Left Coast Bias

It's Not Just a Game

2012-02-20T12:15:00.000-08:00

Nick Hornby wrote in "Fever Pitch" (Quick aside, don't let the Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore movie be your only knowledge of this source material. Nick Hornby's book, memoir-esq about being a die-hard fan of the English Premiere League Club Arsenal is appointment reading for anyone who considers themselves more than a casual fan of a team) that the longest relationship he had ever had, outside the one with his own parents, was with his beloved soccer club, Arsenal. In a poignant, and perhaps an all to close to home moment, while arguing with his girlfriend over his borderline obsession with Arsenal, Hornby rants about why sports, and the outcome of these games matter so much. His point? That he had wanted an Arsenal championship for longer than he has ever wanted anything in his life. For a man in his 40's, this relationship has lasted more than 30 years. Finally ending with this line when his girlfriend retorts, as all who are not sports fans inevitably will, by saying it's "only a game": "Cause it quite clearly isn't 'only a game.' I mean if it was do you honestly think I'd care this much?"

There have been multiple times as a fan of various teams where I have wondered aloud "why do I care this much about this?" I have often wished I simply didn't care, thus avoiding the sharp pings of sorrow that follow any excruciating loss. I can remember with vivid memories the losses that really stung. Arizona losing to Illinois in the Elite Eight after blowing a 12 point lead with under 4 mins to play. The Chargers, with victory literally in their hands against New England in the Divisional Playoffs, having it all taking away. And the slow burn that was the 2010 Padres 10-game losing streak.

But the worst loss that I've ever experienced as a fan pales in comparison to the news that trickled out of San Diego on Tuesday, February 14th. Tony Gwynn's cancer had returned and he was undergoing another surgery. The headline, which I first read on Twitter, hit me like a ton of bricks. The details of the story only furthered the bad news. The tumor was wrapped around a nerve; if they remove the nerve he may never be able to move the right side of his face again.

It is an odd feeling to think of your childhood heroes as mortal. Of course they are and no one truly believes they are immune from harm. But it filled with more emotions than simply "I feel bad for this person I admire." Tony Gwynn, like the Padres, has been the longest relationship I've had outside of my immediate family. As a Little Leaguer, I attempted to mimic his swing (despite being right handed and more a defensive specialist than anything.) I've met the man 4 times that I can recall, all passing moments that were mere blurs to him but which are immortalized in my memory (Or in one case, in wood and glass. One more quick aside, doing photo day one year I, no more than 16 or 17, got my picture taken with Gwynn. If you've ever been to one of these photo days you will know that the experience is akin to herding cattle. A long line of fans is constantly moving as you stop and take pictures with players. The meetings with the players are seconds at most. My picture of Tony Gwynn with me was later sent to Tony Gwynn himself by my mother, asking for an autograph. It was returned, signed and now sits in a frame along with his SI cover "The Best Hitter Since Ted Williams").

But more than the dread I felt for Tony Gwynn was this thought. I have reached the age where the people I admire are starting to show their age. Pearl Jam's "Ten" is 20 years old. Today would have been Kurt Cobain's 45th birthday. It's been 18 years since "Pulp Fiction" came out, and Tony Gwynn is in the fight of his life, again.

There will come a day when he is no longer with us. I remember how much my Dad was affected by the death of Mickey Mantle. I know that my mother is saddened that there is only two surviving Beatle left and he is nearing 70.

But this past news told me one thing. It's not just a game. They aren't just players on television screen. If they were, reading that Tony Gwynn is having cancer surgery wouldn't matter so much to me.

As of this writing, I am happy to say that the surgery apparently went very well. A nerve from his shoulder was placed in his cheek providing him with movement to the right side of this face. The road back I'm sure is long, and arduous. And one day there won't be a road back to take. But here is hoping that somehow, Gwynn knows that we are all pulling for him. And how important he is to us.

Get Well Soon.

Friends in Low Places

2012-01-29T09:04:00.000-08:00

Chances are, at some point in your life, you had a dream that was probably not all that realistic. Astronaut, rockstar, movie star. For me, and many others, that dream was playing professional baseball. A dream shared by many I'm sure. And for nearly all of us, a dream that dies off somewhere between the ages of 15-22.

Well, unless you are a country music star.

Today marks the 12 year anniversary of the New York Mets extending a Spring Training invite to Garth Brooks. Which reminds me of one magical spring, when the man not known as Chris Gaines, spent a month in Peoria with the San Diego Padres.

Perhaps you do not recall such a moment in Padre lore. But it happened. Boy, did it happen.

You won't be stunned to hear that Garth Brooks, though great at selling records, was not so great at baseball. Officially Garth Brooks went 1-22 as a Padre. And that's all the stats I can find. Really, I spent a pretty minimal amount of time looking. Do you need stats to know that Garth Brooks wasn't good at baseball?

But there is one, very memorable moment, from the Garth Brooks era for me. And that is this. I've been going to baseball games since I was probably 5 or 6. At first, in San Diego while living in Oceanside at The Murph. Then, when living in Tucson, to Spring Training games at Hi Corbett Field and later, Tucson Electric Park. On average, I'd say I go to close to 30 games per year, between minor and major league games.

And only once have I caught a foul ball at a game. It came on a relatively warm day in March, sitting at Tucson Electric Park watching the Padres play the Rockies. And it was hit by Garth Brooks.

The only foul ball I've ever caught was off the bat of Garth Brooks. This was as bittersweet as it comes for me. I've always wanted to catch a foul ball at a game. But I always imagined it would be hit by an actual baseball player. Not, well, not Garth Brooks.

Garth Brooks being in town was a big deal locally. So much so that every news station had dispatched reporters to Tucson Electric Park for this game, to see the country-music star attempt baseball. Honestly, if you never got to see him play, here's how I would describe it. He made Michael Jordan seem like Mickey Mantle.

Moments after Brooks foul ball was hit into the stands and ended up in my hand, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning around, there was a very big camera and a woman with a microphone, both pointed right at me. Yes folks, Garth Brooks making contact with a baseball was now newsworthy.

The reporter asked if I had come here to see Garth Brooks. "No, I came to see the Padres."

The reporter asked if I was excited that I had caught a ball hit by Garth Brooks.

I replied, "Yeah, I guess. I wish it had been hit by Tony Gywnn though."

The Promise of a Brighter Future

2011-12-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

The Mat Latos trade nearly got me into quite a bit of trouble yesterday.

There I was, trying to enjoy a nice day out with my wife, finishing up some Christmas shopping and grabbing lunch. Pleasant and completely removed from any Padres rumors or hot stove talk. As we are browsing through some shop in Downtown Pasadena, I check my email from my phone. Not for any reason really, just habit.

Hey, an email from the Padres. What 50% sale are they pushing now...wait, what?

PADRES ACQUIRE EDINSON VOLQUEZ AND THREE TOP PROSPECTS FROM REDS

Wow. That's a substantial haul for the Padres. Must have given up something major. But who? I had to read on. So I kept "browsing," my nose tucked very firmly in my phone. Then I got to this: "...in exchange for right-handed pitcher Mat Latos."

Double wow.

I had to know more. More importantly, as is so much a part of our information culture these days, I had to know what the reaction on Twitter was. Knowing full well that the Latos' are prominent on social media sites and the amount of passion Padres fans have for Latos (#TEAMLATOS being a common hashtag on days he starts). But I was shopping and supposed to be enjoying a nice day out with my wife. I can't just ignore her to read what my Twitter feed says about this trade.

But I had to.

I'm pretty luck in my relationship. My wife is a baseball fan. She gets it. Maybe not to my more obsessive level, but she gets it. So I very casually bring it up. "Oh wow, the Padres traded Latos." Her reaction? "Wow, really? Are you going to write a post about it?"

She gets it.

So I briefly scan Twitter. I don't know if I've ever seen a more substantial schism between baseball experts and scribes (who thought the Padres fleeced Cincinnati) and Padres fans (who saw this as yet another popular Padres player being shipped off for unknown commodities).

I am in no way an expert on baseball prospects, certainly not ones from a team not named San Diego. But I know 4 players for 1 player is a lot. I know that nearly every expert who does know about teams farm system seem to love this move. The Padres farm system, already considered a Top 5 system heading into 2012, is better. The Padres likely have their starting first baseman now in Alonso, they have a bit of a surplus now in catching prospects and a potential replacement for Heath Bell. This all ignores Volquez, who has quality in him somewhere if he can just find it again. Now he moves to resurrection island for pitchers in Petco Park. All in all, this seems like a win.

It's not fun trading away star players. And frankly, the Padres right now are in short supply of players that a casual fan will recognize come Opening Day 2012. But Mat Latos wasn't untouchable, clearly, and never should have been. He has had stretches of brilliance, but stretches of mediocrity. He may or may not have maturity issues (a topic I will completely ignore, except to say it was mentioned prevalently yesterday when this trade was reported, from multiple sources). But what was clear was that Mat Latos was not in Josh Byrnes long term plans. In what has been the clearest example yet, the players Brynes covets are not the same that Hoyer did.

I'm not distraught over this trade. I wasn't when I first heard about it, I'm far less now. The Padres got a huge haul. They gave up a volatile but talented pitcher. But they received in return a lot of pieces that, I hope, will lead to long term success down the road. Or maybe it's because I've always been indifferent to Mat Latos. Always rooted for him, always liked him. But I wasn't enamored with him the way others were, or the way I was with Peavy. It seems folly in today's modern baseball world to fall in love with starting pitchers. To injury prone, to in demand, to on the move.

In either way, I slept on this trade and I like it more than I did yesterday, and I liked it yesterday. Best of luck to Mat in Cincinnati (outside of 6 games). Now, with 3 possible first base options, we wait for the second shoe to drop.

Is Rizzo next?

Happy Trails Heater

2011-12-01T20:40:00.001-08:00

One of the hardest things in sports, in my opinion, is replacing a legend. Being the guy after the guy that a city adored seems to be a nearly thankless job. Will you ever not be compared to the person you replaced?

In modern sports history, the list is short of those who have replaced a legend and succeeded or even surpassed them on their own. Aaron Rodgers replacing Brett Favre is perhaps the most successful example. I said the list was short. Meanwhile, the list of a vacuum being left by icons leaving or retiring is long. The Dolphins haven't been able to replace Dan Marino for 20 years. The Bulls spent roughly the same time trying to find someone to capture the city's imagination the way Michael Jordan did, finding a possible superstar in Derrick Rose.

Heath Bell became a Padre via a trade that made little noise at the time. The Padres traded Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins to the Mets for Bell and Royce Ring. Bell, at the time, was tolling away on the round trip shuttle between New York and Norfolk, never finding his place in the Mets plans. In San Diego, he replaced Scott Linebrink as the 8th inning bridge to Trevor Time. Until 2009, when the previously unthinkable happen and Hoffman signed as a free agent with Milwaukee. Gone was Trevor Time, a San Diego tradition for more than a decade.

For the first time in 15 years, someone not named Trevor Hoffman was being asked to close games in San Diego. Heath Bell was tasked with the job of replacing a player that rivals only Tony Gwynn in importance to this franchise.

Good luck? Hardly needed. Hardly needed. In his first year as the full-time closer Heath Bell saved 42 games, earning his first of 3 All Star appearances. He quickly became a fan favorite amongst the friar faithful. He's quirky, jokester personality was straight out of central casting for a closer. He was goofy. He was fun. He took blown saves on the chin. He celebrated every save like it was Game 7, no matter what the calendar said. No one will ever replace Trevor Hoffman in San Diego. Heath Bell never tried, nor ever wanted to. He was just "Heater."

I read once that fans in San Diego expect "the show" with a closer as much as results. Trevor Hoffman is often credited with starting the now prevalent tradition of a closers entrance music. Heath Bell picked up that mantle, racing in in full sprint from the bullpen as Breaking Benjamin blared from the speakers. Was it as iconic as AC/DC? Hardly. But it was fun. And in the end, baseball is suppose to be fun.

And I think that's what I'll miss most about Heath Bell. He was fun. I like winning. I like success. But I like having fun watching baseball more than anything. Heath Bell provided all three, being one of the best closers in baseball after being a throw away piece in a nearly forgotten trade.

For all the saves you gave us, for all the honest interviews you gave, for your Twitter Q&A's and your now infamous All Star Game slide, thank you Heater. You were what I love about baseball and athletes. You were good. And you were fun. And at the end of the day that's all any fan can ask of a player.

Happy Trails Heater. Enjoy Miami.

The Church of Gwynn

2011-11-14T19:47:00.000-08:00

So the Cardinals have a new manager. Well, welcome aboard Mike Matheny. I don't envy anyone who has to try and replace an icon of the level of Tony LaRussa. Best of luck. I think you might need it.

The Cardinals hiring of an ex-player led to the obvious discussion topic amongst Padres fans. What former player could manage the Padres? This of course leads to the most obvious answer: Mr. Padre, Tony Gwynn.

This is the kind of debate fans have post-World Series but pre-hot stove. But hey, at least it gives us something to talk about.

Here's why hiring Tony Gwynn (which again, I cannot stress enough, is hypothetical only. No rumor is being put forth that this is, in any way, an actual idea) to manage the Padres is a terrible idea.

One, and frankly most importantly, is that I don't think Tony Gwynn has any desire to ever manage at the Major League level. He has said many times how much he enjoys teaching the game of baseball to young people. I don't sense Major League managers do a lot of "teaching" the game. My sense is that Gwynn has no interest in SABR and no interest in player ego. Not that college kids don't have egos, but they aren't being paid multi-million dollars and college baseball players are hardly the celebraties that their football and basketball counterparts are.

Two, and more importantly to me, is the fact that being the head coach/manager of a professional sports team has to be the most grueling job in sports. And the least forgiving. Simply put, if you are the head coach or manager of a professional sports team, there is about an 85% chance you will be fired and/or run out of town by the teams fanbase.

Who on earth wants to go through that with Tony Gwynn?

If you follow the various Padres fans on Twitter, then you are no doubt aware of the popular hashtag #BudBot. A fun little way to express your displeasure with how Bud Black has arranged the lineup, or made a pitching change.

Are we really ready for a world of #GwynnBot tweets? Are we ready to have hour long debates over Gwynn not abiding by a players WAR? I'm not.

My guess is Tony Gwynn may not make a great MLB manager. At minimum, he has no experience. Yes he manages a college team but frankly, to me, that could not be further from the same as MLB. Is it baseball? Yes. But at the college level, the main focus, as I understand it, is to recruit players.

I pray at the Church of Tony Gwynn. I don't need that image sullied by him taking a job that is impossible to succeed at longterm. Bobby Cox comes around once in a generation. Even Joe Torre was let go by the Yankees.

BBA Post-Season Awards

2011-10-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance (of which Left Coast Bias is a proud member) has made their selection for the 2011 MLB Post Season Awards.

Each year, the BBA selects winners in the following categories:

Connie Mack Award (Manager of the Year)
Willie Mays Award (Rookie of the Year)
Goose Goosage Award (Top Reliever of the Year)
Walter Johnson Award (Top Pitcher of the Year)
Stan Musial Award (Top Player of the Year)

Left Coast Bias submitted ballots for the Connie Mack Award as well as the Stan Musial Award. Click here to see how my votes came out.

Well, the results are in! Here are the 2011 BBA Post-Season Award Winners

Connie Mack Award
NL: Kirk Gibson, Arizona Diamondbacks
AL: Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay Rays

Wille Mays Award
NL: Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves
AL: Eric Hosmer, Kansas City Royals

Goose Goosage Award
NL: Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves
AL: Jose Valverde, Detroit Tigers

Walter Johnson Award
NL: Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
AL: Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers (unanimous)

Stan Musial Award
NL: Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers (unanimous)
AL: Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays

As indicated by the BBA, in all but two instances these awards have matched their BBWAA counterparts over the past two years.

The Theo Epstein Domino Effect

2011-10-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

When a team loses 90-plus games in a season, it has to look for some silver linings. Some glimmer of hope that let's the fan base know that, while this season was difficult and trying, brighter days are on the horizon.

In San Diego, that silver lining was Jed Hoyer. In Jed, the franchise had taken a clear direction that appeared, from the outside anyway, to be the right direction. Organizationally, the Padres won two Minor League championships. Now, maybe you don't put a ton of stock in that. But as one of Jed Hoyer's main goals when coming to San DIego was to strengthening the farm system, two Minor League championships would seem to be the first signs of progress.

Organizationally, the team has improved. Per Keith Law, the Adrian Gonzalez trade alone moved the Padres farm system up half a dozen spots in his organizational rankings, a list that doesn't account for the Padres 2011 draft in which the Padres were graded very highly (realizing of course that the "grades" for any draft are both subjective and premature). This is all credit to Jed Hoyer, among others, but as Jed is the GM Jed gets the credit (and blame).

That silver lining no longer exists. Per ESPN Chicago, the Theo Epstein deal to the Cubs is all but done which will make Theo Epstein the President of the Cubs. More pertinent, however, is who Epstein will be bringing with him to Chicago to work as his GM.

"Two other sources confirmed ESPNChicago.com's report that San Diego Padres general manager Jed Hoyer will be named Cubs GM a few days after Epstein's news conference. But Padres owner Jeff Moorad emailed ESPNBoston.com's Gordon Edes late Wednesday night that the Cubs had not asked for official permission to interview Hoyer."

While nothing is 100% at this point, that seems to be only a matter of semantics and not reality. The lack of a denial of these rumors from the San Diego Padres, Jeff Moorad and Jed Hoyer tells you everything you need to know. If reports are to be believed, Josh Byrnes (formerly the Arizona Diamondbacks GM) will ascend to the GM spot in San Diego, a result that Jeff Moorad likely wanted from the day he got here.

Losing Jed Hoyer is a blow, and I'm not sure how any Padres fan can think otherwise. He was here just long enough to trade away the best player this franchise has had in a decade and now will not be here to carry that plan through to fruition, be it good or bad. Theo Epstein is getting the band back together for one last tour. A World Series title in Chicago will supplant Epstein's place in Major League history.

But what of us? It has become clear that the Padres is merely a stepping stone for a bigger job in a bigger city with a bigger payroll. What San Diego needs is someone with a desire to come here and stay here. I don't believe for a second that Jed Hoyer didn't put his every effort into his tenure of the Padres. But the issues in San Diego are not fixable in a year or two and Jed's plans were designed for long-term success not short-term gains. But ultimately, this was a job for Jed. A job that would lead to a better job in his mind. Could he, or anyone, have foreseen the collapse of the Red Sox and the subsequent housecleaning that their front office went through? No. But his decision to leave, and Jeff Moorad's decision to let him leave (keep in mind, it is entirely within Moorad's control to stop this, but he has chosen not to because he gets the GM he likely wanted from the start in Byrnes) clearly is an end result desired by all parties.

Jeff Moorad is now letting the architect of the Padres organization over the last two years walk out the door. He brings in Josh Byrnes who, admittedly, I know very little of. His tenure in Arizona was not marred by any moves that would particularly blow you away, though one could argue the NL West championship team of this year was a direct by-product of Brynes. And this is not meant to slight Josh Byrnes at all. I'm simply upset that the team is left virtually rudder-less for the moment and that Byrnes lives with the aftermath of the Adrian Gonzalez trade and the 2011 draft.

But hey, at least the Padres will get compensation, right?

"There will be no compensation for Hoyer, a source said. Moorad and Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts have become friends since the Ricketts family bought the Cubs in October 2009."

Crap.

**UPDATE**

Well, that escalated quickly. I mean that really got out of hand.

The deal that will make Theo Epstein the President of the Cubs and Jed Hoyer his GM apparently will also include Padres Assistant General Manager Jason McLeod.

What. The. F.

The man credited with drafting Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury, and the person who, if my Twitter feed is to be believed, made the jagged pill of losing Hoyer go down smoother (hey, at least we'll have McLeod!) will become the...oh who cares what he'll become in Chicago. The point is he won't be here.

So now, Moorad is letting McLeod and Hoyer walk out of the door for little more than a handshake. This, my friends, does not organizational stability make.

This story is made even more ridiculous by reports that Hoyer asked Moorad for a 5-year extension to stay in San Diego. Now, I'm not sure a GM, or any front office member is deserving of a 5-year extension after a 90 loss season, but it does indicate to me that Hoyer had every intention of staying, provided he was confident he would be here long enough to see his vision through.

Not that any of that matters now. I read somewhere today that it feels like Hoyer was merely brought in here to be a consultant for the Adrian Gonzalez trade. Tongue in cheek, but it now feels closer to the truth than it was intended.

Did Hoyer really get everything the Padres could for Adrian Gonzalez? Would Josh Byrnes had looked beyond Boston for a trading partner? Would any of these questions even be in the back of your mind if Hoyer was staying?

I don't know the answers to those questions. But I know this. This appears to have all begun with fried chicken and beer in the clubhouse in Boston. That chain reaction has lead us here.

Who needs a drink?

***UPDATE II***

Per the NCTimes.com the Padres will receive compensation for Hoyer:

Assistant GM Jason McLeod is expected to join Hoyer in Chicago and a source said the Padres will receive compensation from the Cubs in return for freeing both men from their contracts.

So we got that going for us, which is nice.

BBA Connie Mack and Stan Musial Award Ballot

2011-09-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

As part of the BBA Post-Season Awards, I will be providing my ballot for the top manager in each league and the top player in each league.

Without further adieu, Left Coast Bias respectfully submits the following:

National League Manager of the Year (Connie Mack Award)

1) Kirk Gibson - Arizona Diamondbacks
29 win difference. That's the difference between the Diamondbacks in 2010 and the Diamondbacks of 2011. Even using the Diamondbacks Pythorgean W/L record of 88-74 still wins the division (perhaps more a statement of the NL West in 2011 than anything). They were picked by nearly every "expert" to finish last or 4th in the West. They weren't the best hitting team, nor the best pitching team. They just kept winning and they ran away with the division. When you are at the helm of the biggest turnaround in baseball, you win this award. It's just a fact. Case closed.

2) Ronald Roenicke - Milwaukee Brewers
Some could say that winning the division with two potential MVP candidates is not impressive. I say winning the NL Central, any year, is impressive. The Brewers quietly were the 2nd best team in the National League, had the distraction of Prince Fielder's imminent departure, and easily won the division.

3) Charlie Manuel - Philadelphia Phillies
There's something to be said for winning when you are expected to. While he had the four aces, the NL East is perhaps arguably the best division in the National League. And the Phillies, despite injuries, still dominated.

American League Manager of the Year (Connie Mack Award)

1) Joe Maddon - Tampa Bay Rays
Maybe it's unfair to win an award for one month of work. But when you catch the AL favorite, down 9 games, despite a collapse on their part, you have to be considered for this award. Maddon was able to keep a clubhouse that had every reason to cash in on the season and get ready for fishing and golfing focused. It took all 162 games, but the Rays are post-season bound. And every decision Maddon made in September seemed to be the right one.

2) Ron Washington - Texas Rangers
Against who it mattered most, the Rangers dominated. They were 12-7 against the Angels, a record that all but buried the Angels and their post-season hopes. They lost Josh Hamilton for a significant portion of the year, struggled for much of the year with a leaky bullpen, yet ran away with the AL West by 10 games.

3) Jim Leyland - Detroit Tigers
For much of the year, the AL Central was the Indians. The White Sox and Twins both made runs of varying degrees at some point this season. The Tigers just kept on going, behind superace Justin Verlander and MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera.

National League Player of the Year (Stan Musial Award)

1) Matt Kemp - Los Angeles Dodgers
.11 pts away from winning the Triple Crown. As this category is "Player of the Year" not "MVP" Matt Kemp was clearly the best player in the National League in 2011.

2) Ryan Braun - Milwaukee Brewers
Led the league in OPS, top 10 in RBI, Batting Average, and HR. A completely dominant season from Ryan Braun.

3) Justin Upton - Arizona Diamondbacks
It's crazy to think now that Upton was nearly traded last off-season. This pick may make the statheads head explode, but their are few players I enjoy watching more than Upton. A key to the Diamondbacks unlikely 2011 run.

Best of the Rest:
4) Lance Berkman - St. Louis Cardinals
5) Roy Halladay - Philadelphia Phillies
6) Jose Reyes - New York Mets
7) Prince Fielder - Milwaukee Brewers
8) Troy Tulowitzki - Colorado Rockies
9) Joey Votto - Cincinnati Reds
10) Albert Pujols - St. Louis Cardinals

American League Player of the Year (Stan Musial Award)

1) Justin Verlander - Detroit Tigers
In part because no offensive player in my mind ran away with this, Verlander was the most dominant single player in the American League this year. A bold statement for someone that only plays every 5 days perhaps, but to me, there was no one who had a more prolific season than him. His 2011 shouldn't be relegated only to the Cy Young (which he will certainly win).

2) Jacoby Ellsbury - Boston Red Sox
Ellsbury saved the Red Sox season on a variety of times in September until the magic finally ran out. Despite a complete meltdown around him, Ellsbury remained a bright spot.

3) Jose Bautista - Toronto Blue Jays
Two years in a row leading the league in homeruns, an insane 1.056 OPS, and hit over .300. Best player on a team that is getting better every year. Sign stealing or no sign stealing, this guy showed that 2010 was no fluke.

Best of the Rest:
4) Evan Longoria - Tampa Bay Rays
5) Miguel Cabrera - Detroit Tigers
6) Curtis Granderson - New York Yankees
7) Adrian Gonzalez - Boston Red Sox
8) Paul Konerko - Chicago White Sox
9) Mark Teixeira - New York Yankees
10) Jered Weaver - Anaheim Angels

Wild Thoughts for Wild Card Wednesday

2011-09-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

The 2011 MLB regular season came to an end last night. And oh what an ending it was.

First, as this is a Padres blog, let's quickly note that the Padres bookended 2011 with victories, beating the Chicago Cubs 9-2 (where were those runs all year). Changes are no doubt coming, one coming today in Randy Ready being let go (yet another hitting coach scapegoat). I'm more relieved than anything. 2011 was a trying season, made more so with the memory of 2010 so fresh in our mind. It was a struggle, it was tough to watch, and at times it just wasn't fun. But I still miss it. And hope for brighter days.

Because on the same night the Padres were finishing their 71-91 campaign, across Major League Baseball games were happening that reminded me how fun watching this game can be, and showed me a world that one day I hope the Padres exist within.

Was September 28, 2011 the greatest regular season day in MLB history? I don't know about that. But I can say with no hyperbole that I've never experienced a regular night of baseball like I did on Wednesday.

