Padres Battle Royale: Left Field

The Battle For Left Field:

The Front Runner: Scott Hairston

I believe that Hairston earned the front runner spot from his amazing month of Sepetember/Oct. in 2007. Although the blown save by Hoffman wiped his 13th inning tie breaking homer from the memories of many, that home run was by far the most clutch hit of the year. Through the month of September he showed how clutch he was with at least 2 other walk off home runs. Overall he hit 8 home runs in only 87 at bats with the Padres with 20 RBI and a .644 slugging percentage and a .287 average. From these stats alone, Hairston deserves the first look and should be the front runner who has proven success in the bigs and with the Padres, even if it was a short period of time. He has the potential to be a solid everyday player and we know the guy is clutch. Defensively he is not the most mobile or solid candidate but he brings an intensity to the field and goes hard for every play.

The Prized Prospect: Chase Headley

Straight up Chase Headley is the Padres number one prospect. He is the player they have been getting excited about for years and years and now that he is ready the Padres have a little problem…his position (third base) is backed up by another potential all star in Kevin Kouzmanoff. So the Padres are going to give Headley a long look out in LF this offseason, a position he is not comfortable with. The hope is he can learn LF and become comfortable enough fielding that his potential offensive superstar side wins him the position. Of course he has the overpowering numbers in the minors that many believe he will be a star in the major leagues. The question is whether he is ready and what position we can stick him in. If he has a monster spring with the bat and doesn’t mess up completely defensively than he could easily win this job. There is a LOT of upside with Headley and the Padres have been waiting to unleash him in the majors for a while now.

The Sleeper: Paul Macanulty

Beleive it or not PMac is still around and still fighting hard to become a starter in the majors. His offense has been highly touted for the past few years, but he has never had a real opportunity to show off his stuff, limited mostly to pinch hit appearances and random sub appearances. Mac showed up at camp 20 pounds lighter (he has been labeled through his career as overweight) and he is in high spirits, setting the goal of earning the LF starting position. He has put up good on base percantage throughout his career in the minors and has drawn comparisons to some solid major league hitters. Defensively he will not be the most agile of fielders but he could probably give us a Ryan Kleskoish defensive season (yikes). Again it his offense that will win him this job if he can show Bud Black he is the best candidate during spring.

The Wildcard:Jeff DaVannon

JDV was accquired in the offseason after a poor season in 2007 where he split time with the Dbacks and the A’s. He is a wildcard because he has shown in the past that he can play a solid outfield. His best year was with the Dbacks where he batted .290 in 87 games and put up a .448 OBP. He has some speed and can play a solid defensive OF but he may not be the best option for the Padres to start. He may be a solid 4th outfielder to sub in from the bench late in the game. The only way JDV wins this starting spot is if he impresses with the glove and the bat and shows he is ready to have a solid year. I don’t see this happening, but he would be a welcome addition to the bench adding depth to our shallow list of outfielders.

There is also a possibility of trades still. Towers said once the cactus league games start up he will look into trades again. Names that have been rumored: Nady, Bay and Murton…..

5th spot in the rotation battle royale to come soon….

Padres 2008: (insert catchy slogan here)

Where is the new Padres slogan for 2008?  Last year the unvieled “EXPEREINCE IT” during the winter warm ups and put up the slogan/motto on the masthead of the website….this year.. it just says Padres and has a picture of hoffman, peavy and agon, but no slogan.

They used Padres: Play Downtown for the first two years in petco park, and i was so glad they finally changed it to Padres: “Experience It” last year.

I loved some of the past mottos of the Luchino era such as “keep the faith” (which he brought to boston, that bastard)  and “keep on believin’”.   I always loved the “on a mission” slogan when we were back at the Q literally right by the mission.

Now that we have had three winning seasons in a row downtown I think we need a more aggressive motto than those losing seasons in the 90s where “keep the faith” helped fans remember that faith was the only thing we had considering we were losing season after season.

Here is my idea

Padres: 2007 World Champs (if the umpire saw that holiday never touched the fucking plate)

PADRES SIGN PEDRO MARTINEZ!!

