san-diego-padres

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.

Michael King Returns

Posted on by Paul

Going into the offseason, it was unlikely that Dylan Cease and Michael King would return but if I had the choice of one, I would go with Michael King. Cease is a workhorse but seeing how inconsistent he is (not to mention how he’s done in the playoffs) along with King’s repertoire and the fact that I figured his contract would be cheaper, I was really hoping the Padres could find a way to bring him back.

But once Cease signed early in the offseason with Toronto for 7 years $210 million, you figured King would get a good deal especially as you heard about the Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles being interested, all teams on the east coast where King was from.

But then you heard murmurs about the Padres still being interested and the deal was quickly announced. He gets one year at $22 million, which is pretty much the $22.025 million qualifying offer, and then two additional years at his option to make it two years $45 million or three years $75 million.

Three years $75 million was what some were projecting he would get going into free agency and considering the qualifying offer draft pick compensation, his injuries in 2025 plus his limited history as a starter, this may have scared off some teams or lower their offer to a lower average annual value to less than $25 million.

I see this as a good deal for both sides. King benefits more since, if he pitches extremely well, he can go back into free agency for a big payday without the qualifying offer attached that scares some teams off and if he doesn’t, he can opt in and try again in a year or two.

But I see this as a win for the Padres since they need starting pitching for 2026, they know what King’s capable of and anyone else who could be of ace quality would have been at least the same cost if not more. I’ve always felt that long-term contracts for pitchers are extremely risky for the team with how injuries affect pitchers. Just look at Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove and the injuries to them since they both signed their long-term extensions.

For the Padres with a bunch of large contracts, having King on a short-term contract is ideal so you have quality pitching without being tied to something large and long term. Of course it would have been better if it was team options or a straight three year deal but it seems being creative to reduce the actual cost (since the contract is structured with $12 million as a signing bonus, a $5 million salary in 2026 and a $5 million buyout if he declines the option) is something AJ is having to do to keep the Padres costs down. So this seems to be the only way to get him to accept is giving him options. Then again, it may be what the Padres prefer since they may hope guys opt out so we don’t have too many more long-term contracts on the books.

I’m bullish on King being closer to his 2024 self versus what we saw in 2025. Considering in 2025 before his first injury sleeping awkwardly, he was pitching great (10 starts with a 2.59 ERA, .195 AVG against, 1.02 WHIP, 3.26 FIP) and he says he’s fully healthy so I can see him having a great season in 2026 and being at the front of the rotation.

Craig Stammen new Padres Manager

Posted on by Paul

When it was posted yesterday morning on X.com by Matt Jones out of Kentucky that Craig Stammen was the new manager:

My first reaction was this couldn’t be serious considering we hadn’t heard anything about him being a candidate and Stammen not having any managerial/coaching experience. There had been talk of a fourth mysterious candidate outside of Albert Pujols, Ruben Niebla and Nick Hundley so at that point it didn’t seem that far-fetched if he was the person.

Then the Padres announced it an hour later:

Once the shock wore off and I started reading more coverage of it, I could see why he was the choice. All four candidates that were finalists didn’t have MLB managerial experience (granted Pujols had experience managing in the Dominican Republic league) so any candidate was going to need to learn on the job and have a good experienced staff around him.

And with how highly people speak of Stammen as a leader and people person and how he’s worked in the Padres organization since 2023, I could see AJ wanting someone who knew how the organization worked, its philosophy and how the players are (especially guys like Machado and Tatis who he’s played alongside) to maintain that continuity like they did with Mike Shildt.

Of course, the other side is maybe it’s time to do something different to break up that continuity because depending on how you look at it, it’s either a good or bad thing how the Padres have been lately. Good that since 2020 the Padres have had more success than any other time in franchise history (four playoff trips in six years) but bad in that it still hasn’t resulted in winning the World Series.

I don’t have as much of an uproar about it as other people since it wasn’t like we were realistically choosing him over Bruce Bochy (which would have been great as previously mentioned) so anyone was going to be new in this role. And superstars like Pujols generally haven’t translated well into managerial/front office roles since it’s hard for them to relate and understand the mindset of all players on the roster, since they can’t understand the difficulties that journeyman players have.

