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.

So what becomes of Bell, Kouz and Adams?

Thursday January 14, 2010

With the date arbitration eligible players and their teams need to exchange numbers, the question I have is what will happen with Bell, Kouzmanoff and Adams?

Will any or all of them be traded? If they are to be traded, will the Padres wait until after signing them to trade them?

Will the Padres attempt to sign any or all of them to a  long term deal at favorable rates?
Will any or all of them make it all the way to actual arbitration proceedings? Under Moores and Towers, the Padres signed almost every arbitration eligible player prior to the arbitration proceedings. What will Moorad and Hoyer do?

So what do you think? What will happen to Heath Bell, Kevin Kouzmanoff and Mike Adams?

A look forward at a possible 2010 Padres Roster

December 9, 2009

A Look Forward at the San Diego Padres 2010 Roster and Payroll

I thought I would get a head start on what the 2010 Padres roster would look like.

What follows is the players currently on the roster and their projected salaries. Arbitration eligible players salaries are in ranges and include what I would offer or do in paranthesis.

There are many question marks and much that may change in the next few days at the Winter Meetings.

Position Players
1B - Adrian Gonzalez     - $4.75 million
2B - David Eckstein     - $1.0 million
SS - Everth Cabrera     - 0.4000 million
3B - Kevin Kouzmanoff     - $3.0 - $4.0 million (Trade)
LF - Chase Headley    - 0.4115 million
CF - Tony Gwynn/    - 0.4050
RF - Kyle Blanks    - 0.4000
C  - Nick Hundley    - 0.4044

Bench
Will Venable        - .4023
Oscar Salazar        - .4000

Starting Pitching
Chris Young        - $6.250 million
Mat Latos        - 0.400
Kevin Correia        - $2.5 - $3.5 million (Sign to a 2 year $6 million deal with a team option)
Clayton Richard        - 0.405
Aaron Poreda/Sean Gallagher/Wade LeBlanc/Tim Stauffer/Cesar Carillo/Cesar Ramos

Bullpen
Heath Bell        - $3.5 - $4.5 million (Trade or sign to 2 year $7 million deal)
Edward Mujica        - 0.404
Luke Gregerson        - 0.400
Joe Thatcher        - 0.404          
Adam Russell, Greg Burke, Luis Perdomo, Ryan Webb, Mike Ekstrom and possibly Mark Worrell.

Payroll without trades or signing outside organization - $26.3362 - $29.362 million

$ the Padres have to spend with a $43 million payroll = $13.5 - $16.5 million

Needs
Middle infielder/Utility - especially one that can play SS
Catcher
Starting Pitcher



What Do I think Will/Should happen for 2010

If the Padres trade Gonzalez they will be signaling they are giving up on the 2010 and quite possibly the 2011 season completely and will not bring in a fairly expensive FA like Cameron who will command $7 million plus. Gonzalez makes a very reasonable $4.75 million in 2010.

The Padres will not bring back enough in trade to offset the loss of fan support/goodwill and local revenue and production from Gonzalez to make a trade worthwhile for at least two seasons. For those reasons alone he will probably not be traded..

If the Padres retain both Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez and Kouzmanoff, Correia and Bell all get the $2.5 - $3.5 million they are expected to get in arbitration the Padres are still $13.5 million under their $43 million payroll level at the beginning of the 2009 season.

Moorad and Hoyer have said  the Padres payroll will begin with a 4. In other words $40-49 million

I would think a trade of Bell and Kouzmanoff is much more likely than a trade of Gonzalez.

The Padres would save $7 - $9 million in 2010 and probably double that in 2011 by trading Bell and Kouzmanoff.

Trading both would also bring in 3+ good prospects.

So lets recap.

The Padres trade Gonzalez they save $4.75 million in 2010 and $5.5 million in 2011 and get 4-5 prospects.

If the Padres trade Kouzmanoff and Bell they will save $7-9 million in 2010 and $14-18 million in 2011.

If Hoyer is any good he will not have to trade Gonzalez to build the Padres into a contender in 2010 or 2011.

Kouzmanoff - Defensive Record but no Gold Glove

Wednesday Novermber 11, 2009

Kouzmanoff was robbed.

