It’s April Fools’ Day. No, really, I’m serious.

Housekeeping

I try to keep folks informed about changes to the site; it’s pretty dry stuff, so feel free to skip this part if you don’t care. I won’t be offended.

From left to right, top to bottom, here are updates for April 1, 2003:

• Tweaked some stuff in the left-hand navigation. Added links to the Stadium and Datasets areas; one of these days maybe I’ll make the Datasets page look purty and what-not. Moved Weblog above Articles, since everyone reads the former and I’m producing the latter over at Baseball Primer these days.
• Added links to padres.com, theprospectreport.com (as opposed to prospectreport.com), and Roto Times.
• Removed a link to a former baseball site that is now about–ahem–something else.
• Reworked the Home page, cleaned up the About section (BTW, if you’re curious about why this site is called "Ducksnorts" it’s in About).
• Added a disclaimer to the bottom of every page. No, nobody’s contacted me and I’d just as soon keep it that way.

I’ve got some other things in the works, but like batters facing Steve Trachsel, they’ll just have to wait.

Oh, and if you haven’t been here in a while and are wondering what’s up with the colors, don’t worry: they’ll pass. We’re just honoring the Padres by bustin’ out the old hamburger and mustard motif from way back when. The familiar blues and greens will be back next week.

Matt Herges

Padres signed him to a minor-league deal. Herges instantly becomes one of the best healthy relievers in the organization, but he’ll start the season at Portland. Another shrewd pickup by Kevin Towers.

Opening Day

So much for 162-0. What did we expect, anyway? Good starting pitching, shaky relief work, not enough offense.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Even in a game like this, there are positives. Let’s take a closer look.

San Francisco 5, San Diego 2 (ESPN)

The Good

• Rondell White took some good cuts at the plate. He hit a weak grounder to short off Kirk Rueter in the fourth, but other than that he looked good. Flied to the warning track in center to end the first, drew a full-count walk in the sixth. He didn’t hack quite as much as I’d expected. He also made a nice play in left on a ball hit by J.T. Snow in the fourth.
• Ramon Vazquez looked very good at shortstop. He stayed with a tough hop on a grounder to end the second. He also started a spectacular double play on a ball hit by Edgardo Alfonzo with the bases loaded to end the eighth. Vazquez came in on a slow roller and very quickly grabbed the ball and flipped it to Mark Loretta, who made a quick turn to fire it to first, where Ryan Klesko made a nice stretch (!). Vazquez also had some solid at-bats, drawing a walk against lefty Rueter to start the third, taking Barry Bonds to the warning track to end the sixth, and lining a 3-2 single to left to lead off the ninth against Tim Worrell.
• Xavier Nady hit one to the warning track in center in the second. Nice pass on the ball, but he hit it off the end of the bat. In the fourth, he hammered a 2-0 offering to right-center for a double. He’ll do that a lot this year.
• Sean Burroughs absolutely scorched a pitch from Rueter in the fourth, lining a double off the auxiliary scoreboard to score Nady. It was a hanger, and Burroughs turned on the ball. Good to see him hit the ball with authority.
• Brian Lawrence, despite struggling with his command, managed to pitch seven solid innings. By my count, he ran the count full five times on the night, which is very unusual for him. He tied a career high with four walks. He even unleashed a wild pitch. But other than Ray Durham, nobody got real good wood on the ball, and Lawrence did induce a couple of timely double plays. Curiously, he allowed more fly balls than ground balls.
• Gary Bennett looked like he was doing a nice job receiving the ball behind the plate.
• Luther Hackman was impressive in cleaning up the ninth inning mess. Made Bonds look real bad on a changeup.

The Bad

• Lawrence’s command. He can’t pitch like he did yesterday and be successful. Chalk it up to Opening Day jitters.
• In the sixth, against Joe Nathan, Nady appeared overanxious at the plate and popped out to J.T. Snow back of first with runners on second and third, nobody out. The Pads wasted a golden opportunity to score.
• Gary Bennett’s bat. In the sixth, after Nady popped to Snow, Burroughs was intentionally walked to load the bases. Bennett promptly struck out swinging. I know Bennett’s job is to work with the young pitchers, but it would be nice if he brought something to the table on offense.
• Clay Condrey. Or Bruce Bochy. I haven’t decided which. Condrey, after working a scoreless eighth to keep the game tied at 2-2, surrendered back-to-back jacks to Benito Santiago and J.T. Snow to start the ninth. They weren’t cheap either; both went to dead center. It’s only one game, and it’s way too early to second guess Bochy, but it will be interesting to see what usage patterns develop for the Pads’ bullpen while the likes of Trevor Hoffman, Jay Witasick, and Kevin Walker are on the shelf. Condrey did a yeoman’s job in the eighth, but it might be a bit much to expect a kid with 27 big-league innings under his belt to work the ninth against the defending NL champs in a tie ballgame. Matt Herges, anyone?

The Ugly

• Rueter struck out 76 batters last year in over 200 innings. That’s seven more strikeouts than Randy Johnson recorded in six August starts.
• Coming to Viejas Casino June 10: Puppet Show and David Lee Roth.

In Other News

• Object of endless fascination Corey Patterson homered twice and drove in seven runs as the Cubs abused Tom Glavine and the Mets, 15-2.
• The Red Sox, darlings of the stathead community, saw their closerless bullpen give up five runs in the bottom of the ninth to the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays. It will be interesting to see how long they are allowed to continue their experiment, which much of the mainstream media still doesn’t quite understand.
• Randy Johnson and the Diamondbacks were involved in a shutout at home against the Dodgers. Hideo Nomo spun a four-hitter for the visitors, who plated five runs against the Big Unit.

Tonight: Jason Schmidt vs Adam Eaton at the Q. Game time, 7 PM. Television: Channel 4.