san-diego-padres

Road Trip to Tampa Bay and Tropicana Field

Posted on by Paul

In my continued quest to visit all the ballparks, we headed down to Tampa Bay and specifically St. Petersburg to see the Padres play the Rays at Tropicana Field, especially after the work they did to repair the roof after Hurricane Milton, which included them doing some other enhancements as well.

The series was a disaster for the Padres who got swept and found ways to blow all three games in excruciating fashion but I’ll focus on the ballpark itself.

Tropicana Field is located about 20 miles from Tampa International Airport and really you have to use a car to get there. The ballpark is located about 1-2 miles away from downtown St. Petersburg, which is a nice downtown area with great waterfront/pier access and plenty of restaurants and bars in the area.

However, next to the ballpark there really isn’t anything but parking lots and some housing and hotels but it’s not really an area to hang around before/after the games. The majority of the hotels are in downtown St. Pete and they offer shuttles to/from Rays games.

We stayed at a hotel only a couple of blocks away from the ballpark, though we did go downtown St. Pete as the city offers the Central Avenue Trolley and Downtown Looper as free options to get around downtown and between downtown and the main train station. We ended up using an Uber to go downtown with how hot and humid it was in at the end of August but those are public transportation options if the weather cooperates or you have some flexibility.

At the time we arrived in Tampa Bay, they announced public funding approval for a new ballpark which would be built in Tampa near the Buccaneers’ football stadium. That’s been the argument against Tropicana Field and being over in St. Pete making it hard to get to for many locals in the Tampa Bay region. I don’t have a good feel since I went straight from the airport over to St. Pete and stayed there the whole time so it wasn’t bad in my experience but I only made that round trip once and during non-rush hour traffic times.

Coming up on Tropicana Field and being that it’s a domed ballpark, it looks pretty nondescript.

Once inside, I didn’t realize at first that they had odd-numbered sections on the third base side and even- numbered sections on the first base side. So it went 101, 103, 105, etc going towards third base and then 102, 104, 106, etc on going towards first base. This is like how Petco Park is but the signs didn’t make it as noticeable.

The ballpark is much more intimate and smaller than I expected, especially since there is only limited seats in the outfield:

And as we started walking towards the third base side, I saw a sign to go down towards the Field level, with stairs to go down and an escalator to go up. My assumption was this was to continue on the current first level of the ballpark I was on (which was behind the lower level 100s seats) but actually the way the ballpark works is once you get to the foul poles, you can continue into a corridor that allows you to walk the concourse in the outfield where you can still see the field.

Otherwise you can go down to the Field level to walk around a lower level in the outfield. Both levels allow access to the seats in the outfield, with the Field level going up stairs and the outfield concourse going down stairs.

The Field level is walking through a tunnel so it reminds me of really old stadiums where you’re walking underground, complete with stairs to get to seats.

They do try to brighten up the Field level with some nice exhibits along the way:

And once you get to center field, you reach Gate 1 which has a nice looking grand entrance into the ballpark:

This entrance is the nicest looking entrance in the ballpark as the other entrances tend to be just regular entrances like you would see entering a building.

On the upper outfield concourse, it is nice to be able to walk around and see the field and in this case be able to literally walk in front of their video board when you walk in right field. Only in the outfield can you see the field as behind home plate and in the upper level its all walking through tunnels to get to seats as those concourses are behind the stands with no view of the field.

In left field they have ADA seats and general admission seats while the seats in right field are standing room only (SRO) with drink rails which is the only place in the ballpark that has SRO options.

They do have the Budweiser Porch straight away in center field which is a nice social area to get food and drink and hang out.

As well, next to the Budweiser Porch is the Rays Touch Tank with stingrays swimming in a 10,000 gallon tank that kids can touch. I thought this was a nice attraction considering the team name and something for kids to do.

Once we sat down for the game, the biggest thing I noticed is how easy it is to lose the ball in the white roof. Besides the quirks with the ball hitting the catwalks, once a ball is hit into the air, it was extremely easy to lose where the ball went. I know it wasn’t just me as I heard a Rays fan behind me tell his friend “once the ball goes above the net, I always lose the ball with the white backdrop.”

I couldn’t imagine having to deal with this all season as it makes the game much less enjoyable when it’s that difficult to track the ball. Other than losing the ball, since the ballpark is pretty small, the views of the seats are actually pretty good and it doesn’t feel large or far away like going to some other ballparks.

Another thing is this ballpark still has both bulllpens on the field down the foul line, something you’re seeing less and less of nowadays in baseball.