The Gold Glove award is not a defensive award and it hasn't been for a very long time. They give these awards to anyone who hits well and plays decent defense for a team that gets press.

They gave the Gold Glove to Rafael Palmiero in a year played 28 games at 1B and another to Barry Bonds in a year he led the league in errors in LF.

Zimmerman hit .292 with 33 hr and 106 rbi. He does make alot of Web Gems, but he also blows alot of plays as evidenced by 17 errors. Only 4 players had MORE errors at 3B.

Kouzmanoff just makes every play. But he didn't hit 30+ home runs or play in Washington DC so he didn't get the press Zimmerman did.

Kouzmanoff's Web Gems weren't shown on SportsCenter because his games started after the 10pm EST SportsCenter started.

So the press didn't SEE him play. They simply don't know what he did.

And for those pushing UZR, did you know that it doesn't take into account ballpark or positioning? It doesn't take into account if you have someone playing next to you like Cabrera who makes a lot of plays deep in the hole. Actually it penalizes you if the guy playing next to you is a great player and gets to some balls in the bordering zone.

All it takes into account on range is whether a player made a play on a ball hit into a zone in which 50% of other players touched the ball in.

And I don't even want to go into the entire argument about the number of TC Zimmerman had versus how many Kouzmanoff had. I did two entire articles on that. Suffice to say the stats show it had much more to do with more IP by LHP and a higher ground ball percentage against those pitchers than with getting to balls farther away from the players original positioning.

Kinda sad when the supposed defensive award goes to a guy that is close to the worst at making errors rather than the guy who set a NL record for being the best.

Kouzmanoff All Time record holder at 3B

Sunday October 4, 2009

Congratulations Kevin Kouzmanoff!

San Diego Padres Third Baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff set two MLB record for fielding by a 3B.

Kouzmanoff's committed just 3 errors in 309 total chances and had a .990 fielding percentage.

The MLB record for fewest errors by a 3B with 300+ chances was previously 5.
In the AL Don Money for Milwaukee in 1974 and Eric Chavez for the Oakland Athletics in 2006. In the NL the record was 7 by Mike Lowell of the Florida Marlins in 2004.

The record for fielding percentage in the NL had been held by former Padre Vinny Castilla during his 2004 season with the Colorado Rockies and the MLB record was was held by Don Money at .989.

I had read that someone had a .990 fielding percentage in the AL, but I can't seem to find it.

The bottom line is Kouzmanoff had one of the best defensive seasons in major league history.

Congratulations and I hope to see you back in a Padres uniform in 2010 to continue your overall improvement as a player.

Beat LA Part Two

Wednesday September 30, 2009

OUTSTANDING!

Can you think of anything better than watching the Padres keep the Dodgers from clinching the division for a night?

How about TWO nights in a row?

The Padres win tonight 5-0 and sweep the Dodgers in this short 2 game series.

I absolutely love it!

Clayton Richard threw 7 shutout innings giving up just 1 hit and 3 BB.

How did the Padres batters do?
Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a laser of a 3 run home run in the 3rd off Garland.
Nick Hundley went 3 for 4 to raise his average to .246 on the season.
Chase Headley went 2 for 4, drove in a run and scored a run.

And Loretta put a figure 4 leg lock on Everth Cabrera as he tried to get back to 3b in a 4th inning rundown and was called for obstruction. Cabrera scores!

The Padres have played very good baseball the 2nd half of this season and I am excited about their chances of contending in 2010.

Now lets see if the Rockies can go into Chavez Ravine, take 3 games from them in LA and complete the Dodgers humiliating end of the season.

Washington Post readers have such class

Wednesday September 9, 2009

Judging by all the anonymous comments I have received yesterday and tonight full of cursing and spewing hatred at me for daring to say Ryan Zimmerman is not a runaway candidate for the Gold Glove and all the click throughs from voices.washingtonpost.com, Websoulsurfer must have made the Washington Post website.

Sorry folks, sailor speak and sounding like a right wing pundit is not going to make me change my mind. I still believe that 3 errors is better than 15 and that Zimmerman is not more deserving of the Gold Glove award than Kouzmanoff.

