The San Deigo Padres currently have the worst record in all of baseball, at 38-62. And yet as of this writing they haven’t made any significant moves toward rebuilding the team, and are still acting as if they are trying to contend.

It’s time to get a move on that rebuilding, as the Padres are not going to be contending any time soon if they stand pat.

What the Padres need to do is build a team that can play well in their ballpark. This means building teams the way the Dodgers used to do back when Dodger Stadium was the game’s greatest pitcher’s park.

The Padres should focus on defense. They especially need to find outfielders who can cover the big gaps in the outfield at Petco, and especially in center field. Losing Mike Cameron after last season was a huge blow to the pitching staff.

On offense the Padres should focus on acquiring or developing hitters with skills that won’t be as affected by the big outfield. Hitters who draw a lot of walks, hit line drives, and hopefully have some speed. The Padres should not pay an extra premium to get hitters who hit a lot of home runs in other parks, because a lot of that value will be lost at Petco.

Similarly, when it comes to pitching the Padres should look for pitchers with who don’t walk a lot of guys. There is an opportunity here, in that the Padres can look for flyball pitchers who put up lousy numbers in other parks and can be had for cheap, but who will have a chance to succeed in cavernous Petco Park.

To acquire more of these types of players, the Padres should be prepared to trade most of their big-name veterans, as this year’s team is going nowhere but down any time soon.

In particular, the Padres should look to trade Kevin Kouzmanoff, Khalil Greene, Trevor Hoffman, Randy Wolf, and Tadahito Iguchi. These are all fairly big-name guys who other teams will want, but who are not useful to the Padres. Kouzmanoff and Greene have terrible on-base percentages, and thus have no business playing in a pitcher’s park like Petco, and Kouzmanoff is forcing up-and-coming prospect Chase Headley to left field, where his bat is not as valuable. Meanwhile, Hoffman, Wolf, and Iguchi are big-namers who are set to be free agents, so there is no need to keep them on a last-place team.

Update: The Padres have reportedly traded Randy Wolf to the Astros (!)

- What They Need Index -

Sarah: Another frustrating week for the Somerville Green Sox, as my torrid offense fought Doug’s ridiculous pitching to a 6-6 draw. Yes, I won all the offensive categories and his Swamp Dragons took all of the pitching categories. It may be time to begin to start to think about maybe pondering whether it’s a good idea to consider the possibility of perhaps making a trade. But I’m not sure. Hot: Ryan Braun (six HR!), Ian Kinsler (4 steals!), Troy Glaus (finally!). Not: Xavier Nady (time for him to cool off, I suppose), Rickie Weeks, Carlos Guillen, everyone on my pitching staff.

Paul: My team looked to be in trouble earlier this week. As of Tuesday, ElDuquesInjuryReport was tied with team caitlin grace (for the life of me, I can’t remember the owner’s name) 6-6 and the younger members of my ball club were beginning to doubt if the team’s four-week winning streak was going to come to an end. Sensing their timidity on the field, the veterans in the clubhouse decided to call a players-only meeting. Now I wasn’t in the room when it happened, but there were lots of yelling. Trevor Hoffman was going on about rah-rah this and ho-hum that. Frankly, it didn’t sound like English at all. Then Kosuke Fukudome uttered some inspiring words of encouragement, but only me and Hiroki Kuroda understood what he was saying. And then the whole-thing degenerated into a “whose head is bigger” contest between Thome, Dunn and Holliday. Anyway, the meeting clearly worked as the squad had a true team effort the rest of the way en route to an 11-0 thrashing. Hot: David Wright, Adam Dunn, C.C. Sabathia, George Sherrill. Not: Greg Smith, Jim Thome, Edwin Encarnacion, Huston Street.

Alejandro: Although I’m on vacation, my team is going to work, putting together another impressive week with a 8-2 victory over croutchyoldman and catapulting to 5th place(!). Again, Dan Uggla has proven quite a find in the waiver market, keeping up the hotness (though I’m not sure how long he’ll be able to sustain it). But really, this week it was the usual suspects providing all the offensive prowess. Carlos Lee in particular, (2 HR, 5 RBI, and 15 Total Bases). But I have to pat myself (cautiously) on the back, for my two starters whom I picked up from the FA pool have turned in impressive numbers and results. Todd Wellemeyer picked up a win, struck out 5 and held a miniscule 1.29 ERA; Vicente Padilla did his part too, getting a win, striking out 8 and having a competitive 3.29 ERA. Gavin Floyd also rebounded from last week’s disaster in Anaheim, notching the win, striking out 3 and going ofer in the ERA department. Alas, not all my pitching pickups were winners, as Mark Hendrickson got tagged with 4 runs, ballooning his ERA to 7.20. Not good. Even with Hendrickson’s suckage, my pitching did all the heavy lifting this week, earning me 5 out of my 8 wins. I have to give honorable mention to Kerry Wood, who also rebounded for a strong week with 3 saves, 5 Ks and a 2.45 ERA. Hot: Dan Uggla, Chipper Jones (.400 baby!), Carlos Lee, Todd Wellemeyer, Vicente Padilla, Tim Lincecum, Kerry Wood, B.J. Ryan. Not: Mark Hendrickson, Hanley Ramirez, Emil Brown (cooled off, one more week and he’s gone), Connor Jackson.

