padres

All Star Break 2026 Musings

Posted on by Paul

With the unofficial first half ending now that it’s the all star break, some musings on the 2026 season.

After a 4-3 homestand, the Padres finished at .500 (48-48) and 3.5 games back of the last wild card spot. They are in wild card contention with eight teams currently in contention for the three spots (Cubs, Phillies, Marlins, Cardinals, Pirates, Diamondbacks, Padres and Nationals):

https://www.mlb.com/standings/wild-card?date=2026-07-12

The Padres already lost the season series to the Cubs, Phillies and Cardinals, haven’t played the Marlins yet, are tied with the Diamondbacks (3-3), lead the Pirates (2-1) and are losing to the Nationals (1-2). Miami is coming up on the 10-game road trip after the all star break so that will be a huge series for both teams.

But regardless, considering they lost three season series to other teams in the hunt already, it’s a tough climb to not only catch the teams in front but possibly have to finish in front of them because of losing the season series tiebreaker with these teams.

Realistically, AJ Preller won’t want to sell unless the team is completely out of it. If you think about the recent seasons where the team was in similar or worse situations at the trade deadline like the ill-fated 2015 season (“rockstar GM”, 50-53 and 6.5 games out of the wild card), 2021 (when the team had the epic second half collapse and they were 61-45 and leading the wild card by 5.5 games) or 2023 (Juan Soto, Xander Bogaerts and the huge expectations, the team was 52-55 at the trade deadline and 5 games out of the wild card), AJ still hung on to players on expiring contracts even though it made more sense to trade them.

Guys like Justin Upton and Ian Kennedy in 2015 and Josh Hader and Blake Snell in 2023 could have been traded for some prospects since those teams were flawed and were unlikely to make a playoff push (and still thinking they could make a playoff push was the main reason he gave as to why he didn’t trade them). 2021 was understandable since the Padres were in a playoff position comfortably, though some will argue that they should have added reinforcements then considering all the injuries that ended up happening to the starting pitching.

In 2016 with the Padres starting their rebuild (the whole thing about doing the rebuild now so the 2020s could be the decade of the Padres), they did start trading guys like James Shields and Matt Kemp.

While Manny Machado (last 30 games slashing .279/.372/.586 with 8 HR and 23 RBI) and Fernando Tatis Jr (last 30 games at .274/.326/.452 with 4 HR and 16 RBI) are hitting much better recently and the offense is starting to show life, the starting pitching still remains a huge question mark.

Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta remain on the Injured List (IL), both targeting August returns but hard to guarantee either comes back then and even if they do, what they’ll look like considering how long they’ve been out. Look at Michael King and when he came back late last season and Musgrove will have been out 22 months since he last pitched in October 2024.

At the same time, Walker Buehler in three starts in July has a 16.36 ERA in 11 innings pitched, getting pulled after two innings in his last start yesterday July 11, Randy Vasquez and Lucas Giolito were both struggling when they went on the IL and the Padres are using JP Sears, Griffin Canning, German Marquez and even Matt Waldron with extreme care, not letting them go through the lineup a third time, which is understandable considering how much better hitters are a third time through.

But starting pitching is hanging on barely and it’s not like you can trade for 2-3 starters to pair with Michael King and hopefully Pivetta and Musgrove come back.

So that screams sell to me, but selling guys with value who will be free agents after the season like Adrian Morejon (as much as it pains me to do it but I feel he’ll get a big contract in the offseason and not sure the Padres will be able to or want to pay what he’s looking for and being a closer elsewhere despite how much he likes it here), Ty France, Jason Adam (assuming he gets back healthy), Miguel Andujar and even Michael King since his contract contains an opt out after each year. Even guys like Wandy Peralta and Yuki Matsui considering they have opt outs and if teams would be willing to take them on since everyone always needs more pitching and relief pitching costs teams less to trade for.

But I would hang on to Mason Miller considering you have three years of control after this season unless some team is really willing to blow you away with their trade offer. I do get the Padres are more reliant than other teams on box office draw with their limited TV contract and Miller has become someone the fans look to see. So considering they won’t get what they gave up for him last year trading Leo De Vries (who continues to impress as the #2 overall prospect in baseball), it would definitely affect the team continuing to draw if they trade him so quickly.

Again I would get creative and see what teams are interested in unless the team goes on some hot run by this year’s trading deadline of August 3, similar to what they did in 2024 when they went 43-20 after the all star break. Because otherwise this team will end up where you hold onto parts, don’t make the playoffs and then just continue to have a high payroll and barren farm system. Then we end up with a similar season next year as we did this year, assuming the season happens with the impending lockout. At some point, it just seems like the team needs to do a reset as can reasonably be done, considering the core players you have and their contracts that would make it hard to do a complete rebuild and the fan uproar it would cause.

