San Diego, CA

Three Up, Three Down: San Diego Padres

Published

2 years ago

August 19, 2024

I tried doing these series previews early in the season before they ended up being too time-consuming and real life got in the way. Anyone who has read my in-depth pieces or listened to my podcast with John Ke knows brevity is not my strong suit. This time around, I borrowed a format from our mutual friend, Bleed Cubbie Blue site manager Al Yellon, to hopefully limit myself while still providing the relevant analysis. Let’s get into it.

Three Up

Old Friends, New Places

Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

The Padres have a few former Twins, including fan-favorite and two-time batting champ Luis Arraez. I don’t want to rail against a three-time All-Star too much, but this is just your yearly reminder that batting average isn’t important in 2024. Arraez is second in the NL in BA among qualified hitters but has only accumulated 0.5 fWAR, ranking 65th among qualified NL batters and 128th overall in the NL.

What has Arraez’s value so low? The rest of his profile has regressed to the point the Twins feared when they traded him away two years ago. Defensively, he is limited to DH already at 27-years-old. In his limited time on the field, he ranks last in Outs Above Average and the bottom 10th percentile of arm strength. On the offensive side, there’s no power with a bottom-five .073 ISO and only 19 of his 110 hits going for extra bases. He has a 10th-percentile average exit velocity, 2nd-percentile barrel rate, and 3rd-percentile hard-hit rate. Weirdly, his chase rate is also way up compared to when he was with the Twins, ranking in the 12th percentile there. He doesn’t whiff when he chases leading to countless weak outs early in counts, which is worse than a whiff. Oh also, his 3.4% walk rate is the second worst in baseball, giving him the same OBP as Willi Castro who is hitting .258. Overall, Arraez has a league-average 103 wRC+ while making over $10 million and another hefty raise due in arbitration this summer. It’s not what you want.

The Padres also have 2023 curse-breaking legend Donovan Solano on their bench. Solano has actually out-produced Arraez this season by both fWAR (1.0 vs 0.5) and wRC+ (122 vs 103) despite playing in half the games. The Twins will also see Bomba Squad starter Martín Pérez in the series. Perez has been okay since departing the Twins Cities but has seen made meaningful improvements since arriving in San Diego, nearly doubling his strikeout rate while cutting his walk rate in half. That’s a recipe for success.

New Rotation Pieces

Speaking of rotation additions, the Padres also acquired Dylan Cease and Michael King in offseason trades. Cease has taken a meaningful step forward from where he was in 2022 when he finished second in Cy Young voting, striking out more even batters while limiting his walks and hits to career lows. He also threw a no-hitter two weeks ago, something he nearly did against the Twins in 2022 before Arraez broke it up with two outs in the ninth. Minnesota will avoid him in this series, luckily.

They will have to face Michael King, the crown jewel of the Juan Soto trade. King converted to starting toward the end of 2023 and dazzled in the new role. He was a power sinker/sweeper guy as a reliever but has added a changeup that might be his best pitch. Finally, a quick shout-out to Michael Waldron, a knuckleballer who has quietly been decent this season, which is always fun.

Unexpected Stars

The Padres’ surprising success, despite trading away Soto and stars Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, and Fernando Tatis missing time due to injury, has been thanks to their emerging stars. Veteran Jurickson Profar and rookie Jackson Merrill lead the team in fWAR, despite neither having a clear path to the Opening Day roster a few months ago. Profar has broken out at 31 years old with a 147 wRC+, trailing only MVP contenders Shohei Ohtani, Ketel Marte, and Marcel Ozuna. Merill, meanwhile, never played a game above AA before breaking camp as the team’s centerfielder, a position he had never played prior to Spring Training. The 21-year-old has thrived on instincts while putting up All-Star offense, trailing only Aaron Judge, Byron Buxton, and Jarren Duran in wRC+ among centerfielders.

They’ve also gotten surprising contributions from veterans David Peralta, Kyle Higashioka, and Solano. Each has a wRC+ at least 15% above league average, exactly what this Padres team needed around their stars.

Three Down

Tatis’ Latest Injury

Fernando Tatis has had an rollercoaster career but has settled in as a rock-solid contributor since moving to right field last season. Tatis isn’t showing the gaudy offensive numbers he did early on, but is still well above average in that department while putting up some of the best defensive metrics in baseball. He’s been out since mid-June with a stress reaction in his right femur, something that could easily turn into a multi-year injury if not given enough time to heal. The Padres have to be careful, and the aforementioned Peralta is filling in admirably in the meantime, but any World Series hopes San Diego carries feature Tatis front and center.

