As the Padres unveil some sharp new uniforms, let’s look at some news from around the NL West…
- It has been close to a month since Andrew Friedman said he was close to finalizing a contract extension to remain as the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, though there hasn’t since been any word about a deal. There doesn’t appear to be any real reason for concern, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets, as the two sides are “still dotting I’s and crossing T’s” on the new contract. Friedman has also been battling the flu for the past week.
- Construction has begun on Oracle Park’s new bullpens, which will result in a slightly moved-in portion of the outfield fence, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. Relievers for both the Giants and visiting clubs will no longer have to warm up in foul territory, as the new bullpens will be located behind the center field and right-center field fences. As a result, the area of fence that runs across center field into the “Triples Alley” triangle will be lowered by about a foot and moved four-to-six feet closer to home plate. The apex of the triangle will also be a bit shorter to home plate than its current 421-foot distance.
- Also from Schulman (Twitter links), he reports that as of Friday night, the Giants still hadn’t made a decision in their managerial search, though one should be coming relatively soon. Astros bench coach Joe Espada, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro and former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler are reportedly the final three candidates in the running.
- The Padres had some interest in Rangers outfielder Nomar Mazara last summer, so Dennis Lin and Jamey Newberg of the Athletic (subscription required) tried to figure out a Mazara trade package that could help both clubs, in a lengthy exploration of how San Diego and Texas match up as trade partners. Some obvious links exist between the two franchises — Padres GM A.J. Preller and new manager Jayce Tingler both came to San Diego from the Texas organization, giving the Friars a lot of familiarity with Rangers players on both the MLB and minor league rosters. Lin and Newberg settle on a scenario that would see Mazara and right-hander Jonathan Hernandez go to the Rangers for Joey Lucchesi and catching prospect Blake Hunt.
How does this solve the MLB logjam of OFers for the Padres and their ugly block-lettered unis?
Who cares..its called re-branding in the business world to generate future profit. Go back to school
It’s called “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” in the real world because most of the time you end up with a worse end result. Climb out of the ivory tower and join the rest of us some time.
I’m loving their ugly block letter unis
Me too. While we’re on the topic of Uni’s I don’t care for the Cards blue road Uni’s . Go back to Grey.
How do you possibly have a logjam in the OF when no one can hit over .240?
Bingo
Rangers should focus on taking the $80MM left of Myers bad contract to be able to extract more value out of the trade. I would pitch Mazara + Odor for Myers + Urias + Lucchesi/Quantrill.
So your name is Troll?
Good pitch but they need to look at Boston for any trades on pitching
I’m with Pads Fans on this one. Mazara is a non-tender candidate and Odor has negative trade value. Best the Rangers could hope to get for a package of those two is Myers, Lucchesi and $4-5m/yr of Myers’ contract.
Agreed. Baseball journalists tend to focus more on fit than valuation, since they’re typically not numbers people.
I modeled this trade using the BTV simulator, and the valuations are off by about $30M: baseballtradevalues.com/trades/trade-15554/
This is because Lucchesi is in the sweet spot of his value curve, with two good-ish years at the MLB level, so you can reasonably expect four more at relatively cheap cost. Mazara is in the opposite boat — he’s had four years to establish value and has failed to do so. Now he’s getting expensive and his clock his running out. So the Padres would be trading four years of good, cheap production for two years of expensive non-production.
Further, if the Padres wanted a LHH COF, why not just sign Kole Calhoun? He figures to cost about the same amount as Mazara over the next two years, and he’d provide more reliable production both offensively and defensively. And you wouldn’t have to trade any player capital. That’s another indicator that Mazara has no trade value.
I wouldn’t trade Luchessi straight up for Mazara AND Hernandez. I just don’t see much value in Mazara, and Hernandez hasn’t exactly tore up the minors – but he’s still young, and we don’t need another “maybe” pitching prospect.
Dodgers announcing a transaction as late as possible is very normal for them.
Dear Padres,
What exactly are the Rangers doing that makes you think you should poach all their pieces? Seriously, quit it.
