when he fell behind Schmidt 0-2 and could manage only a routine grounder to third. But in the two earlier at-bats, Burroughs got the bat head around on Schmidt (who according to the Pads’ announcers was reaching 96 MPH as late as the seventh) and hit the ball with some authority. It’s early, but the swings I’ve seen out of Burroughs the first two games of the season bear little resemblance to what I remember of him from last year.
  • Ramon Vazquez is looking real good. He drove in the Padres’ only run on a double to right in the eighth. He’s fun to watch at short. Man, he gets rid of the ball in a hurry.

I was hoping for more, but there’s not much to work with when you get beat that badly. Like I said, Eaton showed signs of life; his command just was a little spotty, and a team like the Giants will jump all over that. The bullpen was shaky again, which is going to be a recurring theme this year.

I’m headed out to my first game tonight: Damian Moss vs Oliver Perez at the Q. Game time, 7 PM. Television: Channel 4.

Opening Day

by Geoff Young on Apr 01, 2003 (Comments Off) Comments

It’s April Fools’ Day. No, really, I’m serious.

Housekeeping

I try to keep folks informed about changes to the site; it’s pretty dry stuff, so feel free to skip this part if you don’t care. I won’t be offended. :-)

From left to right, top to bottom, here are updates for April 1, 2003:

  • Tweaked some stuff in the left-hand navigation. Added links to the Stadium and Datasets areas; one of these days maybe I’ll make the Datasets page look purty and what-not. Moved Weblog above Articles, since everyone reads the former and I’m producing the latter over at Baseball Primer these days.
  • Added links to padres.com, theprospectreport.com (as opposed to prospectreport.com), and Roto Times.
  • Removed a link to a former baseball site that is now about–ahem–something else.
  • Reworked the Home page, cleaned up the About section (BTW, if you’re curious about why this site is called "Ducksnorts" it’s in About).
  • Added a disclaimer to the bottom of every page. No, nobody’s contacted me and I’d just as soon keep it that way.

I’ve got some other things in the works, but like batters facing Steve Trachsel, they’ll just have to wait.

Oh, and if you haven’t been here in a while and are wondering what’s up with the colors, don’t worry: they’ll pass. We’re just honoring the Padres by bustin’ out the old hamburger and mustard motif from way back when. The familiar blues and greens will be back next week.

Matt Herges

Padres signed him to a minor-league deal. Herges instantly becomes one of the best healthy relievers in the organization, but he’ll start the season at Portland. Another shrewd pickup by Kevin Towers.

Opening Day

So much for 162-0. What did we expect, anyway? Good starting pitching, shaky relief work, not enough offense.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Even in a game like this, there are positives. Let’s take a closer look.

San Francisco 5, San Diego 2 (ESPN)

The Good

  • Rondell White took some good cuts at the plate. He hit a weak grounder to short off Kirk Rueter in the fourth, but other than that he looked good. Flied to the warning track in center to end the first, drew a full-count walk in the sixth. He didn’t hack quite as much as I’d expected. He also made a nice play in left on a ball hit by J.T. Snow in the fourth.
  • Ramon Vazquez looked very good at shortstop. He stayed with a tough hop on a grounder to end the second. He also started a spectacular double play on a ball hit by Edgardo Alfonzo with the bases loaded to end the eighth. Vazquez came in on a slow roller and very quickly grabbed the ball and flipped it to Mark Loretta, who made a quick turn to fire it to first, where Ryan Klesko made a nice stretch (!). Vazquez also had some solid at-bats, drawing a walk against lefty Rueter to start the third, taking Barry Bonds to the warning track to end the sixth, and lining a 3-2 single to left to lead off the ninth against Tim Worrell.
  • Xavier Nady hit one to the warning track in center in the second. Nice pass on the ball, but he hit it off the end of the bat. In the fourth, he hammered a 2-0 offering to right-center for a double. He’ll do that a lot this year.
  • Sean Burroughs absolutely scorched a pitch from Rueter in the fourth, lining a double off the auxiliary scoreboard to score Nady. It was a hanger, and Burroughs turned on the ball. Good to see him hit the ball with authority.
  • Brian Lawrence, despite struggling with his command, managed to pitch seven solid innings. By my count, he ran the count full five times on the night, which is very unusual for him. He tied a career high with four walks. He even unleashed a wild pitch. But other than Ray Durham, nobody got real good wood on the ball, and Lawrence did induce a couple of timely double plays. Curiously, he allowed more fly balls than ground balls.
  • Gary Bennett looked like he was doing a nice job receiving the ball behind the plate.
  • Luther Hackman was impressive in cleaning up the ninth inning mess. Made Bonds look real bad on a changeup.