So that’s generally why you see a lot of managers being players who were role/bench guys become managers and head coaches. While pitchers haven’t really been managers before and he has no experience, that to me is the unconventional part of this hire, which I don’t mind as much to try something different. So I see it as combination of both something to be stable and unconventional which is on brand for AJ Preller.

There’s been plenty of guys with limited or no experience coaching and managing like Steve Kerr and JJ Redick in the NBA and Aaron Boone and Mike Matheny in MLB. Of course, there have been plenty of other spectacular failures with new guys, just look at Andy Green and Jayce Tingler that AJ hired. So it’s a crapshoot regardless of which way it goes but I’m open to seeing how it plays out with Craig Stammen before bashing the move already like others are doing.

Mike Shildt’s Retirement

Posted on by Paul

I was surprised as anyone by Mike Shildt’s retirement. I wasn’t a big fan of his stubbornness and how he constructed the lineup (Arraez batting 2nd all season) and his use of the bullpen (sticking with Suarez as the closer after acquiring Mason Miller and the way he used Wandy Peralta in high leverage situations) but considering the Padres won 90+ games in back to back seasons for the first time and made the playoffs in back to back years, it was expected for him to be back another year.

But once he retired and word came out about some of the coaching staff and support staff issues, you can see why he would be burnt out trying to do a tough job and working with everyone in the org. Being a sports manager/coach at the professional or college level isn’t an easy job with all the committments you have with players, coaches, the org and media. Maybe it was better for everyone if he left at this time.

What’s interesting is reading about how Ryan Flaherty was AJ Preller’s preferred choice for manager two years ago but he may have been overruled by Eric Kutsenda and Erik Greupner. When the decision was announced then that Mike Shildt would be the new manager, I liked the decision as you were going with someone who had been inside the team for the past two years to understand the team dynamics and organizational structure and was an experienced winning manager. You figured he would keep going what had been built, better handle some of the issues (like the strife between AJ Preller and Bob Melvin) and could keep it running for several years.

And Shildt did exactly that with how they won in 2024 but 2025 you started to see maybe why he left St. Louis because of “philosophical differences”. It was with the way he managed the team as there’s no way the analytics team wasn’t telling him that Arraez shouldn’t be batting second with how much he struggled throughout the season not should he have continued playing first base over Ryan O’Hearn who is a much better defender by the metrics at 1B.

As the search turns to the new manager, my ideal scenario would be to bring back Bruce Bochy for two years and promise Ruben Niebla to be the next manager. Bochy being 70 isn’t going to manage much longer (if he does manage again) so why not bring him home to take it over the finish line like what he did with the Texas Rangers.

He knows how to win and push the right buttons in the playoffs and someone like him would be respected in the clubhouse to make the tough decisions. It feels like part of the reason Mike Shildt didn’t want to make changes was the relationships he built with players that he didn’t want to upset even though it was in the best interests of the club and that’s where I can see Bochy doing this and getting the players onboard. And it would be great to have Boch finish out his managerial career with his first team and get us the elusive first World Series title.

But realistically it doesn’t seem this will happen from what I’ve read (doesn’t seem the Padres want to bring him back and not sure Bochy wants to come back into this) so will be interesting to see who the next manager is.

Road Trip to New York and Citi Field

Posted on by Paul

With the current Southwest Companion Pass promotional period in effect, we decided to make a quick trip to New York to see the Padres play the Mets and revisit Citi Field since I personally hadn’t been there in 14 years.

Back when I went back in 2011, I remember liking the design of the ballpark and overall the ballpark experience so was looking forward to seeing it again.

First thing is the ballpark is pretty easy to get to on the subway as the 7 train has a stop (Mets-Willets Point station) that literally is in front of Citi Field’s main entrance. This station is also where you would get off if you were going to the tennis US Open.