No. Not that Pedro Martinez….

Pedro Martinez, 17, a 6-3, 210-pound left-hander who was converted from the outfield last July with a low-90s fastball.

The San Diego Championship Game/Series Curse?

Watching the Chargers lose to probably the best NFL team ever in the AFC championship really got me thinking how unlucky the city of San Diego has been when it comes to sports. True the Padres and Chargers have suffered many losing seasons and decades of the franchises being in slumps…but what I consider to be the most strange and unlucky statistic comes in the few seasons that our teams actually succeed. In the rare years we actually excel and go deep into the playoffs we have faced some of the best teams in the history of the game. Now I know that all teams that reach deep into the playoffs are going to be considered great teams, but the teams we have played have been ridiculous…especially more recently.

1984 Padres Reach World Series only to face the Detroit Tigers

-The tigers ended the 84 season with an MLB best 104 wins…compared to the Padres 92 wins. That 104 wins was the most wins in the MLB since the 1975 Reds won 108. That’s right, the Padres finally get to the World Series and who do they have to face? Only the best team in the MLB in almost a decade… This is the start of the terrible luck in opponents in San Diego playoff history.

1994 Chargers Reach the Super Bowl only to face the San Francisco 49ers

-The 1994 Chargers finished at 11-5 and were able to fight there way past the Steelers into the Superbowl to face the 49ers who ended the season with an NFL best 13-3 Record. This 49er team scored an NFL high 505 points on offense, the most points scored by a team in the NFL since the 1984 Dolphins scored 512 points ten years earlier. Once again a San Diego team gets to the championship game only to face one of the best offenses and all around teams in the past 10 years. The 49ers blew out all of thier playoff games scoring 44, 38 and 49 points in each of their 3 playoff games. They are continually remembered for having an overpowering offense and being one of the best offensive threats in the league ever.

1998 San Diego Padres reach the World Series only to play the New York Yankees

- The 1998 Padres had a franchise season winning 96 games and taking the NLWest. Of course the year they chose to contend would be the year when the two other division winners in the NL had over 100 wins. The Braves had 106 wins and the Astros had 102 wins, not to mention the Yankees with 114 wins. The last time there were 3 teams with over 100 wins in the MLB was 197 7, over 20 years before the 1998 season. The Padres managed to roll over both the Astros and the Braves to reach the 114 win Yanks. 114 wins was at that time an MLB record, only to be passed in 2001 by the 116 win Mariners. Many people believe that the 1998 Yankees may be the best team ever, and they showed it by sweeping the Padres in the World Series. The Padres had to face all 3 100 win teams in the playoffs, which is something that has never been done before in baseball. If that isn’t terrible luck than I don’t know what is… When you finally get to the World Series you have to face the best MLB team ever? yikes…

2007 Chargers get to the AFC Championship game only to face the NE Patriots

-This is one of the best examples of the Chargers terrible luck. They had an up and down season but were able to fight there way through the playoffs with momentum and who did they have to face but the undefeated Patriots. Regarded by man as the best team ever in the NFL they went 16-0 in the regular season, setting NFL records for team points, TD passes by Brady, TD catches by Moss and many many more offensive records. This team is absolutely ridiculous when you look at the stats. There may never be a better team than the 2007 Patriots. The Chargers fought hard, but lost the game as many expected. If it were any other year the Chargers would not have had to play the best team in the NFL history to get to the superbowl.

So you see..when it comes to championship series/games San Diego seems to be cursed. Next time you see a team having a historic season however, maybe you should brace for a Padre/Charger run to the championship….only to lose

What the hell is Mike Cameron up to?

Pitchers and catchers report in about a month and Mike Cameron, who originally was projected to be one of the top free agents in this year’s class, still remains unsigned.  The 25 game suspension thing definitely put a damper on his popularity, but I am still amazed that he is still just chillin out there on the market.

With that being said….