The Bad

  • Lawrence’s command. He can’t pitch like he did yesterday and be successful. Chalk it up to Opening Day jitters.
  • In the sixth, against Joe Nathan, Nady appeared overanxious at the plate and popped out to J.T. Snow back of first with runners on second and third, nobody out. The Pads wasted a golden opportunity to score.
  • Gary Bennett’s bat. In the sixth, after Nady popped to Snow, Burroughs was intentionally walked to load the bases. Bennett promptly struck out swinging. I know Bennett’s job is to work with the young pitchers, but it would be nice if he brought something to the table on offense.
  • Clay Condrey. Or Bruce Bochy. I haven’t decided which. Condrey, after working a scoreless eighth to keep the game tied at 2-2, surrendered back-to-back jacks to Benito Santiago and J.T. Snow to start the ninth. They weren’t cheap either; both went to dead center. It’s only one game, and it’s way too early to second guess Bochy, but it will be interesting to see what usage patterns develop for the Pads’ bullpen while the likes of Trevor Hoffman, Jay Witasick, and Kevin Walker are on the shelf. Condrey did a yeoman’s job in the eighth, but it might be a bit much to expect a kid with 27 big-league innings under his belt to work the ninth against the defending NL champs in a tie ballgame. Matt Herges, anyone?

The Ugly

  • Rueter struck out 76 batters last year in over 200 innings. That’s seven more strikeouts than Randy Johnson recorded in six August starts.
  • Coming to Viejas Casino June 10: Puppet Show and David Lee Roth.

In Other News

  • Object of endless fascination Corey Patterson homered twice and drove in seven runs as the Cubs abused Tom Glavine and the Mets, 15-2.
  • The Red Sox, darlings of the stathead community, saw their closerless bullpen give up five runs in the bottom of the ninth to the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays. It will be interesting to see how long they are allowed to continue their experiment, which much of the mainstream media still doesn’t quite understand.
  • Randy Johnson and the Diamondbacks were involved in a shutout at home against the Dodgers. Hideo Nomo spun a four-hitter for the visitors, who plated five runs against the Big Unit.

Tonight: Jason Schmidt vs Adam Eaton at the Q. Game time, 7 PM. Television: Channel 4.

Prospects at Elsinore

by Geoff Young on Mar 31, 2003 (Comments Off) Comments

I don’t have anything profound to say after watching the Texas/Anaheim game last night. What else is new, right?

I sure am glad baseball is back. Caught the Pads’ final exhibition game Saturday night at Elsinore. Jake Peavy dominated his old team, as he should have. Xavier Nady hit a long homer to left, for which he received a standing ovation. Nady won the Cal League MVP as a member of the Storm in 2001, a fact the hometown fans won’t soon forget.

The Elsinore squad won’t be as stacked with prospects as it has been the last couple years, but there are still some good ones. Among BA‘s top 30, 2B Josh Barfield (7), RHP Javier Martinez (11), RHP Justin Germano (13), OF Freddy Guzman (24), RHP Mike Wodnicki (25), 3B Greg Sain (26), and C Nick Trzeniak (28) will all be there. All but Sain played against the Pads Saturday.

