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Know Your Foe #31: The Rockies Are Worse Than The Padres

By Andrew Martin
EVEEBUDDY CLAPYOHAN
EVEEBUDDY CLAPYOHAN

I pulled up the standings to begin writing this article, and I truly couldn't believe what I had seen. The only remaining solace I took in the 2012 season, that Colorado wasn't last place in the division. Regardless of how poorly we had to watch the Rockies perform, we could always say that we were having a better season than the Padres. That has changed, and no longer can I hide behind the fact that 4th place is closer to 1st place than is 5th place.

Thing is, the Padres are playing really good baseball the past 30 days - well, respectable at least, as they're 12-12 in that span. What's really interesting about the Padres over that span is that the relative success hasn't been driven by pitching. Their rotation has been good enough - nothing terribly special. Their bullpen has been very good. But the batting - relative to expectations - has been downright good, at a 99 wRC+. Their overall numbers have been somewhat squelched by a large amount of plate appearances going to struggling batters in the forms of Carlos Quentin, Cameron Maybin, Everth Cabrera, and Will Venable. What brings the numbers up, though, is a lot of good hitting from Chase Headley, Yonder Alonso, Logan Forsythe, Chris Denorfia, Yasmani Grandal, and this guy:

Alexi Amarista

#5 / Second Base / San Diego Padres

5-7

150

L

R

Apr 06, 1989

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2012 - Alexi Amarista 47 131 18 39 8 2 4 20 5 15 3 2 .298 .324 .481

Alexi Amarista has been a part of a rare occurrence in baseball: a trade that works out for both teams. On May 3rd, the Angels traded Amarista and Donn Roach to the Padres in exchange for Ernesto Frieri, a very good relief pitcher. Since joining the Angels, Frieri has allowed 3 ER over 27 innings, good for a 1.03 ERA. His peripherals are downright Marmol-esque - 2010 Carlos Marmol, that is. Seriously, folks, keep Frieri on your shortlist of "pitchers to keep an eye on who are really good at baseball".

The flip side of that "worked out for both teams" coin is clearly Amarista. Sporting a .805 OPS while playing half of your games in PetCo Park is nothing to sneeze at, especially from a 2B. While his 124 wRC+ for the season might not be eye-popping enough, his 203 wRC+ over his past 22 games certainly is. That's double the league-average, kids. During that span, Amarista has batted .391/.408/.652 with 4 bombs and 18 RBI. While he has cooled somewhat over the past 2 weeks, he did go 3-for-5 against Houston on Wednesday.

Missing Guthrie in this 3-game series will give the Rockies a good chance of beating the Padres, but we'll need to see Christian Friedrich and Drew Pomeranz shake off their last rough starts. Jeff Francis can beat his 2008 Opening Day counterpart, I have faith in that.

Expected Pitching Matchups:

Friday, July 20, 2012 @ 8:05PM MT

Drew Pomeranz vs Jason Marquis

Saturday, July 21, 2012 @ 6:35PM MT

Jeff Francis vs Kip Wells

Sunday, July 22, 2012 @ 2:05PM MT

Christian Friedrich vs Ross Ohlendorf

Batting

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
Jason Marquis 10 13 1 4 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 .308 .357 .385
Alexi Amarista 47 131 18 39 8 2 4 20 5 15 3 2 .298 .324 .481
Logan Forsythe 32 110 14 32 4 2 2 9 11 21 3 1 .291 .361 .418
Chris Denorfia 77 207 29 60 13 3 3 16 18 29 6 3 .290 .350 .425
Yasmani Grandal 15 52 9 15 2 0 4 7 0 10 0 0 .288 .288 .558
Mark Kotsay 43 80 5 23 4 0 1 7 9 6 0 2 .287 .360 .375
Yonder Alonso 89 312 27 84 23 0 4 30 38 59 3 0 .269 .351 .381
Chase Headley 92 339 45 91 21 1 10 46 51 93 10 4 .268 .366 .425
Carlos Quentin 37 127 18 34 7 0 8 21 19 22 0 0 .268 .394 .512
Jeremy Hermida 13 24 2 6 1 1 0 2 3 7 1 0 .250 .333 .375
Joe Wieland 5 8 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 .250 .250 .375
Will Venable 85 249 33 61 16 3 6 21 23 56 9 6 .245 .319 .406
John Baker 35 108 8 26 6 0 0 9 12 27 2 0 .241 .317 .296
James Darnell 7 17 1 4 1 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 .235 .316 .471
Jesus Guzman 75 189 17 44 14 1 3 27 17 46 3 2 .233 .300 .365
Everth Cabrera 52 168 20 38 10 1 2 12 17 52 17 0 .226 .309 .333
Cameron Maybin 85 307 43 68 10 4 4 26 30 70 17 4 .221 .295 .319
Orlando Hudson 35 123 11 26 0 5 1 11 8 27 3 2 .211 .260 .317
Kyle Blanks 4 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 .200 .333 .200
Andy Parrino 40 92 7 16 4 0 1 3 11 30 1 0 .174 .276 .250
Eric Stults 4 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 .167 .167 .333
Nick Hundley 55 193 14 32 7 1 3 22 14 50 0 3 .166 .225 .259
Anthony Bass 17 28 3 4 0 1 0 5 0 12 1 0 .143 .143 .214
Blake Tekotte 11 15 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 .133 .133 .133
Jason Bartlett 29 83 8 11 5 0 0 4 12 27 0 0 .133 .240 .193
Clayton Richard 22 42 2 5 2 0 0 5 1 25 0 0 .119 .140 .167
Jeff Suppan 8 10 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 .100 .182 .100
Edinson Volquez 19 32 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 14 0 0 .063 .091 .094
Cory Luebke 5 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Ross Ohlendorf 7 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Kip Wells 5 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Andrew Cashner 30 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 .000 .200 .000
Micah Owings 6 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Alex Hinshaw 22 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Tim Stauffer 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Dustin Moseley 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Luke Gregerson 44 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Ernesto Frieri 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Brad Brach 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Nick Vincent 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Miles Mikolas 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Josh Spence 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Dale Thayer 31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Brad Boxberger 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Huston Street 27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Joe Thatcher 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
Matt Palmer 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000

