Padres Farm Report: Spotlight on Lake Elsinore

Wednesday, August 6, 2008
by Geoff Young
The situation may be bleak in San Diego this year, but a mere 74 miles to the north, things are looking pretty good. Let's take a quick drive up I-15 and see what's happening with the Storm... Lake Elsinore Storm in a Box: Record: 53-61 Runs Scored: 648 Runs Allowed: 629 BA/OBP/SLG: .275/.357/.400 (California League: .274/.343/.413) ERA: 4.89 (CAL: 4.57) DER: .628 (MWL: .629) Source: Baseball-Reference. First, the bad news. The pitching at Elsinore has been brutal. Only two teams, Rancho Cucamonga and High Desert, have higher team ERAs so far in 2008. High Desert has a good excuse, playing half its games in one of the most extreme environments in all of affiliated baseball. The Diamond, home of the Storm, historically has favored ...
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Posted in Minors | 14 Comments »

Whatever Happened to Controlling the Strike Zone?

Monday, July 21, 2008
by Geoff Young
Baseball revolves around control of the strike zone. -- Bill James, Baseball Abstract 1988, p. 72 On pages 179-181 of the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual, we examined how the Oakland A's and Minnesota Twins parlayed their dominance of the strike zone into wins. The A's excelled at getting on base, while Minnesota specialized in keeping runners off base. Both achieved a fair measure of success with this approach -- perhaps not directly because of it, but certainly during the same time frame. Acknowledging that many other factors dictate a team's fate, it's worth noting that the Padres have done an excellent job of controlling the strike zone since moving to Petco Park. This ...
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Posted in Baseball | 31 Comments »

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Peace, Love, and Delusion

Tuesday, June 3, 2008
by Geoff Young
Sometimes you can get away with making stupid mistakes against lousy teams. Unfortunately the Cubs aren't a lousy team, and they saw to it that the Padres paid for their transgressions. Carlos Zambrano is a terrific pitcher when he's on his game. He wasn't at his best Monday night, but the Padres let him off the hook just the same. Despite having trouble controlling his pitches and his emotions (he needed separate conferences with the catcher, third baseman, and manager at various points during the first two innings), Zambrano limited the early damage and then settled into a groove. And he couldn't have done it without the Padres ...
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Posted in Game Recaps | 74 Comments »