This is the second or third time I’ve seen Barfield. He has a very quick bat but will swing at anything. Obviously a good athlete. John Sickels, whose book arrived last week, gives him a grade of C+, citing his bloodlines and batting average as positives, and plate discipline as the main negative.

Sight unseen, Martinez was one of my "sleeper" prospects for this year. He’s slender and he has a smooth delivery. His fastball was running 91-93 but didn’t appear to have a lot of movement. Martinez’ command was shaky (he knocked down Mark Loretta to lead off the fourth, plunking him on the left forearm), and he worked almost exclusively with his fastball. Martinez also earns a C+ from Sickels, who says "It wouldn’t surprise me to see him vault forward as a hot prospect in ’03." It’s always nice to have one’s opinion confirmed by a guy with Sickels’ track record.

Germano again impressed with his breaking ball (according to BA, the pitch "has been compared to Roy Oswalt’s". He’s a tough guy to get a read on in terms of ceiling. Some folks look at him and see another Brian Lawrence. Others, such as Sickels, liken him to former Padre farmhand Junior Herndon. Sickels gives him a grade of C. I think he underestimates Germano. We’ll see.

Guzman is very fast but very raw in most aspects of his game. He used to be known as Pedro de los Santos and play second base. He also aged 2 1/2 years this off-season. Guzman doesn’t warrant a mention in Sickels’ book.

Wodnicki came over in the Brett Tomko deal. He only worked an inning or two. Didn’t leave much of an impression on me one way or the other. Threw a little harder (90-93) than I’d expected. Sickels gives Wodnicki a C+. He likes the right-hander’s control and command, but wants to see what Wodnicki does at higher levels before getting too excited.

Trzeniak is a former first-rounder whom BA compares to a young Javy Lopez. That strikes me as optimistic, but I’ve only seen him play twice, so I’ll reserve judgment for now. Sickels doesn’t mention Trzeniak.

Speaking of Sickels

His book, which he self-published this year, is a must read. He’s got reports on over 800 players, including all 2002 first-round picks. The design of the book is radically different from the old Minor League Scouting Notebook, but the information is up to Sickels’ usual high standards.

Back in the early- to mid-’90s, at the peak of the ‘zine revolution, I ran a literary publication that contained work by some terrific writers but which was on more than one occasion accused of being bland. Sickels’ book runs the risk of being criticized on the same grounds. It’s a large (8 1/2 x 11) rust-colored tome with no pictures. The text is nearly uniformly monospaced font.

Personally, being a substance over style type, I kind of liked being bland because it forced attention onto the quality of the work. Sickels’ book is like this. It’s absolutely loaded with information. The Beatles had the White Album, Spinal Tap had the Black Album. Now John Sickels has the Rust Book. If you haven’t picked it up yet, I highly recommend you do so. Visit his site for details.

Go Watch Some Games Already!

I don’t have anything profound to leave you with either. Hope y’all have an enjoyable Opening Day. I can’t make it out to the Q this year for the first time in recent memory, but I’ll be there in spirit. The Padres may not win a lot of games this year, but as I’ve said before, it’s going to be fun to watch some of these kids develop at the big-league level. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty psyched.

Anyway, here’s to Opening Day. Have a good one…

Final Spring Training Update

by Geoff Young on Mar 28, 2003 (Comments Off) Comments

Do not attempt to adjust your monitor. In honor of the beginning of the Padres’ final season in Mission Valley, we’ve adopted the good ol’ hamburger and mustard look.

I don’t have anything insightful to say today, and I haven’t had a chance to "play" with the site for a while, so what the heck. Some days you write the Gettysburg Address; other days you scribble on the tablecloth.

If you like the new look, let me know. If not, relax; the old look will be back by the end of next week.