The US Open grounds are on one side, Citi Field is on the other side and construction is currently underway to build Etihad Park, the new home of New York FC of MLS, across the street from Citi Field. So this area is becoming a sports complex area, which kind of reminds me of Philadelphia where they have their two stadiums and arena in an area a little outside of Downtown with the downtown Philadelphia skyline off in the background.

In this case, you have the Manhattan skyline in the background but you do have Flushing Chinatown which is a 20-minute walk (or one subway stop away) from the ballpark and where we stayed at.

From our hotel in Flushing Chinatown, you can see Citi Field and Etihad Park being built (in the bottom left corner of the picture) and the Manhattan skyline in the background:

Arriving at the main entrance from the subway station, you’re greeted with the main entrance with the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, which was inspired by Ebbets Field. The building itself has a good mix of bricks and green coloring which makes it have a nice natural look and makes it belong in the area.

Once you enter the Rotunda, you have to go up stairs/escalator to get to the field level and other levels of the ballpark. The one thing of note is once you get to the field level you can walk around the entire ballpark without having to go up/down stairs again like some ballparks (i.e. Petco Park).

Walking around the field level, it does feel tight with the large crowds the Mets are drawing and considering that it’s enclosed on top by the upper level.

They do have a good amount of standing room only around the ballpark, though there are suites behind home plate so as you walk behind home plate, your view of the field is blocked and you instead see team store stands. For places where you have standing room, they don’t have rails to hold your food but they do have cup holders:

And as you walk in the outfield, the Shea Bridge as an ode to Shea Stadium is a nice touch.

As you continue on Shea Bridge (going from right field to center field), you see their humongous video screen that stands out anywhere you go in the ballpark.

The video screen is a plus for me as I’m big on having these technology advances at a ballpark and super big video screens are a part of it. It proved pretty useful in the two games we went to, as everyone in the ballpark could clearly see that two balls hit down the left field line by Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr were both foul.

What I thought was also pretty cool was behind the big video board is a social and kids area and even on the backside of the big video screen is a pretty big video screen for you to watch the game and stay up on the action as your kids are playing and/or you’re hanging out and socializing with family and friends.

Overall the ballpark has good sightlines from anywhere you sit. The upper deck can feel high and a little away from the game, especially when you’re in the upper level seats in left field.

Because of the seats in left field, the big video screen in center, there really isn’t much of a skyline for the ballpark beyond the outfield like you see with other ballparks. Right behind the ballpark in the outfield is an expressway and the Flushing Bay and then you have LaGuardia Airport to the northwest so planes are flying in the background, which probably limited what they could do here. So if you wanted to pick something that could be better compared to other ballparks, that would be one thing to nitpick at.

Foodwise, the Mets have a mixture of local NY institutions that include the big name food vendors like Shake Shack and Nathan’s Hot Dogs as well as other known NY places like Prince Street Pizza, Pat LaFrieda and Fuku. They also have food such as the Pastrami on Rye, Zeppole, lobster rolls, Goya nachos that are developed in house and pretty good in quality. Overall, they have a good selection of food with many different options that everyone should be able to find something good to eat.

Watching the game, it’s interesting that like Petco, they have a large screen (even bigger) but what’s normally on the screen when a batter is up is pretty static, maybe so as to not distract the hitters. Because they show the advanced pitching and hitting metrics (pitch horizontal break, pitch vertical break, etc) on the ribbon boards but temporarily i.e. they flash it after the pitch and then change it back to the regular information they show.

I find it interesting that ballparks like Citi Field and Petco Park don’t keep it on all the time like other ballparks (Rogers Centre comes to mind) since they have so many different LED boards they can show it on or display it on the main board itself. But obviously, the answer is they want to display ads instead.

The in-game entertainment is good, they do things to hype up the crowd like the “Make Noise” display and I like how they dim the lights during the game to get the crowd going, not strictly saving this for the closer’s entrance. In between innings, they usually do something like the cap shuffle, mascot race, different cams, karaoke, etc. to keep the fans engaged.

Overall, the Mets know that not all fans coming to games are going to be hardcore fans that watch every pitch intently. They make the game and the ballpark itself an attraction so it’s a fun place to watch a game and have a night out. I would definitely recommend checking out Citi Field as it is a nice ballpark to go to and watch a game at.

