Man, if you needed an excuse to get behind Clay Hensley, I’d say that Thursday night’s start against the Dodgers is as good as any. Dude gets hit in the back of the head by a broken bat in the second inning, and after a few minutes’ delay to stop the bleeding, goes out there and spins six shutout innings. I love this bit from the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The blow drove Hensley to his knees near the rubber, and Padres trainers initially advised Hensley against continuing. But he retired 10 of the next 11 hitters.
“I was kind of dizzy,” Hensley said. “But that’s kind of expected when you get hit with a bat. I didn’t feel like it was a problem. I’m just glad the barrel got me instead of the jagged edge.”
And thus a folk hero is born. I was impressed enough to go out and sponsor Hensley’s page at Baseball-Reference.com.
So, on to the links:
- Brocail given clearance to resume throwing after two angioplasties (Yahoo!). Great to see right-hander Doug Brocail on the comeback trail after getting a wakeup call in March. The bullpen has been surprisingly strong in his absence, but good arms are always a welcome addition.
- Thanks to Will Carroll for giving me a heads-up on the April 29 episode of Baseball Prospectus Radio, in which he interviews Padres’ sports therapist Kelly Calabrese, who bore the brunt of some comments by a very silly man not long ago. The interview is about halfway through the show. Calabrese is very well spoken in talking about the impact of Keith Hernandez’ chauvinistic remarks on advancing women in sports, as well as her day-to-day duties keeping players healthy and helping them rehabilitate from injuries if needed. Among other things, we learn that she works about 11 hours on an average game day and that she sat in on Ryan Klesko’s shoulder surgery. I’m thinking if she can sit in the operating room, she can sit in the dugout. Trailblazers always encounter resistance; it’s the nature of blazing trails.
- Franchises at Birth: The Expos and the Padres (Part Three: 1975-1980) (Hardball Times). Reader Pat points us to the final installment in Steve Treder’s look back at the Padres’ early years. I had completely forgotten that George Hendrick and Mike Hargrove once played in San Diego.
- Jonathan has a couple of interviews up over at PDX Beavers, one of Salt Lake pitching coach Charles Nagy and one of Portland right-hander Brian Sikorski. Apparently Sikorski has made some adjustments under Beavers’ pitching coach Gary Lance to keep the ball down in the zone, which wasn’t happening in spring training. All I know is that Sikorski is piling up some impressive strikeout numbers at Triple-A, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him up with the big club at some point.
- In their May 4 Daily Dish, Baseball America recaps right-hander Cesar Carrillo’s last start for Mobile. The scout they spoke with liked his changeup and curve, but said that he “didn’t have very good command of his fastball, and left some pitches up in the zone.”
Finally, on a personal note, I turn 37 today. So far it feels a lot like 36; then again, I’m still on my first cup of coffee.
Happy Friday, and let’s keep that winning streak going!
Feliz cumpleaños, Geoff!
We will all enjoy another year of you doing what you do.
Happy Birthday Geoff! Thanks for all the work on this site. I’m new to it, but I really enjoy reading it. Take a break, watch the Padres go for 6 in a row and beat up the Cubbies tonight!
Happy Birthday.
Happy Birthday Geoff! Keep up the good work.
I’m sort of amazed by the outcry over the Keith Hernandez comments (although I guess in these PC times you can’t make any criticsms!) Pretty much every bashed Hernandez for saying that his comments were stupid and uninformed. However, he’s the one that played major league baseball, not us. Personally, if he thinks that a woman sitting in the dugout would be a distraction, I’d be more inclined to believe him than some reporter who’s never played sports.
Granted, I come from a military background in the infantry were women definitely don’t mix and I’ve never played professional baseball so I’m not sure that throwing a woman into the mix would be as bad there as it would be in the Marines. I just think we should take into account that Keith Hernandez is the “expert” not all the reporters knocking him.
Happy Birthday. Keep up the good work.. I think this, and especially the BP interview was spun in the most positive I’ve seen. I mean I’m sure Kelly Calabrese does a great job and she deserves to be part of the dugout staff as much as any head trainers. … I always listen to BP radio, it’s a great show. Calabrese sounded great and they talked about all the rehab and massage work she does. She was also on a few mlbradio shows and they asked her the silly questions.
