Life without Gonzo - the San Diego dynasty

[UKRedSox]

December 6 2010 changed the San Diego Padres for good. 1B Adrian Gonzalez left the west coast and headed to the north east and the city of Boston, MA to play for the Red Sox.

The Padres finally realised the fact Gonzo would not sign an extension with the Padres and they decided to make the most out of a player who was traded from the Marlins in 2003.

In his time with the Padres he hit 161 home runs and drove in 501 and missed only just 11 games in the five seasons in San Diego.

Boston gave up four players for this premier 1B, (P) Casey Kelly, (OF) Reymond Fuentes, (1B) Anthony Rizzo & a PTBNL believed to be IF Eric Patterson.

Now the Padres management needs to pick up the cities belief in the ball club after trading away their best player by a country mile & try and match their 92-70 2010 record which was only the third time since 1996 they had won 90+ games.

[UKRedSox]

30th March 2011

Explosive news coming out of San Diego is that GM Jed Hoyer has left the Padres one day before opening day where they meet the St Louis Cardinals in St Louis.

Stories had been coming out in Spring Training in Hoyer's disappointment in trading Adrian Gonzalez to the Boston Red Sox and his departure came after several one to one meetings with owner John Moores.

It is unclear if Hoyer was sacked or resigned.

Even more surprising was the appointment of unknown P. Denyer to take over as the interim GM for the season.

Moores is expected to ask for the Padres to play .500 ball for the season and the new GM has some challenging times ahead in trying to sign Heath Bell to an contract extension and keep within the budget.

[UKRedSox]

31st March 2011

Opening Day, we are on the road for the start of the 2011 season. The St Louis Cardinals (and Albert) entertain us in a three games series. Posts for this dynasty will be scheduled at the end of each week (Sunday to Sunday).

The Padres opening day 25 man roster has several omissions -

Pitching (Rotation)

RH Stauffer
RH Harang
LH Richard
RH Moseley
LH Luebke

Pitching (Bullpen)

RH Qualls
RH Neshek
RH Frieri
RH Deduno
RH Adams
RH Gregerson
RH Bell (closer)

BATTING (* denotes in starting lineup)

RH Johnson ( c )
RH Hundley ( c ) *
RH Cantu (1b) *
SH Hudson (2b) *
RH Gonzalez (2b)
SH Headley (3b) *
RH Barlett (ss) *
RH Denorfia (lf)
LH Venable (lf) *
LH Hunter (cf)
RH Maybin (cf)*
LH Hawpe (rf)*
RH Ludwick (rf)

Several familiar faces missing from the opening day roster as Eric Patterson, Kyle Blanks, Mat Latos & Joe Thatcher are all on the DL with injury time varying from 2-4 weeks for everyone to return.

Tim Stauffer will be the opening day pitcher in place of Mat Latos. I have a soft spot for Stauffer after reading of his time in the Cape Cod League with the Chatham A's in the 2002 season in the book The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream by Jim Collins.

Pitching Match-ups for games played 3/31/2011-4/03/2011 inclusive

03/31/2011: St Louis Cardinals v San Diego Padres (Carpenter v Stauffer)
02/04/2011: St Louis Cardinals v San Diego Padres (McClellan v Harang)
03/04/2011: St Louis Cardinals v San Diego Padres (Garcia v Richard)

PLAY BALL!

[Klew1986]

Looking forward to reading about how you will turn around the Padres. It will be tough after they traded Gonzo. Kelly looks like a nice prospect and future top pitcher and Rizzo could fit in nicely at 1B.

[UKRedSox]

Thanks

[UKRedSox]

31st March - 3rd April 2011

The Cardinals take game 1 and the opening day fixture by a score of 4-1 behind 8 strong innings from Carpenter and a two strikeout save from Motta. Matt Holliday went 2 for 4 and 2 RBI's, for the Padres Tim Stauffer pitched 7 innings but allowed the four hits. Game 2 and 3 went the way of the Padres winning games 6-4 and 5-2 respectively but at a cost. Heath Bell registered two saves in the victory but the .455 hitting Jason Bartlett was injured running the bases and the return date is at this moment unsure and it could mean a call up for SS Everth Cabrera from AAA Tucson and we await the injury report from doc.

We sit joint second with the Rockies trailing the Giants by one game.

We face the Giants (2) and Dodgers (3) this week and face Tim Linecum in the second game of the Giants series.

Thursday the 7th sees the start of the Minor League seasons in AAA, AA and A levels.

[UKRedSox]

4th April - 11th April 2011



The week started like a dream, a two game sweep over the World Champions Giants including a win over Tim Linecum who we got to late in the game for a 4-3 win. The Dodgers were next to visit Petco and our good form continued with a 9-1 win.

