Three and Five

MLB handed down their decision on Yorvit Torrealba's 'discussion' with home plate umpire Larry Vanover Monday night - 3 game suspension.  Yorvit was not amused, as quoted by Chris Jenkins:

If it’s a fine, all right, whatever, but three games is a little bit too much. One game, two games, I’m gonna get my lesson no matter what. But I don’t see umpires getting fined and I don’t see umpires getting suspended. They make a lot of mistakes.

Jon Garland had a choice comment too.  I love this one:

Garland said Wednesday that he’d pay Torrealba’s fine in appreciation for the catcher backing [him] up.

The Padres will appeal the suspension, but now that Torrealba has continued to rip the umpire in the press, I would not expect the length to get reduced.  I wonder if an appeal has ever resulted in the suspension getting longer.  For the record, good for Torrealba for expressing himself clearly, and when will MLB make the review of umpiring performance more transparent?  I think some level of public accountability with umpires who make repeated bad calls, are confrontational, and/or are inconsistent pitch-to-pitch or inning-to-inning would go a long way to restoring their reputation as a whole with the players and fans.

Garland, Defense Shut Down Cardinals

Jon Garland walked the high wire, and came away unscathed.   Especially in the first inning.

Before we get to that, a quick comment.  Darren Smith, on the Padre BP show, talked about last year's Cardinal/Padre finale and the Will Venable/Albert Pujols dust-up at first base.  He shed some additional light on that event; apparently AP tends to straddle the first base line when recording outs at first, so the Padres were told to go through him.

Smith, in attempting to recall the specifics of the event, said it occured in September, on Sunday, and the Padres won.  Not quite.  Happened on a Sunday?  Yes.  But, it was 23 Aug 09, and the Padres lost 5-2.  It helps my memory that Smoltz struck out a career best 7 consecutive hitters, and that it was Ryan Franklin's last save in 2009, AND that I wrote about it over here.  Come on Darren.  I know you're a St John's* alum, but you're better than that.

* A little Big East dig, since I went to Villanova.

Garland labored through the first, but got the big strikeouts when he needed them.  His defense backed him up by turning 3 double plays during his seven innings.  Jerry Hairston, Jr, pulled a rabbit out of his hat and hit his first 2010 HR - off Cardinal ace Adam Wainwright, no less.  Another example of the Padres doing just enough to win.

Mike Adams threw an uneventful eighth, and Heath Bell negotiated an interesting ninth (exacerbated by the strike zone, if Ted Leitner/Andy Mazur are to believed) to get the save.

Last night was the third 1-0 win this season by San Diego.  That's the most since 2007, when they won 5 such games.  The franchise record for 1-0 wins is 6, set in 1985.

If I had anything to nit-pick, it would be Adrian Gonzalez striking out 4 times.  However, considering the first three came against the 2009 Cy Young runner-up, that's not much of a nit.

Kevin Correia looks to snap his personal 3-game losing streak tonight against Jamie Garcia.  This will be Kevin's second start at Petco against the Cardinals; he lost the first one 7-0 to Chris Carpenter.  He is 1-2 in 3 career starts facing St Louis.  Five current Redbirds have at least 8 Plate Appearances against him:

1. Felipe Lopez (29 PA):  .200/.286/.280
2. Matt Holliday (25 PA):  .304/.360/.609
3. Albert Pujols (13 PA):  .400/.538/.500
4. Yadier Molina (9 PA):  .143/.250/.143
5. Skip Schumaker (8 PA):  .429/.500/.571

I'll be at the ballpark tonight.  Hope to see you there.

My coverage of the game from the Cardinal perspective can be found here.  Yes the content is different.

5/15 Game Recap: Dodgers vs Padres

Went to tonight's ball game.  It did not turn out like I had hoped, as San Diego lost to LA 4-1.  This is not your normal recap.

1. Since the game was advertised a sellout, I felt we had to get there early.  So, my father-in-law and I left for the ballpark at 3:20 pm.  Thanks to little traffic, we were parked by 3:50 and in the ballpark by 4.
2. Hot Dogs and soda.  mmmmm.
3. The section immediately to our right was loaded with Dodger fans.  Also, the 4 folks immediately behind us were LA fans as well.  They rooted for their team with gusto, and got obnoxious from time to time, but I really didn't have a problem with any of that.  Having spent a great deal of time rooting for favorite teams in opposing ballparks, so long as they aren't in my face or throwing things at people I'm good.  Of course, as the game went on and the Dodgers put a hammer lock on the outcome, they got more and more vocal.  And after the game?  Whooo boy.  Lots of chanting and heckling as they exited the building.
4. Why give out 'Beat LA' t-shirts that are blue?  Yes it was a dark blue, but the Dodgers wear blue too.  Why not Sand (or, egads, brown/yellow)?  Make it stand out, marketing gurus.
5. Also, 'Beat LA' is what they chant in San Francisco at Giants games, and in Boston at Celtics games.  I think the chant originated in the Boston Garden during the 1980s NBA finals, but I could be wrong.  We need something different and original here to poke at the Dodgers.

