Padres sign Correia to a 1 Year deal

Saturday December 12, 2009

Looks like the Padres avoided arbitration or having to non-tender starting pitcher Kevin Correia by signing him to a 1 year $3.6 million deal.

The deal was initially reported by Marty Caswell of XX 1090 in a Twitter post and later confirmed by Corey Brock of MLB.com in his Twitter post.

Correia, who is a San Diego native, led the Padres in wins, innings and other pitching categories after signing a minor league deal with the Padres last season for a below market $750k with a promise he would be a starter. He had turned down larger offers elsewhere to pitch in a relief role.

Now he will be a Padre for at least one more season.

Barry Axelrod, Correia's agent has said the neither the Padres nor Correia had asked for a second season as had been widely reported in the media and blogs. Correia will be in the Padres control for 2 more seasons after 2010 before becoming a free agent.

Correia will likely take a spot in the middle of the Padres rotation behind Chris Young and Mat Latos in 2010.

Complete Game Shutout for Correia

Friday September 25, 2009

Kevin Correia threw a complete game shutout and the San Diego Padres defeated the last place Arizona Diamondbacks 4-0 tonight at Chase Field.

Correia allowed just 6 hits and 1 walk while striking out 7 on 109 pitches for his first career shutout and the first for a Padres pitcher since 2006. It was an awesome performance by a guy I have pegged as a mediocre pitcher on occasion.

Correia has been outstanding the last 2 months going 5-2 with a 2.54 ERA in his last 11 starts and has lowered his era from 4.75 at the end of July to 3.89 after tonight's game. In fact he has not given up a run since the 2nd inning of a Padres loss to these same Diamondbacks on September 14th, a stretch of 20 innings.

Folks I love being wrong about things like that.

Padres are now 15-7 in September.

Correia has great outing

Wednesday September 2, 2009

Just in time to make me look like an idiot, San Diego Padres starting pitcher Kevin Correia pitched into the 8th inning for just the second time this season throwing 7 2/3 shutout innings to improve his ERA to 4.29 on the season.

After two straight mediocre outings in which he gave up double digit hits in each, Correia rebounded strongly to shut out the struggling Nationals on just 3 hits and 2 walks for the win over the worst team in baseball. It was Correia's 10th win of the season in 28 starts.

The Padres offense looked anemic to start the game,before busting out for 5 runs in the 6th inning against Nationals starter John Lannan.

Nationals pitchers walked 9 Padres with Lannan walking 5 and reliever Jorge Sosa walking 3 more.

Adrian Gonzalez led the charge with a double that drove in Everth Cabrera and David Eckstein with 2 outs in the 5th. After Kevin Kouzmanoff was intentionally walked, Chase Headley drove in Gonzalez and Kouzmanoff with a double to the gap in RF. Will Venable continued to be hot at the plate, going 2 for 4 with an RBI single in the 5th. He raised his batting average to a team high .275.

Pads Win, Pads Win, Pads Win

Friday August 28, 2009

The San Diego Padres bats woke up tonight as they pounded out 16 hits and 9 runs in a win over the Florida Marlins at Land Shark Stadium.

Everth Cabrera was a human highlight machine tonight going 2 for 6 with a stolen base, scored 2 runs, drove in 2 runs and made 4 outstanding plays in the field.

David Eckstein continued to be white hot with runners in scoring position, going 2 for 2 in those situations and 3 for 6 overall.

Kevin Correia was uninspiring again tonight giving up 11 hits and 4 runs in 6 2/3 but got extremely lucky as the Padres defense pulled his fat out of the fire time after time. It was the 2nd straight game in which he gave up 10+ hits. Thanks to being staked to 7 runs in the first 3 innings, Correia got his 9th win of the season.

Someone on the Padres staff should have noticed by now that when Correia's left foot starts popping towards first on his follow through, his pitches start missing up.

After crushing a 2 run shot over the 434 ft sign in Left Center, Kyle Blanks re-injured his foot rounding 1st base. It was Blanks 10th home run in just 148 at bats, a 40 home run per season pace.

The Marlins Chris Volstad continued his run of bad outings giving up 6 runs in 1 2/3 innings on 6 hits and 2 walks.

Hanley Ramirez went 2 for 4 for the Marlins to raise his National League leading average to .366. It was his 3rd multi-hit game during a 5 game hitting streak and 5th in the last 10 games.

Correia gets pounded

Saturday August 22, 2009

Kevin Correia once again demonstrated that he is what he is, a decent #4 or #5 pitcher on most major league staffs.

Even playing half his games in spacious Petco Park he is still giving up far too many home runs with men on base and his 4.46 ERA reflects that. He is league average in a park that favors pitchers. Not a good combination.

Hopefully next season he will learn to control his follow through so that he can be more consistent in his delivery and will be able to help Chris Young anchor a rotation that should include future ace Mat Latos, Tim Stauffer and Clayton Richard.

(That little pop to the left that his plant foot does on his follow through makes it harder to repeat his delivery and contributes to his pitches being up. Watch the replay of the game on the home runs and see if his left foot turns sharply towards 1st base as he is following through. I would be willing to bet it does.)