Some quick thoughts, as I don't even think I can put my thoughts into a coherent paragraph.

- I left work at roughly 5pm Pacific. The Rays were down 5-0 at that point. I got home and somehow it was 7-0. I stopped paying attention to this game at this point, turning my attention and all my fandom I could muster toward Baltimore.

- The Braves had a 3-1 lead at this point. As the Cardinals were well ahead of Houston, I pretty much assumed this was must win for Atlanta at this point. I was rooting for this, simple so we could have a Game 163.

- Went to get In N' Out for dinner. I came back just in time to see Evan Longoria hit a grand slam to get the Rays within 1. WHAT?!?!?!?!

- Boston was up 3-2 when..rain came. I contemplated whether MLB would call the game as it was the middle of the 7th with Boston up 3-2. It seemed like a very Bud Selig-y thing to do.

- The Braves are still up. No big deal there for the time being.

- I'm fully focused on the Rays game right now. Down 1, bottom of the 9th, and some guy named Dan Johnson is batting. No idea who this guy is, time to focus on hoping for rain to let up in Baltimore and an Oriole comeba....WHAT?!?!

- Dan Johnson, with 2 strikes, just saved the Rays season. Unbelievable! I'm cheering like I grew up in Tampa.

- Rain is over in Baltimore. Still, I'm rooting for an Oriole comeback here. That is not filling me with any kind of confidence.

- What's this? Hunter Pence just broken bat killed the Braves. Anguish on the fans faces. I've been there.

- The Braves get their last crack to avoid being on the infamous "Worst Collapse" list. They know it's over, you know it's over, their fans know it's over. Guess what, it's over. Cardinals in.

- At this point the Red Sox/Orioles game and the Rays/Yankees game blend together. Here's what I remember: 1) The Orioles defense came to play. Great relay throw to cut down a run at home, getting out of jam after jam. And then, Papelbon. There's really nothing I enjoy more than watching Papelbon blow a save...except when Brian Wilson does it. That double to the gap was delicious. Just delicious. Tie game. Andino's line drive to left, which I didn't think Crawford would catch but I also didn't think the Orioles would send the runner. He didn't, they did, game over. My favorite part of all this was how much Baltimore celebrated. They went nuts and good for them. This was the biggest game of their season. They played as hard as any team would, as if it were Game 7. It was fantastic. I felt great for their fans, who, for three days were one of the most relevant teams in baseball. And everyone outside New England was an Oriole fan.

2) I switched the channel just in time to see Evan Longoria go all Mark McGwire circa #62 on the Yankees, walk-off style.

Like that, the Red Sox were eliminated. Good riddance. I don't like their money, their arrogance, and their sense of entitlement. I will say I enjoyed their stadium, and the few fans I met in Boston were pleasant.

But fuck them.

It was great. It was fantastic. It was the most fun I've had watching baseball in awhile. And I'm looking forward to more in October.

The Curious Case of the Padres No-Hitter

2011-09-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Mat Latos was dealing last night. No other way to say it.

He was dealing so much, that for a moment, brief though it may have been, a familiar thought creeped through the minds of Padres fans.

"Is tonight the night?"

It wasn't, again. No no-hitter for the Padres. But for 5 innings last night, Latos was throwing as well as any Padres pitcher has this year. He was no-hitting the Cubs (a perfect game in fact until a walk in the 5th).

Then a triple by Coleman (the opposing pitcher of all people!) and that was that. You might ask yourself, "isn't the 5th inning a little early to talk no-hitter?" And you'd be right. It is. But so it goes for a franchise and a fan base that has been deprived such a feat for their entire existence. 42 seasons, 0 no-hitters.

Since the Padres inaugural Major League season of 1969, there have been 104 no-hitters. That's 3.5 no-hitters per current Major League team (yes, I realize the math isn't perfect as their has been expansion since 1969, but the point remains the same). Yet, never once, have the stars aligned and the ball bounced right and we get to see a Padres catcher hoist a pitcher in celebration of a no-hitter.

Not that the Padres haven't been close.

Twice the Padres have been one out away, though even that stat requires an asterisk. The two:
July 18, 1972 Padres vs Phillies. Steve Arlin held the Phillies hitless with 2 outs in the 9th inning before Tom Hutton, a career .248 hitter, singled to break up not only the no-hitter but also the shutout. The Padres went on to win 5-1.

July 9, 2011 Padres vs Dodgers. Aaron Harang went 6 strong innings but was pulled after 95 pitches. The Padres bullpen of Spence, Qualls and Adams kept the Dodgers scoreless, and hitless, into the 9th inning before Gregerson gave up a double to Uribe and the game-winning single to Navarro. The problem here? The Padres were shutout through 9. Which created the nearly untenable possibility for those of us desperate for a no-hitter of having the Padres pitch 9 hitless innings, and then have it blown in extras due to a lack of offense.

It seems impossible that the Padres could exist for as long as they have without accomplishing this feat. It's more impossible when I think of the pitchers that have pitched for San Diego (Randy Jones, Andy Benes, Andy Ashby, Jake Peavy).

But I know one day it's coming. Until then, anytime a Padres pitcher gets into the 5th without giving up a run, I'll think myself "is tonight the night?"

And one of these days, it will be.

One day. One day.

Hoffman the Hall of Famer and Why Being #2 Shouldn't Matter

2011-09-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Were you one of the best players at your position during your career?

That's the criteria for the Hall of Fame in my opinion. Of course, there is no real criteria. But if I'm voting on players and looking at a list, thats my first question. Were you one of the best during your career? Baseball is unique in that it cares about its past perhaps more than any other sport. Yet, it is nearly impossible, for a variety of reasons (rule changes, desegregation, steroids), to compare different eras of baseball.

Was Trevor Hoffman one of the best at his position during his career? There is no way to answer that question other than with a resounding "yes."

This of course is being brought up today thanks to Mariano Rivera breaking the All-Time Saves record. Rivera stands alone atop the saves leader board at 602. Who knows where that number will stop, as he shows little sign of slowing down. But, does Trevor Hoffman now being the SECOND greatest closer of all-time somehow invalidate his Hall of Fame credentials? Of course not.

Regardless of whether you believe in the saves stat or deride it as more useless than pitchers wins or RBI, the fact remains that closers are judged by them. A closers job is simple yet incredibly complicated at the same time. Come in, pitch one inning, get three outs. Done and done. Except it is never as simple as "done and done."

Closers are more often remembered for a singular moment of failure. Mitch Williams, Brad Lidge, Byung-Hyun Kim. We know these names not for their effectiveness as a closer but because they failed to get those three outs in critical situations. It is also why the position of closer is perhaps the most volatile in sports. Great relievers have attempted to make the transition from the middle of the game to the end of the game and have failed miserably. It is this volatile nature of the position that makes the careers of Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera so spectacular and so rare. Both are over 600 saves. That number is impressive on it's own. It is made more impressive with context. Like this: Number 2 on the active saves leaderboard is Francisco Cordero...at 323 (wait, Francisco Cordero? Yes, Francisco Cordero). Which means that the mark that Hoffman set and Rivera continues to set is likely not to be matched for a long time. It is likely as unattainable as Ripken's games played, Dimaggio's 56, or Cy Young's 511 wins. Imagine, if you will, that the second person on the All-Time Wins list was at 509 (they aren't, by the way, second place is Walter Johnson at 417). As unattainable as 600 saves is, it is perhaps more impressive that two players during the same generation met that standard.

To reach the totals that Rivera and Hoffman have reached requires consistency at a position could not be less consistent. Yet they were. It is what makes these two closers so special.

And why both are heading to Cooperstown.

Occasionally I will read or hear an argument against Hoffman's Hall of Fame resume. It usually has to do with either A) some sabremetric stat that is not as impressive as one would expect; B) post-season performance.

Let's deal with the post-season issue first. Mariano Rivera is, without question, the greatest post-season closer of all time. No debate. But even he is not without spectacular failure. Game 7, 2001 World Series is submitted herein as exhibit 1. But, unlike Mitch Williams (and so many more) before him, Rivera had already built up a lifetimes worth of playoff appearances prior to blowing Game 7. And he recovered to continue that dominance throughout much of the 2000's.

Hoffman had a fraction of those chances. By no fault of his own. The teams he played for were more often than not mired in mediocre to sub-par seasons, pushing Hoffman's greatness to a mere footprint of multiple MLB seasons. The mere fact that one was not given the opportunity to be great, by no fault of their own, is not reason to keep them out of the Hall of Fame. I don't think anyone's Hall of Fame candidacy should be based on post-season performance. A factor? Sure. But not a criticism.

The second issue is the sabremetric argument. The argument seems to go that by other standards, Rivera so far outshines Hoffman that Hoffman is somehow suddenly not a Hall of Famer. It also follows that the position of closer is not as valuable as one would think, so being the best or second best at this "irrelevant" position is useless. To which I say, SHUT UP!

The job of a closer is to save the game. Whether someone does that with three long fly balls, or by walking three guys then striking out the next three, is irrelevant if the end result is the game was saved. I simply don't care, nor do I think it matters that Rivera has a better K/9 rate, or whatever Bill James stat you want to use. The barometer is saves and by that barometer, Rivera and Hoffman are the greatest...and it's not even close for a third.

Comparisons between Rivera and Hoffman are inevitable. But they are also ultimately pointless. It doesn't matter if Hank Aaron or Babe Ruth was better. They were both great. Who was better, Dimaggio or Mantle? Who cares, because they are both great. The same should be said about Rivera and Hoffman. Two of the greatest closers in baseball history who played during the same time period. They are the standard-bearers for all those who come after them.

Who's better: Rivera or Hoffman? Ultimately it doesn't matter, because both belong, and both will be, in Cooperstown soon enough.

Planning Your 2012 Padres Road Trip

2011-09-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

The San Diego Padres 2012 season schedule was officially unveiled today, providing all fans a momentary distraction from the Padres 2011 season (mercifully).

And while there will be plenty of time to look at the schedule from a strategic standpoint, or look for key series late in the season (hopefully), today is about party planning.

Road trip party planning.

The 2011 Padres interleague schedule gave fans two great excuses for travelling. Road games in Minnesota (and new Target Field) and Boston were quickly seized upon by fans. Including myself, who took the once every 6 years opportunity to travel to Boston (a city I had never been before) and take in a game at Fenway (also a first, obviously).

So, looking ahead, what road trips are most enticing for Padres fans? Let's take a look at some of the road trip opportunities that stuck out to me:

May 11-15
@Philadelphia; @Washington
This is the trip for you history buffs. Two of the most historic cities in American history in back-to-back series. Plus the potential to see Strasburg in person and the (relatively) new Nationals Park. The downside...Phillies fans. Batteries not included.

May 24 - 30
@New York Mets; @Chicago Cubs
If history isn't your thing, then perhaps visiting two of the most iconic cities in America will be. Take in a Broadway show, walk Central Park and check out Citi Field for the first time. Then head West to historic Wrigley Field (a stadium that should move immediately to the top of your baseball stadium bucket list if you haven't been) and enjoy deep dish pizza, Chicago hot dogs and a fan base more depressed than our own. This trip will help you finally decide, once and for all, New York Pizza or Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.

June 12 - 17
@Seattle; @Oakland
Interleague! While Oakland doesn't have the same sex appeal as Minnesota or Boston, hey, it's interleague! A little Pacific Northwest trip where you can take in fresh salmon, grunge music and spend all your time in San Francisco while "visiting" Oakland. Also, watch the Vedder Cup, Year 2, in person!

July 27-29
@Miami
I read that the Florida Marlins are changing their name to Miami as of next year. One step closer to Back to the Future, Part II being true! Brand new stadium, fun dining and nightlife city, possible hurricanes. This trip has it all!

August 10-12
@Pittsburgh
Long considered, by those that have been, as one of the great ballparks in America. I'm pretty sure they put french fries in their sandwiches in Pittsburgh as well. So there's that.

And of course the usual array of NL West cities. Personally, I have yet to make it to Denver or San Fran for a game (blasphemy, I know). A problem I hope to rectify in the 2012 season.

So pack your bags, buy those plane tickets, and I'll see you all on the road!

Looking In on the Pre-Season Bets

2011-09-10T16:32:00.000-07:00

Back before the season started I looked up a few pre-season proposition bets for the upcoming MLB season and wrote a blog post about it. As we are under 3 weeks before the season ends, I thought it would be fun to look back and relieve those picks. And for you all to see why I work for a living vs gamble for a living.

Most Regular Season HR's by Any Player: O/U 46.5
My Pick: Over
How's It Looking? For the second year in a row, Jose Bautista is leading MLB in HR's. Whether that's because pitchers haven't learned to stop throwing him first pitch fastballs, sign stealing or some other reason is irrelevant. For purposes of this blog, what is relevant is he has 41 HR's as of this writing. So with less than 3 weeks away we are looking at 6 more HR's. Doable...though he is currently in a 5 game HR drought. Time, my friend, is a ticking.

Most Regular Season Wins by Any Pitcher: O/U 20.5
My Pick: Over
How's It Looking? WINNER. WINNER. CHICKEN. DINNER! Justin Verlander is already at 22 wins which means "we goin' Sizzler, we goin' Sizzler." It's the era of the pitcher. Never mind that my thought was it would be one of Philly's four starters. Just ignore that part and enjoy your steak.

Albert Pujols Total HR's: O/U 38.5
My Pick: Over
How's It Looking? Pujols is sitting at 34 as we speak. The reasoning for going over is, A) it's Albert Freaking Pujols, and; B) Contract Year. This would already be a winner had it not been for his mid-season injury. Even with that injury, though, we are only 5 HR's away from cashing in. The bad news: He hasn't gone deep since Sept. 1.

Adrian Gonzalez Total HR's: O/U 36.5
My Pick: Over...barely
How's It Looking? Not so good. I tempered my pick on this one but landed on over for this reason: He had gone 30, 36, 40, 31 over the past four years while playing at Petco Park. Moving to Fenway, the thought was he would increasing those HR totals. Despite the MVP type season he is having, his HR total is at 24, on pace for his lowest total in the past 5 years.

Buster Posey Total HR's: O/U 19.5
My Pick: Under
How's It Looking? Great! Thanks to a season ending injury in May, Posey managed only 4 HR's this season. Fun sidenote. In the article I just Google'd to get the date of Posey's injury, the story mentioned how the Giants were "hesitant to say this was season-ending." Oh Giants. So young, so naive.

4 Aces (Halladay, Oswalt, Lee, Hamels) Total Regular Season Wins: O/U 59.5
My Pick: Under
How's It Looking? The thought for going under here had more to do with their bullpen. What ended up happening was the Philadelphia offense wasn't quite what I expected, but then again, neither was Lee. Still time for them to hit the over here, but as Philadelphia has all but secured the NL East, not seeing a lot of starts for these 4 down the stretch.

Heath Bell Regular Season Saves: O/U 35.5
My Pick: Over
How's It Looking? WINNER. WINNER. CHICKEN. DINNER. Bell, in two years as a full time closer, had yet to save less than 40. And while this year may be the year, he is already at 36 saves despite the fact that he's been MIA for long stretches of time this season (through no fault of his own).

San Diego Padres Regular Season Wins: O/U 75.5
My Pick: Over
How's It Looking? Well, if they go undefeated the rest of the season...forget it. I'm embarrassed. Let's move on.

*FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY

California League Playoff Preview

2011-09-06T20:39:00.001-07:00

I am by no stretch of the imagination, a minor league expert.

I enjoy minor league baseball. I try to attend Lake Elsinore Storm games on a semi-regular basis. (Side Note: If you have not made it up to The Diamond in Lake Elsinore, do yourself the favor and do so. I live nearby so its a quick drive over, but make a point next year to head up at least once. It's well worth it.)

That being said, I figured I would take a crack out of previewing the California League Playoffs, set to begin tomorrow. For one, it will allow all Padres fans here the chance to enjoy some playoff baseball. And second, I literally cannot think of something to say about this Padres season at this point that hasn't been said a million times. Ugh...let's just play these final 21 games.

Ok, enough wallowing. It's playoff time!

The California League Playoffs are broken down into 3 rounds amongst two divisions. Of each division, 3 teams will make the playoffs for a total of 6. The first half champion gets a first round bye, the second half champion gets home field advantage in the first round and each division has a "wild card" team. The first round is called the "Mini-Series" pitting the second half champion (or #2 seed) vs the wild card team.

Our very own Lake Elsinore Storm had themselves quite a season, nabbing the 2nd seed. Their mini-series matchup will begin tomorrow vs the Inland Empire 66ers.

For the Storm, the name of the game is speed. Something that is clearly an organizational focus, the Storm led the California league in Stolen Bases (196). Leading the way for the Storm is a name that should be quite familiar for Padres fans. Reymond Fuente, brought into the organization as part of the Adrian Gonzalez deal, leads the team with 41 stolen bases. From seeing him in person, the kid can flat out run. Much like Cam Maybin, Fuentes forces the issue, forcing infielders to hurry throws, outfielders to hurry the ball back in, and wreck overall havoc on the base paths.

Other than Fuentes, the Storm also bring more than 60 stolen bases to the playoffs from their middle infield. Jonathon Galvez and Jeudy Valdez (2B and SS respectively) complete a speed trio for the Storm.

Sadly (for the Storm, not for the player), the Storm's best player by far well not be present. Jedd Gyorko got a much deserved promotion to AA San Antonio after tearing the California League up (.365 and 18 HRs in 81 games). In his place, the Storm have been utilizing Edinson Rincon who has provided a consistent bat though not the power that Gyorko had.

Inland Empire 66ers are not a hitting team. I mean, they take their at bats as baseball rules require, they just don't hit very well. What they do do well however, is strike people out. In Game 1, the 66ers will throw John Hellwig, a 6'9" strikeout machine in the second half of the season since moving from the bullpen to the rotation. In the second half, Hellwig has posted 78 strikeouts in 57 2/3rd innings. Game 2 will be Dominican Ariel Pena who has posted 180 strikeouts in 151 2/3rd innings, second most in the league this season.

Strikeouts vs Speed. Game 1 of the California League South Division Mini-Series begins tomorrow night at Inland Empire. The Storm lead the season series 13-12. It has the makings of a very entertaining series. Winner moves on to face the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. But more on that if we get there.

Who's Next? The Impending Drought of Retired Numbers

2011-08-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

This Sunday something very special and very rare is going to take place. As anyone who even casually follows the Padres must know by now, Trevor Hoffman, MLB's All-Time Saves Leader, will have his #51 retired. Hoffman's number will become the 6th number retired by the Padres, joining the ranks of Tony Gwynn, Steve Garvey, Dave Winfield, Randy Jones and of course Jackie Robinson. It is rarified air no matter how you look at it or what your personal opinions are of the who has been bestowed with this honor (we will save that for another post).

No doubt in the next 48 hours, blog posts will pop up reminiscing on his career. In fact, I would think it would be a safe bet that you will find just such a post on this site in the coming days. But I'm not here to talk about that today. Nor am I here to debate the merits of who is retired.

I'm here to look at the future.

In the past 7 years the Padres will have retired the numbers of arguably their two most iconic players. I was born in 1980 so I can't speak of the '84 team with any personal knowledge, but in my lifetime there have been only two Padres players that have reached "icon" status. Tony Gwynn is obviously one. Trevor Hoffman is the other.

But who is next?

Who's number will be retired after Trevor's? Or perhaps this is the better question: is that player currently in the Padres system at any level? Let's take a extended look into the future of who could be next to find their number on top of the batter's eye at Petco Park and what former players came close to that distinction (in my opinion).

First, the former players:

1) Nate Colbert

The Case For Him: The first true "star" the Padres franchise ever had. He was selected by the Padres in the Expansion Draft of 1969 by San Diego, leading the team in home runs that year. He made 3 All-Star appearances as a Padre as and he continues to be the Padres All-Time Home Run leader...

The Case Against Him: ...at 163 HRs. Colbert played only 5 years for the Padres though his entire career only lasted approximately 8 years. His numbers, while great for a team that was predictably bad for an expansion team, were not great by any other matrix.

2) Ken Caminiti

The Case For Him: The Padres have only had one MVP winner in their history. And it's Caminiti. He was also instrumental in the team's 1998 World Series run.

The Case Against Him: Pretty strong case here, sadly. The story of Ken Caminiti is a tragic one to me. Full of substance abuse and admitted steroid use during his MVP season, tarnishing that accomplishment forever.

3) Garry Templeton

The Case For Him: One of the most popular players in Padres history, he was one of the emotional catalyst of the 1984 World Series team. And, if I'm not mistaken, I believe he is the longest tenured SS the Padres have had, playing for 9 seasons.

The Case Against Him: He's not Ozzie Smith. The Padres traded the Wizard to St. Louis for Garry Templeton, a lopsided trade no matter how popular the player is.
*Where are they now? Did you know Templeton is now a minor league manager? Me either until today. See, you learned something.

4) Goose Gossage

The Case For Him: Talk about getting the most out of a short stint. Goose only played 3 season with San Diego yet left an indelible mark on the franchise. Still remembered fondly in San Diego, Goose is credited with creating the "modern closer." And of course, memorable saves in the '84 NLCS. And he is in the Hall of Fame...

The Case Against Him: ...as a Yankee. Let's move on.

Now, some up and comers. These are highly touted players in the Padres organization who MAY have an outside chance of one day having their number retired. Keep in mind, not saying any of these players is there yet, but potential MIGHT be there. For these guys, no "Case Against Them" for, what I would think are, obvious reasons.

1) Chase Headley

The Case For Him: The Savior! The Padres traded Kevin Kouzmanoff in part to make room for this highly touted prospect. Has become a consistent contact hitter though power is lacking.

2) Cameron Maybin

The Case For Him: Arguably the most exciting player on the Padres right now, Maybin has all the tools to be a perennial All-Star for many years to come. Not to mention the Gold Gloves he will no doubt win throughout his career. Assuming he stays in San Diego long term, I would put Maybin as the favorite right now of everyone on this list.

3) Mat Latos

The Case for Him: Ace talent but has struggled in 2011. His struggles not entirely his fault as he has had little run support, nevertheless, Latos has not been the dominate pitcher he was in the first half of 2010. But that talent exists.

4) Anthony Rizzo

The Case for Him: Here is where we get into the long shots (not that all of these aren't longshots but you know what I mean). The argument for these players is potential based only. If you read scouting reports on Rizzo, the overwhelming response you read is how this guy is going to hit and hit a ton. If that's true and he is able to replace and make fans forget about Adrian Gonzalez one day...

5) Jedd Gyorko

The Case For Him: Obliterated the California High Single A league before getting promoted (rightfully) to San Antonio. Predictably his numbers have dipped somewhat, though still quite respectable considering the park in San Antonio.

Honorable Mentions in the distant, distant Future: Cory Spangenberg, Reymond Fuentes, Casey Kelly, Austin Hedges

But, in all likelihood, the next retired number will come from a player not even in their system at the moment. So look around your local Little League fields as somewhere out there is a kid who will one day experience what Trevor Hoffman will on Sunday.

And enjoy Sunday for all it's worth. It's going to be a long time before we get to do this again.

When You Become the Baseball Albatross

2011-08-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

In Coolidge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" a sailor kills an albatross that, at first, appears to bring him and his crew good luck. It is only later, upon running into heavy seas and running out of drinkable water ("water, water, everywhere but not a drop to drink") do they all realize that the albatross was good luck, leading them to safety. And that by killing the albatross the sailor had doomed their ship. As his punishment, he is forced to wear the albatross around his neck, which is of course where that idiom comes from.

What does all this have to do with baseball? I'm not entirely sure. But I know that somehow I have become bad luck when it comes to the San Diego Padres.

To be honest, this extends beyond the San Diego Padres now that I'm thinking about it. For a few seasons now I have taken to calling myself the "no-hitter cooler." In the same way casino's bring in "coolers" to stop some guy on a heater at a blackjack table, I have found that more often than not I have the same effect on no-hitters. You know the situation. You're at home when on the ticker or in a Tweet you learn so-and-so has a no-hitter in the 8th inning. You quickly turn to that game to see some history. And the very first batter you see breaks up the no-hitter. Like they knew you were watching. This has happened to me on countless times, so much so that I wouldn't turn the Padres no-hit bid vs the Dodgers on earlier this season.

Cooler.

On July 27th, I publicly announced my bandwagon jumping support of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Since that day they have won once. 1-10. They have been swept by the Phillies, Cubs and are one game away from being swept by San Diego. It is collapse rivaled only by another 10 game losing streak that anyone who reads this blog is well aware of (the streak that shall not be named).

Now the Padres have scored 28 runs in the past 2 days. I have not seen or heard one play from either game. On Friday night, it was simply due to an east coast start time and me being at work. On Saturday, it was on purpose, to test the theory: do I make the Padres nervous? Am I the "harbinger of death" (if you'll excuse the slight bit of hyperbole there) when it comes to scoring? I think the evidence is clear...

Yes.

This was, sadly, not new. Opening Day 2011 I posted about how I was unable to watch the Padres game despite my best efforts to see them open 2011 in St. Louis.

Padres win. I'm nowhere to be found.

The last time I remember watching the Padres win a game I think I was still into ska music. It's been awhile.

The Pythagorean record for the Padres is 56-58 (reality being much crueler at 50-64). I can only imagine their record if I didn't have cable or an internet connection.

So, until they lose, I have put a personal moratorium on watching or listening to Padres games. I will rely on my Twitter feed to determine whether they are winning or losing.

Apologies for whatever albatross I shot down.

Knee Jerk Reactions on the Trade Deadline

2011-07-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a few thoughts moments after the deadline. I look forward to regretting putting these thoughts down in writing in a few days:

- If there is one thing I knew coming into July 31st, it was that Heath Bell was DEFINITELY going to be traded. Until he wasn't. The Padres decided to hang on to their All-Star closer (at least for the time being), opting to move Mike Adams instead. No one seems to be more surprised than Adams himself, quoted as saying "It was quite a bit of a shock," adding "I came in this morning prepared to be the closer." (courtesy of @theMTbrain)

- The Padres obtained from Texas Robbie Erlin and Joe Wieland. Robbie Erlin doesn't appear to know how to walk people which is as good a quality as you can hope for in a pitcher in Petco. Let them put the ball in play and you will likely be ok. Keith Law ranks Erlin as the #5 prospect for the Rangers. Joe Wieland threw a no-hitter a few days ago in AA. So there's that. Two #3-#5 starters for Mike Adams seems like a pretty good haul. Of course, we won't really know for a few years.

