Nicknames catch on in the most random ways. Last week, while in Arizona looking around in the Cactus League, I found former Cal Poly infielder Peter Van Gansen. Van Gansen was a sure-handed shortstop for Larry Lee’s team who fielded his position like a professional from the first game of his freshman year. 

Van Gansen’s easy nickname during his time was PVG. It was easy to yell from Krukow’s Klubhouse and fans quickly caught-on. 

On social media, the nickname was “Pistol Pete” — a good one considering his strong arm. 

But neither of these were the best ones for PVG. When Van Gansen scored the winning run the other night in a big league spring training game, I got a text that reminded me of the greatest nickname that never was. 

“PVG scored the winning run for the Padres today. Detective Van Gansen is on the case.”

Detective Peter Van Gansen. Fantastic. We should have used it more at Cal Poly. There were certainly enough great plays he was in the middle of.

Detective Van Gansen is on the case. By Owen Main

Earlier this week, Padres prospect and Cal Poly alum Nick Torres was gracious enough to spend some time after a game in Lake Elsinore to talk some about how the past year-plus of professional baseball has been for him.

Here are some things I wrote about the experience over two days in Lake Elsinore. It includes a lot of words and photos.

Nick Torres is working hard this spring to make an impression on Padres management. By Owen Main

Spring training is a wonderland for baseball geeks. For me, one of the great things about this trip (my third) was getting up early and getting out to the various fields, trying to find guys who are less-known.

This year, I tried to track down Cal Poly guys. I was successful on three out of five. Next time (I tell myself now), I’ll stay out not as late, wake up earlier, and get to see all the guys I go for.

Nick Torres was an interesting study. A fourth-round pick after his junior year at Cal Poly last season, Torres was pretty easily found shagging balls in right field and taking big swings.

The next day, I found Torres on a back field at Camelback, playing a High-A game against the White Sox. When I didn’t see him go into the field in the top of the 7th inning, my heart kind of sank. I figured he’d been replaced and I’d missed him. Never to fear, Nick came up as the Designated Hitter two innings later. He put a few cuts on balls, but White Sox pitchers were allergic to the strike zone and Nick, like about four other Padres that inning, walked.

It will be interesting to see if Torres’ gap power can turn into something more at the next level and to see how his game translates to the next level.

A quick note about the Padres’ facility in Peoria: 

I was really impressed with the back fields. They aren’t secluded like many other teams’ fields are. The access is really great, and things are done with fans in mind. There are lots of volunteer ushers and people who know what’s going on, the Padres’ building is open for anyone to go into and pick up rosters, etc… , and everyone at the facility just seemed a little more casual and accommodating to fans than a few other places. I really liked it.

OK, back to Torres.

There’s still a lot of work to be done this spring, but it’s actually possible (though not likely), depending on how they do over the next weeks and months, that both Torres and former Cal Poly teammate Jimmy Allen could play for Class-A teams in the California League for their respective organizations. If they end up there, who’s in with my on a road trip to Lake Elsinore or Rancho Cucamonga?

Photos by Owen Main

The Padres. Off the top of my head, I think of them as kind of a laughing stock, but they haven’t been as bad as that, necessarily. Over the past 10 years, they won 90 games once and had four total winning seasons. The Friars have had fewer than 78 wins in each of the past four years and five of the last six. The closest they’ve got to the division title over the past four years is 16 games back.

So, honestly, I can’t blame the team for blowing things up this offseason. I can’t blame AJ Preller for trying to do something different.

Different is a good way to describe the Padres’ offseason.

They traded with the Dodgers for a declining Matt Kemp, and most of his salary. They added Justin Upton, Wil Myers, and Will Middlebrooks, among others. Their pitching staff, if it stays healthy, can be really good. This week, they signed James Shields to a contract that was way less than many expected from Shields.

At the very least, the Padres have a ton of right-handed power and names that should bring in closer to 2004’s 3 million fans, compared with the 2.1 or so they’ve been averaging over the past five years.

Good for fans…

My first thought about everything that’s happened in San Diego is that I’m excited for Padres fans. As a UC San Diego alumnus, I am thrilled for Padres fans. Whether they’re good or not, they’ll at least be a relevant talking point on the national stage this year — more than can be said for the team’s recent past.

