Just bullet points this morning:
- Bud Black, Wally Joyner, and Rick Renteria all threw during the big-league session we watched. Darrel Akerfelds pitched to minor leaguers over at the next field.
- Tadahito Iguchi had a nice batting practice session on Sunday. He showed more power than I’d expected.
- Tony Clark’s kid scored 13 goals in two soccer games on Saturday. Relevant? Probably not, but that’s the kind of thing you learn while watching guys take batting practice. Some lady asked, and he answered. Rock on.
- Colt Morton is a big dude. I already knew this, but it bears repeating. He also scalded a ball during Sunday’s game against the White Sox, right back through the middle.
- Randy Wolf looked good on the mound. I didn’t see any gun readings, but his fastball appeared to have good life.
- Wade LeBlanc gave up a mammoth home run to the first batter he faced, Brad Eldred, but settled down and pitched well after that. He appeared to pick up velocity in his second inning of work, and his vaunted change-up had more bite. He made Brian Anderson look silly chasing balls that bounced well in front of the plate. Not that Anderson is a great hitter, but the guy has about 450 big-league plate appearances to his credit.
- Luis Rodriguez made a couple nice plays at shortstop. He doesn’t look like a hitter at all, though. During one at-bat, he took very defensive swings at 2-0 and 3-1 fastballs. He slapped a single later in the game on a pitch that many guys would have hammered.
- Scott Hairston and Chase Headley didn’t seem comfortable at the plate. After what Hairston did on Friday and Headley did on Saturday, we’ll cut ‘em some slack.
- Mauro Zarate looked terrific out of the ‘pen. Lance thought he threw the hardest out of anyone we saw on Sunday (including Octavio Dotel). Perhaps more importantly, Zarate seemed to have a clue.
Finally, here was my favorite sequence on Sunday. White Sox starter Jose Contreras brushed Kevin Kouzmanoff off the plate, and Kouz responded in the best way possible by knocking Contreras’ next pitch out of the park (click on the photos to see hi-res versions):
More photos at Flickr. We’ll have our second IGD of the spring for Monday evening’s game. First pitch is 7:05 p.m. PT.
How did Headley and Hairston look in the field? Did Hairston get some time in CF? I’m still very nervous thinking of Hairston playing CF for the time being.
Hairston stared in CF yesterday, I didn’t watch the whole game but he looked ok the entire time I watched.
Also I had never seen Adrian’s bother before man those to look like they could be twins, Edgar is just like a lighter (weight wise) Adrian.
KK got some extension on that swing. Nice!
5: That is about as good as a swing can look in a picture.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/padres/20080310-9999-1s10padres.html
Had to post this. Is it just me, or is the whole Chinese inventing gunpowder and paper thing common knowledge, and a little embarrassing that it was presented as a new finding. Still, I love the idea of giving the China report (complete with visual aids!) to the rooks.
6: I love that the kids pointed out where the clubs and bars were. Well done gentlemen.
Here’s some video of the KK homer …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Noe3ceNy3tI
re: Edred HR off LeBlanc … Wolf had made Eldred look silly on a change up … LeBlanc’s first pitch was a fastball outside … 2nd pitch was fastball over the plate … with very predictable results … problem was pitch selection and location … yikes!
This article about Wolf …
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/padres/20080310-9999-1s10padnotes.html
… says “Manager Bud Black liked the change-ups Wolf threw to contrast a fastball clocked at 85-88 mph” … and I can’t tell if this a good thing or a bad thing ???
10 … same article says … “cleanup man Adrian Gonzalez hit a 410-foot double and an RBI single” … which short-changes Adrian’s blast … it only went as far as the CF wall would allow it
(it hit 5-6 feet up the wall)