The Padres are still in need of a solid outfielder. hmmm….. Now I know that the Padres officially announced that they will not be bringing him back and then went and signed Edmonds, but if interest is somewhat faded in Cameron it would be great if he could work out at least a one year deal to play CF and then Edmonds could move to right and Giles to left.  Or Edmonds could just stay in left.  But if the Pads could somehow patch things up with Cam and sign him to a deal you know he is going to want to play his best ball in order to increase his market value.  An outfield of Cameron, Edmonds, Giles sounds pretty good to me compared to what we have now.  Hairston, Headly and DeVannon could platoon for the first 25 games that Cam is out and would also be available to rest the oft injured edmonds and post-surgery Giles.  Sounds pretty nice…..just a matter of talking things out and getting a deal done and hoping Cam can be reasonable and accept one more year in the city he seemed to love….

just something to ponder…

Padres (finally) Sign Hometown Prior

So we FINALLY signed Mark Prior. I feel like I have been waiting for this to happen all offseason, especially since he was non-tendered by the Cubs. I have heard rumors that San Diego was where he really wanted to play all along, so I am glad that it is finally done. This is pretty exciting for the number 5 spot in the rotation, but there are a lot of worries that come with this signing. I really am curious how bad his injury really is, and maybe hes not disclosing something. If he is healthy he obviously has incredible potential, so again its a low risk high reward, especially with the 1 million dollar contract (3 million with incentives). Basically if Wolf and Prior get injured and cant make thier starts, our team is gonna suck and the only happy people will be Moores because he will be saving millions. But a guy who averages 10ks per 9 innings playing in the NLwest and in a pitchers park trying to rejuvinate his career so he can get a big contract is fine with me. Who knows, if he has a good season, is handled right by the padres pitching coaches and finds his stuff perhaps we can shell out the bucks to keep him around and then have a rotation of Peavy, Young, Prior locked up for years to come. Doesnt sound too bad now does it….

Fukudome is a tease; Lots of players used roids; Pads trade for Edmonds, sign Iguchi

A lot has gone down in the world of Padres in the past week. Ill start from the top.

FUK-U-Dome

After making fans wait and wait and wait Fukudome finally announces hes coming to America and hes gonna play for America’s worst team, the Cubs. They offered more money, and he took it. Guess he didn’t take Aki’s advice to come to SD. This pretty much left the Padres screwed.

Roid Rage

A few days later the long awaited Mitchell Report was released listing over 80 names of players past and present who were found to be involved with steroids, HGH or other substances. Amazingly Giles was not on it….actually no current Padres were, but plenty of former Padres. Most notably Kevin Brown, Caminiti, Joyner. Surprisingly no word of Greg Vaughn on there either, so the search for reasons why he had one ridiculous season is still in progress. I was really excited for the Mitchell Report but I got over it pretty fast. I am a huge advocate of justice and equality and I hate cheating, but for some reason in my mind it was just something that was done under the table by many in those years. I think they should at least open up a steroids league where its like the XFL but its the XLB where all players on roids and hitting 50 homers average a year. I would love to watch that. Believe it or not Jody Reed was left off the list…shocking I know.

Edmonds and Iguchi are Friars

In the wake of not signing the biggest Japanese player on the market the Padres settled for signing another solid Japanses FA, Tad Iguchi. Any move that enables you get to go to the ballpark and yell “GOOOOOOCH” at the top of your lungs without people looking at you strangley is one that I am ok with. To be honest with you I have mixed feelings about this move. I was really hoping to get to see Antonelli up at second for a full season, but it looks like he will get another year down at AAA. Iguchi however is a solid option at second base and should be a vast improvement over the Giles/Blum tandem of last year. He had a solid end of the season for Philly and I am really looking forward to what he can do for us at second. I am hoping we put him up in the lead off spot and we finally can have a solid leadoff hitter.