Myers, Upton, and Kemp will be really fun to see in the lineup if they can stay healthy. Bud Black has a knack for getting a ton out of his pitching staff. The Padres may be the most interesting early-season MLB.TV teams to see just what their games look like and how they actually play on the field.

A great case study

The additions of high strikeout right-handed power-hitting outfielders will make for an interesting case study this season. The relative inability — according to advanced defensive metrics — of any of the three outfielders to play center field effectively could be interesting to watch. Speaking of advanced metrics, the Padres should have a really high strikeout percentage as a team and not much hitting from players who play defensively in the infield. Despite bullish projections for the Tim Federowicz/ Derrick Norris platoon at catcher, ZIPS projects all of the Padres’ positions to have 2-3 win players. The Padres should be improved at the plate.

While the three outfielders are really great hitters, their projected defensive value will be an interesting test over the course of the season. If defensive metrics are as shaky as some say, the Padres may turn out to improve enough to contend. If defensive metrics are accurate, the Padres may actually be limited to an 80-85 win team.

The case study for the pitching might be just as interesting. Having already flown in the face of conventional advanced statistical wisdom, Preller signed James Shields this week. While he has been a solid pitcher, Shields isn’t a darling of the advanced stats community. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been a really solid pitcher over the past few years, but according to Fangraphs, he hasn’t been worth more than 4.5 WAR at any point in his career. Shields is solid, but he’s worth closer to the relatively modest four year contract he ended up with versus a megadeal he was rumored to be getting earlier this offseason.

What does it mean for the National League West?

The Padres are really just kind of fitting-in in their division. The Giants have won three of the past five World Series titles with great pitching and timely hitting while not being an advanced statistics poster child. Alongside the Giants now, the Diamondbacks and Padres are all making personnel choices that could be described as “old school.” It’s all setting us up for a season of, basically, the Dodgers vs. everyone else.

The Dodgers, who have hired a cadre of forward-thinking, new-school baseball executives, ready to use advanced statistics and all information possible in personnel (and, presumably in game) decisions.

Then there are the defending world champions and two other teams hell-bent on proving that grit, toughness, and old-school baseball still are what wins.

I can’t wait to give it a season or so to see who comes out on top. Someone will be right, and someone will be left to try to justify their offseason and organizational decisions.

As a Dodger fan, I’m glad because I believe what the Dodgers have been doing is generally a good plan. I’m glad because I don’t think what the Padres did will be great for them in the long run. I’m especially glad, though, that we’re not trying to copy the Giants. They’ve been successful, but in LA, how you do it is as important as whether you do it. I want the Dodgers to do it their way.

So, the Padres tried to play hardball with the Dodgers. The Dodgers (I guess?) stared them down. Eventually, the Padres realized that Matt Kemp’s hips don’t lie and, as was first reported (it seems like) many moons ago, completed the trade for the outfielder.

The Dodgers got Yasmani Grandal and some other players for Kemp and a backup catcher. They’ll now be able to complete their trade for Jimmy Rollins and all the excitement that last week brought will finally be (realized?).

This guy won twitter, with a nice breakdown of how this transaction might have been finalized.

Padres: "Kemp is hurt, can we have more money?" Dodgers: "no" Padres: "we wont make the trade" Dodgers: "ok" Padres: "Fine! We'll do it"

— Blake (@BlakeW47) December 19, 2014

So, for this night, Blake wins. Good job, Blake! Here’s hoping the Dodgers management continues to kind of get whatever they want for the remainder of the offseason.

And, here’s hoping the Padres remain doormats this season, because isn’t that kind of a rookie move?

Happy Holidays.

It must be really hard to be a Padres fan.

In 44 seasons, the Friars have posted just 14 seasons above .500 and have lost 100 games 5 times. Going into this season, the Padres were 511 games under .500 all-time.

Since moving into gorgeous Petco Park in 2004, fans have been mixed on the team’s ability to keep star players and stay consistently competitive. This Yelp! review is probably indicative of the feelings of a lot of Padres fans. For a city that is comfortable in the shadow of Los Angeles, the fans are decidedly not comfortable with a team that will always play third to the Dodgers and Giants when it comes to National League teams in California.

