Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Time for Hoyer to make a move

Tuesday June 29, 2010

Its time for Jed Hoyer to make his first in season trade and I think its going to be a doozy.

There were scouts for 5 teams were in the stands for Correia's last two starts. Now they may have been there to see other players also, but I would think they were also there to see Correia.

Correia has been on a 6 game slide since his brother died and the talk I am hearing is that a change of scenery, SD is his home, may be good for him. His velocity is down on his FB and up on his change up and slider. Exactly the opposite of what you want to see.

So at this point I would guess most of you are asking "who would Correia go to and what could the Padres get in return?"

To that I say, not so fast & hold your horses. I am just getting warmed up.

We are not talking about a 1-1 or 1-2 trade.

The scuttlebutt is a 4-5 player trade with the Padres sending Correia and a minor league pitcher that will make some people stand up and say "WHOA, why him?" for a good young ML bat that the Padres can control and another top prospect that is a few years further away from the ML..

Catcher Wilson Ramos wields a bat that is being mentioned often. The Padres have little depth at catcher and Ramos would be pushing for playing time this season. But the Padres really need a bat that can also patrol the outfield.

Alot of the trade rumors centers around Kevin Correia who has not been able to maintain his early season form since the untimely death of his brother. The logic is a change of scenery would do him good. In my opinion he just needs to keep his left foot planted on his follow through. He tends to spin his foot towards first and when he does, he cannot repeat his mechanics.

There have even been rumors of the discussion of a trade of Correia and Closer Heath Bell for Ramos, OF Delmon Young, RP Alex Burnett and AA RHP Carlos Gutierrez of the Twins.


Not sure I like that one. With Gallagher and Mujica out of options and playing poorly, I would much rather see either of them (or both together) moved than Bell. Package one of them up with Correia and see if there are any takers. Then trade a couple of decent, but not top prospects for Lee.

Its time for Hoyer to start getting serious about making a trade and from all I am hearing when he does its going to be a doozy.

Web

Padres looking for top line pitching

Monday June 28, 2010

The San Diego Padres have the best pitching staff in baseball. They have been winning on a combination of pitching and defense. Everyone that is anyone says the Padres should go get a bat to ensure they are still in the playoff hunt come September.

So what are the Padres going to do as trade deadline approaches?
From the rumors floating around it appears that the Padres are looking for top line pitchers. Most teams want players in trade that they can control for at least one more season. So what are the Padres brass saying? They want pitchers that will be FA after the season because they believe the FA pitchers will want to resign in San Diego.

Why are they looking at Pitchers?
Jed Hoyer and the Padres brain trust are looking down the road as well as at the remainder of this year. They want to keep their good young pitching core healthy for the long run and bring on board a pitcher to take Young &/or Correia's place in the rotation next season.

All of theeir good young pitchers are on a tight IP count. The FO staff has been pretty clear that they are not going to overwork Mat Latos, Clayton Richard, Wade LeBlanc.

Chris Young is not expected to be back next season, at least not at anything close to the team option of $8.5 million, and even if he does come back the team cannot count on him for much after these injuries and his age (32) in 2011.

So a pitcher that will be a FA at the end of 2010 is of little value to a losing team, but would help the Padres win now and be a nice signing for 2011 if the Padres can pull the trigger.

Who are they looking at?

Cliff Lee.
Yes Cliff Lee. He is only earning $9 million this season which means the Padres would only be on the hook for about $3.6-4.5 million for the final 2+ months of the season. The Padres believe that they can sign a great pitcher for less than he might sign for elsewhere because he would be pitching in Petco and this would give them 3 months to negotiate a deal before Lee ( or the others listed here) becomes a free agent after the World Series.

Jeremy Guthrie
Guthrie is the lone consistent pitcher on the Orioles staff and has maintained an ERA under 4 in a decided hitters park. Guthrie is only making $3 million this season so the Padres can certainly afford to take on the balance of that contract.

Ted Lilly
The Cubs are strapped with $142 million payroll with several big dollar contracts, like Soriano and Zambrano, that they are not going to be able to shed. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for teams looking for pitching, they are going to have to dump payroll somewhere and Lilly is a FA at the end of the season and could still bring back a decent prospect. The $4.8-6.0 million balance of Lilly's $12 million contract for 2010 is an affordable addition for the Padres.

In the end I believe the Padres are still going to go out and trade for a decent power bat in the outfield.

But their main focus coming into the deadline seems to be pitching.

