X Gave It To You

Wow!

Sorry it’s been a few days since I’ve written. I’ve been quite busy. My mom was in town. My younger son just turned two on Thursday. And the rotisserie league I’m in had its auction night on Friday. Then, Becky (my wife) and I went to the Padres game Saturday night with our alumni association (Point Loma Nazarene University).

O.k., let’s talk baseball.

For all of you who have been echoing Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko; suggesting that Petco is too big, we only need to look at Saturday’s game to see how fair it really is.

In the second inning, as Ramon Hernandez flied out to the deep “death valley,” left field power ally, a fan sitting behind me complained, “See, [Petco] is just too big.”

Later in the game, Xavier Nady made two plays on fly balls deep into the corner that would have been Home Runs in smaller venues. Funny, that fan never complained on the size of the park when it helped save runs.

How huge has Xavier Nady been this year? Nady is currently hitting .444/.524/1.111 which adds up to a video game-esque 1.635 OPS. Sure it is a small (tiny) sample size but most encouragingly Nady has many walks as he does strikeouts (3 each).

That same fan that griped about Petco’s dimensions did poignantly point out that Bochy is going to have trouble keeping Nady out of the lineup.

We haven’t heard much talk about Dave Roberts of late. Nady is making that trade look extraneous and unnecessary.

***

Changing gears, I see/hear a lot of talk about the Padres-Pirates trade of Brian Giles for Jason Bay and Oliver Perez (and another minor league pitcher – in fact, here’s another story on the subject).

Don’t be surprised if one or both of Bay and Perez eventually end up back in San Diego. There was talk back in March about serious discontent in the Pirates clubhouse and it centered around Bay and Perez.

Jason Bay, the 2004 NL Rookie of the Year, and Oliver Perez, who led ML starters with 10.97 strikeouts per 9 innings, were easily the Pirates best two players last year. As a rookie (in Bay’s case) and a 2nd year player (in Perez’ case) neither player was eligible for arbitration.

Under the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement teams can renew players’ contracts essentially at whatever price they want (the player doesn’t have to sign the contract, but he can’t play anywhere else).

With the years Bay and Perez put up. Most people thought the two players would be in for substantial raises. That was not the case, however, as Perez is probably least-compensated 3rd year player in the Majors ($381,000) and Bay isn’t exactly rolling in it either ($355,000).

Other players in the Pirates organization openly asked what a player had to do to get a raise. The Pirates obviously hold both players “rights” for 3+ more years, Further “exploitation” of that sort could cause one or the other player to bolt ASAP. And both players have expressed fondness for the San Diego organization.

It’s late, I’m going to bed – the Padres are 3-2.