first pitch: 5:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4
matchup: Adam Eaton (9-3, 3.86 ERA) vs Rick Helling (1-0, 4.63 ERA)
preview: Padres.com
Great end to the homestand, beating the Diamondbacks on Wednesday afternoon. Yeah, the bullpen made things a little interesting toward the end, but the bottom line is the Pads have a 5 1/2 game lead in the NL West with 30 games to play.
Chan Ho Park pitched well again. He’s made six starts in a San Diego uni now, three good and three bad. But the team has scored at least seven runs in each of those starts so he has a 4-1 record. Hey, whatever works.
Now it’s off to Milwaukee for three with the Brewers. Despite their slightly worse record than the Padres, the Brewers actually have a better run differential.
They also have some exciting young players who are in various stages of development, including second baseman Rickie Weeks, shortstop J.J. Hardy, and “first baseman” Prince Fielder. And a few guys with San Diego connections: former Padre Jeff Cirillo, former Padre draftee Geoff Jenkins (1992, 24th round), USD alum Brady Clark.
And then they have Rick Helling. I honestly didn’t realize he was still pitching. That’s happened to me a few times this year. Aaron Sele. Brian Moehler. And now Helling. Is Mike LaCoss still around somewhere? Maybe I missed the return of Brian Fisher.
Anyway, I was thinking the other day about how Padres fans have to be grateful for the little things. So I decided to make a list. Feel free to print this out and refer to it the next time you’re feeling down about the Friars.
Ten Reasons for Padres Fans to Be Grateful
- The NL West stinks. Seriously, stop bitching about it and just be glad the Padres aren’t in the NL East.
- Phil Nevin rejected the trade that would have brought Sidney Ponson to San Diego. Have you signed the card yet thanking Nevin? It should be making its way around the office. No obligation, but feel free to throw some change in the envelope to buy flowers for Nevin.
- Ruben Rivera isn’t on the team.
- George Arias isn’t on the team.
- Carlos Almanzar isn’t on the team.
- Wiki Gonzalez isn’t on the team.
- D’Angelo Jimenez isn’t on the team.
- Rodney Myers isn’t on the team.
- Bobby Jones isn’t on the team.
- Gary Bennett isn’t on the team.
See, now that the Padres have been kinda good the past couple years, it’s easy to forget just how bad they were. So I’m reminding you. They were real bad.
Okay, enough of that. Pass me the lucky gravy.
The U/T today said that Mark Sweeney received a cortisone injection to treat tendinitis in his left wrist. That condition could explain his rough patch lately, and also justify Bochy’s decision to play Nady on a regular basis. It does look like Ben Johnson might eat into Nady’s OF PT.
On the other hand, if Sweeney is ailing, why didn’t they just put him on the DL and call up Burroughs as a replacement left handed pinch hitter? It would have saved them from a DFA of Paul Quantrill, who has pitched better (3.42 ERA) than both Seanez (5.23) and Hammond (7.62) since he was acquired on July 3.
11. how bout a winning record in Aug
12. Clubhouse that gets along, unlike our freinds to the North
13. A GM, president, and owner that seem to work together well.
13. A GM that has made a lot of little deals that really helped, while dodging bullets all season long.
14. Coleman in the HOF!
15. That Nevin did include Texas on his list.
“Always look on the bright side of life, ***whistling, whistling, whistling***”
Quantrill’s numbers for the Padres are nothing special. Opponents are batting .294 with .692 OPS against him, getting 37 hits in 32.2 IP. More importantly 7 out of 11 inherited runners has scored on him.
I haven’t run the numbers on Seanez and Hammond for their stats from July 3 on, however, for the season only 9 IR out of 30 has scored on Hammond with .215 avg and 8 IR out of 21 with .216 avg for Seanez.
I can’t believe this top-10 list didn’t include Donaldo Mendez.
Yeah, there almost needs to be a separate category for Rule V guys. Mendez, Kerry Taylor, Will Cunnane, Kory DeHaan, Shane Victorino, Jason Szuminski. I feel like I’m missing someone. Help?
I think you caught every Rule 5 guy since Portland’s been affiliated with the Pads.
Szuminski was a heck of a nice guy. I enjoyed watching DeHaan play CF – more than I enjoyed watching him hit, that’s for sure. Victorino never played for Portland (neither did Szuminski actually) but he seems to be emerging in AAA now.
Mendez though, oh man, he was brutal. You know it’s bad when the AAA fans are elated at losing a guy to the big league team.
There are so many, just from the recent past but here’s three to add to the Thank Goodness They’re Not Here list: Ray Lankford, Kevin Jarvis, Chuck McElroy. Chuck McElroy is as close as I’ve ever come to having a brain aneurysm. Well, maybe he’s a close second to the pain caused when trying to decipher Bruce Bochy’s use/misuse/abuse of the bunt.
Two to add to the They’re Still Playing?! list: John Mabry, Desi Relaford.
didi, Seanez has allowed 1 of 2 inherited runners to score since July 3; Hammond has allowed 3 of 11, but 3 of his last 6. My view is that a healthy Quantrill is more presently valuable than an injured, underused Sweeney, and the team could have delayed a decision until later.
