Road Trip, Day Two: We Have Pictures!

by Geoff Young on Aug 25, 2001 (0) Comments

I started to write about the trip from Sacramento to Ashland but decided that would probably interest only me. So instead I’ll let you in on a little discovery I made about this here laptop. It has two USB ports. Yep, two of ‘em. I’ve owned this machine for about four years, and just today I found the USB ports.

While this is an embarrassing admission coming from someone who fancies himself a geek, it’s also very cool. Among other things it means I can post photos from Thursday night’s game. So, here they are:

More later…

Road Trip, Day One: The Mario Ramos Show

by Geoff Young on Aug 24, 2001 (0) Comments

Got a late start out of San Diego, about 9 AM. Dropped the dogs off at the boarding place and headed up I-5 toward Los Angeles. Made it through LA pretty much without incident before stopping for gas and lunch at Castaic. Cheeseburger and fries: the official food of road trips.

Despite a few pockets of traffic, courtesy of road work and a nasty accident, we made good time through the browns and occasional greens of central California, through the orange trees and cattle, and arrived in Sacramento just in time to meet my buddy Theron at the ballpark.

Raley Field opened May 15, 2000, and seats, well, I’m not sure, but there were over 12,000 last night. We sat in the lower deck, off the first-base side, just beneath an overhang and behind the Krispy Kreme donut stand. I took some pictures but unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, I won’t be able to post those till I return home.

The matchup featured an up-and-comer versus a former top prospect trying to make it back to the bigs. The River Cats of Sacramento sent LHP Mario Ramos to the mound; RHP Jason Grilli toed the rubber for Calgary. Ramos, whom I’d seen pitch in college, was in command early and got into a good rhythm, keeping hitters off balance by changing speeds and moving the ball around the plate.

Grilli was less sharp but pitched well, allowing only a monster two-run homer to left by Jason Hart, who later hit another, even more majestic blast to left. The guy has some serious power. Sacramento’s other runs came via a Mark Bellhorn grand slam to right-center. Third baseman Eric Hinske, swindled from the Chicago Cubs, also looked solid at the plate, if a bit rough in the field.

But none of this was the story. Ramos was the story. While I was working on a fully loaded polish sausage, garlic fries, a giant cup of Mr. Pibb, and conversation with Theron, the young southpaw was working a no-no through five. And that’s when we started paying attention. Ramos was mowing down the opposition, working with a lethal efficiency.

The no-hitter remained intact until two outs in the eighth, when Cannons’ catcher B.J. Waszgis knocked a clean single to the right of shortstop Mark Ellis. After receiving a standing ovation from the home crowd, Ramos proceeded to strike out the next batter to finish the inning. That turned out to be the last batter he faced, and he left with a 9-0 lead.

After an adventurous outing from RHP Jon Adkins, the River Cats held on to win, 9-2. No no-hitter, no shutout, but still a win for the home team and one heckuva performance from Ramos. We said goodbye to Theron and headed off to find our hotel so we could get some rest before making the drive up to Ashland the next day. Good baseball. Good company. What could possibly be better?

Mark Phillips, Lake Elsinore Storm Home/Road Splits

by Geoff Young on Aug 22, 2001 (0) Comments

Mark Phillips watch: Phillips went 6-4-1-1-2-7 last night at home against San Jose. It’s only three starts, but that .145 OppBA sure is nice. Actually, over 68.1 IP across three levels this season, opponents are batting just .178 against Phillips.

I gave some bad numbers last week for Storm home/road pitching splits. For some reason I calculated ERA as R*9/IP rather than ER*9/IP. The correct numbers for April are below, along with stats for May.