Coley: Every week is a good week to own Josh Hamilton. But this week the Rangers’ CF was especially prolific, to the tune of 3 HR, 10 RBI and 20 total bases. Anchored by Hamilton, my offense came alive (12 HR, 46 RBI and 112 total bases). But it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough, to overcome Pirates in ‘08! (43 runs, 21 HR, 58 RBI, 145 total bases). What can I say? Alfonso Soriano is on a roll. Hot: Josh Hamilton, Brandon Phillips, Jered Weaver, Dice-K. Not: Brett Myers, C.J. Wilson, Johnny Damon.

Standings, with games behind:

1. Paul (ElDuquesInjuryReport) (0)

2. Scott (Utley’s Firm Quads) (4)

3. Bryan (Pirates in 08!) (11.5)

4. Doug (Swamp Dragons) (13)

5. Alejandro (Center Field Stud) (15)

6. Sarah (Somerville Green Sox) (16.5)

7. Kirk (Montefusco’s Revenge) (18.5)

8. Larry(croutchyoldman) (20.5)

9. Ania (Box89RowKKSeat14) (22)

10. Sooze (freebase my balls) (28)

11. Caitlin (caitlin grace) (30)

12. Coley (Crunkball All Stars) (31)

Like many other statistical milestones, the impressiveness of Trevor Hoffman’s 500th save which was recorded last night lies primarily in longevity and remarkable consistency. As the first member of the 500-saves club (Can you call it a club if there’s only one member? If so, I was a member of dozens of clubs as an eleven year-old), Hoffman has Bill Center, a sportswriter in San Diego, citing this achievement as a benchmark to the Hall-of-Fame. Center wrote in an article about a week and a half ago:

“Although no one has 500 saves yet, you hear people say 500 saves are not the equivalent of 500 homers. Simple mathematics say that is wrong… 500 saves mean your team won those 500 games. Not every homer resulted in a victory. Nor did every hit.”

Center’s argument cites the number of members in the other statistical milestones used to measure the worth of Hall-of-Fame players and candidates such as career hits, homeruns, and wins, noting that since Hoffman is the only member of the 500-save club, that his achievement is more impressive than 3000 hits, 500 homeruns, or 300 wins.

I have to disagree with Center on several levels, but I’ll talk about only a couple of them. For one, saves are not as much an individual accomplishment as other stats like hits or homeruns. Generally speaking, the closer has absolutely nothing to do with the first eight innings (more or less) of the game. Hitters and starters obviously do. In fact, every other player in Major League Baseball aside from closers has more to do with a pitcher earning a save opportunity than the closers themselves. By definition, a closer cannot create a save opportunity for himself and his therefore at the mercy of his teammates’ performance in any game. If there is no save opportunity, there is no save, regardless of how dominant the closer may be.

Secondly, if we’re presenting the case based upon team wins as Center has, it’s simply idiotic to claim that a closer has more to do with wins over the course of the season. His assertion not only misleads one to think that every team win is the result of the save (it obviously isn’t), but that those who had successfully reached the 3000 hit or 500 homerun plateaus were not as valuable to their teams’ wins as a closer is, which is downright absurd.  Fact is, you need some amount of luck to go along with skill for anyone to even earn 500 save opportunities, let alone convert them. And if you believe in the value of Win Shares, just look up how even the best closers can’t affect their team’s W-L records as much as hitters or starting pitchers.

But I do agree that Hoffman belongs in Cooperstown. In fact, I believe that Trevor Hoffman didn’t need to reach saves 500 to be enshrined in the Hall-of-Fame. He was already worthy for some time prior. I would actually argue that Trevor Hoffman is the second-best closer of the past 50 years, behind Mariano Rivera, and I think that the stats back me up. I looked at the statistics of every closer who had recorded at least 100 saves over their career since 1950 and found that 108 pitchers qualified. Out of this group, Hoffman ranked among the best in many categories that help define his dominance.

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