Pitching

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
Huston Street 2-0 27 0 0 0 15 0 25.1 10 3 3 0 8 34 1.07 .71
Brad Boxberger 0-0 5 0 0 0 0 0 6.1 5 2 1 0 7 8 1.42 1.89
Ernesto Frieri 1-0 11 0 0 0 0 0 11.2 9 5 3 2 4 18 2.31 1.11
Joe Thatcher 0-2 36 0 0 0 1 0 24.2 18 8 7 1 9 27 2.55 1.09
Cory Luebke 3-1 5 5 0 0 0 0 31.0 28 10 9 1 8 23 2.61 1.16
Micah Owings 0-2 6 0 0 0 0 0 9.2 8 4 3 1 5 7 2.79 1.34
Kip Wells 1-3 5 4 0 0 0 0 22.1 23 10 7 4 13 9 2.82 1.61
Luke Gregerson 2-0 44 0 0 0 0 3 40.2 34 15 15 5 13 45 3.32 1.16
Eric Stults 1-2 4 4 0 0 0 0 24.1 22 13 9 4 7 9 3.33 1.19
Andrew Cashner 3-3 30 3 0 0 0 4 36.2 28 15 14 4 19 45 3.44 1.28
Jason Marquis 2-5 10 8 0 0 0 0 49.2 53 26 20 5 16 46 3.62 1.39
Edinson Volquez 5-7 19 19 0 0 0 0 112.1 93 48 46 8 67 104 3.69 1.42
Miles Mikolas 1-1 15 0 0 0 0 1 16.1 14 8 7 2 11 14 3.86 1.53
Clayton Richard 7-10 22 20 0 0 0 0 135.1 131 68 58 19 28 72 3.86 1.17
Brad Brach 0-1 33 0 0 0 0 0 33.1 25 15 15 6 23 39 4.05 1.44
Dale Thayer 1-2 31 0 0 0 5 1 29.0 32 16 14 3 7 25 4.34 1.34
Josh Spence 0-1 11 0 0 0 0 0 10.1 13 5 5 1 5 10 4.35 1.74
Joe Wieland 0-4 5 5 0 0 0 0 27.2 26 16 14 5 9 24 4.55 1.27
Anthony Bass 2-7 17 14 1 0 0 0 84.1 80 51 44 8 33 72 4.70 1.34
Alex Hinshaw 1-1 22 0 0 0 0 1 20.2 17 11 11 4 14 29 4.79 1.50
Jeff Suppan 2-3 8 6 0 0 0 0 30.2 34 19 18 4 13 7 5.28 1.53
Tim Stauffer 0-0 1 1 0 0 0 0 5.0 7 4 3 1 3 5 5.40 2.00
Nick Vincent 1-0 6 0 0 0 0 0 6.2 6 4 4 1 4 7 5.40 1.50
Ross Ohlendorf 3-0 7 3 0 0 0 0 23.0 32 16 15 3 11 20 5.87 1.87
Dustin Moseley 0-0 1 1 0 0 0 0 5.0 5 5 5 1 2 4 9.00 1.40
Matt Palmer 0-0 3 0 0 0 0 0 2.0 2 2 2 1 2 2 9.00 2.00

San Diego Padres Injuries

15-Day

Player Injury Type Injury Date
Anthony Bass shoulder 06/21/2012
Andrew Cashner other-excused 07/04/2012

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player Injury Type Injury Date
Kyle Blanks shoulder 04/14/2012
Micah Owings elbow 04/26/2012
Cory Luebke elbow 04/28/2012
Joe Wieland elbow 05/07/2012
James Darnell shoulder 05/18/2012
Tim Stauffer elbow 05/18/2012

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