Let's Baseball!
Cactus League play opens TOMORROW
Hello from Peoria!
It’s been a wonderful week or so here in the desert, and the real fun is about to begin. Tomorrow at 12:10pt, the Padres will open up exhibition play with Joe Musgrove on the mound against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sounds like fun to me! We’ll have the broadcast for you on 97.3FM The Fan (and the Audacy app in market and the MLB app everywhere) starting at noon and hope you’ll be able to join us.
Baseball Stuff
The biggest news of the week here was certainly Mike Shildt’s announcement on Friday that Xander Bogaerts was going to slide over to second base and that Ha-Seong Kim would be pencilled in as the team’s every day shortstop.
While things are (as always), subject to change, this qualifies as a pretty big deal, especially to Bogaerts, who has been one of the most productive SS’s in the game the last decade or so.
Xander, to his credit, said all the right things when asked about it this week. Understands it’s a team game, wants to do what’s best for the club, etc. But I think it’s important that we not let the reality of it not being an easy or automatic thing for a guy of his caliber and accomplishment to do sink in a bit. Not to say he shouldn’t, but just that I think it’s important he gets credit for handling it the way he has. To spin it forward, as he said this week, hey…not a lot of second baseman out there can hit fourth.
Other random observations from the fields this week…
Catching prospect Ethan Salas looked like a teenager last Spring. And understandably. He was, literally, a teenager. This year, he still is. Yet at 17 he looks like a man among men. He also hits the ball very, very hard. I try to avoid sounding like a scout—it’s just not my area of expertise—but I feel comfortable in saying I certainly get what the scouts are so excited about. To say the least. Also, in case the 17 years old thing didn’t fully sink in, try it this way: Salas was born in 2006.
Shildt’s media sessions each morning have been really enjoyable. With all his years in the game, Mike seems to fully recognize the roles that everyone plays, including reporters and broadcasters. This has made our daily chats with him that much more productive. When I asked him on Monday about his overall philosophy when it comes to giving guys days off during the season, he quipped that he could do 45 minutes on the topic and then proceeded to spend a tremendous amount of time passionately diving into one of those topics that’s fairly under-the-radar for most people, but to those of us who like to dork out about baseball, is a really big one. I’m sure it’s a topic Tony and I will get into with some regularity this year.
One of the most interesting things to me about Spring Training games is that they can be really challenging to evaluate in terms of raw numbers. Like, looking back on March 30th and seeing a guy hit .365 in Cactus League play could be a great sign or it could mean nothing at all, or really anything in between. And this year, with some real competition for roster spots—and in some cases starting spots—the Padres are in a position where they’ll have to really be keying in on Spring performance. Not to suggest that it’ll be as simple as looking at the stat sheet, but seeing how certain guys perform against certain levels of competition will be a key thing to pay attention to.
No need to fire up the AccuJesse5000 to know that the weather here this year is wildly different than Spring Training, 2023. As was the case in San Diego a year ago, they had a long, cold, wet winter here in the valley. And I don’t know that we ever came close to hitting 80-degrees the entire time we were here. Well, it was 80 earlier this week and while it’s cooled off a touch today, it definitely seems to be back to “normal” Spring Training weather. Just FYI if you’re planning a trip!
Cactus League Ballparks Ranked, Pt. 1
Speaking of planning trips, I figured with many new subscribers, I would run back my ranking of Cactus League ballparks from last year.
Note: This is all based on my own criteria, which I am making up and altering on the fly. These are my opinions, they don’t have to be yours. I am not ranking the Peoria Sports Complex, which is home to the Padres and Mariners. I love it and it feels like home. This is more for your road trip planning purposes. Also, there aren’t any Cactus League stadiums I don’t like—it should really go without saying that they’re all delightful places to watch baseball.
9: Camelback Ranch-Glendale (White Sox & Dodgers): Before you get too excited and think this is just about me dunking on the Dodgers…it isn’t. For starters, I believe they built the place backwards, so that the sun is in your eyes for day games during the Spring. The legend is that Jamie McCourt wanted it that way for the mountain views. No idea if that’s true or not. To me it also feels like the least intimate of all the ballparks in the Cactus League. Just sort of sprawled out. Really good broadcast booths, though. While that’s nice for me, it does nothing for you. The other positive, for our purposes, is that it’s an easy drive down the 101 from Peoria.
