Extent of Barrett Injuries Still Unknown

The graphic scene of 95mph pitch glancing off Michael Barrett's bat into the bridge of his nose left many Friar fans gasping. Initial reports indicated a broken nose, but it is now known that he also has multiple face fractures as well. Until swelling subsides, doctors will not be able to fully judge the extent of his injuries, but early concerns regarding a concussion seems misplaced. Barrett suffered a concussion that kept him out for 19 games last August and there is always a concern at the potential of multiple concussions. Such an injury forced former Charger Stan Humphries into retirement. FF wishes Barrett well and hopes to see him back in uniform this season. One of the many unfortunate aspects of this freak accident was that Barrett had started to come alive at the plate, batting over .300 over his last 7 games.

Few could have foreseen a team with "two starting catchers", Josh Bard and Barrett, having to recall both catchers from their AAA club; but that will now be the case with heralded yet struggling Nick Hundley scheduled to join Luke Carlin on the big club (see previously linked Union Tribune article). Hundley had a big 2007 season at AA San Antonio, posting 20 bombs and 72 RBI in 373 at bats to match a .247 batting average. He's struggled moderately at AAA Portland in 2008, posting a .736 OPS that is about 8% lower than his 2007 performance. Much has been made of this drop off, but this seems relatively normal upon advancement to AAA. FF would like to see Bud Black lessen the pressure on the pair by taking a page out of Bruce Bochey's "How to Handle Catchers Handbook". As we've droned on about before, FF believes that catchers need frequent rest to excel. Hundley is supposed to be an offensive threat, so we'd love to see him get the more than half of the starts, with late inning defensive relief from Luke Carlin. That said, if history tells us anything, Bud Black will burn out both and end up with another pair of struggling backstops.

Hoffman Boos Really About Franchise

The recent advent of boos directed at future Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman are disheartening. FF does not support this behavior - not one bit. With that out of the way - we suggest that Hoffy was not the target of the boo birds. It was the organization. Michael Barrett figured it out in the previously linked Union-Tribute article:

I thought they were booing all of us.

Mr. Barrett - go to the head of the class. There is something deeply wrong with the 2008 ball club. There is plenty of blame to go around. The bullpen has been awful. Hitting has been atrocious - at times it seems like hitters actually think that goal of the game is to strikeout more than the other team. Managerial decisions have been all over the place. Remember when Josh Bard could hit? We do, and we don't think it is a coincidence that the catchers and bullpen have suffered from an American League-style of managing where certain players are called upon far too often. The front office also plays a prominent role. But none of these gripes is the real problem with the team.

There isn't enough anger from players, coaches, or the front office over the team's lackluster play. It's true that Kevin Towers got angry a while back (and the team actually seemed to respond). But the reaction to boo birds seems to cut to the heart of the matter. To his credit, Hoffman said the right thing:

"I've got to make a better pitch"

Meanwhile, a number of other team members commented that the boo-ers basically lacked class. This is true. But those folks all need to take a page from Hoffman's book and focus on improving. FF believes that team doesn't have a fire lit under their collective butts. If they do, maybe that should express it more. Fans may still boo, but at least we'd all know that the players are more frustrated than the fans. About their, play, not manners.

Friars Run Out Of The Bronx

The Padres spoiled another solid start by Josh Banks who gave up just 2 runs and was on the wrong side of a 2-1 tally. The Friars could not cash in during the 2nd inning after loading the bases with no outs. Two strike outs and a runner cut down at the plate on a passed ball helped the Yankees escape the inning and preserve the 3 game sweep.


Friar Facts


The Yankees scored their first run without the benefit of a hit as a walk and 2 stolen bases set up a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1. The game winning run was also scored after Derek Jeter stole second and scored on A Rod single. The Padres catchers are, once again, a distant last in throwing out base runners. The Padres have allowed 98 of 111 runner to steal successfully. The 98 SB's against is 29 more than the second worst in baseball.

Hairston, Padres Walk Off To 4th Straight 2-1 Win

Scott Hairston hits another huge game winning bomb. The latest Hairston shot, leading off the 10th frame, propelled the Friars to their forth consecutive 2-1 victory (new MLB record). If it seems like Scotty Hairston only hits homers when his club needs it the most, its because he does; all 9 of his long balls have come with the Padres either trailing or tied. Bryan Corey threw 2 impressive innings before Mike Adams tossed a scoreless inning to pick up his first win of the season.