- Perhaps more notably than who WAS traded was who wasn't. Heath Bell remained a Padres at 1:01pm on July 31st to the surprise of most everyone. Now the question is, was that smart? It became clear over the last week or so that Adams was the valuable asset in the minds of other GM's. Younger, better numbers and controllable beyond this year so that makes perfect sense. What didn't make sense was that reports had come out of San Diego that Adams was told specifically that he would NOT be traded. Then that report was debunked, then it wasn't and in the end nobody knew anything. In the end, GM's weren't willing to meet the price Jed Hoyer had presented for a rental.

- The question now is, was keeping Bell smart? That question doesn't really have a legitimate answer. From a statistical standpoint, it made more sense to trade him. At the end of the season the Padres will get two compensation picks assuming Bell does not accept arbitration. Those two picks have been predicted to possibly be in the mid-20's and then the mid-40's. Now there is talk of signing Bell to an extension. I'm fine with that. There was no gun to Hoyer's head to trade Bell like there was with Adrian Gonzalez or Jake Peavy. The Padres can afford to keep Bell and Bell has every desire to stay in San Diego. Also there is this. Right or wrong, the front office had to look at how this would look to their fanbase. I'm not crazy about making moves simply to appease the fans, but, in the past few years Padres fans have seen the two most recognizable players traded. Bell currently represents the face of the franchise, the lone All-Star and one of the few players on this team that casual fans are familiar with. Tickets need to be sold and I can only assume that there was some concern of playing into the stereotype of Padres front offices that simply trade away everyone. So, from that standpoint, its a small time risk to sign Bell.

Therefore, unlike with Peavy and Gonzalez, the Padres could wait for a package that enticed them. If it didn't come, then no reason to trade Bell. This can't be about making trades simply to make a trade. My guess is the package the Rangers gave over for Adams is similar to what San Diego wanted for Bell. But, as mentioned above, that's a lot to give up for a rental.

Now, if you think the Padres are within a year or so of contending, then you have a closer for that period. If you believe they are a few years away, then you have someone the fans can cling to while waiting for "the future." And if they resign him, nothing to say they can't trade him next year at the deadline if the Padres are in a similar position.

- Oh yeah, the Padres also traded Ryan Ludwick to the Pirates for slightly more than a bucket of balls (PTBNL). Unfortunately, as you know, Left Coast Bias has chosen the PIrates as our bandwagon team for the rest of the season. So it looks like I am stuck rooting for Ludwick the rest of the season (accept next week, obviously).

- With Ludwick gone, left field is now wide open for Kyle Blanks. So, I guess now is the time we find out if Kyle Blanks can play left field and hit MLB pitching.

In the end, the Padres lost a great bullpen arm today but added two strong young arms to their farm system. The Ryan Ludwick experiment mercifully came to an end. And Heath Bell remains a Padres. Worst things could have happened today. We could be Astros fans.

Turn That Frown Upside Down

2011-07-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

What is there to say about the San Diego Padres right now? At times, they are nearly unwatchable. Other times, they are merely watchable to see in what way they will fail in spectacular fashion (Orlando Hudson throwing the 2nd out to the ball girl who promptly gave it to a young fan was the highlight of futility of 2011 so far).

The most interesting question revolving around this team right now has been when they will trade their most recognizable player and lone All-Star. In my mind, Heath Bell has already been traded. As has Ludwick. I'm less inclined to buy into Mike Adams rumors as that appeared to me to simply be a "hey, let's ask for the moon for him and see if someone bites." And hey, it's July 27th, someone still might.

So here we are. Just over two months to go and the best I got for you is "When is Heath Bell going to be traded?" Personally, I have already found myself emotionally detaching from Heath Bell. As his trade is not so much a "if" but "when," it's time to prepare for life post-Heath. The nice thing if you are a Padres fan is that the All Star Game was a nice going away party in many ways. The Padres lone All-Star was all over that game, between being mic'd for the Fox broadcast to "The Slide," Bell gave Padres fans a fun night on a national stage. But by the end of the weekend, the Heath Bell era (at least version 1.0) will likely be over.

These, my friends, are dark times. Though they could be darker. The Padres could have lost 17 games in a row. Vedder Cup karma.

There is a lot to be blue about these days, so here are a few positives that Padres fans can turn to as we enter the final two months of the season:

1) Hey, only 2 more months to go!
- This has been a brutal season by any standard. Watching your favorite team lose close to 100 games a year removed from winning 90 is a bit of a shock to the system, no matter how prepared you may have been for it. "Oh, but I knew they would be bad because they traded Adrian..." Really? Did you know they would be this bad? And were you prepared to watch them play this poorly? Didn't think so.

2) Anthony Rizzo is KILLING it...in Tucson

- Ok, ok, this is really more bittersweet than anything. If this season has taught us anything, its that the offensive stats the Tucson Padres put up are not quite what we should be expecting when these players are called up. Part of that is elevation of Tucson (2,389 ft above sea level), part of that is poor pitching in the PCL. But, I still believe that Rizzo is going to be a good MLB player in the future. And the fact that he continues to destroy AAA pitching only buoys my belief. I just don't think that day is this year (though I can only assume we will seem him back by September at the latest).

3) Trevor Hoffman's Number Being Retired

- As mentioned before in this space, there are really only two players that I consider to be iconic Padres. Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman. On August 21st, the Padres will retire #51 in a post-game ceremony. Quick, try to name the next Padres who will have his number retired. Wherever he is, he doesn't play for the Padres currently in all likelihood. So let's enjoy this.

4) World Records!!!!

- Trivia time! What MLB team set a World Record on Wednesday, July 27th? Only one, and its your San Diego Padres! Now, the world record was most dogs in costumes in one place (or something like that), but still, don't see the Dodgers setting any World Records.

5) Chance to Bandwagon for Two Months

- With the Padres playoffs long since dead, the final two months will give Padres fans the opportunity to bandwagon on another team and enjoy some peripheral playoff race excitement. This doesn't mean you forsake the Padres by any means. Whatever team you choose to bandwagon with, when they play San Diego we are all expecting you to root for San Diego. The official Left Coast Bias bandwagon pick for the final two months: Pittsburgh Pirates. Not super imaginative but I really can't imagine anyone (outside NL East fans) not rooting for the Pirates.

Some side notes. All kidding aside, the number one positive thing (other than the prospects Texas is going to hand over for Heath Bell) has been Cameron Maybin. I don't know if the Padres have ever had a player more tailor made for Petco Park's centerfield. He is young, with a high ceiling, and has provided some of the most jaw dropping plays in CF this year. He is, by far, my favorite new Padres. And as of July 31st, he will move into position as "favorite Padre" for Left Coast Bias. I'm excited that he is going to be here for a long time.

How Much is #3000 Worth To You?

2011-07-11T21:48:00.001-07:00

By now you have no doubt heard the story of Christian Lopez.

Lopez is the lifelong Yankees fan who was in the ultimate "right place, right time" when he caught a piece of baseball history that is as rare as it comes. How rare? Only 28 people in the history of Major League Baseball have ever reached 3000 hits.

Of those 28, only two got #3000 with a HR. And Christian Lopez, for a moment anyway, had that rarest of baseballs.

From the sound of it, Lopez and his father were immediately surrounded by security and whisked into the bowels of Yankee Stadium, all the while listening to the security refer to him as "the package."

Within minutes he was asked what he wanted to do with it. Lopez, having barely a second to think about what had just happened to him, choose the high road. The honorable thing. He gave the ball to Jeter and asked for a signed jersey. What he got was more than that: Autographed baseballs, autographed bats, autographed jerseys, and 4 Champions Suite tickets to all remaining Yankee games this year.

Total approximate value: $45k-$50k

Here's the rub. Lopez is a 22 year old graduate of St. Lawrence University, and education that provided him life experience, academic challenges...and a ton of student loans. Over $100k in fact.

Total predicted value of Jeter's 3000 Hit HR Ball on Open Market: $200k-$250k

Chances are you didn't know the approximate value of the baseball moments after he caught it while being asked by Yankee Stadium security.

So I posit this question to you, Padres fans. And really, to all baseball fans. What would you do?

I have a ton of student loans. An amount that is large enough that, were they to disappear, it would affect my life in a substantial way. So, since this has happened I've wondered what I would do in the situation that Lopez was in. Say, somehow, I catch Tony Gwynn's 3000th hit.

My favorite player on my favorite team. And in my hand is something that has taken Tony Gwynn most of his career to accomplish, and something that is one of the rarest feats in all of sports.

I'd like to think I would do the right thing. Give the ball to its rightful owner, accepted my free memorabilia and tickets and be on my way. Besides, its not like "catching a piece of history" was in my financial plans for dealing with my student loans the day before.

Then again, $200,000, while very little to a professional athlete or franchise, would literally change my life in a profound way. The second largest monthly bill beyond rent would disappear. Along with it the stress that student loans bring with them.

Then I think of the backlash. The media and fans who would brand me greedy and not a "true fan." I think about the fans who took the extraordinary step of suing each other over ownership of Barry Bonds 700th HR ball, and how much disdain I looked at those two with and how happy I was when they were ordered to split the proceeds but the value of the ball had dropped so much that they couldn't pay their attorneys.

I applaud what Christian Lopez did. And I wonder, the next day, when he was told the approximate value of the ball, how he felt. And I secretly hope that Jeter and the Yankees will cut him a check, privately, because he gave the ball back.

Would I keep or sell this hypothetical Tony Gwynn ball worth $250,000? I honestly don't know. Ask me when my student loan bill comes in the mail.

Heath Bell Twitter Q & A

2011-07-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

In what has become somewhat of a regular event for Heath Bell, the Padres closer and lone representative at the All-Star Game in Phoenix on Tuesday took some time Sunday night to answer fan questions.

As before, here is a sampling of his answers of more interesting questions:

@joshspence Who will you be flicking pumpkin seeds at in the bullpen during the All Star Game?
@HeathBell21 pumpkin seeds are going to go everywhere to everyone!

- Apparently the Heater has a bullpen reputation.

@ryannahartley Would you rather 1 arm or 1 leg?
@HeathBell21 One arm. My right arm.

@BrewerBaseball do you think Jonathon Axford should have been an All-Star this season based on his moustache alone?
@HeathBell21 his stache is pretty sweet. But Gregerson has a nice one goin

@drewdayton what did you think after your first pitch of the all-star game last year?
@HeathBell21 I'm not gonna lose THIS one.

@clintonbrannen If you could have any other job, what would it be and why?
@HeathBell21 work at Disneyland. I want to be Gaston in the beauty and the beast.

@billstrunk How do you feel about the wave at games?
@HeathBell21 I like it. I do the wave in the bullpen.

- that's disappointing, but since he is an All-Star and overall bad ass, I'll let it slide.

@Twine23 best teammate ever? Funniest teammate? Best prank you have pulled off?
@HeathBell21 best teammate: Hundley best prank; can't tell you.

- I would literally pay money to hear what that prank was. Anyone want to start the "Heath Bell Prank Fund"?

@cowsarecool220 Please ask your wife her fave road park to watch you pitch & why?
@HeathBell21 Philly because they were really nice there and gave her sushi after the game.

@Jack_In_Tosh Last person you argued with?
@HeathBell21 my 13 year old daughter...slug bug contest. I won. Still love her though!

@philzfan15 Why #21?
@HeathBell21 that's the number they gave me and 19 was taken

@esslingerj who u got in the derby? And why didn't u fly?
@HeathBell21 i got adrian in the derby and spending some quality time with the kids

This might be my favorite question of all time.
@_TonyHudson_ Hey Heath! Do you think pigeons have feelings?
@HeathBell21 yes! One was born in my golf bag in triple a Virginia. It was cool except I had to throw away my golf bag.

Keep the Faith: Why Frustration in the Face of Failure is a Good Thing

2011-07-10T11:10:00.001-07:00

*The last three days have been as excruciating as any three games in Padres history. I venture to say that the last two games far outweigh the frustration of 10/3/10 or Game 163 if for no other reason than the fact that, unlike those two teams, this team provides little reason for hope. This culminated in a "no-hit" bid that really wasn't thanks to the inability of the Padres offense to, yet again, push across even 1 run. I have been searching for the words to encapsulate these feelings over the past 48 hours but have found nothing that could be considered coherent. Luckily, occasional Left Coast Bias contributor David Israel found those words.

Guest column by Left Coast Bias contributor David Israel

A little bit of background: I have been a Padres fan for as long as I have been cognizant of MLB’s existence- sadly, those began around the time of the 1993 fire sale. I was at Tony’s last game due to the September 11 schedule re-shuffle, I remember the run to the World Series in ‘98 (and still have the t-shirt that looks like a team photo to prove it), the hopeful years of the early 2000s, and still rue the momentous Game 163, otherwise known as the game where we are all still waiting for Matt Holiday to touch home plate. What is important here is that all I have ever known as a Padres fan is some level of futility, watching players leave town in their primes.

Being a fan of the Padres is like being in on an inside joke. Fans of other teams don’t quite get it, but for us, staying loyal to the Friars is something we will continue to do, and something we see as a badge of pride. Over the years, we have Believed in the Padres, Kept the Faith, and gotten chills at the sound of the ominous ringing bell.

And, all of this is why the last two games have stung as badly as any series of Padres baseball has. To fail to score in two straight games may be a hallmark of recent Padres baseball, but to do it against the Dodgers, while only allowing one run each game, is pathetic, and frustrating beyond anything this side of the aforementioned G163. What every fan knew (and expressed on twitter before and as it was occurring) was that for the no-hitter to be possible, it would take more than nine innings. We knew it before the announcers thought to mention it (although since it was Joe Buck, that’s not saying much), and that’s the worst part. We had no reason to hope.

We have seen a Padres team in transition the first half of the 2011 season. Early, it was easy to criticize, as players like Hawpe and Cantu didn’t even seem to be trying. It was easy to distance ourselves as fans; only Ryan Ludwick seemed to be taking his poor performance personally. With more and more players on Twitter, interacting with fans, it’s easier to see the effort of young guys Cameron Maybin and Anthony Rizzo; which makes it that much harder to hate the on field product.

One last note: as fans, we really shouldn’t be as frustrated as we are, but the fact that we do all feel the need to shout at the TV is good. Hear me out- the Padres came in to the season with no real expectations of being a playoff team again. We all knew they outperformed last year, and that even with Adrian, the playoffs were unlikely this year. Yet, we care about a season that we never really should have even hoped for. So we continue to Believe in our Padres, and Keep the Faith. And that’s a good thing.

Chase Headley: Savior, Switch Hitter, All-Star?

2011-06-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

I was going to write up a post about whether the Padres should be buyers or sellers and whether this current winning streak is a good thing. But that felt too negative as I was going to come up with some angle how this winning streak, while fun, could prove detrimental to the Padres long-term goals.

See, negative.

I finally decided "screw it, winning is fun and I'm going to enjoy this while I can. Why rain on this parade?"

So, since it's been a few days since a post and today is an off day anyway, I decided to pick something more positive.

Who will the Padres All-Star Game representative(s) be?

Look, if you are a gambling man, the choice is easy. It's Heath Bell. Deserving no doubt. Bell is tied for second in the National League in saves and is easily the most recognizable Padres to fans that don't reside in the 619 area code (or have Padres games constantly running on their MLB.tv).

There have also been calls for Mike Adams. Another worthy candidate. In 36.1 innings pitched, Adams has given up 5 earned runs. 5 total. He has 40 strikeouts in those same 36.1 innings pitched.

I could even see an argument for Tim Stauffer, certainly after the last month he has put together.

But allow me to pause the adoration for Padres pitching staff (deserved as it may be) and present the case for Chase Headley.

This picture chosen specifically for you lovers of the brown uniform. You know who you are.

But this offense is terrible, you're saying. None of the position players deserve to go, you scream.

Respectfully, I disagree.

When Adrian Gonzalez was here, the Padres could pretty much count on at least one position player making an All-Star Game. Same with Tony Gwynn before him.

But look a little closer at Chase Headley's 2011, and you will see that, not only does Chase Headley deserve to go, he may deserve to start.

Admittedly, I'm a Headley apologist. I display his bobblehead on my desk at work proudly.

See, there he is.

Here is your Top 5 vote getters at 3rd base in the NL:
1) Placido Polanco
2) Chipper Jones
3) Pablo Sandoval
4) David Wright
5) Scott Rolen

Guess who leads NL 3rd basemen in BA?
Chase Headley, at .299 (note: to include Pablo Sandoval you have to look at a minimum PA of only 150, in which case Greg Dobbs of FLA leads NL 3rd basemen in BA at .300 with 203 PA vs Headley's 268. But I digress)

The five leading vote getters per BA?
1) Polanco - #5 (.288)
2) Jones - #10 (.252)
3) Sandoval - #3 (.293 in 150 PA)
4) Wright - #16 (.226)
5) Rolen - #9 (.252)

Headley is not being overlooked due to a power shortage either. While Headley has only 2 HR's, no one in the Top 5 of vote getters has double digit HR's (The most? Chipper, at 7)

If BA is a bit archaic for your taste, then keep in mind that Chase Headley leads these Top 5 vote getters in WAR (1.7). Second closest is Sandoval, at 1.5. Headley leads all 3rd basemen in Runs Created/27 outs and is 5th in the NL for extra base hits (The only member of the Top 5 ahead of Headley? Chipper Jones).

I could go further down this SABR road but it's really a forest of numbers and acronyms. Suffice to say, Chase Headley is the most valuable offensive player on the Padres by nearly every statistical metric. And he is outpacing nearly every National League 3rd basemen in nearly every important statistical category as well.

Chase Headley, All-Star? If the idea of the All-Star Game is to showcase the best players in Major League Baseball, Headley deserves and has earned a spot. He doesn't need to start, but he deserves to be on this team.

That being said, a 37-45 team in 4th place (that's right, 4th! Suck it, Dodgers) is unlikely to get more than one player elected. And that player is going to be Bell.

Maybe it's for the best. As a team that must work within a budget, perhaps it is best left unsaid how good Headley is. Keep the demand for Headley low, keep his price low.

And keep him in San Diego.

So, mums the word. Headley? Headley who?

Padres Walk the Freedom Trail

2011-06-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

Sometime in November/December of 2010 the San Diego Padres schedule was released. One of the first things I like to look at when this happens is the interleague schedule. I realize interleague has distractors. But I for one am a fan. I love the weekends when the Cubs play the White Sox, or San Francisco plays Oakland.

While reviewing the Padres 2011 interleague schedule, one series stood out. June 20th-22nd. Boston, MA vs the Red Sox.

I'd been to Wrigley, old Yankee Stadium and Dodger Stadium (among others). So this was a no brainer. Any baseball fan worth their salt has Fenway Park on their bucket list. And my favorite team was going to be playing there for the first time since 2004.

This was a no brainer.

My day at Fenway began with a tour of the park. Fenway Park offers tours on the hour, even on game day, for $12. Not a bad way to start a day at the park.

The first thing you see is Yawkey Way. If you have ever been to Wrigley Field (and really, the surrounding neighborhood) then this will feel instantly familiar. A stadium built into a residential area, Yawkey Way has a street fair atmosphere.

And my first view of Fenway Park from inside.

Have you heard the Red Sox have won some World Series? Because if you haven't, there was really no way to miss it at Fenway.

Ok, the Green Monster is pretty cool. Even if it is only 310 feet from home plate.

The view from atop the Green Monster. According to our tour guide, fans have to enter a lottery for the right to buy tickets on top of the Monster. If they are chosen in that lottery, you get 4 tickets. Total. For the season.

Look, a table that looks like home plate!

The "Teammates" statue outside Gate B. Statue is of Johnny Pesky, Dom Dimaggio, Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr.

And the Ted Williams statue. The first of many San Diego/Boston connections throughout the decades. Ted Williams that is. Not the statue.

Finally, it was game time. A view from my seats.

A few notes from the game.

- Unfortunately the only game I was able to go to was the first game in the series. But, I did get to see something historic. This was the first game in MLB history that ended in a 3-3 tie after 6 innings. Because the bottom of the 7th never happened. IT NEVER HAPPENED!

- Did a little pre-gaming at the Cask N' Flagon thanks to a suggestion from Bernie Wilson.

- Dave Roberts received a very nice ovation from the Boston crowd when he was announced, for obvious reasons. If you don't know why that's obvious, chances are you are not reading a blog about baseball.

- Adrian Gonzalez is a monster and probably the best player in baseball. He is tailor made for Fenway Park, which is something we all knew. But to see it in person and see him play pepper with the monster is something to watch. No matter how good Casey Kelly and Anthony Rizzo become, it still may not have been enough.

- Overall, the Boston fans I meet were knowledgable and passionate baseball fans. The most common question I got: when Adrian Gonzalez plays in San Diego, will I boo him? My answer was no. I'm an Adrian fan. But I tempered that answer by pointing out that this is not a view shared by all in San Diego.

- That's not to say that there weren't some jerks. A fan two rows in front of me, as the game went on, became increasing loud (and presumably, drunk). At one point, late in the game (after the inning that didn't happen), his buddy asked him "who is pitching tomorrow?" (which, for the record, was scheduled to be Beckett at that point). His answer, "who cares, we're playing the Padres." I thought about that guy with a wry smile on my flight home as I watched the Padres beat Boston on MLB Network (thanks Continental Airlines and your Direct TV!)

I'll leave you with this. I got to talking to some Red Sox fans at the Cask N' Flagon before the game. The conversation at one point turned to the 2004 ALCS. I assume this happens a lot in Boston. It was something to see as their eyes lit up as if they were remembering their favorite Christmas as a kid.

I want that feeling. So Jed, do whatever you have to do. Build the farm system, trade away Bell, sign expensive draft picks. I can be patient. But one day, I want someone to strike up a conversation with me in some bar in San Diego and have the conversation turn to the Padres first World Series. And I want to feel what those guys felt.

I'll be patient, Jed. But I want that.

The Fallacy of a Savior

2011-06-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

It's official.

The San Diego Padres have played their last game in the Pre-Rizzo era. They lost 5-3 to Colorado. But the loss to the Rockies was quickly overshadowed by Jed Hoyer's official announcement of something everyone with an internet connection already knew. Anthony Rizzo is being called up from AAA Tucson and will start on Thursday vs Washington.

I am understandably excited. I think any Padres fan paying even the slightest of attention is excited. An offense that has been lackluster all year (though admittedly better recently) will get a shot in the arm from Rizzo who has made the Pacific Coast League his personal playground, all but forcing the hand of Jed Hoyer to call up their prized prospect earlier than expected.

Expectations are high. Of course they are. And to some degree they should be. Rizzo and Casey Kelly were the major pieces of the Adrian Gonzalez trade, a trade that will, for better or worse, define Hoyer's GM tenure.

But let me say this. Perhaps we temper expectations. Perhaps we take a breath, allow Rizzo to get accustomed to playing at the Major League Level and let him come into his own. If he goes 0 for 4 on Thursday, let's not freak out. If he struggles out of the gate, let's not toss around the word "bust" to quickly.

The promotion of Rizzo reminds me of the last time the Padres brought up their hot, young prospect. His name was Chase Headley, who was quickly nicknamed (somewhat tongue - in - cheek) "The Savior" despite Kevin Towers attempts to lower the expectations upon his arrival. So, with Rizzo on his way, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look back at the promotion of the "Original Savior," Chase Headley (for this exercise, I'm using 2008 when Headley played 91 games. He played in 8 games in 2007).

Headley's first game in 2008 was on June 17th. At that time, the Padres were 31-41 and were 6.5 games back in the National League West.

The opponent? New York Yankees in New York (the final year of old Yankee Stadium). As it happens, I was in New York for this series and got to see Chase Headley's first game.

Chase Headley being announced at Yankee Stadium

Despite the Padres losing 8-0 in this game, Headley went 2 for 4.

Rizzo's first game will be on June 9th. The Padres are 28-35, 7.5 games back in the National League West.

Headley hit .245 in 13 games in June of 2008, hitting 3 HR (I know, I know, hard to imagine now) but striking out 17 times in 53 AB's.

But he also showed improvement, increasing his BA in each subsequent month in 2008 (July = .244 ok ok, that went down 1 pt; August = .280; September = .293)

He ended 2008 hitting .269 with 9 HR's and 38 RBI in 91 games. He also hit better Right Handed than Left Handed (.276 vs .265). This is of course notable for his struggles from the right side of the plate throughout his career.

The Padres...not so great, finishing 2008 63-99 and last in the National League (ironically, this team also had the highest payroll of the Petco Park era).

Now, I consider myself a Chase Headley apologist. I'm a fan, what can I say. Have been since he first got here. And I've often noticed a light undercurrent amongst the fans that Chase Headley has been a bust. Has underperformed based on his talent level.

I disagree. Has he played below the expectations? Yes. But considering the expectations were that he would be "The Savior" I would argue no player could have. But he is beyond a serviceable MLB player.

And keep in mind, Chase Headley was not only asked to be the savior of a franchise struggling but he had to do it while learning a new position (LF). Headley was and is a natural third basemen (has been since the University of Tennessee).

This time around, Hoyer is doing it right. Rizzo isn't being asked to play a position he's not comfortable with. He's being brought up to start in a home game vs the Nationals at a time the Padres are hitting, well, better at least.

Geoff Young of Ducksnorts said it best I think, "Try not to be too bummed out if he only has Adam LaRoche’s career."

Rizzomania has officially landed. Let's try to enjoy it for a bit before the cynicism sets in.

Spangenberg, Ross, and some guy named Rizzo

2011-06-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

A lot of news out of the Padres organization on what is otherwise a sleepy little Monday.

Let's start with the weekend series vs Houston. The Padres finished their strong road trip (in which they went 4-2 @ Washington and Atlanta) to start an 11 game homestand that too many was a "make or break" homestand for the Padres. A homestand vs Houston, a scuffling Colorado and Washington pretty much signified a "if they can't beat these guys at home, they can't win at home" mentality.

So far, so good. Winning 3 of 4 vs Houston, the Padres did what they have struggled to do all year at Petco. They scored runs. RS of 4, 3, 6, and 7 are not going to light up any scoreboard but showed a clear uptick in production. And I think you know who we can thank for that:

A homeless guy (who may or may not have been drunk. Ok, he was drunk) told me after the game that the garden gnome brings good luck to the yard they are in. Early in this homestand, I have no reason to disbelieve that man.

But gnomes and beating the Astros ws put on the back burner with the First Year Player Draft. The Padres have, like, 1000 picks in this draft and have so far used two of those picks (#10 and #25) on:

Cory Spangenberg (3B, 2B, OF) from Indian State College in Florida. I'm not a scout so I will let this report do the work for me. Here's what I do know though. If the Padres can sign him he is already better than last year's 1st round draft pick in Karsten Whitson (who I'm told is dominating at the University of Florida right now). You can get to know the newest Padres here as well.