Kim in Question

Ha-Seong Kim has quietly emerged as one of the more valuable players around the league. The Korean product is one of the best defensive shortstops in the game and has improved to be a league-average hitter, a marked step up from his early career. Kim jammed his throwing shoulder diving back to first base yesterday and may end up on the IL. He will almost assuredly miss this series, which is a major hit for San Diego. Though the team is essentially built out of former shortstops, they don’t have a clear replacement on the roster.

The logical candidate would be Xander Bogaerts, a career shortstop before 2024, but he slid over to second because his defense had fallen off a cliff. He also is coming off an extended IL stint with a shoulder injury of his own, and the Padres likely don’t want to risk losing another key cog. Other options include infielder Jake Cronenworth who has played all over the infield but has settled in primarily at first and second base and hasn’t played short in any extended role since 2021. Utility man Tyler Wade is also on the roster, but he is a zero offensively. Regardless of the choice, expect to see a lot more Donovan Solano in the lineup as he will backfill whoever moves over.

Hot, Hot, Hot

This is more of a “down” for the Twins because there’s not much negative to say about this team right now! The Twins are tied for the most wins in baseball since August 1 with 11. The team they’re tied with? The San Diego Padres, who have gone 11-4 since then and 20-6 since the All-Star break. It’s all clicking at the right time for the Dads. Depending on your current feelings on the Guardians and Orioles, this might be the best team the Twins face the rest of the way.

Another day, another failure of brevity. Listen, I had an Arraez rant locked and loaded and we don’t see the Padres often, so I had a lot to say. Cut me some slack.

Source link

Click to comment

San Diego, CA

So you want to create a hummingbird habitat? Here’s how.

Published

2 minutes ago

July 11, 2026

Press Room

So you want to create a hummingbird habitat? Here’s how.

For The Union-Tribune

Among life’s most magical moments is when you stand quietly in your garden and a hummingbird hovers less than a foot away in front of your face, seemingly taking you in and letting you do the same.

It’s not exactly interspecies communion, but it can feel like communication of some kind. Especially when it happens more than once. Which it can if you have hummingbirds visiting daily because you’ve created a space that welcomes and nourishes them.

Apparently a lot of us in the U.S. have been doing just that. According to Emergen Research, the hummingbirds feed market, which includes nectar solutions, feeders and supplements, was valued at half a billion dollars in 2024 and is expected to reach $1.2 billion by 2034.

But hummingbirds don’t live on sugar water alone, so while hanging some feeders is useful, creating a holistic habitat that provides them with other nutritional and life needs is just as critical.

A hummingbird alights on a bush sunflower (Encelia californica) at UC San Diego’s Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve, in Mission Bay. (San Diego Bird Alliance)

Keep in mind, caring for hummingbirds is a commitment to maintenance:

• Making sugar water, keeping it fresh and the feeders clean and protected from ants, bees, wasps and other intruders.

• Providing clean water for bathing in sheltered, clean bird baths.

• If possible, growing native plants that not only flower but attract the insects that hummingbirds eat and the spider webs they use to create their little nests.

• You have to keep your cats indoors, too, and be strategic when placing feeders and fountains to protect the birds as much as possible from other potential predators, like hawks.

A full in-ground garden isn't a must: McLeod's small hummingbird ecosystem fits in an area on her deck, with feeders, a couple of birdbaths and flowering plants. The plants are also home to bugs necessary protein as well as material to use for nests. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune) — A full in-ground garden isn’t a must: McLeod’s small hummingbird ecosystem fits in an area on her deck, with feeders, a couple of birdbaths and flowering plants. The plants are also home to bugs — necessary protein — as well as material to use for nests. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Creating an ecosystem with food sources

Birds find most of their nutritional needs in nature, explained Dan Payne, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Scripps Ranch, which sells feeders, food and other backyard bird gear.

“What we do is supplement their feeding in a way that helps bring them closer to us so that we can see them and enjoy having them in our lives,” he added.

Essentially, he said, what we’re doing is a hobby.

But it’s a hobby that potentially goes beyond satisfying our enjoyment. By creating an ecosystem in our gardens, we’re contributing to the health of our environment. We’re attracting pollinators. Some will do their jobs and fly off. Others become a source of food for hummingbirds and other birds.

