Time Away to Get it figured out

The title could easily be talking about me, as its been several weeks since I have posted. However, tonight's posting is regarding the news that Padres catcher Nick Hundley has been optioned to AAA.  Honestly, there should only be one reason that such a move comes as a surprise. That is you might be surprised Hundley still had options.  Baseball people that I've asked have told me he's out of options, so I have been waiting for that "injury" so Hundley could get things worked out.  Let's face it. He's hitting worse than 1 for 6.  For a starting catcher with a new $9 million extension, that's just not cutting it.  I want to make one thing clear. I do like Nick Hundley as a catcher and thought he was worthy of the extension that he signed. I truly hope and believe he will get his offensive woes worked out. As Bob Scanlan addressed in his blogpost about this news earlier tonight, Hundley is at a point where its simply not helpful to him or the team to contine to play at this level.  


I've heard the argument that Hundley's defense makes him the best catcher on the Padres. I agree that Hundley's defense has been superb.  Unfortunately, his offense is soooo bad~How bad is it? It's so bad that it completely wipes out any defensive advantage he has.  I believe Hundley has much more talent than Baker.  However, this year, Baker has been ...average.  Not terrible. Average. What one would expect from a backup catcher.  But when your backup catcher is outplaying your starting catcher, and make no mistake, he IS outplaying Hundley, it's not a good thing.  Don't believe me that Baker has outplayed Hundley? Let's just compare the stats, courtesy of fangraphs.  Hundley has been 3.9 Runs BELOW replacement as a catcher, which lands him dead last among all major league catchers. All of them. Every single one.  Including Baker, since you can't be worse than last, but if you need to see it, fine Baker is 3.0 Runs ABOVE Replacement level, or average.  


If you're still believing that Hundley should not have been sent down, I really have no idea what else to tell you. I can point to the several metrics that show his lack of offense is completely dismantling his defense. I can point to the stats that show his plate discipline is the worst it has been in his career, and his swinging strike percentage is significantly higher than in the past.  This is a guy that's completely lost at the plate, and his defense can't keep him afloat.  But he has the talent. So lets welcome Yazmani Grandal, and wish Mr. Hundley the best of luck and hope he finds his bat, and soon.  And let his play actually show he's truly a better player, not just what we may hope and believe to be to be the case against all evidence. 

Bouncing Back

Dale Scott may have contributed to the Padres loss Sunday to the Dodgers, but they didn't let it keep them down. The Padres came into Denver to face the Rockies. The forecast at one time called for snow, and many may have expected the results of the weekend to snowball for the Padres.  It became clear that the only snowballing going on would be the offense as they smacked 7 doubles amongst their 14 hits enroute to a 7-1 win over the Rockies. Chase Headley led the way with 3 doubles, and Nick Hundley had 3 hits, and 3 RBI.  The only Friar batters not to collect a hit were Jeremy Hermida (whom according to Bud Black hit the ball "on the nose" but at people) and Cory Luebke, who still reached on an error , and knocked in a run almost had an RBI to help his winning effort (the initial scoring was an RBI. It apparently was later changed to know RBI

The offense was great and combined with clean defense (no errors!) and solid pitching, this was by far the best played game of the young season.  Luebke pitched 7 innings, scattering 7 hits and gave up just one run, showing signs of being the true ace of the staff, and worthiness of his spring training contract extension. Andrew Cashner came in the game in the 8th inning , and after giving up a walk and a hit, settled down and got out of the inning, before Micah Owings closed out the game with 9 pitches, 8 of them for strikes while collecting 2 strikeouts.  A solid performance all around from a team looking for them.