Team Leaders

Ryan Ludwick does not exist.  He never existed.

If you go to the Padres official website, about half-way down you'll find a section labeled '2011 team leaders'.  It lists Nick Hundley, Cameron Maybin, and Will Venable as the team HR leaders with 9 each.  It also shows Jesus Guzman, Chase Headley, and Venable as the team RBI leaders with 44 each.

Ryan Ludwick's 11 HR and 64 RBI as a Padre are conveniently forgotten.  For some reason this really offends me.  It's as if the team does not want to acknowledge his contributions to the 2011 effort.

I got into a psuedo-argument about this on Twitter last night.  The reasons given for why he's not listed included 'he was traded' and 'its more about who's on the current roster'.  Fine.  Then don't label that section on the website '2011 Team Leaders'.  Call it something else - Active Padres Leaders, or Current Roster Leaders, or The Best We've Got Left As The Season Ended.

Ludwick's stats didn't cease to count just because he was traded to Pittsburgh 15 minutes before the trade deadline.  He was still the most productive Padre in these two areas during the 2011 season.  It's ridiculous to pretend he wasn't.  Besides, what good does it do to present the data in this way?  Ludwick is still listed on the sortable stats page as a Padre (as he should be), and if one sorts by HR or RBI guess who's name sits at the top of the list.  Go to the 2011 San Diego Padres team page on Baseball Reference, and guess who's still listed there?  Ludwick!  Of course B-Ref has him as the everyday LF, but that's because he played more games in LF than any other Padre in 2011, which is how B-Ref organizes their data.

So who are we trying to fool here - the fans?  That's insulting to all fans everywhere.

There are other ways to sell the current roster.  Highlight Maybin's success in 2011.  Talk about how Hundley recovered from his first half injuries to become a force at the plate after the All-Star Break.  Mention Anthony Bass' development, and how (according to what I've read) he's continuing to progress in the Arizona Fall League.  Hype Cory Spangenberg.

Just don't tell me the team leaders in HR and RBI were guys who fell 2 HR and 20 RBI short of a player that left via a team decision 7/31.

In case you think I'm being unreasonable (and you might), consider this.  In 1990 Willie McGee was traded, at the end of August, from St Louis to Oakland.  At the time he led the NL in batting average (.335).  Even though he spent the last month of the season in the other league, he had accrued enough at bats to qualify for the NL batting title.  At seasons end, no other NL hitter had caught him, so McGee won the NL batting title ... despite no longer playing in the league. 

If Major League Baseball, that stodgy organization, could recognize McGee for his performance in the NL before he was traded, why can't the Padres do the same thing with their '2011 team leaders'?  Who are they trying to kid.

Pretending Ludwick's numbers don't qualify as a team leader because he was dealt at the trade deadline is dishonest.  The Padres are wrong to present the 2011 team leader stats without including him.

Ludwick 2011 vs Gonzalez 2010

On Wednesday Ryan Ludwick drove in his 51st run of the year.  I got to thinking - how does his 2011 compare with Adrian Gonzalez's 2010?

Ludwick has appeared in 78 of the Padres 82 games this season.  His current stats:  .258/.324/.405, 109 OPS+, 10 HR, 51 RBI, 28 walks (1 intentionally), 61 strikeouts.  His total run production (wRC+) is 110.

Gonzalez through 78 games last season:  .297/.389/.518, 16 HR, 51 RBI, 57 walks (13 intentionally), 58 strikeouts.  Adrian's OPS+ is not displayed by Baseball-Reference, however they do have a stat called tOPS+, which measures how he did during the first half of the season relative to his average production during the first half.  Gonzalez tOPS+ was 105, so it's safe to assume his OPS+ exceeded 109.  Likely his wRC+ too.

I did not post these numbers to depress you.  I posted them because the RBI number jumped out at me.  RBIs, as you probably know, are more a reflection of how good the lineup is in getting folks on ahead of a hitter vice how good that hitter is.  But, for all of Ludwick's faults, he is driving runs at the same rate Gonzalez did in 2010.

