Day Off Is Needed By Friars
The Padres are in such a drastic freefall that even a walk-off home run on national television and a nine strikeout performance by the reining Cy Young recipient can’t bust them out. Today’s day off could not come at a much better time.
The National League West leading Diamondbacks took two out of three from the Friars over the weekend to follow two game sweeps by the lowly Astros and Giants. Since they had to file their taxes on April 15th, the Padres have been hitting like the number one thing Uncle Sam asked for was wood. Or at least Ash or Maple. The Pads are still making contact, but the balls are coming back to the opponents like the bats they struck were created from balsa. Cork in the center of the bat may fuel power. A bat made entirely of cork does not.
Granted, Arizona didn’t exactly pound the Pads on Saturday or Friday, but that is largely a function of the excellence we are seeing in starting pitching and fielding. An especially interesting development in the latter has been a couple of highlight reel plays from Paul McAnulty, who is not known for reminding people that they give out gold gloves annually.
P-Mac has also hit a couple of dingers to help his case to stick it out this time. The kid is only hitting .231 but his defense has been better than advertised and he has gotten hits at some of the right times. If nothing else, he is helping the Padres delay the call-up of prospect Chase Headley, something that could benefit the club greatly in the long term. But if he can’t improve his average and on-base percentage, he may end up a victim of the Padres slow start.
The team is better on paper than they have been playing. The question then becomes whether or not the paper is correct. Certainly no one expected to find themselves in the cellar on April 28. Hopefully, Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park has a box of Ash and Maple some other visiting team left behind.
This entry was posted
on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 8:48 am and is filed under Uncategorized.
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.
THE AUTHOR
POLL
ARCHIVE
RECENT ARTICLES BY DIVISION RIVALS
SPONSORS
Online Seats
Pittsburgh Pirates Tickets Pittsburgh penguins Tickets
Ticket Specialists
Padres Tickets Chargers Football Tickets
Tickets4U
San Diego Padres Tickets 2005 World Series Tickets Chargers NFL Tickets
Coast to Coast Tickets
San Diego Padres Tickets San Diego Chargers Tickets Buick Invitational Golf Tickets Sports Tickets Brokers Vegas Show Tickets
Great Seats
San Diego Padres Tickets San Diego Chargers Tickets Theatre Tickets Arrowhead Pond Tickets Event Tickets
2 Responses to “Day Off Is Needed By Friars”
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
While this isn’t really a comment on this specific article, it’s a comment on the Padres as a whole, so maybe Rich, you can help explain this.
One of the biggest peeves I had with Bochy towards the end of his reign was that each game felt like a little league game where it seemed as he felt he was trying to get each kid into the game for fear that the parents would be mad if their kid didn’t play. I thought with Black the Padres could start to become like the rest of the teams in MLB, with a lineup that is THE SAME pretty much day in and day out. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.
Am I the only person who doesn’t think that Scott Hairston doesn’t have what it takes to be a starter in MLB, yet alone batting 5th as he’s done for most of the year. Out outfield is one of the least productive in all of the Majors, our leadoff hitter has only scored 9 runs and I don’t think anyone on the team knows what the word “stolen base” means. For a team that hits 85% singles, this explains a lot as to why we’re only getting 2 runs a game.
I don’t know, I guess you can just call it EXTREME frustration from knowing during the offseason that we had a horrible outfield yet nothing was done to improve it (not even picking up Scott Podsednik who could’ve at least provided speed) and then every day wondering who was going to be playing and what order they’d be batting in. What’s amusing though, is that the one person who doesn’t seem to be jumbled in the lineup is Giles, who is anything but a leadoff hitter.
Ok, sorry for the rant Rich, hope all is well.
Ben
May 9th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Ben, the only place I have a real disagreement with you is Giles. I feel that at this time in his career, he is a fine leadoff hitter from an on-base percentage standpoint. He may not be a speedster, but since the Padres don’t have anyone that fits that mold, Giles is a good fit playing what T. Gwynn calls “Larry Leadoff”.
Interesting to see they cut Edmonds. While deserved, I didn’t think it would happen.
Leave a comment