Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

First off, my condolences to the family of Darryl Kile, who passed away unexpectedly at the age of 33. From everything I’ve read, it sounds like he was one of the good guys in the game. He will be missed.

It was a day of odd connections. Kile grew up in the next town over from the late Mike Darr, whose father actually coached Kile at one point in youth baseball. Saturday night, several Padre and Yankee players held a bowling tournament to raise money for Darr’s family. Phil Nevin, organizer of the event, ended up taking Kile’s wife, who was moving their family into a new home here, to the airport to return to the Midwest. And during the day, Jake Peavy had made his big-league debut for the Padres, which called to mind former Padre prospect Gerik Baxter, killed last year.

I don’t mean to bring everyone down, but it’s weird how baseball and life can become so intertwined. The death of someone like Kile affects a lot of people, even those of us who never knew the man. And, on a more selfish level, it reminds me of my own mortality. Kile was born six months before me. He was in better shape than I could ever hope to be. There is no explanation for his death. That is frightening. And very, very sad.

Moving back to on-field action, I got my first look at Mark Phillips this year on Friday night. There weren’t any guns in front of me but he appeared to have good life on his fastball, and his curve was working. In six innings, only two balls were hit hard. One of them left the yard, the other was caught. Beyond that, he allowed three scratch singles and a walk to home run leader Corey Hart in his final inning of work. Phillips located his pitches well, and generally made hitters look bad all night. If he’s not ready for Double-A now, I don’t know when he will be.

Jake Gautreau continues to impress. He hammered a two-run homer to right-center off a lefty.

As you probably know by now, the Padres have recalled Jeremy Fikac, Eric Cyr, and the aforementioned Peavy from Mobile. They’ve placed Bobby Jones on the DL with a tender elbow, optioned J.J. Trujillo to Mobile, and outrighted Trenidad Hubbard to Portland.

Peavy looked good in his big-league debut. More about that in the next few days. For now, I’ll just give you this nugget. On the experience of pitching before 60,021 people (largest crowd in the big leagues this season), Peavy said, "You take it in and say, ‘Wow,’ but I knew my job wasn’t to be awestruck. It was to go out and pitch, and that’s what I tried to do the best of my abilities."

Classic. Any questions about his makeup? The guy is 21 years old and has never pitched above Double-A. And for his first big-league start, he draws the biggest crowd of the year in all of baseball, against the Yankees. And all he’s talking about is the job at hand.

I’ve been trying to think of pitchers I’ve seen who are comparable to Peavy, and the guy who immediately jumps to mind is Adam Eaton. Very similar in terms of stuff, command, and poise. Of more established pitchers, Peavy reminds me of guys like Matt Morris and Javier Vazquez.

But again, more about Peavy later. For now, let’s talk about Oliver Perez, the 20-year-old who shut down the Yankees Friday night. I caught the replay of the game on TV after the Storm game. The biggest thing Perez had working for him, in front of 55,858 fans, was his composure. The guy simply didn’t get rattled, no matter the situation.

Perez mixed his pitches well and kept hitters off-balance. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he worked behind in the count all night and missed badly with several pitches. Not to discount Perez’ ability to work under pressure, but if I had to use one word to describe his outing, it would be "lucky." To wit:

• Top 2nd, 1st and 2nd, 0 out: Rondell White lines into a double play, no runs score.
• Top 4th, 1st and 3rd, 0 out: Perez falls behind Jorge Posada, 2-1, but induces a ground ball back to the box. Perez holds the runner at third and retires Posada.
• Top 4th, bases loaded, 1 out: After allowing a 1-out walk to load the bases, Perez serves up a fly ball to shallow left off the bat of White. Bernie Williams comes home from third to score what would be the Yankees’ only run.
• Top 5th, 1st and 2nd, 0 out: Perez falls behind Bernie Williams, 3-1, before getting him to ground into a double play.

Don’t get me wrong; Perez made good pitches when he had to. But guys like White, Posada, and Williams usually cash in the kinds of opportunities he gave them. In short, Perez can’t pitch the way he did Friday night and expect to succeed at this level.

I’ve already mentioned Perez’ poise, which is definitely a plus for him. He also moves very well around the mound and does a good job at the plate, both swinging away and laying down the bunt. He’s a good athlete. The one thing he doesn’t appear to do well yet is hold runners.