Then............

The much vaunted bullpen imploded in consecutive days with the Padres suffering 8-4 & 7-1 losses.

Jason Barlett is out for three weeks and is on the DL replaced by Everth Cabrera as SS along with Alberto Gonzalez. Heath Bell is the tied leader for saves in the NL and ML overall.

Looking to get back some of our regular starters in the coming week, Mat Latos and Eric Patterson will return off off the DL so decisions are to be made on if they come back to the Padres or to the AAA Tuscon Padres.

Week coming up

Our home-stand finishes after hosting the Reds, then off to Texas to visit Houston. We are in the middle of long stretch of games without a day off where our stamina will be tested, next day off 28th April, counting the days already.....

[UKRedSox]

12th April - 17th April 2011



Tough week for the Padres.

We swept the Reds in SD winning games 7-0, 3-0 & 3-1, but then the start of 7 game roadtrip ended with 4 straight losses to the Astros and further more we suffered two lengthy injuries to our rotation.

Cory Luebke is out for 8 months with a fractured elbow and is replaced by Wade LeBlanc from AAA.

Aaron Harang is also out for 8 months with a torn rotator cuff.

Eric Patterson comes off the DL and replaces CF Cedric Hunter.

Robbie Weinhardt was claimed off the waivers and replaces Samuel Deduno who is moved to AAA.

RHP Dustin Moseley has been the standout pitcher so far this season, 2-0, an ERA of 1.31 and WHIP of 1.02.

Three games at Wrigley against the Cubs (7-8) and then back to Petco for the visit of the Phillies (8-7) gulp!

[UKRedSox]

18th April - 24th April 2011



Week didn't start well as the Cubs took game 1 of 3 to stretch the losing streak to five.

With morale low so early in the season and losing 4-1 after 5 in game 2 and starter Clayton Richard handing the ball over to the bullpen the Padres rallied in the 8th with 5 runs to win 11-8 and we went on to win game 3 and take the series 2-1 and get ready for Philadelphia.

Facing Halladay and Lee in games 3 & 4 we took the first two games 7-5 & 13-8 but we did lose Mat Latos in game 2 to a sore shoulder.

So Halladay lasted 4 innings giving up for 4 runs as we won 7-5, then Lee went 4 2/3, allowing 9 hits and 7 runs in a losing effort as we won 8-6, thus sweeping the Phillies.

In addition to losing Latos who will miss his next start we lost CF Cameron Maybin for 4 weeks and he has ended up on the DL.

Better news for Maybin's outfield team-mates as Will Venable was honoured with the NL Player of the Week. Venable went 13/24, 2 HR and 12 RBI's on the week.

Atlanta (last series before a day off) and then north to LA ending the first month of a long season to face the Dodgers.

[UKRedSox]

25th April - 1st May 2011



First month of the season finished and sitting nicely on 16-12. Will Venable is hitting .403 and is second in the NL hitting table, Dustin Moseley has 4 wins and an ERA of 1.62.

We seem to be a streaky team, after winning the opener against the Braves, then lost the last two.

We headed north to LA and promptly lost all three to scores of 2-4, 3-4 and 2-4.

We get Kyle Blanks back and it looks like Cedric Hunter will make way for him as he is demoted for the second time this season, he is hitting .000 in 5 AB.

Back home for two series, Pirates and Diamondbacks

[UKRedSox]

2nd May - 8th May 2011

5-1 win loss record this week, after losing the first game of the week to the Pirates 4-2, we won the next 5 sweeping the worst team in Baseball at the moment Arizona winning games 12-4, 3-0 & 5-2.

So we stay ½ game behind the Dodgers & have a 4 game lead on the Giants.



The draft pool was released to the league and with us drafting 23rd we won't be picking up a future HoFer. Snapshot of page 1 of the draft pool below



Looking at our prospects we would be looking for help at 2B, SS and RF and possibly in the bullpen.



Starting to look at the possibility of re-signing free agents who come available at the end of the season. Basically we have three players that would help the team next season and beyond or could be used as trade bait for future prospects.

Bell and Ludwick look increasing too expensive for the Padres too sign, Bell himself has been disappointing in large, walking more than striking out. Ludwick is projected to hit 33 home runs this season but again is too expensive and we have some depth in the outfield to replace him.

Harang is the only player we want too keep at the moment, even though he is injured for the rest of the season and would consider offering another year and see how he comes back after a lengthy injury.

The coming week

On the road this week, three games in Milwaukee (19-17) and a weekend series in Colorado (17-17)

[UKRedSox]

9th - 15th May 2011

Start of week didn't start well, losing first two against the Brewers behind the bat of Prince Fielder who is hitting .333/13/37 in 41 games.

