The Padres fired hitting coach Alan Zinter on Friday, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets. Zinter lasted less than two seasons in the position, having taken the job in November 2015. The Padres’ offense ranked toward the bottom of the majors during Zinter’s run, but he didn’t exactly have a world of proven talent at his disposal. Manager Andy Green explained to Lin that he’s seeking a “different voice” for the role. Meanwhile, GM A.J. Preller told AJ Cassavell of MLB.com that the Padres will begin searching for a successor immediately, but he indicated there’s no rush to hire a replacement (Twitter link).
Here’s more from the National League:
- The Brewers’ rotation was rife with question marks entering the season, but it now appears the surprise contenders have at least three legitimate building blocks in Jimmy Nelson, Chase Anderson and Zach Davies, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel observes. The emergence of that cost-controlled trio has been especially important to a team that’s not able to spend big on free agents, and Haudricourt points out that the Brewers may even have a couple more promising young starters on hand (Brandon Woodruff and Josh Hader). It’s possible they’ll go into 2018 with those five comprising their rotation, Haudricourt notes.
- Rockies outfielder David Dahl is resigned to the fact that he won’t be able to contribute this year, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post writes. Dahl hasn’t appeared in a major league game this season, and he hasn’t played in a minor league contest since July 31, thanks to the rib injury he suffered during spring training. Now, Dahl doesn’t expect to swing a bat again until December, according to Saunders. “The thing I really need is rest, to let it heal completely, because every time I would start swinging, I would start feeling it again,” said the 23-year-old Dahl, who excited the Rockies last season with a .315/.359/.500 batting line in a 237-plate appearance rookie campaign.
- A partial UCL tear in Wei-Yin Chen’s left elbow has kept him from taking the mound since May 1, but he’ll return to the Marlins in the coming days, Tim Healey of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports. While Chen will finish 2017 as a reliever, the Marlins expect to slot him back into their rotation next season. After this fall’s World Series, Chen will be able to opt out of the remaining three years and $52MM left on the five-year, $80MM contract he signed with the Fish in January 2016. That’s obviously not going to happen, though, as the ex-Oriole has struggled with injuries and turned in mediocre results during his two years in Miami.
Michael Hill said there wasn’t enough time to stretch Chen out. I assumed the reason they didn’t add anyone on the waiver wire was b/c Chen would get a couple of starts before the season ended. Now not adding anyone makes even less sense. It means we’re stuck watching Worley, Nicolino, and Despaigne *vomits*…literally anyone would be better than them
I know this is off the topic but the article from Sportsnavi (Japanese) said that the probability of Padres singing Otani is at 80%. His reasoning was (a) if Otani expressed his intent to come to MLB for the sake of coming to MLB, he would have been drafted out of high school; he instead chose to play in Japan as a two-way player, which meant being two-way player was of a higher priority (b) Padres has business partnership agreement with Nippon Ham Fighters, Otani’s team, and Padres are preparing a ‘landing zone’ for two-way player like Otani (c) There is a preconceived idea that that prevents players from being a two-way player, both in Japan and in MLB; Fighters had a plan in mind to make him the two-player he is today, and if other team would have drafted Otani, he would have been in the US instead of playing in Japan.
I thought it was worth sharing. If any of you can read Japanese though I may doubt, the link is below.
sp.plus-blog.sportsnavi.com/field_of_dreams/articl…
As a Padre fan I sure hope so. I’ve heard about the Preller/Otani connection before so maybe that article has some legs to it. Not to mention Hideo Nomo and Takashi Saito both work in the Padres front office and have been rumored to be putting in a lot of work with scouting the pacific rim. We shall see, Otani would be the face of the franchise player they desperately need. Myers isn’t the guy for it unfortunately.
Myers can be the face of the franchise, if they actually give him rest. At one point he had played in like 75 or 77 out of 83 games possible. During the 1st half he literally had almost 0 days off for rest cause they didnt have someone to play 1st in his absence with sanchez being on the dl and solarte needed at 3rd or 2nd and hitting the dl. They just didnt have anyone to be back up 1B. Even if they gave him every 4th or 5th day off he’d had accumulated 15 ish days off. Had less than 10
Only having like 10 or less days off in the 1st half he fatigued fast and has suffered since then.