1 of 2

Colorful, tubular blooms of Mexican honeysuckle at McLeod’s home fit the birds’ long beaks. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Expand

Hummingbirds, said Kelcy Coleman, conservation coordinator with the San Diego Bird Alliance, use nectar for most of their diet, and sugar water is a great replacement for that if you don’t have native plants.

“But they eat protein for a complete diet,” she noted. “They feed on small, tiny little bugs, and especially during breeding season, they will feed the bugs to their chicks, so the chicks will have more protein and grow faster. They also need shelter plants, like bushier plants or trees, to be able to rest on, as well as build nests, so a layer of habitat.

“What I mean by a layer is blooming and flowering plants,” Coleman added, “And then, bushes or coastal sage scrub habitat, where the bushes are taller than the smaller plants, and then sporadic trees as well.”

Native plants are recommended for several reasons. You’ll have more success with plants that prefer the soil and climate where they naturally grow. Many have low water needs. Wildlife is dependent on them for food and shelter. And if you plant natives, you’re connecting your habitat with others, including in our canyons and fields, giving the birds a broader home base.

Making plant choices

What native plants are we talking about? The most often mentioned is the California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum), with its brilliantly colored tubular flowers — designed for those long hummingbird bills. Coleman also recommended Dudleya, a succulent that flowers from spring to midsummer, again with vibrantly colored tubular flowers.

Then there are monkey flowers: The bush monkey flower has orange and yellow blooms, while red bush and scarlet monkey flowers, of course, have red, trumpet-shape flowers.

Others suggested to me were coral bells and Western columbine.

1 of 2

Fuchsia-flowering gooseberry (Ribes speciosum) at Anstine Nature Preserve, seen during a nature walk, is a plant that attracts hummingbirds. (San Diego Bird Alliance)

Expand

If you’re sensing a pattern, you’re right, hummers have great vision and are drawn to bright colors, especially reds. (That’s why the most popular hummingbird feeders are red.) So a good way to attract more hummingbirds is to grow native plants that have those brilliantly colored flowers. You can find them at nurseries across San Diego County.

A good source for finding both plants for your specific needs and nurseries that sell them is the Calscape website, calscape.org. Also, advised Coleman, try to choose plants that bloom in succession. Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds are species that tend to be year-round residents in San Diego, instead of migrating, so we need to have a variety of plants that can bloom throughout the year.

And don’t have anything to do with pesticides. Use the bugs to your advantage: They’re the food that hummingbirds — and other birds — need as part of their diet. You don’t want to poison what you’re working so hard to attract.

Anyone can create a home for hummingbirds, says Renee McLeod, a “Birding for Beginners” instructor for San Diego Bird Alliance. She also leads inclusive tours for EveryBody Birds San Diego. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

All this may lead you to think that if you don’t have an in-ground garden, you can’t attract and keep hummingbirds. Renee McLeod, a Certified Access Birding Outing leader who leads tours for the San Diego Bird Alliance and inclusive tours with EveryBody Birds San Diego, would beg to differ.

McLeod and her husband’s outdoor space is a large deck, which she’s outfitted with several feeders, a couple of birdbaths, platform feeders for other birds and some flowering shrubs. Not only does she get visits from hummingbirds throughout the day — although mostly in early morning and at dusk — there are times when more than half a dozen hit the bar together.

Over the years, McLeod has changed feeder types as she realized they were harder to clean, were getting moldy or were hard to fill.

“When we first started, we were using purchased powdered food, and we stopped doing that pretty quickly,” she said. “That stuff is not good at all, and just the regular sugar is great.”

In fact, you may find something called electro nectar for sale, with ingredients such as sucrose, potassium sorbate, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate and potassium bicarbonate.

“I don’t think we need to feed birds anything except for just the sugar,” said McLeod. “They get all the rest of their stuff from tiny little gnats. In fact, when they’ve got a lot of babies, and we go to empty the feeder, it’ll have all these little, tiny gnats and bugs inside, and that’s because they’re dipping their beaks into the nectar with them into the feeder, and then going to feed the babies.”

After trying several types of feeders, McLeod settled on ones that are easier to fill and to clean. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Choosing a hummingbird feeder

How do you choose the right feeder? According to Mark Hocking, the former owner of California Backyard Birds in Encinitas (who still works there part-time), try to buy a feeder that has at least some red on it.

