Pujols vs Oswalt

by Geoff Young on Sep 10, 2001 (0) Comments

Busy weekend. Spent most of Saturday reorganizing my study and trying to get my Linux machine to do something more useful than let me play mah-johngg. No luck. The computer still thinks the mouse and the modem are one in the same. Not good.

Off to Elsinore that night for the first playoff game between the Storm and the High Desert Mavericks. Band practice Sunday in Escondido. Back to San Diego to pick up Sandra, then back up to Elsinore for Game 2. I’ll have full reports on both games within the next few days.

Meantime, the answer to Friday’s edition of “Who Am I?” is (A) Mark McGwire; (B) Russell Branyan.

Now for another comparison. This one’s a little dicier, as it involves a hitter and a pitcher.

  AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG
Player A 518 96 172 40 3 34 111 59 78 .332 .405 .618
  IP H R ER HR BB SO W-L ERA
Player B 136.2 114 43 38 12 23 140 14-2 2.50

Okay, the first guy is everybody’s pick for NL ROY, Albert Pujols. The guy came out of Low-A ball and has annihilated big-league pitching while playing four positions for a playoff contender. It’s exceedingly difficult to argue a case against him.

But check out Player B. Yes, it’s only 136.2 innings, but those are Pedro-like numbers. I’ll kill the suspense right now. Player B is Houston’s Roy Oswalt. Like Pujols, he is also in the middle of a pennant chase. He also pitches his home games in Enron field, which is second only to Coors Field in terms of aiding hitters.

Here’s his record at Enron:

IP H R ER HR BB SO W-L ERA
83.2 62 24 20 7 14 90 8-1 2.15

Here are his numbers over his past eight starts, in the months when rookies are supposed to wilt under pressure:

IP H R ER HR BB SO W-L ERA
61.1 43 11 10 4 6 66 6-0 1.47

Those are just downright goofy. I don’t get pitching like that on my PlayStation 2.

Anyway, the point isn’t to belittle Albert Pujols or say that he doesn’t deserve to be ROY. Those numbers, and the context in which he’s produced them, are too monstrous to ignore.

But — and this is the point — it’s larger than it was. Oops, sorry. Been watching too much Monty Python lately. Seriously, the point is that Oswalt has been one of the most dominant pitchers in all of baseball since he joined the Astros in May. And he’s been almost untouchable since July 28. He may not win the ROY, and in the end, he probably doesn’t quite merit the honor. But he’s a heckuva lot closer to Pujols than you might’ve realized.

Haiku Birdie

by Geoff Young on Sep 07, 2001 (0) Comments

Not baseball related, but here’s an interesting article on one of the great San Diego anti-heroes, former Charger “quarterback” Ryan Leaf. Karma is a beautiful thing.

Speaking of San Diego anti-heroes, the Expos released Hideki Irabu because he showed up drunk to a “rehab” start. My favorite anagram for Hideki Irabu: Haiku Birdie.

And about those Expos. They play host to the top two teams in their own division and can’t even draw 11,000 over three consecutive games? When I was in Sacramento a few weeks ago, the River Cats pulled in more than 12,000 on a weeknight. Someone remind me, why does Montreal have a big-league ballclub? Guys like Vlad Guerrero, Jose Vidro, Javier Vazquez, and Tony Armas deserve better than 3,000 folks blowing horns every night.

Padres received hard-throwing RHP Winston Abreu from the Braves as the PTBNL in the Rudy Seanez deal. Nice pickup. Kinda like getting Tom Davey from the Mariners for Al Martin. He’s young, he throws hard. What’s not to like?

Here’s one for you:

  AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO BA OBP SLG K/AB
Player A 244 46 4 0 23 41 95 .189 .305 .488 .389
Player B 279 62 15 2 15 33 116 .222 .306 .452 .416

Answer tomorrow.

Three Links

by Geoff Young on Sep 05, 2001 (0) Comments

Not much time today. Here are few links to hopefully keep you entertained and informed:

Enjoy!

