Everth Cabrera's bat flip and a Headley question

What a great still. Everth Cabrera comes up with the bases loaded and pounds the first pitch he sees, plating Yasmani Grandal with the winning run last nigh against the Reds.

 I love the confidence from ECab here -- look at that bat flip! He knows something that nobody else does . . .


Look at all those folks still sitting behind the plate. Must be the food coma that comes along with the price of a Sony Home Plate Club ticket.

I just found out the result of this game so I'm kind of excited. Waking up and watching the highlights on MLB is becoming my sad Time Warner Cable induced reality. I am adapting.

Glad to see that Latos pitched well without getting the win. He had a great quote that showed some maturity after the game:

"The rotation, everyone, has been pitching real well. It's baseball," Latos said. "I went out there in Cleveland and gave up seven runs and the team scored seven runs to back me up. Today was a grind offensively and defensively and pitching. Things didn't go our way today."

For a guy who always gets his maturity questioned that's a good quote. It's got your standard cliches but he also notes how his offense picked him up when he shit the bed in Cleveland. Good for him.

***

A Headley Question

When people complain about Chase Headley they often cite his the following: he's terrible at turning water into wine, doesn't get clutch hits, he's more a false prophet than Savior, and he Ks too much.

Chase Headley does K a lot. Last night he went 1 for 3 with a walk, though strikeout was the mode by which Mat Latos retired Headley each time last night. Headley has now struck out 81 times in 356 PAs. That's one strikeout for every 4.4 PAs. Those are brutal numbers to look at but we can't dismiss his 50 walks and .374 OBP. Those numbers are good and they matter.

My question: Who does Chase Headley compare to in terms of ability to draw walks with a discerning eye but who also swings and misses with great frequency?

We have to keep in mind that there are plenty of guys who strikeout and walk with great frequency. They are called power hitters. Headley has 8 HRs and will likely finish with a career high this season but the total certainly won't be enough to qualify as power hitter.

Here's who I think of first: switch hitting Red Sox infielder, Mark Bellhorn!

Mark Bellhorn was the most frustrating guy to watch hit. He was brutal as a Padre but I'm thinking more of his time with the Red Sox. That was a guy who could get a walk but boy did he flail at pitches. In 2004 he came to the plate 620 times and K'd a whopping 177 (1K/3.5PA) of them while hitting a respectable17 HRs. But he also walked 88 times which led to a .373 OBP. I find these strikeout and walk totals to be such a strange dichotomy.

Who is Chase Headley? Will it even matter to Padres fans in a month?

Spring Training 2012 and The Quest For Absolution

Just over a week ago, Ducksnorts, SDPads1, the Driver and myself set off to Peoria, Arizona to see the first games of spring. The pilgrimage to Arizona, for many, is a fan's rite of passage -- the opportunity to watch the youngsters, the up-and-comers, the new arrivals, and the veterans who have surely turned the corner during the off-season and are now ready to make the most significant of contributions.

While our attendance in Arizona was predicated on the ideals stated above it was rooted in something far deeper and meaningful. While we did not know it at the time this trip was about absolution.

Hunter S. Thompson once wrote, "If there is, in fact, a Heaven and a Hell, all we know for sure is that Hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix."

On a Saturday morning in late February we descended into hell . . .



After stopping in Yuma for breakfast and picking up a relic to protect us on our journeys we carried on to Spring Training 2012. As we made our way to the greater-Phoenix area we plotted our afternoon. The Padres were not scheduled to open their season until Sunday when they would meet the loathsome Mariners in the annual charity game between the Peoria Sports Complex roommates. We needed to find a game to watch for that Saturday.

As we looked through the schedule we determined that we wanted to see the much-ballyhooed Salt River Fields at Talking Stick where the Rockies and D-Backs play. Fortuitously, the game at Talking Stick was sold-out and with Stub Hub prices far out of our reach we turned our attention to catching a Giants game. Alas, the team from San Francisco had also sold-out. Ultimately, circumstances led us to Goodyear, Arizona where we would see the opener between the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds. It was our fate.

We walked through the gate and sought refuge in Colorado's Fat Tire Ale as we would for the better part of the weekend. With beers in hand we parked-up at a convenient patio located in left field and we began to nourish ourselves. The time had come to confront the sins of our Padres past.

With steely resolve we looked on as the Reds took the field. Before our eyes the new left fielder for Cincinnati dug his cleats into the turf and settled himself for the first pitches of spring. We had traversed this great distance and had found ourselves with a view that had grown so familiar over the previous 18 months -- it was Ryan Ludwick.

~To be continued

Mat Latos Became a Red and The Tri-Tip Was Cold

The other day I finally ponied-up for a Baseball Prospectus subscription. I'd been meaning to do it for sometime and now that it's the only place to read Ducksnorts it has become even more imperative.

It was Kevin Goldstein's publication of his top eleven Padres Prospects however,  that forced my hand. Goldstein's overall evaluation was that the Padres have accrued tremendous depth at their minor league levels. Awesome! Is there anything better than spending money and having an expert tell you what you want to hear? I felt like I was in . . . Las Vegas.*

I did leave the reading of this article with concerns, though.


While the system has depth it lacks superstars on the horizon. Sorry. I'm greedy.

The projections for starting pitchers also caught my eye. Reports of Erlin, Weiland, and Kelly all sounded good, with big league arrival times coming sooner than later but they all project as #3 starters.

Sorry. I'm greedy. And I want more.

The only thing that assuaged my concerns was the notion that the Padres already had an ace in the fold in the form of Mat Latos. With Latos as the #1 perhaps the inclusion of three # 3 starters could still do the trick. Happy again was I.

Almost immediately I began to hear rumblings of a Latos trade.

This didn't make sense to my simple mind. With no stud in the system, why do it? The only thing I could think was that the FO thought Latos was a bad gamble moving forward. Kind of understandable I suppose. There have always been the maturity questions. Issues of the head, coupled with the propensity for pitchers' arms to fall off their bodies, could be reason enough to move the talent. I also thought it was more an issue of the Padres listening rather than actively shopping him. Whatever. I am simple.

Yesterday I went to eat tri-tip, an annual tradition. Before I could even get to the dinner table to find that the tri-tip was cold and undercooked, I got out of the car and checked my phone. Mat Latos was no longer a Padre. I was genuinely surprised. By both the undercooked tri-tip and the departure of Latos. Tri-tip needs to have the edges charred just right. The edges weren't charred just right, though. And Latos was gone. I couldn't make sense of it all.

 Fans generally react poorly to such news, especially Padre fans who have seen players in recent history leave for unknown quantities. There were those who expected me to absolutely tEAR ThE INTerrrNETS aPArt!

I opted for a more measured response. For the most part, I decided to wait. And I decided to read...

(Part II)

*Read between the lines.