Joe Ross (RHP) from Bishop O'Dowd HS. His brother currently pitches for the Oakland Athletics and at 6'3" 185 he appears to be the "runt" of the Ross brothers (brother Tyson Ross is 6'6" 230). My very unscientific read of Twitter immediately after this pick seemed to indicate that people who know were more excited for this pick. Also was reported that Tampa Bay and AZ had their eyes on Ross requiring the Padres to jump on him at #25. For his report, click here.

But all of this, the draft, the homestand, was all overshadowed by this tweet sent out at around 6:25pm by @marty1090 "According to a team source, there's a "good chance" that Anthony Rizzo will be called up by the Padres on Wednesday"

Rizzomania may be upon us. All of this came in the wake of a story earlier today that Hawpe was starting in RF. It was later reported that Rizzo was not in the Tucson Padres lineup on Monday night (though the story cited his sore hand as the reason). While the idea of Hawpe playing RF in spacious Petco Park (especially in Petco's RF) its hard not to be excited for a guy hitting .365 with 16 HR and 63 RBI in 52 games.

A worthy debate should be had as too rather this is the right move. I for one would keep him in Tucson and let him get a full season of AAA before bringing him here. Then again, as mentioned earlier, the Padres are playing better thus there is an argument to say that bringing him up now lowers the pressure as he is now not being brought here to save a losing season and spark an anemic offense. But all of that seems moot at this point. And I'd be lying, despite my reservations of bringing him up, if I said that a lineup that looks like this

C - Hundley
1B - Rizzo
2B - Forsythe/AGon/Hudson
SS - Bartlett
3B - Headley
LF - Ludwick
CF - Maybin
RF - Hawpe

doesn't make me more optimistic about this team moving forward. I would caution those expecting Tucson-type numbers from Rizzo that 1) Tucson is at over 2,000 ft in elevation, 2) it is as dry as you can imagine, 3) from those who cover the PCL, this has been one of the weakest pitching seasons league wide.

Rooting for Evil

2011-05-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

As I type this, the Padres first game of a 6 game road trip is in a rain delay in Washington D.C.

Luckily for me, I have MLB.tv, which allowed to me switch to the Boston vs Detroit game just in time to see Boston score 5 runs in the top of the 3rd inning. While watching, my mind began to wander, as it is want to do from time to time. So, if you will excuse the momentary deviation from the typical Padres talk, I offer this quandary.

What if the Red Sox make the World Series?

Despite their awful start to the season, the Red Sox find themselves tied for first in the AL East. Based merely on my own eyeball test on the handful of games I've seen, their offense is as good as advertised, and as I write this Carl Crawford hits his 4th HR, a 2-run shot. Assuming Crawford can get hot, this offense is all the better.

But this isn't about the ins and outs of the Red Sox season. I'm not the guy to talk about that as I don't follow this team (or really, the American League) to offer in depth analysis beyond what a boxscore or highlights reveal.

My point is this. The Red Sox appear to be, if not the best, then one of the best teams in the AL. And yes, it's only Memorial Day, but it looks like they are only getting better, not worst.

So, the quandary then? Adrian Gonzalez.

This still looks weird to me.

I'm still an Adrian Gonzalez fan. I know to some this is already blasphemy. I can't help it. I like him and as far as I'm concerned he left San Diego on good terms. Call me soft if you must.

To that end, I want to see Adrain Gonzalez win a World Series at some point in his career. He is one of the games best players and a player I have invested a lot in from an emotional standpoint. It is sad to me when any sports great players retire without that ring, unless I absolutely loathe that player (looking at you Eli Manning with your Super Bowl ring you don't deserve) when it gets to the end of their career, I root for those players. Many a time, in games I otherwise had little to no rooting interest in, I find myself pulling for the fading veteran still looking for that ring (Jerome Bettis being a great example and the first one I thought of).

So I want Adrian to win. But here's the rub. He plays for a team that I cannot stand. Most teams I'm indifferent about. Does anyone have a strong opinion about the Astros or Twins? not unless you are a fan of those teams. But for me, the list of teams that I actually hate is short: Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox.

End of list.

The Red Sox are the most recent addition to that list. In the interest of full disclosure, in 2004 they were nowhere near this list. I pulled for them and their 90ish years of failure. I got caught up in the 2004 ALCS. Who didn't? Down 3 games to the Yankees (who I never liked but began hating in 1998...about mid October if memory serves) they pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in MLB history.

Then came the books, and talk shows, and the fans. My God the fans. They would not shut up about the Red Sox. They became insufferable. The team then dropped the GNP of Guatemala on Dice K. They had become another Yankees, engaged in an ongoing arms race with their rivals to the south. It wasn't until I went to a Padres game vs Boston that my hate for the Red Sox reached it's apex. The fans were obnoxious, arrogant and all together infuriating.

But now one of my favorite players in baseball plays for one of my least favorite teams. And not just one of my least favorite teams. A team I hate. Loathe. Wish bad things on.

So, if the Red Sox make the World Series, where will my rooting interest lie? I suppose it depends on who is in the World Series from the NL. But the possibility is there and I fear I will find myself pulling for the Red Sox solely based on Adrian Gonzalez, despite my best intentions to the contrary.

So I ask you, do you want to see Adrian Gonzalez win a World Series? Do you not care now that "Padres" is not written on his jersey? Do you have the Red Sox to a point that it is irrelevant who is on the team?

Vedder Cup Fallout

2011-05-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

“I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong” - Benjamin Franklin

In this past weekend series vs the Mariners, the opening series in the inaugural Vedder Cup, the Padres did not, perhaps, fail the test. But boy did they find 100 different ways to play baseball the wrong way.

It was, quite simply, the worst three day collection of baseball I've seen the Padres play in memory. How bad was it?

The Mariners are the worst hitting team in the AL by batting average and the second worst in runs scored, yet managed to score 14 runs in 3 games at Petco Park.

What the Mariners do have is pitching. There are second in the AL in ERA and 5th in the AL in Runs Allowed. They also have the benefit of being able to throw the AL Rookie of the Year frontrunner (Pineda) and the reigning AL Cy Young Winner (King Felix) on back to back days. And with all that pitching, the Mariners had little problems stifling the Padres bats (hardly an accomplishment) by allowing a total of 2 runs in 3 games while striking out 35 Padres over the weekend. Put another way, the Padres had 81 outs during the 3 game series vs Seattle. 35 K's makes up 43% of the Padres outs made over the weekend.

The starting pitching was mediocre, the defense worst and the offense atrocious. It was a less than remarkable beginning to the Vedder Cup. And now the Padres are 8-18 at home this year. It's May 23 and right now the Padres do not have double digit wins at home. The odds of going to a game at Petco and seeing a win right now? Not great, so I'd make sure you like the giveaway that night.

A 1-5 homestand thus far and a sweep by the Mariners in which they looked barely competitive was going to lead to changes. And today, that change took place (whether its the first of many remains to be seen).

Venable was optioned to AAA Tucson today. This is the right move that I don't think many would disagree with but it does mark that the plan for 2011 is not working.

If you play any fantasy sports, particularly through ESPN.com, you no doubt know who "The Talented Mr. Roto" is (AKA Matthew Berry). Every year, TMR does a pre-season column called "You Heard Me" which is essentially bold predictions from a fantasy perspective. This year he broke it down by team, making one bold prediction regarding a player on every team. Here is what he wrote for the Padres:

"Will Venable becomes this year's Drew Stubbs, going 20/30. I'm thinking: He needs to stay healthy and get regular playing time, but the power/speed skills are there."

That article was written on March 30th. And to be honest with you, I didn't even think this was that outrageous a prediction. I, like many, saw the September Venable had in 2010, saw the raw physical ability and thought "this guy is due to breakout." When he got regular playing time in 2011, it seemed that finally the stars had aligned for Venable.

It just hasn't happened.

7 extra base hits. 0 homeruns. At times he looks completely lost at the plate which has accounted for 36 K's in 151 PA.

I for one feel bad for the guy. Again, I don't disagree with this move in the slightest. But I've always like Venable and, behind Headley, there is no Padres I've had more patience with than Venable. I, like everyone else, kept waiting for him to put all the physical skills that are plain to see together.

Taking his place is Blake Tekotte from San Antonio. I'm not going to pretend to know anything about him, but here is what Corey Brock wrote at Padres.com:

Tekotte, who turns 24 on Tuesday, was hitting .291 with nine doubles, three triples and six home runs for San Antonio, also had 24 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. Tekotte, a left-handed hitter, is considered a good defensive outfielder.

Tekotte was a third-round Draft pick in 2008 out of the University of Miami and becomes the second member of that Draft class to reach the Major Leagues. Infielder Logan Forsythe, who was recalled from Tucson earlier this month, was the first.

No doubt more moves will follow throughout this season. Depending on how the month of June and beyond goes, the 2011 season may ultimately cost the Padres their All-Star closer. By September, it will not surprise many to see plenty of new faces on this starting roster, likely to include Anthony Rizzo, who at this point pretty much needs to be Roy Hobbs to meet the expectations.

But by far the most substantial move the Padres have made thus far in 2011 has been demoting Will Venable. Was he the only problem? Hardly. There is not one facet of the game, beyond the bullpen, that is working right now. And Venable is far from the only player struggling at the plate. But demoting him does provide for Venable to "get right" as he put it.

And it shows that after mustering 2 runs and 35K's in a sweep at the hands of Seattle, the status quo is no longer acceptable.

Step one is admitting you have a problem. Jed Hoyer did that today.

Vedder Cup Round 1 (Nearly) Live Diary

2011-05-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

We are sitting mere mins away from the first pitch of the inaugural Vedder Cup. The Mariners have landed, the Padres have Orlando Hudson back. The only thing left to do is play ball!

As this is the first game of the first Vedder Cup battle, it seemed appropriate to attempt the first ever (nearly) live running diary on Left Coast Bias. I've had the idea to do this in the past but it never quite seemed to work.

If ever there was a reason to attempt it again, the Vedder Cup is that reason.

(Yes, I know this is a Bill Simmons "Sports Guy" concept. I have 50 readers, he has over a million. He'll get over it.)

(Also, I have to imagine that beer will be drunk during this game, so apologies ahead of time if the conversation goes off the rails.)

7:05 pm: Team Latos time...first pitch a strike. We are underway.

7:06 pm: And Ichiro down on strikes. No easy feat and a great start for Latos. Also, our first Mudcat-ism. Ichiro = "The Sultan of Slap"

7:07 pm: DEFENSE! The errors by the Padres defense continues to be the most confusing aspect of 2011. That's all on Bartlett.

7:09 pm: Bartlett off the hook. Smoak hits into DP to end the inning. No damage done. Who wants to play 21 more?

7:14 pm: It can't be a good sign that my wife, when the Padres get a hit, says "HEY" like she just saw a shooting star.

7:18 pm: This Ludwick at-bat has been going on for about a year and a half. Unofficial count.

7:20 pm: Bedard doing his best Gaylord Perry impression with his not doctoring (but doctoring) of the ball.

7:23 pm: Padres stole a base. Padres didn't score. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

7:30 pm: Mariners release the first salvo in the Vedder Cup with a triple on a hit and run followed by an opposite field single. This is always where I worry about Latos. He seems to get rattled easily when he gives up a few runs. Other than the triple though, these balls are just missing gloves. Rather be lucky than good sometimes.

7:38 pm: Maybin SMOKES a ball right up the middle. A reminder of why I never wanted to pitch in Coed, Slow-Pitch softball. Basically a firing squad standing out there.

7:43 pm: Nice barehanded grab by a fan for a foul ball. Great form too.

7:46 pm: Padres threat snuffed out by DP. In other news, it was decided that Arnold's transgressions were worst than Tigers by Mrs. Left Coast Bias. So there's that.

7:57 pm: Padres game on via MLB.tv on PS3. Mrs. Left Coast Bias reading "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen and our cat has a small bald spot. Every time I've ever been asked "what would you do if you have 1 day left to live", this has never been the answer.

7:58 pm: Dick Enberg "NL Manager of the Year...Buddy Bell." I guess that beats calling Trevor Hoffman Dustin Hoffman?

8:02 pm: AFLAC trivia question "Who is the Mariners all time Wins leader?" No idea, but my guess is Randy Johnson though I don't feel like he played there long enough to be the all time Wins leader. Meanwhile, Olivo with a ground rule double to lead off 4th.

8:04 pm: Dick Enberg "It's a hitters park just not a homerun hitters park" In principle I agree with this statement.

8:09 pm: Mariners score on sac fly, though I was told that sac flys are boring. I think the run counts anyway though.

8:10 pm: Inexplicably, the Jackie Q song "Ring Round My Rosie" from Get Him to the Greek just popped into my head.

8:12 pm: AFLAC trivia question answer: Jamie Moyer.

8:13 pm: Direct quote from Mrs. Left Coast Bias, out of nowhere. "I'm getting the feeling...that a Jack in the Box shake is in my future. My immediate future."

8:16 pm: Cam Maybin is hitting the ball hard. Unfortunately this time he gets nothing to show for it. Still pretty sure a Maybin jersey purchase is in my future. Not sure if it's in my "immediate" future though.

8:22 pm: Latos threw a fastball that read 89 MPH. Keep in mind that this Petco gun read Aroldis Chapman's 105 MPH fastball last year. Not sure if Latos velocity is down or if he is saving bullets, but seemed noteworthy.

8:27 pm: Aki Otsuka and Trevor Hoffman held an autograph session for Japanese Tsunami relief before the game. Raised nearly $10,000. Great work all around.

8:32 pm: Padres keep taking bats up to the plate but I'm assuming it's for looks only. 2 hits through 5 innings. Bedard with 6 strikeouts. About 100 of those are called thirds.

8:35 pm: Miguel Olivo just missed a HR last time he was up. He didn't miss this time. Hit that into the Andruw Jones section in LF, underneath the scoreboard.

8:40 pm: The low throw thing needs to stop. It just...it needs to stop.

8:42 pm: Craft beer time. Pale Ale from Hangar 24 in Redlands, CA. Freshly filled growler that is soon to be freshly emptied.

8:48 pm: Padres grounded into a double play. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

8:52pm: The Pearl Jam song puns have begun on Twitter and I'm loving it. Most common and most appropo. "The Padres bats need to come 'Alive' in this game."

8:53 pm: Cory Luebke is in the game which sets everyone up for my favorite Padres player name joke "Girls love Lueb"

9:00 pm; Ryan Ludwick extends hitting streak to 9 games. Yes, that Ryan Ludwick. Really starting to come around, which is encouraging. Meanwhile, Pearl Jam song puns are multiplying on Twitter. Been a fun night.

9:02 pm: In the Padres defense, that was a much more unique double play than usual. Cantu crushes a ball to left only to be robbed of a HR. Ludwick doubled off first as he had taken off, assuming, at worst that that ball was a double. Brutal. Game literally went from 4-2 potentially to 2 outs, 0 runs, 0 on for the Padres in span of 10 seconds.

9:10 pm: Cory Luebke looking good as usual. I know it's only a matter of time before he is in the starting rotation, but I have to wonder, what is taking so long?

9:13 pm: If this was 2007, I wouldn't feel so bad about being shutout by Bedard.

9:21 pm: It has just dawned on me that if tomorrow is the end of the world, then my last meal was a turkey burger. That was a mistake.

9:25 pm: "Sounds like you have a lot to say over there about 0 runs." - Mrs. Left Coast Bias. You'd be surprised.

9:29 pm: 9th inning. Padres about to be shutout for the 9th time. Against Seattle. Who I was told had very little offense yet scored 4 runs off the "ace". Overall, barring a great comeback here, a less than great beginning for the Vedder Cup.

9:34 pm: Padres get caught in a bizarre force out after a fly ball to left is dropped. Bartlett forced at second. Should be bases loaded. Now Bartlett is on second and Ludwick is out. I don't know, this is making my head hurt.

9:40 pm: And it's all academic because Cantu grounds out to the pitcher. Game over. Round 1 of The Vedder Cup goes to those stinkin' Mariners.

Vedder Cup Round 1 Tale of the Tape

1st Hit: Ryan Ludwick, 1st inning, fly ball to center
1st Strikeout: Mat Latos, striking out Jack Cust, 1st inning.
1st Run: Peguero triples in Kennedy, 2nd inning.
1st HR: Miguel Olivo, 6th inning.

Mariners 4, Padres 1.

Until tomorrow...

Five Things Padres Fans Hate about the Mariners

2011-05-20T07:08:00.001-07:00

The time is nye! It has been written that in late May 2011, visitors from the north will invade our sleepy town.

In preparation of Round 1 of the Battle for the Vedder Cup, here are 5 reasons to hate the Mariners (not really).
1) SafeCo Field an obvious rip off of Petco Park. Both have "co" at the end, both seem to suppress offense, both aesthetically pleasing. So what if SafeCo opened 5 years earlier. DON'T BOTHER ME WITH FACTS!

2) Justin Smoak. Because every time I write his name, I write "Smoke" first on accident. I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR SCREWY NAMES!

3) The Food. Did you know that you can get sushi and pad thai at SafeCo. That sounds delicious. WAIT. I MEANT, THAT SOUNDS HORRIBLE. WHAT AM I SAYING? (that actually does sound good though)

4) Ichiro. What kind of fan base idolizes a singles hitter? (Oh wait...)

5) Two words: Rally. Fries.

And a bonus: Because I hated having to read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in school. And it has the word Mariner in it.

The Long Road Home

2011-05-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

The logical part of my brain knew that this day would happen.

Mat Latos wasn't going to go winless for the rest of his career.

But boy, it kind of started to feel that way. I don't know that I have ever seen someone with more pure, raw talent struggle as much as Latos did in these past 12 starts. Sure, not all of these losses were his fault. Poor run support or defense would foil him more times than I'm sure he wants to remember.

But something seemed off. His velocity was down, his location was off and his confidence seemed to be shrinking with every passing start without a win. I had originally planned a whole post about "What Was Wrong With Latos" in which I was going to bring up the workload increase and the loss time during Spring Training. I was going to write (and did via Twitter) how I thought Latos should go to Tucson and build up his arm and make up the loss time from Spring. Well, we can shelve all that for now.

Colorado is hardly a place to go to right the ship as a pitcher. But the Padres 8-2 win over Colorado to move to .500 on this road trip marks the first win for Mat Latos since 09/07/10 (a win that, at the time, put San Diego 1 game ahead of SF for the NL West division title) seems bigger somehow, more than a regular season win in May over a division foe.

"It s a struggle no one wants to go through. It's good to get it out of the way." - Mat Latos

Whether this is a turning point of the season remains to be seen. Perhaps that's reading too much into one win. But for Latos I have to think this was more than just some win in May. This exercised demons. The 0-10 monkey is officially off his back.

The pitching has been suspect on this road trip; the defense not much better. The offense is clearly showing signs of life after a month of futility that defied any statistical measure you could come up with. It helps when you play games in Miller Park and Coors against teams with leaky bullpens.

The Mat Latos losing streak had become symbolic of the struggles of the 2011 Padres. At least for me. It encapsulated everything that was going wrong with the Padres. Yes, the offense was going to struggle with the absence of Adrian, but it would be ok because the pitching and defense should be as stellar as the 2010 version. But the offense was worst than anyone could had expected, the defense mediocre and now the ace of the staff couldn't win a game.

But this game is as much about confidence as anything. You can see that in Hawpe, who has been one of the hottest hitters in the NL since the end of April.

And now, hopefully, we will see it in Mat Latos.

The Case for Petco Park

2011-05-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

The San Diego Padres scored 13 runs today on 23 hits.

Let me say that again.

The 2011, shutout 8 times, San Diego Padres scored 13 runs on 23 hits.

It should come as no surprise that they were on the road when this happened, playing in Miller Park, a far more favorable offensive setting.

The 23 hits were the most for the Padres since 08/12/03 vs Atlanta. It was the first 20 hit game for the Padres since getting 22 hits vs Milwaukee on 08/11/09.

It was a good day.

And now they travel to Colorado, as hitter friendly a park as there is. Players appear, using nothing more than my own observations, appear to be hitting the ball better, harder, and with just a bit more confidence (most notably Ludwick and Hawpe who have been much maligned to start this season).

This kind of offensive output on the road lead many today to the obvious questions/complaints about Petco Park. There is a loud, though I argue still minority opinion that Petco Park should be modified in some way to lend itself to more offense. This argument was given a local media voice in the form of Darren Smith of XX1090 when he posted on Facebook "Padres scored 22 runs in three games at Miller...21 in their six-game home stand. Nope, PETCO doesn't matter." This was followed by a lengthy discussion in which the common refrain from those in favor of modification point to the lack of "excitement" in games played at Petco Park.

This argument really got started in force on Saturday night, where, after being shut out by the Diamondbacks (the Padres 8th shut out of the season thus far), Chase Headley was quoted in the San Diego Union Tribune “I don’t care who you bring into this ballpark, it’s not going to be an offensive club, it’s not. So we as an organization understand what type of team we have to have to win and it’s always going to be based around pitching and defense. So I don’t necessarily think it’s a personnel problem.”

I've personally had this argument more than once and, since the issue is complicated and getting all my points across in 140 characters was proving to be impossible, allow this to be the case for keeping Petco Park as it is.

1) The Petco Park Advantage
Petco Park opened in 2004 marking this the 8th season in the park. In 7 complete seasons in Petco, the Padres have 2 NL Western Division titles. In their entire franchise history prior to moving to Petco they had 3 ('84, '96, '98). They accomplished this despite never having a team salary higher than $73 million (2008).

If you judge success not by division titles but purely by wins, then keep in mind that the Padres 90 win 2010 was the 4th highest win total in franchise history, despite a paltry $45 million payroll. (It's worth noting that the worst year for the Padres came in 2008 where they won 63 games while spending $73 million).

So was it coincidence that the most successful stretch in Padres history coincided with the opening of Petco Park? I seriously doubt that. The Padres have committed to a strategy as a franchise to build teams around good pitching and defense and a focus on small ball and speed. To that end, the Padres are consistently near the top of MLB in team ERA and, more recently, SB's. Petco has turned average pitchers into league leaders and saw only the 4th Cy Young in franchise history in 2006 with Jake Peavy. Pitching and defense. That's Padres and Petco baseball. And it has, for the most part, proved to be successful.

2) The Money Game
Let's live in the real world. The Padres will never be one of the biggest spenders in baseball. Jed Hoyer has said publicly that, eventually, the Padres eventually will operate around $70-75 million a year. For reference, this year a payroll of $75 million would put the Padres 20th in MLB in team payroll.

Furthermore, of the top 10 player salaries in MLB this year, only 2 of those players (CC Sabathia, Roy Halladay) are pitchers. The point? Offense cost money. Money the Padres don't have and won't have anytime soon (thanks John Moores!).

So, maintaing Petco Park as a pitchers park allows the Padres to continue to utilize the pitching and defense strategy while being able to work within the financial reality in which they operate. Ryan Howard cost money. Aaron Harang? Considerably less.

3) Atmospheric Conditions
The jewel of downtown San Diego is Petco Park. It was the catalyst for one of the most successful neighborhood renovation projects in the United States. It's aesthetically pleasing being located in the Gaslamp Quarter and near the San Diego Bay. Beautiful and quintessentially San Diego. The location could not have been better.

Except that it is probably the primary culprit for the lack of offense in Petco Park.

It's not a surprise nor a secret that Petco plays less as a pitchers park during the day time. What's missing during the day? Marine layer. Thick sea air that moves in each night and essentially acts as quicksand to fly balls. As a piece of purely anecdotal example, last year, Adrian Gonzalez did not hit one homerun at home aft 8:00pm. That's not coincidence.

So unless you are willing to move Petco Park to La Mesa or move the fences in 100 ft, it may not much matter.

4) Winning Breeds Excitement
Finally, there is the argument that Padres baseball = boring baseball. This is obviously a more subjective point. But, dare I say, that offense doesn't make a team exciting. Winning does. The Padres play, more often than not, close games. A byproduct of low scoring games no doubt. Which would seem to translate to games that are often up in the air until the 9th inning. Which would seem to translate to excitement. But, beyond the brand of baseball the Padres play, I would argue that winning, no matter the score, is exciting. Last year the Padres were near dead last in team BA yet won 90 games and was one of the more enjoyable seasons in recent memory (from a personal level).

Considering the Padres are 7-14 at home, no argument that this year's Padres, to this point (today's game being the obvious exception) have been boring. But I argue that they are boring because they are losing. Call me crazy, but I'll take 2-1 wins over 13-12 losses everyday.

I beg to differ with Chase Headley. This year, it is the personnel. Doesn't mean this team can't turn it around. As a team they are hitting far below average and it stands to reason that a course correction is coming (if not already here based on the series in Milwaukee). But when every everyday player other than one (Bartlett) is on pace for 100k's, you can put that team in any park from Coors to Williamsburg and it won't much matter.

So I say, keep the fences where they are. Adapt to the park, don't make the park adapt to the team.

The Say May Kids

2011-05-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

Amongst baseball's many cliches is this one: You can't win the division in April.

This comes as welcome news to the San Diego Padres. Including the one game played in March, the Padres ended the first month of the regular season 10-17. It was the lowest win total for an opening month for the Padres since 2006. Although, on a slightly good omen, the Padres went on to win the NL West in 2006 with an 88-64 record. How, you may be asking, did the Padres start off so slow and go on to win 88 games?

The month of May.

Arcade Fire, help me out here?

Thanks.

The Padres won 19 games in May of 2006 moving from last place to 3rd place in the NL West in the process. The Padres increased their BA from April to May by 42 pts (from .226 to .268).

And all that was jump started by an April 30th win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Can the 2011 San Diego Padres pull off a similar feat as the 2006 Padres? This optimistic fan says yes. And here's why:

1) Schedule
What is overlooked by many regarding the Padres struggles to start the season has been their schedule. It's been brutal. They had 3 days off between their first 6 games and then played 11 straight games before being rained out in Chicago followed by 8 straight games after that. They've had to play sereis against St. Louis, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati.
Contrast that with their schedule in May that includes Pittsburgh, their first series against Arizona, Washington, Milwaukee, and of course, our hated rivals the Mariners.