Geoff, I am not going to sign a thank you card for Phil Nevin quite yet. The Orioles just put Ponson on waivers and are going to try to terminate his contract. If they are successful, then in retrospect the Padres may have been hosed by Nevin, if you assume Ponson would also have pulled a DUI in the Gaslamp. Yet another thing the Nevin haters may be able to hang around old Phil’s neck.
Hammond and Seanez are better than Quantrill. Come on. How can Johnson be taking Nady’s outfield time, when Nady is the the regular first baseman.
A healthy Hammond and a healthy Seanez are better than Quantrill; ailing Hammond and ailing Seanez have not been. The choice is not between the three though; it is between DL for Sweeney or DFA for Quantrill. I would have chosen the former.
Yes, unfortunately, Nady is the regular first baseman, but when the more deserving Fick and Sweeney get to play first, Nady’s chance for PT is in the OF, and that is to what I was referring re Ben Johnson.
I agree with your Nady/Johnson comments to some degree. But Bochy doesn’t operate that way. Now that he has said Nady is the first baseman, Nady will not get OF playing time when others, like Klesko, sit. It doesn’t matter if Johnson is on the roster or not.
And I wouldn’t put Sweeney on the DL if he is going to recover in less than 15 days, which he probably will.
I dunno, I just can’t see where the distraction of a guy like Ponson helps anyone. Plus the fact that he is a member of a very powerful union. I’ll be pretty surprised if the O’s are able to recoup their losses.
PMac is back….bout time!
wanna see some old pictures of him(as if there are “old” pictures of a 24 year old)..
http://angelfire.com/sports/padresreport/players/mcanultypaul.html
Oh, almost forgot, my take on the recent Padres moves Hank’s Padres…just posted
http://hankspadres.blogspot.com/
Giles comes through, 1-0. Anybody here?
I’m here and packing for D.C.
Ever notice that anytime anything exciting happens Klesko swings at the first pitch? Especially when Giles or someone hits a homerun and he comes up he will almost always swing, usually with similar results.
Sweet DP.
anyone besides me having trouble with the audio feed?
Yeah, it does seem like Klesko is up there hacking a lot. He is hitting .266/.277/.453 on the first pitch this year (64 AB).
Kind of an interesting split: Pads are hitting .306/.305/.467 on first pitch; opponents are hitting .333/.333/.560.
Sorry Hank, that’s my fault. I’ll talk louder.
Olivo on the first pitch: .636/.643/1.364. Only 11 AB but that’s impressive.
how has Eaton looked?
He looked bad there, 2-run homer, he left up in the zone.
It seems as if he doesnt have any stamina. He seems to have lost it a whole lot earlier than you would expect him to. Hopefully Bochy will recognize the fatigue before we are 5 runs behind.
Bochy has to take responsibility and take him out, even thought the pitcher will probably beg to stay in. We need him to be at full strength by October.
We dodged another bullet there.. better start warming someone up.. he might be able to go longer his next outing.
Bochy shouldn’t have to take responsibility for that pitch.
Well “Hush my mouth”. Looks like he isnt fatigued that bad after all. Thats why Bochy gets the big buck I guess. lol
Eaton is looking pretty good tonight. Tony Gwynn is on the broadcast, and he noted that Eaton has struggled to find his rhythm from the stretch. But aside from that one inning, Eaton has looked much better than he did in his last start. He’s getting closer to the guy who had a great first half.
Double switch by the Brewers. Go ahead and drink.
They just showed a replay of Ben Johnson’s first big-league homer. Wow. Out to dead center at Petco on a 2-strike count. That was a shot.
Not sure about that third strike to Johnson. Plate umpire hasn’t been calling the high pitch all night.
How was that a called strike? Bad call.
You think Johnson might have been distracted by Young stopping on the hit and run? Taking a fastball down the middle?
oh well, runner on second with Loretta coming up..
They are walking Loretta to get to Giles. Fine with me.
Giles’ lefty-righty splits are not that different.
Damn those Brewers.
Well, Eaton gets a quality start. That’s something, I guess.
Fastball wasn’t down the middle, Hank. It was high and should’ve been ball four.
Good to see Eaton almost back to his early season form.
Yeah, that ball was high and inside. The batter even moved back a bit.
Jackson to hit for Klesko? I doubt it..
we are running out of innings
IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST
A. Eaton 6.0 3 3 3 3 3 0 94-59
Uh, bad 0-2 pitch to Khalil. Thank you, Brewers.
Greene (11th HR) 4-3, Padres.
He’s going to be a 20-homer guy, and playing in Petoc, that is pretty impressive.
Greene in August: .306 .370 .551
Co incidence? Greene comes back and the Padres start playing like a baseball team again?
Well, he does play the most important spot on the field and has been hitting like an All-Star.
From The AP:
SS Khalil Greene is less than 100 percent, but was in the starting lineup for the third consecutive game. “I don’t know how to speculate on the progression of it,” he said of the non-displaced fracture of his right big toe that put him on the 15-day DL. “I’m taking it as it comes.” He was reinstated Aug. 30 and went 3-for-8 with an RBI and run scored in two games against Arizona. … RHP Chris Oxspring, LHP Craig Breslow and 1B-OF Paul McAnulty were recalled from Triple-A Portland. The Padres requested unconditional waivers on RHP Paul Quantrill. SS Wilson Valdez cleared outright waivers and accepted an assignment to Portland.