8: Tempe Diablo Stadium (Angels): The oldest (1968) and I think smallest venue in the league, it’s a quirky little place nestled up against I-10 near the airport and ASU. Probably its most defining feature is the butte (fun word to say) up above foul ground beyond left field. It’s a bit of a throwback experience, not unlike Angel Stadium in Anaheim. In fact, as I think about it, they kind of feel like kindred spirits. If you’ve been to the Big A anytime in the last 20 years, it’s as if you’ve been to Tempe Diablo.
7: Goodyear Ballpark (Guardians & Reds): Better known as the “Little Ohio Complex” because of its tenants (it’s true, look it up), this is a nice, little desert oasis. A bit off the beaten path, it’s still plenty accessible, especially if you’re coming from the Peoria area or anywhere else in the west valley. Like a lot of these ballparks, it was very recently in the middle of nowhere, but the area has built up quite a bit in the last decade or so (this includes what have to be the world’s largest Amazon storehouses). That said, it’s still about as isolated as any of them. Bonus if you’re an aviation geek like me: there’s a creepy old airplane boneyard at the airport next door. Scores of hollowed-out old airliners just baking in the sun.
6: American Family Fields of Phoenix (Brewers): Our radio producer, Dave Marcus, dubbed this place “AMFOP” when they renovated and renamed it a couple of years ago. That tickles me in a big way. Like Peoria, there’s nothing fancy about it, per se, but it’s a wonderful place to watch a game. People often comment about the surrounding neighborhood—it’s not the best—but that doesn’t detract, as far as I’m concerned. Centrally located, so whichever side of the valley you’re coming from, not too tough to reach.
5: Surprise Stadium (Rangers & Royals): This place qualifies as something of a hidden gem as it doesn’t get talked about a ton, but it’s a really well-maintained and modern-feeling ballpark. It feels new, though there aren’t a ton of bells and whistles like some of the other newer places—and in a way, that just adds to its charm. I would say it has the feel of a super-nice AA ballpark. As an added bonus, it’s an easy trip west on Bell Rd. from the Peoria Sports Complex.
Part 2 to come next time!
Patches!
ICYMI, the Padres are wearing a memorial patch for owner Peter Seidler this year, as well as a sleeve patch on their home uniforms commemorating the 20th anniversary of Petco Park.
I snapped a couple of pictures this week and shared on social media, so here ya go:
Spring Training Downtime
I probably watch more Netflix, etc. during Spring Training than I do the other 10.5 months of the year. Early mornings and many day games generally means quiet nights, so I catch up on stuff before falling asleep with my iPad in my lap.
This week, I started the new AppleTV series about the New England Patriots dynasty and while that’s not really relevant to us at all, it did offer up a great picture of Tom Brady in his high school uniform:
Betcha didn’t know Brady was ever a Padre. Tom prepped at Juniper Serra HS in San Mateo and as you may know, was a pretty good baseball player, too. So here’s one in his HS baseball uniform, which looks like it was modeled after the PCL days. Great stuff.
Q&A
I’ve been bad about doing Q&A stuff the last couple of newsletters, but am committed to getting back to it at some point soon. So please fire away.
Notes!
As I’ve alluded to on many occasions in the now year-plus history of this newsletter, I enjoy the prep for our broadcasts almost as much as I enjoy the games themselves. And this time of year, there’s much prep to do, as I sort of lay the ground work for the entire season during Spring Training.
One of my favorite notes I recently gathered involved catcher Luis Campusano, who seems primed for a big year in 2024.
After missing a huge chunk of last season with a thumb injury and surgery, Campy came back in mid-July and pretty quickly asserted himself. In fact, while playing just 49 games last year, he had a pair of four-hit games. You know who else had a pair of four-hit games last year? Juan Soto. Ya know, the generational talent who played in all 162 games. In fact, the only Padre with three four-hit games was Bogaerts, who played in 155 games.
Quite an accomplishment for the young backstop. Very excited to see much more of him this coming season.
Final Programming Reminder!
Just one last nudge to remind you that Tony and Jesse are back at it. Hope you’ll join us whenever you can this Spring. First broadcast is on the radio tomorrow (Thurs) at 12:10pt vs LAD. Can. Not. Wait.
-ja