Come back and put your name on the comment, don't use any foul language, and present a coherent argument as to why you think Zimmerman should win the Gold Glove and I will be glad to post your comment.

Until then, enjoy living in our nation's capital and watching the Nationals play.

More on how good Kouzmanoff's defense has been

Monday September 7, 2009

Myron over at Another Padres Blog brought up some points about how good Kevin Kouzmanoff's defense has been this season that I want to speak about a little bit.

One of the things that he brings up is that because Ryan Zimmerman has more total chances, he is supposedly a better fielder than Kouzmanoff.

Let me say this first, Total Chances has as much to do with the pitchers as with the range of the player.

To say either Kouzmanoff or Zimmerman is a better fielder because he has more chances without also finding out what percentage of the balls were actually hit to the left side is disingenuous. Common sense tells us that if you face a larger percentage of RHB, you will have more balls hit to the left side.

To say either is a better fielder without knowing what percentage of the balls hit were ground balls makes that argument faulty as well.

So lets take a look at those and let me give a few examples.

Overall the Washington Nationals pitchers induce ground balls at a higher rate (44.8 %) than Padres pitchers (43.2 %). That MUST be taken into account.

5437 total PA x 1.6% = 86 more ground balls induced by Nationals pitchers.

A great example -
If Chris Young is pitching, then nearly twice as man of the balls hit will be fly balls than if John Lannan is pitching.

The number of right handed batters faced must also be taken into account.

Overall Zimmerman faced 6% more RHB. As we stated above, RHB are more likely to hit the ball to the left side than a left handed batter.

The Nationals have faced a much higher percentage of RHB (3077 vs RHB, 2270 VS LHB) than the Padres have (2721 vs RHB, 2632 vs LHB) which means more hits to the left side of the infield.

3077 -2721 = 356 more PA by RHB.

In 74% of the plate appearances by RHB the ball was put in play and 41% of those were hit to what THT defines as the 3B zone, then 108 additional balls were hit to the 3B zone against the Nationals than were hit to the 3B zone against the Padres. Zimmerman has 106 more total chances than Kouzmanoff. I simply do not see any benefit that came from Zimmerman's supposed greater range.

So the fact that Nationals pitchers induce a higher percentage of ground balls and face more batters overall and more RHB accounts for, at the very least, a huge portion of the 106 additional chances that Ryan Zimmerman has had in 2009.

Now in his article, Myron quotes THT stats that say Zimmerman has gotten to 51 more out of zone (OOZ) balls than Kouzmanoff has, but Zimmerman has thrown away 12 of the 51 balls THT claims that his slightly larger range has allowed him to get to. (Myron, 84-33=51, not 45)

I am not sure that THT's stats are correct since what the zone is is totally subjective, but assuming they are, were the additional 38 balls reached worth the 12 additional errors?

Those 12 additional throwing errors by Zimmerman resulted in 27 unearned runs scored. So how many games were lost because of those 27 additional runs? Did the 38 additional outs save 27 runs? Until you can answer that question you cannot quantify the benefit of Zimmerman getting to 51 more supposed out of zone balls.

Is additional range a benefit? Certainly. IF you can convert those balls into outs.

If the season ended today would I take a guy for the Gold Glove with slightly more range that commits 5 TIMES as many errors? No Way.

I would take the guy that knows his limits and simply does not commit throwing errors.

I would take the guy that converts 20% more of his DP opportunities.

I would take the guy who set a major league record for fielding percentage.

I would take Kouzmanoff.


* Stats taken from Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet, except where noted.

How good is Kouzmanoff's defense?

Monday September 7, 2009

I have been hearing alot about Kevin Kouzmanoff's defense and I wondered how he compared to the greats of my youth and more recent years. The guys that are enshrined in the Hall of Fame and others that simply known as great defenders.

I started with THE greatest defensive Third Baseman the game has ever known.

Brooks Robinson.

He won 18 Gold Gloves and is in the HOF today primarily because of his glove. Well, some might argue that last point since he got 2848 hits in 23 seasons in the majors, but lets just say he was KNOWN for his glove, not his bat.

Brooks Robinson's best season was 1967. He had a .980 fielding percentage and a 3.52 RF/9 with 11 errors.