Some game notes follow next.

Pitching Pitching and More Pitching (and lots of links!)

First, if haven't seen this team play (and judging by the attendance, you haven't), the Padres have managed to win a few games here and there.  With last night's 3-2 win, they sit 1.5 games ahead of the Giants in the NL West.

How are they doing it?  Not so much with the bat (19th overall in team AVG, 19th in wOBA, 19th in OPS), although they are 13th in BABIP.

Nope, it's been all about the pitching (4th in FIP, 1st in xFIP, 3rd in ERA).  In this series, they've had to have the pitching, because they've scored only 5 runs against the Colorado Rockies (while allowing 7), and yet have split the first two games of the series.

Kevin Correia pitched well Monday, but Ubaldo Jimenez was flat-out better.  That happens.

Speaking of Jimenez, Ubaldo Jimenez is one of the great names in baseball today, along with Yorvit Torrealba.  As such, they are now charter members of the Juan Eichelberger All-Stars, dedicated to recognizing great MLB player names.  Have a nominee?  Leave it in the comments.  Needs to be a current player, unless it's one of such superior quality it transcends time. 

Wade LeBlanc - 6 innings, 2 ER, 4 K?  Slacker.  Actually, he continues to strengthen his case for staying in the rotation long-term.  Had the Padres cashed in on any of the numerous chances Greg Smith created for them, Wade could have been the winning pitcher in this one.  Wade is second only to Correia in xFIP among the starters; in fact, the two of them are the only starters with xFIP's under 4.00.

We've talked a lot about LeBlanc vs Latos in the rotation; the original post on the subject generated discussion at at least three different Padres websites.  One of the Ducksnorts commenters suggested, should CY be activated, the odd man out be Sean Gallagher.  Based on his numbers, that makes a lot of sense.  As far as who would go to the pen in his place, I'd think I'd keep riding the hot hand in the rotation and send Latos there.  That, of course, is subject to change based on how the season progresses.

Speaking of Chris Young...

Mow them down

Our season ticket package included tonight's game, and needless to say it portended to be a doozy.  Ubaldo Jimenez, you may have read, is pretty good; something about 5-0, 0.79 ERA, and a no-hitter coming into the game.  Kevin Correia has won his last 4 starts after losing his first in Colorado.  AND, I have both on my NL-only Rotisserie team.  Oh, goody.  Except that life intervened, and we couldn't make the game.  Luckily I had an inkling this might happen, and set the TIVO to record it, which I watched on fast forward (always an interesting way to watch a game).

It's one thing to watch Yovani Gallardo strike out 11 Padres with a large assist from the home plate Umpire.  It's quite another to watch someone strikeout 13 by completely overpowering the Padres.  Ubaldo overpowered the Padres.  Joe Posnanski famously predicted Ubaldo Jimenez would win the NL Cy Young.  Seeing as he's started 6-0 this season, it's easy to see why, and agree with him.

As dominant at Jimenez was, the Padres had their chances.  First and third, two out in the first (Venable strikes out swinging - albeit strike 2 and 3 were check-swing strikes courtesy of the appeal to third)  Hairston left at third in the second (he made it there with one out).  Torrealba left at second in the third.  Gwynn Jr left at third in the fourth.  After Gwynn was stranded, however, Rockie pitchers retired 12 in a row; by then, there were two out in the ninth and the Padres trailed 5-1.

You can't win them all.  Had we been there, we would have seen the Padres lose for the second time this season; they've lost 4 times at home all year.  So apparently, I should be allowed in the building for all Home Openers (having seen the Padres score 10 or more runs in an inning on Opening Day twice), and not for any other game (I'm 1-2 in the other 3 games, the Padres are 9-4 at home since the Opening Day blowout).

