Some good news and some bad news. The good news is, I successfully installed Windows on my machine. And man, does it load fast now! Funny what happens when you wipe your system. The bad news is, I can’t get Windows to talk to my modem and vice versa, so for the time being, my online experience is limited to the good ol’ P-II 233 laptop (which is having performance issues of its own) and, ahem, work.
Why do I tell you this? Good question. This whole modem thing (it took 20 minutes to download drivers that didn’t work) has gotten me to thinking about going to broadband, either DSL or cable. Only problem there is, my current ISP no longer offers DSL. And Ducksnorts.com is hosted by said ISP. So, if I go broadband, I’ll need to find a new home for this site.
Truth be told, I’ve been thinking about moving the site to a new host anyway. I’d like to make the site more interactive than it is, and I’m a bit limited in what I can do with my current host.
What I’m really trying to say is that over the next few weeks I’ll be posting as often as my current situation allows me, and sometime within the next few months there may be a disruption in service to this site. I will let you know ahead of time when that will be, if it does in fact happen, and I will do everything possible to keep downtime to a minimum.
Okay, enough of that. Let’s talk baseball. Lots to catch up on here.
In an interesting development, Brian Tollberg pitched pretty well Sunday in the second game against Pittsburgh. The initial thought was that Tollberg would be sent to the minors when Kevin Jarvis returns from the DL, but Tolly may have bought himself another start. Kevin Towers continues to assert that Ben Howard was brought up to be a member of the rotation, not to make a spot start. Had the Padres needed someone for just one start, they likely would have summoned Jason Middlebrook from Portland or had Matt DeWitt come in out of the bullpen. The call to Howard indicated that a more permanent change was in place.
Speaking of Howard, he had a nice debut. Working on eight days rest, he started off a bit shaky, walking the first two batters and running the count full to Brian Giles. But he blew a fastball by Giles, and Tom Lampkin caught Abraham Nunez trying to steal third. Howard escaped the inning unscathed.
Howard threw mostly fastballs in the first inning, mostly missing high. Mark Grant mentioned that he appeared to be opening up too soon and suggested that given the long layoff between starts and its being his big-league debut, Howard might have been overthrowing. It sure looked like it. He threw more breaking balls in subsequent innings, which seemed to help. He also laid down a good sacrifice bunt. Reports had his fastball at 91 MPH, which seems a tad low. In the past, he’s generally been 93-96.
Oh, and Kevin Towers mentioned that Jake Peavy could be up with the big club sooner rather than later. His past two starts at Mobile have been dominant, and frankly, like the Cubs’ Mark Prior, he has no business being in the Southern League.
Caught the Elsinore game against Lancaster Saturday night. Xavier Nady had a big night. He beat out a grounder to shortstop in the first inning, driving in a run. He hit a homer just over the left field fence his next time up, and another just over the right field fence after that. Not to take anything away from Nady, but that second shot was kind of a "Coors Field" homer. The fence in right is only 310 feet away from the plate, but it’s probably 25-30 feet high (a la the Green Monster at Fenway). Still, a homer’s a homer.
Mike Bumstead pitched well. He’s a finesse guy. Fastball was running 87-90 MPH on Saturday. Decent breaking ball. Good command. The guy who really impressed me was Pedro de Los Santos. He’s a second baseman by trade but was playing third base on Saturday. In his first at-bat he drew a walk, stole second and third, and scored on Nady’s infield single. The guy is obscenely fast. Very exciting to watch. And he looks like he can swing the bat pretty well, too. He knocked a double off the (admittedly short) right field fence later in the game. De Los Santos also showed good reactions at the hot corner and a stronger arm than I’d expected from someone who normally plays second base. At age 18, he’s one of the younger players in the Cal League and someone to watch.
On the Lancaster squad, I was impressed by catcher Craig Ansman, first baseman Jesus Cota, and third baseman Corey Myers. Ansman is 24 years old and not really a prospect but he swings the bat well and did a nice job behind the plate. Cota didn’t do much Saturday but he sure has a nice stroke. Just in terms of body type and how he looks at the plate, he reminds me a little of Fred McGriff. He’s a legit prospect, too, having abused the Pioneer League last year in his pro debut. Myers is a former first-rounder who brought to mind Matt Williams: very strong, susceptible to breaking balls out of the strike zone.
Tagg Bozied played right field in Sunday’s game against Lancaster. No errors. Jason Bartlett is back at shortstop, so de Los Santos has moved to left field for the time being, with J.J. Furmaniak returning to the hot corner.
This is probably my last posting before I head out to Vegas. I’ll try to catch a game out there if I can. Sometime next week I’ll put together a look back at the Padre organization for the month of April. Should be fun…
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