Bud Smith No-Hits Padres

by Geoff Young on Sep 04, 2001 (0) Comments

No, I wasn’t at the game last night, but I did watch it on television. Sigh. I keep telling myself I probably got a better view of Bud Smith’s no-no, but it hurts.

At any rate, it was a dominant performance, much moreso than A.J. Burnett’s against the Pads earlier in the year. Only three or four balls were hit hard all night, with Bubba Trammell’s drive to the warning track in left posing the most serious threat. Smith was in command from the get-go, working his 86-88 mph fastball, slow curve, and change-up to both sides of the plate for strikes.

Smith, just 21, threw 134 pitches, which is a lot for anyone, let alone a kid that age. The Cardinals brass clearly were aware of this, as manager Tony LaRussa and pitching coach Dave Duncan had guys up in the bullpen from the sixth inning. Duncan later admitted that he was actually hoping someone would break up the no-no so he could get Smith out of there. It will be interesting to see what the “pitch-count police” have to say about Smith’s pitch count. Baseball Prospectus’ Joe Sheehan has taken what I find to be a good middle ground, acknowledging both the high pitch count and the unique situation a no-hitter presents. I’m with Sheehan in that the Cards should be very careful with their young southpaw the next start or two, perhaps skipping his turn or at least limiting to, say, 80 pitches. Fortunately, LaRussa and Duncan appear to be aware of the situtation, and I’m cautiously optimistic that they’ll do the right thing.

On a completely different note, San Diego first-rounder Jake Gautreau has been promoted to Triple-A Portland to replace the injured Sean Burroughs. Gautreau, who had been hitting .304/.382/.509 in the Northwest League, went 2-for-4 with a homer in his PCL debut.

Padres Outlast Diamondbacks

by Geoff Young on Sep 03, 2001 (0) Comments

Thanks to the three-day weekend, I’ve actually had some time to work on the site redesign. The template is looking pretty much the way I want but I’ve still got a ways to go in terms of converting all the documents. It’s my own damn fault, of course, because I insist on doing everything by hand. At any rate, if you’re interested, there’s a sneak peak over at http://www.geoffreynyoung.com/preview; it’s been tested with Internet Explorer 5.x but not Netscape. Don’t bother with the links; they don’t work: this is for display purposes only, as they say. If you do happen to notice anything “funky” please let me know at redesign@geoffreynyoung.com.

Okay, on to baseball. Did somebody report an offensive explosion? Seems they forgot to tell the Padres and Diamondbacks yesterday at the Q. Arizona set a record for runners left on base in a shutout loss, with 19. Pads emerged victorious as Ryan Klesko led off the bottom of the 13th with a rocket into the right-field bleachers off Byung-Hyun Kim, the victim of Ray Lankford’s game-winning grand slam a night earlier. This after the D-Backs left the bases loaded in the top of the 11th and 12th innings. Wouldn’t want to be sitting next to Bob Brenly on the flight up to San Francisco.

The Padres came into the game against Randy Johnson with a plan: make him throw as many pitches as possible and get him out of the contest. Did it work? Yes and no. On the one hand, Johnson had thrown 71 pitches through three innings; on the other, he’d struck out eight and nobody had come close to hitting him. Rickey Henderson had a couple masterful at-bats, working a 10-pitch walk to lead off the game and a 9-pitch walk after falling behind 0-2 in the third. He promptly stole second both times.

But, thanks to his usual dominating stuff and Ed Rapuano’s wide strike zone, Johnson held the Padres hitless until Phil Nevin drove a hard grounder to the left of Tony Womack with two outs in the sixth. Bubba Trammell proceeded to strike out to end the inning but by this time Johnson had thrown 114 pitches.

On the other side, rookie Brian Lawrence was matching the Big Unit, if not in strikeouts, then in the only currency that really matters: runs allowed. Though certainly not as overpowering as Johnson, Lawrence was equally effective, keeping Arizona hitters off-balance by changing speeds and locating his high-80s fastball, slider, and changeup. He worked eight scoreless innings, allowing six hits and four walks (two intentional, the other two to a guy sitting on 51 homers), while fanning six.