Today's interesting tidbit (and thanks for reading this far).  Last night marked the 84th time at least 14 Padres have struck out in a game.  They've also struck out 29 times combined in two separate games over a span of three days or less several times in their history (courtesy of the team batting game finder feature at Baseball Reference):

• June 17 and 19, 2008 (Yankees)
• May 23 and 25, 2008 (Reds - San Diego actually won the game on the 25th, 12-9, although they struck out 19 times in that game)
• 14/15 May, 2008 (Cubs) (BOY that 2008 team struck out a lot)
• 21/22 Apr 2006 (Mets - won the 21 Apr game 2-1)
• 6 and 8 July, 1995 (Astros)

There may be something to this

The Padres broke their 8-game winning streak on Sunday, when Mike Adams gave up 2 runs in the eighth to Cincinnati.  They lost that game 5-4.  They then went out and got drubbed by Florida (thanks Josh Johnson) 10-1.

Ut-oh.  Was that the beginning of a crash to earth for the Padres?  With Garland pitching Tuesday night (who had struggled so far in 2010), and Correia on Wednesday (who is not the same pitcher on the road he is at home), one wondered if the salad days were over.  Remember, they started 2009 9-3 and then struggled mightily until after the All-Star break.

Nope.  Jon Garland was tremendous for the second start in a row.  Correia?  Well, Kevin wobbled through 5 yesterday, but the offense bailed him out, and the bullpen slammed the door getting the last 12 outs.  Series win.

The Padres return tonight off a 4-2 road trip, and in sole possession of first place in the Division.  Nice.  They face a sterner test this weekend in the offensively-loaded Milwaukee Brewers, but Milwaukee's Achilles heel is it's starting pitching, so they have a good chance to keep the momentum going.

Adding fuel to the fire of hope starting to burn brightly around San Diego is Daniel's latest post.  During the off-season, the team shifted gears slightly by emphasizing team speed and defense on the roster.  So far, they rank #1 in the league in UZR/150 and third in Defensive Runs Saved.  Given how hard it is to score runs in Petco, and the old saw 'speed never goes into a slump', that has all the earmarks of a sustainable approach to the season.

With the bullpen being lights out as usual (and in spite of my concerns regarding overuse), the starters just need to be good enough, and the offensive just needs to be average, for this team to compete.  And contend.

There may be something to this.  It could be a fun summer in San Diego.

Tonight I'm at the ballpark (7:05 start).  It's Podcast night, but the 'Cast may not start promptly at 10pm, based on the game.  I won't start the show until the game is over and I'm in the car headed home, which means if you've got a comment for the chat room or want to call in PLEASE BE PATIENT.  I won't know you're there until I'm back in front of my computer, which might be a while (depending on traffic).

Two of three ain't bad

Everyone knew the Padres weren't going to finish the season 156-6.  They were going to lose another game in 2010.  I think most of us, however, figured it wouldn't be yesterday, especially after Kyle Blanks doubled in two to give the team a 4-2 lead after 5 1/2 innings.

Scott Rolen's HR made the game close after 6, but after turning the contest over to the bullpen one had to like the Padres' chances.  Going into Sunday, the Padres bullpen was one of only 2 in the NL not to have lost a game (the other?  Pittsburgh.  Go figure), the third lowest ERA (3.02), and the best Batting Average Against (.190).  Looking good.

Unfortunately, Mike Adams couldn't get the game to Heath Bell.  Cincinnati scored 2 in the eighth, and won 5-4.  Bye-bye, 8 game winning streak.

You gotta like where the Padres are now, though.  Form 3-6 to 11-7, and the best record in the NL.  The team is pitching its butt off, and they are getting just enough production offensively (10th in the NL with a .736 OPS).  There is some cause for concern, though:  Padre starters aren't getting deep enough into games.

Pitching Moves and Opening Day Starters

I learned last night that Jon Garland has been named Opening Day starter, and Chris Young the starter at Petco Opening Day 6 games later.  Starting on Opening Day is an honor normally reserved for the best pitcher on the staff.  This is why Jake Peavy made several Opening Day starts, why Chris Carpenter will start the Cardinals opener in Cincinnati, and so on.

It gets a little tricky when a team opens the season on the road, as the Padres will do this year in Arizona, at least in my opinion.  Teams don't want their home opener to be started by someone at the back of the rotation; and in some cases, teams will tweak their rotation so they get the guy they want starting the home opener.  A good recent example is LA.  Vincente Padilla will start the opener, and although he pitched very well down the stretch for the Dodgers last season, I don't think anyone would argue he's the best pitcher in that rotation.  Clayton Kershaw will start the home opener at Dodger Stadium, and lots of people would argue he's the ace of that staff.

So Jon Garland starting Opening Day on the road doesn't surprise or bother me.  There's probably some politics in play with the selection; after all, Garland was the big free-agent pickup by this team over the winter, he started the 2009 season with Arizona, he's probably fired up to pitch against them.  All well and good.  However Chris Young's selection as the home opener starter was a surprise.

