Scotty Hairston Avoids Arbitration

Tuesday February 2, 2010

The San Diego Padres avoided arbitration hearing when they signed Scott Hairston to a $2.45 million, one year deal today.

Scotty and the Padres had swapped figures of $2.9 million and $2.1 million and settled just under the halfway point.

The Padres have now settled with all four of their arbitration eligible players.

Padres Corner Market on Hairstons

Monday January 18, 2009

The San Diego Padres cornered the market on Hairston's today by signing Jerry Jr., the big brother of new (old?) Padre Scott, to a $2.125 million one year deal.

Over the past 25 years the Padres have been the league leaders in brothers. The Alomars, Gwynns (even hired the kid), Giles', and Gonzalez's have all played together in a Padres uniform and now the Hairstons' will get their chance.  Talk about keeping it in the family.

Jerry Hairston Jr.(33), who like his younger brother Scott began his career as a Second Baseman, will fill a super utilty position.for the Padres backing up David Eckstein and Everth Cabrera in the middle infield as well as being available to play all 3 outfield positions. Jerry Jr and his brother both play a number of  positions well and this gives quite a bit of flexibility when filling out the lineup card.

Hairston Jr. is a career .259/.328/.373/.701 hitter and a plus defender at 2B and all 3 OF positions, but lacks the power of his brother Scott. He began last season with the Cincinnati Reds and finished the season on the World Champion New York Yankees.  The Padres will be Hairston Jr.'s 6th team in his 12 year career.

Welcome aboard Jr.

Padres make first move of the offseason

Friday January 15, 2010

Finally! The Padres make a move and its a good one.

The San Diego Padres made their first real trade of the off season trading Third Baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and a minor league 2B Eric Sogard to the Oakland A's for former Padre Scott Hairston and the A's top outfield prospect Aaron Cunningham.

Scott Hairston fills an immediate hole for a RH Bat with power that can platoon in CF with Tony Gwynn. Padres fans are very familiar with Hairston. Many were sad to see him go when he was traded away in early July last season while hitting .299/.358/.533/.891 in a move that brought the Padres Sean Gallagher and two good young pitching prospects. Now he is back!

Hairston learned about the trade by reading MLBTradeRumors.com and said in an interview with Craig of 619sports.com that being traded back to San Diego is "a dream come true".

Cunningham, 23 and a 6th round draft pick by the White Sox in 2005, gives the Padres a power hitting RH bat with some speed in the outfield for the future.

With the A's already having a crowded outfield, Cunningham became expendable when the A's traded for another top OF prospect, Michel Taylor. He will likely start the 2010 season in Portland.

Playing mainly corner OF positions in 2009, Cunningham hit .302/.372/.479/.851 with 11 HR in 334 abs for AAA Sacramento. He also hit .151 over 60 abs in a 23 game stint in Oakland, his second short stay in an A's uniform in the last two seasons.

The long expected trade of Kevin Kouzmanoff means Chase Headley will be moved out of left field, where his fielding was woefully inadequate, and get his chance to replace the NL record holder for fielding percentage at the hot corner.

I sincerely hope the move to his natural position of 3B also helps Headley feel more comfortable at the plate where he has not lived up to expectations so far in his career.

Moving Headley to 3B will also allow the Padres to give the teams best power hitting prospect, Kyle Blanks, a full season in left field. Blanks excelled in his first action in the majors last season before suffering a season ending foot injury in late August.

The only bummer about this trade is losing Sogard, the Padres top middle infield prospect in a system in dire need of middle infield prospects.

Un-BEE-lievable!

Thursday July 2, 2009

After Padres starting pitcher Kevin Correia's pitches were stung by Houston Astros bats for 8 hits and 6 runs in 5 innings, today's game at Petco Park was delayed for 52 minutes in the top of the 9th because of a swarm of bees.

The swarm of several thousand bees completely covered the jacket of the Padres ballgirl after the Queen apparently nested under the jacket. Eventually a beekeeper was called in to remove the queen and break up the swarm. The game continued after the delay and the Astros took the victory 7-2.

Once again the Padres offense looked anemic against a left handed starter. Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez held the Padres to 7 hits and 1 run in 7 innings. To date the Padres are hitting just .230 against LHP.

Former Padre Geoff Blum went 2-4 today including a 3 run homer and 4 rbi.

Scott Hairston provided the only real Padres highlights going 2-4 with a booming double to right center in the 5th inning to drive in Everth Cabrera.

Next up is the Los Angeles Dodgers and the freak show that will undoubtedly follow steroid abuser Manny Ramirez.

Tomorrow's game at 7:05 is sold out as Angelenos are undoubtedly streaming down at this very moment to spend their 4th of July holiday watching the joke that is Manny return from the 50 day suspension he recieved from MLB for being caught using not only steroids, but also a women's fertility drug that is also banned by baseball.

So folks if you don't have a ticket, that may be a good thing for you, as a visit from the Dodgers always brings with it the type of fans that the Raiders attract. In other words, way too many beligerent drunks and gang bangers.

