Quote from Randy Manese on February 27, 2024, 8:49 am

Padres have been patiently waiting for Merrill to grow into his body and get fully healthy, so this may be the year of the breakout.  Great bat to ball skills and awesome makeup/leadership but Padres will be looking for a little more production/fine-tuning at the plate during spring training if they intend to take him to Korea.

Last year was his first at getting his ground ball rate below 50% and it actually improved after the bump to AA (early illness/injury may have caused it to remain "artificially" higher).  If Merrill's LD/GB/FB splits can look more like 33.3% across his plate appearances rather than 25-50-25, they will be very happy.  A tweak to his launch angle to elevate the ball plus fully harnessing his strength for more exit velocity will go along ways towards that and we began to see that last year.

The other thing I believe they will be looking for is his selectivity at the plate, not in terms of chasing pitches out of the zone (which he rarely does) but working the count for more walks.  He's never been over 8.7% in his walk rate and it would be good if he could get at least into the low to mid-teens to be more of an on base threat, given he has decent speed.  This might cause his K rate to rise slightly given the dependence on umpire's eyesight, but Merrill's comments that he believes he "owns the count" shows to me he has the confidence to make that adjustment.  There's room for dramatic growth here and we'll see if he can develop that same kind of patience and eye at the plate that Marsee has.  Even if that K rate creeps up to around 20%, if he gains in the areas of power and selectivity, it will be well worth it.

I'd like him to make those adjustments at San Antonio but if he shows that he already has or is well on his way to making them, then he has a chance to make the team even though we might see him have a slow start out of the gate. Because he was only 5:09 and 150 lbs before his growth spurt entering the 2021 draft, he was very under appreciated as a ball player and he still has that chip on his shoulder at 6:03 and 205 lbs that he can be a major league player and a good one at that.

Pulling for him to be another one of the dynamic young faces in the Padres line-up for many years to come.

 

Quote from 3fingersplit on February 27, 2024, 9:04 am

Damn Randy…that might be one of the best posts I’ve ever seen here on Mad Friars 👍

Quote from LynchMob on February 29, 2024, 11:37 am

Feb. 28: OF Tim Locastro signs Minor League contract

Quote from LynchMob on February 29, 2024, 11:39 am

San Diego Padres

@Padres

We have re-assigned the following players to Minor League camp: RHPs Yovanny Cruz, Kevin Kopps, Lake Bachar, Moises Lugo, Nolan Watson, Drew Carlton, OFs Tirso Ornelas and Robert Perez Jr., C Chandler Seagle and INF Nate Mondou. With today’s moves, we now have 60 players in Major League camp.

Quote from LynchMob on February 29, 2024, 11:41 am

 Pitchers scheduled to appear today for the Padres against the A's:

RHP Pedro Avila

RHP Enyel De Los Santos

RHP Logan Gillaspie

RHP Matt Festa

LHP Adrian Morejon

RHP Woo-Suk Go

RHP Kevin Kopps

Quote from BoosterSD on March 1, 2024, 7:04 am

Did anyone else read the article on the Padres website were AJ Cassavell writes that Crone should bat 3rd this season.

It makes some sense with how RHH heavy we are this season. I looked at his career splits based on spot in the line up, and his best numbers are batting 3rd in the line up.

Cassavell speculates an order starting off with Tatis, Bogaerts, Crone, Machado, Kim.

Thoughts?

Quote from fenn68 on March 1, 2024, 8:35 am

Quote from BoosterSD on March 1, 2024, 7:04 am

Did anyone else read the article on the Padres website were AJ Cassavell writes that Crone should bat 3rd this season.

It makes some sense with how RHH heavy we are this season. I looked at his career splits based on spot in the line up, and his best numbers are batting 3rd in the line up.

Cassavell speculates an order starting off with Tatis, Bogaerts, Crone, Machado, Kim.

Thoughts?

On historical results makes sense ... Croney would need to prove he has not regressed.

If you don't make it about Cronenworth ... the split up the RHH makes sense to help almost all LHH ... so if they show well, what about Merrill or Marsee (they may just out hit Cronenworth) or the illusive add of Rosario (or some unidentified trade add).

With this roster ... v RHP ... a LHH 3rd, 6th, 9th with a mix and match of Cronenworth, Merrill, Marsee?

Quote from MrPadre19 on March 1, 2024, 11:02 am

No way should Tatis be leading off on this team this year.

We have very little power and to have our best power hitter hitting 1st is crazy to me.

IMO it should be:

Kim

Bogaerts

Tatis

Manny

Crone

Campy

 

But I guess I could live with Nando hitting 2nd.

Will be interesting to see how Schildt does his regular season line up

 

 

 

Quote from fenn68 on March 1, 2024, 12:09 pm

Historically we think about an opening day roster and cuts to the final 26 man. However, this year the Korean series may put a wrinkle in that thinking … specifically with pitchers.

Consider the two games in Korea are March 20-21 then 7 days until the stateside opener March 28 (and that could be starting off with Musgrove and Darvish again). Padres don’t need more than two starters in Korea (Musgrove, Darvish). So, could the Padres option one or more of the projected SP and keep extra RP for the Korean series then recall the SP when the real season begins. Buys some extra time to deal the “excess” out of option players that will not make the final roster.

(not sure how the rules will work in this scenario but as I recall players need to be optioned for 10 days before recalled … that fits if they are option before going to Korea)

Would the SP not slated for Korea starts be better served working as SP in additional ST games with at least two more starts and side work in a more stable environment?

Not sure the emotional effect on those pitchers being “left off the team” on the big trip to Korea. Might need some finessing their egos.