Quick Thoughts from Peoria

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):

Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff backs away from a pitch by White Sox right-hander Jose Contreras

Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff homers off White Sox right-hander Jose Contreras

Padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff trots around the bases following his two-run homer off White Sox right-hander Jose Contreras

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.