The second player I wanted to see how Kouzmanoff compared to was my personal favorite, Mike Schmidt.

Schmidt won 10 Gold Gloves and some argue that he was the best NL 3B ever.

His best defensive year was 1986 when he had a .980 fielding percentage and a 2.59 RF/9 with 6 errors, although his best year for range was 1977 when he had a 3.49 RF/9.

I also looked up a couple of more recent 3B are known as great defenders, Eric Chavez for the A's, and Scott Rolen of the Phillies and Cardinals.

In Padres past we had one player that most people think of as a great 3B, Ken Caminiti.

Eric Chavez's best year defensively was 2006 when he had a .987 fFielding percentage and a 2.98 RF/9 with 5 errors.

Scott Rolen's best season defensively was 2004 when he had a .977 fielding percentage and a 3.06 RF/9 with 10 errors.

And Caminiti's best season, although it was not the one for which he won the Gold Glove for the Padres, was 1994 as an Astro when he had a .969 fielding percentage and a 2.72 RF/9 with 9 errors. Caminiti's best season for range was 1997 as a Padre when he had a 3.07 RF/9 but a .941 fielding percentage and 24 errors.

So there are the other commonly accepted greats with the glove at 3B.

How does Kouzmanoff's season in 2009 compare?

Fielding Percentage - .990 Best in MLB History.
RF/9 - 2.34 (Last season he had a 2.64 RF/9)
Errors - 3

In other words he is Schmidt like in his range and better once he touches the ball.

So he may not get to as many balls as some players like Robinson, but when he does, he gets an out.

Some people are saying that Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals should win the Gold Glove because he has so much better range than Kouzmanoff, but his RF/9 is only 3.06. That type of range certainly does not place him among the greats of the game like Robinson.

And when Zimmerman gets to the ball he is only converting that chance to an out in .963 percent of the time.

By a combination of his range and the pitchers he is playing behind, Zimmerman has 404 TC to Kouzmanoff's 298 TC to date, and yet he has just one more double play turned. In other words Kouzmanoff has been much more efficient at turning the double play.

Both Kouzmanoff and Zimmerman have the same number of fielding errors - 3, but Kouzmanoff has ZERO throwing errors while Zimmerman has 12 throwing errors.

All in all, if the question is who should win the Gold Glove, in my way of thinking Kouzmanoff wins.

Padres win 4th straight series

Sunday September 6, 2009

Happy Labor Day!

The San Diego Padres defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 tonight at Chavez Ravine to take their 4th straight series. Throw out the two series against the St Louis Cardinals, the best team in the NL right now, and the Padres have not lost a series for a month.

After a 15-14 August, their first winning month in 2 seasons, the Padres are now 4-1 in September.

Who would have thunk it?

Its fun watching these kids play. Sometimes you have to look between the fingers you have put over your eyes because you are not quite sure if they are going to get it done, but its still fun.

And you know they are going to make some mistakes, like the 3 errors in one game (and the error tonight) by Everth Cabrera and a bad pitch here and there from the young pitchers, but its still fun.

Tonight we saw a resurgent Tim Stauffer throw 6 2/3 innings of 1 run ball for his 4th win of the season and 3rd straight. In fact if Joe Thatcher had not come in with 2 men on and 2 outs and given up a double on the first pitch to the left handed Andre Ethier the Padres likely would have won this game 4-1. We saw rookie reliever Luke Gregerson come in and shut the Dodgers down for 1 1/3 perfect innings.

We also saw Kevin Kouzmanoff drive in 3 runs, his 81st, 82nd, and 83rd; and Adrian Gonzalez hit his 35th home run. Heath Bell got his 35th save of the season. We saw Cabrera score his 48 run in just 77 starts. That is a 100+ run pace.

Not one Padre I mentioned there is over 30 except 31 year old Heath Bell.

That folks, is exciting! I can't wait to see what these kids and hopefully a couple of key Free Agent or Trade acquisitions this off season can do in 2010.

Beat LA, Beat LA, Beat LA

Friday September 4, 2009

6 shutout innings from LeBlanc, a clutch 2 out single from Kouz, and Bell shuts them down in the 9th for his 34th save of the season - Beat LA
from websoulsurfer's twitter post

Twitter is fun, but that pretty much sums up this game.