2) Pitching
Through Saturday's game the Padres had a team ERA of 3.03, 3rd best in MLB. Which means one thing. The Padres are rarely blown out. Only 3 times this season have the Padres lost by 5 runs or more. One would think (hope) that eventually these close games will swing the Padres way. Keep in mind they were a diving catch by Anthony Gwynn Jr. from sweeping Los Angeles this weekend.

3) Offense
It can't get worst. But it can get better. And it doesn't need to be that much better for the Padres to start winning some of these 2-1 games instead of losing them.

The Say May Kids started off May as they have so many times. With a win. Made all the more sweeter that it completed a series win over Los Angeles, their first series win since the opening series vs St. Louis. Pittsburgh and Arizona come to town, the offense is showing signs of life and it's May. Despite everything, perhaps there is some reason for optimism.

The Etiquette of Booing: Part II

2011-04-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

In 2008, one of the earliest post I wrote for this blog was on the etiquette of booing. In that post, the situation was specific to booing Trevor Hoffman. The basic point was that Trevor Hoffman had earned our respect and a blown save here or there was not worth the fans of San Diego booing him.

Today, this argument was renewed. After yesterday's 7-0 loss to Atlanta yesterday, Petco Park was filled with boo's. To the point that Orlando Hudson responded, reportedly saying, "That's why they're fans, they couldn't cut it in high school or college baseball & you don't boo the home team."

Let's take this in a couple steps.

1) Orlando Hudson is not Trevor Hoffman. It's a rare player that earns the respect and does not deserve to be booed, absent serious misconduct. Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman are probably the only two players in Padres history that are on that level. Orlando Hudson has been a Padres for only a few months. And let's be frank, the first regular season month of Hudson's career in San Diego has been less than stellar for the team.

2) There's a debate amongst fans whether fans should boo the home team. A debate that I'm sure they snicker at in Philadelphia and New York. But I like not being a fan of Philadelphia and New York, in part because we don't turn on our team at every bad moment. Does that mean a teams fan base is NEVER allowed to boo? I beg to differ. Philadelphia and New York boo too much but that's not to say there isn't a time and a place. That time and place is...

- 7 shutouts in 25 games in 2011 (12 shutouts in all of 2010)
- .208 team BA, good for last in ML. 213 SO, most in MLB
- And of course, the oft discussed BA/RISP of .172

3) There is a difference in booing a player or team you don't like (see: Cleveland with Lebron) and fans booing out of frustration. It is my belief that what happened Wednesday is the latter. And Orlando Hudson's reaction was an extension of that frustration.

I don't believe for a second that the player's aren't doing everything they can to start winning games. Probably trying too hard ultimately. I don't for a second think that these players aren't playing 100% and aren't more frustrated than any fans are. So I get Hudson's venting. What I don't agree with is Hudson's opinion that fans are not allowed to boo simply because they cannot play at a MLB level.

I'm not a booer unless I don't like the player or team. I don't boo my own teams no matter how frustrated I get. But I don't have a problem with fans doing it if they need to vent. Within reason. And through the first 25 games, we are well within that reason.

The fact of the matter is, I've been a bigger fan of the Padres longer than Orland Hudson has been. Or Brad Hawpe, or frankly any member of the Padres this year. So yes, I may not be talented enough to play at the MLB level. But I'm emotionally invested enough that if I'm frustrated by the teams play, I can let out a groan or a sigh or even, yes, a boo.

Everybody's frustrated, from the players to the GM to the fans. Brighter days are ahead, this I know. And no disrespect was meant toward any player individually or personally. And hey, I like Orlando Hudson. I give him a pass on this. He's a stand up guy, great in the community and a fun guy in the clubhouse by all accounts.

So let's chalk all this up to frustration. And take that frustration out on Los Angeles.

Now That's a Mood Modifer!

2011-04-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

I started writing this post after last nights horribly frustrating lost to the Reds 8-2. This came after the Padres had left the winning run on 3rd two innings in a row. The Padres were 1-11 with RISP in that game and had wasted yet another good start from their pitching staff.

Then today's game happen and the same offensive ineptitude was on display again. And the same frustration, reaching a boiling point when the Padres failed, again, to advance a runner from 2nd to 3rd via a bunt.

As I'm writing this now, no frustration in sight. All smiles.

Walk-off wins can do that to you.

Look, Hudson's walk-off single didn't suddenly erase the offense problems that Padres have right now. They are 4-15 with a man on 3rd and less than 2 outs. Overall, the team BA with RISP is .213. That needs to be better.

As does Hawpe. Being 4 for 29 is one thing. 12 of those 29 AB's ending in a strikeout? An entirely different thing. Despite a better (better being a very loose term) BA than Ludwick, right now I have much more faith in Ludwick then I do Hawpe. It seems like all I see is Ludwick hitting the ball right on the button...and right at someone.

But like I said, I just don't feel like focusing on the negative right now. I intended to come in here, rant and rave about this team and vent some frustration. About bunts, and blown opportunities etc etc.

Instead, the Padres finish their first homestand with a much needed win. And I'm smiling and all is right with the world. For tonight anyway.

Walk-off wins can do that to you.

The Two Day Game

2011-04-09T17:42:00.002-07:00

"It's late, but it's early." - Vin Scully

The Padres and Dodgers pulled their best John Isner/Nicholas Mahut impression last night/tonight.

Something tells me that we will remember this game much like we remember the 22 inning game.

Not necessarily fondly but with an almost "wow, remember that game?"

I remember watching all 22 innings of that game. Bleary eyed, loopy, and increasingly losing interest in who won only that someone would win. I also recall Mudcat throwing paper at fans in the stands below the booth. It was a crazy night. What is perhaps forgotten from that game however, is the minor tailspin the Padres went into after that game. Immediately following the 22 inning marathon, the Padres went to Arizona and Houston before returning home to San Francisco. They lost 7 of their next 8, due in part to a clearly taxed pitching staff.

In 2009, the Padres played another epically long game, an 18 inning affair vs the Diamondbacks in which San Diego scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game only to lose the game 9 innings later. The losing pitcher that night: Josh Wilson, a utility infielder.

But neither of those games can match the actually, real time length of the Padres vs Dodgers game that began on Friday, April 8th and concluded on Saturday, April 9th. This was the Padres first night game at home of the 2011 season. It was also the first game that I was going to be able to see from start to finish of the season (thanks to day games and the Central time zone).

Then came the rains. And then the rains. And then more rain.

By 1:00am, the crowd looked something like this:

So, predictably, after 4 rain delays and a restart at 5:30pm Saturday night, the game went to extra innings. Which is where we are at as I type this. Heading to the Top of the 10th inning, tied 2-2 despite the Padres 6 stolen bases on the game.

So what did we learn during the rain delay? Well, here's what I learned:

- The Padres have had 16 complete rain outs in their history

- Corey Brock knows his Pearl Jam. Fav songs, per Twitter, "Given to Fly" "Betterman" "Chloe Dancer" (a Mother Love Bone song they cover in live shows)

- Umpires apparently cannot read a radar screen. Rain was forecasted throughout the night. After the 3rd delay, this game should have been postponed.

- Cory Luebke is going to be a starter for this team. And probably soon. Luebke came in after the first rain delay and after Bud Black decided to not send Clayton Richard back out to pitch, and promptly struck out the side. In all, Luebke went 4 innings, striking out 5 and allowing one unearned run.

- Dan Hayes (@NCTPadres) prides his press pass more than the chance to slip n' slide, to many fans chagrin. But, he is a big Big Lebowski fan, so I guess we'll call it even.

- And finally, a rumor that free beer was being served at Petco during the many rain delays. So there's that.

- Oh, and one last thing. The Dodgers won 4-2, in 11 innings.

See you all in a half hour!

Padres Pre-Game Dining

2011-04-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

I like food.

A lot.

When you read my About Me, you'll notice food items are mentioned twice. Moreover, I like combining food with an event. When planning a Super Bowl party, the first thing you should think about is food. Going to watch the National Title game somewhere? Only if that place serves wings. So it seemed a no-brainer that, as the home Opener for the Padres 2011 season is finally upon us, that I provide a small primer on pre-game dining options prior to heading to Petco.

I opened this up to some people on Twitter to try and get a bit of a cross section of places. So without further adieu, play ball and bon appetit!

Rocky's Crown Pub
3786 Ingraham St San Diego, CA 92109

Recommended By: Left Coast Bias

There is perhaps no more divided argument in San Diego than the battle between Rocky's and Hodads. You can go ahead and put me in the Rocky's camp. Firmly. There is no better burger in San Diego. And it's simple (this being the all important tie-breaker when comparing Rocky's to Hodads). You can choose between two sizes, 1/3 or 1/2, cheese or no cheese and that's about it. Cold beer on tap, hot peppers as the bar snack and televisions everywhere, Rocky's is to me an ideal lunch spot prior to a night (or 5:30pm on Saturdays) game. Beach morning, Rocky's lunch, Padres night game. That my friend, is a good day.
Cash Only.

Lolitas Mexian Food
202 Park Blvd San Diego, CA 92101

Recommended By: @AIChief_AJm, @jodes0405

Every single time I go to a Padres game a I see this place. Full disclosure, I've never been. Not for lack of desire. Not sure why, but this is the season for Lolita's, certainly after it was recommended by multiple people within minutes of asking for Padres fans favorite pre-game dining options. I do know this. You could nearly play RF from this restaurant and they serve carne asada fries. Mmmmm...carne asada fries.

Proper Gastropub
795 J St. San Diego, CA 92101

Recommended By: Left Coast Bias, @jodes0405

Another location that is so close to the park you could practically be the 10th player on the field, Proper Gastropub has a "view" of the field though, to be honest you can't really see the game other than on the big screen behind the batters eye. This is the restaurant for those who have a slightly more refined palette, or just want to pretend they do. The Black and Tan Mac & Cheese and the pizzas are personal favorites. They also serve Alesmith on tap, which is a surefire way to get me into your bar at least once.

Tilted Kilt
310 10th St San DIego, CA

Recommend By: Left Coast Bias, @FtblSickness

More often than not, if it's within an hour of game time and I'm in the Gaslamp, I'm here. It's right next to the right field gate, it has HUGE TV's that are everywhere and they serve giant beers. Yes it's a chain, though a small chain by chain standards, but in my mind it's good, quick bar food in a convenient location.

And I like pleated skirts. So sue me.

Lefty's Chicago Pizzeria
3448 30th St. San Diego, CA 92104

Recommended By: Left Coast Bias

I lived in Chicago for three years right after graduating college and in that brief time I acquired a taste for a few things: pickles on a hot dog, Italian beef, drinking until 5am, and deep dish pizza. On the West Coast, there are plenty of places that claim to serve "Chicago Style Pizza." They lie to you. If you want to know what a Chicago pizza taste like, get yourself to North Park and dig in. Lefty's is tiny, so get it to go and take it with you to the game. And thank me later.

Pizzeria Luigi
1137 25th St. San Diego, CA 92102

Recommended By: Left Coast Bias

More of a NY pizza fan? May I direct you to Pizzeria Luigi's then? The Golden Hill location is about 10 mins from Petco and is, in my mind, the superior NY pizza in San Diego (Bronx Pizza an honorable mention). Another great "buy-by-the-slice" if you are so inclined, I'm particularly fond of the ricotta cheese and tomato sauce pie they do.

Dussini Loft Bar
275 5th Ave San Diego, CA 92101

Recommended By: @nomatophobic

Add another place to my "2011 To-Try" List with Dussini. I'm told they have excellent sliders and really, who doesn't like a slider? I also like the idea of going gin martini prior to a game. You know, to be fancy. Be warned though, I'm told you may find Cubs fans here, coping with their existence as a Cubs fan.

Honorable Mentions:
Here are a few more places that I like and were mentioned to me as good pre-game options. But the National Title game is on and this blog post is getting long.

1) The Yardhouse (via @SanDiegoJosh): Chain? Yes. Awesome? Yes. Best Mac & Cheese I've had? Probably.

2) Tin Fish: Close to the park. Simple and fish tacos. Everything you need in a San Diego experience.

3) Basic: Can be a little clubby for some but I like the pizza.

4) Fidels: I put this here only because it is by far my favorite Mexican restaurant in SD county. Nowhere near the park (Carlsbad and Solana Beach) but if you are coming down from North County, build in some time for Fidel's.

5) Brian's American Eatery: A horrible omission from my earlier post, so I had to edit and add Brian's. It's 24 hour diner at its best, so it can be your pre, post and much later post-game dining destination.

6) Bring your own food! One of the coolest things about Petco to me is that you can bring in your own food. Grab a sandwich or burrito and walk right in. Because in the end, your night is ending with watching live Padres baseball.

If the Padres Win and I Don't See It, Did It Happen?

2011-04-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

MLB as an organization can sometimes do the most frustrating things. For some reason, they seem dead set on ensuring that they never create any new fans. They have accomplished this goal in a variety of ways: putting a stranglehold on their footage which makes it nearly impossible to find clips of classic games (try to YouTube Joe Carter's World Series Winning HR and see if you can find a clip that wasn't just recorded by someone off their own TV); utilizing an insane blackout policy that, most notably, blacks out games for 6 teams in Las Vegas, which is home to a grand total of 0; and consistently dropping the ball on Opening Day.

Opening Day is fantastic and every baseball fan in America looks forward to it with the same zeal and excitement of Christmas. In previous years, MLB has started the "Opening Night" which I believed to be the previous years World Series champion in a one game showcase for the sport followed by Opening Day for everyone else (though, if memory serves, I think the Nationals had this honor once when their new stadium opened). Not a bad idea. Stealing a page from the NFL, MLB had created "an event" to bring people in.

So, one would assume the Giants would be playing in "Opening Night" this year, no? Wrong. Yes, the Giants did play a night game and yes it was on Opening Day, but it was at the end of a day full of games in the middle of the week. The first slate of MLB games for the 2011 season took place while most of America was at work. Nothing creates new fans like showcasing your sport at a time that no one can watch it. Brilliant.

To that end, the Padres opened their 2011 campaign in St. Louis at a 1:00pm start here on the West Coast. No chance to watch this while at work, so I set my DVR to record the nationally televised game on ESPN. Even tacked on an extra hour, a veteran move for anyone trying to record live sports (won't tell you how many last second drives, overtimes or 9th innings I've missed by not doing this).

Full disclosure: I live in Riverside, CA; outside the San Diego television market and outside the blackout radius for the San Diego Padres per MLB. Since moving up here more than a year ago, I have seen the Padres on MLB Network, Fox and ESPN without an issue.

Except for Opening Day. After watching the final inning of the Tigers vs Yankees game, I settled in for Tim Stauffer and the new look Padres. What I got was ESPNNews. 4 hours of ESPNNews.

I was less than pleasant to be around at this point.

After some cursing and venting via Twitter, I had to face reality. I wasn't going to be able to see the game. Therefore, might as well left the "information embargo" I had begun since 1:00pm and find out who won.

What I saw was stories of the Cameron Maybin Show. Diving catches, a game tying, down to their last out, HR in the 9th and an overall display of the potential that made him worth the relievers it cost to get him. It was a thrilling game and was reminiscent of so many of the 90 wins from 2010.

The Padres opened the 2011 campaign by winning in dramatic fashion against a team and in a city where they notoriously struggle.

Or so I'm told. Since I couldn't see it. Congratulations MLB.tv, you just got yourself a new customer.

MLB Props and Other Fun Bar Debates

2011-03-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

I like prop bets. Not as a lifestyle per se. Just as a conversation starter. One of my favorite things about the Super Bowl is the wackiness of the various prop bets (O/U length of time for National Anthem; Color of Gatorade poured on winning coach; etc).

So, as we are less than 48 hours away from Opening Day, I thought a fun way to kill some time would be to look at some various MLB prop bets.* All lines via Sportsbook.com

Without further adieu, and in no particular order:

Most Regular Season HRs by Any Player
O/U 46.5
- Last year, Jose Bautista came out of nowhere to hit 54 HRs. Next closest. 42, by Albert Pujols. Coming in 3rd was Konerko with 39. That said, I'd take the UNDER. We are in the era of the pitcher and beyond the era of steroids.

Most Regular Season Wins by Any Pitcher
O/U 20.5
- OVER. Way over. Last year, 2 pitchers (C.C. and Halladay) won 21 games. But, including those two, 9 players had 18 wins or more. In the years 2000-2009, there were 34 20-game winners. This year, one team could have 4 of them alone. For the same reason we go under with HR, we go over here. At least one pitcher will win 21 games this year.

Albert Pujols Total HRs
O/U 38.5
- I don't know how much stock you put into the whole "contract year" thing. I know I've heard that there really is no statistical data that backs up the idea that players in a contract year outperform their average. But if ever someone was motivated to show they were worth $20 million plus per year, isn't it this guy? Is there anyway he DOESN'T hit 40 HRs? Take the OVER.

Adrian Gonzalez Total HRs
O/U 36.5
- Between 2007-2010, AGon has hit 30, 36, 40, 31 HRs respectively. And I don't think I need to remind anyone in this audience where he played 81 games a year during that stretch (not to mention equally cavernous parks in SF and LA). Now he moves to a park with these dimensions: 315 to Left (plus Green Monster), 379 Left-Center, 380 Right-Center, and 302 down the Right Field line. Yes he moves to a bigger market, more attention, more pressure. But he leaves behind facing guys like Jimeneaz, Lincecum, Cain, and Kershaw. I say OVER, but not by much.

Buster Posey Total HRs
O/U 19.5
- He hit 18 HRs in 2010 in 108 games. But now pitchers have had a year to face him, watch tape on him and scout him. Then again, so has Posey. Still, he loses the element of surprise and he plays in a big park. I go UNDER, but not by much.

4 Aces (Halladay, Oswalt, Lee, Hamels) Total Regular Season Wins
O/U 59.5
- This is one of the most intriguing and interesting props available in my opinion. Basically, an OVER bet is saying you expect these four guys to average 15 wins a season. Before you jump at the chance to take this, let me say this. Jose Contreas is starting the season as the Phillies closer. And, when healthy, Brad Lidge is their closer. These four guys are aces, no doubt. But thats a lot of wins for a bullpen that ranked 10th in the NL last year to hang on to. I say UNDER.

Heath Bell Regular Season Saves
O/U 35.5
- As a full time closer, Bell has yet to save under 40 (42, 47). This number seems way to low and, barring injury, should be eclipsed easily. Take the OVER.

And finally...

San Diego Padres Regular Season Wins
O/U 75.5
- An under bet basically says that you think the Padre would drop 15 games from a year ago. For any team, that is a substantial drop off. And if you think this, you are likely basing most of that on the loss of Adrian Gonzalez. Look, that's a big loss, no way around that. But keep in mind, the Padres won 90 games a year ago, despite scoring only 665 runs all year (good for 22nd in MLB). Padres won with pitching (in my opinion as good if not better than last year) and defense (way better up the middle). I don't know that they can win 90 games without some luck like they had a year ago. But I don't think they play 6 games under .500 either. Take the OVER.

*For Entertainment Purposes Only

Roster Moves Begin to Shape Padres 25-man Roster

2011-03-28T17:55:00.000-07:00

Busy news day for the Padres. A quick rundown of today's moves as we inch closer to Opening Day:

1) The biggest news of the day was the trade for Alberto Gonzalez (so look forward to a lot of double takes when you see in the box score "A. Gonzalez"). Padres traded Minor League pitcher Erik Davis, who was 14-3 with a 3.52 in 27 starts with Lake Elsinore, San Antonio, and Portland. This shores up one of the most glaring holes heading toward Opening Day in finding a defensive specialist to act as backup INF/Utility.

2) As feared/expected, Mat Latos will start the season on the DL.

3) Cory Luebke has been told he has made the team. Considering the Padres have 3 off days in the first 8 days and Latos on the DL, this may be short lived. Worth noting, he was used in one inning of relief work today so he could be used as reliever vs starter...for now.

4) Cedric Hunter, OF, has made the Opening Day roster. Hunter, 23, was the Padres top ranked prospect in 2006. Get to know your new backup OF here.

5) Aaron Harang was named the Padres home opener starter.

So, as you can see, a busy day for the Padres. More decisions sure to follow tomorrow.

Finally, some housekeeping. If you are on Facebook, don't forget to "Like" the Official Left Coast Bias page. Link is to the left.

Name the Tucson Padres Mascot!

2011-03-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

No matter how bad a season the Padres are having, and, through the years, some of these seasons have been pretty bad, one thing always makes me smile at a Padres game.

The appearance of the Swinging Friar.

Through the years we've meet the Friars "creation":

The military Friar:

And this handsome fellow in the glasses:

And now, the Tucson Padres have announced the appearance of the Swinging Friars long lost identical brother!

But he is missing a name. This is where all of us come in. The Tucson Padres are asking for suggestions on the Tucson version of our beloved Swinging Friar. I like the name Pueblo since Tucson is known as the "Ole Pueblo."

Mrs. Left Coast Bias liked the name Tuffy, and nice ode to the original AAA team in Tucson, the Tucson Toros.

Got a better idea? Well, go to the Tucson Padres website and submit your name!

Latos "Bewildered" by Sudden Shoulder Pain

2011-03-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

Nothing is going to get me off my high of watching Arizona run Duke out of the Honda Center in the 2nd half of last nights Sweet 16 game. In fact, for fun, here you go:

But today's news out of Peoria comes awfully close. Per Corey Brock via Twitter (follow Corey @FollowthePadres):
"Mat Latos won't start tomorrow. He's got a sore shoulder."
Followed by:
"Bud Black said Latos, who pitched Monday, complained of soreness Wednesday. "It just sort of popped up," Black said."

These are things you don't want to hear about the presumed ace of your staff, one week before the season starts. Raising additional fears is the relatively poor spring Latos has had in Peoria and the Verducci Effect.

Regarding the Verducci Effect. I don't know that I adhere to it or not. But it is, at minimum, worth noting that in the past two years, Latos has seen an increase of at least 60 IP in each of those seasons. So whether you buy into the Verducci Effect or not, the struggles at the end of 2010, the struggles in Spring and now the shoulder soreness are all pieces of a very concerning puzzle.

But hey, at least we have LeBlanc.

Blerg.

In Which We Deviate from the Norm

2011-03-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Left Coast Bias was created and has been exclusively a blog about San Diego Padres baseball.

But today, we take a break from that to discuss one of this writers other sports passions. University of Arizona basketball.

For those who don't know, I graduated from the University of Arizona in 2003. Prior to that, I had lived in Tucson since 1990. And if there is one thing that all Tucsonan's agree on, its a love and passion for Wildcat basketball.

When you have the history of success this school has had in basketball, its easy to see why.

Lute Olson was hired following a disastrous 4-23 season in 1983. From the University of Iowa, Olson had taken the Hawkeyes to the Final Four in 1980 and a Sweet 16 appearance in 1983. When he entered the campus in Tucson, the Wildcat basketball program was nothing short of a joke. What followed was one of the most impressive coaching eras in college basketball history.

In 1986, Arizona won its first Pac-10 title. In 1988, with players like Steve Kerr and Sean Elliot, Arizona reached their first Final Four.

Then came the 1997 season. After finishing 5th in the Pac-10, the Wildcats received the 4th seed in the Southeast Region and went on to beat top seeded Kansas in the Sweet 16, #1 seed UNC in the Final Four and #1 seed Kentucky for the National Championship. To this day, the only team to beat three #1 seeds in one tournament.

In all, under Lute Olson, the Wildcasts made 12 Sweet Sixteens, 7 Elite Eights, 4 Final Fours, 1 National Runner Up and 1 National Championship.

And lest we forget the most impressive stat of all. Arizona made the NCAA Tournament 25 years in a row. A streak second only to UNC 27 straight appearances. Growing up, Arizona making the tournament was a foregone conclusion. It wasn't until recently that I experienced the stress and excitement of Selection Sunday like most fans.

Unfortunately, the Lute Olson era did not end in a clean way. During the 2007-2008 season, Lute Olson took an unexplained leave of absence, leaving Kevin O'Neill (current Trojan head coach) as the interim coach. A verbal succession agreement was reached with O'Neill, but pretty early on it was apparent that O'Neill's personality did not fit with the Wildcat program created by Lute Olson. Olson returned, briefly, only to take another leave of absence, leaving the team without a clear head coach or a succession plan if Lute Olson was unable to return. His age and health concerns* had been whispered about throughout Tucson for some time and it appeared that Olson's days as head coach of Arizona were numbered, if not already over. Kevin O'Neill having left for USC, Russ Pennel was brought in as the interim head coach for the 2008-2009 season, leading Arizona to a Sweet 16 as a 12 seed.

In all, Arizona lost commitments from three top recruits and forfeited an entire recruiting season as they held a nationwide search for a head coach.

Which they found in Sean Miller.

In 5 seasons as the head coach at Xavier, Sean Miller made the NCAA tournament 4 times, reaching the Elite Eight once and the Sweet Sixteen once. Sean Miller may not have been the big, flashy name many had hoped (among names publicly tossed out at one time or another: John Calipari, Jamie Dixon and Mark Few) but he came with a reputation for recruiting and winning in March.

"Whoever takes the Arizona job will have a 6 year rebuilding job ahead of him." - Andy Katz

Sean Miller was hired on April 7th, 2009. In his first recruiting class, he signed Derrick Williams, MoMo Jones and convinced Solomon Hill to re-commit.

On March 24th, 2011, Sean Miller will take his Arizona Wildcats into Anaheim and a Sweet 16 game vs Duke. The 6 year rebuilding plan being accomplished in 2 years.

Win or lose on Thursday, there is no argument that the 2010-2011 season has been successful for the Wildcats. Not only for their record, Pac-10 championship and tournament run, but for putting Arizona back where they belong. As part of the elite of college basketball.

But since we'll be in Anaheim anyway, might as well go ahead and beat Duke.

The Battle for the Vedder Cup

2011-03-20T16:15:00.001-07:00

It's official.

With some help from Dan Hayes at the North County Times (follow @NCTPadres on Twitter) the Padres/Mariners rivalry has a name for 2011:

THE BATTLE FOR THE VEDDER CUP

As most anyone who has enjoyed music over the past two decades know, Pearl Jam was one of the seminal bands of the 90's, beginning as part of the early 90's grunge movement out of Seattle. Pearl Jam today have evolved and grown from their early grunge beginnings, and remain the standard of rock music by which all subsequent bands are measured (ok, that last part might be a BIT of an editorial comment).

However, for non-Pearl Jam nerds, Eddie Vedder has roots in San Diego. It was in San Diego that Eddie Vedder formed Bad Radio and it was in San Diego that Eddie Vedder was approached by Jack Irons to write songs for a three song instrumental demo for a band in Seattle, then known as Mookie Blaylock. Eddie Vedder, as the story goes, went surfing with the songs in his head, and penned the Mamasan Trilogy (Alive, Once, Footsteps).

