Padres (2-0) vs Astros (0-2)
Greg Maddux vs Wandy Rodriguez
7:05 p.m. PT
Channel 4SD
AM 1090, FM 105.7, XM 184
MLB, B-R
With southpaw Wandy Rodriguez on the mound, Justin Huber likely will make his Padres debut, getting the start in left field. Nathan at Oz MLB Players profiles the Melbourne native, while Jeff at Royally Speaking is sorry to see Huber leave Kansas City and thinks the youngster was mishandled.
152 Comments
lineup according to Yahoo
Giles RF
Iguchi 2B
Kouz 3B
Gonzalez 1B
Hairston CF
Greene SS
Barrett C
Huber LF
Maddux P
(I tried to post the link, but whatever.)
Classic Philly today, local paper asks this morning if the team is going to be able to get beyond its bad start(0-1) watching some of the game, they get booed the whole time…..my favorite is the little kid who sounds like he’s 10 on the MLB Extra Innings feed, he’s just giving Victorino the business all game
Geoff, Didi, and I are going to the game tomorrow. I have one more ticket. First person to e-mail me (lance@richardsonsteelinc.com) gets the ticket. My seats are field level, section 114.
We’ll be meeting up at Lou & Mickeys around 11:15 tomorrow.
1: Hopefully they’ll be able to turn baserunners into runs tonight.
Missing SD right about now. Really missing it. I just know I would be at the park tonight.
#3 Lance, I’ll be at the game as well with my family in section 218 for that game. I wish I could get my Annual signed by GY, but I loaned it out to a co-worker.
Where’s the rain everyone was saying would doom tonight’s game. I don’t see a cloud in the sky.
Howdy everyone…I’m here for the whole game tonight…looking for 3-0…let’s go mad dog
That was catchable…
great play by Maddux… They should probably just go ahead and send him the gold glove for 2008 now and save the trouble..
Nice run down decision by Mad Dog.
Good throw by Kouz. Adrian should have caught that.
Man, what an ugly start to the game, from both sides. That rundown wasn’t exactly perfect, the lazy throw by Kouz and then Blum butchering a high chopper.
God, I hate Silent L.
His L isn’t so silent….but yes…I hate him as well
Gotta be the hair. Brutal.
i actually thought they made the tag fairly quickly. Rundowns too often in MLB aren’t fundamentally executed
Ugh, looks like it’s going to be one of those games. I was hoping the Padres “Crappy Pitching Petco Effect” wouldn’t happen this year — the worse the opposing pitcher is at Petco, the worse the offense does.
Ooof. I have nothing good to say about this game so far.
I have no comment at this time except to say that I’m not buying a downtown condo anytime soon…
Right on Scotty!!!!!!!!!!
Petco = Hairston’s House
Nice knock for Huber.
That walk by Barrett in his first plate appearance of the season is 50% of the walks he got with the Padres last season in 136 PA’s.
So on the subject of the third-base coaching box: did they change it today, from last night? Did they get permission from the league? Was it in response to the Bowa incident?
There was so much left unsaid by Matt and Mud, so I’m assuming they haven’t talked to anybody within the organization about it yet.
DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!DONG!!!
A-GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Adriaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This team can’t hit. So boring.
To Quote:
Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!Dong! Dong!
Sorry Lance, I thought you’d be at this game also
Nice to Greene shake off the slow Spring
VIVA EL HOMBRE
That didn’t look like that bad of a pitch by Rodriguez, did it? Down and outside, it certainly wasn’t grooved right down the middle like Maddux’s pitches to Blum and Wigginton.
Nice followup AB by Hairston. Greene and Barrett back to their hacktastic ways (can’t argue with the results for Khalil though).
OT: Geoff – Bellhaven Scottish Ale – GREAT BEER!
(sorry, I’m a couple days behind)
I can hear the Padres ticket line ringing from here on 27th street.
31: No problem. it’s good to know somebody will hold down the fort when I can’t comment.
Neither of us “donged” the Hairston dinger, though.
Hey, another shoutout!
Matty giving the shoutout to geoff. Cool.
DUDE… Seriously F Silent L!!!
What’s the deal Blummer? Now you decide to hit? Clown!