Meantime, a couple quick items of note as spring training comes to a close:

  • Anderson, Kelly cut (padres.com). Xavier Nady has won the starting job in right field, Clay Condrey is the fifth starter, Keith Lockhart somehow managed to make the club, and in a reversal from earlier sentiments, Mike Bynum will stick with the Padres as a long reliever. Still undecided: who will back up Gary Bennett behind the plate.
  • Break out the crystal ball: Primer’s Annual (Really Bad) Predictions Contest v. 2003. Better get your entries in, quick. Here’s mine.

Spring Training Update for 3/27/03

by Geoff Young on Mar 27, 2003 (Comments Off) Comments

I’m a bit pressed for time today, so we’ll keep this one real short and sweet.

  • No relief: Walker, Witasick go on DL (U-T). Also, the catching situation remains unsettled; Shane Victorino will make the club over Roberto Kelly as the team’s fifth outfielder.
  • Padres pound Mariners, Condrey pitches effectively (U-T). The battle between Condrey and Mike Bynum for the final spot in the rotation is going down to the wire. Ramon Vazquez collects three more hits; he is really driving the ball this spring.
  • Padres send Cordova packing (NC Times). It was a nice try, but the guy had nothing in the tank. Former Cardinal southpaw Mike Matthews is claimed off waivers to replace the ailing Walker in the ‘pen. Matthews is actually a pretty good pitcher; how did he end up on waivers? Shortstop Khalil Greene was assigned to Double-A Mobile and, in something of a surprise, Tagg Bozied was sent to Triple-A Portland. He’s made a lot of progress since last season ended, so hopefully the aggressive promotion will turn out well for him.
  • Padres reshuffle pitchers (padres.com). Kevin Jarvis lands on the DL. More about Matthews and Condrey.

That’s all for now. Jake Peavy vs his old team at Elsinore Saturday night. Should be good. Talk to ya soon…

Spring Training Update for 3/26/03

by Geoff Young on Mar 26, 2003 (Comments Off) Comments

Padres claimed Lou Merloni off waivers from Boston. Most famous as Nomar Garciaparra’s caddy, Merloni (which is Italian for "Keith Lockhart’s out of a job") is a hard-nosed guy who can play anywhere on the infield. The most similar batter to Merloni through age 31 is former Padre infielder Craig Shipley. Not exactly thrilling but it’s a fair shake better than Lockhart.

I’m taking the lazy way out today and just giving you a bunch of links. Enjoy…

"Stars of the Future" Game

by Geoff Young on Mar 25, 2003 (0) Comments

Grabbed some bagels and coffee, filled up the tank. Picked up my buddy Jeff at his place, hit the freeway a little after 7:30 Sunday morning.

Got to Yuma around 11:15 local time. Realized we had no idea where the stadium was. Stopped at a Circle K for directions; the woman who helped us seemed vaguely aware of what we were talking about and pointed us in the right direction. Fifteen minutes later we found ourselves in the parking lot of the appropriately named Desert Sun Stadium.

The weather forecast had said it would be 84 that day, which felt about right. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Six bucks got us both in the door. Seating was general admission, so we dropped ourselves down behind the plate, four rows up. The Padres were taking batting practice. After several rounds, the grounds crew came out, raked a little, threw some water on the field, and laid down the baselines. For a field out in the middle of the desert that doesn’t get a lot of use, it looked pretty nice by the time they were done.

Can’t remember the exact lineup, but I do know that Todd Donovan led off. Khalil Greene batted third, Jake Gautreau sixth. Chris Rojas took the mound for the Pads and had trouble finding the plate. He didn’t escape the third inning.

For the Diamondbacks’ part, their lone true prospect was Chad Tracy. The rest of the guys who made the trip were veterans: Doug Henry, Scott Service, Jerry Spradlin, Mike Bell, and the like. Ultimate junkballer Jason Jacome got the start for the Arizona squad.