Pads Points

• Jake Peavy threw over 60 pitches in a simulated game Saturday afternoon and reported no pain. It appears as through Jake was throwing smoothly and getting close to returning.


• Michael Barrett hit his first home run as a Padre with a game tying solo shot in Saturday night's win.


• The Padres 4th straight victory is the longest winning streak of the season, the fact that they have won them all 2-1 is a nice piece of baseball trivia.


• Scott Hairston hit his 3rd walk off home run with the Padres in less than a season.


• The entire NL West has won their last 2 contests, the Padres remain 8 games off the pace in 4th place.

Hey, Bud
FF questioned the move Black made in the 6th when he choose to use Tony Clark in Huber's spot with the bases loaded and 1 out. Clark ended up grounding into a fielders choice that forced Brian Giles at the plate. FF would have preferred using Jody Gerut for many reasons that include, speed, ability, and AB's. We think that Black wanted to keep Gerut to double switch into the 9 spot to extend the top of his line up and bury the pitchers spot for the next time around, but there was an opportunity to put up some runs. In addition, Paul McAnulty should be the #1 left handed option off the bench until Tony Clark starts hitting.

Padres Power Surge at Petco

The Padres picked up a little mojo Tuesday night, with a Petco power surge in the form of back-to-back bombs from Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff to break a 2-2 tie in the seventh. Trevor Hoffman rebounded from recent outings to secure the 4-2 win and a save (his 10th). Kouzmanoff's homer was a no-doubter, landing in the second deck in left center field. Earlier, Michael Barrett plated the first pair of runs with a based loaded single, erasing the two run lead created by a first inning Arron Boone homer. Whether this game is indicative of things to come or is just a Nationals-induced false-positive is tough to tell. But FF is hoping for the former and some entertaining ball over the rest of the season.

Notes:

• Eight Padres each collected a single hit in the win
• Khalil Greene uncharacteristically walked twice
• Brian Giles finished the day with a .301 average and is the only regular above the .300 mark.
  

Adding Injury To Insult

The Padres lost more than a ball game (11-3 Cards victory) and a series Wednesday night as in the span of 360 feet the Friars lost their battery of Young and Bard. In the top half of the 3rd inning a line drive off the bat of Albert Pujols hit CY square in the face and after a few minutes on the ground and a bloodied jersey later Young left the game to a standing ovation and a 2-0 lead. A few batters later a base knock to right field cost San Diego the lead and their starting catcher, Josh Bard, as Pujols slid into the backstop's ankle scoring the go ahead run and knocking Bard out of the game with an ankle injury.

This is a blow across the bow of a struggling Padres team, who will lose Josh Bard for at least 15 days just as Michael Barrett is getting close to returning. Chris Young and his broken nose may land on the DL, but FF expects to see Young back on the bump 5 games from now. FF would like to be clear; in no way was the Albert Pujols slide at the plate dirty and after the his ball knocked Young out of the game the former MVP was seen praying with Adrian Gonzalez. Pujols was obviously shaken by the affect of his base hit.

Friar Sale?

The San Diego Padres have become a hot topic in baseball's front offices as ESPN's Jayson Stark reported that one AL executive feels that the Friars may open their doors early stocking players like Khalil Greene, Kevin Kouzmanoff, and Randy Wolf on their shelves. FF was a bit surprised to see Kouz on this list, although opening a spot for Chase Headley doesn't seem too far fetched ~ FF still would be shocked to see the 3rd baseman moved this summer. Other players that FF could see being dealt include a myriad of free agents to be; Brian Giles, Greg Maddux, Michael Barrett, and Tadihito Iguchi. If Estes continues to throw well, the Friars might be well served to swap him for a younger model. In smaller moves FF wouldn't be surprised to see a Scott Hairston or P Mac cleaning their lockers in San Diego.

Not even half way through May and it seems that baseball has given up on the 2008 installment of the Padres. Its a little sad, but at least there will be some exciting rumors swirling to help the water cooler chatter.

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.

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.

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.

