Padres vs Giants
7:05 p.m. PT
Channel 4SD, DIRECTV 745
AM 1090, FM 105.7
MLB, B-R
The Padres and Giants in August? Too much excitement; I don’t think my heart can take this… I don’t think anyone can take it, though I kinda wish maybe they would…
No, Really, My Shortstop Is Broken
First off, I feel like a shoe for Thursday’s post title. I wasn’t aware of Khalil Greene’s injury when I wrote it.
According to Tom Krasovic at the U-T, Greene broke his left hand while punching a storage chest during Wednesday night’s loss to the Diamondbacks. Corey Brock at the Padres web site indicates that Greene will be out at least six to eight weeks, and may miss the remainder of the 2008 season.
I smashed my hand against a chair a few years ago in a fit of rage. It wasn’t one of my finer moments, and every so often a little soreness in that hand reminds me of my stupidity.
As for Greene, I can’t imagine that anyone feels worse right now about this than he does. Sure, we’ve had to watch the guy struggle along with the rest of the Padres this year, but he’s actually trying to do a job. Comparing our frustration as fans with his as a player strikes me as a bit silly.
On the bright side, maybe all the idiots who have complained about Greene’s lack of outward emotional display over the years are finally happy that he put on a show for them. And thus we come to the moral of our story: Never concern yourself with the happiness of idiots.
Please Help, My Shortstop Is Broken
My latest article at Hardball Times deals with Khalil Greene’s disappointing season. Here’s something I uncovered in my research that didn’t make the final cut. These are Greene’s home/road splits in seasonal notation (i.e., per 162 games — thank you, Baseball-Reference, for making it so easy):
| Year | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of July 29, 2008. | ||||||||||||
| 2004 | 513 | 56 | 123 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 65 | 83 | 108 | .241 | .345 | .338 |
| 2005 | 573 | 59 | 146 | 30 | 2 | 15 | 97 | 28 | 110 | .256 | .285 | .399 |
| 2006 | 553 | 56 | 116 | 21 | 2 | 16 | 72 | 51 | 137 | .210 | .282 | .346 |
| 2007 | 620 | 76 | 134 | 31 | 6 | 25 | 85 | 31 | 164 | .216 | .258 | .412 |
| 2008 | 591 | 51 | 129 | 18 | 3 | 21 | 42 | 51 | 129 | .218 | .295 | .365 |
| Year | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of July 29, 2008. | ||||||||||||
| 2004 | 618 | 101 | 186 | 58 | 2 | 29 | 87 | 38 | 111 | .301 | .353 | .543 |
| 2005 | 594 | 78 | 145 | 50 | 2 | 25 | 89 | 39 | 139 | .244 | .308 | .465 |
| 2006 | 549 | 92 | 154 | 47 | 2 | 23 | 74 | 53 | 95 | .280 | .356 | .507 |
| 2007 | 673 | 111 | 193 | 61 | 0 | 31 | 119 | 35 | 107 | .288 | .322 | .519 |
| 2008 | 612 | 42 | 129 | 29 | 3 | 9 | 68 | 16 | 181 | .212 | .225 | .317 |
Just for grins, I dug up comparable player-seasons while I was under the metaphorical hood. This is kind of esoteric, but the basic idea is to get some sense of the type of hitter Greene has been at home and on the road since Petco Park opened:
| Year | Home Comp | Road Comp |
|---|---|---|
| Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference. | ||
| 2004 | Pepe Mangual ’75 | Will Clark ’91 |
| 2005 | Corey Patterson ’02 | Shane Andrews ’98 |
| 2006 | Devon White ’90 | Tim Wallach ’94 |
| 2007 | Billy Cowan ’64 | Andres Galarraga ’95 |
| 2008 | Ron Santo ’62 | Andres Thomas ’89 |
The way to read this is, “In 2004, Greene’s home numbers were a lot like Pepe Mangual’s 1975 overall numbers; Greene’s road numbers were a lot like Will Clark’s 1991 overall numbers.” Suffice to say, when your performance calls to mind Andres Galarraga one year and Andres Thomas the next, that’s not good.
IGD: Padres vs Diamondbacks (30 Jul 08)
Padres vs Diamondbacks
7:05 p.m. PT
Channel 4SD, DIRECTV 748
AM 1090, FM 105.7, XM 187
MLB, B-R
Petco Park doesn’t fool me often, but I really thought Jody Gerut had himself a go-ahead pinch-hit grand slam in the eighth on Tuesday night. Man, he crushed that ball.
Oh well, it was fun to imagine for a moment that we might come back and win after being thoroughly dominated by a thoroughly mediocre pitcher for most of the evening.
Hairston Never Got the Memo
I spend the weekend at Comic-Con, and the Padres go out and win three straight games. Are they even allowed to do that?
Scott Hairston hit another home run on Sunday. Dude is batting .364/.417/.909 in July. He also has eight homers this month and 11 RBI. That’s pretty hard to do.
Hairston has some unusual splits in 2008. First off, he’s destroying left-handers: .297/.313/.658, with 10 homers in just 115 plate appearances. Sure, the OBP is low, but why would you ever let a pitch go by when you’re knocking the snot out of the ball like that?
Hairston also is one of the few Padres that does anything when leading off an inning:
Hairston: 104 PA, .333/.385/.740
Rest of team: 872 PA, .209/.266/.324
The other thing I love about Hairston is that apparently he never got the memo about Petco Park. Check out his home/road splits so far in 2008:
Home: .295/.346/.584
Road: .217/.271/.442
Imagine if Hairston had the luxury of playing all his games in that bandbox downtown. If you think his numbers this year are a fluke, here’s his career line at Petco: .301/.349/.593. Granted, 237 plate appearances aren’t a lot, but in Hairston’s case, they represent just under a quarter of his career total.
Speaking of Petco Park, the Pads are back in town Monday to take on Hairston’s former team, the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks. I’ll be out there all three nights. At this point in the season, hanging out at the park and watching games beats the bejeezus out of sitting around thinking about what might have been.
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