Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

Adrian Gonzalez was an unproven young hitter coming to a club whose manager has shown a reluctance to give such players consistent playing time. An injury to Ryan Klesko, however, forced Bruce Bochy’s hand — and Gonzalez responded to the opportunity.

Despite a subpar on base percentage (.316), Gonzalez has demonstrated that he can hit for average and power at the big-league level. He leads the Padres in home runs (13) and is tied for second in doubles (16) at the All-Star break. No 24-year-old currently in the majors has more home runs this season.

Perhaps more importantly, Gonzalez has provided stellar defense, showing good instincts around the bag and instilling confidence in his infielders by being able to dig up just about anything they throw at him. Gonzalez easily is the best defensive first baseman the Padres have had since Wally Joyner was in San Diego.

The only downsides so far have been a low walk total (18 in 302 AB), a poor showing against southpaws (.226/.250/.290 in 62 AB), and a general inability to contribute much with runners in scoring position (.216/.287/.297 in 74 AB). All but one of his homers this year have been solo shots.

But we’re nitpicking. This is a guy who wasn’t supposed to make the team out of spring training and he’s been one of the more consistent offensive producers in the first half. Gonzalez is young and has room to grow. He has been a pleasant surprise who — as the Padres have indicated by their willingness to move Klesko — doesn’t figure to yield his position anytime soon.

Grade: B

It’s like pitching a tent in your backyard, only not quite as much fun. S’mores, anyone?

With the exception of a few at-bats wasted on the useless Doug Mirabelli, catcher has been an unbelievably strong position for the Padres. And, as with the bullpen, the guys who are getting the job done have been acquired on the cheap.

Rumors of Mike Piazza‘s demise proved premature. No, he cannot throw out base stealers (what else is new?), but in most other aspects, Piazza is as good as or better than his predecessor, Ramon Hernandez, behind the dish. On the other side, Piazza also has provided just as much offense as Hernandez, and isn’t under contract for the next 47 years.

In Piazza, the Padres also have — with all due respect to Trevor Hoffman — probably their most media-savvy player since Tony Gwynn. Piazza has done it in Los Angeles and New York. He can handle just about anything that comes his way, which takes a lot of pressure off the rest of the team.

As for the backups, waiver claim Rob Bowen played very well early before landing on the disabled list. Playing time has been hard to come by for Bowen since returning to the active roster thanks to the presence of Josh Bard, acquired from Boston for Mirabelli in what is turning into one of the key moves of the season.

Apparently Bard couldn’t catch a knuckleball, which isn’t nearly as much of a problem for the Padres as it seemed to be for the Red Sox, who preferred a washed-up backstop who can’t really do much of anything at this point in his career. Their loss is San Diego’s gain, as Bard has been outstanding at the plate and behind it.

The acquisition of Bard has helped to remove some of the sting from the Mark Loretta giveaway, to say nothing of allowing Piazza to stay fresh throughout the season. With Bard and Bowen on the roster and performing well, Bruce Bochy hasn’t had to fight whatever urge he may have had to overwork the veteran Piazza.

As a group, Padres catchers have hit .317/.378/.529 for the season so far. They lead big-league catchers in SLG and OPS, are tied for the lead in doubles, and are second in homers and OBP. Given that they’re doing it with one guy who supposedly no longer can play the position and two others who weren’t wanted by their former teams, it’s hard to call the Padres’ catching situation in 2006 anything other than an unqualified success.

Grade: A

Trevor Hoffman, the Padres’ lone representative in tonight’s All-Star game, has a 1.03 ERA at the break. With 24 saves under his belt already, there’s a strong chance that he’ll get the 19 more he needs to pass Lee Smith for the all-time record before the season is over. And even though it seems like Hoffman gives up a hit every time he comes in, the fact is, he’s holding opposing batters to a .200/.235/.254 line in 2006. Yes, this is the first time he’s had a K/9 below 7 since he pitched for the Marlins. But if it comes at the cost of sub-500 OPS against, I’ll take it.

Despite serving up a ton of longballs (eight in 40 appearances so far this year, vs four in 73 last year), Scott Linebrink again has been one of the better setup men in the game, limiting the opposition to a .193/.245/.373 line in 2006. He also provided a glimpse of what his future might hold when he nailed down the save against Washington in the first-half finale by retiring the Nationals’ 2-3-4 hitters on two routine grounders to shortstop and a three-pitch strikeout to end the game.

The rest of Kevin Towers’ bargain basement bullpen has been reasonably solid, if a shade inconsistent. Scott Cassidy was brilliant early (0.68 ERA in April) before settling into a pattern of coughing up homers or walking really bad hitters at inopportune times.

Brian Sweeney has pitched effectively while absorbing innings. Jon Adkins, Alan Embree, and Brian Sikorski all have had their moments, and Cla Meredith — acquired in the deal that brought Josh Bard to San Diego — bailed his starter out in a couple key games just before the All-Star break. The only guy who did any real damage was Jim Brower, and he was allowed to work just 7 2/3 innings before being whisked out the door.

There have been chinks in the armor, but only the Mets’ bullpen has a lower ERA among all big-league teams. And when you consider that, with the exception of Hoffman, the Padres are doing it with a group of guys that other teams didn’t really want and who came very cheaply, it’s hard not to be pleased with the results.

Grade: B+

For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do

Old school, baby. We’re gonna blog like it’s 1999 — at least until we get this thing fixed. Unfortunately there is no commenting, but maybe we can get some food for thought out there and then talk about it later.

Chris Young has been brilliant, if a bit inefficient. For the second straight year he is leading MLB in pitches per plate appearance. Still, he’s given the Padres a lot more than they would have gotten out of the Adam Eaton (who has yet to pitch for Texas in 2006), for a lot less.

Chan Ho Park and Woody Williams have pitched far better than anyone had a right to expect. Park provides a strong counterexample for those who would claim the World Baseball Classic was detrimental to pitchers. He threw with tremendous confidence for South Korea and has carried his success into the regular season.

Like Park, Williams began the season in the bullpen. After just one relief appearance, he was summoned back to the rotation and quickly turned into the Padres’ most consistent starter. After missing much of May and all of June, Williams finished the first half strong with two solid outings.

Jake Peavy‘s numbers are well off the pace he’s established over the past couple years, but there is evidence that this may be a fluke. He has shown flashes of brilliance, including a career-high 16-strikeout game against Atlanta on May 22. We’ve gotten spoiled by Peavy’s recent exploits — his mediocre seasons look like most pitchers’ good ones.

As for the rest, Clay Hensley has been erratic, which isn’t too surprising given that he had made just one big-league start prior to the season and was slated to work out of the bullpen this year before Shawn Estes blew out his arm in his first and only start of 2006.

Throw in rookie Mike Thompson‘s performance while Williams was on the shelf (and trying to put Dewon Brazelton‘s two comical starts in April out of your mind), you have a rotation that ranked near the top of the big leagues in many statistical categories despite being a perceived weakness entering the season. Expected? No. Sweet? Yes.

Grade: B+

I’m growing addicted to this T-shirt thing. I’ve busted out the Will Play Third Base for Food line if anyone’s interested. My skills at the hot corner may not be what they once were, but I’m still a pretty good eater.