The Padres followed this move up by finally filling thier center field position with Jim Edmonds. Initially i was not very happy with this move, as I have always hated Edmonds because of his flair for the dramatic and the fact that he has always killed the Padres (see 2005 playoffs). I do however admire his web gems and think he is one of the best CF defensively around, or used to be at least. After letting it settle in I think IF he can stay healthy he will be an upgrade over Cameron. My love for Cameron really faded last year with his record setting strikeout season and one too many dropped routine fly balls. I still to this day think he needs to get his eyes fixed again and he will never admit that he has a problem (at least didnt want to admit it before going into free agency). I heard Edmonds on the radio this morning and he didn’t seem outwardly excited to be playing for the Padres but sounded pissed off as if he had something to prove to everybody and he couldn’t wait. He said the fact that St. Louis got rid of him when he planned to end his career there as well as the fact that people think he is too old and declining are enough to motivate him to have a great season. I give him a month before the PETCO park effect starts getting into his head like every other player (not Andruw Jones which scares me that he is going to be playing there a lot more now).

Now we have to fill LF unless we decide to stick with Hairston. There are rumors Nady may come back for Barrett, I wouldn’t mind that at all. The curse of Barrett needs to be exorcized.

Peavy gets his big extension, Towers sleeps through winter meetings

Well the biggest news since I last posted is that, although its not quite official, the Padres and Jake Peavy have agreed to the largest deal in franchise history.  Peavy is rumored to recieve a 3 year extension worth about 52 million dollars.  He also would have a 22 million dollar team option in 2012.  Pretty un-padre like, but very impressive.  We locked up our big homegrown star for 5 more years and actually dished out a large long term contract.  With teams going after Santana this off-season the Padres have quietly made one of the biggest signings in the MLB of this off-season and have gaurenteed the Cy Young winner to be with them for a a while.  Peavy is now poised to become the next generation Mr. Padre.  I would love to see Peavy take after Mr. Padre himself and stay in the sand and blue unis for his entire career…but who knows what will happen.  All I know is that this is exciting news and the type of deal the Padre fans were expecting after moving into Petco Park and becoming more serious about winning and committing money to valuable playeres.

Meanwhile, Towers really did not get much else accomplished at the winter meetings.  After going into the meetings with his heart set on filling the gaps in the outfield, the meetings ended with an offer to Fukudome, the hope of Bradley resigning a 4 million dollar contract and thats about it.  Today news was released that Bradley had decided to sign with the Rangers, leavin the Padres, well, screwed.  Getting Fukudome has become that much more important for the Padres, as they wait for him to either reject or except his offer early this week.  Right now our outfield would be Brian Giles and Scott Hairston.  Perhaps the Padres will come crawling back to Cameron and offer him a larger contract now that they are desperate.  A lot of the off-season hinges on Fukudome right now.  If we dont get Fukudome we are going to have to come up with a backup plan and start wheeling and dealing.   It also seems we have given up looking for a second baseman, and have settled with taking a gamble on Antonelli.  I have read some reports that say they dont think he is ready to be a MLB starter yet, but I guess thats a risk we are willing to take.  Besides the Peavy extension and signing wolf this offseason has not been very productive.  We need to fix our offense or we will not survive in the NLwest which now is the new home of Andruw Jones (dodgers).   Ill update once I hear any final decision on Fuku….

Padres sign Wolf to pitch behind Mad Dog

The Padres and Randy Wolf reportedly agreed to a contract yesterday. It really amazes me that Towers can continue his unique strategy of bargain hunting by signing either big name stars at the dusk of their career or guys that have had good years but are coming off serious injuries or down seasons. I guess it’s a no risk high reward move so it really cannot hurt the team too much. Who knows, maybe Wolf can turn things around and have a good season with the friars. Either way, he should make for at least a solid number 4 or 5 pitcher behind Peavy, Young, Maddux. We have seen this strategy fail before (ex: Estes, Ashby) but it never impacted the team too much. Wolf showed signs of being a solid pitcher last year before his injury, with a fantastic month of May (3-0, 1.48 ERA, 5 ER). Wolf only gave up 6 or more earned runs 2 times in his 18 starts. Overall I like this signing and am excited to see how he rebounds from his injury and see if PETCO has any positive effects on his pitching. Although he may have to suffer with the Padres classic low run support.