Now, I like Young a lot as a pitcher, and have for a couple of years.  Not to mention we have tickets to Opening Day, and he's my wife's favorite player, so getting to see him pitch is great.  Plus, he's the 'old man' of the staff in terms of Padre service time, so perhaps he deserves this honor.  However, he was hurt virtually all of last season, and when he did pitch he was ineffective due to injury.

I thought Kevin Correia should have gotten this start.

One of the reasons given for slotting Chris Young #2 in the rotation was to keep him from pitching in Coors.  OK, that's fine, Coors isn't a great place to pitch, and Chris hasn't enjoyed all of his starts there (3-3, 5.31 career in 8 Denver starts).  However if he was the #3 starter he still wouldn't pitch there next week.

It is a fine point, and over a 162-game schedule doesn't matter much, but I find it curious.

In other news, it appears Clayton Richard nailed down the #4 slot, and there's still been no official announcement as to who the #5 starter will be.  With Tim Stauffer and Sean Gallagher apparently headed to the bullpen (and Joe Thatcher to the DL), we can reasonably narrow the competition down to two:  Wade LeBlanc and Mat Latos.  Both have pitched spectacularly during the spring, so either choice will be a good one.

The SD U-T put up a story yesterday projecting the final 25-man roster.  It can be found here.   I don't have any real issues with Bill Center's projected roster.  I know Matt Antonelli returned from the dead only this spring (after two years in hitter's exile), but I cannot help but wonder if David Eckstein's days starting at second are numbered.  If Antonelli continues to tear it up in AAA, like he has in spring training, how long will the club let him languish at Portland?  Especially if Eckstein continues to struggle at the plate (.260/.323/.334).

Quick programming note:  I will moderate a Padres Pre-season forum during the next Podcast (10 pm PDT Thursday).  I will announce the confirmed list of Padre blogger participants tomorrow, stay tuned.

Correia Re-Ups

There were concerns in this corner of the Padre blogosphere about Kevin Correia leaving. The Padres had decided to non-tender him, so as to avoid any arbitration issues and possible large bump in salary. Correia had pitched very well in 2009, as evidenced by the below chart, which includes all pitchers that started at least 9 games for San Diego last season.


The lavender highlights guys no longer with the organization. What you'll notice is Correia wasn't the best pitcher the Padres had in 2009. Even after he went on the DL and then to Chicago, Jake Peavy was a stud. However, Correia was

First in FIP
First in innings pitched
Second in K/BB ratio
Second in BB/9
Second (tie) in WHIP
Third in ERA and ERA+
Fifth (tie) in K/9.

Overall, the best starter on the staff. Why would the Padres want to let him go? Well, as has been discussed elsewhere, they couldn't afford to pay him what he would have been worth in arbitration.

That's why today's news is great. Correia signed a one-year deal reportedly worth $3.6 million. It's nice to see the Padres keep this guy for 2010.

Competition for the 5 rotation slots should be pretty intense during spring training, because there are 7 guys to choose from. However, I think we can safely say one of those spots is spoken for. And that's a good thing.

Welcome back, Kevin.

Winter Meeting Kickoff

Well, since I've largely ignored this blog since mid-August, it's high time I start it up again. The Winter Meetings starting Monday seemed a perfect time to do just that.

The Padres are expected to non-tender Kevin Correia. This surprises me based on how Correia pitched in 2009. From the biz of baseball, here's what non-tender means:

If a club has no interest in keeping a particular player, the club may choose to non-tender him, or to not offer him a contract. A player generally becomes a candidate to be non-tendered when he is arbitration-eligible and his club determines he is not worth the salary he might command in arbitration. A player who is non-tendered becomes a free agent and may sign with any of the 30 Major League clubs, including his former team, at any price.

Correia has over 4 years service, so he's arbitration eligible. He made $750K last season, but his 2.4 WAR in 2009 meant he was worth just under $11M dollars. No one is going to pay Kevin Correia eleven million dollars to pitch for them. However, if he went to arbitration he'd make substantially more than 750K. Heck, Brad Penny is about to sign a deal for $7.5 million - and he was awful for most of 2009! And for a cash-strapped franchise, that's a deal breaker.

With Correia's non-tender (and it isn't official until 12 December), the Padre rotation stacks up something like this:

Chris Young, Mat Latos, Clayton Richard, Tim Stauffer, Wade LeBlanc.

I think I'd rather have Correia in the rotation than either Stauffer or LeBlanc.