They do have a few national brands of food but most of the food is locally inspired. They do have a food hall on both sides of the infield, one at 119 on the third base side and one at 120 on the first base that are both carbon copies of each other:

For food, I found the options to be decent but more expensive than I expected. My souvenir soda (which included free refills) was $18.50. There aren’t many food options outside around the ballpark unless you want to start downtown before you get here but it isn’t exactly walking distance. So you don’t have the outside food and drink options the way you have at the many ballparks that are in downtown or have ballpark villages right outside/near the ballpark.

The video board in right field isn’t large compared to other ballparks but it is big enough considering how small the ballpark is. They do have limited ribbon boards compared to other ballparks, but they do show enough information including showing pitching information (including pitch break) and cycling through out of town scores.

In between innings they do a variety of things pretty regularly throughout the game including the t-shirt toss, trivia games, mascot race and different cams like the SpongeBob look a like cam. So they do try to keep the fans entertained throughout the entire game versus some places where all they do is play music,

I did find it funny and kinda cool that the Rays jumped on the Tarps Off trend and have a section in left field called the Tarps Off Territory.

Overall, Tropicana Field was what I expected based on what others have said about it. It’s in the lower tier of ballparks when you consider everything (location, what it offers, what’s around it, etc) and why I can see the Rays have wanted a new ballpark for some time. I was surprised at how small it felt inside there as it does have an intimate feel to it. But other than that, it is pretty barebones so I’ll be looking forward to returning to Tampa when the new ballpark opens.

Road Trip to Cleveland and Progressive Field

Posted on by Paul

Continuing on the quest to see all 30 ballparks, we made a trip to Cleveland to see the Padres play the Guardians at Progressive Field.

Located at the south part of downtown Cleveland, Progressive Field is right next to Rocket Arena (where the Cavaliers play) and is accessible by rail (train) from the airport on the Red Line. You get off at the Tower City station and then it’s about a 1/2 mile to the ballpark. The ride is close to 30 minutes from the airport so we ended up taking an Uber which was only a 15-minute ride since we arrived on Friday later afternoon and wanted some time to explore the ballpark.

The ballpark has been around since 1994 and was the first wave of new ballparks (with Baltimore’s Oriole Park) and they’ve done a nice job of maintaining and continually renovating it including recent renovations finished before the 2025 season. The capacity has been reduced from a peak of 45,569 in 2010 to the current capacity of 34,830 which can have higher attendance numbers when you include the SRO tickets they sell.

Walking around the ballpark in the infield, at first I only noticed the enclosed concourse that’s blocked by the different stands and club areas from seeing the field but then I realized that there’s a parallel walkway right in front of the stands/clubs as well.

For example, in this picture below where I was near the right field foul pole going towards home plate, you can see the two walkways, the one on the right that has a view of the field and the one on the far left that’s behind the stands:

Here is what it looks like walking the inner concourse (the one you go to on the left from the picture above):

And what it looks like walking on the right one that has a view of the field:

And another example where you can see the two parallel walkways (with a sweet Cleveland mural and the Guardians from the Hope Memorial Bridge):

First time I’ve seen this where you had both walkways, which helps to avoid having too much traffic on the concourse. The one negative is there really isn’t standing room only in the infield as they draw yellow and blue lines so people know where they can walk and to keep moving:

The yellow line is behind the seats, generally behind accessible seating, while the blue line is where you can line up for the stands. Talking to one of the ushers near 1st base, he said you can stand behind the blue line for standing room only (SRO) but this sign says otherwise:

And during the game I didn’t really see people standing in the infield except for waiting in line to get food and drink.

So there really isn’t standing room areas in the infield, but down near the foul poles and in the outfield on multiple levels, there are an abundance of places to stand with drink rails. From going down to left field to center field behind the bullpens to right field and then going up to the Terrace Garden and Terrace Hall as well as right field on the top 400/500 level, you can usually find a spot to stand.

While it’s missing the infield SRO, it’s still nice there are a lot of options down near the foul poles and in the outfield on multiple levels and I really like how they’ve built out many group and social areas like the Right Field District. This combined with $1 hot dogs and $2 Miller Lite beer cans pregame specials in the Right Field District for the Friday and Saturday night games I went to and it creates a great atmosphere and tons of energy at the ballpark. They’ve really made Guardians games a place to go which is a great recipe for big crowds regardless of how the team may be doing.