Believe it or not, from an RBI perspective the Padres did manage to replace Gonzalez's production with Ludwick.  That despite the awful first 3 weeks of the season Ludwick threw up.

There likely will not be any posts this weekend, so until next Tuesday have yourselves an enjoyable, and safe, Fourth of July weekend.  See you then.

Why The Ludwick Hate?

So many things to talk about from last night.  So, so many things:

• Why the Padres didn't try to squeeze in the fourth inning.
• Why Ernesto Frieri can't find the strike zone.
• Why Wade LeBlanc continues to get starts and Cory Luebke doesn't.

I was going to write about any number of these (and probably still will in the coming days).  On the drive in this morning, however, I was distracted from that by Scott Kaplan (of Scott and BR fame on XX1090).  Naturally it makes sense this morning, after a nightmarish 7th inning which saw 10 consecutive Red Sox reach base with 2 outs, that the first Padres player Scott Kaplan decides to hammer is Ryan Ludwick.  To paraphrase: 'If I have to watch one more Ludwick dive...'.

Why all the Ludwick hate?  Why does Kaplan have a hardon for Ludwick?

Since May first, Ludwick is hitting .295/.348/.416.  He's one of only two guys on this team (the other being Chase Headley) hitting consistently, and he's the only real power threat the Padres have.  I've documented here that his defense is not as bad as most believe.  So why the continual Ludwick bashing?

Because of his diving attempt to catch Kevin Youkilis' double in the seventh inning?  Let's analyze that sequence for a moment.

When Youkilis stepped to the plate for the second time, the Padres were on their third pitcher of the inning.  There had already been 4 walks (one intentional) and 2 hit batsman in the inning.  After Frieri retired Youkilis for the second out (on a fly to Ludwick no less), the Red Sox hitters went: intentional walk (Ortiz), walk (Drew), HBP (Scutaro on ball 4), HBP (Varitek), single (Reddick), single (Ellsbury), walk (Pedroia), and single (Gonzalez).

That's a long inning.

Youkilis' second fly ball was the first ball (since his previous at bat in the inning) where a Padre fielder even had a whisper of a hope of making the play.  Ludwick, tired of standing in LF watching the carnage, tired of his team getting its brains beat in, tired of not being able to do anything to stop it - ran flat-out down the warning track from where he had been positioned (more in LC than LF) and tried to make the play to get out of the inning.  He missed.  Youk ended up with a double.

That's the play.  This isn't Ludwick diving under a ball which led to 2 runs and the loss like he did on 11 June against Washington (although that play happened in the first inning, so the Padres had the entire game to score three).  This was Ludwick trying to get his team out of a nightmare of an inning.  That's the play Kaplan decides to make fun of at the start of his show this morning?

People who hate Ludwick because he flopped down the stretch last season need to get over it.  People who hate Ludwick because he started this season hitting .098 need to look at what he's done lately.  Ryan Ludwick is not the problem here.

Come on, Scott Kaplan - you're better than this.

Just How Bad is Ludwick's Defense?

Actually he usually catches these.

You've heard it.  You may have said it:  Ryan Ludwick is a lousy defensive outfielder.  Well with 35% of this season's games played, we have enough data to ask:  just how bad is Ludwick defensively?

Let's use Dewan's plus/minus metric as our measuring stick.  Ever wondered how that stat is calculated?  Here you go:

A player gets credit (a "plus" number) if he makes a play that at least one other player at his position missed during the season, and he loses credit (a "minus" number) if he misses a play that at least one player made.

Simple, and effective.  Here's the leaderboard through last night:

Thirteen names on the list.  Ryan Ludwick is not oe of them.  Oh gee whiz he really does suck, I mean he's not even in the top 13! 

Well maybe not.  Ludwick is actually fourteenth at +4.  Thirty teams in the league, he sits in 14th, that means he's spectacularly average in left.  Let's take it one step further:  how does he stack up against the rest of the NL West?

