Saturday, December 31, 2011

Welcome Back Home

I don't know about you but if I were a professional athlete I would be thrilled to be able to play for the team I grew up watching and that is exactly what newly acquired outfielder Carlos Quentin is going to be doing. The Padres traded two pitching prospects to the White Sox for the 29 year old outfielder. Quentin is a Silver Slugger winner and two time All Star with the White Sox as well as placed fifth in the MVP voting back in 2008. His six seasons has been split between Arizona and Chicago earning him a career average of .252 and a fielding percentage of .980. In his four seasons with Chicago he has hit 107 out of his 121 homeruns. I like a guy with power but I wonder how he will fair here considering our ballpark. I also wonder how quickly he will be able to adapt to pitchers he didn't see on a regular or even semi-regular basis playing in the AL the past four years. I'm sure he will get his studying in, he is a product of Stanford after all. Now that we have a power hitter in the lineup who are we going to get or use to prevent him from being intentionally walked like Adrian so often was??


I wasn't a huge fan of Josh Byrnes after losing Bell and Latos, though the Latos trade did benefit us, but if he continues to make moves like this I think I might just start to like the guy. I'm not entirely excited to basically have a brand new team next season but if we continue to get some legit guys I will be perfectly happy learning everything I need to know about these new guys.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Dear Padres, Stop It!!

Welp, the Padres traded Mat Latos on Saturday to the Reds for pitcher Edinson Volquez, first baseman/left fielder Yonder Alonso, catching prospect Yasmani Grandal and pitching prospect Brad Boxberger.

So lets take a quick look at the newest additions to the Padres family starting with Yonder Alonso. Alonso bats left and throws right, which freaks me out. I'd prefer for my players, pitchers or not, to not have the chance to get drilled in their throwing arm when they are up to bat. Anyway, based off  the limited number of games he has played in during his two seasons he looks like he will be a good addition to the team. He is batting .299 in 127 plate appearances striking out 24% of the time and walking 7% of the time. He doesn't have any stolen bases or attempts which disappoints me but he is a young guy and with the help of Dave Roberts maybe that will change. Next we have Yasmani Grandal. Grandal is a switch hitting catcher, which I like aside from the exposing of his throwing arm, who quickly moved through the minor league system. So far in his career he has an average of .303. I like the sound of that, though we have seen before that minor league numbers don't always translate. The other prospect we received is minor league pitcher Brad Boxberger. He spent last season between AA and AAA with an ERA of 2.03 collecting 11 saves in the  62 innings he appeared in.

Finally, lets compare the stats for Mat and Volquez. Last season Mat's ERA was 2.24 points lower than Volquez's was which doesn't make me any kind of happy that we lost Mat. However, Volquez only started twenty games last season compared to Mat's thirty-one. In his career, Mat has had one complete game whereas Volquez, in his seven seasons, hasn't had any. During Mat's three years he has only pitched about 67 less innings than Volquez has in his career which tells me that Volquez doesn't often go deep into games. Oh yeah, this really makes me feel good about the trade especially since we all know that the Padres have serious issues scoring and rely heavily on our pitching. Looking at the numbers Mat is the better pitcher which is clearly a reason Cincinnati wanted him. I would love for Volquez's ERA and everything else to be better but the one thing I am okay with is he does have more experience which should mean he will be able to control himself better when an outing gets out of control, though I kind of loved that Mat would get so pissed off with himself when things weren't going his way.



This trade was definitely a good one for the Padres but on a personal level for many of us this trade sucks. I do not appreciate the Padres trading away players we all like and neither do the rest of the fans and if you pay any attention to Twitter this recent trade of  Mat Latos has seemingly hit us the hardest. Sure we all loved cheering for #TeamLatos but what hurts the most is that we are not only losing Mat but we are losing, his wife, Dallas, as well. If you don't follow her on Twitter you need to, I'm talking to you Reds fans. Well, I am beginning to get sick of saying this but, we wish you two the best of luck in Cincinnati and hope you return to the Padres soon.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Waaaaahhhhhh

The Padres traded Mat Latos to the Reds. We did get four players for him but still I'm not happy about this. Unfortunately at this moment I do not have time to make a post about this but when I get back from Big Bear there will be a post!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

2012 Might Just Be the End of the World

My friend pointed out an interesting fact earlier he said, "The Padres make it to the World Series every fourteen years, 1984 and 1998". So in theory 2012 should be our year. If this happens I am taking it as a sign that the world might just be coming to an end and if we do make it to the World Series and win I will know the world is ending. Any San Diego sports fan knows we just don't win championships so the only logical explanation for us winning something is that the world is ending.




I will resume posting relevant stuff after finals are over. I just felt like this needed to be pointed out.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Brother Knows Best

Well, it looks like my brother was right last week when he told me the Padres were about to get Huston Street. From what I have read, the Rockies have traded Huston Street to us for a PTBNL and cash. Last season Street was 1-4 with an ERA of 3.36 collecting a save in 87% of his opportunities. In his seven seasons as a major league player (four with the A's and three with the Rockies) his ERA is 3.11, a whole 0.05 points higher than Heath Bell's ERA in his eight major league seasons (three with the Mets and five with us). Street has had eleven appearances at Petco and in those appearances he has 17K's and 3BB while the batters hit only .132. I honestly don't know much about him but based of those facts lets just say I am glad he won't be doing that to us anymore. Seeing as how his home games will now be at sea level it will be interesting to see his numbers by the end of next season, providing we even give him an opportunity to get some saves.

Now to get back to the vagina part of this blog. Adding Huston Street ups the level of attractiveness on the Padres slightly... he's kind of adorable when he smiles. 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Congratulations Heater

Welp, looks like the Marlins are being saved by the Bell. It's reported that he will get $27 million for three years. Way to go Heath!! It is going to be sad to see him leave because he is such a nice guy but he did what was best for him and his family so congratulations on your new deal, Heath. At least with him going to the Marlins he will be reunited with fellow former Padres which has to make the transition that much easier. Now that Heath is gone my question is, who the hell is going to be our closer now?! We all know that Mike Adams was supposed to be the next closer but they traded him to the Rangers this season. With Adams gone it's making me wonder if they are going to try to fit Luke Gregerson in the closers spot or bring in someone else. From what my brother was telling me earlier, the Padres are looking at Huston Street for Orlando Hudson. I don't know how much truth there is to this rumor and haven't heard anything about it besides what my brother told me but, if it is true there will be a sudden increase in "mow my lawn" tweets before those come to a sad end. If this is true than I would assume he will be our closer and Luke will remain a setup man.

One thing that I will miss the most about not having Heath on the team is his personality. You see it from things like him sliding into the pitchers mound in the All Star Game to him flicking sunflower seeds at the camera crew during the games... or anyone near by. However, I will not miss his need to make things "interesting". My actual heart muscle thanks you Padres for making this deal and I continue to look forward to the trades and other acquisitions that will happen this off-season and hope that these scraps make for a decent team next year. Once again, congratulations Heath on your new deal, I hope you kill it out in Florida.