| time: | 5:05 p.m. PT |
| tv: | ESPN |
| sp: | Greg Maddux (4-5, 4.16) vs Kyle Davies (3-7, 5.85) |
| pre: | Padres.com, SI.com |
The Padres are assured of entering the All-Star break with the NL West lead. Greg Maddux gets the final start of the first half for San Diego against his former team. Somebody set the timer for six innings…
For those interested I just posted a little Q&A with Geoff over at Rain Delay.
http://rain-delay.com/?p=922
Re: yesterday’s ejection.
According to XX’s Chris Ehlo and his lip reading work, the ump told Boomer to “get his fat ass back on the mound.â€
If the “fat ass†part of that is accurate, Boomer had every right to be that upset. Boomer was questioning, but didn’t seem to be aggressive or antagonistic until that.
Nice to know we enter the All Star break in first, regardless of today’s outcomes. Be even nicer to end it with back to back wins on national TV… although it looks like that may be a misnomer for yesterday judging by comments re: Angels/Yanks game being shown.
RE: 1
Nice, RD… was going to leave a comment for you, but it says I have to be logged in and I’m not sure where/how to do so… is WordPress similar to Google/Blogger in it’s coverage? Anybody know?
2: If umps don’t want Wells on their backs they should know better than to refer to his weight.
Oh and a fun graphic for everyone: http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/3109/picture1ct0.png
No more sharing the lead for CY for now
Brandon Gomes is having a pretty good time as a pro. 13.1 innings, 3 hits, 1 BB, 9 K’s between Eugene and Fort Wayne. Nice start!
Regarding Wells’ ejection:
Sorry, rookie mistake. Let’s try that again.
Regarding Wells’ ejection: I really agree with Ehlo, that Wells deserved more respect than he got, especially from a rookie umpire.
Wonderful. Our second televised game of the year and Christian activists are standing outside protesting the fact that a gay pride group is at the game tonite. They’re also distributing “informational” literature about the best ways to protect your kids from “Teh Gay!!!”
Unless I missed something, ive seen no “gay pride celebration” yet today and i dont think today is “homosexuality day” at the ballpark. This kind of intolerant shit makes me sick and of course it has to happpen at an espn game. Im not trying to spark a debate regarding personal beliefs here, but i think this is an embarassment for the city and the padres to have to endure this kind of attention grabbing retardedness by christian activists that are trying to save my eternal soul since im apparently incapable of drawing my own conclusions.
oh well. Go pads!
9: The gay men’s chorus sang the national anthem. If u blinked, u would have missed it
Monopoly Man with a nice catch. I hope he can stay out of jail.
Bradley is well on his way to making friends with all of us. One thing I think we all appreciate is effort. His play so far exemplifies it, from beating out the ground ball yesterday to the efforts in the field.
im sitting in left center tonite and i had a great view of that catch. Simply amazing. I hope he can stay healthy
13: you take your laptop to the game?
14: nope. Ive got an lg env with unlimited mobile internet. Ds is one of my favorites so its easy to post
That is sooo unlike Barrett.
Moot point after that long ball.
I guess McCann’s feeling better.
Sorry to whine about balls and strikes, but the two pitches before Johnson’s HR were both strikes, according to gameday. I really wonder about umps vs. the Padres. Wells and Maddux are two of the best control pitchers in the game, and they not only take away the border, but oftern dead strikes and in a non-evenhanded way (no comparable squeezing on opposing pitchers). Thankfully the data is being made available and will interesting if the data matches my biased perceptions.
For those of you not able to watch, LT is in the ESPN booth….
6 … Jeremy Hefner is having a nice start also …
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2007_07_08_eugasx_vanasx_1&t=g_box&did=milb
… today he had 8 Ks in just 3 IP … season total now 21 Ks in 12.1 IP … not bad for a 5th round pick (out of Oral Roberts).
ps. Gomes is a 17th round pick out of Tulane!
That’s a start…
Great line by Maddux to CB Buckner (the ump) after getting squeezed on Kelly Johnson:
Maddux: “I’m bad now.. ”
Ump: “What?”
Maddux: “I’m like really bad now, it’s hard for me to throw 4 strikes..”
Had Joe Morgan in stiches…
Maddux fanned him but good. Nice.
OT … an ol’ DS whippin’ boy, Tim Redding, with a W today …
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=270708120
… he’s clearly got more perseverence than talent!
