Come to think of it, "Earthshine" is as good a song as I’ve heard anybody put out in a long time. I should warn you right now that I’ll be talking about this CD for weeks. And I won’t apologize for it.

But I’ll still be talking baseball, since that’s what we do here. And speaking of baseball, the Pads made some more roster moves yesterday. They finally DL’d Phil Nevin and called up Chula Vista HS and SDSU product Alex Pelaez. He batted sixth and singled in four at-bats last night. A third baseman by trade, Pelaez also made a couple of spectacular defensive plays at first base. What’s really cool is that Pelaez’ high school teammate, Ty Wigginton, made his big-league debut last night in the same game. And their high school coach was in attendance. It’s not exactly Eric Chavez/Eric Munson or Mark Prior/Barry Zito but pretty cool nonetheless.

The other move the Pads made was to send Cesar Crespo down to Portland and promote finesse lefty Kevin Pickford. He worked as a starter in the minors but came in out of the bullpen last night against the Mets. Pickford was pitching very well down at Portland:

                                           Qmax
Date      Opp    IP  H  R ER BB SO HR PQS  S  C
04/05/02  @SLk  6.0  3  4  4  1  2  0   4  2  3
04/10/02  @CSp  4.0  2  2  1  4  4  1   0  2  7
04/17/02  CSp   5.3  4  1  1  2  4  0   4  3  4
04/22/02  @Oma  6.0  5  4  2  1  3  1   4  3  3
04/27/02  Cgy   5.0  6  3  3  2  5  0   3  5  4
05/02/02  Cgy   5.7  3  0  0  3  2  0   2  2  4
05/07/02  Nsh   6.0  3  1  0  2  8  0   5  2  3
05/12/02  Tac   6.0  5  3  2  2  1  0   3  3  3

And while we’re talking about lefties, how about Oliver Perez? Somebody’s bucking for a promotion. Check out his five most recent starts:

                                           Qmax
Date      Opp    IP  H  R ER BB SO HR PQS  S  C
04/25/02  Lnc   6.3  3  0  0  1  8  0   5  2  3
05/01/02  @Lnc  5.0  3  0  0  4  5  0   3  2  5
05/06/02  Vis   6.0  2  0  0  4 10  0   5  1  4
05/11/02  @RC   5.0  3  0  0  3  9  0   4  2  4
05/16/02  SJ    7.0  4  2  1  1  9  0   5  2  2

Sure, the command isn’t always quite there, but this guy has been dominant all year. Seriously, he had one bad start against San Bernardino, and if you throw that out, his line is this:

  IP   H  R  ER  BB  SO  HR   ERA
44.0  26  7   4  22  63   0  0.82

Ready for Double-A? I’m thinking so.

That’s all for now. Gotta CD to listen to for the 37th time…