For the first time ever I’ll be live and in person at opening day. Thanks to my buddy Nate, he and I will enjoy the game the Elitist Terrace, also a first for me, though the seating level will lose some luster now that the peons are allowed to mix amongst us civilized folk.

I’ll be tweetering live throughout the afternoon, although the quality of the content will probably depend on how well the new $5 beers do their job. So be sure you’re following The Sacrifice Bunt on Twitter for valuable and insightful information that will surely follow. Check the Twitter for updates on my wardrobe so you can say hi and experience me in all my real life glory.

Update: I’m wearing a sand jersey and gray Volcom hat. See you there!

I haven’t brought it up much on The Sac Bunt, but since developing an interest in the study of economics I’ve become a strong critic of publicly funded sports projects. JC Bradbury, a favorite sports blogger and professor of economics, eloquently explains why. (video below)

It’s very easy to see a new stadium going up, people spending money on tickets, concessions, but what you don’t see is that something else didn’t get built across town. We didn’t see waitress jobs lost, movie theater jobs lost, it’s just transferring [money] from one place to the other.

Because of the other-worldly effects PETCO Park has on baseballs, anyone who considers themselves a student of the Padres must also consider themselves a student of park effects.

For this reason (also because they’re simply fabulous) I read developments in park effects with great interest. MGL recently shared thoughts on a better way to measure the park effects of teams on the road.

..the unbalanced schedule means that, for example, the Dodgers, Giants, and the Padres play a lot of games in ARI and COL, the two most hitter friendly parks in the NL.  And pitchers, especially starters, because they don’t pitch every day, may play an inordinate number of games in one park or parks or another.  This can make a big difference in terms of their raw, unadjusted (by their road parks) stats.

As they stand right now, park effects simply average all NL ballparks except PETCO when computing the Padres’ park effects on the road. This isn’t the best way since the team plays more games in Arizona and Colorado, for example, than they do in parks from the NL Central and NL East. Moreover, not all Padres pitchers pitch in the same road parks. Since hitters play every day and are less likely to play in one road park more than another, this detail is extra important for pitchers.

MGL continues: (A larger number means the park favors hitters)

Here are some Padre pitchers and the average park run factor of all the road parks they played in prorated by the number of TBF in each of those road parks:

Peavy 1.00 So he did in fact play in average road parks (actually not the 1.01 that you would expect)

Mujica 1.03 So if his road ERA were 5.00, that would actually be 4.85 after park adjusting it, which would make a difference of .05 runs in ERA overall (as compared to if you used the generic 1.01 for his road parks)!

Chris Young 1.04 Besides sucking due to a large decrease in velocity, he also played in heavy hitters’ parks on the road, costing himself .075 in overall park adjusted ERA.

Hopefully we’ll see more of this, and gain a stronger understanding of players’ true abilities..

Hat tip to Rob Neyer’s Wednesday Wangdoodles.

The team is on the ball showing off the new banners via their Twitter account. Here are a few more hi-def cell phone shots, courtesy of Padre Homer.

No sand anywhere. I know Jeff Moorad doesn’t like the color, so how about a compromise: no sand in the marketing stuff, but the jerseys stay. Deal?

Apparently I’m in the bargaining phase of the grieving process.

With this hit we are off to the store!

The tall, two story billboard behind the left field scoreboard once proudly displayed the image of Padre pitcher Chris Young. While he probably won’t become a nationwide household name, Young was an all star in 2007, has a reputation as a good but not great pitcher, and is well liked Padre fans. In the same way as so many billboards before his, Young has now been replaced.

With little kids.

These kids are probably a bit older than those previous, though. And at least these play baseball.

Young on the way out?

Is this a precursor to a trade of Chris Young? After all, a similar purging of Jake Peavy’s marketing materials took place before the team decided to move him last offseason.

Young has two years until free agency and earns $6.25 and $8.5 in 2010 and 2011 respectively. His value at such a salary could be a gamble considering his injury status, performance inconsistency over the past few years, and an economic depression putting downward pressure on free agent prices. On Young’s side in terms of value are PETCO Park inflated raw numbers, a solid 2007 season and all star selection, and my perception of his perception being a “solid number two starter” from around the league.

I’m curious as to Chris Young’s trade value at the moment, and could get behind letting him go. Though perhaps those in charge feel he should be kept around, but it just doesn’t make sense to tout him as a face of the team right now.

