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Say hey, baseball: Padres adding to All-Star offseason
Tuesday morning’s baseball talks All-Star Game in San Diego, the Hall of Fame, and more Max Scherzer.
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The Padres traded for two-time All-Star Matt Kemp. They dealt for Wil Myers, who is the kind of potential cornerstone piece that could represent San Diego in the All-Star Game for years. They brought in All-Star catcher Derek Norris, and are reportedly talking about bringing in three-time All-Star starter Cole Hamels to lead their rotation. It’s been a very All-Star offseason for the Padres, who don’t always get to send the most exciting players to the midsummer classic given they don’t always have exciting players, but it’s not over just yet. It turns out that, with the Orioles losing their chance to host the 2016 All-Star Game, the Padres and Petco Park are now the leaders for that honor.
The official announcement isn’t coming until January, but it’s something of an overdue coup for San Diego. Petco Park opened back in 2004, and while it’s hosted concerts, the World Baseball Classic, television filming, parts of the Comic Con experience, and more, it’s never hosted an All-Star Game. It’s a shame, too, as it’s a beautiful park, and the one knock on it for entertainment purposes is a non-issue for an All-Star Game scheduled on east coast time. Petco hinders offense, but it’s more of a problem at night, when the coast cools considerably and gives pitchers an advantage. A Home Run Derby starting at 8 pm eastern but 5 pm pacific time won’t run into that snafu, hopefully allowing Baseball to avoid another Target Field disaster.
And hey, at this point, you can safely assume the Padres will be able to send quite a few of their own players to the game, which hasn’t been the case for far too long.
- That’s not the only intriguing Padres news out there at the moment, though: there is also a rumor going around that they are going to add some color back into their boring uniforms. It’s not brown, but it is red, the original Padres’ color. So long as it isn’t more blue or gray.
- The Angels improved their bullpen in 2014, but 2015 is a whole new year, and they are right back to having problems.
- The Pirates’ payroll is increasing, but it could stand to increase with a little more speed.
- The Yankees reportedly aren’t in on Max Scherzer, but that just means they should be in on a Jordan Zimmermann trade.
- The Red Sox aren’t in on Max Scherzer, either, how matter how many times you see people saying they’re a fit.
- What were the 10 biggest plays of the 2014 season, as measured by changes in win probability?
- Michael Wacha’s shoulder limited him in 2014, but what about in 2015 when the Cardinals will need him to, ahem, shoulder the load?
- Speaking of injured pitchers, never forget how awesome Brandon Webb was, and how sad seeing his name makes me.
- Dan Uggla was awful in 2014, but maybe it wasn’t his fault! Here are other Giants who were terrible but not to blame for their performance.
- When you can make a convincing argument for 18 players for Cooperstown inclusion from one Hall of Fame ballot, the ballots are much too small. Maybe there’s a strategic way to vote without causing any long-term damage. Or maybe you want to read about the historical practices of the Hall through the lens of Nietzsche.
- Ruben Amaro sounds like the most significant impediment to Cole Hamels being traded to the Red Sox. That makes sense, both in complimentary and accusatory senses.
- The Giants should trade for Shane Victorin even if it will make their fans incessantly dry heave.
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