In terms of the outfield seating, left field underneath the massive wide videoboard is still bench seating and you walk underneath the bleachers with no view of the field here. Center field to right field is wide open with views of the field along with the aforementioned SRO.

As well, in center field is Heritage Park, honoring past Cleveland greats. It’s a really nice touch to see all the different players throughout Cleveland’s history and definitely worth going through to look around. Because it is in center field right next to the Right Field District, you do tend to get a lot of people hanging out in this area as part of the pregame activities (the $1 hot dogs and $2 beers previously mentioned).

The SRO right behind the bullpens in center field is nice and gets you really close to the bullpens as you’re literally on top of the visitors bullpen which is stacked right behind the home bullpen. There is the Lower Reserved Bullpen sections right in front of the bullpens, four small sections with 2-3 rows of padded seats that feel kinda private since the ushers check your seats and give you a wristband to go in and out of the sections.

In right field near section 113 there’s the Field View Bullpen, which allows you to go down stairs to where the visitors bullpen used to be (before they moved it to the aforementioend stacked level in center field as part of renovations before the 2015 season). There’s a line for it and they allow 25 people to watch a full inning there before switching out for the next 25 lined up. It’s definitely a nice touch and a cool thing to check.

One benefit I like is they do have a re-entry policy at Progressive Field where they will scan your ticket so you can come back in, similar to Petco Park. The norm around the league tends to be to not allow re-enter so places this I find very useful, especially if you’re staying nearby like we were in a hotel only a block away.

One thing I didn’t notice until reading up on the ballpark more before going on Saturday is the Family Deck section in right field on the 300 level that you take an escalator to from the ground (100) level. This area has a good number things for kids to do including a small batting cage, playground, a home plate to 1st base timed sprint, pitching cage as well as tables and SRO drink rails. It’s definitely a good area for the kids to play. But being on the second level I can see this as a place that’s easily missed (I didn’t notice it all at the first game we went to) unless you know about it or do the exploring that I did.

While the ballpark does have downtown Cleveland in the background, the skyline isn’t that populated since there aren’t as many tall buildings in the area. I went up to the upper level briefly but wasn’t able to really see too far into downtown or Lake Erie. So it doesn’t have the skyline of some of the other downtown ballparks.

The massive wide video board and the accompanying ribbon boards around the ballpark provide good stats and good clear replays. For someone like me that cares about the ballpark technology, these video screens are top-notch and provide good information and they repeat the information throughout the ribbon boards (i.e. the counts and pitch information like pitch type, horizontal break and vertical break show on ribbon boards in right field, 1st base and 3rd base) so it makes it easy to find and see from most places in the ballpark. For the first game, we sat behind home plate and the second game in the outfield and it was easy to keep up to date in either sport. The one thing is they only show out-of-town scores on the ribbon underneath the big video board and only in between innings. Left field would be a place I’d avoid since besides bench seating, there isn’t another video board in the ballpark so you wouldn’t be able to see the videos and also the ribbon board underneath with the out-of-town scores.

In terms of the seating, the views are good throughout the ballpark as nothing felt far as I tried different vantage points. For the most part, the seats are slanted towards home plate, though there are weird quirks, such as section 519 where the seats are angled in a weird way (I’m surprised they didn’t remove these seats as part of the renovations).

For food, they do have local options like Happy Dog, Momocho, Barrio and Perry’s Ice Cream along with ballpark fare. The Slider Dog from Happy Dog with pimento mac and cheese, crumbled bacon, and froot loops was interesting to try but wasn’t the best exotic hot dog I’ve tried. Getting a hot dog and putting ball park mustard on it is definitely something I would do as I found the mustard to have a good flavor to it. After you get your hot dog from a stand, go to the nearby condiments stand and you’ll find the mustard there with ketchup, regular mustard, napkins and utensils.

Otherwise the rest of the food was decent but the surrounding area has good food options, including East 4th Street, which has many restaurants and bars. The area around the ballpark is somewhere you can hang out before a game when coming downtown with a variety of food and drink options and the type of scenes you’re seeing other ballparks try to replicate but in that they own all the surrounding entertainment (like in Atlanta with the Battery). I prefer areas like this in downtown Cleveland (and similarly in downtown San Diego with the Gaslamp Quarter) where it’s more organic versus something the team is controlling. And my preference would be to go eat at one of these areas before the game versus eating at the ballpark.

