Remember that little chat we had a while back about this year’s Padres bullpen? Four weeks later to the day, it’s obsolete.
Jason Anderson has been outrighted to Portland, Steve Andrade has been claimed off waivers by Kansas City, Doug Brocail has had an angioplasty, Seth Etherton has been reassigned to the minors, and Brian Sikorski has been released. Pardon my French, but what the Gilbert Gottfried is going on here? And more importantly, who’s left in the bullpen?
Believe it or not, ex-Padre Brian Sweeney is in the mix. Andy Ashby, Scott Cassidy, and Eric Junge are other candidates. And the Padres also have acquired former Blue Jays closer Aquilino Lopez, but this isn’t even being covered in the local papers so who can say what, if any, impact he’ll have.
I was feeling pretty confident that Kevin Towers and company would be able to pull a few rabbits out of their hat this winter, but with so many questions left unanswered this late in spring training, I’ll admit I’m a bit concerned. Friar Faithful’s Top 100 Padres is up to #96, Marvell Wynne; I wonder if we could summon some of Wynne’s teammates to help. Craig Lefferts, anyone? Maybe Lance McCullers or Gene Walter? We could always pull Mark Grant out of the broadcast booth and see if he can rekindle the magic of ’89.
I dunno. Here’s hoping a couple guys step up real soon.
Andrade reminded me some of Rudy Seanez. Stocky kid with a nasty slider. Although, his fastball is average unlike Rudy. I am disapointed to see him go. Even though he was old and didn’t have Triple-A experience, I wanted to see how he would fare against big league hitters. As for the Rule V issue, Andrade was a lot more promising than MIT Air Force officer Jason Szuminski and the Padres kept the latter back in 04.
The 1988 Padres were so power deprived and Wynne was the team’s home run leader for over half of the season. Carmelo Martinez eventually surfaced as the team’s home run leader at 18. The 1988 Padres had such a dull offense that Kenner Starting Lineup eventually made a Marvell Wynne figure for the 89 season after his epic 11 home run campaign in 333 plate appearances.
Concerns me as well. The entire pitching staff, save Peavy, are suspect. Even Hoffman is iffy. The onyl thing we got is Peavy and Petco. What happened?
They had a guy on from baseball Perspective on the Coach last night. He said statistically, old teams tend to decline because after 30, must players decline (unless your needle in my butt Bonds). BP said the Padres had nothing but old guys, save Kaleel and now Barfield, so BP was picking the Dodgers, Gaints, then Padres.
And I saw Klesko already got a cortisone shot, Jeebus! We better stock up on the stuff this year. Not sure why, but I’m feeling very pessimistic about the season. Maybe its this flu I got or the weather.
OTOH, looking forward to seeing how Piazza does, Kaleel and Barfield too. Cameron in center and Giles in right will be fun. Peavy is the only pitcher worth watching I think.
Padre Mike
I feel you! Just one thing though, I think Scotty Linebrink has cemented himself as a pitcher we can count on.
I didn’t know much about Eric Junge so I went digging for a scouting report. This is an exerpt from the 2003 Baseball America Prospect Handbook:
“When the Phillies dumped Omar Daal rather than pay him $4.5 million in 2002, Junge was the best of the two prospects they received from the Dodgers. Junge spent his first season in the system in Triple-A, where he led the International League in walks while finishing second in innings and fifth in strikeouts. The Phillies sent him to the Arizona Fall League to change him from an innings-eating starter into a reliever. He made four appearances there before shutting it down because he was physcially and mentally exhausted from the long season. At 6-foot-5, Junge could emerge as an imposing figure coming out of the bullpen. His 91-94 mph fastball has good life and he has added a splitter that rates as an average to above-average pitch. He also throws a changeup and curveball, but lacks consistency with them, leading to deep counts. Junge has a legitimate chance to make the Phillies this year as a swingman or long reliever.”
Gees, forgot about IronBrink, sorry for the oversight. Well, that is good news and the CHP is showing some promise, at least in relief.
Looks like we have the market cornered on old players and tall pitchers. Hope Junge works out.
When is opening day, BTW? Next week, no?
Opening Day is 4pm on Monday, April 3rd … 5 days from now … game is on ESPN2 … I’ve already made it known that I’ll be out of the office early that day
Yes, just downloaded the 06 schedule, printed in color of course. Ah, the old I’ll be OOO early trick. I’ll have to rely on gameday and DS IGD. Hope gameday is still free.
A good (and free) article @ BP about NL spring prospects … http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=4915 … I’m hopin’ The Hammer comes alive (again) up here in Portland!
Great piece on Sweeney. He’s a great guy and has earned a shot to show what he can do at the big league level.
Remember the piece in the SD paper a couple weeks ago about the Padres stressing the changeup? Well, Sweeney’s got the word changeup in his email address. By Sweeney making the Opening Day roster, given that he’s a changeup guy, the Padres not only reward a guy for his performance, but they also send a message through the organization that they’re serious about making guys throw the change.
When I saw that piece, I thought Brian had a chance to surprise.
Lastly, not to say I told you so, because it was just conjecture, but Brian Sikorski was indeed Japanese for Edgar Huerta. Or Huerta is Spanish for Sikorski, whatever.
K H A L I L
K H A L I L
Sorry, it’s like when Harry Carey pronounced Jose Canseco – Joe See Can See Co
This just came through on Google Alerts. I hadn’t been listening to the game and just saw this report. “Right-hander Adam Eaton, who was expected to be the Rangers’ No. 2 starter this season, left his start today in the second inning with discomfort in his right middle finger. He will have an MRI this afternoon.” First BLaw. Now Eaton. GM’s are going to quit trading with KT.
Khalil. Yes.
That is Kha as in Wrath of Khan, and lil as in lily. So for spelling purposes, he becomes Khan of the lily.
Thanks
Reaching for some good news … Padres’ pitchers didn’t walk anybody during the first 8 IP today … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=260329113 …
eaton may have been a wise one with that presistant middle finger injury. Feel sorry for AE, though. Got to be tough.