Carlin Called Up; Morton To AA

In a much anticipated and reported move the Padres have purchased Luke Carlin's contract from Portland and sent Colt Morton down to AA to get some playing time. FF is happy on multiple accounts with this move:
1). It finally happened
2). Colt Morton finally got a MLB base knock
3). Maybe Carlin will provide a manager Bud Black a back up backstop that he will actually place in the line up...thus provided Josh Bard an inning or 2 off every 3 weeks.

UPDATE II: Catcher Carlin to the Friars

UPDATE II: MadFriars.com has updated their original article (link below) to note that this move will likely take place after Thursday's game.

UPDATE: It appears that news of Luke Carlin joining the Friars was not accurate, as the article has disappeared (see the first link below) and no news of this move has come from additional sources.

MadFriars.com is reporting that Luke Carlin's contract has been purchased by the Padres. This presumably means that Kevin Towers has decided to try a new tactic to prevent Josh Bard from wearing down to nothing. The prior attempt, adding Colt Morton from AA ball to the MLB roster, has been a non-factor. Manager Bud Black has sparingly used Morton while Josh Bard has struggled through the stress of catching every day. Since Michael Barrett went down with an elbow injury on April 8th, Bard has started 22 contests to Morton's 3.

Graph from FanGraphs.com

Friar fans witnessed first hand former catcher and manager Bruce Bochy's approach of giving catchers constant and regular rest. After entering the game in which Barrett was injured, Bard produced well, increasing his batting average from .278 to .324 (7 games). However, from game 8 on, he has seen a near constant decline to .216, highlighting Bochy's concern over the ware and tear of baseball's most strenuous position. FF understands that Black was likely trying to keep his best overall catcher in the game during the club's struggles, but this work load likely contributed to Bard's rough month. Hopefully, the addition of Carlin will boost Black confidence, helping the club and Bard to right themselves. Like Bard, Carlin is a switch hitter. Carlin is well regarded for his defensive skills (tossed 36% of running in 2006). While off to a solid offensive start this season, he has a .245 career minor league average. Nonetheless, this is an example of some attempt to mix things up, so FF fully supports it. We'd also rather see Morton play somewhere that will result in regular playing time.

Friars Claim MLB Basement

The Padres lost yet again, staking the claim to Major League Baseball's worst record at 11-19. Such a statement isn't exactly the way I had hoped to welcome my son to world and world of Friar fan-hood. Then again, this is perhaps the proper introduction to San Diego sports, as we have all had to learn how expect the worst to stay sane. But I digress - back to more of the same for this season of discontent. Justin Germano continued his streak of poor outings, allowing 5 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings of work. Most of the damage came by way of the long ball. The Marlins managed 3 bombs, accounting for 5 of the 6 overall runs the plated. Kevin Cameron (3.72 ERA in 8 outings) and Wil Ledezma (1.08 ERA in 16+ innings) both posted perfect relief outings and should be considered by Bud Black for promotions in the bullpen's world order. Offensively, the Padres collected just 7 hits across 4 batters; Kevin Kouzmanoff did his best T. Gwynn impression with a 4-4 nights, including one double. Khalil Greene finally belted his first home run to give the Friars half of their runs in the 6-4 loss at Dolphin Stadium on Friday night. Colt Morton spelled Josh Bard, but has yet to claim his first knock of the season.

Mendoza Line Watch
The following players are currently at or approaching the infamous Mendoza Line, with nearly 1/5 of the season gone:

• Paul McAnulty - .222


• Khalil Greene - .217


• Josh Bard - .209


• Tony Clark - .208


• Justin Huber - .200


• Scott Hairston - .198


• Callix Crabbe - .160


• Jim Edmonds - .160


• Colt Morton - .000

5 Run 3rd Sinks Friars Again

San Deigo was felled for the fifth consecutive game and ninth time in ten contests Saturday night, this time by the division leading Diamondbacks. Arizona now boasts an 8.5 game lead over the Friars in the NL West with their 5-1 vistory. All the damage came against Randy Wolf in the third, with five runs on a single, sacrifice bunt, double, single, error, and home run. The home run had enough gusto to clear dead center at Petco Park, just over a leaping Scott Hairton. The Padres would later manage to plate just one run with bases loaded in fourth and one out, on a Callix Crabbe single with two out. All told, the Friar attack would manage just 3 hits, including their first extra base hit at Petco since April 17. They struck out one out every three of their 30 trips to the dish.

Bullpen Reborn?
On a positive note, the bullpen performed excellently when called upon to finish the final five innings of the game. Wil Ledezma went 3 innings, allowing a one hit while punching out five. Recent workhorse Kevin Cameron finished off the final pair of innings without incident.

Bard to get Rest
Josh Bard will get the night off Saturday. The U-T reports that he is batting just .193 since Michael Barrett's injury. This will mark Colt Morton's second start over that time.

Pop Gun Offense
The Friars have scored the second fewest runs in the Majors this season. Their 75 touches of home plate are just one more than the lowly Giants - who have allowed six fewer runs that Padres and are in second place in the NL West.