Some observations from the game:

  • Paul McAnulty, the Pads’ 2002 12th-round pick out of Long Beach State, is very large (although not as large as Arizona’s Steve Neal, who is listed at 6-2, 260). He didn’t do much in the game but it looks like he has a nice stroke.
  • Jake Gautreau launched a mammoth homer to right off Henry, the Brewers’ closer back in the early ’90s.
  • Khalil Greene looked sluggish at the plate and in the field. He kept trying to pull Jacome’s outside slop, with little success. Defensively, Greene made a weak effort on one less-than-stellar throw from the outfield, which allowed a runner to take an extra base. He also failed to go after a foul popup down the left-field line. In fairness, it ended up not being playable, but that didn’t stop the Ben Risinger or Vince Faison from trying to chase it down. All in all, it was a pretty down day for Greene. I’ve seen him play much better than that, so I don’t place a lot of stock in what he did Sunday. He was just having a bad day.
  • Faison made a couple nice plays in left and also hit a line drive homer to right center off reliever David Cortes. His stroke looked a bit shorter than I’d remembered, though I’m hardly an expert in such matters.
  • Josh Barfield looked good in batting practice but didn’t do much in a limited opportunity during the game. He’s a guy I’m really looking forward to seeing at Elsinore this year.
  • Cory Stewart, despite his line, pitched very well. He coughed up a big home run after "missing" with a pitch that should have been called a strike to end the inning. The plate umpire had an inconsistent zone, and Stewart appeared to be victimized (and bothered) by it more than anyone else.
  • Justin Germano looked good. He’s another I’m excited to see at Elsinore. He must have some movement on his fastball because he was able to jam some right-handed hitters despite the lack of overpowering velocity. Germano also featured a nice breaking ball (as did Stewart).

The game ended in a 7-7 tie after 10 innings (though by my accounting, with better umpiring the Pads win, 8-4). Afterward, we took an extremely circuitous route to the Carl’s Jr. over on 16th Street. Ate burgers, then waited in line for $1.83/gallon gas along with everyone else who was headed to California.

Listened to some great tunes on the return trip, thanks to Jeff, who is my connection to the indie music world. Bands like Wilco, Modest Mouse, Calexico, Flaming Lips. Stuff I’m not really hip enough to listen to on my own but which I nevertheless enjoy a great deal.

Talked about Kant, Descartes, existentialism, and the general utility (or not) of philosophy as an end in itself. Pondered the ambiguity of war. You know, the usual road trip faire.

Twelve hours after we’d first headed east on I-8, we were back home: exhausted and beaten by the sun, yet thoroughly satisfied. Baseball with a wood bat had returned. What could possibly be better?

I think about baseball, therefore I am…

Recovering from Yuma

by Geoff Young on Mar 24, 2003 (Comments Off) Comments

Okay, before you start throwing things at me, I have a good excuse for not writing today. I was in Yuma for the Padres’ "Stars of the Future" game and I’m still recovering.

Highlights included a mammoth Jake Gautreau homer off former Brewer closer Doug Henry, good pitching from Cory Stewart and Justin Germano, and gas for $1.83 a gallon. (For folks in other parts of the country, that’s about 35 cents cheaper than San Diego.)

I’ll have a full report for you tomorrow.

Giving Away Phillips, Part Three

by Geoff Young on Mar 23, 2003 (Comments Off) Comments

Don’t worry, I’ll stop flogging this horse before too long, but first I want to share some feedback I’ve received about the Mark Phillips deal:

Padres need to cut off all, ALL lines of communication w/ the Skanks. Remember, if you deal w/ the devil, you’re going to end up w/ egg on your face…wait, if you smell like an egg, you’re going to get…you know what I mean.
  –Jeff B.

Yeah, man, I’m afraid do know what you mean. One aspect of this deal I’ve overlooked because I’ve been so fixated on what a terrible trade this was for the Padres is the fact that the Yankees, in addition to having the most money to spend, have one of the best GMs in all of baseball.

For a guy who has all the money in the world to work with, Brian Cashman sweats the details a lot more than he has to. He saw an opportunity and jumped all over it. The difference between Rondell White and Bubba Trammell for his club is negligible.

