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San Diego Padres throw more money in a hole

4 Responses to “San Diego Padres throw more money in a hole”

1. # El Doctoron 03 Mar 2008 at 8:47 am

   I don’t know what the Padres are doing down there but the idea is a good one. Almost every team has some clinics in the big baseball countries of the Caribbean. The Mets have aggressively been working that market and they’ve already gotten some decent young talent. They also have signed many big Latin stars such as Pedro, Delgado, Johan, etc. This increases the Mets exposure and gets people outside of the states to hear of and want to play for a team not named the Yanks. I’d imagine the Padres or any team can do the same successfully.

   On a side note: I ask those of you that are Paders fans because I haven’t followed them that closely…Do you think the size of Petco keeps big name FA’s away? It’s probably the best pitchers park in baseball so its much less sexy for a slugger to come here where his numbers will inevitably decline . Or, has it been that management and ownership have never made the push to bring in a big hitter?

2. # autonateron 03 Mar 2008 at 9:49 am

   I think it’s because they have never made the push to bring in a big hitter. While management does enough to make the playoffs most years, we haven’t shelled out the bucks to bring in a big name guy who is going to bomb 40 or 50 homers in a year. The closest we have come was bringing in Piazza or when we had Klesko. We all know how those worked out. What the Pad squad really needs to do is shell out the cashola to bring in a guy like Manny Ramirez or a David Ortiz who could put is in the big time. We have the pitching, but offense has definitely been our problem. Without a big name guy, we are never going to take it to the next level.

3. # El Giganteon 03 Mar 2008 at 11:17 am

   In response to your question El_Doctor, it’s a little of both.

   The whole “size of petco” debate is a crock of shit in my opinion. Ryan Klesko was nice enough to ruin the chances of us ever picking up a potential free agent power hitter by opening his big mouth. I’m sure there are numbers that support Petco Park being a pitcher friendly park, but this is also in part because our cleanup hitter is Adrian Gonzalez. No offense to A-Gon, he’s a great hitter, but he’s no Ryan Howard (7-10, 2HR, 8RBI at Petco). I guarantee any big time slugger would still put up huge numbers at Petco. I mean, Khalil Greene was able to hit 12 of his 27 HRs at home, all 5′11″, 210lbs of power hitting SS Khalil Greene.

   The bigger problem though is John Moores refusing to spend money on guys in their prime. It’s not even the money issue, he’s handed out big $$ to Brian Giles, Jim Edmonds, Mike Cameron, etc. I would love for us to develop our own power hitter or to actually go out and pick up a big time hitter during their prime when they hit the market (Miguel Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Beltran, etc.). Sometimes I feel like Moores is taking advice from a GM stuck in 1999, “Jim Edmonds is on the market?? He’s good for 40HR/120RBI, sign him to a huge contract ASAP.”

   Yet we somehow manage to always stay competitive, win a few division titles and sprinkle in a World Series appearance every decade. As a result, our fans stay just happy enough.

4. # Chewius Primeon 03 Mar 2008 at 11:35 pm

   I beg to differ. Statistically after reading this article, Petco is on the bottom tier for hitters. While a “Big Bat” would help, statistically they will be at a disadvantage in Petco Park for half their year. Direct quote from the site “Petco Park has yielded fewer runs in all of Major League Baseball than any other park.”

   There is hope though apparently. “During its first two years of existence, Petco was the single most difficult place to hit a home run in all of baseball. In 2006, it jumped all the way to the middle of the pack, to a level higher than had been seen during the Padres’ final seasons at Qualcomm Stadium. Many possible explanations for this phenomenon exist. Two of the more likely are:

   * buildings constructed beyond the outfield have changed wind patterns that may have kept more balls from leaving the yard;
   * pitchers have grown accustomed to the way Petco Park plays and are more susceptible to making mistakes high in the zone because they believe—consciously or otherwise—that they can get away with it

   The fence in deep right-center field also was moved in about 10 feet prior to the start of the 2006 season, but it’s still a long way from home plate and not many batters (Carlos Delgado is the only guy I remember off the top of my head, and the charts I can find show that at most there were two others) hit the ball out to that part of the park anyway. The shift in dimension had a minimal impact on home runs, although I do believe it affected other areas, which we’ll touch on in a moment.”

   http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/taking-advantage-of-petco-park/

   If you read into numbers, run productions is increasing throughout baseball but run production for the Padres in Petco Park is declining. But only a slight decline from Qualcomm. Basically the park isnt for hitters and the Padres dont score runs. Power hitter or not, that hitter would not have protection in the line up anyways, what Adrian Gonzalez and Khalil Greense scare pitchers? Please….

   On a personal note, Its nice to know that non-season ticket holders argue to go ahead pay 100 plus million dollar contracts to players. The truth is San Diego doesnt have the market to sustain big bank roll players. Their farm system sucks, and if I was a GM looking at the numbers, why not stock up on pitching, working with the advantage of Petco for pitchers, and use it to win games on the pitchers’ arms?

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