Season Wrap Up
Well, it was one of those weekends in San Diego where all our teams lost. The Padres, Aztecs, and Chargers all stumbled.
The Padres were simply outclassed and man-handled by the Cardinals. As a friend said to me, its tough when you live up to low expectations and that is what the Padres did. But so did the Yankees, Redsocks, and the Atl. So, go figure.
Off-SeasonNow, of course the real work begins and KT's task is nothing short of Sisyphus pushing the preverbal stone up the hill. Ton of free agents, and two very expensive, no trade clause-type contracts belonging to two mediocre players whose contributions this year were marginal. That be Klesko and Park who combine for a whopping 20 million or a third of the team's payroll. That is a tough problem.
Off the top of my head:Hernandez, gone-Olivo in
Giles, gone
Hoffman, returns, too much invested in this guy. Would you trade TG, no?
Randa, gone Boroughs is the man
2006 line up:
Roberts CF
Loretta 2b
Klesko 1b
Free-Agent, with a big right-handed bat-RF
Boroughs 3b
Johnson LF
Greene SS
Olivo-C
Inspiring lineup, no?
If I were KT, I would go young. I would stop overpaying near has-been players coming off the last career year they'll ever have.
Giles is a perfect example of a guy who will get too much from some team hoping he's the second comming, only to find two years into his 5-year 20 mil deal, he can't hit the outside fastball. Then your stuck, a al Klesko.
I would make a committment now to the farm. I think Sandy has this in mind. The Atl is a great example to follow.
Padretalk FutureIts been a blast writing this blog, which was started on a whim. The goal of the blog was to be a fan and bellyache about stuff and for the most part, that is what Padretalk is about.
For next year, I'm going to add more links and information to attract more readers, you know, do the blog marketing thing.
Until spring, I'll blog occasionally when the Padres surface, and since I'm also a Charger fan, might blog about them a bit.
Gee, think I should change the blog name?
See you all soon.
Go Padres!!!
Padre Mike
Notes:1. Its heartening to see the Redsocks loose in 3. Either we are not that bad or the Whitesocks are really good. Hmmmm.
2. Now, I'm an Angel fan, although the Cards seem like a class act.
3. Talk about your frequent flyers, NYC, LAX, O'Hare all in three days. Oh, and three intense ball games too. No wonder Bartello was tired. Give it to the kid. Go Angels.
No Chicken Dinner or Its 96 All Over Again
Well, that was not fun in a lot of ways. I won't go over them in tedious detail except to say that delicate swipe tags don't cut it at the plate. This isn't a bullfight, Poppy.
The Cardinals are not being particularly dominating against our boys, rather they are playing the way they always play. Its the Padres that are shooting themselves in the foot. All you can say is, I hope we play better. A tennis match filled with unforced errors is boring.
Saturday night's game is back in SD, which is nice for the fans but not for Padre hitting, although Woody benefits. Its an 8 pm start, which is 5 pm in Hawaii, so it nice for all the Hawaiian Padre fans.
Will there come a time when corporate media just picks the teams they want in the playoffs? Just asking.
I like what one announcer said: the playoffs magnify your team's strengths and weaknesses. Yesterday's game was a virtual clinic in how not to play.
But, would I rather be the other 22 clubs playing golf or huntin and fishin, right now? Ask me Sunday morning.
All I can say is, Go Padres!
Padre Mike
Notes:
1. Finally made it to the watering hole near work to watch the game. Hoisted a few with the guys while we all groaned at the TV.
2. As a native San Diegan, its been my practice to choose an alternate team to cheer for. In football, its the Redskins. In baseball, its the Angels. So, go Angels, beat the damned Yankees, although that Yankee team is still impressive.
3. An 8 pm start works great for me Saturday. Do family stuff all day, then come home and work on the flooring while the game is on. I refuse to actually just sit and watch a game, any game. Life is too short for that.
Weird One
Padres lost the first game of the playoffs as I'm sure you are quite aware of.