Ask Preller. He just can’t get out of his Rangers comfort zone. Unless he’s bending over for Cashman or the Indians, all he knows is the Rangers.
Not sure exactly what the interest in Mazara would be based on. He has played 4 years in the majors and has never been an above average hitter or fielder. Am I missing something?
You are correct however he was projected to be an above average mlb bat coming out of the minors. The talent is there but he hasn’t put it together consistently. Other teams could see him as a guy that would benefit from a change of scenery and hope things start clicking.
All that is true for Wil Myers. Only difference is Myers is guaranteed $68.5m more.
I don’t think Mazara qualifies as a true “change of scenery” guy. He is not hitting well and, unless he gets traded to Colorado, his new scenery will probably offer a worse park for hitters. Well I’m not sure how the new park in Texas will work, but it doesn’t really matter because he had his mediocre stats at the old park.
Koamalu, I agree. I do not see Mazara being an upgrade over Hunter Renfroe in RF. Hunter has a great arm and was in contention for the gold glove. He also hit over 30 HR last year. Mazara hit less than 20 HR last season. Hunter Renfroe did have a bad second half, but was playing through injury. I wouldn’t be quick to dump him for Mazara!
And Renfroe is controlled 2 years longer than Mazara
What can brown do for you?
I like the brown but those don’t really impress me personally.
Not sure if Plunkett is saying we should be more concerned if the Dodgers are not ready to finalize a contract extension with Friedman or if they are.
You know the answer to that question. I’m 38 and I can’t remember a time the Dodgers didn’t suck before Friedman.
So you aren’t old enough to remember the 2003, 2007, 2008, 2013, or 2014 seasons, or is your memory just selective? BTW it might revive your memory a little to be reminded that those division wins were with payrolls a fraction of the size of what Friedman is able to spend today, and with farm and scouting operations that had been ransacked by clueless and bankrupt ownerships. Sorry if that interferes with your boy genius narrative, it just happens to be true. Oh and I am lot older than you and I am having a hard time remembering a time when the Dodgers last won a championship. But I suppose we should thank Friedman for keeping that tradition alive. He’s certainly shown how he can spend a lot more for the same results.
But look at all those NL West banners! /s/
The Dodgers did not win the division in 2003 or 2007 and they had the highest payroll in baseball in 2013 and 2014. Furthermore, the 2008 division winning team featured 3rd year players Kemp, Ethier, Martin, Billingsley and Loney from their celebrated minor league class and a rookie named Kershaw. Get your facts straight before correcting others.
Sorry, I was one year off. It was 2004 and 2008. Why you think it makes sense to qualify the 2008 win by them actually having good team is peculiar in the extreme, since the argument being made was the Dodgers always sucked before Friedman. Obviously untrue. Furthermore, the 2013-14 seasons were the first under the new ownership and the GM at the time was not Andrew Friedman, it was Ned Colletti, so maybe probably Friedman doesn’t deserve the credit for those seasons. So do try to get your facts straight before correcting others.
Pin stripes are nice. As long as the Padres stay away from solid brown! Ugh!
Glad the Giants came to their senses on the bullpen issue.
But there is just NO reason to
have a kale garden anywhere!
Ever! Unless you mix it with
bacon and plenty of salt…..
Seriously. As a huge Giants fan, I’m fully ashamed that they decided a baseball stadium needed an organic garden.
Oh go cry about it. It’s a garden that makes decent revenue and sells good pizza, does that hurt anybody?
It’s incredible that some people are so insecure in their identity that they think it’s somehow “unmanly” to eat vegetables.
Why on earth would a garden embarrass you? Does toothpaste also embarrass you? Or soap? Or a good night’s sleep?
Lookit the snot shooting out of that rocket.
Those brown uniforms look pretty sweet. Padres regaining their identity. Now to start winning.
you must really love the UPS uniforms and trucks, there is a reason that no other teams have worn brown since the Browns.
Teddyjackeddy what other team “would” wear Brown?
No other team wears Green but the A’s…..only the A’s were smart enough to never move away from their identity.