1. Parra (AZ) +23.  Statistically he's the best defensive LF in the game today.
2. Ludwick (SD) +4.  Surprised?  He ranks 14th overall as we mentioned previously.
3. Sands (LA) 0.  He's a rookie; ranks 25th at the moment.
4. C. Gonzalez (COL) -2.  This surprised me a bit.  Everyone knows CarGo (probably the stupidest nickname I've seen recently) has blossomed into a force at the plate, but I had no idea he was inept in the field.  Gonzalez is ranked 27th.
5. Ross (SF) 0.  He spent a month hurt and is still rounding into shape.  Dewan assigns him no rank based on a lack of data.

We will revisit this again as the season wears on, but I think complaints about Ludwick's poor defense are overblown a lot.  He may not be exceptional, but he's good enough.

Game Reflections - #45 vs Mariners

Ah the opening game of the annual series against our 'Ancient Rival'.  This one had an interesting ending.  Some notes, in no particular ord.

- I have no idea how Cameron Maybin missed Kennedy's sinking line drive in the second inning.  @leftcoastbias and I discussed it for a bit, and came to the conclusion he lost it in the lights.  That really is the only explanation that makes sense.  Maybin tracked that ball all the way past his glove, as it were.

Speaking from some personal experience, when a ball merges into the lights you have two choices.  Try to get down so you can still see it, or stick your glove out and hope.  Maybin tried both and the ball still eluded him.  Tough break.

- The bottom of Seattle's lineup killed Latos.  Hitters 1-5:  2-for-18, 2 singles, 2 walks.  Hitters 6-9:  6-for-15, 2 2B, 3B, HR, Sac Fly.  These 4 hitters drove in all 4 runs.  And it's not like Seattle stacked Murderer's Row down there; coming into the game Miguel Olivo, Carlos Peguero, Brendan Ryan, and Eric Bedard came in with OPS+ of 59, 50, 54, and 0 respectively.  Latos just could not consistently get them out.

- Olivo sure liked what he saw tonight, with a ground rule double and HR to left-center off Latos.  On the double, it looked like Ludwick and Maybin slowed down when he saw each other coming.  I don't know if Ludwick had a play, or if Maybin would have had a play had he kept running all out; I think Maybin had the better shot although he came a much longer way.  Hard to say from way behind home plate.

- The Mariners got two ridiculous jumps off Latos, both by Kennedy.  He had a 2 or three step head-start before the pitch left Mat's hand.  On one play he stole second, on the other he scored easily in front of Peguero's triple.  I don't remember base stealers getting that good a read on Latos last season.

- Latos worked noticeably more quickly in the sixth.  He gave up 2 XBH in the frame, including Olivo's HR.  I wonder why he sped things up.

Ludwick's single in the ninth broke an the team's 0-for-19 21 string with RISP. - 

- I have no idea what Ludwick was thinking on Cantu's fly ball in the seventh.  Why round second on that play?  If it's a HR you've got all day to run the bases. If it's a double you've got time to get to third.  If it's caught you need to get back.  Ludwick made a bad baserunning play there.

- The scoreboard said Denorfia leads the Padres in SLG.  He had 78 AB coming into the game.  Seemed an odd stat to quote for Denorfia.  Ludwick has 178 AB and 8 HR; he's the power leader on the club.

- 3 more double plays tonight, all of which killed potential rallies.

- Bedard struck out 9 tonight.  It's the second time he's done that this season. He had not done it since 2007 before 8 May against the White Sox.

- Here's what happened on the Ludwick ball in the ninth.  Peguero didn't catch it, and it was ultimately ruled a single.  Bartlett, thinking it had been caught, started back to first.  He and Ludwick bumped.  In the umpires eyes, that meant Ludwick had passed Bartlett.  So they called Ludwick out.  Bartlett was allowed to go back to second because after Ludwick was ruled out, the force at second was off, and when Kennedy received Franklin 'Death to Flying Things' Gutierrez's throw he didn't tag Bartlett.