He’s going on and on about the annual. this is great!
Lot of detail about the annual. Cheers!
DUDE… Seriously F Silent L!!!
What’s the deal Blummer? Now you decide to hit? Clown!
Matty V. with all kinds of Ducksnorts love. Congrats Geoff!!!
Freddy Garcia was part of the Randy Johnson trade with Carlos Guillen, just don’t remember the 3rd player
Yep…huge Ducksnorts love…
I really need to order the book..
Niiice, a Ducksnorts plug from Matty V!
“The only tiring part is the intro”
(pretty sure that’s paraphrased)
Geoff, Didi, and I are going to the game tomorrow. I have one more ticket. First person to e-mail me (lance@richardsonsteelinc.com) gets the ticket. My seats are field level, section 114.
We’ll be meeting up at Lou & Mickeys around 11:15 tomorrow.
I figure if I keep posting this, at least one of you folks who were complaining about the high ticket and concessions prices might jump on a free ticket. I’ve not yet heard from anyone…
Thanks, guys; and thanks, Matt.
The third guy in the Johnson trade was John Halama.
Re: 47 pretty much what he said and it was hilarious…
#48: If I didn’t have to go to work (which I could get out of) and pick up my kids by 5 in Orange County (which I can’t get out of) I would be all over the free ticket
50: It’s a long season, Mark. Perhaps another time.
Do you think that they don’t know about baseball-reference.com (in reference to Maddux’s % of solo home runs) or they were just setting up to talk about Geoff’s book? Geoff, do you have them on speed dial or are you in booth?
Godammit! I was on the phone and didn’t hear the DS and GY stuff.
Perhaps if I try to give away the extra ticket by plugging it as an opportunity to attend a Padre game with famed author of the Ducksnorts baseball Annual, Geoff Young…
Nice play by Maddux to end the inning.
53: Don’t you have DVR??? Just rewind it, man!
Just give him the Gold Glove and get it over with…
Is LynchMob boycotting tonight’s IGD because P-Mac isn’t playing?
57 … bingo!
#55: If I didn’t owe the IRS $21K, I’d probably get Tivo.
OT … did you see what Tim Redding did to the Phillies today?
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=280402122
OUCH! I’m hoping that 2 guys in my roto league (which drafts on Friday night, got any tips for me?) take notice
59: Ouch.
Crap.
Huber!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice play by Huber. Howard, do you think P-Mac would have caught that?
#52: Nope, not in booth.
Nice grab by Huber. Time to get Maddux out of there.
PMac!!!!!!!!!!!
nice piece o’ hitting by P-mac there…
So why have Tony C hit here?
Why not let Maddux bunt ‘em over?
Maddux was done….Clark ripped that ball it was just good positioning by the defense..
We totally should have given Lee $100M to “play” left field for us.
It’s really too bad that this team can’t hit…
70 – Lee should take some pointers from Ryan Klesko.
#71: What were you saying Mark?
Lee in left for five years, that is an ugly thought.
I wasn’t suggesting that Maddux pitch any more; just send him up to the plate to bunt – to avoid burning a pinch hitter.
Good thing that Giles picked up the run.
Re: Lee in left – well, he’s better than Barry Bonds – but he’s not good.
#75 not a bad thought…I wasn’t thinking that way…but especially how things turned out it would’ve been a good idea
I don’t know if he’s that much better in the field then Bonds. His arm is probably better but his range probably not as good.
Thatcher threw some nasty pitches that inning. Bourn is still looking for the 0-2 slider.
Lance: If you can’t find any takers, Mrs. D is available.
70.
Because everyone was clammoring for his glove right?
Adrian is just missing putting those last two pitches in the left field bleachers!
I smell insurance Home Run this inning. Come on KG!
Or just a strike out!
75: No, he’s not better than Barry Bonds.
Geoff, I’ve had no bites. Mrs. Ducksnorts shall be our fourth.
81: I wish KG had answered your call. He’s on my Ducksnorts fantasy team, and I’m buried deep in the second division after only two games!
Yup, sabermetric/stats guys….
Stolen bases are useless, not worth the risk and all the other things the calculators say.
66 … well said, thanks!