April 2001
  IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
home 102.0 95 46 37 39 117 7 3.26
away 112.2 82 31 22 34 140 2 1.70
total 214.2 177 77 59 73 257 9 2.43
May 2001
  IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
home 144.0 93 41 32 50 153 4 2.00
away 121.1 119 74 61 44 126 14 4.52
total 265.1 212 115 93 94 279 18 3.15
Apr – May 2001
  IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
home 246.0 188 87 69 89 270 11 2.52
away 238.1 204 105 83 78 268 16 3.14
total 484.1 392 192 152 167 538 27 2.83

What a difference a month makes. In April, the Storm’s home ERA was 30% higher than their overall ERA, while their road ERA was 35% lower. In May, the numbers were 37% lower and 43% higher, respectively. So not only was there a reversal, but the divergence was even greater in May than in April.

Unlikely Hitter

by Geoff Young on Aug 21, 2001 (0) Comments

Not that assault is funny, but you have to at least appreciate the irony of Mike Difelice getting arrested for hitting something.

Trip to Elsinore

by Geoff Young on Aug 20, 2001 (0) Comments

My buddy Dan was in town this weekend, and we caught the Elsinore game Saturday night. For the second time this week the Storm scored three runs in the bottom of the first. Both times those were all the runs they scored. Both times I arrived in the second inning.

This time, behind the strong left arm of Oliver Perez (not Eric Cyr, as I’d expected), those runs held up, as the Storm won, 3-1.

Perez looked strong, working his 89-92 MPH fastball on the inner half (topping out at 94 but with less movement) and good breaking ball. He even dropped down a handful of time against lefties. His command was impeccable through the first six innings, and he finished with a nifty 7.2-4-1-1-2-8 line.

Second baseman Jason Moore provided the offense, with a three-run homer. Xavier Nady added a couple hits. Vince Faison finished 0-for-2 but drew two walks, always encouraging. His numbers in the Cal League are up to .230/.305/.397; still not great but at least respectable.

Pix from the game:

Elsewhere, former Pads Joey Hamilton and Quilvio Veras have signed minor-league contracts with the Reds and Red Sox, respectively. Not sure how much they have to offer but they’re both still young enough to do something.

Finally, I’ve posted my Jake Peavy report. Enjoy!

Photos from Elsinore

by Geoff Young on Aug 17, 2001 (0) Comments

Okay, here are some pictures. I’m not the best photographer in the world but I hope you enjoy these nonetheless…

Elsinore Report and Other Stuff

by Geoff Young on Aug 17, 2001 (0) Comments

Kinda long entry today. Elsinore report and other stuff.

Elsinore Report

As is our custom, we arrived at the stadium in the second inning. Unfortunately, this meant we missed all the scoring by the home team. The Storm jumped on Lancaster starter Doug Slaten for three runs in the third, thanks to a Xavier Nady RBI double and a two-run homer from Ben Johnson. After that, Slaten completely dominated, allowing just two hits over the final eight innings.

On the Storm side, 19-year-old LHP Mark Phillips made his home debut. Phillips is pretty much as advertised. Tremendous stuff, wobbly command. His fastball was in the 89 – 93 mph range according to the scoreboard, which Sean McCall, radio voice of the Storm, says is about 2 – 3 mph slow, so more like 91 – 96, which corroborates the reports. Looked better in the middle of that range, pitches appeared to have more movement. At the high end, he was leaving his pitches up and out of the strike zone.

Phillips didn’t throw the breaking ball much, but the few times he got it over for a strike were impressive. He actually got two right-handed hitters to buckle their knees. The curve has the makings of a very effective pitch if he can improve his command of it. With runners on, Phillips displayed a very weak move to first and was slow to the plate; I’m not sure how many he was responsible for, but Lancaster stole 10 bases altogether, and not one of them could be pinned on catcher Tony Cosentino. On the positive side, Phillips was downright nasty on hitters when he got into trouble.

I like to compare guys in the minors to guys I’ve seen in the bigs, not necessarily to place expectations on the former, but to give people an idea of the type of player he is and what he might become. It’s important to put that disclaimer out there every now and then just so nobody misunderstands what I’m doing. That said, the guy Phillips reminds me of is a young Mark Langston. Similar body type, similar arsenal, similar command problems. Padre fans will be in for a treat if he has a career anywhere near that of Langston. Here’s hoping he stays healthy and continues to develop. The stuff is definitely there.