Tonight Correia gave up 5 earned runs on 10 hits and 2 walks with 2 home runs to the St Louis Cardinals in 5 innings pitched.

The Cardinals defeated the Padres for the 11th time in 12 games behind Chris Carpenter's 7 shut out innings of 3 hit ball. Matt Holliday's 3 run blast in the top of the 1st proved to be all the offense the Cardinals would need as they shut out the Padres for the 2nd time in 3 games.

The Padres offense, which had shown signs of improvements in games against other teams since the all star break, has been more anemic against the Cardinals than they have been overall this season.

Padres win 2nd straight road game, series

Wednesday August 12, 2009

The San Diego Padres guaranteed themselves their second straight series win on the road with a 6-5 come from behind win over the Milwaukee Brewers tonight at Miller Park.

They can get their first road series sweep of the season, and their first sweep since May, with a win in tomorrow's 11:05 AM (PDT) game.

Kevin Correia went 6 innings, giving up 3 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks, for his Padres leading 8th win of the season.

Kevin Kouzmanoff went 3 for 4 to pace the Padres and drove in what proved to be the winning run in the top of the 7th.

Heath Bell came in to pitch the 9th for his National League leading 29th save.

Reliever Todd Coffey took the loss for the slumping Brewers, their 4th loss in 5 games. With the loss the Brewers are now 3 games under .500 at 55-58 and 7.5 games back in both the NL Central and the Wild Card race.

Cabrera giveth and Cabrera taketh away

Friday August 7, 2009

In the 1st inning an error by Everth Cabrera led to the New York Mets only two runs of game.

Known for his speed on the base paths not his power, Cabrera atoned for his early miscue by hitting hitting a walk off grand slam off Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez in the bottom of the 9th to give the Padres a 6-2 win. It was KRod's 5th blown save of the year and the slumping Mets 7th loss in the last 10 games.

Kevin Correia looked snake bit after that error allowing 6 hits, 2 walks and 2 unearned runs on 67 pitches through 3 innings. He then settled down allowing only just one Met to reach base over the next 3 innings. His line 6 IP, 7 Hits, 2 Runs, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 HR to lower his ERA to 4.51 on the season.

After 2 scoreless innings from Joe Thatcher and Mike Adams, Heath Bell came in and pitched a scoreless 9th to earn the win, his 4th of the season.

Former Padre Oliver Perez pitched 6 1/3 innings of 2 hit ball striking out 7 and giving up just a single run before giving way to Brian Stokes in the 7th. Perez has literally had an up and down year after signing a 3 year $36 million contract in the off season, being sent down to AAA on several occasions and throwing just 48.2 innings with a 7.03 ERA coming into tonight's game.

Why was Correia batting with a man on base & 2 outs in the 6th inning of a tie game?

Wednesday July 29, 2009

The pitcher batting in a crucial situation in a tie game with the fastest man on the team on base? When a single scores a run?

Do the Padres have that little faith in their pinch hitters?

Do they have that much faith in Correia, a guy with a 5 ERA, to shut down the Reds until the Padres get another base runner?

Are the Padres really trying to win games?

Or is Black just trying to get the pitcher 6 innings again?

Result - Correia strikes out looking and now the Padres go into the bottom half of the inning having blown an opportunity to score a go ahead run.

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!

Correia looking like an Ace

Saturday June 27, 2009

San Diego Padres starter Kevin Correia threw 7 strong innings tonight giving up just 5 hits, 1 BB and 3 runs while striking out a career high 9. The bullpen got a much needed rest tonight with Mujica and Adams combining for 2 scoreless innings.

The bats came alive tonight with the Padres getting 7 runs on 16 hits with 6 of those runs coming by the 5th inning. The 5 through 9 hitters combined for 12 of hits with Kouzmanoff and Headley going 3 for 5.

The Padres top prospect, Kyle Blanks, went 2 for 5 with 2 doubles and 3 rbi and just missed getting his 1st major league home run on a deep fly to straightaway center field.

Scott Hairston continued his hitting woes since coming off the DL going 0 for 5 tonight and 2 for 20 with 5 k's in 5 games. His BA for the season dropped below .300 for the 1st time since April 9th.

For the month of June, Kevin Correia has lowered his ERA more than 1 full point from 5.37 on June 1st to 4.23 after today's game. During that stretch he has had 5 straight quality starts and tonight was the only one in which he gave up 3 runs.

With both Peavy and Young expected to be out until after the All Star break, Correia is the Padres acting Ace and he sure is pitching like one this month.

He even sounds like his daddy.

Saturday June 6, 2009

After being on base 5 times in 5 at bats tonight (a single, a double and 3 bb), the post game interview let us hear that not only has Jr hit like his HOF daddy, he even sounds like him.

Oh yeah, and the Padres won the game over the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4.

After a shaky start in the first when he allowed 2 runs on 2 hits, a passed ball and a hbp, Kevin Correia settled down and shut down the D'backs for the next 5 innings to get his 2nd win of the season. In all he allowed 2 runs on 5 hits, 1 walk and a hbp in 6 IP.

