Busy day for the Padres, as they have apparently signed Wily Mo Pena to a minor league deal, along with the aforementioned extension of manager Bud Black’s contract.

Pena hasn’t played in the majors since 2008 with the Nationals, where he hit .205/.243/.267. He does have a respectable career line of .253/.307/.447. Pena, amazingly, is still just 28 years old, and he’s spent this season playing for the Bridgeport Bluefish.

Pena is your typical shot in the dark acquisition; low risk, (likely) low reward. There’s always a chance, however, that he catches fire with new major league life, and contributes something down the stretch. I watched Pena play in 2006 for Boston, and he was, at the time, best described as a raw talent. When he got a hold of one, he could hit it as hard as anyone, but that didn’t happen all that often.

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MLB Trade Rumors also reports that the Pads are interested in Miguel Tejada, Orioles third basemen.

Pass.

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My second article at The Hardball Times is up; it’s on the Cliff Lee-Justin Smoak deal. Check it out!

The San Diego Padres announced that they’ve extended Bud Black’s contract through 2013, with options for 2014 and 2015.

I’ve always been sort of an agnostic toward the value of managers, but it’s tough to quibble with this move, as Black gets everything out of his teams, often outperforming expectations. This year is a perfect example, as the projected bottom-feeder Padres sit atop the National League.

Much deserved congrats go out to Buddy for the job he’s done, and to the Padres for having the sense to keep him around.

Shameless self-promotion out of the way first.

You can purchase the 2010 San Diego Padres Trade Deadline Primer for $9.95. I contributed the Padres chapter, and the e-book includes commentary on every team from some of the best bloggers on the net. Check it out!

In case you missed it, I’m writing a The Hardball Times, and on Monday I took a look at our own Luke Gregerson and how he’s found success in the Padres bullpen. I also posted a short piece on THT Live about this week’s Braves-Blue Jays trade. You should see an article up at THT from yours truly every Monday.

Finally, I’ve started a blog on Tumblr as both a place to catalogue my online writing and to share my (longer than twitter, shorter than full-length article) thoughts on baseball. Also, you can always follow me on Twitter.

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I tuned in an inning too late to catch Simon Castro pitch in the Futures Game, but apparently he wasn’t at his best. Jeremy Greenhouse commented on his stuff at The Baseball Analysts:

Simon Castro has a good enough slider, but his fastball lacked luster. A 91-MPH tailing fastball will get hit in the Majors, so he’ll need to cut down on his walk rate. He pitches with very little separation between his fastball and his change.

The Padres placed Mat Latos on the DL, and the whole process has caused some controversy.

Geoff Young created a Padres all-star team out of short (5-9 and under) players. Not pretty.

Tom Krasovic talks about the Padres potentially have insurance on Chris Young’s contract, amongst other things.

Colin Wyers has a thoughtful piece on fielding metrics at Baseball Prospectus. Mike Fast responds at THT.

Beyond the Boxscore discusses the Yunel Escobar trade and the Padres excellent bullpen.

Baseball America’s Jim Callis on the Padres third round selection Zack Cates:

No. 79 on our overall Top 200. Have to read your reports at baseballamerica.com so you can get info like this:

Undrafted out of an Arkansas high school in 2008 and bypassed again at Northeast Texas CC last year, Cates won’t be overlooked a third time. He spent most of his freshman season as a catcher, standing out for his strong arm and working just seven innings on the mound. A strong fall as a pitcher landed him on follow lists, and he has steadily risen up draft boards this spring. His fastball ranges from 90-93 mph to 95-97, and there should be more consistent velocity in his 6-foot-3, 195-pound frame. For an inexperienced pitcher, he has a relatively advanced changeup, which grades out as a better pitch than his curveball. His curve does have its moments, and he could have an easy plus fastball with two solid secondary pitches once he develops. His command and control still need work, but neither is a red flag. He’s a tough competitor. Cates hasn’t committed to a four-year school for 2010 and should be signable.

PNR Scouting rated Cates at 80 on their top 300 draft board.

The first round of the MLB draft is today at 4 PM PST on MLB Network. The San Diego Padres pick ninth and have been connected with quite a few prospects, namely Kolbrin Vitek and Michael Choice.

We’ve already discussed why the draft is so important for teams, especially the Padres. Last year after the draft we reviewed the Padres draft strategy, since 2006

With a new regime in place – Jed Hoyer, Jason McLeod, Jaron Madison, etc. – it does not make a lot of sense looking at the Padres past drafts to assess what they are going to do this year. What is more important is the track records of the new guys in charge and their philosophies on the draft.

