Good shows this weekend. But really, when is turning your amp up to 11 and screaming at the top of your lungs not a good thing?

Speaking of the weekend, Padres took two out of three. That’s the good news. The bad news is nobody seems to want the #5 spot in the rotation. You know, the one that was handed to Darrell May last week? Here’s how the contestants are doing this spring:

          IP    H HR BB SO  ERA
May       14.1 21  1 10  7 9.42
Stauffer  10.1 14  1  4  8 4.35
Germano    9.0 14  1  1  3 8.00

More on May a little further down. Long story short: It’d be nice to see him pitch better but I ain’t losing sleep.

Box scores:

• SD 6, Oak 1. Six strong from Woody Williams.
• Ari 11, SD 2. May gets cuffed.
• SD 9, ChN 5. Big games from Dave Roberts and Eric Young; Justin Germano doesn’t step forward in his bid for the rotation.

And here are some other items of interest:

• Stauffer on fast track to Majors (Padres.com). Think this kid gets it? Quoth Stauffer: “I’m not a guy who’s going to go up there and try to blow people away… I’ve got a few pitches, and if I don’t have it all one day I still have enough to give my team a chance to win, eat up some innings and try to keep the pitch count down.”
• Quickly developing Stauffer could be next for Padres’ rotation (NC Times). More about pitching’s answer to Khalil Greene. From the man himself: “I was successful because I was able to throw off-speed pitches for strikes and get ahead in the count. I tried to let batters put the ball in play rather than trying to strike guys out. If you do that, you can go deeper into games.” He may not be the Padres’ best prospect, but I’m pretty sure he’s my favorite.
• May news at the NC Times and the U-T. Fastball clocked at 84 mph. Pitcher clocked to the tune of nine hits and eight runs in two-thirds of an inning. It’s a little disturbing to see the #5 starter rocked this hard so close to Opening Day. On the other hand, May does have a career ERA of 4.98 in over 500 big-league innings, so it’s hardly surprising. Nobody expects May to carry the ballclub. I think most of us are just hoping he isn’t any worse than Ismael Valdez was last year. Point is, this should change nothing. May remains a stopgap solution until a better one is ready to be implemented. He had a bad outing, and I’m sure he’ll have more. But Andy Ashby will be eligible to join the big club on May 1, and Stauffer and Justin Germano should be ready to contribute soon after that. May won’t last the year in the rotation. No need to get too worked up here.
• The guys at Gaslamp Ball have a nice interview with NC Times reporter Brian Hiro. As they proudly (and correctly) proclaim, the interview doesn’t suck.
• Speaking of interviews, Peter at Padres RunDown is soliciting questions for an interview with Baseball America’s Kevin Goldstein. Be sure to swing on by and offer up some ideas.
• And yet another interview, this one with Bill James at Sons of Sam Horn [via Balls, Sticks & Stuff by way of Baseball Musings]. It’s a long but fascinating read. To say that James is a knowledgable baseball guy is an understatement of the highest order, but what really makes him for me is when he says things like this: “Public vulgarity is rampant; that’s not a good thing, because for one thing it takes all the fun out of private vulgarity.” He also has some interesting thoughts on diversity in ballpark dimensions and aging patterns of lefty pitchers.

I’m working on some interviews of my own. No timetable yet, but I hope to have something shake out before too long. Stay tuned.

Pads beat the Mariners yesterday, 4-3. One hit each from 11 different players. Paul McAnulty doubled in his only trip to the plate. Xavier Nady, getting the start at third, singled and stole a base in four at-bats. Although he was reported to be out six weeks with a bum elbow, Freddy Guzman did appear as a pinch runner. He ran for Ramon Hernandez and was caught stealing.

On the pitching side, Brian Lawrence surrendered all three runs in just four innings of work before giving way to a bullpen that shut down the M’s the rest of the way. Akinori Otsuka, working the seventh, allowed one hit and struck out three. (Speaking of Aki, is it great to see those Corky’s Pest Control commercials again or what?)

In Other News

• Studes at Hardball Times looks at the luckiest and unluckiest players from 2004 and cites the unlucky ones as potential bounceback candidates. He likes Dennys Reyes to improve, Jake Peavy not so much. [via Daily Lancer]
• Padres trim roster to 46 (Scout.com). No surprises here, except possibly that Sean Thompson, who spent all last year in the Midwest League, has been optioned to Double-A Mobile.
• David Pinto is up to more crazy good stuff over at Baseball Musings. Go on and give his new toy a spin. Pretty cool, huh?

That’s all for now; more as it happens.

My wife just found out that Dave Roberts is half Okinawan. I can’t say mean things about him anymore.

• Rockies 11, Padres 5 (ESPN). Two hits for Phil Nevin, homer for Michael Johnson. Scoreless innings from prospects Travis Chick and Rusty Tucker, and from NRIs Joe Dawley and Brian Falkenborg. Woody Williams surrendered 9 runs in 2 1/3 innings. Said Williams: “Obviously you want to get outs, but it wasn’t my day. … I’m not fazed a bit. Seven or eight years ago, it would’ve [bothered me], but you learn to deal with things as they come.”
• Bochy plans on May being his fifth starter (U-T). Steve Sparks and Tim Stauffer continue to impress. The former may end up in the bullpen, the latter looks to be back at Portland. Check out the sidebar: Mark Sweeney in center?

That’s all I’ve got for now…

• Anabreafullercaliangeles Angels 2, Padres 1 (ESPN). Starting at shortstop, Geoff Blum knocks two hits, including a homer. Xavier Nady singles in three at-bats, starting at third base and batting fifth. Solid pitching performances from Steve Sparks and Tim Stauffer.
• White Sox 7, Padres 3 (ESPN). Two hits for Phil Nevin. Another hit and RBI for Jon Knott. Kervin Jacobo? Didn’t he go somewhere in the minor-league phase of the Rule V draft? (Looks like the Pads re-signed him.) Three strong innings from Brian Lawrence.
• Congress Subpoenas Padres GM To Talk About Steroids (NBCSanDiego). No offense, but why do politicians so frequently sound like idiots when they open their mouths?
• Ben Davis Follow Up (PFS76). Seems the former #1 draft pick left a bad taste in a few mouths. Feel free to interpret that last sentence however you see fit.
• Padres Notebook: Peavy’s pact includes possible escalator ride (NC Times). LynchMob pointed us to this in yesterday’s comments. The gist of it is that Peavy gets a guaranteed $14.5M over the next four years and could earn as much as $25M depending on incentives. If I’m reading correctly, that latter scenario would have Peavy winning a Cy Young Award and the Pads picking up his option in 2009. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if Peavy wins a Cy Young between now and then, he’ll have been well worth the money.