Rule 7.08(h) applies.

Initially they ruled that Ludwick was safe and Bartlett out on the force.

All in all a tough game.  Seattle completely out-played them on this night.  Tomorrow the Padres get to face phenom Michael Pineda  I'm looking forward to seeing the kid pitch, although not so much to him shutting down the Padre offense.  

One final thing on the Maybin comment from yesterday.  A reliable source tells me the Brewers Media Relations person asked the official scorer to take another look at Maybin's single in the seventh inning Thursday.  Seems there was a similar play in Wednesday's game on a ball hit by a Brewer that was ruled an error, and the media guy was wondering about the perceived inconsistency.  FWIW.

Game Reflections - Game #19 Vs Phillies

Went to 2/3 of the game last night.  We left after 6 1/3 innings (a) to beat traffic, and (b) because you can only sit through so much offensive futility.  Some impressions.

1.  I tweeted last night about 'another SD home game, Padres no-hit through 3 again."  That's not entirely correct.  What is true is the Padres have gone hitless the first time through the order twice, and I've been in the ballpark on both occasions. Including last night's home game, the Padres have gotten their first hit of the game:

• First inning - twice
• Second inning -four times
• Third inning - once
• Fourth inning - once
• Fifth inning - once

2.  Last night was an interesting one from a fashion perspective.  I should have taken a picture or some video of the ladies in question, but I walked to my seat behind 4 young women wearing some of the tightest jeans I've yet seen - and platform heels to boot.  EVERY guy they walked past turned around to look, so I guess their clothing choices had the intended effect.

3.  It becomes frustrating to watch our offense routinely unable to either drive runners in from third, or to hit for extra bases.  It becomes even more frustrating to watch opposing teams come in and hit the crap out of the ball.  I'm am beginning to believe part of the problem with the Padres is psychological.  They continually hear about this ballpark and how it is a pitcher's park, and how you can't hit the long ball here.  Whether or not you believe it, it eventually seeps into your consciousness.  Other NL teams don't have to listen to that over and over again about their home ballpark, or about the park they come into.  They just hit; and seem to have better results in San Diego than the Padres do.

4.  This team really misses Jerry Hairston Jr.  How many times did we see him come to the plate last year, with the team down early, and hit a home run or start a rally?  From a perspective with no access to the clubhouse, it seems his leadership helped steady the 2010 Padres.  I don't see any evidence that type of leadership is present on this team.  Every 3 run deficit feels like game over; there's no sense the Padres can claw their back into those games.

Case in point - leading off the fourth Jorge Cantu had a 14-pitch at bat.  He eventually struck out, but it felt like a moral victory.  You know you're offense is struggling when a 14-pitch strike out feels like a victory.

5.  Cameron Maybin flat-out misplayed Ben Francisco's HR ball.  I initially thought he just backpedaled into the CF wall, but after seeing the replay he took a good route to the ball.  It seemed live he had no idea how close to the wall he was when he was trying to catch the ball.  If he jumps that's an out.

Ludwick?  Overran it, but Polanco was out a third and the blue blew the call.  Denorfia?  Looked like he lost it in the lights initially, because he didn't break on the ball at all.

Padres try again tonight - Richard vs Hamels.

I did have a Podcast last night - it can be heard here.  Two errata to correct from the discussion - I said last night was the fourth time the Padres had been shut out, that's wrong; I forgot about their Monday shutout at the hands of the Cubs.  I also said last night was the first time someone other than Moseley had been shut out, and that's also wrong; Tim Stauffer started that same game Monday.  The Astro/Padre game I reference during the show happened on July 2, 2010, and indeed ended 3-0.

Playing Catch Up

A little bit of free time appeared this morning, so let's play a little catch-up.

First the Podcast has returned! The latest two 30 minute episodes can be heard here and here. With the depth of offensive woes the Padres were experiencing at the time of both shows, I did focus on that. But I did cover other things. Give the 2 shows a whirl.