Braves/Dodgers Musings

Posted on by Paul

After this week’s homestand against the Braves and Dodgers, some musings:

  • After the 4-5 road trip, coming home to start a 20 game in 21 day stretch with the first 13 against teams currently in the playoff picture (the Braves, Dodgers, Cubs and Dodgers again), you would have been happy with a 4-2 start against the Braves and Dodgers. Of course, you wouldn’t have thought it would be a sweep of the Braves and losing another series at home 1-2 against the Dodgers.
  • The Dodgers continue to dominate the Padres and the two losses continue to show the issues this year’s team is having. The starting pitching isn’t getting any length and it seems to be an inning where it just gets away from while the offense can’t seem to get the big hit, a stark contrast to the Dodgers who seem to get the big hits when they need them.
  • There was the 9 run sixth inning where Randy Vasquez gave up 7 (4 earned) of the runs in the inning in yesterday’s game. This was after the Padres started with Kyle Hart as an opener for two innings, so Vasquez couldn’t even make it through four full innings.
  • Then in the bottom of the 7th inning, when the Padres had the bases loaded with one out, down 10-3 with Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado up to make things interesting, neither came through with Merrill striking out while Machado grounded into a force out. Whereas in the 9 run sixth inning, the Dodgers kept getting hits and moving the line.
  • Then in today’s game, in the 5th inning, Michael King started by walking the #8 hitter Freeland, getting an out on a sacrifice bunt that ended up being a pop up, walking Ohtani, hitting Pages, walking Freeman to score a run (which should have been strike 3 on ball 4 that the Padres should have challenged since they had both challenges left) and then Betts hitting a two run double to make it 4-1.
  • Meanwhile, in the bottom of the 8th, the Padres had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out and on the first pitch Miguel Andujar grounds into an inning-ending double play. Bottom of the 9th with a runner on 1st and 1 out, Fernando Tatis Jr grounded into a game-ending double play.
  • Even if Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta come back, I’m not sure this assortment of starting pitching the Padres have will be able to continue to patch work through enough innings to not overburden the elite bullpen. But what can you realistically get on the trade market by trading what’s left of the farm system? I get AJ is always able to trade every year but does it really make sense to keep doing this and not develop some homegrown players that can come up to help the team?
  • As far as the hitting, Tatis has been hitting more consistently since the beginning of June and Machado has been hitting better the past 10 days. Even if you trade for a decent hitter (and considering you want to trade for starting pitching, how much can you really offer?), can they really make that much of an impact? All the hitters we’ve traded over the past five years from pick-ups like Adam Frazier, Brandon Drury, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, Josh Bell and even Juan Soto have all struggled here the rest of the season after their trades. These guys all have added length to the lineup but we’d all like to see moves that jumpstart the offense the way we saw with Seattle last year when they added Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor. But even in 2022, with Soto, Bell and Drury added, the team only went 29-27 down the stretch and we were still having the same complaints about the offense. So you pretty much need the current team to start hitting and anyone you would add is to complement it.

Road Trip to Baltimore and Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Posted on by Paul

Oriole Park at Camden Yards has been on my list to visit since it’s credited with starting the retro look craze and building distinct ballparks as we got away from the cookie-cutter multi-purpose stadium phase.

The ballpark is located to the west of the Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore. We took the MTA Light RailLink from the BWI airport which is $2 one way per person and takes about 30 minutes to the Camden or Convention Center stations, which are both a block away from an entrance to the ballpark.

I’ve read online how people say the Light RailLink isn’t the best since it can have disruptions or delays often and Uber is cheap to the ballpark (I checked and it was about $20 on a Thursday around 2:30pm) but since we had some time, we figured we’d try it out. The ride was pretty smooth and easy and I would recommend it for those traveling light. That’s because it’s a 10-15 minute walk to the station on the bottom level of the airport and there isn’t room to store your luggage on the Light RailLink. We just held our carry-on suitcases in front of us and it wasn’t busy but I can see that being more difficult if you have large suitcases.

The ballpark is about half a mile north of the Baltimore Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium. Directly around the area isn’t much except a small area right in front with Pickles Pub (more on that later) so you have to go about half a mile to get to the Inner Harbor and/or the rest of downtown to find things to do. Otherwise, the area right around the ballpark itself is pretty quiet.

Incorporating the B&O Warehouse into the right field backdrop is a great touch. It gives the stadium skyline a nice look as otherwise you wouldn’t see much beyond the outfield:

They have gates on both ends of the warehouse on Eutaw Street to enter, with Gate H at the north end of Eutaw Street featuring the Orioles’ retired numbers outside as well as a statue of Babe Ruth. I didn’t know Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore until researching what to do in the city and seeing that the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum is a couple of blocks away. The museum is definitely worth a visit if you’re a baseball nut to see some of the Bambino’s artifacts.