Okay, now for the real concern I have with Perez. He’s 20 years old. He’s won his first two big-league starts. He threw 107 pitches in his debut (5 innings) and 114 against the Yankees. Perez is listed at 6-3, 160 lbs. He’s a kid. I worry about how much mileage will be put on his arm if he sticks with the big club for an extended period of time.

Perez is a very promising young pitcher, but (a) based on what I’ve seen, I don’t believe he’s quite ready for the Show and (b) it is going to be more of a challenge to monitor his pitch counts in San Diego, where the goal is to win games, than it would be in Mobile, where the focus is on player development. I hate to say this, because I always want to see these kids do well, but a part of me hopes he gets pounded in his next couple of outings so he can go back to Mobile and work on his command. I’d hate to see him follow the career path of someone like Steve Avery.

That’s all for now. More on Peavy in the next few days.

Thanks in part to the pitching of 20-year-old Oliver Perez and the hitting of backstop Wiki Gonzalez, the Pads managed to take two of the three games against Seattle. Perez picked up his first big-league victory and in so doing became the youngest ever to win a game for the Padres.

Perez looked good early, fanning Ichiro Suzuki and Jeff Cirillo to begin the game and his career, and took a 1-0 lead into the top of the fourth. There, after a one-out walk to Mike Cameron, he served up a homer to left off the bat of Dan Wilson on a 1-1 fastball out over the plate. It was one of only two balls that were hit hard off Perez in five innings of work (the other being a drive to the wall in left courtesy of Ruben Sierra that Ron Gant leaped into the wall to snag back in the second).

Perez’ fastball generally sat in the 90-92 range, topping out at 94 MPH. He also mixed in a sharp-breaking slider and the occasional changeup. Perez dropped down from the side a couple times against Ichiro and John Olerud, and also threw in a little hesitation move on one occasion.

As might be expected, Perez’ biggest obstacle was himself. He walked four and, after a terrific start, found himself working from behind in the count much of the afternoon. Perez threw 107 pitches during his stint, only 62 for strikes.

Still, Perez did show poise, which was supposed to be one of his strengths. After serving up the homer to Wilson, he settled down and finished strong. His only other trouble spot came in the second, when he walked Olerud and Cameron after Sierra hit his deep drive to left on an 0-2 pitch. But pitching coach Greg Booker came to the mound, and Perez proceeded to strike out Wilson and Desi Relaford to end the inning.

Overall, it was an impressive debut for the baby-faced rookie but he will need to be much more efficient with his pitches than he was today to survive at this level. Here are some numbers from the game:

Time
thru
lineup  AB  H 2B 3B HR BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG
-------------------------------------------
1st      7  0  0  0  0  2  5  000  222  000
2nd      7  3  0  0  1  2  1  429  556  857
3rd      5  1  0  0  0  0  1  200  200  200

tot     19  4  0  0  1  4  7  211  348  368

Back to baseball. Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on. As Ducksnorts undergoes changes, so do the Padres. I’ll briefly summarize recent activity. First, the Giants claimed southpaw Jason Pearson off waivers. Second, the Pads sent right-handers Jeremy Fikac and Dennis Tankersley to Mobile, and recalled lefty Oliver Perez and righty J.J. Trujillo from the same club (the latter was given a rather rude welcome to the Show by the Orioles’ Tony Batista last night). They also called up first baseman Kevin Barker from Portland.

Here’s what Perez has done this year:

Lake Elsinore
                                         Qmax
Date     Opp   IP  H  R ER BB SO HR PQS  S  C
04/04/02 @Stk 4.7  2  1  1  6  5  0   0  2  7
04/09/02 @Vis 5.0  4  1  1  1  8  0   4  3  3
04/14/02 SBr  4.7 10  6  6  2  3  0   0  7  4
04/20/02 @Bak 5.0  5  3  2  1  9  0   4  4  3
04/25/02 Lnc  6.3  3  0  0  1  8  0   5  2  3
05/01/02 @Lnc 5.0  3  0  0  4  5  0   3  2  5
05/06/02 Vis  6.0  2  0  0  4 10  0   5  1  4
05/11/02 @RC  5.0  3  0  0  3  9  0   4  2  4
05/16/02 SJ   7.0  4  2  1  1  9  0   5  2  2

Mobile
                                         Qmax
Date     Opp   IP  H  R ER BB SO HR PQS  S  C
05/21/02 Bir  6.0  2  0  0  3  7  0   5  1  4
05/26/02 WTe  5.0  6  3  3  4  6  1   2  5  5
05/31/02 @Hvl 7.0  2  0  0  4 12  0   5  1  4
06/06/02 Hvl  5.0  1  0  0  5  9  0   3  1  6

One fan who wrote in compares Pearson to Brian Lawrence and is pretty upset by his loss. I’m not sure about that, but I am puzzled by the decision to put Pearson on waivers in the first place. I understand that the Padres have a numbers problem when it comes to pitchers, but the guy has pitched well in the minor leagues and probably deserved a better fate.