Anyway, use this thread to discuss anything draft related throughout the day. Please feel free to jump into the discussion. We’ll have full coverage of the Padres first round selection, as well as some of the picks tomorrow.

Here are a few links:

Kevin Goldstein will be chatting throughout the draft at Baseball Prospectus.

Friarhood has some nice profiles on a lot of the first round prospects.

Baseball America, MLB Bonus Baby, and Minor League Ball are great sources for draft coverage.

I haven’t done one of these in a while, and figured it was about time. If you’re wondering why my post rate has crept above replacement level recently, well, school is out, my baseball season is over, and I have a lot more time to think and write about Padres baseball. Secondly, I recently had minor surgery and thus my outdoor activities have been limited of late. I used to leave the basement at least once a day.  Hopefully, that at least provides a somewhat legitimate excuse for fiddling with PITCHf/x data on a Friday night. Hopefully.

The Padres are 29-20. Frankly, it is still somewhat hard for me to wrap my head around (I know, it shouldn’t be!) And it is not that I think this is a terrible team; no way. It’s just that I didn’t envision the best record in the NL after the month of May, even if things went really well.

The great thing is not only are the Padres playing well by wins and losses, their run differential is also tremendous at +41. Baseball Prospectus’s third order adjusted standings have them at 28-20 (not considering tonight’s win), still best in the NL. BP’s updated playoff odds report: 58% playoffs (basic), 31% (PECOTA-adjusted).

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Discovered some new Padres blogs recently – Padres Trail, Chicken Friars, Woe, Doctor. All worth checking out. If there are any others, let us know in the comments.

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Mike Lee posted an interview with Padres GM Jed Hoyer recently on FanGraphs’ Community Research Blog (a great idea, by the way). We are in good hands with Hoyer.

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Andy Seiler has a good discussion of second base draft prospects at his MLB Bonus Baby blog. That includes rumored Padres first round selection, Kolbrin Vitek:

Vitek’s tools are the most well-rounded of the second baseman group. He’s an above-average hitter with above-average raw power, and he’s a plus straight-line runner. While his hands and footwork at second base leave something to be desired, his quickness allows him to have adequate range to handle the position well.

Andy thinks he will move to third base or centerfield, long-term.

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MLG has a long primer on UZR at FanGraphs. I’ll admit, I don’t even think I’ve read it all yet. But it is worth a look if you’re interested in the inner-workings of the system.

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I’ve been surprised by the negatively surrounding new Padres play-by-play announcer Dick Enberg, evidenced at Gaslamp Ball, RJ’s Fro, and Avenging Jack Murphy. Unfortunately, I don’t (yet) have MLB Extra Innings, so I really haven’t heard much of Enberg. As far as I can tell, the main complaints are:

1. He isn’t biased. He uses his home run call, “touch em all”, when the opponent hits a home run, and he just generally does not seem to be rooting for the Padres and against the other team. There’s a fine line, I think. I don’t want my announcer to be complete homers like the White Sox’s, but you definitely want some bias, and you definitely want to hear some agony, reflecting that of the fan base, after a crushing late inning home run by the opposition.

2. He doesn’t seem overly familiar with the team/city/organization. This is a problem, I think, when you bring in a national announcer like Enberg. I really want my announcer to know the team inside-out, and that is tough to do on the fly.

3. He messes up names, miscalls plays, etc. This I can deal with, if it doesn’t happen at a horrible rate.

I’ve always liked Enberg as an announcer, though I actually don’t know if I’ve heard him call a baseball game. He does have a “big game feel” to him, as I’ve heard some people say, probably because of his voice and the fact that he’s announced so many big games. As far as his early tenure as the Padres announcer, it is obviously hard for me to judge, but it does not seem to be off to a great start.

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Geoff Young recently examined the Padres great start at The Hardball Times, concluding:

Even if the Padres cannot maintain their current pace (.591 WPct, or about 96 wins), they certainly appear to be better than the 75 wins I figured they’d notch this year. How much better will be a function of how far the pitchers regress. They got awfully high in two months. Four months is plenty of time to take a big fall.

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Also at THT, Nick Steiner takes an in-depth look at Braves starter Tommy Hanson. He uses PITCHf/x data to create similarity scores, which is pretty neat. Overall, a lot of good ideas about the future of projecting players.

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At The Sacrifice Bunt, Ray runs down some of the rather unattractive bats the Padres could potentially add.

