Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

Well, I had a rather lengthy entry prepared for today but evidently I forgot to upload it last night. So it’ll have to wait until tomorrow, assuming I didn’t do something really stupid like delete it.

Meantime, check out Baseball America giving USD some props. The Toreros are the preseason favorite to win the WCC and are seen as a possible tourney team. Second baseman Mike McCoy (Jr.), outfielder Joey Prast (So.), outfielder/closer Tom Caple (Jr.), and left-hander Ricky Barrett all made the preseason All-Conference team, with Caple being named Player of the Year and Barrett Pitcher of the Year. Barrett is also cited as the best prospect in the conference, with Caple checking in at #9.

The Toreros swept UC Irvine this past weekend and head up to San Luis Obispo this coming weekend before making their home debut Friday, Feb. 8, against Oregon State. Should be fun.

Shifting gears, here is an example (U-T) of the kinds of tactics opponents to the downtown ballpark are using in an effort to keep the project from progressing. Regardless of one’s stance on whether stadia should be publicly funded, I find it difficult to imagine anyone supporting this sort of maneuver. These people are complaining that taxpayer dollars are being wasted? Pot, meet kettle.

Padres signed veteran outfielder Ron Gant to a minor-league contract yesterday. This all but kills the Bubba Trammell to the Mets deal, which was pretty much dead anyway. Kevin Towers is still interested in Bruce Chen but it doesn’t sound like there’s a whole lot more to it than that right now. In light of Jeremy Fikac’s recent injury, the Pads are also close to signing right-handed reliever Steve Reed. That’d be a great pickup as far as I’m concerned. Reed is consistent, he’s durable, and he absolutely destroys right-handed hitters (.149/.192/.220 in 168 at-bats last year; the bad news is, lefties hit him to the tune of .519/.629/.904 in 52 at-bats).

Baseball Mogul 2002 just showed up this afternoon. I’m about to install it and probably be lost to the world for the next several days while I try to build a baseball empire. Haven’t played it in a few years. The last version I played was very, very cool. I’ll let you all know how this one is. Eventually.

The final installment of the Padres Top 30 Prospects has been posted. If it isn’t too gauche to comment on one’s own commentary, I’d like to make a few observations.

• Despite the presence of some outstanding young talent, Sean Burroughs was an absolute no-brainer for #1. There are a lot of people who don’t believe he’ll hit for much power in the bigs but I’m not one of them. When I say that he “projects eventually to hit 25+ homers a year” I’m actually being conservative. I really believe this kid is going to be a Chipper Jones type offensive force in a few years.
• I’ve spent much of the winter obssessing over who is the better prospect between Jake Peavy and Dennis Tankersley. While I do believe Tankersley has very good upside, I went with Peavy because he’s 2 years younger and has better pedigree. He’s been slowly but steadily climbing the ranks, whereas Tankersley just burst onto the scene after almost rotting in the Boston system for a few years. I’m not discounting him at all as a prospect; these guys are both studs. But for me, the age difference and the pedigree are enough to push Peavy slightly ahead of Tank.
• Mark Phillips is scary good. There is now some talk that he’ll begin 2002 with Peavy at Double-A Mobile. If he succeeds there, he could follow in the footsteps of high-profile high school lefties Rick Ankiel and C.C. Sabathia, and compete for a spot in the big-league rotation as early as spring 2003. Phillips probably has the highest upside of any pitcher in the organization, and I fully expect him, Peavy, Ben Johnson, and Jake Gautreau to be battling it out for #1 prospect next year. My money is on Phillips or Peavy.
• Ben Johnson has generated a lot of different opinions this off-season. Some see him as a potential All-Star, others as a fourth outfielder. I’m somewhere in between, leaning slightly toward the former. My comparison to Andruw Jones was partially from a statistical standpoint and partially from a physical standpoint. At the plate, he really reminds me a lot of Andruw. Forget the defense, though. I guess some people are down on Johnson because he’s got a relatively high flameout factor. He really, really needs to tighten up his strike zone to make it happen. But still, any 19-year-old who logs an 800 OPS in High-A ball deserves attention. He probably gets my vote as most intriguing prospect in the system.
• Watch out for Ben Howard. He’s got the best fastball of any starter in the organization. He’ll likely be back at Mobile to start 2002, which means he’ll continue working with Darren Balsley, the pitching coach at Lake Elsinore last year. Balsley is credited with much of the Storm staff’s success in 2001 and is the first coach who has been able to get Howard to throw strikes with any kind of consistency. Howard’s upside isn’t quite as high as those of the Big Three but he’s not as far behind as you might think.
• I’m a shade uncomfortable with my ranking of Jason Middlebrook at #9 simply because of his age. When I started writing these reports, Brett Tomko hadn’t been acquired and Kevin Jarvis hadn’t re-signed. A lot of my ranking of Middlebrook had to do with his opportunity to pitch in the bigs right now. I still like him as a prospect but he is 27 years old and he needs to make his move now or risk being absolutely buried by younger kids with higher upsides. Middlebrook is actually the kind of guy Kevin Towers should be shopping around to a team with poor pitching depth. He could be very useful as a swingman right now and possibly as a mid-rotation starter in the near future. But probably not with the Pads.

