Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

The year was 1984, and I was a freshman in high school. A guy in one of my classes had bought a book called Rotisserie Baseball and was trying to get some people together to play. So he recruited a bunch of avid baseball fans, and after buying and reading the book, we all got together in an apartment complex rec room right around Opening Day and started the auction.

Information back then was a little different from the way it is today. Bill James’ Baseball Abstract was just gathering steam but there were no player projections to speak of, as there was no real market for that sort of thing. Prospects were mostly a matter of guesswork. If Baseball America was around, none of us knew about it. The minor-league scouting process consisted of scouring the old Green and Red books (I don’t even remember what they were really called), and maybe Mazeroski, looking for guys who had good stats. By good stats I mean hit for a good batting average and/or stole a lot of bases. Age was not a consideration. To give you an idea, we each drafted four rookies that year. Mine were Steve Farr, RHP, Cle; Joel Skinner, C, ChA; Steve Lubratich, INF, Ana; and Dwight Taylor, OF, KC. Farr ended up having a decent career, the others didn’t do much.

During the season, there was no Baseball Weekly; there was only The Sporting News and an upstart newspaper called USA Today. There was no Baseball Tonight on ESPN, and no World Wide Web. There was little talk of things like command of the strike zone for hitters or pitch counts. The point is, we were operating in a much less sophisticated era of baseball fandom. For the younger among you, this might sound like one of Dante’s planes of hell, but believe me, the game was still great. And Rotisserie Baseball, true to its claim, was the best thing to happen to the game since the game itself. At least it was as far as we were concerned.

We played an AL-only league and drafted 23 big-league players for a total of $2.60 (we were, after all, only high school kids). [The franchise fee was more than $2.60 but we can't recall the exact amount; gettin' old we are. --Ed.] I don’t remember my entire team, but I do recall having Lance Parrish (35 cents), Toby Harrah, Alan Trammell, Kirk Gibson, LaMarr Hoyt, Milt Wilcox, Jim Beattie, Rollie Fingers, and the inimitable Ken Schrom play significant roles, with Otis Nixon and Ray Searage also fitting into the mix. I believe that was the year I also released Joe Carter to pick up Brian Dayett (which sounds bad until you realize that a year later, in an NL league, I chose Chris James in the minor-league draft over some kid named Bonds).

I finished in the money my first season, either third or fourth out of either 10 or 12 teams–my memory has dulled somewhat since then. But I was hooked. And I played Roto for several years before giving it up about a decade ago for more sophisticated fantasy and simulation games (my longstanding addiction of course being to Scoresheet). Playing these games has enhanced my enjoyment of a sport I had already come to love. And it has brought me into contact with some very cool people over the years. For one thing, I met the best man at my wedding in that league back in 1984. Dan and I are still battling each other in fantasy baseball nearly 20 years later. (And, he is quick to remind me, he won that initial season, with the likes of Dave Righetti, Bob Stanley, and the late Dan Quisenberry in the bullpen; with Charlie Liebrandt and Steve Balboni playing key roles as free agent pickups; and despite getting only 46 at-bats from Paul Molitor, who seemed to have been a bargain at 4 cents.)

What a long, strange trip it’s been. And it’s fun to look back on those early days of Roto ball, when we genuinely believed that Vince Coleman was a star because he so utterly dominated one relatively insignificant aspect of the game. And it’s amazing to see how far baseball analysis has come since then, in large part thanks to the minds of guys like Bill James and Pete Palmer, among others, but also because of the need for deeper information by Roto junkies such as myself. I like to do a little research every now and then, but it’s never as sophisticated or far-reaching as stuff being done by the pros over at Baseball Primer or Baseball Prospectus or on any of the various newsgroups. But I like to think that my hunger for better information has helped to fuel such research over the years and helped to make us all better fans of a truly remarkable game.

Got my first look at the 2002 Padres yesterday. A few impressions:

• After five innings of broadcasting, newcomer Matt Vasgersian has injected more life into the game than Mel Proctor did in five years. Not everyone is going to like this guy; he’s definitely not old school. Talks a lot (but has interesting things to say), and showed a good rapport with both Mark Grant and Rick Sutcliffe yesterday. Only major gaffe was when he made a reference to Barry Bonds and "the San Diego clubhouse." But hey, it’s spring training. Overall, I was very impressed.
• Phil Nevin looks comfortable at first base. He did pull his foot off the bag early once on what would’ve been a double play but otherwise, he showed good footwork and positioning. He also yanked an outside offering from Kirk Reuter over the left-field fence. Nice to see Nevin flashing the power but that’s a pitch he usually drives to right-center. Then again, Reuter isn’t exactly a flamethrower.
• Damian Jackson is taking more pitches (although green-lighting him 3-and-0 still seems bizarre to me).
• Sean Burroughs is ready. Reuter gave him trouble but the kid came back and knocked hits off Jay Witasick and another reliever. Very quiet at the plate and in the field. Soft hands, good footwork, strong arm. Reminds me a bit of Scott Rolen on defense. No disrespect to Nevin, but the Padres moved the right guy.
• Deivi Cruz showed surprisingly good range, especially to his right. I wasn’t really expecting much from him, but I think he’s an upgrade over Alex Arias in the utility infielder role.
• The more I see Brian Lawrence pitch, the more I like him. He was in midseason form yesterday. He’s never going to overpower batters, but he’s also not going to give them anything good to hit. He also does the little things like execute the sacrifice bunt, get over to first quickly to cover on grounders to the right side. He reminds me a lot of Rick Reuschel, or a right-handed John Tudor. Real fun to watch. Threw 57 pitches yesterday, 43 of them strikes.
• Jason Middlebrook was dealing. He also showed an improved breaking pitch, although as was the case in his brief trial last season, he got a little cute at times. Middlebrook has power stuff but he sometimes tries to pitch like a finesse guy.
• Jake Peavy got lit, allowing all five San Francisco runs in the ninth. I couldn’t bring myself to watch this, but I understand the defense let him down, with Cesar Crespo botching a double play ball and Pete Incaviglia failing to get to a couple of bloopers. Still, it wasn’t all bad. Peavy reportedly hit 96 MPH on the gun, although his comfort zone is in the 91-94 range. There’s no hurry with him.
• Rick Sutcliffe made an interesting comment about Xavier Nady. He said that of players he’s seen, Nady’s batting practices are second only to Mark McGwire’s in terms of power display. Of course, the same might’ve been said of Ruben Rivera a couple years ago, so take that for whatever it’s worth. Still, Sutcliffe has been around a lot of good ballplayers in his time, so it’s something to bear in mind.