Other News:

• According to the Union Tribune Towers is going from rehab facility to rehab facility in order to fill out the rotation. With Wolf signed there is only one more slot left to be filled. It seems the Padres are trying to work things out with either Matt Clement or Mark Prior. Both have a history of injuries and are coming off injury years but both have potential to bounce back. I personally would prefer Prior, not only because he is a San Diego guy but because he has so much potential. Its sad when a player with so much potential has a career like Prior has had and it would be a real feel good story for him to come back and have a solid season with his hometown team. With a rotation of Peavy, Young, Maddux, Prior, and Wolf I would be pretty satisfied. Its the offense that still worries me..

• So on Wednesday night I sat through a Sandy Alderson XX radio 10 or 15 minute interview which despite Sandy’s despite his monotone voice and dodging of almost every question was actually interesting. He said that they were going to try and pull of some trades at the winter meetings and that the Padres are more likely to go the route of trades rather than free agents to fill our gaps. He said that both Boras and Andruw Jones know the Padres would be interested in him for a one year deal, but ONLY a one year deal, he doesn’t think they are interested in a one year deal. Said he would be open to maybe offering a one year deal to Cameron but doesn’t know how that will end up. He mentioned that the Padres met with Jenkins and there is mutual interest in signing him, but what Jenkins role would be is unknown. I have heard there are some worries about Giles recovering from his knee surgery in the offseason so the more outfielders we have the better. The Padres have interest in the Japanese corner outfielder Fukudome as do many other teams. He said that their top priorities are the outfield and maybe some pitching. Throughout the whole interview I didn’t hear a single mention of filling the gap at second base, which must mean they are feeling pretty confident they can fill the position with Antonelli. The winter meetings, which start tomorrow are when more deals are going to go down and more specific rumors will start coming out..

• Padres and Brett Tomko have mutual interest in working out a deal that would bring him back to pitch in the bullpen. Tomko lives in Poway so it is convenient for him, and the Towers loves stockpiling the pen.

• The Padres decided to fill the sibling void in the clubhouse left by the release of Marcus Giles. No they did not sign Brandy Giles the younger sister, they signed Adrian Gonzalez’ older brother Edgar Gonzalez from the Cardinals minor league system. From what I have read about Edgar he is an okay hitter but has some fielding issues as an infielder. He signed a minor league contract, who knows whether we will see him on the big league club during the season but at least we can count on some BRO. B. I’s in spring training.

The winter meetings are this week, that means actual Padres news and maybe a deal or two?

Peavy Unanimously Wins Cy Young, gets extension talks; Pads to wake Clement up from his 07 slumber to pitch in 08?

Congratulations Jake! Peavy unanimously won the Cy Young award today, and deservedly so. No surprise after dominating almost every NL pitching category and providing one of the most dominating seasons the NL has seen in a while. Articles popped up around the same time as the Cy Young announcement that the Padres are in extension talks with Peavy. I guess that should cool off some of those ridiculous trade rumors going around right now. I hope Jake can repeat his 07 performance in years to come and that we have him for a long time. He is our big name star and we really need to lock him down for a long long time. Just think, the Padres could have had 2 cy young award winners in back to back years after Trevor was in the top running for the award in 06. As much as I am frustrated by Peavy’s struggles in critical games, I love the guy and am so proud that he finally brought home the Cy Young award.  I’m sure he wont mind the bonus that gets triggered in his contract when he wins a Cy Young award either.  It was only a matter of time before it happened, and this is what should be the first of many. We now have a rotation that contains 2 cy youngs and a CY (young).

Ouch. Kinda a mean picture considering he is really unconscious and profusely bleeding from his head after being hit by a shot back up the middle in this picture. Regardless, rumors have been picking up intensely that the Padres are interesting in brining Clement back to pitch for the Padres. Most likely he would take the 4th or 5th spot in the rotation after being out for the entire 07 season. I’m not against bringing clement back, I think he could be solid if he recovers well enough from his injury. This seems like a typical low risk high reward Towers move, and I like it. As long as Towers stays away from brining back any of the following: Darrel May, Tim Redding, Dewon Brazelton, Ismael Valdez, Kevin Jarvis