During the game, they try to keep the crowd involved with things between innings like the flex cam, trivia and other contests. It’s not every inning but pretty often so it keeps the crowd involved. The biggest thing was the Hot Dog Derby race, their version of the mascot race on the field with hot dog condiments that the crowd got really excited for. They do “Get Loud” and “2 Strikes” on the board to get the crowd going in key moments of the game as well. One interesting thing is they do the cap shuffle before the game.

Overall, Progressive Field is a nice ballpark and I really like how they’ve continued to renovate it to make it a place to go to. Even though the ballpark is now 32 years old, it doesn’t feel or look old as they’ve done a great job maintaining it. In terms of amenities they’ve done everything to make it the place to go to for everyone, whether its for those who want to go with groups or social areas, bring their kids, the corporate (with the suites and club areas) or those who there to just watch the game since the capacity has been made intimate with most seats having good sightlines.

Progressive Field is how I hope other teams want to maintain their ballparks to keep them modern and places people want to continue going to, versus deferring maintenance and expecting a new ballpark/stadium to be built as you’ve seen with other teams and other sports leagues. It’s definitely a place I would recommend visiting.

Trade Deadline 2026 Musings

Posted on by Paul

With the trade deadline passing yesterday, some musings on the moves the Padres made:

  • The trade for Robbie Ray and Casey Mize (with utility man Gage Workman also part of the Mize trade) adds starting pitching that the team desperately needs. It was fun seeing the “pitching chaos” the past couple of weeks with previous starting pitchers like Griffin Canning, Randy Vasquez, JP Sears and German Marquez doing different bulk inning roles throughout the game (Marquez pitching a 5 inning save was something that hadn’t been done in franchise history since the first season in 1969). However, you can’t really expect that to continue for 2 months especially when you’re banking on Michael King and Walker Buehler as the two true “starters” since both have been liable to big blowup innings this year that require the bullpen to come in and cover some innings.
  • This is even more so needed with how uncertain it is with Joe Musgrove and Nick Pivetta coming back (especially after Pivetta left his rehab start early today with elbow tightness). I don’t think you can fully count on either considering Musgrove has been out for nearly 2 years and Pivetta is dealing with a tricky elbow issue so I would consider anything you get out of them a bonus. So adding two legit starting pitchers with the Padres bullpen gives them a good pitching staff for the rest of the season.
  • I do think the Padres gave up a little too much in terms of giving up Joniel Hernandez and Kash Mayfield as part of the trades for Ray and Mize. Mayfield since he’s the Padres #2 prospect (and best pitching prospect) and Hernandez because he’s a 17-year-old shortstop they just signed as the top prospect for $1.4 million in their international signing period earlier this year. I get that Mayfield’s numbers haven’t been great this year and Hernandez is like a lottery ticket since he’s still young and far away but considering how barren the Padres farm system is and that they’re only getting these guys for rentals, I would hope the Padres can start getting more young guys through the system (like Jackson Merrill) to continually help each year and balance out the Padres bloated payroll. I don’t think it’s realistic even with the impending sale to all of a sudden expect the Padres to spend substantially more considering they have a top ten payroll in both CBT and actual cash spent and will be paying the tax this year. Would be great to get rid of some of these big contracts that aren’t worth what they’re getting paid but no one will take on those deals without prospects or the Padres eating a large portion of the contract which then leads us back to the same problem. A more balanced team would help the Padres from being so top-heavy and dependent on these highly paid players as we saw them struggle early this year and most of last year.
  • The offense has been better since the beginning of June and it still goes back to the offense will go based on how the star players go and what I mentioned with being so top-heavy. It is how the team is constructed so can’t do anything about this season. We saw last year with the trade deadline additions of Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano and Freddy Fermin, that the offense still struggled towards the end of the year and into the NL Wild Card series against the Cubs as the top of the lineup (Fernando Tatis Jr, Luis Arraez and Manny Machado) struggled badly. So while it would have been nice to add another bat, the offense will really go based on how the current star batters go, like we saw tonight. I don’t remember the last time Tatis, Machado, Merrill and Xander Bogaerts all got hits in the 1st inning to drive in three runs, especially against a pitcher like Eduardo Rodriguez who has been having a great season (even if the Padres hit well against him last year).

Road Trip to Kansas City and Kauffman Stadium

Posted on by Paul

With the Padres playing in Kansas City right after the All Star Break, now was a good time to check out Kauffman Stadium and try some of the famous KC BBQ.

Kauffman Stadium is located about 10 miles from downtown KC, situated right next to Arrowhead Stadium, with both surrounded by large parking lots and right next to a couple of highways.

