Short and sweet today. Some of this stuff is a little dated, but still relevant. Besides, if I didn’t include the old ones, I wouldn’t have anywhere to put my smart-ass comments.

NC Times

• Low the way to go for hard-hit Lawrence Odalis Perez and Adrian Beltre (both free agents after 2004) for Sean Burroughs? Sounds great, what’s in it for the Padres?
• Part-time role requires Long adjustment period
• Nevin on track to play Opening Day Sterling Hitchcock and Jay Payton are also progressing well. Ben Howard and Kevin Walker apparently are on the block.
• Huerta remains in thick of Padres’ arms race Talking about Barry Bonds: “I faced Bonds already,” Huerta said. “I respect him very much, but I’m not afraid of him.”
• Eaton adds hybrid to his pitch arsenal The pitch, somewhere between a cutter and a slider, is especially tough on lefties. Also, Edgar Huerta has a rough outing, Phil Nevin prepares to start Opening Day, and minor-league infielder Peter Stonard is out 4-6 weeks with a broken thumb.
• Job security helps Burroughs relax Notable quote: “I’d like to get up there around .300 and be closer to .400 in on-base percentage,” Burroughs said. “If I do that, the other things will take care of themselves. The RBIs are there and the doubles. I’d like to get into double digits in home runs.”

U-T

• Bochy confident Nevin will play on Opening Day
• Blue-hoo: Dodgers fire back at Towers Hey, at least he didn’t say there was a new sheriff in town or pick a fight with a fan.
• Cardinals trade Robinson to Padres for Hunter That’s Kerry Robinson for Brian Hunter, in case you’re wondering. Two speedy outfielders who can’t get on base. Why a team that already has Eugene Kingsale would need either of these guys is anybody’s guess. But I suppose it beats the rumored Dennis Tankersley for Ryan Freel trade. The Pads also released Kevin Walker and Tom Wilson, and sent Mike Bynum, Edgar Huerta, Bart Miadich, and Ryan Sweeney to Portland. So it looks like Eddie Oropesa gets the LOOGY assignment, while Miguel Ojeda will back up Carlos Hernandez.
• Padres to get backup to Payton Here is the aforementioned Tankersley for Freel trade rumor.

Elsewhere

• Phillies start looking familiar (San Jose Mercury-News). Toward the very bottom, there is a note that the Pads have traded right-hander Clay Condrey to Philly for minor-league infielder Trino Aguilar. There is no truth to the rumor that "Trino Aguilar" is Spanish for "Jack Squat."
• Padres obtain Robinson as possible fill-in (BA). Jim Callis is appropriately underwhelmed by the deal.
• Ask BA (BA). Callis talks about potential first overall pick Jered Weaver. Says that Weaver is probably overrated by the general public at this point and that he projects more as a #2 starter than a classic ace.

Finally, every now and again I pop my head out of the cave and take a look around. Look what I found today:

• Petco Padres That’s right, a new Padre blog. It’s run by a guy named Brian and so far it looks promising.

Okay, off to play some Baldur’s Gate. I’ll catch y’all real soon…

Just getting over a cold, so bullet points today.

• Backup catchers battling (NC Times). The job is still wide open. Adam Eaton talks about his most recent outing. I watched that game, and the two things that stood out to me were that he was working high in the zone a little much and that the breaking ball looked good. Threw a couple real nasty ones to Laynce Nix, if memory serves.
• Expect to see Vazquez all over Padres’ infield (NC Times). Former starter seems to be taking to his new utility role well. He’s got the right attitude, anyway.
• As expected, Nady will start season in minors (NC Times). He will see time at first base and center field with Portland. Trying Nady in center is kind of a bold move. He’s a good athlete, but I’m a little skeptical that he’ll be able to cover that much ground. Still, it’s nice to see that the Padres are at least willing to give him a shot there.
• Towers is aware of what injuries can do to his staff (U-T). A closer look at some of the guys who may see time in the big-league rotation at some point this season: Ben Howard, Dennis Tankersley, Justin Germano, and Long Beach State’s Jered Weaver.
• Eaton has longest outing (Padres.com). More about Eaton’s Tuesday night start. Also notes Aki Otsuka’s 1-2-3 eighth inning in that game. This was my first look at Otsuka. First impressions: his fastball is really straight, his slider is weird (moves down and in to right-handed hitters), and his delivery is going to cause problems for the opposition. Like other Japanese pitchers I’ve seen, he has a hesitation in the middle of his windup. Otsuka’s isn’t as pronounced as, say, Hideo Nomo’s. But he does hold that left leg up over the rubber for just a moment before continuing toward the plate. Otsuka also has a second "hitch" in his delivery, where he double-pumps before breaking his hands. I’m not describing this well, but it looks pretty strange. Finally, Trevor Hoffman came in and gave up two runs in an inning. Don’t worry about it; he was working on his slide step and leaving everything up. Rick Sutcliffe recognized this during the telecast and noted that Hoffy’s legs were ahead of his hands because he wasn’t compensating for the reduced movement used in a slide step as compared to his normal delivery. Hoffman also mentioned this in an in-dugout interview as something he was specifically working on. He’ll correct it and be fine.