So there you have it. Enjoy…

This off-season the Padres’ cable channel has been broadcasting abridged versions of individual games from the 2001 season every Tuesday night. We usually have them on in the background, as my wife and I both find the presence of a baseball game in our home comforting. Yes, I know I’m a very lucky man.

Last night’s game was played on August 11 in Pittsburgh, and pitted Joe Beimel versus Brian Lawrence. Among other things, Tony Gwynn hit his first homer of the season that night, a blast to dead center off the Bucs’ young southpaw. I also saw evidence of why the Padres don’t believe D’Angelo Jimenez is suited to shortstop. On a ball hit up the middle by Pat Meares, Jimenez made a terrific play going to his left but got absolutely nothing on the throw and sent it well wide of first base. It’s only one play, and I’m still not convinced he can’t handle shorstop, but he did just enough of that last year that I can at least understand Kevin Towers’ thinking.

The other cool thing was watching Lawrence pitch. Baseball Prospectus touted him as one of the top 40 prospects in the game prior to last season, and frankly, I thought they were nuts. But seeing him again last night reminded me of why he’s really grown on me. Everything he throws moves, and he knows how to pitch. Sure, his fastball comes in at about 85-86 MPH on a good day but he can’t throw it straight. Despite the obvious comps to Greg Maddux, I think they do both pitchers a disservice. Usually I like to downgrade finesse righties to more of a Rick Reed or Bob Tewksbury type of pitcher, both fine hurlers in their own right. But I can’t shake this nagging suspicion that Lawrence is going to be better than Reed or Tewksbury and end up more like, say, Rick Reuschel. He won’t be the #1 that Maddux has become but he could be a very good #3 starter for many years.

Shifting gears, here’s the latest on the labor situation (ESPN.com). Looks like Commissioner Squidward and his cronies are finally ready to show the world just what terrible shape MLB is in. Maybe…

Turns out ESPN had it wrong. Ryan Ludwick was part of the package going to Texas, not Erik Hiljus. This is a nice deal for both clubs, despite the claim by many analysts that Billy Beane ripped off his former scouting director. Hart, Ludwick, and Ramos are all legitimate prospects who could help as early as this season, and Laird isn’t a bad prospect himself, though he’s further away. I like what John Hart and Grady Fuson are doing down in Arlington.

Now, if you want a bad trade, how about Gary Sheffield for Brian Jordan, Odalis Perez, and Andy Brown. What, exactly, was the point of getting rid of Tommy Lasorda and Kevin Malone? I assumed it was so stuff like this wouldn’t continue to happen. I happen to like Perez as a potential #3 or #4 starter but he’s not there yet, and he’s not nearly enough to offset the drop from Sheffield to Jordan. Oh well, the way things are going in MLB these days, it probably turns out that Ruppert Murdoch owes Ted Turner some money…

Wow. Rangers and A’s swung a pretty big deal this morning. Oakland sends LHP Mario Ramos, RHP Erik Hiljus, 1B Jason Hart, and C Gerald Laird to Texas for 1B Carlos Pena and LHP Mike Venafro. Intriguing trade for both clubs. Ramos and Hiljus presumably will be competing for a spot in the Texas rotation, while Pena appears to be a good candidate to replace Jason Giambi in the Oakland lineup. I’m sure Jamey Newberg will have much to say on this.

In a move of slightly lower magnititude, the Padres signed RHP Matt DeWitt. Not exactly earth-moving but he should add depth to the Portland bullpen and could show up with the big club at some point during the summer.