So there you have it. Padres vs Mariners. The Battle for the Vedder Cup.

Padres vs Mariners: A "Rivalry"

2011-03-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

The Padres are currently in the midst of Spring Training in Peoria, AZ.

Which must boil their blood to no end.

Why, you may be asking? Because every March the Padres must share a field, locker room and overall breathing air with the most hated of all hated rivals in Padres history. The Seattle Mariners. Just typing it sends shudders through my body.

Since 1997, MLB has had interleague play and every year teams are pitted against their natural rival. Yankees vs Mets, Dodgers vs Angels, Giants vs A's, Cubs vs White Sox and...Padres vs Mariners?

For a simply fantastic read of the history between the Padres and Mariners (and yes, there is a legitimate, albeit old, history), I direct you to RJ's Fro blog.

But that's not why I'm here today. The rivalry exist. No one knows how this fight started. Much like the Hatfield and McCoys, those of us carrying on this rivalry couldn't even tell you what we are fighting about.

But I know one thing. This rivalry needs a name.

Back in February, a Twitter comment turned into a Twitter conversation with some fantastic ideas. I've combed through them to pick out my favorites. Let's name this rivalry once and for all!

Your candidates:

1) The Conundrum of the Coast

2) Battle for the Vedder Jug

3) The Alaskan Airlines Series

4) The Toast of the Coast

5) Battle for the Venti Jug

6) The Border Patrol War

2011. The year we will finally have a name for all this indifferent hatred for our rivals to the north.

A Successful Season in 2011?

2011-03-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

Success is in the eye of the beholder. And arguably, your idea of success is dependent on what view you take of a situation.

For example:

The 2010 Padres won 90 games after winning 75 games the year before = Success

The 2010 Padres had the best record in the National League in late August and missed the playoffs = Not Success

Mat Latos went 14-10 with an ERA of 2.92 in 2010 = Success

Mat Latos went 1-5 with an ERA of 5.66 in September of 2010 = Not Success

Success. Virtually impossible to define and impossible to agree on. Ask 100 Padres fans whether the 2010 season was a successful season, and chances are you would get a near 50/50 split of yes and no. And both sides are probably right. To a point.

So how do we define success for the 2011 San Diego Padres?

For one, the expectations have been risen by the 2010 season. Not a bad thing until you look at the overhaul the Padres went through. Only one infield position will be manned by the same player as last year (Chase Headley-3B). The trade of arguably the best player the Padres have had in the past decade leaves a hole not only in the lineup but on the defensive side of the ball. Major pieces of the bullpen (Muijica and Webb) and starting rotation (Chris Young and Kevin Correia) are gone.

In place of these major changes, the Padres front office has built a team that is perhaps more athletic and more balanced. Balance looks to be the buzzword surrounding this team this year and if you haven't heard it enough yet, just wait. But despite the PR spin of terms like "balance" there is truth to that. In a previous post, I compared the current middle infield vs the middle infield revolving door the Padres used in 2010

I'm all in on Bartlett and Hudson.

I'm also all in on Harang. Maybe I've had a bit to much Kool-Aid but a strikeout pitcher who's Achilles Heel is homeruns moves to Petco Park? I'll take my chances.

Questions abound, of course. Cameron Maybin is a great fit for the cavernous center field of Petco Park. A guy with 5 tool potential but right hits like Pedro Serrano (all straight balls, nothing that moves).

Hawpe is a downgrade defensively at first, there's no debate about that. But how much of a downgrade and how much will that hurt and infield that, overall I think will be better defensively. Mat Latos has struggled in Peoria so far this year and there is some concern that the massive workload increase from 2008-2010 is a debt that is coming due.

So what is success for the 2011 San Diego Padres? I think its fair to say that there is perhaps more excitement internally about where the team is heading, with the additions of Anthony Rizzo and Casey Kelly, then where they are. That doesn't mean 2011 is a lost season as we all bide our time waiting for the first basemen of the future to get here (and while we are on the subject, how about we temper some expectations this time. Less "savior" talk would do a world of good. Yes, Rizzo is having a great Spring. But so did Kyle Blanks last Spring. Chase Headley has fallen victim to the otherworldly expectations when he was touted as the "savior."). It does mean that, perhaps more than any other season in recent memory, getting a handle of the 2011 Padres before the season starts is near impossible.

But they still have great pitching. Outside of first base, they are stronger defensively. The back end of their bullpen remains in tact and they have a lineup sprinkled with players who have huge upside (Maybin, Venable). Plus a division where there is no clear favorite (though I think if you win a World Series, you are the de-facto favorite).

So success for the 2011 Padres to me is simply this: be competitive. Winning 90 games is hard and probably unrealistic. Winning 82-85 games? More than doable. That win total puts the Padres in the thick of the NL West into August and at that point, as we are all too familiar with, anything can happen.

But keep this in mind. Success can be defined in a number of ways and our definition of it will change throughout the season. At the beginning of last year, I thought .500 would be a success. By the All-Star game, a division title was success. Looking back on the season, despite not making the playoffs, 90 wins to me was a success.

5 Thoughts on 2011 Padres

2011-02-07T18:27:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl XLV ended the NFL season, crowning the Green Bay Packers champions of the league.

But for those with diamonds in their mind and the smell of cut grass in their nose, yesterday's big game signified but one thing. Baseball is right around the corner.

The San Diego Padres first full workout is scheduled for Feb. 19th. But the universally accepted "start" of Spring Training happens this Sunday, Feb. 13th, when pitchers and catchers will report to Peoria, AZ to share parking and locker rooms with their arch-enemies, the Seattle Mariners! (ok, seriously, is there a more forced "rivalry" then Mariners vs Padres?) No. No there isn't.)

So, with Spring Training less than a week away, today we look at 5 thoughts/questions/ramblings on the 2011 Padres season.

1) Can this team compete for NL West again?

In a word, yes. Of course they can. Let's take a trip back for a second to February 2010. No publication, journalist, blogger, or talking E-Trade baby believed the Padres could do any better than last in the NL West. Even through my rose colored, homer glasses, I only aspired to a .500 season and perhaps a 3rd place finish. Now, we all know how those prognosticators predictions turned out.

Now, here we are in February 2011 and the same talking heads and scribes are picking a similar fate to the 2011 Padres. Dead last or 4th in the NL West. According to sports gambling site Sportsbook.com, the Padres have the same odds of winning the NL West as the Diamondbacks, at 12/1 (Giants favored at less than 2/1). But why? Because of turnover? The loss of Adrian Gonzalez? Miguel Tejada?

Obviously, the loss of Adrian Gonzalez is a hit. No way around that. But this isn't the NBA. One player does not a team make. I am no sabrematician (is that a term?). For a more in-depth analysis of Adrian's value, I would direct you to http://thesacrificebunt.com/ However, AGon's WAR (Wins Above Replacement Player) was 6.3). Let's now add in Eckstein and Tejada, arguably the two largest departures not named Adrian Gonzalez.

Eckstein: 1.4
Tejada: 1.8 (this number represents only his time in San Diego)

So, in three players the Padres loss 8.5 wins. The three key replacements? Orlando Hudson, Jason Barlett, and Cameron Maybin (obviously I realize Hawpe was brought in to play 1st with potentially having Jorge Cantu sharing time at 1st, more on that in a second).

Orlando Hudson: 0.4 (ok, not great but not terrible)
Jason Bartlett: 1.5
Cameron Maybin: 0.3
Hawpe/Cantu were both 0.0

That totals 2.2 wins. So, basically, the Padres are looking at losing, simply on statistics and on paper, 6 wins from 2010. Equalling 84 wins which was good enough for 3rd place in the NL West.

What do all these numbers mean? I'm not sure, I kind of got lost halfway through. But, my point is, while there has been substantial turnover, that turnover resulted in equal to or better players at key positions, 1st base notwithstanding. And I don't know about you, but in the course of 162 games, there are at least 6 games that turn on bizarro, weird, plays that can only be classified as luck. Denorfia's inside the park ground ball anyone?

What the Padres haven't lost is what was key to them winning 90 games in 2010. Pitching (in my mind, the starting rotation is better than a year ago, more on that soon) and defense, also better with the additions of Maybin, Barlett and O-Dog.

So to make a long story short (too late!), can they match their win total from a year ago? Yes, of course they can.

2) Can Mat Latos hold up for an entire season?

Mat Latos was on his way to what appeared to be a Cy Young type season. In the first half of 2010, Latos went 10-4 with a 2.45 ERA, and 0.96 WHIP. He had also already pitched 106 innings by the All-Star Break. This number already eclipsing the prediction that Fangraphs.com had of 87 IP for Latos. And it had been clear in Spring Training that Latos was going to limited in pitches in 2010, less he become the next Mark Prior. All of which would have been fine had the Padres been cellar dwelling as predicted by the All-Star Game. Which of course they weren't.

Thus, Latos was pushed to be the ace of the staff before he was ready or the team wanted him to be. And his second half numbers reflected that of a pitcher who's previous season high for IP was 122. Latos went 4-6 in the second half of the season, posting a 3.58 ERA with a 1.244 WHIP while increasing his SO/9 from 8.4 to 10.4 (read: more pitches), including losses in his final 5 starts (and yes, his run support was less than stellar during that stretch).

This was a natural and, dare I say with 20/20 vision, a predictable fall-off considering his increase in innings from his previous high of 122. He finished 2010 184 IP.

But now he's done it. Now, he's arm has had the experience of pitching 180+ innings in high stress games. And history is on his side (Mark Prior notwithstanding). Lincecum went from 146 IP and a 4.00 ERA to 227 IP the next year and a 2.62 ERA. Felix Hernandez went from 190 IP in 2007 to 238 IP in 2009, posting a 2.49 ERA.

Small sample size? Sure. But, provided Mat Latos stays healthy, there appears to be no ceiling to his potential and all the reason to believe that the 1st half of 2010 can be carried over to an entire season in 2011.

3) What will the starting rotation look like by September?

2010 Projected Starting Rotation, in March
1) Chris Young
2) Jon Garland
3) Kevin Correia
4) Clayton Richard
5) Mat Latos

2010 Starting Rotation, in September
1) Mat Latos
2) Jon Garland
3) Tim Stauffer
4) Corey Luebke
5) Chris Young (newly off the DL)

The point. It hardly matters what the starting rotation looks like in March. It won't be the same by the end of the year. Injuries, slumps, trades. Any variety of things can mix up the rotation. Perhaps that is no more true then for a team like the Padres, who have so many young pitchers. The Padres added Aaron Harang (a pitcher with a down year but upside who I think will have a rebound year in Petco) and Dustin Moseley. This, coupled with Tim Stauffer, who is finally blossoming into the 1st round draft pick the Padres believed him to be and Clayton Richard (how good does that Peavy trade look now?), and the Padres rotation looks solid.

But what if Richard regresses ala Correia? This is where I believe the strength of the Padres to be. Pitching depth. Last year we got a taste of Luebke and I think we all liked what we saw. And of course, a bit down the road, Casey Kelly is waiting in the wings.

With any luck, the Padres starting rotation by September will include Luebke at minimum. Beyond that, who knows?

4) How many pounds of Garlic Fries will I consume in 2011?

The over/under is at 20.5. Take the over. Way over.

5) Can someone give Chase Headley a day off?

Chase Headley played in 160 games in 2010. There are 162 games in a season. The positive. Tremendous health and and consistently from a key infield position. But this overwork can clearly led to a fall off in production.

Or did it?

He had a tough September, though that could be said for the entire team. But in July and August he hit .300 and .286. This while being bounced around the lineup with no clear natural position in the lineup. Chase Headley will never be the power threat from the 3rd base position that is stereotypical. But if you want power, well friend, you follow the wrong team in the wrong park.

So can he get a day off? The addition of Cantu would seem to indicate that, yes, Buddy Black will not let Headley play 160 games again, keeping him fresh for what we hope is another September run.

Spring is right around the corner. And spring brings about it optimism. Until I see tangible evidence to the contrary, I choose to be optimistic about the 2011 Padres.

Meet...the Tucson Padres!

2011-01-25T17:37:00.001-08:00

In the land that is the Padres, a lot of things have been happening recently. However, none of those events felt like an entire blog post. For example, I like the Jorge Cantu signing and I like it more knowing its only $850k. He is a versatile utility player (that seemed redundant) with a decent bat. As a player off the bench, he is a marked upgrade over Matt Stairs last year (sadly, no word on whether Cantu has a fun catchphrase like Stairs' "Swing like you live - hard"). But that's pretty much all I have to say about that for now. Hardly a blog post.

The Padres also released their new camouflage jerseys, called "Digital Camouflage." Here's a look:

*photo courtesy of Corey Brock of MLB.com (@followthepadres via Twitter)

And, the word is that the new grey road jerseys will be revealed tomorrow. Again, interesting, but not enough to fill this space.

But for this Padres fan, one thing grabbed my attention more than any other piece of news this week. The Padres announced awhile ago that their Triple-A affiliate would be playing at least the 2011 season in my hometown of Tucson. I blogged back in October about my excitement of seeing the words "Tucson" and "Padres" next to each other.

Then today, the Tucson Padres logo was revealed. Now. to some this may seem like a minor if not non-story. But, for someone that has such a strong association to both words, seeing them next to each other was nothing short of surreal. So, without further ado, the Tucson Padres:

First things first, THANK YOU for bringing back the old school script. Astute Padres fans will recognize that script from these formerly maligned but now celebrated jersey of yore:

LOVE the script on this logo. However, I couldn't help but notice the similarity to another iconic logo in Tucson.

This logo is one of many for the University of Arizona (which, for those who are not aware, and based on how many times I have to tell people that the U of A is NOT in Phoenix that's most of you, is the pride and joy of Tucson, AZ). So there it is. A centaur made up this time, not of man and horse, but of arguably my two biggest sports passions (Chargers notwithstanding for these purposes). I love it. I'm excited for it. And I'm looking forward to making a trip to 100+ degree days to watch the Tucson Padres.

P.S. If you are on Twitter, don't forget to follow @TucsonPadres

Heath Bell Speaks...Again!

2011-01-15T23:01:00.000-08:00

As is becoming somewhat customary for Padres closer Heath Bell, tonight was another Q&A via Twitter. For those not following Heath Bell on Twitter, follow @HeathBell21

So, what did we learn:

Batting Leadoff @LosGeez "What is your favorite place in SD other than Petco Park?"
@HeathBell21 "Legoland"

@refriedgringo "You miss batting? Ever hit the cage for the hell of it?"
@HeathBell21 "In Spring training all the time...I'm the best bunter on the team!"

@sususuza "What's ur favorite reality TV show?"
@HeathBell21 "I really don't watch much but the Next Best Baker is pretty awesome."
*I have literally never heard of this show. And I'm a guy who enjoys his cooking reality shows.

@LeftCoastBias (yes thats me) "Last movie you saw and thoughts on it?"
@HeathBell21 "Chronicles of Narnia...pretty good."

A few Trevor related questions, obviously:

@gdarklighter "what's the most important thing you learned from Trevor Hoffman?"
@HeathBell21 Not to throw too many pitches before a game."

@silentheroes "thoughts on Trevor coming back to the club?"
@HeathBell21 "Excited. He's full of knowledge and will be a great help."

@TheThinGwynn "In 100 or less characters, what does Trevor mean to you?"
@HeathBell21 "He was my mentor, he is my friend, and he's the type of ballplayer I work hard to become."

Ok, a few more.

@SDRHYTHM "out of all MLB ballparks, which one is your favorite (other than Petco of course)?"
@HeathBell21 "Philly and Citi"

@felix5407 "who do you think will win the super bowl this year?"
@HeathBell21 "I'm rooting for LT and the Jets but the Packers are looking good."

And finally, the question on every Padre fans minds:

@jkdlvsd "Will Yoda be hangin' in the bullpen again this year?"
@HeathBell21 "Yoda left with Ryan Webb"

This piece of information may change my opinion on that whole trade now!

Anyway, this was a snippet of Heath Bell on Saturday night. He does this every now and then so I would strongly suggest you follow him on Twitter. And, in the event he happens to read this, then, THANKS HEATH! It's pretty cool to have an athlete be willing to answer fan questions, no matter how asinine they may be.

The Day the Bell Went Silent

2011-01-11T16:55:00.000-08:00

i-con (noun): a person or thing regarded as a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement

In San Diego Padres franchise history you can arguably make a case that the word "icon" only applies to two players. Obviously, Tony Gwynn is one.

The other is Trevor Hoffman.

This isn't to say that the Padres have not had players in their history who weren't important to the franchise. Dave Winfield, Nate Colbert, Randy Jones, and *shudder Steve Garvey. And in more recent times their have been two players in particular that, had they stayed Padres for a longer period of time, would no doubt be spoken of in terms of "icon," those players being Jake Peavy and Adrian Gonzalez.

But when it comes right down to it, and you take a long look at the Padres franchise, when the discussion of Padres icons or "franchise players" is brought up, it begins with Gwynn and ends with Hoffman.

On January 11, 2011 Hoffman ended his 18 year career, one that will no doubt lead him to seeing #51 above the batters eye at Petco Park and ultimately end in Cooperstown. He retires with #601 career saves, most ever in baseball history. He retires having represented the National League in the All-Star Game 7 times, 1,133 strikeouts vs only 307 walks and a career upon which almost all closers going forward will be measured.

On Sept. 23, 2006 my wife (then girlfriend) and I went to the second to last Padres game of the season. The Padres were on their way to winning the NL West that year and were in the middle of a pennant race against Los Angeles, so the game had some importance. But I couldn't tell you much about it other than one thing: Trevor Hoffman notched save #478. With only one home game left, Trevor Hoffman had tied Lee Smith for the All-Time Saves record. What happened next involved me sprinting to the nearest ticket window and purchasing whatever ticket they had available. Was it a crapshoot that Hoffman would get a save opportunity the next day? Yes. But I certainly wasn't going to sit at home and watch Hoffman break this record knowing full well I could have and should have been there.

There is nothing stranger then rooting for your team to win, but not by too much. I remember little of Sept. 24th other than a few things. One, when Josh Bard hit the go ahead HR I secretly was hoping the score would just stay 2-1 the rest of the game (spoiler alert, it did). And I remember the final out, a ground ball in the hole against a speedy Freddy Sanchez. Then the place went nuts. It stands today as easily a Top 5 moment for me at a Padres game.

In 16 seasons as a Padres, Trevor Hoffman pitched only 953 innings. Yet his impact on the city and the team extends well beyond those 953 innings. He saved 555 games for the Padres, 9 seasons of over 40 saves, most of this on teams that were, shall we say, God awful. He did all of this after being forced to reinvent himself as a pitcher due to an arm injury, transforming himself from a typical flame-throwing closer to developing one of the most dominating pitches in baseball history in his changeup. Much like Rivera's cut fastball, Hoffman's changeup became the pitch that every hitter knew was coming, yet none of them could hit.

Perhaps there is a debate over whether Hoffman is a Hall of Fame candidate. But that debate is being raged by those who know nothing of baseball or what the Hall of Fame is suppose to be about. The Hall of Fame is for players who were the greatest of their time. And there can be no debate that Trevor Hoffman was one of the greatest of his time.

So here's a tip of the cap to Trevor Hoffman who was consistently great at a position notoriously inconsistent.

Don’t Touch the Stove! …it’s hot.

2010-12-21T17:05:00.000-08:00

*Today marks a red letter day in the history of Left Coast Bias. Today, I am happy to present the first guest article in the blogs history. David Israel is a fellow Padres fan (I suppose that was obvious), a member of the legal community and, as this article shows, a pretty damn good writer. So, without further adieu, David, take it away!

By David Israel
With the Padres moves likely winding down (pick a 1B, any 1B), and with time on my hands, it’s time to take a look at the hot stove for one of the most active teams on the market. The Padres were surprising players; while there were no big acquisitions, the Padres have made some major moves, and despite the loss of Adrian, should put up a solid mid-level performance on a low-level payroll. So, let’s take a look.

The Adrian deal: Look, it was bound to happen. Enough has been written about it, and if 2-3 of those guys pan out in the next 2-4 years, the Padres will be better off for having made this deal. Casey Kelly looks legit, and the other parts will eventually help. Eric Patterson as the PTBNL stings a little (was hoping for an unrealistic Ellsbury move), but overall, this deal looks downright decent.

GM Hoyer also shored up the rotation, which suffered the losses of Kevin Correia and Chris Young. Aaron Harang has always been one of those guys I can’t help but think has been consistently undervalued; I like him in Petco Park for the price we’re paying. The rotation could probably use one more free agent brought in for the back end, to form up with Latos, Richard, Harang, Stauffer, and perhaps Leblanc. But hopefully not Leblanc; I just don’t trust him yet full time.

The middle of the field has done a full change; Maybin is Gwynn with slightly less defense, but more than enough to cover some ground in Petco’s CF. The bat upgrade he brings over AGJ is well worth it; for Maybin and Bartlett, we gave up 4 pieces we were never going to use, plus two minor leaguers with uncertain futures. That’s a plus; Bartlett will bring some stability to a position where the Pads have been lacking for a long time. This blog has already posted stat comparisons; take a look below.

My one suggestion for the off season when I planned on writing this a week ago was that the Padres should sign Orlando Hudson for a few years. While they paid him more than I would have projected, O-dog will bring a veteran leadership to this team that would have been left to only Ryan Ludwick. Good signing for a player who will fill a need, and provide savvy leadership. He is also familiar with the NL West, from his time with the Dodgers. A little expensive, but a good signing.

What’s left for the off season? A first baseman, clearly- look for Troy Glaus to be slotted in to that role. He made $1.75M last year, and could likely be had for $2-3 M this year. The defense won’t be Adrian (who may not be as good as numbers indicated- the lateral movement wasn’t great last year), but it will be adequate. I’d rather see a cheaper option than Derek Lee, but it would be fun if Lee and C. Young ended up on the team together, if only so they could relive their brawl from 2007. We could also use some of the Gunslinger’s old leftover magic in pulling a bullpen piece or two off the scrap heap.

So can the Padres compete with this team? With the Rockies and Giants in the division, probably not. So, what would I like to see happen? Before the Magglio Ordonez signing in Detroit, Ryan Ludwick seemed like he could be a fit there. Both Ludwick and Bell could (and should) be moved before the deadline, to save on payroll and bring in some help for the future. I love Bell as a player, and as a part of the San Diego community. But he deserves a shot to compete, and should get it.

Overall, a nice hot stove season for the Padres, and it should be a nice year of baseball in 2011. And, it’s only 2 months until the three best words, ever: pitchers and catchers.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your 2011 Middle Infield!

2010-12-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

By now you have heard that the Padres middle infield will look quite different then it did in 2010. Gone is the rotating door at SS (though, once Tejada was traded for that door was pretty much shut) and the spark plug at 2B.

In their place, Jed Hoyer has made two moves cementing the 2011 infield and, when coupled with bringing in Cameron Maybin, solidifying everything up the middle for 2010.

So, who are these new Padres and how do they compare to the 2010 versions? Let's go to a Tale of the Tape!

Jason Bartlett

Bartlett is a career .281 hitter, all in the American League. 2009 was clearly the standout year, in which he hit .320 with 14 HR. But, more importantly, he stole 30 bases that year. Frankly, I could care less about the HR's. If you are looking for a 40 HR guy to be brought into Petco, perhaps you are following the wrong team.

But, more importantly, he is a good defensive SS. He has a career UZR of 18.7, though admittedly his 2010 was a down year, both defensively and offensively.

Bartlett also brings with him consistency at a position that was anything but in 2010 for the Padres. 4 different players started at SS for the Padres in 2010, none of which started more than 62 games. In comparing Bartlett to the Padres SS of 2010, it would break down like so:

Bartlett vs Cabrera
Bartlett BA: .254
Cabrera BA: .208 (in 241 PA)

Bartlett SB: 11 (in 17 chances)
Cabrera SB: 10 (in 16 chances)

Bartlett Fielding PCT: .977
Cabrera Fielding PCT: .969 (Cabrera committed 7 errors, third highest on the team in 2010, despite playing in only 67)

Bartlett vs Jerry Hairston Jr.
Bartlett BA: .254
Hairston Jr.: .244 (476 PA)

Bartlett SB: 11
Hairston SB: 9 (out of 15 chances)

Bartlett Fielding PCT: .977
Hairston Jr. Fielding PCT .976 (at SS only. Also committed 6 errors in 62 games at SS)

Bartlett vs Tejada
Bartlett BA: .254
Tejada BA: .268 (by the way, if you had asked me to guess Tejada's BA based on my memory of how good he was in the last two months, I probably would have said about .980. So, rose colored glasses I guess).

Bartlett SB: 11
Tejada SB: 2 (in 2 chances)

Bartlett Fielding PCT: .977
Tejada Fielding PCT: .987 (committing only 3 errors)

Now, you could make the argument that the Padres could have simply brought Tejada back but keep these two things in mind. 1) Prior to coming to San Diego, Tejada was having an absolutely awful year in Baltimore.
2) He cost the Giants $6.5 million for 2011.

So, I would argue that the Padres, in giving up four players, mostly relievers made a great move in finding a player that can provide solid and stable play at one of the most important positions on the diamond. And call me crazy, but between Darren Balsley and Petco Park, the Padres can find serviceable to great relievers plenty of places. Now, call me crazy but I feel like its easier to find bullpen arms then it is starting Shortstops.

This brings us to the next major move, that being the signing of the O-Dog.

Orlando Hudson signed a two-year, $11.5 million contract to be the Padres starting second basemen. Hudson hit .278 in 2010 for the Twins but, much more importantly, the Padres get a 4 time Gold Glover who can get on base (career OPS .770).

For comparison sake, here is Orlando Hudson compared to David Eckstein.
Hudson BA: .278
Eckstein BA: .267

Hudson OPS: .710
Eckstein OPS: .647

And again, let's not forget the Gold Glover caliber defense the Padres get in Hudson.

The Padres are better right now at three major positions (2B, SS, CF) and continue to look for a 1B (heard Brad Hawpe and Troy Glaus mentioned on XX1090 today as more names to throw into that rumor mill).

Suddenly, year 1 of the post-AGon era is looking a bit brighter.

Now is the Winter (Meetings) of Our Discontent

2010-12-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

When the Winter Meetings began in Florida, Jed Hoyer made arguably the biggest move of this MLB offseason when he traded perennial All-Star Adrian Gonzalez to the Boston Red Sox. Now, I have made my thoughts known on the Adrian trade but I will add this one last thing.