Backstop Backup Brainstorm

The U-T's Tom Krasovic reports that Padres General Manager Kevin Towers may be looking at veteran receiver Damien Miller should Michael Barrett be sidelined for an extended period of time. Also discussed is the extent of Barrett's injury, which is thankfully less severe than originally anticipated. We've discussed ulnar collateral ligament injuries in regard to former first round picks Ceasar Carillo and Nick Schmidt, who both required Tommy John surgery. This invasive procedure doesn't appear to be in the cards for Barrett, but the timetable for his return is likely around 2 months.

Miller has spent the bulk of his 11 season career in the National League with Arizona, Chicago and Milwaukee. A career .262 hitter, Miller is solid backstop that has tossed an impressive 37% of would-be base theifs in his career. This plainly addresses a need on the club, which has been victimized by opposing teams on the basepaths an epic manner of the last two seasons (setting and then breaking a Major League record for stolen bases allowed).

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.

Hairston Launch Humbles Houston

The Padres have begun the 2008 season with two straight victories over the Houston Astros. The offense wasn't clicking on all cylinders as it was on opening night, but the Friars found Scott Hairston's 2 run blast enough to hold off Houston 2-1. The Padres had 2007 All Star, Chris Young, toeing the rubber on Tuesday and he battled through some control problems (5 walks in 5 2/3) to earn his first victory of the year. Young loaded the bases full of 'Stros after a base hit and 2 walks in the 6th. Skipper Bud Black turned the ball over to Joe Thatcher who got out of the jam after walking in the only Astro run of the game (and season). The lefty Thatcher retired the first batter of the 7th inning before giving way to side-winder Cla Meredith who cruised through the 2 batters he faced. Heath Bell worked a perfect 8th inning to set up baseball's all time saves leader in the top half of the 9th. Trevor Hoffman took his first steps into game action this year to the familiar sound of AC/DC's "Hells Bells". The Padres closer struck out the first and last batter he faced while working around a two out infield single.

Padres Points:

The Padres hand the ball to future Hall Of Fame hurler Greg Maddux on Wednesday night, the crafty right hander will attempt to keep pace with the top 2 pitchers in the Friar rotation.

Khalil Greene and Josh Bard each had multiple hit games with the Friar shortstop collecting 3, while the Padre backstop had 2. Brian Giles remains the only Padres regular without a hit through 2 games.

The Padres team ERA jumped all the way to 0.50 to kickoff the new year, Tuesday's 2-1 victory will be one of many close, low scoring affairs in 2008.

The Padres had a chance to extend their lead in the bottom half of the 8th (against former Friar Doug Brocail) after a 2 out Bard single sent Scott Hairston to second, an infield single by Paul McAnulty would have loaded the bases for a pinch hitter (presumably Tony Clark). Unfortunately, Scott Hairston got caught venturing too far off third after appearing to assume that P Mac would be called out at 1st.

Padres figure to start newly acquired Justin Huber in left tomorrow as the Astros will start a southpaw on the hill. Pads fans also figure to get their first view of the year of catcher Michael Barrett.

All time saves leader Trevor Hoffman is fashioning a longer hair style than in years past, reports out of spring training were that Mrs. Hoffman likes the longer locks.

Aging Edmonds Joins Club for Prospect

The Padres acquired Jim Edmonds from the Cardinals to take over Petco's spacious centerfield in exchange for minor leaguer David Freese. Edmonds waived his no trade clause to allow the deal, which brings him back to Southern California, where he has roamed center for the Angels from 1993 to 1999. Once considered an elite fielder, Edmonds has been slowed by injuries in recent campaigns. He last won a Gold Glove in 2005 and has eight to his credit in all. The loss of Cameron will put added pressure on Friar corner outfielders as Edmonds does not have the pure speed that Cameron displayed. At the plate, lefty Edmonds has batted just .160 at Petco Park over the last three seasons over 25 at bats. In comparison with Cameron, we can expect a similar, but slightly lower number of punch outs from Edmonds to go with significantly more walks. Cameron was likely the best baserunner from the 2007 club while Edmonds received the same rating, a minus-nine, from the 2007 Bill James Handbook as Padre backstop Michael Barrett. The same publication ranks Edmonds' range as a centerfielder just a hair below that of Cameron. All in all, it isn't the most exciting move, but it will be effective if Edmonds can stay relatively healthy. In fact, if he reaches 137 games, that will be the maximum that Cameron could have possibly played due to his drug test-related suspension. So something in the 120 game range will likely be a break even point between the two.