So there really isn’t anything nearby in the area and you really have to get here by car. There are a few hotels nearby (1-2 miles away) but most people recommend staying downtown and then driving/ubering to the game. Even places like Gates BBQ or Dixon’s Chili that are popular spots to eat prior to the game are a mile or two away that you will need to drive to.

The stadium opened in 1973 so it has the cookie-cutter design from the 1960s and 1970s but they have done a good job of maintaining and renovating it over the years.

Walking around the ballpark on the Plaza level, you are able to see the field unlike some other older stadiums where the concourse is closed off from the field.

Not surprisingly being an older stadium, the concourse has an overhang (for holding the seating sections above the 100s/200s) so it can feel enclosed and when it’s a large crowd, get a little cramped walking around.

Most of the food stands were locally inspired and do they have a solid craft beer selection but I didn’t notice too many local restaurants other than Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, which I highly recommend trying, especially if you can go to one of their restaurant locations. The BBQ at Joe’s lives up to the hype and the wait; we went to the original gas station location and even though we got there at 8pm on a weeknight, the line was still out the door and ended up being a 45-minute wait but the BBQ was top-notch.

The rest of the food is decent but not great, which goes with what I saw looking online and at the Royals reddit. Many people recommend eating elsewhere like the many places around downtown before coming here (since you have to drive here in any case) and I agree with them.

One interesting thing is they only have standing room only around the foul poles into the outfield:

This could be because of the concourse having an overhang in the infield and so they can have all the different concession stands, whereas it opens up to be more wide open (with no overhang) at the foul poles.

They do a great job honoring the Royals history here as the Hall of Fame in the outfield is a pretty good size and has a lot of information on Kansas City’s baseball history and its connection to Cooperstown. It’s free to enter once you get in the ballpark so definitely recommend stopping by for a visit.

As well, the statues line the outfield right above the fountains:

Speaking of the fountains, since Kansas City is known as the City of Fountains, it is one of the signature touches of the ballpark (along with the crown-shaped big videoboard known as CrownVision) and it is a nice touch. They usually have the fountains shooting up water pregame, between innings and during moments of the game.

Also in the outfield is a pretty large kids area that includes a playground, pitching mound, batting cage, a miniature field (similar to what they have at Petco Park) as well as a kids team store. They do a great job of keeping the kids entertained here, more so than any other ballpark I’ve been to with Atlanta being another one that’s comparable.

In terms of views, the views are pretty good at different places and seats throughout the ballpark as it doesn’t feel too far away or too high and you can get a good view of the action on the field.

The only negative is being an older ballpark, the seats are facing straight forward versus angled towards home plate. So for example, where we sat behind the photo well next to the visitor’s dugout on the third base side, I had to angle myself to the right to face home plate, which wasn’t too bad since the seat next to me was empty.

I do like that the seats are labeled for long-time season ticket holders:

During the game, they do try to have consistent in-game entertainment between innings, things like the cap shuffle, flex cam, kiss cam and their hot dog derby, which is their version of the big heads racing on the field. But maybe because of the size of the crowd on a Friday night (close to 26K), people didn’t really get into these bits on a consistent basis. Like the hot dog derby, the Salute to Service, kiss cam and when they showed the guys in the upper level doing “Tarps Off” did you hear the crowd get into it. For the other bits, if you weren’t looking at the screen you wouldn’t have even noticed them since they don’t say too much about many of them (i.e. they don’t have a DJ intro the bit like other ballparks) and the crowd didn’t see to be paying attention to them.

They do display the advanced pitching and hitting stats on the LED ribbon board in right field and the big videoboard known as “CrownVison” contains all the stats you normally expect to see.

Because the video board is so tall (and was upgraded with newer technology in 2021), you can see things pretty clearly on the video board. Even though most ballparks now are going for a wider screen (like how your TV is wide), the CrownVision board with a taller height worked pretty well to display information and replays. And I like that it gives a distinct look to it matching the Royals and their crown theme.

Overall, the Royals have done a good job maintaining Kauffman Stadium for a ballpark built in the 1970s. It is limited because of the structure/design and location when compared to modern ballparks built in the 2000s and doesn’t have the old-time charm of the classic ballparks like Wrigley or Fenway. But overall, it does hold up better than some of the other older ballparks like Angel Stadium and even some of the 1990s ballparks like Chase Field, Rate Field and Tropicana Field. I have it right in the middle tier of ballparks so it’s worth a visit to see as well as try the great KC BBQ.

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.