On Thursday's show I speculated that the lack of run support Dustin Moseley has gotten in his first three starts was historic. Thanks to the good folks in Media Relations with the club, we have an answer. They checked with the Elias Sports Bureau, and

The last time a starting pitcher's team was shut out in each of his first three starts to begin a season was in 2008 when the Detroit Tigers were blanked in each of Kenny Rogers' first 3 starts. Before Rogers, the last pitcher with no run support in his first three starts was Rudy May for the 1972 California Angels

Two times in the last 40 years demonstrates just how rare what has happened to Moseley is. It is a historical anomaly that the last two pitchers hung out to dry like this were left-handed. So it's been over 40 years since a righty experienced this level of no run support pain.

After Ryan Ludwick struck out Thursday night to end the eighth, I thought he and Moseley needed to start a support group to deal with failure. Ludwick could spend 10 minutes bemoaning his loss of hitting ability. Moseley could respond by slapping Ludwick around for 10 minutes, screaming HOW ABOUT SCORING SOME RUNS FOR ME JACKASSES?!?!?!

Speaking of Ludwick, he finally snapped his 0-for-the-season with runners in scoring position with a 2-RBI single in the seventh last night, snapping a 1-all tie. There was a report via Twitter (I believe Corey Brock sent the note) that Ludwick discovered he was too hunched over at the plate, and has straightened up so he can see the ball better. One wonders how long his batting stance has been tweaked, and if that's been the issue with his sub-.200 batting average since coming over from St Louis. If he now goes on a tear with the bat, we will know.

One other thing to consider: Ludwick temporarily snapped out of his funk last year when Bud Black dropped him to the bottom third of the order. This team needs Ludwick in the middle of the lineup; I hope the source of his troubles is not the pressure he puts on himself to perform as a 3-4-5 hitter (and before you remind me he hit in middle of the order with the Cardinals, he had some guy named Pujols carrying the majority of the load there).

More good news: the Padres have won 2 out of 3 for the first time since their first series of the year. They look to keep the momentum going this weekend.

Nice Start

Yeah the Cardinals have tortured San Diego over the last decade.  I'm not talking about just the 3 NLDS losses to those guys, where San Diego dropped 9 of the 10 games played.  Since the start of the 2006 season St Louis was 14-4 in Missouri against the Padres.  This includes the infamous rain-delayed Sunday game in 2008 when Colby Rasmus hit a 3-run bomb to stun Heath Bell and the Padres.

Nothing ever seems go to right at Busch.  Which is why winning this Opening Weekend series was so sweet.  San Diego has not won the season series from the Cardinals since 2006, which incidentally was the last time the Padres won a series in St Louis.  In fact the Padres had won 2 series there the last FOURTEEN YEARS until this weekend.  Here's a little tidbit: the last 3 times San Diego has won a series at Busch the Padres have made the playoffs.

I'm not telling the Front Office to start printing those ducats, but that's a nice early sign for the season to come isn't it?

We all know how important Ryan Ludwick is to the 2011 team, and the Padres could not have picked a better park for the season to start off in than Busch.  Ludwick's history there is well-known; if there's one place on this earth to get his confidence high early in the season it's in St Louis.  Ryan's 2 for 10 line might look a lot like last fall, but his 3 walks mean his batter's eye has returned, and he hit several balls hard during the series, albeit it in tough luck (most notably the sixth inning Sunday).

We wondered how the offense would look.  San Diego scored 16 runs in the series.  Yes they got shut out yesterday, but they still scored 16 runs in the series.

Most importantly, the pitchers held up their end of the bargain.  The team limited St Louis to 8 runs total, and held Pujols to 1 RBI (and 2-13 overall).  Dustin Moseley pitched far, far better than I expected he would; he pitched well enough to win, but Cardinal starter Jamie Garcia was just a little bit better.

That's a lot of reasons to be happy with a 2-1 start to the season.  Now the Padres come home to face the Giants, Dodgers, and Reds on their first homestand of the season.  I'll be at the game tomorrow, hope you are too.