Chase Headley started his 1st game at 3B this season, but gave way to Kevin Kouzmanoff in the 7th inning after being hit by a pitch for the 2nd time in the game by D'backs pitchers.

After not scoring a run in the first 14 innings of the series, the Padres exploded for 6 runs in the 6th inning.

Will Venable started it out with a double to right, Blanco moved him to 3rd with a sac fly and Chris Burke drove him home with a single. Edgar Gonzalez flied out for the 2nd out. Then it got fun. Gwynn Jr. walked and Eckstein drive in Burke. Adrian Gonzalez was walked to load the bases. Then Headley took a pitch in the leg from Dan Schlereth to drive a run. Giles drives in two with a single and then the guy who started it all off in the 6th, drove in the 6th run of the inning with a single to left.

NICE Inning!

After a perfect inning by Luke Gregerson and Edward Mujiica gave up a solo shot to Upton in the 8th inning, Heath Bell came in for the 9th and got his 16th save after allowing a single run on a walk, a wild pitch, a sac, and ground out.

The Padres improve to 26-29 on the season.

Adrian Gonzalez has now been walked 15 times in the past 8 games. With no one to protect him in the lineup, Adrian is being pitched around by other teams rather than give him a chance to beat them.

10 but not 11.

Wednesday May 27, 2009

The San Diego Padres comeback fell short and they fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-5 last night in Phoenix.

After starting pitcher Kevin Correia got in trouble by getting pitches up to the #8 and #9 hitters in the Diamondback's batting order and giving up two runs in the 5th, manager Bud Black made a critical mistake in sending him back out for the 6th inning.

Correia left pitch after pitch up in the zone and got pounded for 5 hits and 4 more runs.

Sometimes you wonder what Black is saving the bullpen for?

The Padres hitters once again mounted a valiant comeback against the Diamondbacks bullpen scoring 5 runs in the 8th and 9th innings, but came up just short on Kevin Kouzmanoff's fly ball to the warning track in the 9th.

Brian Giles continued his hot streak going 3 for 5 in the game. Giles has gone 6 for 10 in his last 4 games. He is still hitting just .189 on the season.

Diamondbacks starter Max Scherzer went 7 innings giving up just 6 hits and 2 runs while striking out 10 for his 2nd career win in 16 starts.

Tonights rubber game is at 6:40pm pacific and pits Padres Ace Jake Peavy against Diamondbacks rookie Billy Buckner.

Do you think Buckner may have gotten teased just a bit about his name? How many times was he asked about the error in 1986? I don't believe that this kid is related to Billy Buck, but I would love to hear about what having that famous (infamous?) name has put him through.

Gwynn scores the winning run in the 9th for the Padres 6th straight wins!

Thursday May 21, 2009

Gwynn scores the winning run and the San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants 3-2.

A very familiar sounding statement in Padres land, but this time it is the newest Padre, Tony Gwynn Jr., coming across the plate.

The Padres starting pitching was outstanding again tonight with Kevin Correia going 6.1 innings and giving up just 6 hits and 1 run while walking none. The only run Correia surrendered came on an Aaron Rowand home run to left in the 6th inning.

Joe Thatcher and Edward Mujica combined for 1.2 scoreless innings in relief and handed a 1-1 game to Heath Bell in the 9th.

After Heath Bell allowed his first run of the season to give the Giants a 2-1 lead in the top of the 9th, the Padres came back in the bottom of the frame to score two runs for their 6th straight win and 2nd straight series sweep.

Kevin Kouzmanoff led off the 9th with an infield single to third and scored the tying run when David Eckstein was plunked in the shoulder by a 97 mph fastball from Giants closer Brian Wilson with the bases loaded. Wilson had walked both Gwynn Jr. and Brian Giles to get to the pesky Eckstein.

Scott Hairston then drove in Gwynn with a single to left for the victory.

Kouzmanoff has improved his batting average to .240 for the season by going 9 for 24 (.375) in this home stand with a pair of home runs and 4 rbi while drawing 2 walks and striking out only twice in 28 plate appearances.

Adrian Gonzalez broke out of a 0 for 17 slump on the home stand with a smash up the middle in the 6th that caromed off Giants ace Tim Lincecum's glove into CF for a single.

Chase Headley's woes continued with an 0 for 4 performance and 2 more strike outs. Headley is now 1 for 13 (.077) on the home stand with 6 strike outs.

Lincecum went 7 innings giving up just 4 hits and 1 run while striking out 10 Padres for another hard luck loss in 3 well pitched games for the Giants starters in this series.

So now the Padres have won 6 straight games and swept 2 straight series!

And Gwynn scores the winning run!

It took 4 innings for Corriea to lose control

Saturday May 9, 2009

Kevin Correia showed uncharacteristic control through 3 innings tonight before walking 2 in the 4th inning.

If not for an incredible throw to 2nd by Nick Hundley on a steal attempt by Michael Bourn, the Padres would be down 1-0.

My question is how many more will Black allow Correia to walk before pulling him?