64 … from my vantage point, there’s no doubt about it, lance!
P-Mac had plenty of time to get in position for a stronger throw. Bekman may still have scored, but it would have been close had P-Mac been in better position.
Good thing the Padres are playing the Astros because they are playing terrible tonight. I usually don’t care if the opponent steals a base but it actually mattered there. I wonder if there should be an asterisk for stolen bases against the Padres?
I think having P-Mac bunt here borders on insane.
I keep getting erros trying to post right now.
Sick SAC OG!!!
Where did the hustling Michael Barrett come from? Did he hide the corpse of the imposter from last year?
Hey, does that still count as a stolen base?
92: “Sick SAC”??? Um, yeah…I liked it, too.
Let’s get some more runs now!!!
Death…
It’s Trevor Time now. Let’s hope he doesn’t F this up.
hahahaha I was wondering if I was going to get a response on that!
Death
The Toon has a strong arm, good thing it’s not that accurate. Barrett’s actually having a good game tonight, they didn’t happen too much last year. The Padres were 11-20 in games he started (and lost 14 of his first 19 starts). Could they be 1-0 in his starts this season?
Isn’t baseball-reference.com the coolest?
taxes
94: It counts as a steal unless it is a case of “defensive indifference.” Many official scorekeepers screw this up, assuming that not drawing a throw is evidence of indifference. If the first baseman was holding the runner, however, the defense was hardly indifferent.
Two quick outs by Hoffman.
Taxes…
my connection is updating really slowly. Stepping on toes again Lance…
I know the gun only said 83 but Trevor’s fastball really looks different to me. It seems like it’s faster than that.
104: I hit in a 85 MPH batting cage all the time. He’s really throwing 83.
100.
Don’t start talking like that Cubs fan guy that told us we were loosing because Michael Barrett is cursed and no team with him will ever win.
I agree, this is probably his best game as a padre.
Walking Jose Cruz, Jr … bleh …
I think Grant is right, Trevor’s fastball does look a little faster then last season — the mlb.com Gamecast is clocking him at 89 mph out of his hand, I think he was usually around 86-87 last season.
Too bad Meredith’s inattentiveness is going to cost Maddux career win 348.
Trevor, stop doing this to me.
Toon is up…
104.
So do I. The 85 plus at Stadium Golf and it looks faster than that to me.
Shit.
Well that an f-ing bummer!
Gonzalez really needs to catch that…
Or maybe not.
That’s what you get for walking Jose Cruz.
Damn, thought Adrian had that.
Ugh. The walk to Cruz comes back to kill us.
SHIT!!!
This officially blows now…
Don’t get me wrong. I like Trevor. But I think he’s seen his better days.
Yuck, this feels vaguely familiar.
Christ.
Maybe back to back isn’t ideal for Hoffman.
Again, how can you walk Jose Cruz with the bases empty and two outs? That’s three bad outings out of four. Is Trevor done?
That was craptastic.
But today is almost the 10 year anniversary of Steve Finley’s bottom of the ninth grand slam against the DBacks. It’s not over…
111: The Stadium Golf cages overstate the velocity. I hit at a facility that doesn’t blow sunshine up its customers’ butts. Let’s go hit sometime, though. Lemme know when you’re up for a couple hours of cage time.
Berkman just blew it open.
Cue all the “Trevor is done” guys prepping their SDUT emails and 1090/1360 sports radio calls for tomorrow.
It was actually April 10, 1998. Check Retrosheet or Baseball-reference.com
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN199804100.shtml
Brown gave up 3 hits in the first inning, the DBacks got 2 hits the rest of the game.
Well you have to be concerned with the bullpen so far. Bell is the most worrisome at the moment. As the paper reported this morning, his velocity is down considerably from last year. We probably should replace Ledezma with Zarate or another right-hander, otherwise Meredith and Bell are going to be run into the ground.
Still, how do you walk Cruz for the second night in a row? Both Young and Hoffy pitched around him like he was going to take them yard.
Ausmus is playing second???
127: Sounds like you already checked.
And to all those wondering, Hoffman IS probably finished as an elite closer. Fortunately, we’ll be figuring that out during a season in which we had little chance of winning anything, anyway.