Dodgers pitching held the Padres to just 5 hits, but Wade LeBlanc threw 6 innings of 2 hit, shut out ball and a 2 out single by Kevin Kouzmanoff drove in David Eckstein in the 1st inning for what proved to be the winning run.

The only other offense in this game came on a single by Oscar Salazar and two errors on a single play, a grounder to short by Nick Hundley, that allowed Salazar to score.

In the only really scary moment for the Padres, after hitting Russell Martin and giving up a single to Rafael Furcal bring the go ahead run to the plate, Joe Thatcher got a key out against Andre Ethier in the 7th to end the rally.

The Padres have now won 8 of their last 10 games.

Kouzmanoff on pace for record season

Wednesday September 2, 2009

San Diego Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff is currently on pace for an NL record for fielding percentage at his position.

His .989 fielding percentage leads all of baseball in 2009. Vinny Castilla owns the current mark for fielding percentage by a third baseman at .984 set in 2004.

Kouzmanoff also has just 3 errors in 283 chances going into last night's game.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, no third baseman has had fewer than 6 errors in a season in which they had 300 total chances.

With 27 games left on the schedule, Kouzmanoff will certainly get to 300 total chances.

We could be watching history Padres fans.

Padres post 1st winning month of the 2009 season

Monday August 31, 2009

Tim Stauffer threw 6 1/3 innings of 5 hit ball and was backed up by nice defense and RBI doubles from David Eckstein and Kevin Kouzmanoff in the 1st to get his 3rd win of the season, 3-1 over the Washington Nationals at Petco Park tonight.

Chase Headley added an insurance run with a 414 foot solo blast to RF in the 8th and Heath Bell came in to record his 32nd save of the season and 18th save in 18 opportunities at Petco.

With the win the Padres improved to 15-14 on the month, their first winning month of the 2009 season.

Its stretches like this that give you hope for 2010. Without Peavy and Young and with 8 other guys on the DL, the Padres still pull out a winning month.

Everybody Hits!

Wednesday August 26, 2009

Every Padres position player had a hit and scored a run. Both pinch hitters also got a hit and scored a run. In fact Padres batters had 18 hits in a 12-5 win tonight over the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. With the win the Padres locked down a series win against Atlanta.

If it wasn't for the Cardinals, the Padres would have won 6 of their last 7 series, with the only series lost being the one to the Braves at Petco earlier this month. Even with the 2 series lost to St Louis, the Padres have won 6 of their last 9.

David Eckstein and Adrian Gonzalez led the attack going 3 for 5 and Kevin Kouzmanoff added his 16 home run of the season, a 2 run blast to CF in the 7th.

After giving up a 3 run home run to Brian McCann in the bottom of the 1st, Padres starter Tim Stauffer settled down to throw 4 scoreless innings before being taken out for a pinch hitter in the top of the 6th. The Padres 6 run 6th staked the bullpen to a 6-3 lead and Stauffer got the win, his 2nd of the season and 1st win since July 30 against 4 August losses.

Stauffer's line tonight - 3 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks in 5 innings.

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.

5 straight wins!

Saturday August 1, 2009

The San Diego Padres won their fifth straight game tonight 4-2 over the Milwaukee Brewers at Petco Park.

The newest Padre, Clayton Richard, threw 5 2/3 innings of 2 hit ball, Kevin Kouzmanoff went 2-3 and drove in his 58th RBI and Will Venable hit his 4th home run of the season.

And Krasovic says this is the least talented team in baseball?

I can't wait to see what this team can do when they stay healthy.

Believe it or not, the Padres now have a .500 record at home - 26-26.

Can the Padres get the sweep over the slumping Brewers?

Kouzmanoff has more hits than Gonzalez?

July 15, 2009

I just lost a bar bet. Cost me an Arrogant Bastard and a shot of Makers Mark.

I was arguing that there was no way that Kevin Kouzmanoff has more hits than Adrian Gonzalez.

After all Gonzalez is an All Star. The best Padres player by far.

And Kouzmanoff? Well, he has been so bad that the Padres can't even trade him.

