interesting location for a stadium — on csu dominguez hills‘ campus (yea i didn’t know it ever existed either). the campus itself is jammed in a residential area, makin’ it a pain to park for the game…

overall, i’d go to the home depot center again (if i didn’t have to drive). we sat right behind the angel city brigade. a ruckus group of fans with elaborate chants… best one was this (sung in the tune of “oh my darling, clementine“):

who’s your father?
who’s your father?
who’s your father, referee?
you don’t have one, you don’t have one
you’re a bastard, referee!

slightly larger panoramic shots here and here

so rob predicted way back when (6/23/10) that the padres would clinch a greater-than-.500 record on 9/9/10 against the giants

it woulda happened too… if it wasn’t for the padres’ 10-game skid… tho even after a 10-game losing streak, the padres held onto first place — can’t say we didn’t give the giants a chance…

it’s been a while since i’ve been a stats nerd, so here we go…

stolen bases

1. mets (122)
2. padres (112)
3. nats (101)
4. rox (87)
5. stros (87)

runs allowed per game (team pitching)

1. padres (3.53)
2. atl (3.81)
3. gigantes (3.85)
4. cards (3.89)
5. mets (4.04)

era (team pitching)

1. padres (3.35)
2. cards (3.51)
3. atl (3.54)
4. gigantes (3.60)
5. phills (3.80)

saves

1. gigantes (49)
2. padres (40)
3. redlegs (38)
4. stros (37)
5. atl (35)

strikeouts

1. gigantes (1133)
2. padres (1117)
3. cubbies (1094)
4. doyers (1079)
5. beers (1065)

shutouts

1. mets (18)
2. phills (17)
3. padres (17)
4. doyers (15)
5. fish (14)

on game 138:

2010: 79-59
2009: 61-77

2010: 593 runs scored, 484 runs allowed
2009: 538 runs scored, 676 runs allowed

Source

Top 5 Padres: Young ($6,375,000), Gonzalez ($4,875,000), Garland ($4,700,000), Bell ($4,000,000), and Correia ($3,600,000)

2010 stats

and how does the national league leader in saves (bell, 23) not get on the roster… but broxton, who is 10th in saves, does (16)?

guess charlie manuel doesn’t care much about winning… arthur rhodes (40 year old lefty specialist), evan meek?

so you might be saying, “damn… joey’s a padres homer”

f off… stats don’t lie…

i’ll even give props to another snubbed player, pelfrey (10-2, 2.93 era, 1.29 whip) — happy?

</statswhore>

look at that runs against total — pitching has been HUGE this year… which has equated to national league-tying best record (atl)

padres leading the majors in the following categories:

• shutouts (12)
• era (3.06)
• strikeouts (639)
• opponents batting avg (.234)
• opponents on-base percentage (.302)
• opponents slugging avg (.353)
• team whip (1.21)

clearly, the starters and especially the bullpen (“the pen-itentiary“) are killin’ it… adams and gregerson lead the majors in holds (21, 19) and bell leads the majors in saves (23)

offense, however, needs to pick things up

• 26th overall – batting avg (.246) | adrian (.295)
• 25th overall – homeruns (58) | adrian (16)
• 22nd overall – rbi (322) | adrian (51)
• 24th overall – hits (676) | adrian (86)

so obviously the padres are in the race… and a bat needs to be brought in… but who do you trade for a solid bat?

…i’m okay with mujica getting moved…

oh btw, i love stats…

the stealing has kinda slowed down, but 2nd place (4th in league) in the nl in steals ain’t bad…

as of 6/23

stolen bases:

1. tampa bay (79)
2. ny mets (72)
3. chi sox (68)
4. san diego (64)
5. seattle (59)

overall era:

1. san diego (3.04)
2. st. louis (3.20)
3. san fran (3.28)
4. tampa bay (3.55)
5. colorado (3.61)

bullpen batting avg against:

1. san fran (.230)
2. san diego (.233)
3. texas (.240)
4. tampa bay (.242)
5. ny yankees (.243)

shutouts:

1. san diego (9)
2. ny mets (9)
3. colorado (9)
4. oakland (7)
5. san fran (6)

strikeouts

1. san diego (551)
2. los angeles (548)
3. san fran (540)
4. toronto (538)
5. milwaukee (538)

it’s funny too — they don’t do anything that causes waves in the league… no guns, no drugs, etc… just playing some solid baseball

that’s why it’s comical to see blog posts like these:

• dodgers need to put an end to the padres’ pixie-dust routine
• dodgers web doings: padres actually have believers

btw, that’s just an awesome slug: all-you-padres-fans-who-have-your-panties-in-snit-because-i-wrote-earlier-that-im-far-from-a-believer-take-heartyahoo-sp

i know it’s WAAAAY early in the baseball season, but this has been pretty damned exciting!

padres are being very un-padres like…

as of 5/13

stolen bases:

1. san diego (44)
2. chi sox (40)
3. texas (37)
4. ny mets (33)
5. tampa bay (33)

wins:

1. tampa bay (24)
2. minnesota (22)
3. ny yankees (22)
4. san diego (22)
5. detroit (20)

overall era:

1. san diego (2.61)
2. st. louis (2.74)
3. tampa bay (2.78)
4. san fran (3.04)
5. minnesota (3.51)

bullpen batting avg against:

1. san diego (.191)
2. ny mets (.214)
3. ny yankees (.218)
4. atlanta (.219)
5. detroit (.221)

shutouts:

1. san diego (8)
2. philadelphia (5)
3. minnesota (4)
4. oakland (4)
5. ny mets (4)

crazy packed (photo by geoff)

so dave, geoff, and i arrived at the ballpark and was greeted with two crazy lines to get into this REALLY small setup (it was right behind the kids’ baseball field)

so ridiculous — i really LOVED the idea of them having a beerfest, especially coincided with the brewers’ visit. however, i think the marketing folks underestimated the number of people who would be at this event.

in one word, it was a clusterf*ck… people were annoyed by how cramped everything was. it was discouraging to see people just cutting in line

we lost dave for a moment, but then i spotted him at the friggin’ anheuser-busch booth… i didn’t get outta work early to drink bud light — f that

i think about 30-45 minutes after we arrived, geoff and i finally got our first beers: “why ? not” american wheat beer by new english brewing co. got two of those each so we could jump into another line and get more.

this next line for green flash was a lot quicker… or was it just the beer that we were pounding? (btw, i really hate drinking beer like that — a microbrew must be enjoyed, not pounded… anyway. got to the front of the line and was the LAST PERSON to get a beer… hop head red ale (got two of these, but like a good friend, i gave one to dave… errr… sold one to dave)

we make our way to the hill at the park at the park and catch a small glimpse of the broken lizard guys (sans jay chandrasekhar aka ramathorn — booooo)

i needed to eat at this point so we go to one of the hot dog spots behind the batter’s eye… as i’m in line, my eye is caught by none other than channel 4′s jenny cavnar. i was caught between getting a hot dog and taking a picture with her… what did i end up doing? well… if you follow my twitter account, you’ll know that i didn’t get the picture — missed opportunties!

tho i did get this pic at least:

bastard gave me fleas!

in all… they can only go up from here… maybe reserve a bigger area for the lushes and have the breweries bring enough for the two hour event

the plus sides: i got my swarm badge and the padres won with a bell save… keep it rollin’!

it’s strange watching this team… they’re doing things that are very un-padres like (especially looking at season’s past): picking off players (tied for first in the NL: 9) and stealing bases (tied for first in the NL: 23)

it all makes for a fun and exciting season

it’s always nice seeing a fangraph like this:

padres win probability for 4/29

tomorrow is clayton richard v. dave “angry” bush… i’ll be there — gonna get the shrek poster printed out so hopefully he starts. oh yea, and tomorrow is beerfest… i dunno how padres marketing managed it, but they got the broken lizard guys to appear.

…i will be asking for zj’s and liters of cola…

oh yea… i get a semi when i see this too:

nl west best, dodgers suckin' ass

and if you’re keeping track, the padres magic number is 141… ha!

Padres are tied for first

yea yea… i know it’s suuuper early to be looking at this sorta thing… but c’mon! they’ve been playing well lately.

it’s nice to see that they’re keeping up their mission of being aggressive on the bases… pitching’s been pretty solid as of late too…

scott says, "better out than in, i always say!"

andy and i will be at the ballpark today… andy’s got his sign and i need to get a mini broom… SWEEP IT, FATHERS!

keep it up, padres… i got $50 on the line