And Brad Ausmus is playing second base….
125.
I’m so down. I’m not claiming I’m big time or anything but if it’s straight I can hit it. I can’t hit a curve or a change or anything with a wrinkle but if it’s straight I can hit it.
132: I believe you… and I’m not claiming I’m big-time either. But we should get to the cages sometime.
Last inning sucked donkey balls.
133.
Or Big Foot’s dick, whichever you prefer.
what article had the info about Bell? I can’t find it…
133.
I’ll email you at the address you gave for tomorrow’s ticket.
I hate Jose Valverde!
Re: Bell
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080402/news_1s2padnotes.html
At the bottom of the article.
Donkey balls or Big Foot’s dick… I’m torn.
Either way, the end of this game sucked at least one of those things.
Thanks. A lot of pitchers have a “dead arm” phase early in the season. crosses fingers, knocks wood.
Count me in the group that does NOT thing Hoffman is done. Walking Cruz is bad, I grant you that. But last night he made two Astros look silly, including Berkman, had two quick outs here and a line drive off the glove a AGon. Changeup still looks good, just missed a few pitches.
In fairness to Hoffman, that was a bit unlucky. The walk to Cruz was inexcusable yet Bourn’s hit was a ground ball that found a hole and The Toon’s game tying hit did glance off of AGon’s glove.
I thought that maybe pitching Hoffman on back to back days was the problem but Hoffman was better last year on 0 days (oddly he was awful on 1 day of rest).
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/psplit.cgi?n1=hoffmtr01&year=2007
Small sample size so it’s probably a fluke.
139.
Agree
141.
Agree
rotoworld.com says this about Hoffman’s outing …
The home-plate umpire’s lack of generosity definitely played a role in the poor outing.
… but I’m not hearing any of you that were watching it say anything about ball/strike calls … what could they be talking about?
I’m vexed on my feelings about Hoffman. The guy is one of the best at what he does. However, there comes a time when we all have to say that we are too old and tired to do what we do.
My commentary is stupid given we’ve only really seen him twice so far and I feel guilty even making these comments.
144. I thought the first few pitches to Berkman were borderline calls that didn’t go Hoffy’s way, putting Berkman in a hitters count and forcing Hoffman to throw basically a BP fastball down the middle. Considering Berkman was 0-7 going into tonight and Carlos Lee was on deck, I don’t blame Hoffman for going after Berkman. Again, this would not have happened had he got one of the first two pitches (which I assume were outside, maybe high on the second pitch).
Either way the game had been tied at this point and the save blown.
144:
I don’t remember seeing any pitches that were close that were called balls — unless they expected an Eric Gregg-Livan Hernandez strike zone.
That was an odd blown save by Trevor. Usually you can tell right away when he’s going to have a bad outing as his fastball velocity is way down — anytime I see it sitting at 83-84 I know it’s going to be ugly. But he was fine the first two batters and then lost control of his change to Cruz (and didn’t throw a fastball). Then he left his fastball up to the next three batters. Trevor has such a fine line for success and if he doesn’t have good control, he needs luck to get outs (hope the ball gets hit at someone). Unfortunately he didn’t get the luck tonight.
147. What I don’t understand, is not challenging Cruz. If Cruz takes him deep I can live with that, but walking the weak hitter?
148: I was yelling at my tv when he walked Cruz. I still don’t get why he didn’t give Cruz a chance to hit it at someone.
Capitol blog you’ve got over here Pads fans. Rickey shall return.
http://ridingwithricky.blogspot.com
Well, lets not panic, but we all know whats coming, Trevor is coming to the end of his run and the Padres better have a plan in place to ease him and the fans through this tough transition.
For instance:
Run Bell out there on consecutive nights
Promote Bell as the successor to Trevor
Cool it on the Trevor Time theatrics
Maybe even commit to a retirement now so we can all enjoy his final year.
The Padres, Trevor and his agent must have the courage to face the music, if they don’t, he will whither on the vine and we will be pissed by the end of the season.
He still has gas in the tank, but not on consecutive nights.
Look at he bright side fellow Padres fans. We own baseball’s highest team batting average at 355! And everyone said we couldn’t hit….