Programming Note:  Tuesday's Podcast will be cancelled.  Following the game I have an 8:40 softball game, so there' s no way I'll be in any shape to prattle on for 30 minutes.  We'll pick up again on Thursday.

That's One

How big was that double play in the ninth?  Thank you Freddy Sanchez.

Padres get it done.  Now they can focus on tomorrow's game.  Philadelphia routed Atlanta, so the Padres gain ground in both races.

Nice to see Ryan Ludwick packed his big bat for this series, even if he struck out 3 times following his second inning HR.  Nice to see the Padres jump all over Matt Cain early to take the crowd out of the game for most of it; they re-appeared in the sixth when San Fran scored 3 to get back in the game, but we were into the strength of our bullpen by that point.

Adrian Gonzalez had a rare bad game with the glove, but I can live with that, especially considering he tattooed a ball for the 3-run HR in the fourth.  Didn't hurt.  Meant Bell had to face the heart of the Giant order in the ninth, but Sanchez sucked the wind out of that inning.

Some noise was made pre-game about Giant manager Bruce Bochy moving Cain up to Friday so they could clinch and get it over with.  Perhaps there was another reason:

1. Matt Cain 2010 splits:
1. Day Games - 73.1 IP, 7 HR, 3-4, 3.31 ERA
2. Night Games - 146 IP, 12 HR, 10-6, 2.77 ERA
2. Barry Zito 2010 splits:
1. Day Games - 43 IP, 6 HR, 2-2, 3.77 ERA
2. Night Games - 153.1 IP, 14 HR, 7-11, 4.17 ERA

Cain was definitely better at night than Zito, and Saturday's game is a day tilt.  I'm sure that figured into his reasoning.

Padre prospects for making the playoffs are noticeably brighter now than they were 24 hours ago.  This team can beat Zito.  Then it's a one-game playoff against 'Big Mouth' Sanchez for all the marbles.  Should Philly sweep Atlanta, and the Padres pull off the improbable, there is no playoff, San Diego wins the division, and San Francisco draws Philly in the NLDS.

Wouldn't that be sweet.

Now IS the time to exult

My latest Baseball Digest post is up for your reading pleasure.  As in previous weeks, it's focused on looking at this week's worth of home games against Arizona and Philadelphia.  This post is more pointed at what just happened.

I think all of us were a little nervous going into August, and it wasn't just because the Giants were surging.  The schedulers had set the Padres up to spend the first three weeks of August on an extended road trip.  The three home games with Pittsburgh were nice, but essentially they were just another city to stop in for a series before moving on.  With 17 road games in 21 days, although publically all of us thought 'these are the 2010 Padres, they'll find a way', privately many of us thought 'I wouldn't be surprised to arrive on 24 August in second place, looking up at San Francisco'.  And when they started this stretch off with a 3-4 trip to Arizona (which as we talked about back on 9 August wasn't that bad), some folks started jumping off the bandwagon.

Then the Padres got hot.  White Hot.  Like the SUN!

Sweep of the Pirates.  Winning 2 of three tense games in Frisco (which would have been a sweep if they could have gotten a hit with RISP on 8/14).  First 4-game sweep ever in Chicago.  Then a minor let down in Milwaukee, winning only on Sunday.  But you put it all together, and over this 21 day run the club went 13-7.  That's only .650 ball, folks.  This just in:  The 2010 Padres are GOOD.

Never in my wierdest dreams did I think the Padres would leave San Diego with a 2.5 game lead, and return with a 5.5 game bulge (SF pounded Cincinnati last night to cut a 1/2 game off the deficit).

Now we will play 16 of 19 in Petco.  Starting off this extended homestand is 3 against a team we've owned at home this season, and 3 against a team that's won 15 of the 19 games they've played downtown.

If you haven't got pennant fever, hang out at my house for a while - it's contagious, and you'll be infected before long.  Or you might get Bronchitis.  There are no guarantees in life, people.