While I will be in my seat all 3 games, I sometimes I wonder why I go to every game when the Dodgers come to town. I avoid the Raiders games even if it means eating my tickets, but I force myself to come to these games and even enjoy baiting Da Bums fans.

Oh well. See you at the park this weekend. Go Padres.

Beat LA! Beat LA! Beat LA!

Another Padres Pitcher Lost to the DL

Wednesday June 17, 2009

With the shoulder injury that forced Luke Gregerson onto the DL, the Padres now have 6 pitchers on the DL.

6 Pitchers on the DL. Most teams don't have 6 PLAYERS on the DL.

In addition to Gregerson, the Padres also have on the DL:

• Mark Worrell who is lost for the season,
• Cha Seung Baek who is on the 60 day DL and not expected back this season,
• Shawn Hill was just moved onto the 60 day DL and may not be back this season,
• Luis Perdomo who is on the 15 day DL and due to his Rule V draft status may not be activated until late in the season if at all
• and Jake Peavy who is out until the All Star break at the least and probably until August.

Add to those 6 pitchers the Padres hottest batter, Scott Hairston, and a promising young and speedy shortstop in Everth Cabrera, and you can see why the Padres are having such a hard time winning games on a consistent basis. Not enough major league players left healthy on the major league roster.

Currently the Padres are on pace for 1140 player days on the dl, or the 2nd most in MLB records. Only their 2008 season's total of 1244 exceeds that number. It means 30% of the team is on the DL on average all season. That is Astounding bad luck!!

And now we find out Chris Young may be headed to the DL as well.

That would leave the Padres with just 4 pitchers who spent significant time on a ML roster in 2008. Corriea, Bell, Adams, and Meredith.

It will also leave the Padres with a starting rotation that consists of Kevin Correia (our new #1), Chad Gaudin, Walter Silva, Wade LeBlanc and Josh Geer (or Ekstrom or Banks).

Does that sound like a AAA rotation? It should. It would be the AAA rotation on any other team in MLB and should be even for the Padres.

Once again, injuries have shattered any hope of a decent season for the Padres.

Another one bites the dust

Wednesday June4, 2009

Another one bites the dust.

With Scott Hairston's bicep injury, yet another Padre went on the DL today.

That makes it seven players on the DL currently and nine players who have spent time there so far this season.

Will Venable was called up to take Hairston's place in the lineup. Drew Macias would have been called up, but a contusion on his left hand may send him to the DL as well.

Last time I checked the Padres were on pace for 1100 player days on the DL in 2009 or just a few under their MLB record of 1200+ player days on the DL last season.

The record amount of injuries that plagued the Padres in 2009 is what doomed their season. Could they be on the way to another injury and loss filled season?

I sure hope not. It is hard watching your AAA players in a Padres uniform every day.

The good news is that Everth Cabrera has started his minor league rehab assignment and has to join the Padres by June 23rd and Mike Adams is also on a rehab assignment and could join the Padres as soon as Friday.

Peavy leaves with Flu symptoms?

Wednesday June 3, 2009

Flu my eye. I am sure the Padres were not lying when they say that Peavy had flu symptoms, but with a player like Peavy who has a warrior mentality you know he wasn't taken out of the game after one inning because he was a little queezy.

We knew something was up when Josh Geer was warming up before the game and Peavy only had an abbreviated warm up session.

It was pretty obvious to everyone watching the game that Peavy was having problems with his push off leg. His velocity was down and his pitches were up. That is a sure sign that you can't push off the mound properly.

Did they use the flu excuse because they didn't want to scare off possible suitors for Peavy? Possibly.

All I know is Peavy could have been getting intravenous fluids between innings because he was so sick he couldn't hold anything down and he still would have wanted to stay in that game. He is just that type of player.

Well, no matter the reason, Peavy gave up 4 runs, the Padres gave up 10 all together and lost to the Phillies 10-5.

The one bright note in the game is that Adrian Gonzalez hit a home run for the 4th straight game and his league leading 22nd of the season.

Once again the Padres batters could not hit left handed pitching and made a rookie look like CY Young. Its a predictable pattern. Bet on the Padres doing poorly against LHP and you will win the bet far more often than you will lose.

One of the only Padres hitters that is doing well against LHP, Scott Hairston, was replaced in the field by Chase Headley to start the 6th. Apparently Hairston strained his left biceps muscle.

Corey Brock of MLB.com posted in his article;
"Second at-bat, first swing -- I felt something in my bicep," Hairston said. "It felt like it wanted to tear, honestly. With each swing, it just got worse. It's one of those things that, as a player, you really get nervous when something like that happens. I just felt that I couldn't continue on."

Not a good sign. The Padres best pitcher and one of the hottest hitters both have to leave the game. Hairston may or may not have to spend time on the DL. The PAdres have already been decimated by injuries and now this.

Will it be a June Swoon for the Padres, or will they continue to howver around .500?