- Vic Power

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Web's All Star Votes

Thursday June 24, 2010

Web's All Star Votes

American League
Catcher: Victor Martinez
First: Miguel Cabrera.
Second: Robinson Cano
ThirdAdrian Beltre.
Short: Derek Jeter
Outfield: Josh Hamilton, Ichiro Suzuki, Magglio Ordonez
DH: Vladimir Guerrero
Starting Pitcher: Cliff Lee

National League
Catcher: Nick Hundley - Wish I could just vote for Padres platoon.
First: Adrian Gonzalez - .315 playing half your games at Petco? INCREDIBLE!
Second: Martin Prado - Incredible D and great hitting.
Third: Scott Rolen
Short: Troy Tulowitzki.
Outfield: Andre Ethier, Ryan Braun, Marlon Byrd
Starting Pitcher: Ubaldo Jimenez. 

Saturday, June 19, 2010

What is Black Thinking?

Saturday June 19, 2010

I really do not understand what Bud Black is thinking.

Why is Eckstein leading off and Headley hitting 2nd?

Eckstein is hitting .296 with men on base this season and .297 career. He is the prototypical #2 hitter. He hits 24 points lower career with bases empty. So WTF is he doing hitting leadoff?

Headley is hitting under the Mendoza line with RISP this season (.253 career) and just .216 with men on base at all. That is the exact opposite of what you need for a batter in the #2 slot.Headley simply cannot get the job done when it counts this year. So why is he there?

Doesn't Black pay attention to situational stats?

Guess not.

From this point on I am only going to refer to Tony Gwynn as Jr. I was sitting in section 102 tonight and when I yelled "Tooonnnnyyyy" early in the game he struck out or hit a lazy fly ball and then when I yelled Junior, he got a hit. From now on he is simply Jr. until he proves he can consistently hit over .275.

The Orioles are the worst team in baseball. They win about one game a week. If the Padres struggle against them, and they have two straight games, then they don't deserve to win the pennant.

Tonight was Millwood's first win in the past 8 decisions. If the Padres can't beat him, they don't deserve to win the pennant. They had a chance to win the game tonight, but Headley did what he has done with men on base all year. He looked over matched and struck out on a pitch a foot off the plate.

The Kouzmanoff trade is looking worse and worse.Kouzmanoff is playing better defense, hitting better AND for more power right now. Maybe the Padres should have traded Headley.

Ok the rant is over and it time to go to bed with the Padres still in 1st place..

Monday, June 14, 2010

Dodgers are a surprise success? WTH is Tim Brown talking about?

Monday June 14, 2010

I'm BAAAAACK.

I'm ticked. (Because I had to stop blogging and tweeting due to my work situation AND because the people that committed to writing for this blog in my absence have not been sending in articles)

And I am going to start taking on some of the people in the media that get paid to talk to us about baseball.

Lets start with Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports.


Tim Brown predicted that the Dodgers would win the West prior to the season and then writes an article on 6/11 saying its a surprise that the Dodgers are doing so well?

WTF?

Tim, your bias is showing.

The Dodgers are NOT doing so well. They are 4 games back of their pace last year and only a 12-2 run from 5/9- 5/23 has kept them even near the lead.  They play that stretch at their current .571 pace instead of .857 and they are in 4th place at 31-32.

The only surprise you should be talking about is that the Padres are in 1st place in the NL West, the best division in the NL, and that the Padres have the best record in the NL.

The Dodgers are the defending NL West champions and they spent $2 million MORE than 2009 on season starting payroll this season ($102 million in 2010 according to Cots MLB Contracts).
"New post-nuptial budget" my fat behind . The Dodgers started this season with a BIGGER payroll than last. Maybe you should actually try looking this stuff up. There are lots of great online resources and its not like you have to write so many articles that you don't have time

The Dodgers are SUPPOSED to do well with a $100 million payroll!

The Padres are spending $38 million on player payroll and according to you were going to be in last place.

So maybe you ought to be talking about why the Dodgers are NOT in the lead.
Why the Dodgers are doing poorly compared to expectations.
Why they are 4 games behind their pace last season.
Why their vaunted bullpen has collapsed despite Broxton's incredible ERA.

Maybe you should be talking about why the Padres ARE in 1st place.
Why the Padres ARE leading the NL in win %.
Why the Padres with Young, Cabrera and Blanks on the DL and with Gwynn, Venable and both Hairston's performing below expectations with the bat are still winning at this pace.
Why the Padres ARE for real after going 37-25 in their last 62 games last season and going 37-25 to start this season.

Instead you are writing whiney ass crap defending the Dodgers.

Give us all a break. 

The Padres were not supposed to win, so THAT should have been what you are writing about instead of being a Dodger apologist.