Barrett Still on the Shelf

Padres.com is reporting that Michael Barrett is still on about 10 days away from throwing and batting practice. In the meantime, Bud Black continues to rely heavily on Josh Bard. As we have recently noted, Bard's defense has recently improved, particularly in regard to throwing out base runners. Colt Morton has caught just over 14 innings (1 start) since joining the team in Barrett's stead. With the Friar lineup struggling to produce runs, it is understandable why Black pencils Bard into the lineup daily. Nonetheless, after years of having former catcher Bruce Bochy carry and play 3 catchers, it will intriguing to see how Bard holds up over the course of the season under the heavy workload.

Diamondbacks Crush Padres; They Only Needed 1 Inning To Do It

Perhaps suffering from a 22 inning hangover the Padres never had a chance in their Friday night contest in the Arizona desert, falling to the DBacks 9-0. Greg Maddux entered the game searching for his 350th victory and was greeted with a 34 pitch, 6 hit, 6 run inning. The sure fire HOFer seemed to miss on location through the rough first as every ball was scolded by the home team. In the inning, Jim Edmonds missed a cut off man and took questionable angles on 2 balls in the gap. FF has seen it through the early part of the season and Diamondback color man (SDSU Alum) Mark Grace stated very matter of factly that Edmonds makes those plays 5 years ago...this is not 5 years ago. The way the Friars are swinging thus far in 2008, 2 run leads seem insurmountable ~ a 6 run deficit seems like they should pack it in for the night.

In the bottom of the 6th inning Edmonds strikes again playing a ball hit to the track off his glove into a triple for Connor Jackson ~ Jackson who was just a double shy of the cycle bypassed the double for his second triple of the night. FF's patience with Edmonds bad routes and lack of speed is running very thin.

First:
Callix Crabbe and Colt Morton each made their first MLB starts on Friday.

Tip My Cap:
Although Maddux got shelled in the first inning, he tossed 7 innings of gutty baseball. Maddux knew that the Padres bullpen was paper thin, and his professionalism in a lost cause game was nothing short of admirable.

Getting Old, Really Old:
The Friars managed just 3 hits a night after scoring 1 run in 22 innings ~ exciting team to watch right now, thrilling really.

Young Quality Start Streak Ends

Yesterday, FF blogged about how the Padres were struggling to hit anything but singles. Facing Padre nemesis Derek Lowe, we didn't have real high expectation that Saturday would be provide the breakthrough the team needed. But Scotty Hairston, batting lead off in place of a resting Brian Giles, started the game on in style with a triple down the right field line at Dodger Stadium. Adrian Gonzalez followed up with a double that he, Vin Scully, Andre Ethier, and FF thought was gone. At the bottom of the first, the Friars looked nstrong and had already accounted from more extra base hits than they had average per game for the season (2 versus 1.8). With Chris Young taking the hill, the euphoria of fast start quickly faded with Young command noticeably off. He was raked for just two runs in the first inning, but the hit hard along the way. From that poit on, Lowe settled into his normal role as Padre punisher and the Dodgers warmed up their bat to force Young out of the game in the top of the 4th with nobody out and 7 runs on his line in the box score (6 earned as Young booted a come backer). The Padre offense would scratch out just two more hits, both singles, on the way to an 11-1 drubbing. Wil Ledezma and Glendon Rusch were tagged with 3 and 1 runs in as many innings, respectively.

PMac in Right Field
After grumblings about his shotty fielding skills in left last spring, Paul McAnulty got the start in right field. Both he and center fielder Jim Edmonds were burned on balls over their heads. Giles will be out of action on Sunday, as he gets extra rest in front of Monday's day off.

Barrett At Least Two Weeks Away
Vin Scully announced that Michael Barrett is at least two weeks away from being back from the DL, giving Colt Morton extra time with the big club. Morton spelled Josh Bard after the game got away from the Friars.

Quality Start Streak Ends
Effectively spanning the first 11 games of the season, the Friars' quality start steak ended with the loss against the Dodgers. It was also marked the first time this season that a starter was hung with a loss.

Barrett Tossed On The DL

Michael Barrett has landed on the disabled list for at least 15 days after injuring his elbow in Monday afternoon's 8-4 victory over the dismal San Francisco Giants. Barrett felt a tingling sensation and muscle spasms in his throwing arm before bouncing a throw back to the mound where Greg Maddux stood just 60 feet away. Michael Barrett finished that inning and an at bat before being replaced by Josh Bard. Young Colt Morton will be called up from San Antonio where he stars in AA ball.

Friar Findings

FF has noticed that Adrian Gonzalez (who had 4 hits in a game for the 8th time in his young career on Monday) has been using a tan mitt during day games and a black version under the lights. (Only catchers and first basemen use "mitts", all other players use gloves).

Tadihito Iguchi is making a solid impression on FF, he has quality bat control and doesn't try to do too much with pitches. His offense out of the two hole has been more than expected, while playing as solid as advertised in the field.

Scott Hairston has come back down to earth a little, but FF really likes how aggressively he swings the bat. Hairston is batting in the 7th spot after getting AB's in the 5th and leadoff spots earlier in the season (well, the week). Hairston's powerful swings have FF drawing comparisons to former Padres left fielder, Greg Vaughn.

Josh Bard entered the game in the 6th inning and promptly notched another multi hit game.