Cashman essentially threw less-than-first-round money at a former first-rounder who already has professional experience under his belt and who, unlike many former top draft picks, actually has had a fair amount of success as a pro. From the Yankees’ standpoint, this wasn’t about money. This was about opportunity. Cashman saw a stud lefty on the horizon and went out and got him on the cheap.

I hate to give the Yanks credit for anything, but this was a brilliant move on their part, and most of the credit goes to Cashman.

Here’s some salt in the wound. Why the urgency of this transaction… If Towers is going to include Phillips in any trade of Trammell, why the rush? All of the big market teams would jump at the chance to aquire Phillips as part of a Trammell package. Look at it this way, we gave [Phillips] a signing bonus of $2.2M; Trammell’s contract for next year $5M would roughly be double. This is chump change to the big market teams, so why not wait? As long as you’re willing to give away a top prospect you can trade Trammell’s contract for next year anytime. My view is waiting gives both Trammell and Phillips a chance to have good years. That would increase their value in any trade, and net you more in return.
  –J.S.

Absolutely. Four things have been established pretty convincingly with this trade:

  1. The Padres gave up on Phillips too soon.
  2. The Trammell contract was terrible.
  3. Towers, possibly under orders from above, panicked and took a bad deal to unload that contract.
  4. George Steinbrenner has a brilliant and very underrated man making baseball decisions for him.

The only excuse I can find for this trade from the Padres’ point of view is if Towers were under orders to unload Trammell’s contract no matter what; if that’s the case, then I’m grateful he didn’t part with Sean Burroughs or Jake Peavy. Look, Trammell has a fairly lengthy track record of success as a big-league hitter. As J.S. says, why not move him in May, when he’s likely to have more trade value? What’s the hurry?

Either someone was under orders to move Trammell now and took the first offer that came along or someone severely overestimates the value of Rondell White, particularly when he’s only under contract for one year. Hey, maybe White will get off to a hot start and the Pads can move him to a contender for a good young player before he hits the DL. I doubt they’ll be able to land a prospect as good as Phillips for him, but stranger things have happened. We’ll see how it all plays out.

What’s scaring me now is thinking about what Towers will have to part with to get someone to take Kevin Jarvis and/or Wiki Gonzalez off his hands. He blinked once; it could happen again.

Anyway, for the sake of my sanity, I’m officially done flogging this horse. I could complain about this for weeks, months, years, but as Bud Selig has taught us so well, nobody likes to hear someone whine about the same damn thing over and over again. Let’s move on, shall we?

The Mighty Quinn

Pads signed former Royal outfielder Mark Quinn to a minor-league deal. Quinn’s most similar player in baseball history through age 28? Bubba Trammell.

Hint: If Quinn hits 25 homers this year, do not sign him to a three-year contract.

Sorry ’bout that. Fell off the wagon for a second; I’m okay.

Anyway, Quinn is a good right-handed hitting outfielder with power. Inking him to a minor-league deal is a nice low risk, potentially decent reward move. This is actually the kind of pickup the Padres should be specializing in with their budgetary constraints. See a guy in his prime who has shown the ability to mash when healthy but who’s coming off a lost season, sign him for nothing. Great move by Towers, which does absolutely nothing to make me feel better about the Phillips fiasco.

Sorry again. My rage has a mind of its own.

And Now, the Punch Line

In spite of what’s happened this past week, I just purchased a 20-game package to watch the Padres this year. Why? First, the Q is about an hour closer to my house than Elsinore. If I can get up to see the Storm 14 times a year, I sure as heck can pop down the hill to see the Pads 20 times. Second, I want a crack at seats in Petco Park.

Amusingly, my seats are in the left field grandstand. Yep, I’ll be right behind Rondell White or whomever they stick out there when he gets hurt. It’s crucial to maintain one’s sense of irony during difficult times…