The Official Padres are going to win the NL West thread

[FlashMan]

We've got too many bats and the Dodgers are going to cool off. The Giants are done unless they do a complete overhaul of their pitching and find someone to bat behind Barry. Rockies as always stink and the Diamondbacks have pissed it all away.

I will give one ready-made excuse: the new Petco Park is so big and my team is built for the bats, so our offense may struggle at home. Hopefully they won't let the park get into their heads.

Cheers from a Padres fan since '70! (Yes, I've suffered.) :cool:

[655321]

We've got too many bats and the Dodgers are going to cool off. The Giants are done unless they do a complete overhaul of their pitching and find someone to bat behind Barry. Rockies as always stink and the Diamondbacks have pissed it all away.

I will give one ready-made excuse: the new Petco Park is so big and my team is built for the bats, so our offense may struggle at home. Hopefully they won't let the park get into their heads.

Cheers from a Padres fan since '70! (Yes, I've suffered.) :cool:

Yes, you certainly have...I feel for you. But dude, it's APRIL!!!

(Oh, yea...word has it, they think the outfield will be a bit easier to get past once the weather changes into summer). Barry will have a field day :)

As much as Sabean needs to cut the payroll...I can't see him or Alou standing by the current Giants lineup. With Nenn coming back and Schmidt hopefully finding his form again, as well as (I expect) one or two hitting signings coming in, I wouldn't pish-posh the Giants just yet.

[FlashMan]

I freely admit I'm pish-poshing the Giants a tad early, as they say. When you're a win-starved Padres fan like all of us down here in ignored-Diego are, you do tend to get too excited too quickly. If Alfonso warms up (which he will sooner or later) and a couple of other guys come around, your offense should be fine. I also think Schmidt will be fine presuming his arm stays healthy. But like I said in the other thread, that bullpen!! Yikes!!

[655321]

I freely admit I'm pish-poshing the Giants a tad early, as they say. When you're a win-starved Padres fan like all of us down here in ignored-Diego are, you do tend to get too excited too quickly. If Alfonso warms up (which he will sooner or later) and a couple of other guys come around, your offense should be fine. I also think Schmidt will be fine presuming his arm stays healthy. But like I said in the other thread, that bullpen!! Yikes!!


No, you're right...bullpen must be dealt with, and quickly.

Edgardo better warm up...but same with Durham, Tucker, Snow (getting better), Feliz...er...oh man. :)

[yellowbismark]

It is an exciting time to be a Padres fan :cool: . Well I am optimistic the Padres will do good, but I am not convinced they will win the division. I think the Dodgers look pretty good so far, but hopefully they will cool off. But the Padres bats have woken up in the last several games, so we will see where that takes 'em in the next week or two.

The Padres starting pitching has been surprisingly stable the first couple weeks, and the bullpen has had several adequate outings in the last week. Can't wait till Beck gets back, they will look better.

Flashman, do you think the Padres will make any moves if they are in contention by mid-season and what position we be trading?

one more thing, will Nady be coming up anytime soon?

[FlashMan]

It is an exciting time to be a Padres fan :cool: . Well I am optimistic the Padres will do good, but I am not convinced they will win the division. I think the Dodgers look pretty good so far, but hopefully they will cool off. But the Padres bats have woken up in the last several games, so we will see where that takes 'em in the next week or two.

Looking forward to this weekend when we take on 3 scrub pitchers from the Diamonfbacks. Hoping for at least 2 out of 3 but trying not to get too far ahead of myself.

The Padres starting pitching has been surprisingly stable the first couple weeks, and the bullpen has had several adequate outings in the last week. Can't wait till Beck gets back, they will look better.

I know people were questioning our pitching but I personally knew Eaton and Peavy would be the goods. They deserved much better fates last year and have live, young arms.

Lawrence is a big question mark. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't around come August one way or another.

If Wells can find his control a tad more, he's going to win us a lot of games. Valdez has given us two "great" starts for a #5 pitcher, and if he can continue to give 5-6 solid innings, we'll win our fair share of those as well.

Our bullpen is shaping up. The Japanese guy has been a godsend.


Flashman, do you think the Padres will make any moves if they are in contention by mid-season and what position we be trading?

Almost guaranteed. Moores loves this team so much he'll open his wallet if that's what it takes. Remember also, we have the #1 pick in the amateur draft and rumor has it we're almost guranteed to take Jared Weaver (the Dodger's pitcher younger brother) who pitches for Long Beach State. Supposedly he's so good many scouts think he'll be up in the big leagues by September. One can hope!!


one more thing, will Nady be coming up anytime soon?

i believe Nagy got niggled down in triple AAA, but not for long. if the current padres corps of outfielders stay healthy, we won't see Nady. they'll let him get his at bats down in Portland. remember, he was rushed up to begin with last year 'cause of Nevin's injury and still needs some more minor league at bats. but he's a nice cushion to have if someone goes down.

[FlashMan]

well, our bats have fallen silent again the last two games but fortunately we pulled out 1 out of 2. wells and eaton both with very solid performances. forget about arizona; brenly won't make it through the all star game.

sure would be nice to take tomorrow's game and make it two out of 3 with montreal comign to town.

[yellowbismark]

what was up with the pitching staff today? (B-Law :confused: ) At least the offense showed some heart to try to make a game of it.

