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If you do not want to hear about Padres stats from the 2013 season, then this article is not for you. If you have been reading Gaslamp Ball for a while, then you have an idea what stats I'm talking about. Back in March, I wrote about the Padres 2013 Potential Milestones. A yearly post that I have been doing for a while. Last year I started also recapping the year in milestones and with another season gone by, here we go again.
We'll start with Headley, since he has been with the Padres longer than anyone else that will get a mention here. In the potential milestones article I mused on some of the company Chase would keep if he were to get some repeat consideration for major awards. However, it is safe to say that besides a Gold Glove he will not be getting such consideration so we can skip that aspect.
The next thing worth mentioning were Savior's round number milestones. He got both his 700th and 800th hits, his 700th and 800th games, his 150th double, his 3000th plate appearance and his 3000th at bat. All of which were expected. After hitting 31 Homeruns in 2012, a 33 HR total seemed possible to get to 100, but he fell 20 short of that and will have to eye that milestone next year.
Another milestone achieved was a personal best marker. After his amazing 2012 season and downturn in 2013 you would think that none of those 2012 marks could be bested, but you would be wrong. He actually set a career high in doubles. 35 in 2013 is now his new personal best beating out the 31 he hit in both 2009 and 2012. He also destroyed his previous career high of getting hit by pitches 5 times (2008, 2009) by getting plunked 11 times in 2013.
In the franchise record books, Headley is still leaving his marks. He enters the top 10 in games played for the Padres with 831 passing Ryan Klesko's 828. He climbed much higher in franchise at bats by getting to 3007, good enough for 7th place after starting the year outside the top 10. He displaced Benito Santiago from the top 10 and passed Phil Nevin, Adrian Gonzalez and Terry Kennedy above Benito. Similarly, with plate appearances he also made quite a climb up to 8th at 3413.
Headley had 130 hits in 2013, which is not a milestone by itself, but it was good enough to propel him to 9th in franchise history after starting the year in 13th place. Nate Colbert was knocked out of the top 10 and Ryan Klesko's 786 hits were surpassed. Injuries and slumps kept Chase from catching Terry Kennedy in 8th place with 817.
One category where Headley was already in the franchise's top 10 is doubles. He began the year in 10th and, as mentioned earlier, set a single season career high for himself. That propelled him up to 7th place with 174 two baggers, passing Khalil Greene (150) and Phil Nevin and Terry Kennedy (tied at 158).
Unlike the previous two categories mentioned, walks and strikeouts do not require the hitter to make contact and Headley's patience at the plate make him well suited for both. One good, one bad. Headley's eye got him to 7th place in the franchise walks list at 355. He displaced Nevin's 325 from the top 10 and passed Carmelo Martinez (327), Gene Richards (338) and Nate Colbert (350). With strikeouts, Chase made an assault on the top spot only to fall ever so close. He now has 771 Ks, leaving him in 2nd place and 2 shy of Adrian Gonzalez' club record of 773.
In single season club records, Headley had a pretty quiet year compared to 2012, but did hit the top 10 in a couple of minor ones. His 142 strikeouts were "good" enough to tie him for 8th most in a season with Cito Gaston's 1970, Adrian Gonzalez' 2008 and Mike Cameron's 2006. His aforementioned 11 HBP tied him for 5th most in a season with Sean Burroughs' 2003, Al Ferrara's 1970, Kevin Kouzmanoff's 2009 and Gene Tenace's 1978.
Headley's 11 Hit By Pitch ranked 6th in the NL this year in a 5 way tie and tied for 9th in MLB. His 142 Strikeouts were 10th most in the NL.
That is it for Chase, let us move on to some Padres whose milestone sections will not be quite as lengthy.
Round numbers come first and Will Venable's standout season helped him get to a few. He only need 14 SBs to get to 100 for his career and got 22 on the year. He only needed 5 HRs to reach 50 and got 22 of those as well. 99 hits would have gotten him to 500 and he easily got that by collecting 129 of them. He also got his 600th game played, 2000th plate appearance and 2000th at bat.
A couple of the numbers mentioned above were single season career highs for which he had many. He set new season highs in: Games (151), PAs (515), ABs (181), Runs Scored (64), Hits (129), Triples (tied with 2012 at 8), HRs (22), RBI (53), Batting Average (.268), Slugging Percentage (.484) and Wins Above Replacement (3.2 bWAR, 2.9 fWAR).