In the bottom of the eighth, after a one-out single to right by pinch-hitter Mike Colangelo, the Big Unit was pulled from the game. His line: 7.1, 2, 0, 0, 3, 14. The killer, though, was this: 133 pitches. The Padres had succeeded in getting Randy Johnson out of the game while it was still close. (Rick Sutcliffe, Padre color commentator and personal physician to Kerry Wood, expressed surprise at Johnson’s being pulled in those circumstances. C’mon; I know he’s Randy Johnson and all, but 133 pitches? It was a no-brainer.)

While the Pads couldn’t muster up much offense against a string of Arizona relievers, the San Diego bullpen proved just as stingy, if more nerve-wracking. Trevor Hoffman and Jeremy Fikac were outstanding, as usual (Fikac has yet to allow a run in 11 big-league innings), while Chuck McElroy and Wascar Serrano were, um, lucky: their combined line for the night was 2, 0, 0, 0, 6, 1. Yep, six walks in two innings. No runs. Between them they threw 46 pitches, 16 for strikes. And thanks to Klesko, Serrano actually got credit for the win.

The game lasted 4 hours and 17 minutes, but it was riveting all the way to the end. It’s probably one of the best games, in terms of intensity and excitement, I’ve ever seen. Of course, it helps that the Padres won, but either way, that was one heckuva game in what is turning into a pretty intense rivalry. And don’t look now, but the Pads are a game over .500, 9 back of the D-Backs in the NL West and 7 1/2 behind the Cubs in the wild-card race. With only 25 games remaining and 5 teams ahead of them, the chances of garnering a playoff spot are remote, at best. But it’s hard not to appreciate the effort this club is giving day in, day out, when few gave them a chance to even compete entering the season.

And, yet, there they are, four games ahead of the New York Mets, a 2000 playoff participant; and nine ahead of the Colorado Rockies, which spent millions to overhaul their rotation and were, according to more than one person who earns a living prognosticating such things, the preseason favorites to win the division. The Padres may not be the most expensive team around, they may not be the media darlings that some other teams are, but they come to play and are a blast to watch.

With the new stadium and the steady influx of good, young talent, there’s a lot to look forward to here in San Diego. But with the product they’re putting on the field right now, there’s a lot to enjoy in the present. Go get ‘em, boys…

Padres Split Doubleheader and a Look Around the Minors

by Geoff Young on Sep 01, 2001 (0) Comments

Brett Jodie looked pretty good in his Padres debut. Working from a funky, straight-over-the-top delivery, he spotted fastballs in the 86-89 mph range and a couple of breaking pitches. He only allowed two hits in his five innings of work; unfortunately, they were solo homers to Danny Bautista and Luis Gonzalez, and his opposition on the mound was Curt Schilling. Pads lost their third straight, 4-1.

Sweet victory in the second game, Trevor striking out the side in the 9th to seal the deal. That 87-89 mph fastball must look like 100 after one of his change-ups. Unbelievable command. I know I’ve said it before, but Hoffman is such a pleasure to watch.

LHP Mark Phillips suffered his first defeat at Lake Elsinore, allowing four runs in 6 2/3 innings. On the decidedly positive side, he struck out eight and walked none. Speaking of the Storm, congratulations to Xavier Nady on being named Cal League MVP and Rookie of the Year. He and former teammate Dennis Tankersley were named to the 2001 All-Star team.

A couple news items of interest:

Finally, here are some 2001 draftees whose numbers in the Pioneer League (a good hitters’ league) caught my eye; I’ll be watching these guys next year:

  • Tony Arthur, LHP, Ana, 13th round, Arkansas St.
  • Josh Barfield, 2B, SD, 4th round, Klein (Spring, TX) HS
  • Jason Dennis, LHP, Ana, 14th round, U. of California
  • Scott Hairston, 2B, Ari, 3rd round, Central Arizona JC
  • Aaron McEachren, 1B, Tor, 18th round, U. of Northern Iowa
  • Jayson Nix, SS, Col, 1st round, Midland (TX) HS
  • Sean Pierce, OF, LA, 9th round, San Diego St.
  • Justin Wechsler, RHP, Ari, 4th round, Ball State U.

