Here’s to Humble Foundations

That was satisfying. We took the in-laws out to the ballgame — sprung for Toyota Terrace seats, first time this year. They picked a good time to visit. Mom is from the old country, but I was heartened to see that she chose to root for the home team rather than Hiroki Kuroda. She digs the long ball.

Jake Peavy looked sharp. He was efficient with his pitches (12 per inning) and made a few terrific defensive plays. Maybe he paid extra close attention to Greg Maddux while he was on the disabled list.

Fun with Small Numbers

In about 3 1/2 weeks, the Padres have cut the distance between themselves and first-place Arizona in half. During that time, the Pads have gained 6 1/2 games in the standings, which is how far back of the Snakes they are today.

Through May 19:
Ari: 28-16
LA: 23-21
Col: 18-27
SF: 17-29
SD: 16-30

From May 19 to June 12:
SD: 14-8
SF: 13-8
Col: 8-13
LA: 8-14
Ari: 8-15

My favorite Peavy moment came in the second inning. He missed high with his first pitch to Blake DeWitt. Even in a nearly packed house, I could hear Jake scream at himself all the way up in Section 217.

Back-to-back homers in the first? Nice. Brian Giles‘ three-run shot to right landed on top of the auxiliary scoreboard. Food critic Andre Ethier gave up on the ball a little early and it almost didn’t clear the fence.

The homer Adrian Gonzalez hit was beautiful. He went down and got the pitch, drove it out to left-center. Older brother Edgar had some nice plate appearances, as did Paul McAnulty. Actually, a lot of guys looked good. That happens when you win, 9-0.

One interesting theme of the 2008 season is that players unburdened by the weight of expectation have stepped up and demonstrated that they can play at this level, at least for short periods of time. Guys like Jody Gerut (.274/.354/.372), E-Gon (.322/.385/.424), and McAnulty (.239/.374/.398) have proven themselves worthy of a closer look. Of course, they aren’t young and there’s a reason nobody expected anything from them, so they’ll have to keep proving themselves. Still, a humble foundation is better than no foundation…

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15 Responses »

  1. Great game for us. I’m thinking that Kouz really needs a day or two. He’s looking completely lost at the plate right now.

  2. I would agree were we not headed to Cleveland.

  3. #2@Mike Champion: and facing 3 straight lefties.

  4. 1,2,3 … a KK conundrum … agree that he does seem to need a rest … agree that @ CLE vs lefties doesn’t seem like best place/time … wishing he’d have rested yesterday, I s’pose (with 20/20 hindsight) …

    ps. Check out DePo’s blog today … another good post …

  5. A “local” look at the Padres’ 7th round draft pick …

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/college/5832460

    Rice catcher Adam Zornes … one of 4 Padres’ picks who will be playing in the CWS in Omaha starting tomorrow.

  6. Interesting that they aren’t going to call up Headley for the Cleveland series. I guess that home run for Clark off Wagner earned him DH at-bats. I had read earlier that Headley was going to play in the Hall Of Fame Game in Cooperstown against the Cubs on Monday and then be brought up for the Yankees series. Not sure why keeping him down for 3 more days would be helpful but it looks like that’s the way it’s going to go.

  7. So is Huber going to get the starts in left against Cleveland lefties, with Hairston in center? Maybe Chase’s name will be in the lineup tonight.

  8. #8@Mike Champion: Lefties are batting .357 against tonight’s starter, Jeremy Sowers, in his 3 starts with Cleveland this season. So I’m guessing Gerut will get the start in CF tonight, with Hairston in LF, and DH would be a toss-up between Clark and Huber.

  9. The U-T dice, “Black likes Clark at DH”. That probably means Huber in left and Hairston in center against the lefties in Cleveland. In previous seasons Sowers has had some fairly drastic platoon splits, so I think it still makes sense to get as many righties in there against him as possible.

    http://www3.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/padres/2008/jun/13/—/

  10. Kouz does need a day, and I don’t mind giving EGon the chance to play there for a little bit and give Stansberry the time at 2B for a game.

    Still I’m thinking more and more that the Padres are going to trade Kouz in teh off-season or at teh trade deadline and going to go with Headley at 3B

  11. #11@Loren:
    Hey Loren did you call in to Kentera yesterday?

  12. Loren– Do you really think that Kouz is going to be traded at the deadline? Headley is producing at AAA, but he hasn’t even seen a full season down there. Although Kouz has looked a little rusty lately, do you think that Headley will be able to outproduce Kouz?

    Admittedly, Kouz is hitting .254 and hasn’t been all that clutch, but last year he was a second half player all the way. I’m not saying that a single 2nd half was something that could be judged as a trend, but Headley is so young. Kouz hits with relative consistency. You also have to look at it in terms of the return that we would get for him. We could potentially trade him for an everyday center fielder, preferably with speed, or a #5 starter. Kouz is a position player, and we would be looking to fill a gap, not plug a tiny hole left by an injury.

    I don’t think there are a whole lot of teams out there that would be willing to make that kind of trade. I’m also not so informed on this, so… thoughts?

  13. #9@JMAR: Great call on the lineup. Gerut playing CF and batting 9th, Clark batting 5th at DH, everything else pretty much the same.

  14. #12; I did indeed call into Post-Game and in part mentioned what I red here on Ducksnorts.
    #13: I don’t know. I am a big big Kouz fan and have been since he got here. My bigger issue is that we have a 3B playing LF who is better suited to play 3B and currently we have a third baseman who I think has some trade value considering certain teams (Indians, Phillies, Tigers maybe, Marlins, etc) have lots of trouble at 3B. I think Kouz does have quite a bit of value and, if not by the trade deadline hten next off-season, could fetch us something useful.