Just so this post has some statistical content, here's an update on the offensive performance of our two trade deadline acquisitions:

Miguel Tejada - 21 games, 96 PA, .276/.344/.391, 1 HR.  Tejada has improved his hitting across the board since being acquired July 29th.  He still isn't showing much HR power, but he has injected some life into the offense.

Ryan Ludwick - 21 games, 88 PA, .237/.318/.408, 3 HR.  Ludwick had a great home series against Pittsburgh, but other than that he's struggled.  Opposing pitchers seem to have found two weaknesses in his game at the plate - sliders off the corner away, and high fastballs.  Ludwick, if the Milwaukee series is any indication, can't lay off either.  Everybody struggles from time to time at the plate, but Ludwick will start facing 'he can't hit without Albert Pujols behind him' questions more frequently until he snaps out of his current funk.

Padres have 39 games left.  Going 20-19 the rest of the way wins them 94 games.  San Francisco would have to go 24-12 to catch them.  Colorado needs to finish 30-8, LA 31-6, and AZ can't catch them even if they win all their remaining games.

Raging Arizona

When the team is struggling, the last place they want to go is the one place they always struggle.  So here we go again in Arizona.  In case you weren't aware, San Diego has lost two of every 3 games they have played in the Desert.  Losing 2-1 last night didn't surprise me at all, even though Jon Garland again threw well, and even though Arizona sent a rookie to the hill.

With Richard taking the hill against Rodrigo Lopez, and Latos tomorrow against Joe Saunders, the pitching match-ups still favor the Padres.  They can win this series.  In a year where they've defied all conventional wisdom, winning a series in Arizona would be par for the course.

Just because it's Saturday, and this is a quick-hitter, how have our two trade deadline acquisitions fared so far (WARNING:  SMALL SAMPLE SIZE)

Tejada:  8 games, 34 PA, 6 for 32, 2B, HR, 2 SO, .188/.235/.313 (with Baltimore:  .269/.308/.362).  Struggling a bit.  It seems that every time I watch Tejada hit he gets jammed.  He must lead the world in pop-ups.

Ludwick:  6 games, 22 PA, 4 for 19, 0 XBH, 5 SO, .211/.318/.211 (with St Louis:  .281/.343/.418).  Also struggling a bit.  Ludwick spent most of this season hitting in front of Albert Pujols.  Did that inflate his numbers?  I sure hope not.

May be a quiet rest of the weekend from here - reunions and adult baseball are on the docket.

Ryan Ludwick? Really?

The Padres have made another trade today, acquiring Ryan Ludwick from the Cardinals and sending two minor league players to Cleveland.  St Louis gets Indian pitcher Jake Westbrook.

I think we all know our outfield hasn't exactly lit the lamp with the bat this year.  Scott Hairston and Will Venable have been league average hitters; Tony Gwynn Jr OPS+ hovers at 82.  Ludwick addresses that need in a big way.  His OPS+ is 120; he'll be the best offensive outfielder on the club as soon as he's assigned a number.

My concern for the Padres, in making trades, was that they not upset their run prevention model.  That is why I am not completely sold on the Miguel Tejada deal.  I have no such reservations with this move.  Ludwick is enjoying his best defensive year (based on Dewan plus/minus; he is +5 defensively), which immediately makes him the second-best outfielder on the club behind Gwynn.  He can also play all three positions defensively, giving Bud Black tons of flexibility with the roster.

Ludwick became expendable in St Louis with the stellar play of Jon Jay.  Ludwick is making $5.45M this season, is arbitration eligible for the 2011 campaign, and becomes a free-agent in 2012.  It might be hard to believe, but the Cardinals dumped salary with this move. I don't know if this is a two-month rental or if the Padres will try to keep him for 2011.  The cynic in me says this is a 2-month rental.

No matter.  THIS is the bat the Padres needed to get, and THIS is the defender they need to bring in with that bat.  Great move by the Padres.

Welcome to San Diego, Ryan Ludwick.  You will like it here.