Once we entered and walked around on the field level, I noticed the concourse was pretty wide, making it easy to walk around.

The negative is when you go into the part with an overhang (under the club level and upper deck seating so basically everywhere except most of the outfield), you don’t have a view of the field as you walk around and/or get food and beverages. To access the seats, you go through tunnels in between the stands such as this:

As a result, you don’t have the standing room areas behind the seating sections in the infield or down the line that many of the new ballparks have. They do have standing room only in the outfield, which includes left field above the bullpens, right field right next to the foul pole and you can stand behind two rows of reserved seating in the Coors Light Roof Deck above the batter’s eye:

The one interesting thing is I tried to take the escalator to the upper deck level (not the club level) to walk around and check it out but the ushers at the escalator wouldn’t let me go up there unless I had a ticket for those sections (and my ticket was in the field level). I know some ballparks restrict areas based on tickets (like the Bleachers at Wrigley Field) so Oriole Park is one of those. They actually didn’t check tickets in the actual sections as they had an usher at each section and when I walked in they just asked me if I knew where to find my seats (without looking at my tickets), most likely because I had Padres gear on so they assumed I wasn’t local.

Food-wise, the Orioles have locally known restaurants like Stuggy’s and Attman’s Deli as well as stands that were inspired by local cuisine and became fan favorites like Boog’s BBQ (a BBQ stand named after former Orioles All-Star first baseman Boog Powell). I will commend the Orioles in that they have self-serve soda stations all over the ballpark so if you get a souvenir cup (which is the only fountain soda option though some stands sell soda by the 20-ounce bottle), you can use it over and over again.

The food is decent but it may be better to eat outside around the area or even right in front of the ballpark at Pickles Pub, which along with the restaurants next door have a nice setup to eat before and after the game.

The Orioles also do a good job of capturing their history with various displays and statues around the ballpark, including having former players sign autographs for free:

In terms of the views around the outfield (since that’s really the only place you can go that is standing room only), the views themselves are pretty good as nothing feels too far away.

Once you sit down in your seats, the seats themselves are pretty small in width and the rows are extremely tight. We sat in section 44 row 8 which is four sections over from directly behind home plate and a couple of sections before you get to the sections behind the visitors dugout on the 3rd base side. So I would expect these seats to be the typical size of seats in the ballpark.

I’m not sure if the above pictures really capture how small the seats are or how tight the rows are. We were sitting next to a couple of season ticket holders who were normal-sized men and they decided to move to the row behind us as they said it would allow us all to have some space to breathe (and the row behind us had four open seats). As well, for the second game we went to, the mom sitting next to me mentioned to her young kids she didn’t want to get up until they had to go since we were “packed in like sardines”.

The seats are angled straight ahead in each section so if you are sitting down the line past 1st or 3rd base, you’ll be angled towards 2nd base and you’ll have to turn your head to face home plate. It does become difficult to watch a game in your seat this way and something newer ballparks have recognized and why they angled their seats towards home plate.

For 2026, the Orioles installed a new video board along with new ribbon boards and a sound system that puts it in line with other ballparks. For people like me who like the tech in ballparks, this does make it a more enjoyable experience and I found the technology to make it a good ballpark experience.

One minor nitpick is they do jam pack the video board with a lot of information, which made it hard to find all the information right away. In the first inning, I couldn’t find the pitcher’s total pitch count until I really looked for it and actually a person next to me commented the same thing a few innings later which I then pointed him to where it was.

In terms of in-game entertainment, they do things like their version of the hat shuffle (which is a crab shuffle that makes sense given its Baltimore), a hot dog race (similar to the big head races at other ballparks), the lookalike cam, t-shirt toss and scoreboard surprises. They don’t do things every half inning like they do at Petco as some innings they’re just playing music.

Overall Oriole Park is definitely a ballpark to visit and one I enjoyed visiting. Though it has some quirks and issues as mentioned above like the seats, no field view as you walked around the concourse, a decent (but not great) food selection and not as much directly around the ballpark, it’s still a great ballpark and one of the better ones out there. Not to mention it started the whole renaissance we’re in now with building great ballparks.