If Wil Myers is the face of a franchise, that franchise is in trouble. A, he’s a good player but not a great player, at a non-premium position – and B, if 75 out of the first 83 games is too much to handle (effectively 150 games a season), then he’s made of cotton candy. That should be bare minimum for an everyday player, let alone a first baseman.
He is not the guy to build around.
And to the OP, interesting article – but 80% is nuts. Way, way over the top. That’s a Jeter resigning with the Yankees percentage – not an IFA percentage.
1. The Padres don’t utilize Myers like a prototypical 1B. Ive never seen teams shift 1B around as much as they have him, esp on plays where he comes crashing in for bunts. Some other teams might do that but I dont see it too often as a defensive alignment/strategy. Plays like that contribute more to fatigue when running full speed toward home plate 3 4 5 times expecting a bunt and its fouled or a ball. Its not just games played its also a matter of hitters faced as well. 3 outs doesnt mean 3 batters. Could be 50 batters until you get 3 outs. I looked but couldnt find a tbf stat for the team
2. Last year was the first time myers turned in a healthy season. This will be his 2nd healthy season. It does take some players time to develop stamina. Joey votto played in 130 games two years in the minors before taking on 150 in his rookie year.
The problem is Myers has played his fair share of games before as well. He played in close to 130 games per season for three straight years in the minors before his rookie year, so you’d think that he would be somewhat used to the grind.
Oh boo hooo the first baseman “only” had 5 off days in half a season. So what?
Oh hahaha so he gets worn out trying to field bunts?? Cry me a river ….
Sure, let the Padres be host for the next sensational bust from a foreign country.
What in Otani’s game leads you to believe he’ll bust?
I read just the other day, I’ll be damned if I can remember where though, that Preller was seen in Japan on a scouting trip. Not sure if what that artcile is saying and this are at all related, but there could be something to this. Of course, the Padres not being able to give Otani more than $300,000 as a signing bonus may/will hurt the Padres chances of signing him. Not sure about the “landing zone” comment. The Padres tried it with Bethancourt, who isn’t nearly the player/prospect Otani is, with failed results. All in all, seeing the Padres mentioned in the same story as Otani is a good thing for Padre fans. Even if they end up not getting him inked, it still shows that they are trying to improve the team.
It’s a nice idea, but I feel like Otani will still probably going to end up signing with a bigger-market team.
I’m not sure if Brewers fans should be all that excited. This time last year, Junior Guerra was viewed as a “legitimate building block” as well. It takes more than one good year to be a legitimate building block in my opinion.
Good point. It’s unfortunate that Guerra is over the hill with his peak ending before his career even began.
How is a 30 something year old with one good season a building block? He just his career best year out of nowhere and it drew interests from other teams who needed an arm at the deadline. The Crew have won plenty of trades in the past couple years and now they have young talented arms and position players to show for it
Guerra was never a building block. He was a low cost place holder until Hader and Woodruff were ready.
Terrible example. Guerra was never a building block. If he was they never would’ve explored trading him in the off season. The league caught up to him. The trio is solid, under 30, and controllable. Add in Hader and Woodruff and yes, Brewers fans have every reason to be excited.
Preller has become the Sam Hinkie of baseball
I hope Guerra rebounds but does it in the bullpen. The starting 5 of Anderson, Nelson Davies, Hader and Woodruff would be great. I think the Brewers only need to focus on several things this off season and that is resigning Walker, Sogard and Swarzak to a deal and adding an arm to the bullpen. Aside form that this team is looking good.
I was always under the assumption that the manager was the “voice” of the hitting philosophy for a team. Something else is going on with the Padres.
The Marlins are paying Chen a fat contract for what they have received in performance so far. Can Jeter turn him around? Or will Jeter trade him away and eat that money?
That’s their 8th hitting coach that they’ve had since they moved to Petco Park. Maybe he’s not the only one to blame for this team’s abysmal hitting, but of course he’s the one who has to fall on the sword.
Myers now Yonder Alonso