“They see red at farther distances, and it tends to be their favorite color,” he said. “You want to buy a hummingbird feeder that’s easy to clean, because you want to clean it thoroughly, and you want to clean it every third day, and to get all that gunk out of there. The sugars ferment and that’s bad for the bird — and it ferments faster in hot weather.”

1 of 3

McLeod recommends a simple-to-make sugar water solution for the feeder, using granulated sugar, not powdered food. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Expand

Look for feeders that have large necks that allow you easier access to clean inside. Try to find ones that have raised ports, not ones with replaceable flowers, because mold can get trapped in them. The ones with yellow flowers on the ports are also said to attract bees and wasps, so skip them.

And look for units with water moats, either built into the feeder or that you can hang the feeder from. They prevent ants from crawling in. Just remember to keep the moat filled with water.

Cleaning the feeder

You’ll need scrub brushes to get inside the bottle for cleaning. There are different opinions on how to clean. Some experts suggest using distilled white vinegar, others a 9-to-1 ratio of water and household bleach. McLeod said she’s been cleaning her feeders for years with dish soap.

“I think the thing is to wash them,” she said. “The big thing is you don’t really need to disinfect them unless they get full of mold.” Examine for black dots inside and around the feeder. That could be mold.

Also scrub the threads of the bottle neck, the feeder section and its threads, as well as the ports. You can find tiny brushes that look like mascara wands to clean inside the ports. Rinse it all thoroughly and dry.

Filling the feeder

Once the feeder is cleaned and prepared, fill it with a solution of 1 cup water to a quarter-cup of granulated sugar (not powdered sugar, and not honey). The easiest way to dissolve the sugar is to measure and boil the water in a kettle and add it to sugar in a bowl. Stir and let it come to room temperature before filling your feeder.

When you start out, just fill partway to get a sense of how many birds you’re feeding to avoid wasting the sugar water. One way to expedite feeding is to make a larger batch and store that in the refrigerator for up to a week. But again, bring the sugar water to room temperature before filling the feeder.

Placing the feeder

There are a few factors to keep in mind when selecting a spot to hang feeders: sun exposure, territorial behavior and safety.

“If you’re looking at a small space, keep it away from windows, because bird strike is a very common issue when they go into a feeder and they don’t realize how close that window is,” said Hannah St. John, conservation assistant with the San Diego Bird Alliance and coordinator for the 11-acre Anstine Nature Preserve in Vista. “There are decals you can put on windows so birds register it’s actually a solid surface.”

She added that if possible, keep feeders in the shade to keep the nectar from fermenting. If you put up multiple feeders and you find that you have territorial male hummingbirds (they’re the ones with all the color), place feeders as far from each other as possible and even blocked from one another.

A small fountain at McLeod's home also serves as a stopping point for a lesser goldfinch. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune) — A small fountain at McLeod’s home also serves as a stopping point for a lesser goldfinch. (Luke Johnson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Considering water needs

Another crucial component for hummingbirds is a clean water source. According to St. John, they enjoy water, not just for drinking, but also baths.

“Hummingbirds also might get pollen on their feathers, so maybe that’s a way to clean themselves off, but most birds do enjoy taking baths, and so they’ll splash around a bit, and then that will kind of help them realign their feathers, and they usually preen after a quick bath.”

Some birds will come to still water, but moving water is attractive. Buy a fountain or place a small solar fountain in a flower pot saucer filled only an inch or so. Add rocks for perching. And clean it weekly to keep it free of debris and algae.

Most of your setup will start as trial and error. It takes patience when you start — and even as you continue. You may get a single hummingbird for a while, then a couple and then, hopefully, more. Then not as many for a few days. If there are males, you’ll see them driving off other males to protect what they see as their territory. Some may not return.

Some weeks you’ll need to fill the feeders daily and then think, “Where did they go?” But stick with it. You’re both witness to wildlife in all their behaviors — and because hummingbirds seem to be very tolerant of people, you can get truly up close and personal with them.

Source link

San Diego, CA

The World’s Number One Wellness Retreat is Right in Our Backyard

Published

10 hours ago

July 11, 2026

Press Room

The World’s Number One Wellness Retreat is Right in Our Backyard

If you’ve been putting off a proper reset, consider this your nudge. Rancho La Puerta – the iconic fitness resort and spa nestled in the hills of Tecate, Baja California – has once again claimed the top spot on Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards list, earning the No. 1 ranking for International Wellness Retreat in 2026.