Carlos Quentin was at the center of the baseball world this weekend — for all the wrong reasons. By Dirk Hansen (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

This year, the Padres’ outlook is as bleak as ever. They have lost any star power they had over the past few seasons and their roster is markedly bereft of even a single superstar. Adrian Gonzalez, maybe their best player over the past 5-10 years, now plays for the Dodgers. The same Dodgers whose owners have to be the envy of every Padres fan who has been through the ownership tumult that the dads have been through.

Which sets the stage for the travesty that happened last week at Petco.

Carlos Quentin is the Padres’ highest-paid player. He signed a three-year, $27 million contract at the beginning of this year. Quentin, a San Diego native, is a good player when healthy. He has four seasons of 20-plus home-runs and was coming back home to San Diego. The problem is that, mostly due to injury, Quentin has only played over 100 games three times in his seven seasons leading to this year. Part of the reason he gets injured is because he gets hit a lot — the most in the majors over the recent past. For a team that won’t contend this season, a good clubhouse guy with some savvy with Quentin’s credentials might be worth something like the $9 million he’ll average over the next three years.

On Thursday night, though, Quentin proved he is not that guy when he charged the mound on Zack Grienke after being hit by a 3-2 pitch with no outs in a 1-run game. In a situation that nobody would hit anyone on purpose, Quentin took a graze to his armored elbow personally and ended up breaking Grienke’s collar bone.

An aside about why it was all Quentin’s fault

I’ve heard many people talk about how Grienke was as culpable as Quentin for his broken collar bone. This is a decent article by Ken Rosenthal about it. Here are a few real comments I’ve heard and here are a few of my thoughts.

Grienke should have turned his back. Or had different body language. If he would have shown different body language, it would have been different.

What kind of backwards psychology is this? Is Grienke supposed to not pitch inside because he’s worried about Quentin’s thin skin and his feelings? I just don’t understand.

And who turns their back? Seriously. I wish Grantland or someone would get a video clip together of every batter who was hit last year and the 3-5 second afterwards. Seventeen of these instances would involve Quentin, by the way. I bet less than 30 percent of pitchers make any move to say “sorry.” I don’t think saying sorry is the norm (whether it should be, like in Japan, is an interesting question). I also believe that most of these HBPs were probably worse than Quentin’s on Thursday. Somebody put that video together already!

He shouldn’t have gone shoulder to shoulder

When I first saw the collision, I didn’t think much of it. I thought that, like most baseball fights, it was much ado about nothing. Clearly, neither guy knows how to fight. I wonder how many times Grienke has been charged. I wonder how many mounds Quentin has dashed toward? These would all help people understand this a little better.

Carlos Quentin is a punk…

OK, those weren’t exactly the words, but I’ll put this here verbatim from a former Pac-10 catcher who played against Quentin while he was at Stanford:

We are playing Stanford and they were smashing us. I’m catching, freshman pitcher on the mound. Coach calls for us to drill him. I give the pitcher the sign, he throws a strike on the inside corner. Give it again, fastball inside, fouled off. 3rd time, jams him, pops him up. My coach was pissed at me because he thought I wasn’t giving him the sign.

Why he was a guy the coach wanted to hit? The response was that he was the cockiest player on a cocky team. I don’t think I’m super on-board with college guys playing bean-ball, or having a specific sign to hit the batter, but the story was interesting. Let me put it this way, it wasn’t the first time Quentin has been hit by a pitch.

In the end, I believe that if you want to assign about 10-15% of the blame on Grienke, fine. He pitches inside, he’s hit the guy twice before. Situationally, I do not believe he meant to hit him this time.

Good Fansmanship should prevail

So I’m going to put myself in Padres fans’ shoes for a minute. I went to college at UC San Diego and spent over a year as an intern at a local sports radio station there, so I don’t think I’m completely guessing here. Somewhat like the Giants and San Francisco

If I was them, I would be embarrassed. I would hate the fact that my highest-paid player tried to settle a score that dates back to a different year in a different league. In a season the Padres almost certainly will not contend, this will be the most publicity the team will get. If I was a Padres fan, I would be somewhat ashamed. I know what shame is — I’ve been a Dodger fan through the McCourt regime.

Here’s a twitter conversation I had with a Padres fan I respect regarding the incident.

@owenmain NO…bothered initially when I heard what happened (his knees) yet when I saw the video – Greinke was showing him up in some way

— Ernie Martinez (@ErnieXtra1360) April 15, 2013

@owenmain Dodgers claim he crowded the plate – that @bat he was not. I don’t condone brawl – good to see Padres react every once in awhile

— Ernie Martinez (@ErnieXtra1360) April 15, 2013

@owenmain I said this Friday – Its like lil bro dunking on big bro – W’s & Ls matter, yet so do other things in the game.

