first pitch: 9:35 a.m., PT
television: none
matchup: Clay Hensley (8-11, 3.87 ERA) vs Aaron Harang (13-10, 3.83 ERA)
previews: Padres.com
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Morning start. So, what’s everyone having for breakfast today? In honor of Tuesday night’s shutout behind Jake Peavy and the bullpen, I’m making myself a bagel with cheese. Oh yeah, believe it.
Go Padres!
first pitch: 4:10 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Jake Peavy (8-14, 4.31 ERA) vs Kyle Lohse (4-7, 5.35 ERA)
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Why are the Padres still blowing winnable games at this point in the season? Very annoying. Jason LaRue? He’s the Reds’ version of Mark Bellhorn, a guy who really shouldn’t be beating you.
I’ll be out at Taste of Downtown tonight, so carry on without me and I’ll catch up when I can. Go Padres!
Okay, the other day I mentioned that I’d accepted a new writing gig. Today I’m happy to announce that I have officially started blogging at Knuckle Curve.
This is exciting to me on many levels. First, over the years, Ducksnorts has evolved from a general baseball blog to one that is (proudly) focused on the San Diego Padres. I’m thrilled with what we’ve been able to accomplish here in terms of great conversation and community. At the same time, there’s a lot going on in baseball that I can’t cover in as much detail as I might like, so writing at Knuckle Curve will give me the opportunity to work a different set of creative muscles.
The other main reason I’m psyched about Knuckle Curve is that it’s part of the b5media network, which is home to many of my blogging heroes — Darren Barefoot, Darren Rowse, Duncan Riley, Jeremy Wright, to name a few. It’s actually a rather overwhelming list, and I’m beyond humbled to be a part of the network. Basically it’s a dream gig.
So. How will this affect Ducksnorts? Well, as I noted earlier, it won’t. I’ll still be here pretty much all the time, talking Padres with y’all. Because, you know, that’s what we do around these parts. The only potential impact I see is that we might end up getting some stragglers over here from over there, which means more potential converts. 
Oh (as Columbo would say), there is one other thing. I will be actively promoting Knuckle Curve here at Ducksnorts. It’ll probably be fairly aggressive at first, perhaps as simple as just giving you the heads-up on my latest post over there. You’re always welcome to stop on by and check it out/join in the conversation, but never obligated. And if you have friends who like baseball but who aren’t Padres fans (what’s their problem, anyway?), I’d appreciate it if you could help send a little love Knuckle Curve’s way.
Swing by and say hey when you have a moment. Then come back here for the IGD at 3 p.m. As always, thanks for your attention. Now let’s get back to the business of beating the Reds, shall we?
For the record, it’s spelled “McAnulty.” And for the record, Paul McAnulty hit a pinch double in this at-bat despite the wardrobe malfunction. Much repsect to Eric and Anthony for catching this in the IGD.
first pitch: 4:10 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Chris Young (10-5, 3.66 ERA) vs Eric Milton (8-7, 4.95 ERA)
previews: Padres.com
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As of this writing, 86 pitchers have worked enough innings to qualify for a big-league ERA title this season. Among those pitchers, Chris Young (86) and Eric Milton (85) are the most extreme fly ball pitchers in baseball. Young is so far out of line with the rest of the pack that he’s in danger of losing his planet status.
As it was last season, Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati is the second easiest NL park in which to hit a homer this year. You’ve got to believe there are better places for a guy like Milton to try and earn a living. Hey, don’t look at me; I’m not his agent.
Go Padres!
Brian Hiro has a piece in this morning’s North County Times spotlighting recently acquired third baseman Russell Branyan and his prodigous power. Sprinkled among the usual cliches (“as much power as anyone I’ve ever seen,” “some kind of strong,” etc.) is this nugget from Branyan himself, reflecting on his propensity to swing and miss:
It’s my fault. I don’t have to try to swing hard to hit homers. Just put a nice, easy swing on it. That’s where I have to polish my approach.
Speaking of cliches, here’s one for you: The first step is admitting that you have a problem. Of course, all subsequent steps involve fixing that problem, but still, you have to start somewhere. Right?
After 38 plate appearances, there’s still a lot that we don’t know about Branyan, but I am liking the early returns. I think I could get behind picking up his $1M option, provided we lose “Russell the Muscle” as a nickname.