Road Trip to Minnesota and Target Field

Posted on by Paul

With travel lining up so I was in Minnesota while the Twins were home, I took the chance to check out Target Field. The ballpark is located in the northwest corner of downtown Minneapolis with the Metro Light Rail (Blue Line) making it super easy and cheap ($2 one way or $4 for an all-day pass) to get to the ballpark from the MSP airport. It takes about 30 minutes to get from the airport to the Target Field Light Rail station that is literally in front of Gate 6.

The first thing I noticed is the limestone exterior that’s like Petco Park, making it more modern looking versus the retro feel some of the other ballparks built in the past 30 years are going for.

I personally like this more modern look though incidentally it doesn’t blend into the surrounding buildings as much since most of the buildings around the ballpark have more of the dark red/brick look to them, including the nearby Target Center arena.

Walking on the outside of Target Field, I liked how they have statues of Twins legends along with banners and other indicators to celebrate their history which is a nice touch without having to go inside.

And I noticed that there were restrooms on the outside of the ballpark too. Besides porta potties you see in some parking lots outside ballparks and stadiums, I don’t recall seeing a restroom that’s part of the actual ballpark being accessible without going inside so that’s a nice fan-friendly touch.

The gates are numbered after Twins legends which is a nice homage but can be confusing if you’re not familar with the ballpark and trying to look for a specific gate, thinking the gates would go up sequentially as you walk around the ballpark.

Once you enter the main concourse, you can see the field as you walk around. Since there are no suites behind home plate on the main concourse level, it’s also easy to get to your seats behind home plate on this level and unlike some of the ballparks like Petco where you have to go up and down stairs/escalators/ramps to go around the main level, here once you enter a gate you’re able to easily walk around the entire park.

As well, there are standing room only areas throughout the ballpark on every level, including many places with drink rails, which is a great thing for fans to be able to watch on any level whether they just want to see different areas or don’t want to rush back to their seats. The escalators in the ballpark run in both directions so you can easily go up and down between levels throughout the game, another touch that really makes this ballpark fan-friendly.

The one thing is as you walk around the main concourse level, the side that’s opposite the field (i.e. the left side if you were walking clockwise around the ballpark with the field on the right), is where all the stands are and as a result, it makes the concourse feel a little closed and not as open air as other ballparks where both sides tend to be more open.

Because the ballpark has the smallest footprint of all current ballparks (8.5 acres), Target Field does have a large amount of seats in the outfield versus using the outfield space to be more open like Nationals Park though you still have views of the Downtown Minneapolis skyline in right field.

Really in right field is the only place that has an open space:

In right field is also where you’ll find Truly On Deck, a bar that has the Twins World Series memorabilia and also has reserved outdoor patio seating but also indoor seating that anyone can sit at.

This is one of a number of social areas throughout the ballpark. Even though I’m a fan who likes to sit down in a seat and really watch a game, the reality if there are many more casual fans and having these social areas is a way to get the non-diehard fans to go to the ballpark and have a great time. It’s really what many ballparks are doing to get the large crowds at the game which in turn creates more energy and a livelier atmosphere.

Watching the game, the seats have a pretty good view from various parts of the ballpark including the upper deck.

Speaking of the upper deck, this is where the Home Plate Tap Room is located (around sections 214 and 215) in what appears to be suites on the upper level at one time but are now a social area that anyone can go into.

In the Home Plate Tap Room is where Sue the Organist performs and she’s very friendly to go up and talk to her before the game and watch her do her work during the game.

In terms of concessions, the ballpark has a mixture of local restaurants like Kramarczuk’s, Pizza Luce and Union Hmong Kitchen along with stands that are inspired by the local food scene (Mill City Grill and North Shore Creamery). Though I’m spoiled by having a lot of local food options the way Petco does it so it’s really hard to find anywhere that offers the same variety, Target Field concessions are of good quality from the different food I sampled.