Guess what? Kouzmanoff has 80 hits and Gonzalez has 77.

Yes, I know that Adrian has 24 home runs and Kouzmanoff only has 12. But with 12 more home runs, Adrian only has 5 more RBI and he has had 16 more people on base in front of him than Kouzmanoff.

In other words, Kouzmanoff has done a better job of driving in runs. Kouzmanoff is hitting 40 points better with runners in scoring position.

Now the rest of the story.

• Kouzmanoff has hit behind Gonzalez (4-6) in all but 10 of his 328 at bats.
• While Adrian is hitting .209 with runners in scoring position, his obp is .480.
• The sad fact is that other teams are just walking Gonzalez to get to Kouzmanoff (or whomever the Padres bat directly behind him) who is still hitting under .250 with RISP.

Kouzmanoff is going to get plenty of chances to hit with men on base because other teams are going to continue to walk Adrian Gonzalez at a team record pace until some one steps up and gives them a reason to actually pitch to Adrian.

Lets hope the rest of the season for Kouzmanoff is more like the past 10 games where he has hit .310 with 2 home runs, 7 rbi and 8 runs scored than the first 78 games when he hit .232.

If he can do that we can pretty much be assured that Adrian Gonzalez is going to have a better 2nd half than his All Star 1st half

7 of 9 should be in the minors tonight!

Thursday July 9, 2009

Ouch! Have you looked at the Padres lineup for tonight's game at the Giants?

• SS - Cabrera (Asheville Tourists - Low A),
• CF - Gwynn (Nashville Sounds - AAA)
  
• 1B - Gonzalez
  
• 3B - Kouzmanoff
  
• LF - Headley (Portland Beavers)
  
• RF - Venable (Portland Beavers)
  
• C - Alfonzo (Fresno Grizzlies - AAA, Connecticut Defenders - AA)
  
• 2B - Rodriguez (Portland Beavers- 31 games)
  
• SP - Geer (Portland Beavers)
  
  (In parenthesis - minor league teams played for in 2008, not including rehab assignments.)
  

On most teams, 7 of the nine guys penciled into the lineup for the Padres tonight would be in the minors. Maybe a 5th outfielder or a utility guy in the majors at best. An 8th, Kouzmanoff, is borderline. 6 of the 9 spent half the season or more in the minors last year.

Folks, this is ugly.

Having 10 players on the DL has killed the Padres season.

So who do you hold accountable for this teams injury plague?

Padres Sweep the Home Stand!

Sunday May 24, 2009

Today San Diego Padres fans got the chance to witness something that the Padres had never done before in 40 years as a franchise.

With a 7-2 win over the Chicago Cubs today, the Padres swept a 9 game home stand!

That is amazing!

In the 1200+ games I have attended in San Diego over the last 24 seasons I thought I had seen everything with the exception of a Padre no hitter or a Padre hit for the cycle.

I was wrong.

So are the no hitter and cycle coming soon?

Chris Young took a no hitter into the top of the 5th, but a single by Mike Fontenot to CF broke it up. Young has taken 2 no hitters into the 8th inning in the past 2 seasons. Will he be the one to finally get a Padres no hitter? Or will it be Jake Peavy who has been lights out in his last two outings.

Today's game was scoreless going into the bottom of the 5th and was shaping up to be a low scoring pitchers duel. Then after a fly ball from Nick Hundley for the 1st out, the Padres strung together a single, double and an intentional walk to load the bases for pitcher Chris Young.

Young came through with a single to center to drive in two runs. The next batter, David Eckstein laid down a suicide squeeze that scored Josh Wilson and Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly threw the ball away so everyone was safe.

The Cubs never seriously threatened even after Reed Johnson hammered a two run shot to deep left field. It was the Cubs 7th straight loss.

Kevin Kouzmanoff drove in 4 runs with a double in the 6th and a 3 run shot to left field in the 7th that put the final nail in the Cubs coffin.

With this win the Padres have fought and clawed their way back to .500 on the season.

The 2nd place Padres are now just 7.5 games back of the NL West leading Los Angeles Dodgers and just 4 games back in the wild card race.

So folks, its time to take a sip of the kool aid and start to believe.

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!