Seeing Adrian in a Red Sox jersey was not easy to see. Look, I know its for the best blah blah blah, still not easy. But I am happy for Adrian as he will finally get the national attention he deserves. That has already begun as Adrian Gonzalez found himself on Jim Rome's radio show this morning. So, to that I say, good for Adrian.

Now, onto the Padres holes. Let's not kid ourselves, there are multiple. This morning, Padres manager Bud Black called XX1090 and answered this question "If you had to write the lineup today, how would you do it?" The answer:

1B: Kyle Blanks
2B: Logan Forsythe
SS: Evereth Cabrera
3B: Chase Headley
LF: Ryan Ludwick
CF: Cameron Maybin
RF: Will Venable
C: Nick Hundley

Now, I don't know about you, but that middle infield is nothing I would feel comfortable starting the 2011 season with. And now steps are being taken to fix that.

Via Corey Brock, MLB.com's Padres beat writer (@FollowthePadres on Twitter) reported tonight that a deal appears to be in place for the Padres to obtain Tampa Bay Rays SS Jason Bartlett for Adam Russell and Cesar Ramos. Before we go on its worth noting that this deal has not been officially announced yet but, assuming this happens I have to say that I love this move.

Jason Bartlett, in a down year in 2010, hit .254 with 4 HR. In 2009, Bartlett .320 with 14 HR. His career line shows the potential for consistent offense from the SS position which, prior to the Tejada trade, was something sorely missing in 2010.

More importantly, however, is that it shows that when Jed Hoyer says that the Padres are not giving up on 2011 despite the Adrian trade, he means it. Is Jason Bartlett an Adrian Gonzalez? Of course not. But making moves of this nature and trading for a SS who has been an All-Star does show, at least to this fan, that Jed Hoyer has not attention of simply packing it in for 2011.

So, the hole at SS appears to have been filled. Rumors have been swirling that the Padres are looking at available 1B including Derrek Lee, Lyle Overbay and Adam Laroche. And Bud Black did not discredit the idea of bringing back Eckstein to play 2B.

So yes, Adrian is gone, but Jed Hoyer and the Padres staff are being very active at the Winter Meetings. And despite the small payroll they have to work with, effort is being made. And frankly, all I want to see is some effort to field a competitive team in 2011. Jason Bartlett is step one.

The Inevitability Conundrum - Trading Adrian Gonzalez

2010-12-06T19:01:00.000-08:00

After the 2005 season, Kevin Towers pulled off what could arguably be called the best front office move of his Padres GM tenure. He traded Adam Eaton and Akinori Otsuka to the Texas Rangers for Adrian Gonzalez, Chris Young, and Termel Sledge. Apologies to Mr. Sledge, but let's focus on Gonzalez and Young for a second.

At the time of the trade I remember not being crazy about it. I like Otsuka as a set-up man to Hoffman and Eaton at the time seemed a more than serviceable starter. And who were Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez? No one I had ever heard of.

Fast forward to winter of 2010.

The trade of Adrian Gonzalez to the Boston Red Sox has sent shock waves through two fan bases, for two very different reasons.

For Boston fans, they get a perennial All-Star who hit 30 plus HR playing in one of the most cavernous parks in baseball, coupled with Gold Glove caliber defense at first.

For Padres fans, we are left only with melancholy.

Any fan who has been paying even the slightest of attention knew this was inevitable. When Ryan Howard signed his 5 year, $125 million extension the writing was on the wall. But in reality, the writing had appeared before that. The Moore divorce that has wrecked havoc on the Padres, decimated the Padres payroll nearly in half, down to a paltry $40 million projected for 2011.

There was no way to justify paying one player, no matter how great, nearly 50% of a teams entire payroll. And it was unfair to ask Adrian Gonzalez to not get market value. This is the economic landscape of modern day baseball.

Thus began the Adrian Gonzalez trade rumors, rumors that would dominate the 2009 offseason. But as Opening Day 2010 approached, there he was, firmly in place at First Base.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to Fenway Park. The Padres started winning. And winning.

With the Padres in contention, the idea of trading Adrian Gonzalez, despite his value likely never higher, was unfathomable. The Padres front office pushed their chips in and said "Let's go for it."

Did that decision lesson the overall haul for Adrian Gonzalez this week? Probably. The need to trade Adrian was well known and everyday he was a Padres was a day his value decreased and the Padres need to trade increased.

Do I regret them going for it? Not for one second. As earlier post have pointed out, the 2010 baseball season, despite its outcome, was one of the most enjoyable seasons I can remember as a fan. The team won 90 games, had a real shot at making the playoffs and a World Series. Those shots don't come around all the time. And when they do, you take that shot, consequences be damned.

So here we are. Adrian Gonzalez is no longer a San Diego Padres. The starting First Basemen is unknown and the ability for the Padres to compete in 2011 appears, on paper, to be limited.

Adrian Gonzalez leaves San Diego second on the All-Time franchise HR list at 161, behind Nate Colbert at 163 despite 61 fewer plate appearances. He leaves 4th on the franchise all-time RBI list. And despite his relatively short tenure in San Diego, he leaves as perhaps the 3rd most beloved Padres of All-Time, behind Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman (ok, this one is less a stat and more of an opinion).

Today, despite all the logic and reason behind the trade, is not a good day to be a Padres fan. The organization loss their franchise face for most of the last decade.

I know little of the prospects coming from Boston behind what has already been reported. I know they are all highly touted, all with tremendous upside and that none are MLB ready. And I know that the economics of the situation meant this trade had to happen for the long term health of the franchise.

Going to the dentist is good for my long term health too. Doesn't mean I have to enjoy the dentist when I'm there.

The Case for Bud Black

2010-11-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

That was quite a 24 hour span for San Diego State athletics.

First, SDSU Men's Basketball team went up to Gonzaga and upset the #11 Bulldogs. Announcers at the game called it the biggest win in the Aztec programs history. I went to the University of Arizona so I am by no means an Aztec sports historian but I know beating a Top 15 team on their home floor is big no matter what. So nice work Aztecs!

Then, about 12 hours later San Diego State alum Bud Black won the Baseball Writers of America Association's National League Manager of the Year Award. Not only did he win the award, but he won it by one vote. One total vote between Dusty Baker of the Cincinnati Reds and our own Buddy Black.

I tweeted this morning that if Bud Black didin't win this award then they should just retire the award as it would be meaningless at that point. Perhaps that was a little rash as followers pointed out the deserving resumes of Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy. But, I do stand by the fact that Bud Black deserved it and I'm thrilled that he won.

Some, though a minority, will say how the Padres played .500 ball from Aug. 1 on. Or how they lost a 7 game lead in the West. They will tell you that the Padres didn't make the playoffs and since they didn't Bud Black did not deserve this honor.

Fair enough...I guess.

But let's look at the case FOR Bud for one second:

$38 million payroll = 90 wins. Good for 29th out of 30 teams in team payroll. As a comparison, here are players that $38 million can get you:
1) Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher
2) JD Drew, David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre
3) Ryan Howard, Roy Halladay and some gum
4) Dog and a beer at a baseball game (Am I right people?!?!)

The San Diego Padres were predicted to come in dead last in the NL West. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports predicted 68 wins for the Padres. I recall vividly watching the MLB Network 30 Teams in 30 Days where they said the Padres would be better BUT finish with less wins then 2009. Or this. The Padres increased their win total by 15 games despite having a new GM and having just traded away a Cy Young winner.

And this was all before 2010 started.
Remember when Kyle Blanks was going to play Left Field and protect AGon? Or how Everth Cabrera was going to continue developing and Chris Young was to be the ace of the pitching staff. I'll spare you the history lesson but none of those things really panned out.

Remember, those who would question Bud Black winning this award. It's Manager of the YEAR not Manager of September. And there is no playoff prerequisite.

So, a hearty and heartfelt congrats to Bud Black for taking duct tape and a reckless abandon on the base paths to within 2 games of the playoffs.

And, oh by the way, the team they ultimately lost out to? They won the World Series.

CONGRATS BUD!

And Then There Were Two

2010-10-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Two thoroughly entertaining League Championship Series wrapped up last night when the San Francisco Giants beat Philadelphia 3-2 thanks to an 8th inning opposite field HR from Juan Uribe and a 5 out save from Brian Wilson.

So, the World Series is set. Rangers, who came into existence as a franchis in 1961 as the Washington Senators after the original Senators moved to Minnesota to become the Twins. And until 2010, this franchise had not won a playoff SERIES let alone gone to the World Series.

On the other side you have the San Francisco Giants, one of the oldest teams in MLB history. Originally founded in 1883, the Giants have won 5 World Series titles...all in New York. The last coming in 1954 when they swept the Cleveland Indians in a World Series most known for "The Catch" by Willie Mays in CF. But, since moving to San Francisco in 1958, the Giants have not won a World Series despite appearances in '62, '89, '02.

So the stage is set for a historic World Series no matter the outcome. Either the first World Series championship in a franchise history or the first since a team moved 3000 miles away. Perhaps a more complete preview will be forthcoming prior to Game 1 on Wednesday, but for now, to get everyone ready for the 2010 World Series, here are my Top 10 World Series Moments (these will be primarily based on World Series in my lifetime so keep that in mind):

10) 1989 World Series: Battle of the Bay. World Series Interrupted by Earthquake. A's vs Giants

The first World Series that I can vividly remember because of the earthquake. The series itself was not terribly interesting, but will always be remembered for how Game 3 began. Go to the 4:30 mark to see the ABC broadcast cut off by the earthquake.

9) 1991 World Series: Kirby Puckett Walk Off in Game 6 (Bonus: Jack Morris performance in Game 7) Twins vs Braves

"AND WE'LL SEE YOU TOMORROW NIGHT!" Nothing beat the Metrodome during a playoff game. This HR lead to Jack Morris turning in arguably the greatest pitching performance in World Series history in Game 7 where he threw a 10 inning complete game shut out. Go to the 1:30 mark for Puckett's HR.

8) 1997 World Series: Edgar Renteria's walk-off single in the 11th inning of Game 7. Marlins vs Indians

This video kind of sucks but the Renteria hit is at the 1:17 mark. Points are taken off this moment for two reasons: The Marlins fire sale that followed and the continued hatred that God has for all things Cleveland sports.

7) 1986 World Series: The Buckner Play. Mets vs Red Sox

Remember when the Red Sox were lovable? Those were the days. I couldn't feel more bad for Buckner as his entire career (life?) has been defined by this one moment. The video above is the NES RBI Baseball recreation of that moment because, well, if you are reading this then I assume you are a baseball fan and if that's the case then you have seen this a thousand times.

6) 1988 World Series "A Roll of the Dice" Dodgers vs A's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeCuNRWqdLg&feature=related

Look, I get it. We all hate the Dodgers and I'm at the front of that line. But you are lying to yourself if you don't consider Kirk Gibson's Walk-Off HR off Eck in Game 1 as a great moment. For some reason this wouldn't embed but the link is above. HR at the 6:52 mark.

5) 2004 World Series: Reverse the Curse

This is not the most memorable of World Series on its own but the story behind how the Red Sox got there and the history of futility make this memorable. It also marks the last time the Red Sox and "Red Sox Nation" were tolerable.

4) 2002 World Series: Rally Monkeys and Thunder Sticks. Angels vs Giants

This is probably most known for the Giants collapse in Game 6. Leading 5-0 in the 7th inning of Game 6, the Giants Dusty Baker pulled Russ Ortiz in the 7th after giving up 2 singles (and gave him the game ball as he left). The Angels flashed the Rally Monkey, Spiezio hit a 3 run HR and the rally was on.

3) 1960 World Series: The Greatest Game Ever Played. Pirates vs Yankees

Only twice in baseball history has the World Series ended on a homerun. This is the first time in what is widely considered the greatest game every played. Bill Mazeroski walk-off HR to win the 1960 World Series.

2) 1993 World Series: Touch Em' All Joe. Blue Jays vs Phillies

The only other time a World Series ended on a HR was Joe Carter's walk off HR to beat the Phillies Mitch Williams and secure back-to-back World Series championships for the Blue Jays.

1) 2001 Series: Bloop Singles and Mr. November
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=3364797

Arguably this is the greatest World Series that has been played in my lifetime. Things got crazy in Game 4, where the DBacks were up 3-1 in the 9th in Yankee stadium and were only 3 outs away from taking a 3-1 lead in the series. DBacks closer Byung Young Kim gave up a 2 run HR to Tino Martinez. Bob Brenley inexplicably stayed with Kim in the 10th in which he gave up the walk-off to Jeter just after midnight, making this the first game to be played in November.

In Game 5, it was Scott Brosius who hit a 2 run HR with 2 outs in the 9th off Byung Young Kim that once again sent the game into extra innings where the Yankees ultimately prevailed.

But it was Game 7 that this series is perhaps best known for and the decision to bring the infield in. Luis Gonzalez bloop single behind Jeter (where, had Jeter been playing normal depth would have simply been an easy pop out) drove in the winning run and sent the DBacks to their first (and only) World Series championship.

So there you have it, my Top 10 World Series moments. Here's hoping 2010 can crack this list. Enjoy the Series!

Portland Beavers to Play in Tucson in 2011

2010-10-14T19:00:00.001-07:00

OK, full disclosure. I consider Tucson one of my two hometowns for a number of reasons. Not to bore you all with the biography of me but, lived in Oceanside until I was 11 then on to Tucson through college. So, any place where you learned to drive, graduated high school, had your first girlfriend and graduated college, gets credit as a hometown.

In my 13 years of living in Tucson, the city played home to two AAA baseball teams. At first it was the Tucson Toros, the AAA affiliate of the Houston Astros. They played at Hi Corbett Field, which, if you are a fan of the movie "Major League" (and really, if you are not a fan of "Major League" then just move along friend) you would recognize Hi Corbett as the home of the Cleveland Indians spring training. And, in less memorable moments, I once tried out for the Tampa Bay Rays once upon a lifetime. As there is no Disney movie about my rise in the Rays organization, its safe to assume I did not make it.

Padres fans who are familiar with Matt Vasgersian's career may remember that he was once played the part of Tuffy the Toro, the Toros mascot. (I guess I should mention for those not familiar with spanish, toro = bull).

Then MLB expanded and gave Phoenix a professional team. So good bye Toros. But hello brand new AAA park and team in the form of the Tucson Sidewinders. But, after the 2008 season, Tucson lost yet another AAA team, this time to Reno.

Needless to say, I had some fun times going to AAA games. So, I was pretty excited when I read Corey Brock's article tonight regarding the temporary home of the Portland Beavers:

According to Baseball America, the Beavers will move to Tucson, where they will play for at least one season before moving to a permanent home and a new ballpark in Escondido, Calif.

Kick ASS! I know its only for one year but still, pretty exciting stuff if you ask me. Tucson has always been a great town for Spring Training baseball and, at least my teenage recollection is that Tucson was a pretty good AAA town as well.

So, there you go. The Portland Beavers will be moving to Tucson next year. Apparently the reason being is that their home in Portland is being converted for a soccer-specific stadium to accomodate an MLS team.

One last Arizona baseball memory here. During the one year that Michael Jordan played minor league baseball, he also played in the Arizona Fall League for the Scottsdale Scorpions. So yes, I have seen Jordan play baseball in person. At Hi Corbett Field. Fun times. Here's hoping a AAA team moves there for good in the near future.

Heath Bell Speaks!

2010-10-13T21:33:00.001-07:00

Twitter is amazing. I don't want to nerd out here and I really don't want to go into a whole "Twitter has changed the media" analysis. Boring.

But, something on Twitter tonight took place that was both very fun and showcased the purpose and fun that Twitter can be.

Heath Bell, who, oh by the way, won MLB's "Delivery Man of the Year" (or, in other words, Heath Bell was the best closer in baseball in 2010. Not that you needed me to tell you that.) took part in a little Twitter Q&A.

So, without further ado, some highlights from the mouth of the Padres bullpen:

- @TomFrey1st "Who was your favorite player when you were in high school?"

- @HeathBell21 "Roger Clemens"

*Roger Clemens did seem to be a popular answer

- @JWbaseballfan "Who was your favorite baseball player growing up?"

- @HeathBell21 "Nolan Ryan"

*So...how did Roger Clemens beat out Nolan Ryan during those formative high school years

- @spmunoz "How long do you plan on being a Padre?"

- @HeathBell21 "My whole career"

*Good answer

- @betoisonfire "What's your absolute favorite baseball stadium?"

- @HeathBell21 "Wrigley"

*I imagine you don't hear that often from a pitcher

Finally, some fun questions:

- @Captain_lou "Every thought of going to a straight 'stache and getting rid of the goat? Maybe even 'Goose' style?"

- @HeathBell21 "All the time, but wife says its grounds for divorce."

@Iamigravan "how do you feel about Carne Asada fries?"

@HeathBell21 "muy bueno"

*would an answer of "no bueno" been grounds for trading Bell? I lean toward yes...

- @leftcoastbias "Favorite Movie?"

- @HeathBell21 "Fools Rush In"

*Who saw THAT coming?

- @tayloryar29 "Whose the toughest batter you've faced?"

- @HeathBell21 "Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds"

And finally...

- @leftcoastbias "Five people, living or dead, you would have dinner with?"

- @HeathBell21 "Elvis, Jesus, Hulk Hogan, Mike Gilberg, and Bill Clinton"

*Mike Gilberg does Wall Street analysis of Major League Baseball's player markets. I have no idea what his connection is to this guy, but he's at the table!

Anyway, I thought it was fun that Heath Bell took some time to answer questions from fans on Twitter. So, Heath, even though there is no way you are reading this, thanks for the time. And congrats on your Delivery Man of the Year award. Well earned sir!

In Which Our Hero Roots for the Capulets

2010-10-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted the following tweet on Twitter (@leftcoastbias) and received, basically, the reaction I expected.

"I know this is probably blasphemy to say so soon after Game 162 but, I think I'm rooting for the Giants."

The Giants?!?!?!?! I know, I know. How can you root for THAT team so soon after they crushed all our hopes in 2010. The scar is fresh from Game 162. I get it.

But, allow me a brief moment to explain why I'm rooting for the Giants in the 2010 playoffs.

1) The NL West Connection

As an alum of the University of Arizona, I spend all fall rooting against the Pac-10. Stanford playing Minnesota? Go Gophers. USC taking on Utah. Let's go Utes! But when it comes to bowl season, I throw all that out and become a Pac-10 homer. Because in the end, I want the conference to do well.

The same concept applies here. I spent all summer rooting for any team playing the Giants. This even forced me to root, begrudgingly, for the Dodgers at times in hopes that the Giants would not catch San Diego.

Of course, now we know, that was all for naught.

So the NL West representative is the Giants. As the name of this blog implies, I root for West Coast teams more often then not. I'm an NL West fan. Thus, for a month, I'm a Giants "fan." Because, just like I become an Oregon and USC fan in late December, I want the NL West to do well.

Except for the Dodgers. Because fuck 'em.

2) Players that are Fun to Watch

I'm a baseball fan before anything else. Because of this, I like good players that play a solid brand of baseball. For this reason, I like Ichiro and King Felix, Pujols, Josh Hamilton, Carl Crawford among others.

So, with this in mind, I find myself liking Buster Posey and The Freak. These are good young players that make the game better. Buster Posey could be a NL Joe Mauer, and The Freak just showed in Game 1 of the NLDS how dominant he can be.

So I like these players. And thus, its easier to root for them.

3) Entertaining TV

In many ways the Giants are a carbon copy of the Padres. They have excellent pitching and just enough offense. This usually leads to close games. And what are you looking for in a playoff when you have no strong rooting interest? Entertaining baseball. And a close game is always entertaining, whether it is 1-0 or 7-6. For this reason, I am more interested in the Giants games then any other series so far.

Also, the Giants have the best shot, in my mind, of beating Philadelphia. The Phillies are the run away favorite in the National League and for good reason. But they've been to the World Series in the last two years. We get it, we've seen it. Like if someone said they had a Paris Hilton sex tape. Yawn.

The Giants, with that pitching staff, probably has the best shot of beating them.

4) The Story

Every October, if San Diego isn't playing in the playoffs, then its time to jump on a teams bandwagon for a few weeks. When making this selection, I usually pick the team that has the best story. Two years ago, the Rays were my team as they came out of nowhere to win the AL. Last year, it was the Phillies to be the first NL team to win back-to-back World Series since the Big Red Machine of the 1970's (and they were playing the Yankees).

This year, some good options, story wise.

-The Twins, with their new stadium facing the team that has been their bugaboo for the last decade. Basically, the Yankees are to the Twins what the Cardinals are to the Padres.

-The Rays, who have built their team from the inside and play a brand of baseball that I like. Lot of speed and good pitching.

-The Braves, in Bobby Cox last season. But, I spent most the 90's rooting against the Braves. I have no rational reason to not like the Braves, yet I do.

-The Giants, who have not won a World Series since moving to San Francisco...in 1957. In 2002 they were 6 outs away, but Dusty Baker was their manager so you know how that went.

I choose the team that hasn't won the World Series in 50 years. That makes for an interesting story and really, at this point I'm grasping at straws.

But if they were to be eliminated prior to the World Series, I can always root for whoever is playing the Yankees.

Hindsight is 2010

2010-10-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted since Opening Day 2009 and I have no idea how much I will continue to post. I stopped for a number of reasons. Studying for the bar, looking for work, moving when I found that work and, frankly, because there are Padres blogs that are better at this then I am. I have no access to any players or media, no partner to post when I forget. Really, just one dude who loves the Padres. And how interesting could that possibly be?

But I felt compelled today to write something. The 2010 season has come to an end. Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, leaves a melancholy feel when it ends. I love football, but thats a once to twice a week event. Baseball is like school or a job. It is everyday, its a grind and, when a team is chasing down a playoff spot, it can be exhausting to keep up with. So today is weird. No Padres lineup being posted via Twitter today. No debate over who is in CF and who should start vs a LHP. Instead, we are left only with memories and thoughts of "what if?"

Which brings us to the retrospective of 2010. This has become an interesting debate today. How do we all feel about this season? It's a question 29 out of 30 teams have to deal with to varying degrees, but perhaps no team has a more complicated answer then the Padres.

On the one hand are those that seem to revel in negativity. This camp will point to the 10 game losing streak, and the 14-23 record over final 37 games. This is the camp that will constantly remind you how they had a 6.5 game lead on August 25th and that 2nd place in the NL West with no playoffs should not be considered an acceptable season. And this camp isn't wrong. No Padres fan can be honest with themselves without dealing with how the final month of the season went for the Padres. It was brutal and hard to watch at times. At times it felt like watching a runaway train with no way to stop it. And all fans could do is watch, and wonder "what happened?" The what ifs are plenty, and there is no way around that.

But then there is another camp. A camp that will tell you how the Padres were picked to finish last in the NL West. They will remind all of us of how Adrian Gonzalez was to be traded by the deadline and that September would be merely a showcase of Triple and Double A players as all eyes pointed toward 2011. And how this team of $38 million in payroll and one household named player stormed the National League and shocked every expert and most (ok, all) fans. And how, no matter what, they played 162 meaningful games and far exceeded expectations.

I align myself more with this second camp. Of course you can't ignore the disappointment of the last month. Its a tough pill to swallow to be up 6.5 on 8/25 and not be in the playoffs today. Its hard to think that if, instead of a 10-gm losing streak they had only gone 3-7 they would have won the NL West. But, I choose to not erase 6 months of enjoyable baseball simply because the end result wasn't what I wanted or believed it would be. The simple fact is that the 2010 season was the most enjoyable season I've had as a fan of this team since 1998. Sure, they had made the playoffs since then. But watching a team go 82-80 to win the division is hardly enjoyable. Or watching the manager blow out the knee of your starting outfielder because he is a loose cannon in the same game your starting CF gets hurt, not so fun. But this year was fun. And to me, its as simple as that.

What I take away from this season was watching a team that stole bases with reckless abandon, Latos coming into his own and looking like an ace, the bullpen turning 9 inning games into 6 inning games, the Yoda backpack, Miguel Tejada and the "Spotlight", and yes, stumbling on the stretch run. It was all part of the same journey and while I wish the end result was different, as they say, the journey is sometimes more important then the destination.

So, who's heading to Peoria in March 2011?

P.S. As for the future of this blog, we shall see....

Opening Day Musings

2009-04-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'm watching the news this morning while enjoying my coffee and all I hear about is the weather bringing havoc to Opening Day. The White Sox game has been snowed out. The Red Sox opener, rained out.

It will be in the mid-70's today for the Padres home opener. So, no matter the talent on the field this year, San Diego fans can enjoy the fact that there is no snow or rain on Opening Day.

At the beginning of the movie Major League there is a montage of different fans throughout Cleveland complaining that they don't recognize any of the players on this year's Indians team. In a way, I feel like that's what is happening here in San Diego. Names like Evereth Cabrera, Correia, and pretty much the entire bullpen are not household names.

Let me be the one to say that no-name players does not equate to a poor quality team. Is it likely that the Padres will finish in last place? Probably. Though Baseball Prospectus does predict an 11 game turnaround for the Padres that would leave them only 1 game back of third place in the division. The fact of the matter is we don't know. We don't know if this bullpen can hold up, if this starting rotation can win some games and if, like Kevin Towers says, this offense is better than last year.

But that's the beauty of Opening Day. Today, the Padres are not in last, are not a mile behind the leaders, and there's no reason to believe, if only for the day, that the Padres could surprise people. What that surprise looks like is unclear? To me, finishing .500 would be a surprise based on the "experts" pre-season prediction. Less we forget these same "experts" predicted the Tigers to win the A.L. How'd that go?

I'll be at Opening Day today, enjoying the XX1090 Block Party before hand and taken advantage of the new food deals at Petco. Follow Left Coast Bias on Twitter live from Petco at LeftCoastBias.

Enjoy Opening Day!

Dining at Petco

2009-04-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

Opening Day is merely 4 days away. Some quick notes before we get to the really important stuff.

Corey Brock (Padres blog writer on MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @FollowthePadres) believes the Opening Day lineup to look like this:

Catcher: Nick Hundley, Henry Blanco Infielders: Adrian Gonzalez, Edgar Gonzalez, David Eckstein, Evereth Cabrera, Luis Rodriguez, Kevin Kouzmanoff. Outfielders: Jody Gerut, Brian Giles, Chase Headley, Cliff Floyd, Scott Hairston. Rotation: Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Walter Silva, Kevin Correia, Shawn Hill. Bullpen: Heath Bell, Cla Meredith, Arturo Lopez, Edwin Moreno, Duaner Sanchez, Eulogio De La Cruz, Ed Mujica.