Because he was so inefficient with his pitches (23 in the first inning alone), Phillips was lifted after five innings. His final line: 5-1-0-0-7-5.

Elsewhere in the game, Nady hit the ball hard every time up. Of course, I missed the only one that landed safely but he made some hard outs, too. Johnson made a couple really nice plays in right field. Again. One was a sinking liner that he came on to snag, and the other, in the same inning, was a laser throw that nailed a guy trying for a double. I’ve said it before but Johnson has a great arm. Vince Faison looked confused by any pitches that moved, although he did a nice job of slapping a pitch past the shortstop in his final at-bat. Probably the approach he should be taking rather than trying to yank everything over the right-field fence.

The Storm lost the game, by the way, 7-3. All seven runs came in the sixth inning, with five at the expense of RHP Michael Nicolas, making his Elsinore debut. His line for the night was 0.1-3-5-5-2-0. Looks terrible, and it is (135.00 ERA). But what the line doesn’t tell you is the reaction he got from the scouts. I don’t know anything about Nicolas, except that he pitched fairly well at Ft. Wayne this year (62.2 IP, 44 H, 34 BB, 70 SO, 3.45 ERA) before being promoted.

His first pitch registered at 96 mph on the scoreboard. The three scouts right in front of me all looked at each other in disbelief. Nicolas proceeded to pump a series of fastballs in the 91-97 mph range, most coming in around 94-95 according to the scoreboard. With movement. I’ve never seen so much tapping of radar guns. Problem was, the kid couldn’t find the plate and he had no real second pitch, so when he did manage to throw a strike, he got hit.

It’s hard to know what to make of a performance like that, but I’ll say this much: He sure got everyone’s attention. Unfortunately he couldn’t hold Phillips’ lead, and after that it was pretty much the Doug Slaten show.

I took a bunch of pictures but haven’t had a chance to edit and load them. Hopefully within the next few days.

Other Stuff

  • Gotta like the Jose Rijo comeback.
  • How about Mike Darr’s first homer in over a year? Game-winner to lift the Pads to .500.
  • Trevor Hoffman notched his 299th save as a Padre yesterday. By my count, only Dennis Eckersley, with 310 for the A’s, saved more games for one club. Because he’s only been pitching for about 10 years, Hoffman’s probably got a lot more mileage in his arm than most guys his age do.
  • Baseball-Reference.com lists Hoffman at #25 among non-eligible pitchers, just behind Curt Schlling and ahead of Mariano Rivera. Eckersley, by the way, comes in at #4, between Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. Langston, since I mentioned him, is at #18. Check out the entire list at their web site.
  • I’ll be back at Elsinore tomorrow night. Eric Cyr is pitching, so I’ll be able to tell you about him. Catching a game in Sacramento this coming Thursday and Fresno the following Monday. In between, it’s the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. I’ll have my laptop with me so hopefully I’ll be able to do a few reports from the road.

That’s all for now (phew!)…

Trevor Hoffman Saves #300

by Geoff Young on Aug 16, 2001 (0) Comments

Before I get to what I was planning for today, I’d just like to say congrats to Trevor Hoffman on notching his 300th save last night. Acquired from the Marlins for Gary Sheffield back in the 1993 Fire Sale, Hoffy has been one of the most consistent performers for the Pads since he’s been in San Diego. He’s also been one of the most popular players, second only to Mr. Padre himself, Tony Gwynn. I don’t want to gush too much but it’s really been a pleasure to watch him come in and baffle guys with a fastball that rarely touches 90, a legendary changeup, and devastating control. Hoffman is the Greg Maddux of closers. He also is, by all accounts, a genuinely solid individual, which is refreshing these days. Congratulations, Trevor, and thanks!

Okay, back to the plan. First, some cool places to go:

A lot of great stuff out there. The rec.sport.baseball newsgroup is particularly interesting. I’ve been aware of its existence for some time but only recently ventured to sift through the sometimes overwhelming amount of information.

