Tom Pringle (@PedroiasFace) will be covering the Padres during the season. His updates won’t be game-recaps, more like weekly or monthly recaps. If you don’t get the twist on words in the title, you’re dead to him.
What Happened?
Here we go, here’s the Padres the majority expected. Since our last post about the Plucky Padres, they have become the F*ck-it Padres, going 1-7 in that period. One of the high points was a game against the Dodgers being postponed due to rain…in San Diego!
They were smashed by the Rockies, ending the Friars three game win streak. Then ex-Red Sox fill in/starting catcher Ryan Hanigan showed he can still hit, breaking San Diego hearts in extra innings. Some beanpole rookie came up to the Dodgers and showed how little they miss Adrian Gonzalez on the DL. Especially when the Padres faced him a second time and in a game that was almost done, he destroyed Diaz for a Grand Slam.
The Padres snapped their losing streak by opening up their inter-league campaign with a win against the Rangers, then proceeded to lose the next three.
It’s going to be a long year.
What went wrong?
Jered Weaver loves watching folk hit dingers, hit triples, hit doubles, hit singles, essentially he I think he must enjoy it, otherwise he would stop doing it. It’s horrible, but thankfully the recent comments from Padres Chairman, Ron Fowler, mean this could all be coming to an end soon.
The Padres defensive side of the ball hasn’t been great. Fumbles in the infield, throws being too long, too short, off target are really starting to become regular. Schimpf has been seen to rush quite a lot, Renfroe is looking bad all over and Myers has made some dodgy mistakes. It’s not Weaver levels of pain in terms of watching, but they really have to tighten up their game.
My notes said “Myers slowing down?” – It seems strange considering how many times I seemed to be writing his name in recent weeks and praising him, but I think it’s happening. Don’t get me wrong, he is actually still good, but that hot start was pretty damn hot. Let us take look at a 10-day rolling Avg/OBP/SLG/OPS for him this season.
Ever since the 21st April where he went 0-3 against the Marlins he has been on a gentle downward slide. There has been a slight uphill trend in recent games but it has backed down again. Something to worry about? Not just yet, but definitely something worth watching.
Renfroe is not only getting worse defensively, but also with the bat. It’s making for difficult watching, especially when the Padres have so little depth in the OF.
Ryan Schimpf is terrible when he swings and misses, which he does a lot.
What went right?
Ryan Schimpf is bloody awesome when he swings and hits. As Darius Austin mentioned in a recent Banished To The Pen article, he is in a category of his own when it comes to launch angle. He is also surprisingly good at drawing walks, he’s currently well above the MLB average (8.3%) with 16.5% so far this season.
Spangenberg, like Schimpf when he hits it counts. He also strikes out a lot, currently at a whopping 29.1%, he has to get that down otherwise pitchers will continue to dominate him. His walk rate is the polar opposite to Schimpf though, currently sat at 3.6% percent, it’s woeful.
Perdomo actually looked good against the Rockies and despite his shaky first and second inning against the Rangers, he kept the Padres in the game with 7 Ks.
There was also another good performance in the aforementioned Rangers game, where new guy Matt Szczur (That’s a silly name) went 3-4 with an RBI to try and set his stall early.
Trevor “The Ace” Cahill. Wow. Despite all their defensive woes, beyond streaky hitting and having to wonder what the next guy behind Jered Weaver on the depth chart is thinking, at least Padres fans know that Trevor Cahill quite possibly will pitch them a gem every five games and give them a chance.
What’s next?
The Padres continue the interleague matchup going to the south side of Chicago, before returning to Petco for a series against the Brewers. I wonder if Eric Thames will like the marine layer…
The Great All-Rounder Experiment Will Austin Hedges Ever Hit Again? How long will Jankowski last in the lineup? Days until Weaver is DFA’d?
I’m going for five days.
Until next time, here’s some numbers that I’ll keep updated for the year.
Stats: (Positions in brackets for all qualified players in MLB)
Win/Loss – 13-23 .361
Individual Stats:
Batt Avg. Leader – W. Myers .299 (33rd)
OBP Leader – W. Myers .325 (100th)
OPS Leader – W. Myers .882 (40th)
Starter ERA – T. Cahill 3.06 (28th)
Strikeouts – T. Cahill 44 (23rd)
WHIP – J. Chacin 1.37 (70th)
Team Stats:
Batting AVG. – .221 (28th)
OBP – .284 (29th)
OPS – .656 (28th)
ERA (Starter) – 4.47 (22nd)
ERA (Relievers) – 5.23 (26th)
Strikeouts – 228 (13th)
WHIP (Relievers) – 1.32 (14th)