Venable continued his ascent up the franchise triples list this season. He began the year in 7th place and ended it in 5th place with 34 for his career. He passed Steve Finley (28) and Cito Gaston (29). He started the year outside the top 10 in SBs, but now ranks 9th in franchise history with 108. He passed Quilvio Veras (87), Roberto Alomar (90), Rickey Henderson (91), Luis Salazar (93). Damian Jackson (100) and Garry Templeton(101) along the way. He also reached the top 10 in strikeouts. 542 for his career puts him in 8th place in club history, ahead of Khalil Greene (521) and Benito Santiago (516).
Venable's 8 triples was good enough for a 5th place tie in the NL and a 7th place tie in MLB.
Cabrera's year was cut short by suspension, but each of his seasons has been affected by minor league time, injury or suspension. So, it did not stop him from reaching some career highs. He had his first 100 hit season with 108 of them. He hit 4 Home Runs, which surpassed his previous high of 2 (2009, 2012). He hit for his highest ever batting average at .283 (previous high was .255 in 2009). Same goes for On Base Percentage with .355 (.342 in 2009 was previous high) and Slugging Percentage with .381 (.361 in 2009). He also accumulated his highest WAR totals with 3.2 bWAR and 3.1 fWAR.
Cabby's one mark in the franchise record books is stolen bases. He passed Will Venable during the season and assaulted the franchise top 10. With 37 bags stolen in 2013 he now has 118 for his career, good enough for 8th place in club history.
Those 37 Stolen Bases also ranked 5th in the NL for the year, 9th in MLB.
Carlos Quention only played in 82 games (even less than his 86 in 2012 and his lowest total since 2007), but still reach a couple round numbers. He got his 750th game played, 3000th Plate Appearance, 2500th At Bat, 400th Run Scored, 150th Double and finished with exactly 150 Home Runs. Not surprisingly, he set no single season career highs.
Like Everth Cabrera he has only one mark on the franchise top 10 lists, however unlike Cabby it is not stolen bases. It is Hit By Pitch. 9 HBPs in 2013 slowed his ascent after a single season franchise record 17 in 2012, but ascend he did. He is now tied with Sean Burroughs for 6th place with 26 HBPs. He passed Tony Gwynn's 24, Nate Colbert's 22 and Brian Giles', Adrian Gonzalez', Mak Loretta's and Gene Richards' 20.
Hundley has not gotten many mentions in these types of posts, but a very good 2013 gets him some mentions for career highs. Hundley rocketed past his previous high in games played (85) with 114 games in 2013. Same goes for his 408 Plate Appearances, 373 At Bats, 35 Runs Scored, 87 Hits, 19 Doubles, 13 Home Runs, 44 Runs Batted In, 5 Hit By Pitch and 5 Intentional Walks.
Chris Denorfia also upped his game and gets a mention here for all his new single season career highs. 144 Games Played, 520 Plate Appearances, 473 At Bats, 67 Runs Scored, 132 Hits, 21 Doubles, 10 Home Runs, 47 RBI, 42 Walks, 4.3 bWAR and 3.9 fWAR were all career highs.
Denorfia also stole 11 bases without ever getting caught. Much was made of Everth Cabrera's attempt last year to go uncaught, but eventually he did get out stealing bases. Denorfia is now the first Padres to steal 10 or more bases in a season with 100% success. The previous single season franchise high was Tony Gwynn's 1993 where he grabbed bases at a 93.33% success rate (14 SBs, 1 CS).
Alonso gets a quick mention for collecting 6 Stolen Bases in 2013, a new career high surpassing the 3 he stole in 2012. He also had 7 sacrifice flies, which was his most in a season and was also 5th in the NL.
Guzman set career highs with 126 Games Played, 288 At Bats, 33 Runs Scored and tied his career high in Home Runs with 9.
Amarista set career highs with 146 Games Played, 396 Plate Appearances, 368 At Bats, 87 Hits and 22 Walks. He finished with exactly the same career highs that he set in 2012 in both Home Runs with 5 and RBI with 32.
Because of injuries to Carlos Quentin, Cameron Maybin and Kyle Blanks, the retiring Kotsay played in more games in 2013 than he did in 2012, which helped him reach various round numbers. 1900 Games Played and 7000 Plate Appearances.
On to the pitchers.
Before the season, I came up with an estimate that if Street put up at 2.70 ERA over 50 Innings Pitched and 15 ER, then he could drop his career ERA below 3.00. Well, he pitched 56.2 innings and gave up 17 ER. A 2.70 ERA for the season. His new career ERA is 2.98. Back under 3.00 for the first time since before the 2010 season.
Huston pitched his 500th game this year, finishing with 515. He also got his 500th Inning Pitched and now has 532 of them. And to complete the 500s trifecta he got his 500th strikeout and now has 534 of those.
Street now ranks 7th in Padres history with 56 saves for the club. Along the way he passed Luis DeLeon (31), Lance McCullers (36), Randy Myers (38) and Greg Lucas (49).