The other thing I wanted to mention is really more of a teaser. A lot of pitchers have been experiencing great success at Lake Elsinore this year, in what is traditionally a hitters’ league. I don’t have time to sort through all the league stats but I am looking at Storm pitchers’ performance at home vs on the road, with the thought that perhaps their home park is less favorable to hitters than most. Well, I’ve sifted through a month’s worth of data, and here’s what I’ve got for April:

  IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
home 102.0 95 46 37 39 117 7 4.06
away 112.2 82 31 22 34 140 2 2.47
total 214.2 177 77 59 73 257 9 3.23

Not at all what I’d expected but this is very early in the season. I’m still gathering data. Sometime within the next month or two, I should have all the numbers and be able to do some fun stuff with them. In addition to team stats, I’ll also break down individual performances, using some neat little tools with which you may or may not be familiar.

Like I said, a teaser…

Herndon Earns First Big-League Win

by Geoff Young on Aug 15, 2001 (0) Comments

  • Congrats to the Oceanside Little Leaguers for making it to Williamsport! They beat Green Valley, Nevada, last night, 12-8.
  • In Padres news, Junior Herndon won his first big-league game last night. Up 6-0 after seven innings, and already having thrown over 110 pitches, he goes back out to start the eighth. That’s a debatable move. Actually, the debate goes something like this:

    Pitcher: C’mon skip, lemme go back out there.
    Manager: Nope.

    Herndon looked good, though he took advantage of the Mets’ inability to generate any offense despite being ahead in the count most of the night.

  • Ray Lankford continues to impress, singling in the four-run third and later driving a double down the left-field line. In addition to his two opposite-field hits, he also drew a walk and worked a full count before striking out in his final at-bat.
  • D’Angelo Jimenez looks more and more comfortable every day. He went 0-for-1 last night with two walks but was generally a real pain to Mets’ pitchers, working the count, fouling off good pitches, laying off bad ones. This guy does not approach hitting the way most 23-year-olds do. He has a real good idea of what he’s doing at the plate. Jimenez is also calming down in the field, getting to balls, planting his feet, and making good throws. His performance hasn’t been dazzling but right now he’s the best shortstop the Pads have had since Chris Gomez, and Jimenez has a chance to be a whole lot better.
  • The incredible exploding Rodney Myers has been released to make room for RHP Jeremy Fikac, a control artist called up from Double-A Mobile.
  • Southpaw Eric Cyr had another fine outing last night at Lake Elsinore: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 SO. I hope to see him pitch Saturday, if he hasn’t been promoted to Mobile by then.

Padres’ Young Arms

by Geoff Young on Aug 12, 2001 (0) Comments

  • Okay, I’m starting to believe in Brian Lawrence. Guy gives up two runs in the first, then completely shuts down the Pirates over the next seven innings. He’s got some sick movement on his pitches.
  • Wow. Right-handed hitters are 0-for-46 against Seattle RHP Joel Pineiro? Impressive.
  • LHP Mark Phillips made his Cal League debut last night, at Modesto: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 SO. Not bad for a 19-year-old.
  • A lot of good young arms are coming through Lake Elsinore this year. Ben Howard, Jake Peavy, and Dennis Tankersley started the season there. Now it’s Phillips, Eric Cyr, and Oliver Perez.
  • Cyr is a kid who will sneak up on people, kinda like Howard. He’s a 22-year-old lefty with a real live arm. The 1998 30th-round draft-and-follow out of Seminole JC in Oklahoma has missed time due to injuries but has pitched very effectively when healthy:
    Yr Lvl IP H ER BB SO ERA
    99 R/R+ 43.2 39 15 16 42 3.09
    00 R/A 35.2 32 18 17 35 4.54
    01 A+ 79.2 48 11 17 104 1.24
    Tot   159.0 119 44 50 183 2.49

    I ranked Cyr #16 in my Padres Top 25 Prospects report but that may have been too conservative. Expect the Montreal native to start appearing on the prospect radar screen soon.