I’m happy this hernandez story is gone and he is a complete idiot, period.
Also the Padres pitching is 5th in the NL in VORP.
Padre pitchers by VORP
Woody Williams 9.6
Chris Young 8.7
Scott Cassidy 7.6
Trevor Hoffman 4.8
Jake Peavy 4.6
Clayton Hensley 4.2
Brian Sweeney 3.6
Scott Linebrink 2.9
Shawn Estes 0.6
Chan Ho Park 0.3
Alan Embree -0.1
Jon Adkins -1.4
Dewon Brazelton -11.3
Ryguy sort of proved my point. He says Hernandez is a complete idiot. Why exactly? Who’s the expert in baseball relationships? You, me or him? I guess what annoyed me most about it is everybody popping off with their opinions about Keith Hernandez idiocy yet really only he knows what he is talking about. Of course, that is the problem with the media today — too many people with opinions not based on any facts or reality or experience — I guess you could call it Jon Stewart syndrome.
Happy Birthday, GY! To honor the even, I’m going to click on that “PayPal Donate” button … perhaps others will (again) too! I enjoy your writing … and the community here that it fosters! Thanks to you, Geoff … and thanks to the rest of ya!
OT: but does anyone know what happened to Jared Wells for Mobile last night? He left after 3 innings, and I cannot find word one about what happened. Hopefully he got hit in the shin or something. I would hate to think his arm is acting up.
GY — Happy Birthday. Keep up the good work. This site is wonderful.
Just think — four days later, and you would share the same b-day with T Gwynn. As it is — you’re with Charles Nagy, Ron Oester and Juan Acevedo.
Re: Sikorski. I was going to point that out a few days ago — the guy has like 28 Ks in 17 IP. That’s nice . . . maybe we’ll see him in the bigs soon.
I emailed a buddy down in Mobile who follows the Bears. He says he thinks he hurt it running out a grounder (which makes sense since Wells was the last out of the previous half inning). Hamstring, quad, maybe sprained ankle…something like that. No collision involved at all, so knee ligaments are probably safe.
Happy Birthday GY, hope the Padres make it an even better one tonight. 37, u old.
Happy Birthday Geoff….you’re much..much older than I am. I turn 37 on Tuesday
So I do share my birthday with Tony Gwynn…
Keep up the good work…you have a great site here..
That’s pretty cool, Mark O.
T Gwynn made his ML debut on my 12th birthday — 7/19/82. I always thought that was a nice coincidence.
Hippo
Birdie
2 ewes..
many more and thanks again for the great meeting place you have concocted. We (or at least me) do really appreciate all your hard work.
Aloha, Hank
While I am here, let me comment on Hernandez’s comments. It is the politically correct thing to do to jump on his case for his remarks. I sincerely believe that he did not know that Kelly was a trainer and if he had, would not have said what he did. His comments were, however,, very appropriate had Kelly NOT been a trainer.
Happy B-Day, Geoff.
I remeber Hendrick, but I sure don’t remember Hargrove. Of course we’ve employed a lot of forgettable players over the years.
Happy birthday, Geoff. I turned 37 in January, myself.
I still feel exactly as fat and old as I did at 36.
Ok, I found a witch doctor for tonight’s games. He promises to lift the Petco Curse so the Padres can hit and score many runs. All he wants in return are our souls….
http://www.dynamicdesignintl.com/images/witch_doctor.jpg
NO PLAY FOR MR. GREY!
I don’t have to be an “expert on baseball relationships” to say that Keith Hernandez made a stupid comment. He’s a broadcaster. He get’s paid to do things a certain way, within certain permateres. I think people would have been annoyed if she wasn’t the trainer. The fact that she was (which, BTW, shows that it was the expert that was thoroughly uninformed), made it offensive.
Greybeard strikes out,
M
P.S. Happy Happy, Geoff. Perhaps you’ll get some starting pitching and consistency at the plate.
And just to prove my point:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2432750
How many current major leaguers stand by her? Looks like the only thing Keith Hernandez can pick up with any degree of grace is a short hop from Rafael Santana.
Happy Birthday, Geoff. Now there’s an excuse to drink tequila on the 5th of May.
Happy B-day Geoff!