Eight Times at the Top

The Ranch doesn’t just show up on this list – it dominates it. Previous wins in 2013, 2014, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 have earned it a hall of fame distinction in Travel + Leisure’s history.

Rankings are based on reader ratings across rooms and facilities, location, service, food, and value, so this is real-world validation straight from the people who’ve been there.

A Week at the Ranch

Set across 4,000 private acres of gardens, mountains, and meadows, The Ranch runs on a weekly stay format designed to help you slow down, move, and reconnect. The fitness program is broad – yoga, Pilates, strength training, water aerobics, Tai Chi, and guided hikes across more than 40 miles of trails.

Three onsite health centers handle the spa side, offering a full range of treatments and therapies throughout the week. The food earns its own mention: nourishing, pescatarian-style cuisine built around fresh produce from the Tres Estrellas Organic Farm right on the property.

rancho la puerta best international wellness retreat

Rooted Since 1940

The Ranch was founded by spa pioneers Deborah Szekely and her late husband Edmond Szekely – two of the people most credited with shaping the modern wellness resort as we know it.

That foundation is still very much alive here: a focus on nature, community, movement, and nourishment that has kept people returning for decades.

See you there!

Rancho La Puerta has been drawing people in and keeping them coming back for over 80 years. Your first visit – or your fifteenth – awaits.

🎟️ Book your stay here
ℹ️ Find more details here

See you there, San Diego!

Source link

San Diego, CA

An executive shuffle at San Diego’s Sempra

Published

21 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Press Room

An executive shuffle at San Diego’s Sempra

Sempra, the San Diego-based Fortune 500 energy giant, announced changes in the executive suite that the company says reflect greater focus on its holdings in the utilities sector.

Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Karen Sedgwick will become the chief executive officer and president of Southern California Gas, one of Sempra’s subsidiaries.

She will be replaced by Justin Bird, who is currently the CEO of Sempra Infrastructure, the company’s subsidiary in Houston that builds, operates and invests in projects such as liquefied natural gas, or LNG, facilities.

The appointments come in the wake of a $10 billion agreement announced last fall between the Sempra parent company and KKR, one of world’s biggest investment firms. Affiliates of KKR will buy a 45% equity interest in Sempra Infrastructures Partners.

The deal, which is expected to wrap up within the next two months, underscores Sempra’s intention to concentrate the company’s investment strategy on its utility assets in Texas and California.

“This is an exciting time for our company as we continue to advance the growth of our utility businesses,” Sempra’s Chairman and CEO Jeff Martin said in a statement. “These appointments further our mission alignment and strengthen our ability to deliver long-term value for our stakeholders. Our board has great confidence in both Karen and Justin and the leadership they will bring to their new roles.”

Sempra is the parent company of San Diego Gas & Electric, as well as Dallas-based Oncor, a utility that operates the largest transmission and distribution system in Texas. Sempra affiliate SoCalGas, with headquarters in Los Angeles, is the largest natural gas distribution utility in the U.S.

Sedgwick, who has worked at various Sempra companies for more than 30 years, already serves on the SoCalGas board of directors. She replaces Maryam Brown, who left SoCalGas and was named president and chief operating officer of Indiana Michigan Power on April 27.

Bird, with more than 20 years at Sempra, will also lead the company’s investor relations, treasury, financial planning, audit, insurance and tax functions. He will continue serving on the boards of Sempra Infrastructure and Oncor.

Bird and Sedgwick will assume their new roles on or around the closing of the KKR transaction. Last month, Bob Patel was named as incoming CEO of Sempra Infrastructure.

Sempra officials believe the KKR deal will generate “substantial cash proceeds” and support “disciplined capital allocation” by simplifying the company’s business and investment strategy.

The transaction is expected to result in about 95% of Sempra’s earnings to come from U.S. regulated utilities in 2027. The company has set a goal to have 60% of its rate base located in Texas by the end of this decade.

The KKR agreement will result in a reduction in Sempra’s stake in its various LNG investments.

Sempra’s ownership share of the first phase of the Energía Costa Azul facility in Ensenada, Mexico, will be reduced from 58.4% to 20.9%.

On the U.S. Gulf Coast, Sempra’s share of Cameron LNG in Louisiana will be reduced from 35.1% to 12.6%. In addition, its share of the first phase of the Port Arthur LNG project in Texas will drop from 19.6% to 7%, and its ownership of the second phase of Port Arthur will fall from 35.1% to 12.5%.

Source link