Peavy Heads To DL

The 2007 triple crown and Cy Young winner will be placed on the Disabled List retroactive last Thursday to rest a sore elbow. Wil Ledezma replaced Peavy in the rotation Monday night and got knocked around a little, as did Justin Germano and to a lesser extent Sean Henn.

Peavy had a MRI done earlier on Monday, with the results being less severe than they could have been with the pain occurring close the the "Tommy John" ligament. Luckily for Peavy and the Friars their was no structural damage, but the swelling and strained muscle were more than enough to send him o the DL. The Padres will promote Joe Thatcher to fill the vacant roster spot. Thatcher has struggled this season posting an ERA of 6.75.

Bell's Mr. Hyde Performance Sinks Padres

The Padres looked to have the Mariners on the ropes with a 2-1 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th. Then the typically sturdy Heath Bell, who had struck out the first 2 batters he faced in dominant form, quickly loaded the bases before allowing a 2 run double to give Seattle a 3-2 lead it wouldn't relinquish. Newly added to the starting rotation, Shawn Estes pitched 6 1/3 strong innings, punching out 2 while allowing just 2 hits. The Padres managed 8 hits, with 3 coming off of the white-hot Brian Giles' bat. All Friar runs came on another Adrian Gonzalez home run. The 7 strikeouts by the Friars continues a pattern of poor at bats. We're too disgusted to spend any additional time describing the latest mid-game implosion, let's turn the the page to Wil Ledezma's start tomorrow.

Estes Replaces Cameron on Roster

As expected, the Padres have called Shawn Estes up from AAA Portland while moving Kevin Cameron to the Disabled List. Cameron suffered a sprained ulnar collateral ligament after four pitches on Tuesday night. This is the same ligament that is repaired in Tommy John surgery, though Cameron's injury is not considered serious. FF foresees Estes moving into the rotation after Wil Ledezma's spot start on Thursday.

Germano Out, Estes In?

Padres.com has reported that Friar manager Bud Black has removed Justin Germano from the starting rotation. In the short run, Black will insert Wil Ledezma into the rotation's 5th spot. This is not necessarily indicative of long run change, as Black is not committing to who will fill the 5th spot during the next pass through the rotation. There has been long running speculation that Shawn Estes will eventaully assume the spot. The article notes that Estes has an opt-out clause in his contract and that he has indicated that he intends to execute it if he isn't called up by May 15.

While not a major positive change, it's nice to see the Friars shake things up a bit. FF is skeptical of band aids on the club's already gory situation, but something is better than the "stay the course" approach embraced by the front office to date.

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.

Germano Shelled

Justin Germano entered the evening as one of the top five pitchers in National League ERA. After allowing 4 runs on 9 pitches, and 10 in 3.1 innings, he took a big loss Monday night at Minute Maid Park with former President George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife Bar in attendance. Wil Ledezma pitched an out shy of 4 scoreless innings in relief before giving way to Kevin Cameron, who tossed a perfect 8th. Padre hitting was good - for the Padres. 6 of 8 knocks went for extra bases while both Jim Edmonds and Adrian Gonzalez reached the Minute Maid porch for bases empty, opposite field bombs. Unfortunately, the Friars seem to be making a habit of losing big or wining tight. The combination of Minute Maid's friendly conditions and Jake Peavy's pitching will hopefully bring positive results Tuesday night.

Iguchi Occupies Eight Hole
Tad Iguchi has been mired in a deep slump and was dropped by manager Bud Black into the eighth spot in the order Monday. He responded with a single and a walk in 4 trips to the plate.

Flashing Some Leather
Both Brian Giles and Gonzalez made nifty catches in right field. Gonzalez went Willie Mays on ball down the line that was looking like an extra base bloop before he reached out to snag the out. Giles made a nice sliding catch of a Geoff Blum liner as well.

Bard is Back
Josh Bard threw out another runner, pushing his season rate for retiring would-be base thieves to 21%. This is significantly better the 8% mark he posted in 2007 and is especially impressive given the amount of work he's been receiving of late, which is bound to take its toll as the games add up.

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.

Khalil's Days as a Friar Numbered?

The Union-Tribune has reported that attempts to reach a long term deal with shortstop Khalil Greene were non-starters. According to the article, Kevin Towers said,

“We approached them, they never approached us. But we heard back that they weren't interested in what we proposed.”

Towers goes on to insinuate that Greene may want to be closer to his family in Key West, FL due to health concerns (see map below). The Frairs have Greene under contract for the next two years. Reading between the lines, this would mean that this year (or part of this year) will almost certainly be Greene's last with the club unless some headway is made towards a long term deal. The Padre Front Office is well known to loath arbitration. The U-T estimates that the Friars have offered just $4M vs. Khalil's request of $5M ($4.9M according to Padres.com) in arbitrating his 2008 salary.

In other news, the Padres are likely headed to arbitration with Josh Bard and have locked up Wil Ledezma without facing arbitration.

The map below highlights the locations that Khalil may be considering after his stint with the Friars. Each location within the blue polygon represents a home field for a team that is geographically closer to Key West (noted with the house icon) than Petco Park. Different colors locations denote the different divisions in MLB. Switch over the satellite view and zoom in to check out each of the fields. Everything on the map is clickable!

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