What really stood out is how they have Value Stands offering hot dogs, preztels, soda for under $5 and 612 Saturdays where they sell $1 snacks, $2 food and $6 beer. It really makes it affordable for families and friends to go to the ballpark and again goes with how fan-friendly this ballpark is.

As well, within a few blocks of the ballpark are many breweries, bars and restaurants to give you different food options. Walking to the ballpark I saw many of these places pretty crowded before the game.

Watching the game, they upgraded the video screen and LED boards prior to the 2023 season and they really make good use of all these boards. All the pitching and batting information is shown (pitch type, break, exit velocity, distance a ball was hit on contact, etc) as well as a constant out-of-town scoreboard. Basically all the information stat geeks like myself are looking for all the time while watching the game.

The in-game entertainment had things like celebrity look-a-like, a mascot-like race, the hat shuffle and prize contests involving fans. It wasn’t consistently every half inning (other innings they just played music) so wasn’t always keeping the fans engaged but when they did, fans seemed to get into them.

Overall I liked Target Field and would definitely recommend checking it out. It has a nice look and feel to it, it’s fan-friendly, has good views from the seats and it’s set up so you can be into the game or be there for more of a social outing. Being in downtown also allows you to check out other notable things in Minneapolis (like the Stone Arch Bridge, Guthrie Theater and Mill City Museum) or catch other games at US Bank Stadium or Target Center if the seasons overlap.

Giants and Dodgers 13 Game Stretch Musings

Posted on by Paul

Now that the 13 straight games against the Giants and Dodgers have ended, some musings:

  • As mentioned in my last post, I was expecting 3-3 for the first week. Now that the second week and all 13 games are done, going into this week I was thinking 7-6 would be good (2-2 against the Giants and 2-1 against the Dodgers or some combination of 4-3 this week) so to end up 8-5 after these 13 games is great and I would have signed up for that easily if you told me that two weeks ago before these 13 games started.
  • Starting pitching held up really well against the Dodgers with Nick Pivetta closing out the series with 6 innings and two runs. What was a red flag last weekend in LA (starting with Michael King going on the IL again and the early inning struggles by Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish against the Dodgers) was a bright spot this weekend and is the cyclical nature of baseball and its long season. What Yu Darvish and Nestor Cortes did the first two games of 6 innings of one hit each was impressive, especially when I saw this:
  • As I also mentioned in the last post, we need to do something about Arraez considering how much better Ryan O’Hearn and Gavin Sheets are playing, especially with both playing all the time the past week while Jackson Merrill was out. This weekend didn’t help matters with Arraez hitting into more double plays (2) than he had hits (1). If he can’t be a bench guy like what’s happened to Elias Diaz and how Freddy Fermin is playing 4-5 times a week (versus before with Diaz and Martin Maldonado where it was more of a 50% split), then at least move him down in the lineup as I mentioned in my last post. He’s killing the lineup between Tatis and Machado right now when we could have a much better hitter like O’Hearn there.
  • The decision to go to Jeremiah Estrada today in the 7th inning of a tied game with all his struggles against the Dodgers was another move by Mike Shildt that didn’t make sense except for his continued stubbornness on sticking with guys regardless of what’s happened (just like Luis Arraez in the two hole). Estrada gave up a home run last night when it was 3-0 and Kevin Acee wrote before the game today about his major struggles against the Dodgers. So considering these stats, that Estrada had pitched the night before and struggled, not sure why the move wasn’t to go to David Morgan (who hadn’t pitched either of the past two games) and then go to Mason Miller and Robert Suarez who both didn’t pitch last night either. It doesn’t help when Shildt gives the defiant response as shown in the below audio that doesn’t really give any good rationale to why he put Estrada in other than the 7th inning is his lane, which doesn’t make sense considering how he’s mixed and matched the bullpen and when guys appear in games all year.
  • I do get why Shildt left Estrada in there to face the left hitting Dalton Rushing after two of the first three guys got on base versus going to Adrian Morejon since the Dodgers would have pinch hit with the righty Will Smith against the lefty Morejon. Even though I would have preferred that matchup because of how well Morejon has pitched this year and considering Estrada’s struggles, sticking with Estrada there is understandable. What isn’t, was going to Estrada in the first place.
  • Now it’s time for the conclusion of the Vedder Cup with the Seattle Mariners. The Marines have played the Padres tough recently (3-1 against the Padres in 2022, 2023, 2024 and swept the Padres in a three game series at Petco earlier this year) so even though the Mariners have struggled recently (3-7), I’m hoping the Padres can play well and win one or two up there in Seattle.