Barfield, as frequent visitors to this site know, is Jesse’s son. Hairston is the younger brother of Orioles second baseman Jerry Hairston, Jr. John Manuel at Baseball America says Scott’s glove isn’t as good as Jerry’s but that the younger Hairston has higher upside. Also, I should mention Jesus Cota, Pioneer League MVP. The left-handed hitting first baseman hit .363/.471/.625 in 267 at-bats, drawing 54 walks against 51 strikeouts. Cota, taken in the 14th round of the 2000 draft out of Pima (AZ) CC, signed late and didn’t start his pro career until this season. I don’t know much about him, but he’s just 19, he controls the strike zone, and he hits for power. Sounds like a recipe for success to me. Definitely keep an eye on this guy.

Ryan Klesko, San Diego Area Prospects, and Ben Davis’ Slide

by Geoff Young on Aug 31, 2001 (0) Comments

RHP Brett Jodie, acquired from the Yankees in the Sterling Hitchcock deal, makes his Pads’ debut tonight against Arizona. Jodie has pitched fairly well at Portland since coming over, posting a 4.75 ERA in 30.1 IP, with 8 BB and 19 SO. He fits in well with Kevin Towers’ philosophy of grabbing guys who throw strikes. Still, it’s tough to figure what the Padres are going to do with so many finesse right-handers.

The past two nights, we’ve seen what happens when guys who rely on command don’t have it. Twenty-nine runs allowed in two games? Brutal. On a positive note, Ryan Klesko is scorching the ball. He’s keeping that front shoulder closed against lefties and driving the ball all over tha place. You heard it here first: assuming there is a 2002 season, Klesko hits 40 bombs next year. Ten of them will come against southpaws.

In other news, some local kids have put themselves on the prospect map in collegiate summer leagues. USD second baseman Mike McCoy was named to the Cape Cod League All-Star team; USD righthander Ryan Richard was named the #7 prospect in the Central Illinois Collegiate League; and SDSU shortstop Taber Lee, brother of Phils’ first baseman Travis Lee, was named the top prospect in the New England Collegiate League.

While I’m giving props to San Diego products, congrats to former USD catcher/third baseman Greg Sain on being named to the Northwest League All-Star team as its DH. Eugene shortstop Jason Bartlett, drafted by the Pads in the 13th round, also made the team.

Just looking over some old articles; ran across a fairly self-congratulatory piece on Ben Davis. Although he’s still outhitting his preseason projections, he has slowed considerably since mid-June.

Coincidentally, Davis had played 57 games when I wrote the article, and he’s played another 57 since. Here’s the breakdown:

  G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG
thru 6/13/01 57 185 27 53 10 0 6 30 31 40 .286 .389 .438
6/14/01 since 57 187 24 39 7 0 3 23 31 49 .209 .321 .294
total 114 372 51 92 17 0 9 53 62 89 .247 .356 .366

No way to put a positive spin on what Davis has done since mid-June. I guess the good news is that he’s maintained his solid walk rate. The bad news is pretty much everything else. A .294 slugging percentage is miserable. Still, for the season, he’s exceeded most expectations of him. Let’s just hope this, and not the first 57 games of the season, is one of those fluky stretches and he can finish strong.

Road Trip, Days Five and Six: The Home Stretch

by Geoff Young on Aug 29, 2001 (0) Comments

After leaving Ashland Monday morning, we headed back through the rice paddies and corn fields, through the almond, olive, and pistachio groves, through the cattle and goats, toward Fresno.

We took an unintentional excursion through the streets of North Sacramento before finding the correct I-80 (memo to city planners; don’t build two freeways with the same number — very disorienting) and working our way south on SR-99.

Once in Fresno, we found our hotel and relaxed by the pool for a few minutes before I had to find my way to the ballpark. Thankfully my friend Bob gave flawless directions and I actually arrived a bit early. Bob showed up shortly thereafter and we headed into the stadium.

The Grizzlies currently share Beiden Field with the Fresno State Bulldogs, and so the facility is not quite what you’d expect from a Triple-A club. It’s not bad, mind you, it’s just that it very much felt like watching a college game with wood bats. Next season the Grizzlies will be moving to a new park downtown, which looks like it should be a good place to catch a game.