We then turned it around and won the next four including a sweep over the Rockies.





Minor League teams are all struggling and we have lost Castro (AAA) for 11 months, the third pitcher to go down with a lengthy injury.





Looking ahead.......

Bit of a weird week, two two game series against the Diamondbacks and Brewers, then we host the Mariners in a three game weekend series.

Will see which Padres team turns up this week.......

[Big T]

Hey UK... Do you have any lefties in your pen. Your starting roster didn't show any....

Good luck the rest of the way.

[UKRedSox]

Originally Posted by Big T

Hey UK... Do you have any lefties in your pen. Your starting roster didn't show any....

Good luck the rest of the way.

it didn't but has now.

start of the season Joe Thatcher was on the DL

Stats too date, 10 G, 12.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 6 BB, 9 K, 1.05 WHIP and a 1.46 ERA

[Big T]

Originally Posted by UKRedSox

it didn't but has now.

start of the season Joe Thatcher was on the DL

Stats too date, 10 G, 12.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 6 BB, 9 K, 1.05 WHIP and a 1.46 ERA

Those are good numbers, and I am sure you are happy to have him back. I know whats it like, in my dynasty I have 2 lefties injured and only have my two lefty starters healthy.

[UKRedSox]

16th May - 22nd May 2011



We extend our lead at the top by one more game and we stand two games clear of the Dodgers and seven clear of the defending world champions. We also have two games to play to match the Dodgers total of 49 and possibly we could be four games clear after those games in hand.

San Diego split each of the two game series we played against Arizona and Milwaukee after losing the opener and after a day off we entertained Seattle for the weekend and swept them with winning scores of 8-6, 3-2 & 3-2.

The revolving door called the disabled list continues to see players disappear to the DL, and fortunately we seem to see a player coming back just as we lose a player. Chris Denorfia (.320/3hr/17rbi) went down for two weeks with a sprained ankle after crashing into the outfield wall but we got back Cameron Maybin (.264/2hr/9rbi) from the DL just in time to replace him.



Week ahead.........

Finish off the home stand with three games against the Cardinals (2-1 this season), day off and then to the nations capital to meet up with the Nationals who stand at 25-22 and second in the NL Eastern division.

Matchups v Cardinals (26-22, 2nd in Central 2GB)

Game 1: C.Richard 4-3 (2.42 era) v C.Rosa 0-0 (3.18 era)
Game 2: D.Moseley 5-2 (2.76 era) v M.Batista 3-0 (3.31 era)
Game 3: W.LeBlanc 2-3 (4.26 era) v J.Garcia 2-4 (3.97 era)

Matchups v Nationals (25-22, 2nd in East 3GB)

Game 1: M.Latos 2-3 (5.19 era)v J.Zimmerman 3-2 (4.80 era)
Game 2: T.Stauffer 3-2 (3.88 era)v L.Hernandez 2-6 (6.03 era)
Game 3: C.Richard 4-3 (2.42 era) v J.Lannan 3-2 (2.14 era)

[UKRedSox]

23rd May - 29th May 2011



Four wins and two defeats in the week, Dodgers won two of six so we stretch our lead in the NL West to four games.

A look back..........

v Cardinals

Game 1: C.Richard 4-3 (2.42 era) v C.Rosa 0-0 (3.18 era)

Padres chased Rosa after 3 and a third after he allowed 8 hits and 6 earned runs. Clayton Richard went 7 innings allowing 3 hits and no runs as the Padres won 11-0 and Maybin and Venable homered.

Game 2: D.Moseley 5-2 (2.76 era) v M.Batista 3-0 (3.31 era)

The Padres blow a lead and Heath Bell implodes with his second blow save of the season and St Louis wins 6-5 after a three run ninth inning.

Game 3: W.LeBlanc 2-3 (4.26 era) v J.Garcia 2-4 (3.97 era)

The Cardinals get to Matt LeBlanc has he suffers the loss after allowing 6 runs and 9 hits in just over 5 innings. St Louis lost Jamie Garcia after one out and relied on their bullpen to get them through the game as St Louis wins 7-6

v Nationals

Game 1: M.Latos 2-3 (5.19 era)v J.Zimmerman 3-2 (4.80 era)

Orlando Hudson & Ryan Ludwick drive home runs in the 12th to give the Padres the opening win of the series by the score of 5-3. Mat Latos went 8 innings, Gregerson blew a save and Joe Thatcher takes the win.

Game 2: T.Stauffer 3-2 (3.88 era)v L.Hernandez 2-6 (6.03 era)

Value for the fans for the second night running as the Padres and Nationals go into extra innings again. Rob Johnson's three run HR in the top 11th and Neshek's save clinched the game for San Diego.