Bad things:
1. Peavy's rib injury
2. Grand Slam to Sanders making it 8-0
3. Klesko in left field not catching that ball
4. Sweeney at first not catching that ball
5. 12 men left on base
6. Unlucky, Edmunds dump into left for a double, Loretta's NICE AB only to line sharply to a shifting third basemen for a DP
7. Three DPs that I saw
8. Hernandez completely and utterly clueless with bases stacked in the ninth-total deer in the headlights. I could have swung at three balls like that and I'd only take half his salary.
8. Affirmation of the national media's opinion that the Padres and their 82-80 record don't deserve to be in the playoffs.
But as Monty Python sings...always look on the bright side of life (whistle....whistle...whistle). Sing with me now...
Good things:
1. We scored five runs against the Cardinals
2. Klesko was 2-4 with a coupla walks in the number 2 hole
3. Bullpen closed down the Cardinals once Jake left
4. Battled back despite being down 8-0 at early
5. Padres always rebound after bad looses
6. Peavy's season ending injury while foreboding for subsequent series, doesn't change things in the immediate future of the next two games.
OK, few more bad things then good yesterday, but I believe the Padres take away from the game the fact that they battled back. And typically, the Padres play better after tough loses. Remember, just when you want to write them off as a mediocre double A farm club after September call ups, they play better and win and you fall in love all over again.
So I'm looking forward to Thursday and Pedro. Go Padres!
Padre Mike
Notes:1. Jake should not have pitched with a broken rib. There is a fine line with being tough and being truly injured.
2. Jake most have a fragile body. Remember him being sick for two weeks and now broken ribs. Interesting to see how long he can last. Arm seems good though.
3. I'd vote the Hernandez ninth inning blowout AB with bases juiced the worst AB by any Padre this year, and of course, at the worst possible moment too.
4. Way to many LOBs. I realized this team can get guys on, we just have no clutch hitting. Be interesting to research clutch hitting. More on this later.
5. Fun hanging with the ducksnorts IGD crowd. Gameday, while good for regular season games, doesn't cut during the playoffs. Cough, cough, sneeze, sneeze.
Play Ball
Nice to be hearing that after the regular season ended yesterday. First game is Tuesday at 10 am San Diego time. Office workers, hit the GameDay and Ducksnorts IGD.
Klesko's FaultI don't have the time to dig for the stats (you know write this log on the sly while my boss is in meetings), but I'm blaming our disastrous offensive year on Klesko/Nevin.
Here's my theory:
The Padres had plenty of men on base this year. Between Roberts and Loretta and even Giles, the base pads where not want for attention. Our BIG problem was driving them in. I would wager we were very close to leading the Majors in LOBs. Klesko/Nevin batted fourth or fifth all year and failed to get these base runners over and it got worse once Nevin left. The reason, its hard to hit a HR in Petco and that messes with your confidence. But Giles seemed to make the adjustment, and in fact, I heard him say that he purposely tried not to hit HRs because it was just tough hard to hit em out at Petmall. But Nevin and Klesko failed to make this adjustment. In fact, we still see Klesko trying to pull outside pitchers or wildly swinging at changeups in the POs.
So in the series with the Red Bird, Klesko is the key. We will get runners on, but Klesko has got to get them over. No pressure though, Mr. K. Ha ha ha. Mr. K.
PlayoffsWe are the Cinderella story for this year, actually, probably more like the ugly duckling. We can turn into a beautiful swan because its baseball and anything can happen. My biggest fear is that we don't hit. And why should we start now? We have not hit well since May. You could argue that we hit better in September, but DC was the only team we played with a winning record, so, that don't count much. I can see peavy pitching a great game and allowing two runs and the Padres not scoring at all. But how do you change that?
We shall see.
Go Padres!
Padre Mike
Notes:1. You see the media and the neworks thinking that the Padres are going get killed, but red Bird fans are worried. They don't see the Pads as a threat but are worred about Red Bird injuries. I guess its all prespective. From where I sit, the Red Birds are a monster ball club.
2. It will be good to see Petmall park get some publicity. Maybe the pressure will force them to move the fences in.