I’ll leave with this new skyline as the sun started setting:

Seattle Season Sweep Musings

Posted on by Paul

With the “Seattle” road trip (being the Brewers started as the Seattle Pilots for a year before moving to Milwaukee) ending tonight, some musings:

  • Going into this six-game road trip against two tough teams (even though the Padres swept Seattle at Petco last month, Seattle was 14-4 against the Padres the last four seasons prior to this year and the Padres hadn’t won a road series in Seattle since 2018), I would have been happy with a 3-3 record. So to get a 4-2 record including a sweep of Seattle to complete the season sweep was awesome to get back to ten games above .500 at 28-18, last seen when the Padres were 19-9.
  • Lucas Giolito looked good for the first five innings, being super efficient to get through in 59 pitches. But seemed like waiting too long in the top of the sixth as the Padres scored five runs and maybe being fatigued since this was his first major league start after four minor league warmups, his velo went down in the bottom of the sixth as he walked the first three batters. This ended up being his undoing as he left with 5+ innings, 78 pitches, 3 strikeouts and those 3 walks. So it didn’t end that well but a good start through the first five innings as he continues building up.
  • To win a game 8-3 with the Mariners only getting one hit (since those three walks ended up scoring on another walk by Yuki Matsui and two sacrifice flies) while not using the high-leverage bullpen was pretty impressive. So kudos to Matsui (two innings) and Bradgley Rodriguez (two innings) for getting through the game without additional damage to rest Miller, Adam, Moreon and Estrada and leave the bullpen in good shape for three more games with the Dodgers before a day off. I’m assuming Miller will be available Monday even though he threw 34 pitches on Friday to get the 4 out save since he’s had two days off and Estrada will be available since he only pitched Saturday. They may try to avoid Adam and Morejon being both pitched back-to-back days on Friday and Saturday and pitching Monday would be three times in four days for both.
  • Holy Sheets what a night for Gavin in this last game of the trip. He’s been pretty clutch this year including the winner on this trip in the second game against Milwaukee but going 3-3 tonight with 2 home runs, 4 RBI and 2 BB to get on base a career high five times really set the tone and gave the Padres breathing room they rarely have had this year with this offense. He’s been so big all year and really even since he came to the Padres starting in 2025. Speaking of this offense,
  • It’s super surprising that the team is 28-18 considering the season Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Jackson Merrill are having. All three got a base hit tonight, the first time the three of them each got a base hit since April 27. We’re still waiting for them to really get going and baseball is a cyclical sport, so we’ll see where these guys are at when it’s halfway through the season. Can’t expect the other guys (Sheets, France, Castellanos, Andjuar, etc) to continue to carry the team as they’ve been doing so we just gotta hope at least one of them gets going soon.

4 Strikeouts in 1 Inning

Posted on by Paul

In Saturday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Mason Miller ended the game by striking out 4 batters in the 9th inning to get the save. This game had some interesting facts since there were three instances where a batter struck out and made it to first base on a wild pitch (bottom 4th Manny Machado struck out versus Dustin May, bottom 7th Ty France struck out versus Justin Bruihl and then top 9th Yohel Pozo versus Mason Miller which lead to the 4 strikeouts in the inning) which in general rarely happens once in a game.

Then add in the fact that the last time a Padre struck out 4 in an inning was done in 2021 by now manager Craig Stammen. Lastly that this is more rare than I thought as Miller was the 108th time it’s been done, more rare than a no hitter, cycle or immaculate inning, which was also an achievement for Mason Miller as a Padre.

Even though it is rare to see a strikeout with a wild pitch for the batter to end up at first base, I was still surprised how rare it was. It made me curious if 5 strikeouts in 1 inning has ever been done but no that hasn’t happened in the majors, but it has happened in the minors, even as recently as 2024.

Road Trip to Mexico City and Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú

Posted on by Paul

With the Padres playing in Mexico City (CDMX) again, we took another trip to go back to Mexico City and Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú (went in 2023 when the Padres were there the first time) so some thoughts from a visit to the city and ballpark this time:

  • If you’re flying from San Diego, using the CBX is super easy to get into the Tijuana International Airport (TIJ) to fly to CDMX and also when you get back to cross back into SD. You do have to Uber to right next to the border or park there but the process of going back and forth is super easy and I can’t recommend it enough for flying anywhere in Mexico.
  • Had no issues getting an Uber from the airport when flying into Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX). There had been talk about taxis protesting making it hard for Uber drivers to pick up from the airport but they were able to pick us up no problem curbside outside the gates. The only problem I ran into with Uber for the first time since I’ve been using it is the driver picked up someone else for my ride (I could literally see the car pulling away 50 feet from me with other people in the car) and the app showing my ride had started. I tried waving the driver down but he didn’t see me but the app made it super easy to cancel the right and say the reason was a wrong pickup.
  • Traffic around CDMX continues to be gnarly. To get from the airport to our hotel in Reforma, it took almost an hour on a Thursday night at 9pm even though it was 12.6 km (7.8 miles). Trying to get from the Reforma area to the Frida Kahlo Museum took an hour and 30 minutes on a Friday afternoon due to the afternoon traffic even though that was only 11.5 km (7.1 miles). Anywhere we went took some time with traffic that we had to alter our plans and give more time. We thought about using the Metro but the subway station was a bit away from our hotel and then we’d have to walk even further at stops so it ended up being the same time.
  • The food here is cheap and great. I see the Mexican food as done differently than what you can get in San Diego (they’re not big on burritos in CDMX) so I really like both types of Mexican food. Food is definitely one of the highlights of going to CDMX.
  • My flight home was on Sunday night at 9:40pm and since Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú is only 3.5 km (2.2 miles) away from the stadium, I first went to the airport to leave my bags and then from there went to the ballpark. Both terminals have lockers for baggage storage located before security and you can leave your suitcases there for 300 pesos each per 24 hours. So with the 2pm game on Sunday, we left at 11am to go to the airport (took about 45 minutes), dropped off the bags and went to the game. You can take the Metro to get to the ballpark but Uber is easy (especially being available from the aiport as mentioned above) and cheap.
  • Teotihuacan which is about an hour northeast of the city is definitely worth a visit. I would recommend either using a tour or taking the bus they have to go there. Getting an Uber there is no problem but on the way back, considering the remoteness of it, it’s hard to get a ride back and the Uber drivers that are around may try to scam you into canceling the Uber ride and instead paying them cash at an absurd price. The Pyramid of the Moon currently allows you to walk up to the middle, taking about 50 steep steps to get to this point.

Once you get to the middle, it’s a great view to see the steps to go up even higher (which are blocked off):

As well as see the Pyramid of the Sun to the southeast:

The Pyramid to the Sun is blocked from walking up it:

Our tour guide mentioned they were originally planning to allow people to walk up the Pyramid of the Sun temporarily during the World Cup season but that was paused after the recent shooting on top of the Pyramid of the Moon. Even though we were there only four days after the shooting, we felt it would be safe and there was a heavy police presence there to get into the site and around the site as well. Would definitely recommend visiting if you’re going to CDMX.

  • Now onto Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú. The ballpark’s main gate is Gate (Puerta) 8, which has a walkway and bridge that goes to the main entrance:

Once you cross over the bridge, you get a great view of the ballpark:

In the last Mexico City series with the Padres, they used the two-level Tienda Diablos store at the ballpark to hold all the merch but this time they expanded it to a tent in front of the store:

Like 2023, there was a lot of merch only available here that you couldn’t find online or at local New Era stores in CDMX. So a lot of other people had the same idea to get here when the gates opened three hours before game time to see the merch available:

And just like last time, the merch sold out quickly in popular sizes, leaving only super large or super small sizes available later in this game when you could just walk into the store. Here’s some of the gear they had:

The ballpark holds roughly 20K and the walkways do get super crowded with a capacity crowd making it hard to walk around.

They do restrict the outfield to only those who have tickets there so you can’t go out there unless you have a ticket for those seats. And since the outfield isn’t fully connected (you can’t walk from left to right field as the batter’s eye separates it and they don’t have a walkway behind), you will only want to enter the outfield seats from down the line i.e. left field from the third base line and right field from the first base line.

While walking around the ballpark gives good views of the field,

The views from the seats themselves have some challenges. If you sit behind home plate, you have a good view:

But the vendors are constantly walking up and down throughout the entire game (all the way until the 9th inning), so your view is constantly blocked by them. It’s great so you don’t have to leave your seats as the seat vendors sell many of the items from the stands but it’s simlar to how some ballparks allow people to walk up and down anytime during the game your view being blocked as a result.

If you sit further down the line (like around third base), the seats are facing straight towards the field right in front of you, versus being angled towards home plate like many of the new ballparks. It reminds me of how the old cookie-cutter stadiums all had seats facing straight ahead. So as a result, you angle/lean forward toward home plate which blocks the person next to you from seeing home plate and everyone ends up doing the same thing.

Going here on occasion is great to experience, especially with the Padres coming back to win the first game and the energy in the building with the large contingent of Padres fans. The energy and noticing the little differences (like how they list batter’s stats as 4-1 meaning 1 hit in 4 at bats versus the US approach of 1-4), the 7th inning stretch in Spanish, etc all make it a fun time.

Though there are the limitations of being a small ballpark and the seat views that would impact me if I was going to games all season like back ato Petco, I would recommend Mexico City as a place to visit and catching a MLB World Tour game there as it’s definitely an experience.