My wrists are killing me, so we’ll keep this short and sweet.

• Conversation with Tye Waller (PDX Beavers). Jonathan talks to the Pads’ Director of Player Development, who offers his thoughts on Bernie Castro, Freddy Guzman, Jason Szuminski, and more. Nice work here.
• Padres Notes: Top pick Stauffer makes belated debut (NC Times). Regular reader Howard Lynch passes this one our way. Key points:
  • Stauffer said he felt good, and was able to throw "free and easy."
  • His fastball was clocked at 88-91 mph in his debut.
  • He will start the season at Elsinore.
  • Regarding his decision to tell the Padres of the pain in his shoulder before signing: "Hiding something like that will come back to bite you. I’m very comfortable with my decision to tell the Padres. If I’m good enough, I’ll make that money back. If not, then I didn’t deserve it." An honest man doesn’t necessarily make a great prospect, but it sure is easier to pull for a kid with that kind of attitude.
• Notes: Peavy improving (MLB.com). The right-hander appears to be over the strained oblique that bothered him at the start of spring training. Rey Ordonez is out for a couple of days "attending to a personal matter." Sean Burroughs is hot, Jeff Cirillo is not.
• San Diego Padres have faith in bullpen (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
• Minus Beck, Padres relievers must pick up the slack (NC Times)

Arms about to fall off, must stop typing. Until next time…

Greetings from San Luis Obispo, a town along the central coast of California about 6 1/2 hours’ drive northwest of San Diego. Vacation, what a concept!

Now that games have started, we can start monitoring the shortstop and #5 starter battles. Way too early to draw any conclusions, but here’s how things look so far:

         AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO
3/4
  Greene  2  0  0  0  0  0   0  0  1
3/5
  Greene  1  0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0
  Ordonez 3  0  1  0  0  0   1  0  1
3/6
  Greene  3  2  2  0  0  1   4  0  0
  Ordonez 2  0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0

Nice to see Khalil Greene off to a good start. Ramon Vazquez has seen action at second base, third base, and shortstop in the Pads’ first four games. That should remove any remaining doubts as to the club’s intentions with Vazquez.

In other news on the offensive side of things, outfielders Brian Buchanan and Terrence Long have gotten off to hot starts, as have prospects Tagg Bozied and Jon Knott. Jeff Cirillo has played some each at second and third base.

               IP H ER HR BB SO
Valdez    3/4 1.0 2  1  0  0  0
Howard    3/4 1.0 0  0  0  0  1
Hitchcock 3/6 2.0 2  0  0  1  1

Also, Akinori Otsuka was a little spotty his first time out, but came back strong in his second appearance. The early reports on Trevor Hoffman are encouraging. Southpaw Edgar Huerta failed to record an out in his Padre debut.

Some links for further reading:

• Hitchcock throws two scoreless innings (U-T). Speedster Freddy Guzman is out at least 4-6 weeks with an elbow injury. Greene has "tweaked his hitting setup to become more consistent this year" Otsuka’s fastball was clocked at 92 mph.
• Hoffman’s next step: pitching back-to-back (U-T). Jake Peavy, who has been bothered by the same left oblique muscle that troubled him last summer, threw off a mound and "looked great" according to pitching coach Darren Balsley.
• Mariners 16, Padres (ss) 5 (SFGate.com). Lawrence, Hoffman, and Howard struggled. Josh Barfield strained his left hamstring and is out at least two weeks. Should have no long-term impact, but it sure is a bummer for the youngster.

Gotta run. More as it happens…