Speaking of keeping people around, it’s high time for Kevin Kouzmanoff and Heath Bell to go on the block as well. We don’t need two third basemen, and Bell’s value will likely never be higher.

It’s clear the club doesn’t want to go all Jeff Francoeur on fans and anoint youngsters as stars before they prove they’re ready long term. This makes sense. But I for one don’t get excited about coming to a ballpark that’s down the freeway from good little leaguers. The Padres need something, or someone, to to catch our  imaginations.

Hidden in an online survey offered to fans by Padres President and COO Tom Garfinkel resides a big, somewhat official, juicy piece of news.

Question 24 of the survey reads:

The team is currently considering moving in the outfield fences to increase offensive production and home runs, though it will make it more difficult on pitchers.

The verbiage corroborates what we presume were potential PETCO dimension changes I wrote about last offseason.

I say even it out all ready

I like the idea of a pitchers’ park insofar that uniqueness to me is valuable in and of itself. But when there are other considerations at play, as is unfortunately too often the case, they need to be considered.

Most evidence shows that teams who play in neutral parks gain the biggest home field advantage. That’s a serious consideration. Lets even it out already.

Special thanks to Axion over at GLB for posting the survey and introduction.

*Hello?* *Hello?*

We’ve been gone awhile. A lot of reasons for it. We’ll skip the part where I explain why.

MGL asks if there’s any evidence that building a team based on pitching and defense gives an advantage to a home team in a big ballpark. There’s a good discussion too.

I think what he’s most concerned about is the question of why people (read: Jerry Manuel) think what they think. Lots of “explanations” about life seems like it makes sense when you first hear it, yet reality often has different ideas. The leader of a multi-million dollar organization should have more than a hunch about why a plan should work. I’m not saying Manuel isn’t working off more than just a hunch here, if he does have some evidence he probably isn’t likely to share with the world. But lots of times before these beliefs aren’t any more than pure hunches.

Back to ballparks, there also goes this recent line of thought that PETCO isn’t actually that big of a field, and the atmosphere is what depresses runs. Again, this is why the why is so important. Looking at a problem and throwing the first answer at it that pops in your head isn’t going to get you very far.

Question to think about: if you’ve ever thought the Padres should build a team around pitching and or defense, how did you come to that conclusion?

the old Mr. Padre. And the new old Mr. Padre.

As you might recall, when Petco first opened, it was adorned around the outside with pictures of Padre heroes, like Phil Nevin and Sean Burroughs. As these players made their way out, they were replaced by the new guys, like Jake Peavy and Adrian Gonzalez. But now they’re gone (wait, what?) and Petco has updated accordingly.

Drumroll, please…



Credit to PadreHomer

So Peavy and Gonzalez have been traded for a bunch of little kids. Wave of the future! But that’s not all, these kids have player jerseys on. Along with the old Tony Gwynn, these kids are representing for the new Tony Gwynn and the only Everth Cabrera.

Update your allegiances accordingly.

Petco Park, photo by surfneng.

Recently, Padres Corporate Operations Officer Tom Garfinkel wined and dined the boys of Gaslamp Ball to an evening of wining and dining. I have to say, I’m more than a little impressed with how Garfinkel handled the whole Breakfast Town thing. A big kudos goes out to him reaching out and turning his critics into sycophants (that’s just a joke).

During the evening, Garfinkle asked the boys if there was anything they would change about the fan experience. Completely uninvited, as is our usual manner of behavior, we at The Sacrifice Bunt would like to offer our own suggestions:

5. Bring back the brown

You hear people say this a lot, and God help me if they aren’t right. Another example of the team’s descent into a bland corporate mechanism. Somehow there are actually 35 teams in a 30 team league with either blue or red as their main color, and no I don’t know how that works either. Blue is boring. We used to be unique. Now we’re the low-rent Brewers.

Our saving grace is the sand color. It is distinctive, and matches well with the blue. Of course, this team’s uniforms are traditionally untraditional, meaning the next in the grand tradition of Padres uniform overhauls is due any day now. Here’s my suggestion.

4. PA Announcing Style: The Voice of God.

Frank Anthony, the Padres current PA announcer, is great at what he does. He’s Family friendly, inviting, and comforting. Nothing against him, but it’s also bland and corporate.

Oakland’s Voice of God, aka Roy Steele is more my taste. I want to feel like the mob will come after me if I dare not participate in the Hat Shuffle Extreme™ jumbotron game. I want to feel like it’s a voice from heaven, booming down and proclaiming to all who dare listen the superiority of Luis Rodriguez’s hitting abilities. Deathly. Serious.