And Flash, how 'bout that Chargers draft, eh? ;)

[FlashMan]

B-Law can't pitch in Arizona. His spring training ERA was something like 16.7.

He pitched horribly but if he had a little better defense he might have escaped some of his jams. O well, sometimes it's not your day.

Our long relief totally blew up in our face. I like the MIT kid (forget his name), but he had an awful day, as did Oropesa, who won't be with the team much longer IMHO. They said in today's paper that Beck was doing well down in minor league camp and should be back in mid-May.

A bad weekend but not a bad roadtrip. Unfortunately, I'm starting to think the Dodgers are really that good (or else the Giants are really that bad). Either way, LA has set the tone in the West so far.

And yes, we were all holding our collective breath with the NFL draft on Sunday, but Smith seemed to pull a rabbit out of his hat! Maybe something is going to go right for us San Diego sports fans after all!! (Doubt that of course.)

[655321]

...I'm starting to think the Dodgers are really that good (or else the Giants are really that bad).


I think we know the answer to this one... :(

[FlashMan]

well, we swept 4 from the expos. this is like sweeping 4 from a Triple AAA team (almost), but it's better than losing four or splitting or whatever. we didn't exactly win them convincingly (Wed. night we got two fortunate calls which fueled our comeback), but we got the key hits when needed and finished the games when it counted.

The Mets in for 3 and they'll be a much tougher match. Also, Hoffman has pitched 3 games in a row so he ain't available.

And a heads-up: be on the look out for our rookie shortstop, Khalil Greene. The guy's a serious player.

[FlashMan]

two out of three from the Mets. good enough. i didn't really think we'd win a glavine v. valdez matchup, and we didn't. plus, i went to the game and now i'm 0-2 with seeing games in person!! i'm a jinx!!

a well deserved day off today (after 20 games in 20 days) and off to atlanta and florida. looking for 3 out of 6 at least.

[FlashMan]

padres have been lucky so far. first we faced the expos when they were missing johnson and everett. now we faced the braves for 3 games and they were missing chipper, fulcal, drew and on the last day giles. we basically faced andrew jones and a bunch of scrubs for 3 days. we took 2 out of 3 which we'll gladly take but it could have - and possibly should have - been a sweep.

loretta and (our) giles are hot as mexican chile and khalil greene continues his superlative play. our pitchers pitched great in the series (though eaton gave up a couple of 0-2 hits which cost him) though it's hard to tell when you're facing a whole lineup of second stringers.

onto florida!!

[FlashMan]

florida was okay. we're still not hitting. eaton once again had a bad outing, saying he hasn't been comfortable on the Pro Player mound for 4 years. whatever.

hvae taken 1 out of 2 from cinci so far at home. last i checked dodgers were losing 6-0 to the cubs today. thank god. the dodgers have been on fire. they're going nutso.

need another good outing from peavy tonight before the cubs come in for an already sold out Petco Park.

[FlashMan]

we suck. cubs swept us - easily - over the weekend. just as i predicted, the gargantuan park is killing our bats. opposing teams come in and say to themselves: "i can live with this for 3 days, who the heck cares?" padres hitters say to themselves: "i can't believe i have to play in this grand canyon for an entire year. it's killing me", become all depressed and stink up the joint.

we're doomed.

thank god we have a 12-game road trip coming up, in the nick of time.

[ProfZodiac]

Bit of a bump.

Padres are 24-20, tied for the NL West lead.

[yellowbismark]

hey flash, I can't watch the Padres from out here. How have Germano and Tankersley done so far since their call ups?

[655321]

Hey, what do you know?? The Giants are no longer in last place!!

[FlashMan]

Not only are the Giants not in last place, they're only 3 & 1/2 back. How do they keep on doing it? :eek: (Yes, I'm definitely worried about what I see in my rearview mirror.)


hey flash, I can't watch the Padres from out here. How have Germano and Tankersley done so far since their call ups?

Germano was brilliant yesterday: 6 innings in Coors Field, 2 (bad) unearned runs allowed (totally not his fault). Kept us in the game and without his performance we lose hands down. HUGE lift to the team.

Tankersley pitched two eye-opening innings on Tuesday night which also helped save the game at a key juncture. Just mowed 'em down and made the Rockies look bad. And now with Peavy going on the 15-day DL (tightness in his forearm; everybody mildly concerned publicly, VERY concerned privately), Tankersley is moving into his starting spot. And they've moved Wells' return back until at least the Milwaukee series at home (next Sat/Sun), the big goof.

Khalil was spectacular yesterday: 2-run shot in 9th to tie it, brilliant play in field to seal the win in the 10th. Huge.

But dark clouds on the horizon I fear, unless we can really start hitting. (Speaking of which, Klesko also to be sat down for 4 or 5 days due to strained rib cage, something they say can linger, especially swinging the bat the way Klesko does. When it rains it pours!)

Long will take his spot.

[Lithium858]

A few people have been saying that Carlos Beltran will be traded from Kansas and San Diego is the top destination. Alan Drooz from the UT said that the Padres would trade Nady and a few minor players for Beltran. And he also said that even though Klesko has a no trade-clause he's still consider getting traded to a few clubs. Here's the article to better explain it:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/drooz/weblog/archives/000495.html#more