Dodgers Sweep Monday Musings

Posted on by Paul

After this weekend’s sweep by the Dodgers, some musings on the Padres’ recent play:

  • Going into this 13-game stretch against the Giants and Dodgers, I was expecting 3-3 for the first 6 games so they ended where I figured (I was thinking 2-1 versus the Giants and 1-2 versus the Dodgers). Of course, after sweeping the Giants and leading the division by 1 game as the Dodgers got swept by the Angels, expectations were higher to at least win one if not two games against the Dodgers. So a big letdown with how it played out.
  • When Robert Suarez started warming up to possibly pitch in the bottom of the 8th inning today, I actually thought that Mike Shildt was starting to turn a new leaf and have Mason Miller close but then I realized the 2-3-4 hitters were coming up and he wanted his “best” reliever to face them. Shildt to his credit does have relievers come in different non-standard times (like Jason Adam coming in the 5th or 6th inning when the opposing team’s best hitters are coming up and that could change the game right there) but his insistence on Suarez as the “best” reliever and the closer doesn’t make sense after acquiring Miller. How many other teams do you know have a setup guy who throws harder and has a better “secondary” pitch (Miller considers his slider his best pitch) than their closer? Even though Suarez currently leads MLB with 33 saves, we’ve seen Suarez’s fastball get hit often by power hitters. So of course, Mookie Betts hits a home run today to give the Dodgers the lead right after the Padres had fought back to tie it up and it ends up being the game-winning hit to close out the sweep.
  • I do get the Padres go as the top of the order goes and the top of order (Tatis, Arraez and Machado) has been struggling for some time now and this series against the Dodgers showed it even more. I like the lineup of alternating righties and lefties so if we’re not going to move Manny or Tatis now, then we have to do something about Arraez who’s not providing value at the 2 hole especially if the other two guys are struggling too.

    I like having Tatis first even though his slug has pretty much disappeared, he’s still getting on base at a high clip (since the All Star Break his OBP is .392), has the speed potential on the bases and will drive in the bottom of the lineup more often than other guys. As well, if we’re not going to move Manny down since he was carrying the team before, prefers hitting in the 3 spot and it would cause some friction, then Arraez is the best option to change, especially when you consider:
  • And then you have a player newly acquired who was an all star this year, has an OPS of .819, can play 1st (his defensive runs saved is 4 and outs above average is 6 at 1B compared to Arraez’s DRS of 1 and OAA of -6) and whose overall numbers are just better:
    https://stathead.com/tiny/CLUbp
  • So it really doesn’t make any sense why O’Hearn isn’t playing every day and instead joins Sheets on the bench as the odd men out when a lefty is the starting pitcher. With the current team, this instead would be a better lineup:
    • Tatis RF (R)
    • O’Hearn 1B (L)
    • Machado 3B (R)
    • Sheets DH (L)
    • Laureano LF (R)
    • Merrill CF (L)
    • Bogaerts SS (R)
    • Cronenworth 2B (L)
    • Fermin C (R)
      or
    • Tatis RF (R)
    • O’Hearn 1B (L)
    • Machado 3B (R)
    • Merrill CF (L)
    • Laureano LF (R)
    • Arraez DH (L)
    • Bogaerts SS (R)
    • Cronenworth 2B (L)
    • Fermin C (R)

      In either lineup, as we seen with Cronenworth being moved down to 8th, moving guys like Bogaerts, Merrill or Arraez lengthens the lineup and takes some of the pressure off of them so they don’t have to be in such high leverage situations so often. Whether or not Shildt actually does this is another thing as it wouldn’t be surprising for him to continue to roll out the same lineup as he’s been doing for most of the season despite the lineup’s struggles.