Man, 11 ER in the last two starts for Maddux.
And once again, apitcher enters the game scuffling and gets good against our offense.
25 … how many of those ERs are after the 5th inning? Hint: enough that it seems predictable! Take the 5 IP and *run*, Bud!
That was a crappy call to end the game. Shades of Saito earlier this season. BTW, I think it’s time for NOG to find some time in the 8 hole. He’s practically worthless at the plate atm.
Oh man… what can you do but laugh? That was an awful call to end that game. lol. Awful awful awful.
HILARIOUS!
I wonder if Bud thought about PH’ing for NOG there? If you read GY’s comments to RD at the link in #1, you’ll see that NOG is about the last guy I’d want up in that situation right now (“Since May 1 he’s hitting just .218/.298/.305″). I know not every button can be push’d (ie. I know I advocate getting starters out sooner and using PH’s pretty frequently … and I know batting order isn’t a big factor … I just think it’s time to ack that NOG is the worst hitter in our lineup right now and get him down to the #8 spot ….
#26: Just got back from the game. Anyone know why Ring wasn’t in there to face McCann in the sixth? I wondered that at the time, and in hindsight, it might well have been the difference between victory and defeat.
29: I would hate to have NOG be taken out in that spot. I think sometimes it’s really not all about winning the game. I like Marcus a lot, he seems like a great guy and plays hard for our team. I would hate to have him feel like crap being taken out and replaced by someone else.
(Does adding emotion and feelings into baseball break some kind of man rule? I seem to be very adept at breaking those.)
I’m wondering if it might be time to start looking for a second baseman as well as a power bat for this lineup. Giles has been dreadful for 2 months now, and it would seem that there are numerous 2B rumored to be available – Belliard, Iguchi, Cantu (drove in 117 runs 2 years ago at age 23), Jack Wilson.
I hate to be all hindsight-y about everything, since that seems to be what people do best here, but M. Giles is just not producing at all, while Mark Loretta, who really wanted to come back, was ignored this offseason, as were other productive 2B FAs like DeRosa and Graffanini. While I think the Padres can survive with a 250-hitting 2B with decent defense, if we can upgrade then that’s the only real position we can do so unless Bradley fizzles/gets hurt/melts down.
What about Headley at 2b next season? How hard is it for a 3b to convert to 2b?
Or, is Antonelli or Reese still to far away?
New Lineup
B. Giles
Bradley (Great OBP numbers)
Gonzalez
Cameron
Barrett
Greene
Kouzmanoff
M. Giles
Marcus hasn’t hit the ball well since April, and he has been a black hole at the top of our lineup for a while. Move him to the 8 hole and maybe force him into being more selective at the plate.
Re 34: When I said Bradley had great OBP numbers, I meant as far as Padres’ standards for this season go.
30 … because Bud has a slow hook? … or because Ring looked pretty bad his last 2 times out (exp July 3rd)?
31 … I really can’t tell if you’re kidding … I don’t think there’s any way that Marcus Giles could be made to “feel like crap” … I think he’d take a lineup change for what it is: acknowledgement of his struggles since ~May 1st … I think it’d be more likely to inspire him and/or take some pressure off him … either way, I guess it’s too late to teach how to be a bit less of a free-swinger …
32 … agree 100% … right now, 2B is the weakest link in our lineup (and RF isn’t that far behind) … (side note: backup-SS is our weakest link on the roster) … it just doesn’t seem likely that we’ll go get another 2B-man …
Mat Latos update … he has now struck out 19 in 12.1 innings to begin his pro career … the Padres are being very careful in the amount he pitches … which I think is a good thing … he’s still very young and pitched a lot in JC this season. We’ll start to see the full/real Mat Latos next April at Ft Wayne or Lake Elsinore.
#36: Given that Ring was already up in the ‘pen, I’ll go with the former explanation.
Not solid enough to report officially, but Jake is probably going to be the starter in the All-Star Game. He was holding back a big smile and said he’d heard some rumors. Hoffman was equally coy, and Mike Cameron said Jake told him it was a pretty good chance.
37: It’s nice to see Latos off to a good start. Hopefully he won’t take long to make it to the Majors.
#39: Thanks, Tim, for the heads-up. My own cynicism toward the ASG notwithstanding, I’m happy for Jake. It is an honor that is well earned.
34: I like that lineup except I would bat Greene 5th and Bard/Barrett 6th
RE: #3
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