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By Jeff Todd | at
Email a copy of 'Injury Notes: Upton, Aoki, Lincecum, Stanton, Crawford, Morneau, Morrow' to a friend
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snazzypants
The Padres are the latest team to learn that free agent splurges and blockbusters trades do not make a team a championship contender overnight. I will say this though, the fact that they managed to hold on to most of their top prospects makes this situation a little more manageable for San Diegoans (San Diegoites? Heh, Anchorman reference)
everlastingdave
I don’t know if you could say they kept most of their top prospects. The Myers, Kimbrel, and Upton trades took some serious bites out of the system.
snazzypants
They managed to keep Hedges and Renfoe, but after checking, you’re right, those trades did really hurt them. Sorry Pads fans!
BlueSkyLA
Assuming of course that the purpose of trades and free agent signings is to make a team into a championship contender overnight. The real and more immediate purpose might be the more modest one of fielding a team that does not circle the drain year after year.
snazzypants
Is it just me, or does everyone else keep forgetting Carl Crawford is still around? I totally forgot about him until just now. It’s a shame that he always has these injuries and is in a logjam, because he’s shown flashes of his old self over the last few years (When healthy of course!)
Carlos760
He’s still s good player can hit rhp & leftys, but always is hurt. That’s why he doesn’t have a spot anymore.
willi
He does have a Spot, on the Bench. Making Big Money Too !
BlueSkyLA
Crawford’s recent health problems have been more bad luck than anything else. Nothing you’d call chronic. But no, Dodgers fans have not forgotten him. They’ve seen him play very well and know there’s a spot at the top of the lineup that is currently going wanting and are wondering if he might not be called on to fill it.
A'sfaninUK
Ethier, Pederson, Puig, Van Slyke & Guerrero are all hitting. There is absolutely no spot for Carl Crawford on this Dodgers team.
BlueSkyLA
Pederson over the last month is hitting a delightful .175/.275/.263/.537. Puig is racking up an impressive line of .197/.288/.296/.583. Guerrero is hitting a massive .148/.148/.148/.296. Compared to that, Van Slyke at .238/.407/.476/.884 is great. Eithier is doing great, though, so I guess you were close.
Oh, and my point: Of these players only Pederson bats leadoff. That potentially is where Crawford will find a place in this lineup.
A'sfaninUK
How much money would it take for a team to trade for Crawford? He’s owed $43M over 16+17 (he’ll turn 35+36 during those years), plus whatever is left this year. He cant hit lefties, fangraphs has him at just average defensively and he’s a constant injury risk. I think he’d be worth about $4M a year on the open market, at most.
Perhaps the Dodgers could pull a similar move to AZ and package him with a nice prospect so they don’t have to eat almost his entire contract to get rid of him?
BlueSkyLA
Crawford’s career splits against LHP: .261/.308/.377/.684/.695.
heisenberg58
I’m a little skeptical of this oblique injury given the timing of it and the fact that he doesn’t want to leave SD right now.
The Oregonian
Whether they trade Upton at the deadline or not, he won’t be a Padre in 2016. The team might look more balanced next year (Kemp, Myers and Renfroe still as corner OF options) if they acquire a left-handed bat with the resources no longer going to Upton. Denard Span, Chris Davis, and Gerardo Parra will be free agents this offseason, or maybe they could trade for Ben Revere or even Carlos Gonzalez.
marinest21 2
Span would be a perfect fit for the Friars. Like you said, along with his LH’ed bat, he puts the ball in play (/doesn’t SO a ton), and he has great range in center field.
As a long-time Padres fan, I’ve realized it’s time to come to grips with the reality of Petco Park. Unless you add a guy like Stanton (a once-in-a-decade type power bat), the team is never going to hit a ton of home runs in that yard. We’ve added a lot of big names to the roster, and all of them (maybe with the exception of Norris) have seen their power numbers decrease significantly. Moving forward, we should use the KC Royals model = build a team with speed, athleticism, defense, contact hitting with not many home runs but very few strikeouts (SO important now with offense dwindling across the board), and a lights-out bullpen. The Padres seemed to have this approach previously, drafting/trading for guys like Rico Noel, Donavan Tate, Jace Peterson, Travis Jankowski, Reymond Fuentes, Mallex Smith, Corey Spangenberg, Cameron Maybin, Michael Gettys, even Trea Turner – but with the frequent instability in the GM’s office (Towers-Hoyer-Byrnes-Preller, 4 GM’s in 6 years), a constant philosophy just can’t seem to stick. Granted, a lot of the above names haven’t panned out, but in my mind they fit the mold of what not only needs to be emphasized, but ingrained in drafts and player acquisitions to come.
A'sfaninUK
Two Cy Youngs and title(s) and on the road to the HOF before turning 27, then immediately becoming an afterthought at 27…Lincecum sure turned into Bret Saberhagen really quick.
Dock_Elvis
You’d be pressed to find many who thought Lincecum had longevity. I’ve thought he needed to be shifted to a short relief roll….his stuff would be/have been elite over an inning or two. I saw some potential as a muli-inning closer
gilgunderson
Me, too. I wish Bochy, Sabean, and Righetti had the vision to permanently move him to the ‘pen a couple of years ago, but they obviously felt they needed him in the rotation.
His own lack of focus and dedication to staying in shape and keeping his mechanics consistent also didn’t help.
Dock_Elvis
I really don’t know how you fix his mechanics, given how unique his are. Plus he’d have been a very well paid reliever. I would envision Lincecum as a 2-3 inning 3 run lead closer in the old school sense..with a more high leverage single inning stopper in there.
People can play revisionism… But he won 2 Cy Youngs and a pair of rings…and he brought much needed personality to a game whose players have grown bland and prepackaged…that’s a career itself. Truly great pitchers do roll with the changes….injured or not..Lincecum was going to need to figure out how to win with less than electric stuff at some point.