The week 2 power rankings are up at Yardbarker.  This was how I rated the NL West teams (Yardbarker rank in parentheses), along with my comments:

7. Colorado Rockies (9)-Jimenez’s no-hitter should help him get the recognition he deserves. He is a fantastic young pitcher.

9. Los Angeles Dodgers (14)-Aside from Kuroda, the starting pitching has struggled mightily. Billingsley and Kershaw are too talented for those struggles to continue much longer.

10. San Francisco Giants (6)-The pitching has been phenomenal, but the Giants are amongst the league leaders in runs scored as well.

21. San Diego Padres (24)-Chase Headley is showing why he was once the Padres’ top prospect. Kevin Correia is doing a good job proving his solid 2009 was no fluke.

22. Arizona Diamondbacks (16)-After a number of disappointing seasons, Chris Young is off to a solid start.

Here are some additional notes on the rankings:

• I may have overcompensated for the Giants hot start.  I think I will have them ranked lower than 10 next week.  That their average rank was 6 is still shocking to me.
• The Boston Red Sox fell to 13 in the Yardbarker rankings.  I had the Red Sox rated fourth this week.  As Joe Sheehan mentioned on Twitter: “1) A 4-9 stretch isn’t unusual for even a good team. 2) The Red Sox have played an above-average schedule to start the season.”  To the voters who ranked the Red Sox so low, I ask them whether they truly believe teams like the Giants, A’s, Marlins, Tigers, and Blue Jays are likely to defeat the Red Sox in a 7 game series if it started today.
• The New York Mets are not the third worst team in the majors.  I had them ranked 17th, and feel anything between 15 and 20 is fair.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates are not the 15th best team in the majors.  Their negative 22 run differential (yes, I realize its early to be talking about run differential) is more telling than their 7-5 record.

by Daniel Gettinger

Each week this season, Yardbarker is going to release its MLB Power Rankings.  The rankings will be determined by six bloggers, each of whom is supposedly an expert in a division.  This year, I am responsible for commenting on the NL West teams.  I also rank each of the teams, and my rankings account for one sixth of the total score.

While the week 1 rankings can be found on the site, here were my comments about each of the NL West teams:

San Francisco Giants: Off to a great start, but still susceptible to a Lincecum or Cain injury.

Colorado Rockies: Tulowitzki is amongst the best players in the majors. The pitchers throw heat.

Los Angeles Dodgers: There is no need to worry about their slow start.

Arizona Diamondbacks: The D-Backs are an exciting team to watch. Justin Upton is MLB’s next star.

San Diego Padres: The Padres are not a great team, but they could surprise some people by playing respectable ball this season.

I typically do not like Power Rankings, as they often merely reflect win/loss records rather than actual talent. However, I do feel the comments can be useful, especially if they are provided by people who closely follow the teams they are commenting on.  I am hopeful that the other bloggers who vote on these power rankings will be able to shield themselves from any possible win/loss bias, thus resulting in purer rankings than found on other sites.

by Daniel Gettinger

The San Diego Padres begin a four game series with the Braves today.  In anticipation of the series, I answered a few questions for Scott Humphries of the Atlanta Braves blog Tomahawk Talk.  Some of the questions dealt with the Padres, and some were more Braves focused.  You can read the entire interview on Tomahawk Talk, but here is a quick excerpt:

Tomahawk Talk: The Padres are currently scheduled to face three of the Braves’ best starting pitchers (Jair Jurrjens, Tommy Hanson, and Tim Hudson) in this week’s series. What are your thoughts on those guys?

Daniel Gettinger: Tommy Hanson is fantastic. He dominated at every level in the minors, had a great rookie season, and projects to be just as good this season. And I like Tim Hudson as well. His problem has never been effectiveness, it’s been staying healthy. I’m not quite as bullish on Jurrjens, but at the very least, he is an above average starting pitcher. Given his major league service time, a player like Jurrjens is extremely valuable to a team.

Tomahawk Talk: What are your initial thoughts/impressions of this year’s Braves team?

Daniel Gettinger: The Braves should be very good in 2010. The starting pitching is fantastic, and the bats are pretty solid as well. The key for the Braves will be staying healthy. Chipper Jones, Troy Glaus, Tim Hudson, and Billy Wagner have all struggled to stay off the DL in recent years and are being heavily relied upon by the Braves.

by Daniel Gettinger

Read this post by MGL AND the corresponding comments.  Fascinating stuff.