Quick Road Trip to Anaheim and Angel Stadium

Posted on by Paul

With Anaheim actually the closest ballpark to San Diego and the Padres playing the Angels on the weekend, decided to go up there yesterday to catch a game. I’ve been to Angel Stadium a handful of times over the years after they introduced interleague play, with my first time in 2001 during Tony Gwynn’s last season.

I remember back in 2001 the Angels doing a short ceremony before the game for Tony Gwynn being it was his last season (I went to the first game of the series) and liked the renovations the Angels did back then after the Rams left. I walked around the ballpark then and what stood out was that the views were good whether you were in the upper level or in the outfield beyond the bullpens in left field as it still didn’t feel far away like some other ballparks.

A few notes on Angel Stadium in 2026:

  • It’s pretty easy and quick to exit off the freeway (we exited about 12:30pm for the 1:07pm start) but it does back up when you’re at the road right in front of the ballpark. In this case, we entered at the State College entrance coming from the State College Blvd exit off the 5 freeway and it was backed up from the Orangewood Ave and S State College Blvd intersection. That part took us about 15 minutes to go one block since there’s only one right turn lane from this direction into the parking entrance.
  • The large parking lot around the stadium is great for tailgating and reminds me of the old Qualcomm Stadium days. They are starting to build more apartments (with businesses at the bottom) around the area but there still really aren’t a lot of places to go within walking distance, like how Disneyland and the Anaheim Convention Center have many restaurants around them on the other side of the freeway.
  • As a result, the skyline of the ballpark is pretty blank as shown in the pictures below since there really isn’t much around it.
  • Seats continue to have a good view as shown in the pictures below. First base (visitor’s dugout) side is the sun side for day games (like Petco Park) so definitely get in the 200s if you want to be behind the visiting team and in the shade. Being this was mid-April, we sat in row Z of section 124, which was the last row of the section and we were in the shade the whole game. So early games you have shade if you’re in the last 2-3 rows of the 100s as shown in my pictures below.
  • The video boards they upgraded in 2018 still hold up well and provide good views for replays. They don’t show advanced metrics like you see at other ballparks for pitching and batting as all you saw was the speed of the pitch and what type of pitch (“92 MPH Changeup”).
  • One thing I found interesting is the Angels’ bullpen is the one closest to the stands with the visitors in front next to the outfield. I figured they would be like other teams where the visitors are the closer one to the fans so that the fans can bother/heckle the visiting team’s bullpen pitchers more than the Angels.

I don’t put Angel Stadium high in my list of rankings but for just watching a game like I did yesterday (didn’t really walk around or anything being we got there right before game time and I’ve been here before), Angels Stadium provides good views and the prices are comparable if not slightly cheaper than Petco for a weekend game. So if you just want to watch a game, Angel Stadium is still good for this but as I put in my reviews of other ballparks, all the other amenities, design, surroundings, etc is what make the top ballparks what they are.

Road Trip to Boston and Fenway Park

Posted on by Paul

With the 2026 started, it’s time to resume my chase to see all 30 ballparks and no better way to start this season than Fenway Park, which along with Wrigley Field, are considered the two must see classic ballparks.

Starting from a hotel in the Back Bay area of Boston about a mile away, it was an easy walk over to the ballpark and the ballpark’s location is easy to get to in general, with a couple of subway stations nearby.

We entered the ballpark at Jersey Street (formerly Yawkey Way) where they do security and ticket scanning versus at the gate of the ballpark itself. I like this as it allowed the blocked off street to be a place where they had food, music, the team store and other entertainment to hang out before entering the ballpark.

A nice touch on Jersey Street is the starting lineup using retro-style Topps baseball cards:

As well, on the backside of the Green Monster (Lansdowne St) is the Bleacher Bar (that allows you a peek of center field) and other bars and food that are open to anyone without a ticket:

Once you enter the ballpark, depending on which entrance you go into (we entered from Jersey Street which covers Gate A and Gate D), you may end up in the tunnels underneath the grandstands which can get pretty crowded and hard to navigate with large crowds and how small these tunnels are, which is expected considering the design when these ballparks were built over a hundred years ago. Other entrances enter more opened areas but entering under the grandstands, it is pretty tight to walk around.

But I do like that you can still walk around and see the field like newer ballparks in certain parks, like there’s a walkway behind the grandstand level, even if the walkway is small in some areas:

And they do have standing room only around most of the ballpark and on every level (except the box level where you can enter from the aforementioned tunnel underneath the grandstand), even if they uniquely do it like in right field where you’re standing elevated behind the narrow walkway:

I’m a big fan of places that have standing room only so you can go around to see different vantage points, even if it’s just for a few innings or as you’re walking to get food and drink.