Gregerson's workload was lessened some from his more used years in 2009, 2010 and 2012. He still had 73 Games Pitched, which gave him 363 for his Padres career. He now ranks 3rd in franchise history in that category. He entered the season with the 6th most in the category and passed Eric Show's 309 and Heath Bell's 354 to get to his new spot.
Luke set a career high with 6 wins in 2013. His previous high was 4 in 2010. Unfortunately he also had 8 losses, topping his previous high of 7 in 2010.
Before moving on to the Diamondbacks, Thatcher left his mark in the Padres franchise Games Pitched list. He finishes ranked 7th at 287 games. He started the year ranked 10th and passed Dave Tomlin (239), Randy Jones (264) and Rollie Fingers (265) along the way.
Like Gregerson, he set a single season career high in wins. He had 3 in 2013 (all with the Padres), 1 more than the 2 he had way back in 2007. He also set a career high in Games Pitched with 72, breaking his previous top total of 65, but 20 of those games were after he left the Padres. If they had been with the Padres he would have passed Scott Linebrink for 6th place in the Games Pitched list by 1 game.
In his second year with the Padres Thayer surpassed many of the career bests he set in 2012. 3 Wins, a 3.32 ERA, 69 Games Pitched and 65 Innings Pitched were all bests.
The longest tenured Padres player (he made his Padres debut in 2005 and has been with the team in some capacity ever since), pitched his first season in the bigs without ever making a start. Because of that dedication to the bullpen he set a new single season high in Games Pitched with 43 in 2013. He also pitched his 500 inning and now has 510.2 IP.
500 IP is the qualifier to make it into the franchise record books in rate stats (like ERA, WHIP, Strikeouts per 9 IP, etc). Stauffer ranks 7th in Padres history with 6.486 Strikeouts per 9 IP. Trevor Hoffman, Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Sterling Hitchcock, Andy Benes and Adam Eaton all have a better rate.
Volquez moved on to the Los Angeles Dodgers after the Padres had enough of his pitching, but did reach some milestones in 2013. He got his 50th win and has 53 total now. He got his 750th strikeout. He also led the NL in earned runs with 108 and finished second to C.C. Sabathia in MLB. He was also 3rd in Bases on Balls in the NL with 77 and 8th in MLB. He was tied for 9th in the NL with 12 losses. 2nd in the NL and 3rd in MLB in Wild Pitches with 16. And tied for 9th in the NL with 32 Games Started.
Kennedy came to the Padres at the trading deadline and his first win for the club was his 50th of his career. He got 3 more with San Diego to finish with 53. He also got his 750th strikeout in 2013 and did that as a Padre as well.
As you might imagine, Cashner set a bunch of single season career bests with his first healthy year as a starting pitcher. 10 Wins, 26 Games Started, 1 Complete Game, 1 Shut Out, 175 Innings Pitched, 128 Strikeouts, 0.617 HR/9. 2.6 BB/9, 2.4 bWAR and 2.2 fWAR were all single season career bests. Also, His 7.766 H/9 ranked 9th in the NL and his 0.617 HR/9 ranked 10th in the NL.
Like Cashner, Ross' increased presence as a starter in the big helped him reach a bunch of single season career bests. 35 Games Pitched, 16 Games Started, 125 Innings Pitched, 119 Strikeouts, 1.152 WHIP, 7.2 H/9, 3.2 BB/9, 8.6 K/9, a 2.70 K/BB rate, a 1.3 bWAR and a 1.6 fWAR were all single season bests.
Stults was another pitcher that got a much bigger workload in 2013 and with it came single season career bests. 11 Wins, 33 Games Pitched, 33 Games Started, 203.2 Innings Pitched, 131 Strikeouts, 2 Complete Games, 1.768 BB/9 and 2.6 fWAR were all career bests.
That 1.768 BB/9 rate was good enough for 8th in the NL. Only 1 pitcher in the NL (Adam Wainwright) and 4 in MLB (James Shields, R.A. Dickey and Justin Verlander) had more starts than Stults' 33 (they all had 34). So, Stults was tied for 2nd in the NL and tied for 5th in MLB in that category. His 2 Complete Games also put him in a 12 way tie for 5th in the NL in that category.
That's a wrap for this year. A number of other career highs were reached, especially by rookies and second year players, but we'll wait until next year to find out where those marks will begin to stand in their careers. I would certainly hope that Jedd Gyorko and Nick Vincent make appearances next year. Perhaps Yasmani Grandal and maybe Tommy Medica will join them. A return for Cameron Maybin would be welcome as well. Check back at the end of March to see what milestones might be hit (or pitched) in 2014.