At least The Padres were smart enough to finally take it back.
I love the A’s green and gold , but their identity was blue..
Well … there is the U of Wyoming Cowboys.
I totally agree. I know the blue and gold unis were a throwback to their PCL days, but they were hands down the most generic uniforms in MLB – even more so than CLE. Hopefully they stick with the current design for the long run.
most generic to ugliest…ok
They are great if you like old taco bell uniforms. Playing baseball in those is hideous.
I like the Rangers, so I would say no deal.
I would not trade Lucchesi for Mazara, let along Blake Hunt as well. Lucchesi could be a 4-5 starter on our contending team and Hunt is an intriguing catching prospect, for an under-performing OF prospect? We already have several of those. Why are we trying to force terrible trade scenarios just because some of our FO happen to be from the Rangers?
The only guy on the Rangers I would want is Gallo and he will be expensive.
“our contending team”? Didn’t I hear the same thing last year?
Yes, you did. But most of our fans will deny it.
What contending team? Not the Padres
Yes and they were and are the first team ever to claim to contend when it did not happen. The very first. And it is shameful. Shame on them. Shame.
Lol “contending team” = “outfield logjam”. Great phrases coined by amateur padre pundits with jobs. Curious why so many people believe and repeat these things. This team lacks most things that add up to .500 ball. They would contend in the NBA where the season is like 100 games. They’ll chalk up 74-75 next year and that’s good enough for a first seed in the wonderfully manicured basketball “sport”. They NBA already has the Lakers as the winner but it would be good PR for the Pads. really guys, contention? No. There are no numbers, bench, or miracles that add up to that idea. Oh….. or manager…………….
… haha or a real general manager
Idk about those New Jersey’s, always been a fan of the blue and silver
I’ve always been skeptical about New Jersey myself
LOL!
stop being skeptical, new jersey is just filthy. end of story
Off topic . Hey Padre fans, How do you like the new uniforms unveiled yesterday? I like them myself
I was told they’re yellow in front and brown in back. Is this true?
Well anything is an improvement on Fowler’s love for the color blue and the club’s basic lack of understanding how a brand works and all this “retro” crap going on. The Pads have had it made with those colors for years, and instead they threw us sand and baby blue back in 2004ish and never stopped tinkering. Ever notice how the great teams leave their stuff alone?
I like them a lot. I hope brown and gold stay the permanent colors.
So happy to see the dirty diaper uniforms again!
“ Lin and Newberg settle on a scenario that would see Mazara and right-hander Jonathan Hernandez go to the Rangers for Joey Lucchesi and catching prospect Blake Hunt.” Aren’t they already on the Rangers team? Unless I miss a trade somewhere and then they traded them back lol
Still curious why this was ever a topic. AJ’s answer for everything is to get a guy from the D.R, especially if he was a Ranger. It doesn’t matter that his OBP is in the toilet. I am always curious about Preller’s handle on percentages. He doesn’t seem to excel there. It says Mazara is around a .320 OBP guy. Oh boy, what changes then? If we still had Franny (and not a AA LF playing center who will never crack the majors) he’d once again hit around 35 HR’s and have 50 RBI’s next year. Renfroe as well. Manny may never get to 100 RBI’s with this current brilliant system in place. Curious how we’ve been able to abandon situational hitting. Oh nevermind, that was never a thing after 2010.
Yea AJ does not concern himself with details. It is like he has no game plan and never did.
Maybe next hear the Padres will get lucky and finally get rid of Preller. The mistake that keeps giving.
Of course they let him again pick a manager and the new and real GM will want to replace Tingler … and here it goes again … round and round … or Padres will have to settle for a first time GM again like all their first time managers …
I have this odd little theory that he is trying to get fired- like maybe he gets a nice buyout if he can get booted. This ship is gaining holes every season and sinking fast. The longer he runs this thing, the longer he looks like he has no clue- and that’s bad for his future. He needs to go back to his strengths: which are scouring for guys who are talented at 12 years old and hanging out with Ivy League shut-ins.