Padres Editorial: How Marathon Training Helps the Padres in 2015

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Why A Long Season Is A Good Thing

A lot of people I talk to think that the baseball season is too long. “It’s just sooo boring” they bemoan. “How do you keep up with it all” they ask incredulously. One hundred and sixty two games before 4 rounds of playoffs if you count the wildcard one game playoff. As opposed to say football, which consists of 16 games in 17 weeks before several win-or-go-home playoff games culminating in the largest single day sporting event in the United States if not the world: The Super Bowl.

While of course much more goes into the analysis – including how much more physically damaging football is to a person’s mind and body – even sports like basketball and hockey get by with nearly half as many games in a season. First of all, this interesting graph from Business Insider shows that isn’t quite the case as far as days go because the other sports have more off days and protracted playoff schedules.

Second of all, I would also argue that while yes, it is pretty impossible to watch every single MLB game, that is also part of why it is such a great sport to follow. To start you have nearly nightly action to keep an eye on at the very least. From there you have the idea that a teams season is truly an organic event. The more you watch of it the more you can pick up on the nuances of the game.

You can watch young pitchers develop sometimes start by start. I remember last year watching Jesse Hahn as he was called up from AA. From the beginning, you could tell that the kid had poise belying his age and the fact he had not pitched above AA before that start. He had three good innings before getting lit up some in the 4th and being lifted allowing 4 runs. Yet things didn’t stop there. The next start he went 6 innings, allowed just 1 hit and struck out 7. That is some learning curve! He would go on to a terrific 7-3 record in games started and pitch at least 5 innings in every start. He averaged under 2 ER allowed per start. The point being baseball’s season is long enough to watch a development like that happen.

Baseball doesn’t allow for much hyperbole in performances. In football a Quarterback might have three games in a row of throwing 300 yards and be touted as the next John Elway. Likewise he could have a few rough starts and never be heard from again.

In baseball you might have a month where you hit .400 before coming back to Earth the next month and hitting .100. You wouldn’t be able to really get much of anything from that until you see how that player performs the whole season, and then the following season, and the one after that. That is how Hall of Fame careers are made. Consistency – not quick strikes. A baseball is a daily unfolding mosaic and just when you get zoomed in on one spot it forces you to take a step back and you see a whole different picture altogether.

I thought about all of this recently as I recently completed the Eugene Marathon – and Bud Black got fired. I intend to show that while I am completely in favor of Bud Black being fired – mostly because I thought it should’ve happened before the season started – the other wonderful advantage of a longer season is that while the Padres have already played 69 games, they still have plenty of time to turn this season around and make the playoffs.

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Jun 20, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; San Diego Padres starting pitcher celebrates with catcher

Austin Hedges

(18) after beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-1 at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Training Goes a Long Way

While the above headline may seem like an obvious statement, I think you would be surprised at how many under-estimate what training for a race or planning a depth on a team can do for you. In the off-season as the Padres stockpiled outfielders, catchers, and pitchers (shortstop!…knew we forgot something…) some people wondered why the Padres needed it. After all, why take another chance on Josh Johnson when had already signed up Brandon Morrow and traded for James Shields and Odrisamer Despaigne pushed to the bullpen. Who needs Melvin Upton when we have Will Venable, Abraham Almonte and Rymer Liriano as backup outfielders. Now, early on we understand why. The starting rotation has needed Despaigne to step in with more Morrow injuries and it is a little uncertain just who would step in to the next open rotation spot.

When it came to the marathon training, I learned that indeed it simply takes a long time! Even if you are running a 9 minute mile, it will take you about an hour just for a 6 mile run. For marathon training, you really want to be doing that a few times a week and then a “long run” – meaning 10 or more miles – on the weekend. There goes another 2 hours at least! I had done several half marathons in the past and even did one that fit in well with my training in March. I managed to pull it in at just about 2 hours, a healthy 9:20 pace. Up next was a 19 mile trail race in April before the May marathon. Trail racing is typically much more challenging because not only are you running for a long time, you have to compete with protruding branches, roots, rocks, and in this case lava rock as well. The course was beautiful along the McKenzie River but still took me 4 hours to complete. After that race, I certainly felt spent from it all, though relaxing in the Hot Springs and friends cheering me on felt good. Also for some reason beer always takes amazing after a long race. I thought that running 4 hours straight was pretty good, and felt confident about the marathon.

The Padres did their preparation too, by researching who they wanted for their team and building up that system. It feels a little bit like “buying” their training, but at the same time by drafting in previous years and having the players to trade for veterans like Justin Upton and Craig Kimbrel we will count that. Just how the team planned for injuries or really thought out how the defense would actually work though is still open for debate. After all, we knew that shortstop would be an issue after not signing last year’s shortstop Everth Cabrera, yet Preller traded 2014 Padres 1st round draft pick – SS Trea Turner – and picked up Clint Barmes to back up Alexi Amarista. So far they are combining to hit .239 with 4 HR. Ironically Cabrera was just released by the Orioles last weekend.