3. Cover up the boring, gray, concrete

It makes the stadium look unfinished. Reminds be of the exterior of every monstrosity built in the 50s and 60s, when they thought concrete was modern.

The crew got off to a good start painting the wheelchair ramp near the bleachers in right-center field, from dry gray to Padre blue (You can see the ramp post painting on the far left).

Painting all that exposed concrete blue might be a bit much. I suggest a grand shtickel of sandstone, just like the exterior. It doesn’t have to be the fancy stuff from India. Just make it not disgusting. That’s all.

2. Make the between-inning entertainment entertaining

Ray: It’s not that I don’t find the sailboat races and hat shuffle boring but… well, I find them boring. They’re nice, and completely inoffensive, but I can’t remember the last time I participated in one. If it wasn’t for the occasional left fielder playing along, they’d be completely worthless.

I remember back to the good old days of Guess the Pet, when the fans in attendance would get the opportunity to guess which pet belonged to which Padre. Nothing could entertain like finding out David Eckstein owns a Great Dane. Or the Friar Races. Sure, it’s a total rip-off of Milwaukee and their sausages. And it’s not as clever as Washington and its presidents. But it still clears the way for a pratfall or two, and it actually lends itself to creativity (which Friar will it be this time?). These two should be staples at every game.

And you know what else should be? Press gate Bruce*. Petco Park needs more waving.

Melvin: And another thing: can’t the Friar himself be funny? Seems like all he does during the game is take photos with people in the stands, maybe ring a bell tucked away somewhere that may or may not exist, or wave a flag. He should be dancing on the dugouts, checking poor fielding infielders’ gloves for holes, showing eye charts to and leading a group of kids to poop on the umpires and such. I’m sure a lot of that humor came from Ted Giannoulas, but I bet there is at least one funny person in the organization who can come up with some more schtick.

1. If you weren’t a baseball fan, would you know who plays at Petco?

If you were at the ballpark in Philly you would. Right field. Huge Padres sign. Make it hap’n cap’n. I’ll admit, this one is probably the most expensive suggestion. So while we’re spending oodles of other people’s money, lets put a bigger video screen in right as well.

*Wow your friends with this piece of interesting trivia: Press Gate Bruce was the runner-up in our choice of names for this blog.

The Cox Channel 4 broadcast trailer. Bottled water only, got it?!

Thanks to Cox Channel 4 Padres video switcher and editor Craig Chatfield, I had the opportunity to visit the Cox production trailer, tucked away off Tony Gwynn drive on the south side of Petco Park.

Cox Channel 4 Padres video editing computer, producer Ed Barnes looks on at left.

Inside the trailer is a long, dark, narrow corridor with friendly employees and more video screens than your average dance club. It’s divided into two main rooms, the first of which is seen in the two photos below.

Besides Craig, producer Ed Barnes (left), and Chyron Bob Wehrsdorfer took time from their schedules to explain the details about what goes into a TV broadcast. Unfortunately the room was dark, so I was busy using my girlfriend’s shoulder as a tripod while taking photos to soak in everything they were telling us.

Video screens in Cox Channel 4 Padres trailer, Craig Chatfield on left

One challenge they mentioned was working with the multitude of cameras and operators at one time, on many screens, while live on TV. Under normal circumstances the crew has the process down well, but it’s the crazy plays on the field that throws them off from time to time. One challenge was the play where David Eckstein lost a pop fly in the lights, then held the runner close by pretending to field it, letting it drop, and throwing the base runner out at second.

Believe me, I'm familiar with the outlaying technical specification regarding these instruments. However I'm unable to explain them for reasons I don't care to share.

There are a ton of video clips at their disposal. The photo above and to the left shows a technician looking through Channel 4’s archive. Right after producer Ed Barnes said it would be difficult to describe exactly what his role in the broadcast, the technician pulled up and played video of Barnes describing what he does for the broadcast. Pretty funny.

Our tour then headed towards the back, to Chyron Bob’s lair. Somehow there were even more video monitors and complicated looking gadgets. Let me tell you, when someone who is paid to design websites thinks computer equipment is complicated, he isn’t messing around. Check the last photo for proof.

I’d like to thank the Cox Channel 4 Padres crew, especially Craig, for opening your doors to us.