Coaching Staff Set, Another Bullpen Arm, World Series Trivia Answer & More
A newsy Wednesday in Padre Land
The ‘Pen is Mightier
Less than two weeks after signing Japanese closer Yuki Matsui, the Padres inked Korean closer Woo-Suk Go (pronounced OOO-suck-go, I believe) on Wednesday, continuing to fortify what has to now be the most fascinating bullpen in baseball.
One of the baseball cliches that I most believe in is that you can never have enough pitching (starting or relieving) and it’s been neat watching AJ Preller and his staff assemble the group that he has.
Matsui, as we noted in the last newsletter, led the Pacific League in saves in 2019, 2022 and 2023. Go, meanwhile, has more saves than anyone else in the KBO since 2019 and helped his team, the LG Twins, to their first KBO title in 29 years in 2023.
Go had some injury issues this past season (and was unable to throw in the WBC because of them), but was there for his team down the stretch. In 2022, while fully healthy, he paired a 1.48era with a league-leading 42 saves.
Go is also married to the younger sister of Jung-Ho Lee, who signed with the Giants this winter, which should make for some neat showdowns in the NL West this year.
Lastly, looking up and down the California coast right now, it’s pretty awesome to see the amount of Korean and Japanese talent that the Padres, Dodgers and Giants have accumulated. As a broadcaster, I love storylines, and this is a really neat one.
Coaching Staff Set
Prior to announcing that signing on Wednesday, the Padres also released Mike Shildt’s coaching staff for the 2024 season. If you missed that, here’s the cheat sheet (I’ve put an asterisk next to the new additions):
Ruben Niebla – Pitching Coach
Ben Fritz – Bullpen Coach
*Tim Leiper – Third Base Coach, Infield & Base Running Instructor
David Macias – First Base Coach, Outfield & Base Running Instructor
*Victor Rodriguez – Hitting Coach
*Mike McCoy – Assistant Hitting Coach
*Pat O’Sullivan – Assistant Hitting Coach
Brian Esposito – Catching Coach & Game Strategy Assistant
*Ryan Barba – Major League Field Coordinator
Peter Summerville – Game Planning & Coaching Assistant
Heberto Andrade – Bullpen Catcher & Coaching Assistant
Morgan Burkhart – Major League Coaching Assistant
So by my count, that’s five new coaches and seven who return. Of the five, only two (Leiper and Rodriguez) come from outside the organization.
It seems like a really great mix of skillsets and personalities and I think there’s a lot to be said for McCoy (not that one) and O’Sullivan having worked with so many minor league hitters in the organization the last few years.
Looking forward to getting to know the new guys for sure, and to continue to develop relationships with the others. It’s hard to overstate how hard these guys work and the time and effort they put into their jobs. Ultimate respect for all of them.
Two other quick notes: first, as you may have noticed, no one has the title of bench coach. On a Zoom with reporters Wednesday, Shildt said that Barba would handle a lot of the planning/administrative stuff that bench coaches generally do. But if/when (when lol) Shildt gets ejected from a game, Esposito and Niebla will sort of split the responsibility of managing the team, one focused more on the hitting stuff and the other on the pitching.
The other neat thing, I think, is that Shildt has known Rodriguez since he (Shildt) was 12 years old. That’s…wild. Mike’s late mother, Lib, worked for the Charlotte O’s (Baltimore’s Double-A affiliate at the time) and Rodriguez was coming up through their system. When they say baseball is a small world, they really mean it.
Tying Up a Loose End
A couple of newsletters ago, I mentioned that the last time the World Series was won in back-to-back years by a team that had never won one before was 2001/02 (D-backs and Angels). This is obviously relevant to us with the Rangers having won in 2023 and the Padres trying to do so in 2024.
I wondered aloud how often that had happened in World Series history, accounting for the obvious times at the beginning of the World Series era. Thanks to the Padres PR staff and our friends at the Elias Sports Bureau, I have an answer, and it’s pretty wild.
Prior to the Arizona/Anaheim wins at the start of this century, it had been since 1923/24 (!) that the Series was won in consecutive seasons by a team that had never won it before. 1923, for the record, was the FIRST of the Yankees 27 titles (Washington won in ‘24).
I used to think my favorite World Series nugget of this variety was that the first Series between two expansion teams didn’t occur until 2015 (Royals over Mets), but this one may take the cake.
Either way, thanks to PR, JP and Elias. Great stuff. 100 years later maybe the Pads can make it happen again.
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Salute to UniWatch
If you’re a regular listener to our broadcasts you’ve very likely heard me obsess, at some point, about some minor detail involving a uniform or a logo. Be it the Tigers’ unique belt loops or a rundown of the latest City Connect designs, my obsession with what have become known as “athletics aesthetics” runs deep. Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by all things uniform/logo/etc.
That brings us to the man who coined that delightful term: Paul Lukas.
For the last (almost) 25 years, Paul has made a profession out of writing about all of these things with journalistic sincerity and discipline.
I first stumbled upon his work in The Village Voice on a random trip to New York either late in high school or early college. Someone very wise hired him to write for ESPN.com shortly thereafter and a couple of years later the indispensable UniWatch blog was first published.
When I tell you that his work changed my life, it probably sounds melodramatic. But it did. It was one of those all-too-rare “aha!” moments we run into over the course of our lives. Here was someone who not only gets it, but is able to report on it, write about it, articulate it and obsess over it in a way I thought no person was capable of.
The community of readers and contributors that grew from Paul’s soil further cemented a sense of belonging in this quirky little corner of the sports world.
The work he has done in the last quarter century is remarkable and this week, he announced that he would be hanging up his uniform magnifying glass for good this coming May.
Paul wrote a lovely explanation about his decision (that contains some life lessons for all of us, probably) and I appreciate you all indulging me on this topic.
Thank you to Paul (who does indeed subscribe to this little newsletter) for your tireless dedication to the beat and for truly bringing the coverage of uniforms and logos from the shadows and into a place where all who want to see it can do so.
You’re a great egg and I wish you the very best in this next chapter. Hope to see you when the Pads are in New York this year.
Q&A Reminder
No Q&A this time, but feel free to submit questions for a future newsletter here:
Also open to any feedback you have in terms of what you’d like to see more/less of in the newsletter during the season. I expect we’ll go into overdrive a bit once Spring Training begins.
And that…is that!
Hope your 2024 is off to a great start and let’s talk again soon…
jesse