Of course the grandstand is where you have the beams blocking your view and depending on how you view it, they still have the old school chairs:

Some might find this quaint and keeping with the old school look while others might not like this at all because the seats are uncomfortable plus your limited sightlines with beams blocking some of your view. We sat in the loge box in front of the grandstands so they had more standard seats and no beams so didn’t have this issue but I can see those who sit back knocking Fenway down a notch because of this.

Walking around the ballpark, they have group/bar areas as well as a kids area, things to allow for socializing as well as activities for the kids. I do like how they’re doing these things to keep people entertained and make baseball attractive to those who want it to be a social event too.

I get how baseball purists may not like this since the focus should be on the game but to really get the crowds to keep coming out and make the ballpark a place to be, you do need all these things to keep the casual fans coming. Because to me, having a ballpark that people want to go and with full crowds gives it so much energy that is substantially better than a small 10-15K crowd of hardcore fans.

As far as food options, the ballpark has food that’s locally inspired, like lobster rolls and clam chowder, along with what you see as standard ballpark fares, with hot dogs, burgers, chicken tenders and fries. Jersey Street has more options but it doesn’t have the variety and/or featuring local eateries as you see in other ballparks. There are a good number of restaraunts outside the ballpark so that’s the better option to grab something to eat before getting to the ballpark.

I found the ballpark to have pretty good views in the different areas we visited. It does seem to have obstructed views no matter where you sit, similar to how new ballparks are designed in that you may not see a small portion of the field, like sitting in Loge Box 137 you couldn’t see the left field corner right where the foul line meets the warning track. But I considered that part of how ballparks are now in order to get away from the cookie-cutter circle/oval design.

While watching the game, I did notice that the netting right behind home plate goes over the seating and right up to the second level so any foul balls hit right behind home plate would roll back down to the field where the ballboy would be waiting to grab them. Found that interesting to add that extra layer of protection (which I actually don’t mind with how hard hit some of these foul balls are and taking some off my hands in the past that flew right over the netting). This netting over the seats is strictly only in the few sections right behind home plate as the rest of the netting down the foul line is the standard netting that goes straight up in front of the stands.

The other nice touch is how the LED boards behind home plate that show the box score, balls/strikes/outs and the batter are colored in green to match the rest of the awning (the ones not showing ads that is), which I found to be a nice touch to blend into the rest of the ballpark.

As well, you can’t help but enjoy the old school scoreboard on the Green Monster and manually updating it:

In keeping with the old school theme, they don’t show advanced pitching metrics (horizontal break, vertical break) but interestingly they do show advanced batting metrics (distance, launch angle and bat speed) on the replay of the ball the batter gets a hit on or an out.

And in between innings, they generally just play music (though it does include contemporary music and not just organ music), with minimal entertainment like you see at the newer ballparks that play skits, contests and games with fans/players, have the in-game announcer trying to hype you up to make noise, etc. It goes with the old school vibes that the ballpark tries to still maintain while doing updates to work in the new age.

Overall I really liked Fenway Park and can see why it’s a baseball cathedral you must visit. The tickets are quite expensive when compared to other ballparks for similar seats but it definitely is in my top tier of ballparks and one that I would recommend anyone check out a game at least one time.

First Homestand of 2026 Musings

Posted on by Paul

Some thoughts from the first homestand:

  • It doesn’t seem Craig Stammen knows how to manage the bullpen as of yet, despite being a bullpen guy himself. In the second game of the season with a 2-1 lead and Estrada walking two straight guys, you leave him in to walk another guy, give up a slow infield hit to tie it up and then you wait until you have the lefty on lefty matchup to bring in Peralta to face Kevin McGonigle, who even though he’s a rookie in only his second game, had a four hit game in his first game and is on fire and you you don’t really have a book on him yet. I get that Mason Miller wouldn’t be available for a multi-inning save in the second game of the season (though he was available to do it today in the sixth game of the season?) but bring someone else in earlier when Estrada had lost control out there.
  • Then in the fifth game of the season, down 4-3 in the 6th inning, after Kyle Hart had giving you two great innings, you leave him in and he gives up a double and a walk to start the inning. Instead of having another reliever start the inning (asking two innings out of Hart is already a great ask) or pulling Hart at this time, you leave him in. He does strike out the next batter before giving up another two more singles to drive in another run to make it 5-3. At that point you pull him but it’s the bases loaded and you’re putting Bradgley Rodriguez in a tough spot. Of course it doesn’t work out and the game gets out of hand then and becomes 8-3 and eventually a 9-3 loss.
  • The offense continues to sputter, similar to last year. New coaching staff, new hitting coaches and still the same result. I thought with a new manager, you would see more creativity in the lineup. At least in today’s game, Stammen did tinker with the lineup a little bit, moving Manny down to cleanup and Laureano, who’s been the hottest hitter in the lineup, up to fifth. Laureano continued his hot ways, helping give some cushion with a two-run home run in the 8th to push a 3-1 lead up to 5-1 in what became a much needed 7-1 victory.
  • It was great to see Nick Pivetta bounce back today and get through five innings with no runs, one hit, eight strikeouts and only two walks after the bad opening day start of three innings and six runs. Hoping this is the start of seeing him like last year as he continues to build up (only 82 pitches today).
  • Thought the Padres would get off to a better start. The Tigers I figured would be a tough matchup with who they had for starting pitching but seeing them get swept by Arizona after playing the Padres and seeing how SF struggled against the Yankees in their opening series, I expected a little more and figured a .500 homestand. So 2-4 isn’t as bad, especially after yesterday’s poor 9-3 loss to SF. so we’ll see how the team looks after this road trip against Boston and Pittsburgh and finally getting to hit against Paul Skenes.

