MVN - Most Valuable Network

The Opposing Viewpoint: San Diego Padres (Part 2)

Welcome back to The Opposing Viewpoint, the place to learn more about the Mets’ opponents from the bloggers who write about them. The Mets return from a terrible 1-5 road trip - one series loss to a division rival, one sweep at the hands of a sub-.500 team, one starting pitcher on the DL, one closer in danger of heading there himself - with the dog days of August staring them in the face. I hope they enjoyed the off day yesterday, because they won’t get another one until the 28th, more than three weeks from now. The Mets kick off this stretch of 23 straight games with three games against the Padres, who at 43-69 have the second-worst record in the league (only the Nationals have a worse record). Hopefully the fact that the Mets won’t have to face Jake Peavy will prove to be more helpful than it was the last time these two teams faced one another. In any event, today’s guest is Geoff Young of Ducksnorts (and other sites), and he’s here to talk about a top prospect’s position change, the waiver wire, and one of the bright spots in the Padres’ season:

Just like last year, the Padres have the brother of one of the team’s best hitters playing second base, but Edgar Gonzalez has been productive where Marcus Giles was not. How much of a surprise is the elder Gonzalez’s success, and does he have a place on the roster beyond this year?

Edgar has always hit in the minors, so it’s not a complete shock that, given the opportunity, he’s succeeding at the big-league level. What is surprising is that he’s finally been given a shot at age 30. As for his long-term future, he’s not really a starting second baseman, but I think he could have a career as a utility player for a few years, although his inability to handle shortstop could work against him. At the very least he’s been a nice story in a season that has been severely lacking them.

Mets fans are more than a little familiar with seeing a third baseman play left field, but it’s not often we see that from the opposing team. The Padres moved top prospect Chase Headley from third base to left field in order to get both him and Kevin Kouzmanoff into the lineup. How has Headley adapted to the position change?

Headley has done a passable job in left, although he sometimes gets a bad break or takes a circuitous route. He belongs at third base, and I’m not sure how that situation will resolve itself.

The Padres were less active in the days leading up to the trading deadline than many expected them to be, trading Tony Clark and Randy Wolf but holding on to other veteran players rumored to be on the block. Do you think that the Padres will be active in the waiver-wire trade market over the next few weeks?

I’d be more confident if they had actual chips to deal. The only real suitor for Greg Maddux is the Dodgers, whom Kevin Towers hasn’t been eager to deal with in the past. Who else would anyone want? I don’t know what the market for a guy like Cla Meredith might be.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 3:03 am and is filed under Kevin Kouzmanoff, Chase Headley, Tony Clark, The Opposing Viewpoint, Cla Meredith, Edgar Gonzalez, Greg Maddux, San Diego Padres, Randy Wolf, 7 Train. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.