Game 3: C.Richard 4-3 (2.42 era) v J.Lannan 3-2 (2.14 era)

Clayton Richard improves to 6-3 on the back of a six run first inning as the Padres chased Lannan after two outs in the first. A four run 8th inning gave San Diego a 11-5 lead which was the winning margin as the Padres sweep the Nationals.

Week ahead.....

Trip to Georgia to face the Braves (30-24, 1.5 GA), then back for a four game series over the weekend with Houston Astros (20-33, 10.5 GB)

Whose hot......

Cameron Maybin hitting .478 (11 for 23) , 4 HR, 8 RBI for the week.

[UKRedSox]

30th May 2011 - 5th June 2011



A 1-2 series loss to the Braves in Atlanta, followed by a 3-1 series win over the Astros in San Diego

A look back on the week..........

A ninth inning RBI from pinch hitting Orlando Hudson won the opener in Atlanta 3-2, but this was followed by losses to the hands of Medlen (8-3 to the Braves) and Sherril (10-8 to the Braves) with neither Latos or LeBlanc getting past the 3rd inning.

Four low scoring games against the Astros winning games 3-2,3-2 & 4-0 and losing 1-3.

Starting to think about the Heath Bell situation and if we can trade him who would step in and fill the closer role if we couldn't trade for another closer in any potential trade. Bell is walking too many people though he fared better this week but it still feels a bit of an adventure when he steps out onto the mound.

Elsewhere Lance Nix (LF-Washington Nationals) has currently a 28 game hitting streak going and is hitting .347/11 HR/39 RBI for the season. His best totals previously were .291 (2010 Cincinnati) & 15HR & 46 RBI (2009 Cincinnati).

Talking of trades, two were completed this week........

Cleveland get 1B Howie Kendrick, Los Angeles (A) get MR Joe Smith

Tampa Bay get C David Ross, Atlanta get LF Johnny Damon

Coming week........

Home-stand series against the Rockies (26-33) and Nationals 31-29) and we hold 3-0 records against both teams so far this season. The draft starts June 6th, we pick 23rd.

[UKRedSox]

7th June 2011
Busy couple of days in the office, the day after completing the draft for the Padres (more on that later) we received two trade offers from AL teams after the same player, namely Eric Patterson.

KANSAS CITY OFFER

1B Kila Ka'aihue (51/59) hitting .320, 9 HR, 23 RBI at AAA Omaha & .276, 2 HR & 5 RBI in Kansas City
SP Jason Adam (20/20) he is with the Burlington Royals in the Appalachian League

KANSAS CITY WANT

UT Eric Patterson (80/80) hitting .317, 2 HR, 16 RBI in 41 games for the Padres
CL Anthony Bass (21/21) 0-1 with a 3.55 era in A ball with Lake Elsinore and 1-2 with 10 saves at AA San Antonio


NY YANKEES OFFER

C Francisco Cervelli (77/80) hitting .261, 5 RBI in 13 games for the Yankees

NY YANKEES WANT

UT Eric Patterson(80/80) hitting .317, 2 HR, 16 RBI in 41 games for the Padres
2B Jeudy Valdez (21/21) hitting .219, 3 HR, 29 RBI in 55 games for San Antonio


Think I can reject the Royals offer outright, don't need another 1B and Ka'aihue is listed as 'fragile' and is an injury risk.

The Yankees offer intrigues me, Cervelli could be a top class catcher for years too come but I like the flexibility Patterson brings to the team as he can play both LF and 2B and has played well since he come to us in the Gonzo trade. I may try and add either of the two ML catchers to the Yankees deal either Johnson or Hundley both rated (21/21) and earning around 400k each

Got 14 days to mull it over..............

[UKRedSox]

6th June 2011 - 12th June 2011

Busy week in the office that saw the draft take place, a couple of trade offers come in and some negotiating with the draftees.



On the field a so-so week going 3-4 against teams we were previously unbeaten against. The Rockies took 2 from three and we split the series against the Nationals, the Dodgers claw back a game or two only 2 1/2 GB.

We have a ten day road trip coming up with one day off, we play in Colorado , Minnesota and Boston.

We have Kyle Blanks coming back in a couple of days and Chris Denorfia at rehab at AAA Tucson at the moment.

We picked 23rd in the draft the Pirates had the first pick and selected........



At pick 23 we selected........



Out of the five players offered contracts three are still too sign including Johnson who is asking for a major league contract. We selected in the first five rounds.......

R1. SS John Johnson (21/77)
R2. MR German Gallo (21/71) now at Fort Wayne TinsCaps
R3. MR Ed Clark (20/80)
R4. 1B Lee Collins (21/69)
R5. LF Julio Hernandez (21/73) now at Fort Wayne TinsCaps