Opening Day 2026 Musings

Posted on by Paul

Opening Day continues to be one of my favorite days of the year as it’s great to be back at the ballpark and catch Padres baseball again after the end of the previous season, especially being at Petco Park where it’s such a great place to watch a game.

As usual, when we get to the ballpark on Opening Day, we like to walk around and see what’s new as they always seem to be doing something new at Petco.

There is a good article at the San Diego Union-Tribune about the new food, though we didn’t get a chance to try any of it today as we arrived just in time for pre-game ceremonies. I did notice the Coco Ichibanya stand that took over the location of Delaware North’s San Diego’s Finest Chicken in the Mercado and is definitely one I plan to try at a future game.

The one thing that stuck out from my seats is the new video boards on the towers. I’m glad that they’re starting to show pitching metrics consistently now, something that other ballparks have been doing for some time. Last year’s intro of the pitching metrics on the LED ribbon boards behind home plate (see below) in the middle of the season was a good start so it’s nice to see they continue showing this information.

Now with these boards, they have a more permanent place to toggle them in addition to showing the standard pitching data:

They do use these boards to show the in-game messages as shown on the other boards, like “Strikeout”, “Get Loud”, etc and of course (which was probably the main reason to have them), circle through ads before the game and in between innings. But overall being someone who likes tech, I do like having these boards and don’t think it detracts from the ballpark’s aesthetics. Now if they can update the big video board in left field as it’s starting to show its wear (some panels of it look burned from the sun) after being around for 11+ years now…

As far as the game itself, Nick Pivetta didn’t look too good and it got out of hand early as coming back from a 6-0 deficit after three innings (even a 4-0 deficit after one inning) was going to be difficult against Tarik Skubal. So that dampened the mood of the game pretty quick and raises the questions everyone’s been wondering about the starting pitching. It is just the first game so let’s see after the first turn through the rotation.

I feel pretty good about the bullpen, considering Mason Miller is the closer (and should have been the closer to end 2025) and the many arms the Padres have there, even with Jason Adam being slow-played by starting on the Injured List (IL). I know relievers are pretty volatile in general (one year they’ll be great and then the next year fall off), but at the same time it seems AJ Preller and staff are able to find bullpen replacements every year if needed. Who would have thought that guys like Steven Wilson (2022), Tom Cosgrove (2023), Jeremiah Estrada (2024) or David Morgan (2025) would be as good as they ended up being going into those respective seasons?

Even with the return of pretty much the same lineup as the end of last season (Ramon Laureano would have been in the lineup during the playoffs if he didn’t get injured at the end of the regular season), I still like this lineup along with the additions of Miguel Andujar and Sung-Mun Song when he’s healthy and ready to go.

It also makes sense to add veteran guys like Nick Castellanos and Ty France where you can buy low and start the season with them, keeping the guys with minor league options in the minors and hoping these vets bounce back like we’ve seen the past few years with Gavin Sheets, Donovan Solano, David Peralta and Jurickson Profar (though of course with Profar you have questions now considering multiple PED suspensions). If these guys work out, then great as it was a cheap flyer on them and if they don’t, you move on like has been done the past few years with Matt Carpenter, Nelson Cruz, Jason Heyward and Yuli Gurriel and then try one of the young guys that still have minor league options.

Similarly with the starting pitching and the flyers on Walker Buehler and German Marquez. Starting pitching is more worrisome considering Joe Musgrove is starting the season on the IL and you hope Michael King is back to who he was before the injury last year and there isn’t much depth there. But maybe I’m a little too optimistic, but I feel they’ll find ways to fill innings as they have the past few seasons, considering we have Ruben Niebla leading the staff and despite today’s rough start by Pivetta.