— Ernie Martinez (@ErnieXtra1360) April 15, 2013

I understand that when you think of your team as tough and blue-collar, a little fight isn’t a bad thing to see in them. If I was a Padres fan, I could almost understand that mentality.

Almost.

Baseball is a LONG season. It’s a sport where little victories can feel really great. Maybe Quentin had a little victory in the satisfying sound of Grienke’s collar bone snapping or in getting years of pent-up frustration out. But it wasn’t good for the Padres. It made them look worse than they already do.

To still root for a team like the Padres is admirable. I have respect for Padres fans. They are usually pretty easygoing and good times — a lot like San Diego itself. But do not tell me that what Carlos Quentin did was good for anyone or anything. It wasn’t.

So I’m going to say this and then leave it alone:

If anything happens with the Dodgers or their fans in terms of retaliation, I’ll be embarrassed. I’ll be sad that the team I root for cares more about a petty cockfight than the whole season. I will be ashamed if fans at Dodger Stadium do anything to embarrass themselves. All Dodgers fans should want is for their team to take care of business and beat-up on the Padres on the field.

Because, by the end of the season, everyone else will have. It could mean the difference between making the playoffs or not. Isn’t that the goal?

First, I saw Rickie Weeks in person. In case you didn’t know, I drafted Weeks in the fifth round of last season’s fantasy draft. With a 4th-round run on second basemen, I picked-up the undervalued Brewer and, despite an injury during the previous year, Weeks was one of my most solid players. Because of the sideways looks and jeering laughter I got after making the pick, my team was named the “Rickie Weeks All Stars” last year. The All-Stars weren’t very good, but Weeks was awesome – and because he was awesome, he was picked by someone else early in this year’s draft.

RICKIE WEEKS!

This year, my team is called Orange Jhoulys (after Rockies pitcher Jhoulys Chacin, who I also got funny looks after drafting with my final pick). But my love of Rickie Weeks remains steadfast. I’ve tried trading for him thrice this year to no avail. On Wednesday, I gave him his just due – shouting “RICKIE-WEEKS” in a falsetto tone that Knox Harrington (the video artist) would have appreciated. My friend, Christopher, was pretty embarrassed I think.

The second thing that was really interesting happened I think in the 6th inning or so (was hard to know since the game wasn’t exactly a bundle of excitement). Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something come out of the Brewers’ dugout and fly into the air. It turned out to be a cup full of water, or Gatorade, or something. As it ascended above the dugout, lots of liquid splashed over the dugout and onto the fans.

The first row of fans almost came over the top of the dugout. They were NOT happy. On of them took the empty cup and tossed it back into the dugout, causing a similar reaction from most of the Brewers’ bench.

During the entire at-bat that was going on, most of the Brewers in the dugout turned around and faced the front row of Padres fans.

Arms waved. Fingers pointed. Bad words were certainly exchanged. Padres security (about one for every 10 fans… where are you Pads fans?) was quick to the scene. One security person was stationed on each side of the dugout and one person walked atop the dugout to confront the fan who had thrown the cup back into the Brewers’ dugout.

In most situations like this, fans usually get the brunt of the blame. For whatever reason, the Padres security personnel made an informed and well thought-out decision not to remove the fans from the game. Eventually the Brewers, who clearly “started it,” went back to paying attention to the game, and a situation that could have been a lot worse was nullified.

The easy thing to do would have been to kick the fans out. Instead, the security folks gathered relevant information and made an informed decision.

Good job Padres security personnel.

Now all the Padres need are ownership and management who are willing to spend the same energy on the players on the field. When Ryan Ludwick is your best position player, you’re in trouble. Without the draw of Adrian Gonzalez this year to get people to the park, the Friars are not a very exciting team…

Random thought during the game:

Corey Hart is going to have 20 HRs by the end of the year. He hit at least one that would have been out of any park but Petco. He squared up a few others. The Brewers’ offense is fun to watch.

Random thought of the day:

I just saw an interview with him and, is Lebron losing some hair? I hope the pressure of the multiple championship guarantee isn’t getting to him. He needs to go with the all-shaved look I think.