Listening to Scott and BR this morning, it sounds like Henry Blanco will actually get the start on Monday at catcher for Jake Peavy. Not sure if this means Blanco is going to be Peavy's catcher all season or not though.

As for the rotation, Baek, the presumed number 3 starter (shudder) will begin the season on the DL. Interesting fact about the pitching staff of the Padres, as provided by Ducksnorts: Peavy + Young = 1916.2 career IP. Other 10 guys on staff = 1460.1 career IP. Five pitchers with less than 100 IP. Three with 0 IP.

So there's that.

With a lineup hovering around $40 million and expectations low for the 2009 season, there is one thing to get excited about. Food. Ballpark food historically has been one of the great parts of attending live baseball. This year, Petco has both added some menu items as well as provided some pretty good deals. So, to prepare you for Opening Day, let's take a look at some new and old food options at Petco Park:

- 5 for 5 deal: hot dog, peanuts, popcorn, cookie and soft drink for $5. Want a beer? $10

- All-you-can-eat Upper Right Field Pavilion and on top of the Western Metal Building

- Coca-Cola Value Weekends: all Friday through Sunday games get an Upper Reserved Ticket, hot dog and soda for $12

And some new food items:

- On Friday and Saturday nights in the Park at the Park will be a street taco stand with pork fresh off the spit.

- Red velvet cupcakes

- Mexican Hot Dog: a hot dog wrapped in bacon (that's right, bacon), pinto beans, tomatoes, onions, jalapeno sauce, ketchup, mustard, mayo.

- San Diego Caesar (apparently the "cilantro-chipotle" dressing makes it San Diego)

- Chicken Sushi Rolls

So, as you can see, no shortage of food options at Petco this year. If you haven't had a chance to check out the multitude of restaurant options, this may be the season to do it. Enjoy the food and we will be back for Opening Day!

Moorad Looser with the Purse Strings?

2009-03-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Scott Boras believes that Jeff Moorad will be more willing to spend money than his predecessor, John Moores.

“I think there's going to be a heavy Jeff Moorad footprint,” said Scott Boras, the most powerful of player agents.

The lack of productive drafts in recent years by the Padres has been a well documented topic. However, at least anecdotal, that failure can be connected to John Moores unwillingness to draft Boras clients. The most notable being the draft in which the Padres took Matt Bush instead of either Stephen Drew or Jered Weaver, both players that Padres scouts liked more than Bush, and both who were represented by Boras.

Matt Bush now has a warrant out for beating up high school kids in East County and is in the Toronto Blue Jays system while Drew and Weaver are productive major league players.

Boras also represents this years clear number one college player, SDSU pitcher Stephen Strasburg. While Strasburg is likely out of the picture for San Diego, Boras does represent more top of the line players in this draft than any other agent. With no Sandy Alderson or John Moores, Moorad and his team will have the chance to improve on the lackluster first-round picks of recent Padres history, that include: Ben Davis, Sean Burroughs, Mark Phillips, Tim Stauffer and Matt Bush. The Padres pick third this year.

Whether any of this comes true will not be known for some time but an early indication could be found in the Padres first round pick this year.

According to Boras, the difference in philosophy is a difference of money: “What is interesting about the philosophies is that Jeff's philosophy is, 'We're going to take the best available player and pay him appropriately because they have the best value.' In John's case, it was, 'We are only going to pay a particular amount of money, and let's find a player who will take it.'

A New Sheriff in Town

2009-03-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

Things have been a little quiet for the most part on the Padres front. They are terrible in Spring Training (5-17), the U.S. was eliminated from the WBC (eventually won by Japan again in an extremely entertaining game), and the Padres starting rotation is still terrible (more on that in a moment).

However, off in the distant, far off on the horizon there lies a speck of light worth mentioning. Jeff Moorad is officially the new Padres CEO. This marks the first major step in the transfer of power from John Moores to Jeff Moorad. What this also means is that Sandy Alderson is officially out as the Padres CEO. I remember when Alderson came to San Diego and the excitement that I had for such a move. Afterall, Alderson had helped create the moneyball Oakland A's and they were ALWAYS in the playoffs. Of course, Alderson now leaves after the Padres suffered their worst season in nearly a decade, their worst season since Petco Park opened and a minor league system ranked dead last by Baseball America.

So, who is Jeff Moorad?

A graduate of UCLA with a law degree from Villanova, Jeff Moorad has 25 years of professional sports experience. He began as a player's agent with Steinberg and Moorad and later the Moorad Sports Management. He has represented players such as Will Clark, Steve Young, Shawn Green and Manny Ramirez. In 2005 he purchased an ownership share of the Arizona Diamondbacks which he must now sale before the the Padres deal can go through.

Much of the turmoil that the Padres faced coming off their 99 loss season was attributed to the uncertainty over the ownership of the Padres. With John and Becky Moores entangled in divorce preceedings, questions have surrounded the Padres for nearly a year. Today, if nothing else, it is clear who is now in charge of the San Diego Padres.

Now, about that pitching staff...it's bad. I'll do a full post on it but needless to say, the Padres are 10 days from opening day with no idea who their 4th and 5th starters are and only two arms in the bullpen that they have any confidence in (Cla Meredith and Heath Bell). At least the food is cheap this year at Petco.

Post-St. Patty's Day Post

2009-03-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

So, for a few weeks now I have been touting the World Baseball Classic. I've argued it's legitimacy, it's place in the U.S. sports conscious, trying to get people excited for it as I was. Then, St. Patrick's Day hit and I missed, by far, the best game for the U.S. in the WBC since it's inception.

Fail.

The U.S. team, rebounding from an embarrassing 11-1 thumping came back to beat the Netherlands to survive. Then yesterday, in a second elimination game, the U.S. team, down 5-3 in the bottom of the 9th score 3 runs. 1 on a base on balls and than a 2 run single by David Wright to propel the U.S. team, left for dead less than a week ago, onto the semi-finals in Los Angeles. And I missed it.

Fail Again.

However, what this does mean is that the U.S. team plays on, granting all those who missed last nights heroics more opportunity to watch this team.

In other WBC news, Mexico was eliminated on Monday night. The bright side to that is of course, the Gonzalez brothers (Adrian and Edgar) will head back to Padres camp with Scott Hairston.

Now, onto some Padres news.

In the last post I mentioned how Kyle Banks was tearing up the Cactus League at first base while Adrian was away at the WBC. Currently, Banks is hitting a crisp .341 with 3 HR's and 9 RBI. But there is that small, Gold-Glove winning, All-Star in front of him at first who is not likely to be going anywhere soon. So, the question has been posed: What about moving Banks to the Outfield? Corey Brock, who blogs for the Padres at http://coreybrock.mlblogs.com/ asked Kevin Towers this.

"Towers he doesn't want to mess with Blanks confidence right now by asking him to start taking fly balls in Arizona. If the Padres do opt to see how Blanks looks in the outfield then it would likely be once the Triple-A season begins in Portland."

However, Towers has said, to both Corey Brock and Tom Krasovic that Banks will start taking fly balls before games in AAA Portland. For those of you scoring at home, this would be 2 corner infielders the Padres have attempted to convert into outfielders, assuming taking fly balls before Beaver games is the first step in that conversion.

So there's that. Needless to say, Banks and his bat need to find their way into the lineup at some point this season.

Krasovic also reports in that same piece that Chris Young has been scratched from today's start in Peoria due to "elbow tendinitis." Young says its not a big deal, it happens every March when he begins introducing sliders and curve balls to his pitching repertoire.

Finally, one of the great sporting events in America begins tomorrow (technically it began on Tuesday). March Madness is upon us and nothing beats the opening weekend, with games on CBS from the time you wake up until bed. Fantastic. For those curious, here are some of my bracket picks:
- Final Four Teams: Louisville, Memphis, Pitt, Syracuse with Memphis winning the whole thing

- Arizona as a 12 seed heading to the Sweet Sixteen with wins over Utah and Wake Forest

- Purdue toppling UConn in the Sweet Sixteen

- VCU making a serious run to the Sweet Sixteen

- West Virgina taking down Michigan St. to advance to the Regional Finals

- Gonzaga takes out UNC

Enjoy the madness! Enjoy the WBC! Enjoy the green beer hangover!

Thoughts While Waiting for Selection Sunday

2009-03-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

Mercy Rule.

11-1.

One game away from elimination in the second round. Again.

The U.S. team finds themselves in a position sadly familiar today. In the World Baseball Classic, the U.S. is one loss away from being eliminated again in the second round after being flat-out embarrassed by the Puerto Rico team last night. Jake Peavy gave up 6 runs in the first two innings.

Said Peavy: ""I take full responsibility for the boys' loss." "Nothing was working. Just a tough night."

Ultimately, the U.S. team was mercy ruled in the 7th inning after falling behind by 10 runs. Roy Oswalt will take the mound today against the Netherlands to help avoid a fate that this U.S. team promised they would not suffer. Elimination in the second round of the WBC.

In Other News

Josh Geer had another nice start against Milwaukee on Thursday. Geer, who is primed to be the 4th/5th starter for San Diego this year, threw three hitless innings against the Brewers in Spring Training.

With Adrian Gonzalez playing in the World Baseball Classic, the Padres have had a chance to get an extended look at first basemen of the future Kyle Banks. Crushing a three-run shot, Banks has provided fans with an optimistic look toward the future.

Matt Antonelli is taking a page out of the Tony Gwynn School of Hitting nad has turned to videotape to help his swing. After slumping last year in AAA Portland to an average of .215, Antonelli began watching tape to fix a swing that, to that point, had never betrayed him.

Chase Headley continues to impress in spring. Perhaps knowing he will be the Opening Day starter will help in Headley reaching the potential of the Padres best prospect.

That's all for now. Enjoy the WBC and Selection Sunday. And follow me on Twitter at LeftCoastBias!

Left Coast Bias Re-Boot

2009-03-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

Trevor Hoffman was scheduled to pitch against the Padres today in Spring Training. Such an event made me think "you know, I haven't had a blog post since last summer." What can I say, law school, getting engaged, brand new HDTV, all of these things distracted me here.

So, here we are. The return of Left Coast Bias. For those of you who can't get enough Padres blogging, the blogs I check everyday are Gaslampball.com and Ducksnorts.com. I recommend them both.

Before we get started, realize I have no sources, no inside track to anything. This is merely the ramblings of a fan of the San Diego Padres. Those ramblings likely will devolve into madness as the season progress's and I begin studying for the bar exam.

Second, as I just said, I will begin studying for the bar. So this may not be so regular in the updates.

Finally, here are 10 updates since last we talked.
1) Brian Giles did not get traded;
2) He might have beat his girlfriend though;
3) Trevor Hoffman was outright released and signed by the Milwaukee Brewers. The divorce was ugly, and as usual, the kids were hurt the most;
4) Matt Vasgersian left the Padres to become the host of the MLB Network;
5) David Eckstein is the new second baseman;
6) Khalil Greene is a St. Louis Cardinal;
7) John Moores sold the team to Jeff Moorad;
8) Jake Peavy was almost traded to the Cubs, Mets, Dodgers, and Braves (yet remains a Padre, for now);
9) Former number one pick Matt Bush got drunk, insulsted most of East County, was arrested and is now a Toronto Blue Jay;
10) All kinds of new, cheap food deals at Petco this year. We will get to more of that in a future post;
11) BONUS: Sandy Alderson is likely gone as soon as the Moore to Moorad deal is done.

So, what is their to expect of this year? The Giants look better, the Dodgers have Manny, the Padres are operating at about $40 million. But, it's spring and hope springs eternal in March. But we are back, ready for another Padres season!

Oh, and two Padres are on the U.S. World Baseball Classic team. Jake Peavy and Heath Bell. But they aren't the only Padres out their. Adrian Gonzalez is raking for the Mexican team with fellow Padre Scott Hairston. Henri Blanco is on the Venezuela team and threw out Derek Jeter the other day. And lots of good baseball going on, I highly recommend checking out the WBC.

Explaining the Trade Waivers...sort of

2008-08-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

The Padres, dead last in the NL and owners of the worst record in baseball, made a grand total of 1 trade before the deadline on July 31. Whether that is an indication of the front office happy with the status quo (let's hope not) or an inability to find a deal that was adequate or simply that the Padres players that were considered available had zero trade value (looking at you Khalil Greene). I think it's important to point out that the Padres are a year removed from Game 163. Not much has changed and arguably at positions like second base they are in fact better. So, is this year a statistical anomaly or more indicative of the talent on this team? Who knows?

The biggest news of the week was Brian Giles almost trade to the Red Sox. Giles as a limited no-trade clause that includes the Boston Red Sox. This week, after being put on trade waivers (a process I'm told is very common for all MLB teams. According to Paul Depodesta's blog, at some point nearly every player will be placed on waivers). After being placed on waivers, teams had 48 hours to claim Giles, which was done by the Boston Red Sox. Unlike straight waivers however, this merely meant that the Red Sox were the only team the Padres could negotiate with. What would have come back to the Padres for Giles remains a mystery and perhaps the talks never got that far. Giles invoked his no-trade clause, choose to play for a dead last team other then a World Series contender and remains a Padre. This is good news. Giles is one of the more consistent players the Padres have, hitting near .300 and playing a better then average right field. I for one am happy to have Giles still with San Diego.

A very cool event to let you guys know about. Adrian and his wife Betsy have started the Adrian and Betsy Gonzalez Foundation and our having a charity dinner. Padre players will take over Acqua Al 2 as waiters, bartenders, host and even chefs. For more information, check the website.

A scary piece in the U-T regarding the Padres projected payroll in 2009. The rumor is John Moores (in the middle of what is turning into a contentious divorce) apparently predicted a $40 million payroll for '09 as a way to get Giles to accept his trade to the Red Sox. It's clear at this point, true or not, that there is fear in the clubhouse over the direction of this team. Coupled with the uncertainty of who will own the Padres after this divorce and we could all be in for a long 2009. Then again, it could be all talk. A cut to $40 million would cut their current payroll nearly in half. Then again it works for the Marlins...

Giles Claimed by Red Sox

2008-08-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

The process of trading past the "trade deadline" is a confounding one that I don't fully understand. What I do know is that Brian Giles was claimed last night by the Red Sox. This gives the Red Sox the exclusive power to make a trade with San Diego. However, Boston is among the teams that Giles has a no-trade clause against. Further, the Red Sox OF is pretty full as is with Bay, Elsbury, Drew and Crisp. With the Angels and Rays both also putting claims on Giles, this appears to be nothing more then keep-way by Theo Epstein. Don't throw out those Giles jersey's yet, better then good chance he is sticking around for 2009.

Oh yeah, we still suck but the pain of sucking is subsiding. Hey, Gerut's been a nice surprise!

Who Needs a Break?

2008-07-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

That got dangerously close to disaster territory for MLB. When the All-Star Game in Milwaukee ended in a 7-7 tie after 12 innings, the outcry across MLB was palpable. I for one didn't see the big hoopla considering the game is an exhibition game anyway but fans demanded there be a winner. That lead to the reactionary move of putting home field advantage at stake in the All Star Game, an idea that defies any sort of logic. As MLB is often criticized for, they continually trip over themselves when it comes to the All-Star Game. I for one have always been a fan of the idea of going to a "Home Run-Off" similar to a shootout in hockey to decide tie All-Star Games. That apparently is to gimmicky, but placing home field advantage in the most important game of the year, not gimmicky at all.

But the plan worked. No more ties, well-played games and on we went. Until last night when Terry Francona looked down at his bullpen around the 13th inning and realized that the only pitcher he had left was Scott Kazmir. Who threw 104 pitches on Sunday. And plays for a division rival. Clint Hurdle joked afterward (or maybe half joked) that David Wright was his emergency pitcher. One thing was for sure, this game had to come to a conclusion. This point was relayed to both dugouts during the later stages of the game last night. So what's more gimmicky? David Wright pitching to win home field advantage in the All-Star Game or a Home Run-Off?

Needless to say, as a fan, the game was thrilling. Some highlights:

- NL throws 2 guys out at home in the 10th with the bases loaded and no one out. This lead to the acrobatic play of Miguel Tejada, charging a slow grounder and throwing a bullet to first while falling down.

- Nate McCloth made a TREMENDOUS throw from Center Field to throw out the potential winning run. Russell Martin's scoop of the in between hop and blocking of the plate was equally impressive.

- Adrian Gonzalez played like 7 innings!!!! Nice game for AGon as he went 1-3 with an RBI (an RBI that, at the time, appeared to be the game winner). Lost in all this is the solid first base he played. In the 10th inning with the bases loaded, Russell Martin attempted to double up the hitter and appeared to slip as he threw. The throw was in the dirt and scooped nicely by AGon. Without that play the AL wins right there.

- If you stayed up to see it, George Sherrill formally introduced himself last night. 2 and a 1/3 innings pitched. Impressive display.

- All Michael Young does is win All-Star Games.

All in all, disaster was averted and the All-Star Game was what it is suppose to be. A showcase of the greatest sport in the world, played by the greatest players in the world.

Regular season starts up tomorrow and, sadly and amazingly, the Padres at 22 games under .500 are only 10 games out. Hopefully they give up that dream and let their young players play.

Reliving the Derby

2008-07-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

There is an old adage about baseball that fans like to throw around. "Every day you come to the park you might see something new." Baseball is that kind of sport, the kind of sport where on any given day you could see something never before seen. Perhaps its an Indian rookie hitting the very first pitch he sees deep into the left field stands for a Grand Slam. Or a pitcher save his 500th game.

Last night at the Home Run Derby, baseball fans were given such a moment. While Josh Hamilton may not have won the Home Run Derby, such details seem secondary to the show he put on. But more then the display of raw, Roy Hobbs like power, is the story behind the show. By now, Hamilton's story of overcoming his addiction, working his way back and being reinstated into baseball, is well known throughout America. Hamilton made his Major League Debut last year, 8 years after being Tampa Bay's number 1 pick. But it was last night that he formally introduced himself to America.

Peter Gammons writes a great blog entry about baseball heroes showing up at the right time. While the game continues to be entangled in the scandals of Balco (scandals that have claimed arguably this generations best hitter and best pitcher), one need only look to last night to see how bright the future of baseball is. Hamilton, Utley, Uggla, Morneau, Longoria. These are hardly household names...yet.

I like baseball for many reasons. I like that you can't hold the ball and run out the clock to win, everyone gets a fair shake at winning, that many different strategy's produce can produce a win and that there is room for many different kinds of athletes. I like the nuances of the game, the fundamentals as well as the follies. And I like stories like Josh Hamilton, or Rick Ankiel, or Jim Abbot, or Jon Lester.

Padres at the Break (Brink)

2008-07-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

So, I've been a bit of a slacker in updating post here. What can I say? Work...and play, has gotten in the way. But we are back for an All-Star post to ease us into the break. A couple thoughts from over the weekend:

- The Padres lost last night 12-3. The nice thing about 58 losses by the All Star Break is that all the losses blend together, making it hard to remember any one. I barely remember yesterday's loss already.

- The UT did an interesting "By the Numbers" piece today here. What jumps out at me is the 0-48 record in games when trailing after 8. So at no point this year has San Diego come back on another team's closer.

- The Padres are 11-16 in 1-run games which, more then anything, means that they have played 27 1 run games. They have played 26 "blowout" games (games decided by 5 or more runs).

- The 1998 National League Championship Team was honored over the weekend. I was 3 when the Padres won the '84 pennant so the '98 team was really my first experience with the Padres in the World Series. I lived in Tucson at the time but I remember how excited I was to see my team on national t.v. with all the playoff fanfare. Finally, when I had had enough, I drove out to San Diego for a game during the NLCS and it remains one of the most exciting sporting events I have been to. The 1998 season was some of the most fun I have ever had as a baseball fan and I'm glad they were honored this weekend. So thanks to Greg Vaughn, Ken Caminiti, Sterling Hitchcock, Kevin Brown, Carlos Hernandez, Tony Gwynn, Steve Finley and the rest of the squad. You gave me memories I wouldn't trade for anything.

- Only 1 Padre in the All-Star Game, Adrian Gonzalez (who should be in the Home Run Derby). As is typical, the major markets lead the way in voting and players sent to the game. Not that San Diego warranted more than 1 this year though.

- Finally, Jayson Stark wrote a scathing article about ARod not taking part in the Home Run Derby in Yankee Stadium. A good read (as most of Stark's stuff is).

Aimless Tuesday Ramblings

2008-07-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

I was out of town this past weekend so that would be the reason for the limited updates. Hope every one's 4th was fun. Here are some random thoughts on the Padres I had:

- Adrian Gonzalez was named to the All-Star team to the surprise of no one. He will be travelling alone however (also to the surprise of no one) as he is the lone Padres representative. Adrian is also a bit open about his desire to take part in the Home Run Derby. With 22 homeruns (4th highest in the NL) and an open NL spot, it would seem to make perfect sense. It would seem...

- Edgar will not be making the trip to New York because the All-Star Break is "wife time."

- To meet Adrian's 8-4 goal before the All-Star break, the Padres have to win 5 straight after last night's 3-1 loss. That loss moved the Padres to 3-4 in their last 7.

- Greg Maddux will NEVER WIN AGAIN!!!!

- Greg Maddux can still pitch though and last night was a great example.

- Interesting move by the Brewers this weekend landing C.C. Sabathia. A new high water mark for mid-market/small market teams.

- I've been a fan since he got here but I am over Khalil Greene. Look, we had some fun, some laughs, but its over. Time to move on.

- In things I know little to nothing about, the Padres scored big in the Amateur signing day last week, landing 5 of ESPN.com's 10 best prospects. Check Paul Depodesta's blog for far better information on that at It Might Be Dangerous.

- And speaking of Depodesta, he put a call out to fans for suggestions on what to do with this team. Essentially, play GM. My answer, sell. Forget this season, get rid of Wolf, Giles, Greene, load up on prospects and look toward next year. It doesn't take a Herculean effort to win this division, but speed might help.

- $1 days at Petco! $1 hot dogs, $1 drinks, $1 off beer. Only 8 home games left in July.

- Luke Carlin has a cannon for a right arm. If only he could hit.

- Chase Headley may strike out a lot but he already has 5 home runs since joining the Padres a few weeks ago.

- The Padres can't score more than 3 runs at home! Last night was no different.

- I'm now openly rooting for a team below .500 to win the NL West

And Rocky Mountain Lows

2008-07-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

I'm no math major but here's something I find interesting (and by interesting I mean depressing).

Game 1 Runs = 15
Game 2 Runs = 0
Game 3 Runs = 1

What a fun trip to Coors Field!!!!!

Now, according to Adrian's prediction the Padres have to go 7-1 to be "in" it. Although at this point it might be more embarrassing to be in this "pennant race" then to be out of it.

FYI, in the AL West we would be 18 GB, the NL East 14, the NL Central 24 GB. Good times.

But hey, it's the Fourth of July, so eat, drink, celebrate and forget your Padres worries (wait, they play today! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Luckily we have Baek going so there's no worries about bringing in unrealistically high expectations into this game).

How about some pictures from the NY trip? OK then:

Rocky Mountain Highs

2008-07-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Padres salvaged what has been a miserable June by exacting, if only for a day, some revenge on the Colorado Rockies.

Last night, the Padres recorded season highs in hits (22) and runs (15). The runs total last night was more than the Padres have had in the past week. And while 1 game does not erase an 8 game losing streak or a 3-15 interleague schedule, it underscores the odd situation the Padres and the rest of the NL West find themselves in. It will only take one team, getting hot for 10 days, to take over the NL West. As Adrian Gonzalez put it last night:

"I've got a good feeling," Adrian Gonzalez said. "Giles and I were talking about this tonight. Counting tonight, we have 12 games going into the All-Star break.
"We're here and at Arizona on this trip, then return home to play the Marlins and Braves.
"If we go 8-4 to the break and get to within six out on Arizona ... we're not too far out. It doesn't sound great, but it's been done before. I think everything rides on these next 12 games.
"Six-and-six, we're done. Seven-and-five, though. But 8-4. It's something to shoot for. We've created the start."

8-4 in this stretch. Possible, certainly considering the struggles that Colorado and Arizona have been going through. But one thing is certain. This week is THE week to get back in the race. If the Padres are double digit games back by the All-Star Break, let the selling begin. For now, a 7-run 9th inning seems to have given the Padres a small reprieve.

As you know, LCB is a fan of Edgar Gonzalez. Last night, big brother had a big night, hitting two homeruns and ending the night with 4 hits. It does raise the question: what do the Padres do when Iguchi gets back? More on that later. For now, let's enjoy a rare offensive outburst by the Padres.

Our God Has Forsaken Us!

2008-06-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, that title might be a bit of a hyperbole but the point remains, times are dark. When you or someone you know is an addict, it is often said that that person cannot be helped until they hit rock bottom. As Padres fan, perhaps you held out hope that the Padres could make a run in the weak NL West. Certainly sweeping the Mets was a sign of good times ahead, yes?

Then rock bottom came. It didn't come in Cleveland, when the Padres lost 2 of 3. It didn't come at the hands of the Yankees who swept the Padres out of New York. It didn't come at home against Detroit or against a streaking Twins team.

Rock bottom came yesterday, when the Mariners, owners of the worst record in baseball and the Padres "hated rival" finished off a sweep of the Padres by winning 9-2 (10-2, 11-2, who knows what the final was, who stuck around?) and beating Jake Peavy. Swept. By the Mariners. At Home.

This is rock bottom.

And the reality of the season appears to be settling into the front office. Sandy Alderson told U-T's Tim Sullivan that the Padres are probably "sellers" at this point, leaving Giles, Maddux, Wolf and I would assume Greene and Iguchi as available commodities now.

This team is shockingly bad. Unlike some cities (Pittsburgh, Kansas City, etc.) where the losing is still painful I imagine, but expected, San Diego came into this season with high expectations. 4 straight winning seasons will do that to a city. And it's hard to say where the issues are. Certainly Iguchi/Edgar are improvements on Marcus Giles, last year Termel Sledge was the starting LF for half a season. Really the biggest lost was Mike Cameron. So what happened? Someone far smarter than myself may be able to answer that.

Comically, the Padres remain only 9.5 GB and would only need to reach .500 for the season to compete for a division title. Maybe this team isn't a 90 win team as predicted by Padre front office members at the beginning of the season, but I still believe this team can play .500.

Typical addict behavior.