Projects wrapping up at work today, so this will be brief. Rough weekend for the Padres, but it was nice to see them finish strong on Sunday in front of a national audience that is still trying to figure out whether Ryan Howard plays for the Pads or the Giants. Right-hander Cla Meredith, as is his custom, worked a scoreless inning, extending his Padres franchise record to 32 consecutive scoreless innings. There is some uncertainty as to the all-time mark for a reliver, although it may belong to former Orioles closer Gregg Olson, who spun 42 straight zeroes in 1990.
In honor of Meredith, here’s a shot I took of him from above the Padres bullpen during the last homestand:
In Other News
I’m happy to report on two really cool things that happened over the weekend that affect you and me. First, I finally managed to get all the old Ducksnorts blog archives into WordPress. There’s still some cleanup work to be done (hello, off-season!) and I need to convert the ancient, longer articles, but as of now, all the blog entries are in one place. For those keeping score at home, as of this writing, we’re up to 1388 posts and 23,264 comments. Here are a few blasts from 2001 that you might enjoy (apologies for the lame titles on some of these — I didn’t always write titles for posts, so many have been added well after the fact):
Second, I’ve accepted a writing position for a prominent blog network. It will be about baseball (duh) but not the Padres specifically. I’ll have more details in the coming days but right now the important things to know are that this is a great gig and that it won’t negatively affect Ducksnorts at all (if anything, we may end up with more Padres fans coming out of the woodwork).
Okay, that’s all for now. Three game series in Cincy starting Tuesday. Be here for the IGDs because, you know, it’s what we do. Go Padres!
first pitch: 5:05 p.m., PT
television: ESPN
matchup: Woody Williams (7-5, 3.91 ERA) vs Matt Morris (10-12, 4.54 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN
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A possible solution to the steroid problem in baseball would be to allow each team to field one player who can do absolutely anything to his body. Everyone else would have to be clean, but there would always be one RoboPlayer™ on the roster. Then, everything is out in the open and all teams are playing by the same rules. We’d still have to figure out a way to explain the presence of RoboPlayer to children, because some of them might want to be that guy, and who among us would wish that for our kids?
Well, except for the desperately poor folks, of course.
In unrelated news, the Padres try to avoid being swept by the Giants in San Francisco on Sunday evening. Game will be televised nationally, which means good exposure for the Pads at the cost of ignorant commentary from folks who don’t really know who we are. Enjoy…
first pitch: 1:05 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: David Wells (2-3, 4.58 ERA) vs Jason Schmidt (11-8, 3.39 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN
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The Padres try to bounce back Saturday afternoon from a “borderline embarrassing” defeat in the opener of a three-game set at San Francisco. David Wells makes his second start wearing #21 for the Pads. He’ll go up against right-hander Jason Schmidt. If it’s any comfort, Schmidt has been mortal (5-3, 4.62 ERA in 62.1 IP) since the All-Star break.
Don’t fall asleep now, folks, we’re in a pennant race!
first pitch: 7:15 p.m., PT
television: Channel 4SD
matchup: Jake Peavy (8-13, 4.32 ERA) vs Matt Cain (11-9, 4.11 ERA)
previews: Padres.com | SI.com
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Matt Cain is one of a couple young pitchers in the NL West who scare me (LA’s Chad Billingsley would be the other). I don’t want the Padres to have to face this guy for the next several years. Opponents are hitting just .220/.310/.370 against the right-hander this season. In August and September, Cain is 4-2 with a 2.20 ERA over 45 innings.
Good news is, Jake Peavy is also doing well during that stretch. His record is just 3-3, but he has a tidy 2.51 ERA over 46 2/3 innings. The other good news is that, for as inefficient as Peavy has been at times in 2006, Cain has been even worse. Not surprising for a young power pitcher, Cain is tied with Chris Young for the NL “lead” in pitches per inning at 17.4. (Peavy is #7, at 16.8, so it’s not a huge advantage.) Incidentally, Young, Cain, and Peavy are the only NL starters who are averaging 4.0 or more pitches per plate appearance this season.
Anywho. First of three against the Giants at PhoneCo tonight. Pads need to take two of these, and a little help from the Mets (who pounded the Dodgers at Shea on Thursday) would be nice as well. Go Padres!
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