So while I had run for four hours, and I had run 19 miles of 26.2, I really hadn’t gotten all the way there yet. Sometimes as much as you train nothing really compares to the real thing. You can run numbers on paper and project what you think it will be like, but nothing substitutes for that race day energy and feeling. Would it be enough?

In the same way, the Padres assembled an All-Star cast for this 2015 season, with the hammer being trading for Craig Kimbrel and ridding themselves of dead weight Carlos Quentin and injury-riddled Cameron Maybin right before Opening Day. On paper the Padres were adding a LOT of extra home runs and hits to their team while also adding James Shields to what was already viewed as a strong rotation. Really good things – but enough to carry them the whole way?

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Jun 21, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; San Diego Padres interim manager Pat Murphy (24) and members of the team look on during the National Anthem prior to the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Seeing the Long View

This is where we go back to seeing that long view again. If we are talking about a football season and breaking a baseball season into 16 games, then the Padres have played about 7 NFL games. At this point they would be closer to 3-4 than 4-3. Neither one terrible – but neither one good in consideration that they have their highest payroll ever. In marathon terms they would just starting their 11th mile, so nowhere near the end of the race. When I ran the race, I actually hit the 13 mile mark in what would’ve been my fastest half marathon time and felt great. Yet there is a second half that the first half prepares you for.

Back to the Padres, I was all in favor of relieving Bud Black and finding someone else to manage the team. I think the team has needed a fresh voice for awhile and while agree that Bud Black is in fact a great baseball man and manager in general – I think if you are going to change ownership/GM/80% of the starting lineup just go all the way and bring in a new voice too.

Bud Black and Pat Murphy have different personalities and Murphy was a successful college baseball manager before bringing that to minor league baseball and now the Padres. While there is a long history of college football coaches who transition to the NFL, the history is not as robust when looking at college baseball coaches moving to MLB. Certainly the intensity level is different, and much more in college you are trying to teach young men not only how to better play baseball but how to be adults. While the baseball part can still apply at the major league level, the hope is that the adult part is already learned. Luckily the Padres have not had any off-the-field incidents in some time Everth Cabrera notwithstanding.

So in the long view – there is still plenty of time for the Padres to turn this season around. Matt Kemp is known as a second half player, and Tyson Ross has shown in recent starts he is ready to dial it up a notch and have a better season from here on out. He finally had a start where he allowed less than two earned runs Friday night in Arizona. Questions continue to pile up around Andrew Cashner and James Shields finally lost a start, but he should be fine for the long haul as his history proves.

Because like in marathon training, it is not always how you start a race, but how you have built yourself up for the finish.

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Jun 13, 2015; Eugene, OR, USA; Jenna Prandini of Oregon defeats Morolake Akinosun of Texas to win the womens 100m, wind-aided 10.96 to 10.97, in the 2015 NCAA Track & Field Championships at Hayward Field. From left: Aaliyah Brown (Texas A&M), Akinosun and Prandini and Dezerea Bryant (Kentucky). Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Conclusion

So yes, baseball has a long season. In that time, there is time for course corrections along the way. Bad decisions don’t have to fester all season, and you can’t celebrate good ones for too long either before you need to make another change. The Padres showed again their intense desire to win in 2015 by not being satisfied by a .500 ball club still within striking distance of the first place Los Angeles Dodgers. The Padres have veteran leaders in Matt Kemp and James Shields, in addition to catcher Derek Norris who has taken on the emotional leader tag with Wil Myers sidelined. They know how to help Murphy correct the ship and hang on to the winning streaks.

While every game may lack the magnitude of a single NFL match-up, don’t be mistaken that every game is not as important. As Pat Murphy brands the Padres in his image he will see incremental changes every day and help bring the Padres back to the top of the National League West. A baseball season isn’t won in a day – and it isn’t lost in a day either. So while the press continues to rattle on about the disappointing Padres season, they lose out on the fact that while the first 72 games have not gone as hoped – there are still 90 more to go.

When the finish line is crossed at a marathon, you may feel pain and soreness after running more miles than you have ever run before. Something funny happens though too as that medal is placed around your neck and the crowd at the end cheers for you. At least for a moment – you forget about the pain of the day, the times had to wake up at 5 AM on a Saturday to run, and the time you tripped and fell after exhausting yourself after an 11 mile training run. In that moment – that finishing moment – all you know is how it feels to finish and the rest is forgotten. Right now, the Padres feel the pain of Bud Black being fired, of Wil Myers of going on the DL for two months, and Andrew Cashner enduring some of the worst starts of his career. When they make those playoffs, and win the World Series – that is when all those pains simply become steps along the way to victory.

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