The home team beat the visiting Edmonton Trappers, and the game featured a mix of prospects (Kurt Ainsworth, Bobby Kielty, Matt LeCroy, Tony Torcato), minor-league veterans (Jalal Leach, Dante Powell), and one guy (Fresno native Mark Gardner) on rehab assignment. Gardner started the game and worked two innings, before turning things over to Ainsworth, whose turn in the rotation Gardner had assumed. Ainsworth ran his fastball about 92-93 MPH and showed a decent breaking ball. His command was good but not great. Torcato has a nice line-drive stroke and looked pretty comfortable in left field, which appears to be his new home. LeCroy is a big kid with a surprisingly short stroke. He drew a walk and lined a single to right-center in four at-bats, and did nothing to embarrass himself behind the plate.

After the game I headed back to the hotel and noticed that the temperature at 10 PM had dropped to a “refreshing” 83 degrees, down from a high of 104. This was our last night on the road, and while we enjoyed our trip tremendously, we were both looking forward to returning home.

I’ll spare the details of that final drive. Not much to say about going over Tejon Pass and through LA except that it needs to be done. We picked up the dogs and came home, which is where I am as I type this. Clean, rested, and in desperate need of dim sum.

Road Trip, Day Four: Behind the Scenes

by Geoff Young on Aug 27, 2001 (0) Comments

We didn’t win Powerball, so I guess we’ll have to go back to work when we get home. Meantime, we went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the theaters in town. Learned a little about costume and set design, lighting techniques, and other various aspects of putting on a play. Tough gig performing and producing theater. Those folks bust their tails off for the love of the theater and very little money. Kinda like minor-league ballplayers.

Tooled around town after the tour, then caught a musical about actors and the theater called Enter the Guardsman in the evening. I’m not real crazy about musicals — mostly it’s the songs I don’t care for; this one was a light, post-modern comedy that had its moments and which I probably would have really liked had I more affection for the genre. The performances were excellent, though, and enough to hold my interest for most of the evening.

Today it’s off to Fresno for a Grizzlies game. But, first, more pix:

Road Trip, Day Three: The Merchant of Venice

by Geoff Young on Aug 26, 2001 (0) Comments

We began yesterday with a light breakfast, then walked into town to check out the bookstores and various other shops. Sandra ended up buying some comic books, while I picked up a hard-cover copy of Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare. At one of the used bookstores, I stumbled onto something written back in the early 1980s called Baseball’s Top 100 Players or some such, written by a guy named Maury Allen. I’d never heard of this book, nor of the author, so I thought I’d take a look. Well, I quickly put it back on the shelf, without ever reading past the table of contents. Babe Ruth was listed at #3, behind Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. Rod Carew made the top 25; Steve Garvey made the top 50. Nice try, but no thanks.

Wandered around some more, stopping for brunch at a place called Geppetto’s. If you’re ever there, I highly recommend that whatever you order, be sure to get their fresh-cut fries along with it. Great stuff.

After more window-shopping and an unintentional nap, we met up with my mom and stepdad and ate dinner at Greanleaf Restaurant, which would have had a good view of Ashland Creek had said creek not been so low. If we listened very carefully, we could hear a faint trickling noise.

Down the road a bit, an outdoor music and dance show followed dinner, complete with such unusual renaissance instruments as the oud and the hurdy-gurdy. Very cool percussion work, too. The show lasted about 40 minutes, after which we entered the Elizabethan Theatre, a stage under the stars, to watch the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production of The Merchant of Venice.

The play lasted almost three hours, including one intermission, but you’d never know it. I don’t get out to the theater too often, so I don’t have much point of reference, but the show these folks put on was highly entertaining and very true to the text. It’s remarkable to me how this group of people, both on stage and behind the scenes (along with the able assistance of Shakespeare, of course), could transport us all to a completely different world for so long without us barely even noticing.

That’s the magic of theater, I suppose. Which, in a curious way, isn’t unlike the magic of baseball. Both take you someplace else for a little while. And both bring you back a little better for the experience…