This gentleman also takes issue with Kevin Towers’ failure to re-sign right-hander Rodrigo Lopez this past winter. He makes a good point in that Lopez wouldn’t have cost much and could have been a good sell for the Hispanic community in San Diego. Lopez’ release looks terrible right now in light of what he’s doing for Baltimore (for whom he pitches against his former team today) and what Padre pitchers are (or aren’t) doing.

But to a certain extent, hindsight is 20-20. Sure, Lopez is pitching lights out but the chances are, if history is any guide, that he won’t be able to perform anywhere near this level for a sustained period of time. Although he pitched brilliantly in the Mexican Pacific League this past winter, he was still something of an injury risk (having missed most of 2001) and at age 26, his upside isn’t as high as a lot of the young kids coming up behind him. Stepping into Towers’ shoes for a moment, without making a judgment one way or the other, I can understand why the Padres chose not to sign him. The way KT has built this club, it’s geared toward the opening of the new park in 2004. So signing a guy like Lopez, who probably wouldn’t have been an integral part of that squad, wasn’t a real big priority for the Pads.

It’s interesting. Despite the (well-deserved) reputation the Padres have for picking up guys who slip under the radar, they’ve managed to let loose a few of their own who looked, to this observer, like decent players. Immediately I think of pitchers like Shane Dennis and Buddy Carlyle, both of whom were sent to Japan before age 25. I don’t know why some of these kids stick and some don’t; I really thought Carlyle was going to be what Brian Lawrence has become. I have no idea where he is right now, but he’s only 24 years old, and I still half-expect him to surface in North America at some point and pitch in the big-leagues again.

Anyway, in relation to Lopez, the Padres had a good number of pitchers who (a) were younger, (b) threw harder, and (c) weren’t coming off a season lost to injury. I have to believe that Towers looked at Lopez, looked at what he had in the lower minors, looked at the direction of his team, and decided that Lopez wasn’t going to be a part of the next contending Padre club. It’s tough to stomach now that Lopez is pitching great and the Padres are going nowhere, but I believe Towers was thinking long term with this move. It may come back to bite him in the rear, but I’m betting that when all is said and done, Lopez will settle into a lower level of performance, and kids like Dennis Tankersley, Ben Howard, Jake Peavy, Perez, Mark Phillips, and Justin Germano will become integral parts of the Padre future. Well, not all of them, because you never know with pitchers. But chances are, at least one or two of them will be contributing.

I guess the bottom line with Lopez (and, to come full circle, with Pearson) is that the risk of signing him was greater than the potential long-term reward. It’s easy to look at his performance so far in 2002 and say the Padres should have signed him this winter. Maybe they should have signed him. But if so, it’s not because he’s pitching well right now, but rather because there was some indication that he might be capable of this kind of performance into the future. And I’m not sure that his terrific season in Mexico, in and of itself, qualifies as sufficient evidence.

Then again, it’s possible that Towers blew it with this one. I don’t think so, because he’s proven me wrong with pitchers many times before, but I think we’ll need to check back in a year or two before we make a final, definitive judgment.

Okay, that’s enough for now. My correspondent also raised some other, more global concerns having to do with player development philosophy which strike me as worthy of discussion and which I’d like to address in the coming days. But for now, I’ll leave you with a few little tidbits.

USD’s Ricky Barrett has signed with the Twins. Minnesota’s seventh-round pick has been assigned to Elizabethton in the Appalachian League.

Mark Kreidler gives his take on the Clemens-Bonds thing (ESPN.com). Actually, he uses this incident as a reason for eliminating the DH. And I think he has a good point.

Finally, there’s a fascinating piece on OPS by Length of Plate Appearance by Baseball Prospectus’ Keith Woolner.

That’s all for now…