Torre has a bad memory

Padres won today in SF on a solid performance by Maddux and some good hitting from Gonzales. It was a solid game and a nice way to start the season out on the raod.

As you all may know, a picture was released of Peavy with black stains on his pitching fingers from after his complete game the other day. Looking at the picture it does look a little suspicious to me, it looks much darker then just dirt and it is on only a few of his fingers (the ones he uses to pitch) but I still think Peavy is going to be Peavy no matter what, and he is a nasty pitcher to face…. one things for sure, he will have to be much more careful in the future about that as now the umpires are going to be watching him closely.

my favorite part of the article about his “substance” comes from Joe Torre:

Dodgers manager Joe Torre was hesitant to discuss the issue with reporters yesterday, saying he didn’t “want to make excuses for not winning. I didn’t suspect anything (Saturday). It was the first time I’ve seen him pitch.”

First time you seen him pitch you say? Well you must have been blacked out the day Peavy made his major league debut against your Yankees in front of 60,000+ and held them to 1 run on 3 hits in 6 innings after he had just been called up from AA. 1 run on 3 hits, pretty similar to what he just did to your current club Joe..

It bugs me how he says its the first time hes seen him pitch as if he is some rookie. This is the NL Cy Young and possibly the BEST pitcher in baseball…are you telling me Torre has never even watched him pitch a game on TV or anything? Is he that tuned out of the baseball world? I know the Yanks feel like they are in a different league than everyone else, but come on. We do know for a fact he has seen Peavy pitch and seen Peavy pitch well in his MLB debut

I also find it funny that Torre has gone from the cream of the crop of the baseball world to managing the dirty dodgers in LA. Whereas before he never even had to think about the San Diego Padres, now he has to face us in 18 games and we are one of the main rivals of the Dodgers. All of a sudden Torre not only notices the Padres but I am sure is going to lose a lot more of what little hair he has left after dealing with us all season long.

Mr. Torre…I guarantee by the end of this season you will have seen WAY more Jake Peavy then you will EVER have wanted to.

Buddy Black and Hoffman join forces to blow the game

Bud black and Trevor Hoffman have just cost the team yet another game.  With the score tied 2 to 2 in the ninth and Bell ready to go back out for a second inning, Black calls on Hoffman to pitch.  Any fan who has watched the Padres for the past decade knows that Trevor has a history of struggling in non-save situations.  Trevor had some struggled the other night when he blew a save and he has been pitched quite a bit, while Bell was relatively fresh and looked pretty sharp in his one inning….yet still Black called for Hoffman…and it came back to bite him in the ass.

Hoffman comes in and right away gives up a leadoff walk to Russ Martin.  Leadoff walks out of the bullpen are killer!  You have to go after the batter and force him to at least make contact, giving up a leadoff walk is a major cardinal sin.  Hoffman gets an easy ground ball which advances the runner to second and then gives up a line drive right down the left field line which scores the run.  Padres lose 3-2.

The was no reason for Hoffman to be in the game in that situation.  He consistently struggles in non save situations, and the Paders had Bell and many other excellent options to pitch the ninth instead.

I have been a huge huge Hoffman fan my whole life and I understand what he has done for the organization.  I would love for him to succeed right now and be dominate again, I just personally feel he is past his prime.  There is nothing really we can do about it either, we are going to have to deal with him for the entire season and my guess is he will retire at the end of the season.  We cannot remove him as our closer or force him to retire early, so instead it is going to be a long and frustrating year.  I feel bad for the people like Chris Young who have busted their butts and gone out there playing a great game only to have it blown by Trevor.  I know Trevor will rebound but it is frustrating to accept that he is not the dominate closer he once was.  Trevor is going to blow more games then ever before this year and he is not going to dominate and wow everyone like he has before, it is just something we need to accept.  We just need to avoid putting him in there when he should not be in there (such as instances like today).

Better managerial decisions must be made against division rivals.  As we found out last year…every game counts

MLB 08: The Show for PSP Review

I recently received a copy of MLB 08: The Show, the latest version of the long running officially licensed MLB video game. Since I only have a PSP I was unable to check out the PS3 version of the game, although I have seen it played on some of my friends systems. However, MLB the show is exclusive to Playstation systems and is known to be the best selling baseball game so I thought I would take advantage my good ol’ PSP and give this years model a try.

The PSP version of the game has improved by leaps and bounds from last years model of MLB the show. Just the look of the menu screens is sharper and cleaner then ever before, and the game play is improved as well. The game holds one of the most accurate depictions of Petco Park that I have ever seen on a video game. The details of the stadium are spot on which makes for a fun and realistic gaming experience. The speed and action of the game feels more real now as well. After playing MLB2k8 on the wii, the gameplay of MLB 08 The Show seemed so much faster and sharper which made it more realistic. Pitching with Peavy was ridiculously fun because his stuff is nasty in the game. I took a no hitter deep into the game and was actually enjoying choosing each pitch when usually I do not have the patience and am ALWAYS waiting to bat. One thing that I love is when you are throwing a slider you can see the direction the ball is going to go so you can plan to throw your pitches more strategically to hit the corner of the strike zone.

While the pitches thrown by Peavy were blowing by the opposition, when it was my turn to bat I had no trouble at all making contact and smacking solid gappers. You still have the option this year to guess the pitch in order to make better contact, and you have a good chance to read the pitch while it is on its way, even though it comes in fast. The Padres lineup was updated well and Iguchi had a solid game in the first game I played. Switching pitchers and making in game changes has become much simpler in this years model and everything runs and plays real smooth. I LOVE having Matty V. as the announcer and he had some great funny comments thrown in to make the commentary seem real. Unfortunately I am not a big Rex Hudler fan but to hear Matty sure is fun and makes up for Rex being on the game. The one thing I noticed missing was that there are still no umpires shown in the game, which is just a small minor technical glitch that does not affect the game play at all.

They have a new and improved Career mode as well as season modes and online play. I got hooked once again into playing the fun King of Show (not sure thats the correct name) mini game, which is basically a speedy version of a simulated game with lots of bonus targets and fun bonuses to make it even more enjoyable. I also have played Home Run Derby a lot which I enjoy because I love playing at the different parks and getting to see how realistically they are portrayed while being able to smack balls all over the place. Overall the game is great and it keeps getting better every year. I have started my season and I know I will be spending lots of time this summer logging games and getting deep into career mode.

The great part about the PSP version is I really can bring it anywhere and play whenever I want wherever I want, so it is great to have a handheld version of this game that seems more like it is a PS2 game. I wish I could review the PS3 version but I have only seen it for a few minutes. The graphics on the PS3 version are so amazing real and ridiculously sharp it is amazing. Hopefully in the future I will have a chance to play that more and see how that stacks up and compares to the version I have on my PSP. I dont have MLB2k8 for PSP so I cannot directly compare the two, but I do know that MLB08 The Show has raised the bar and set the standard for baseball games on the PSP.

Buddy Black Sleeps Through the Seventh…

Honestly, where was bud during that 7th inning today?

Thatcher gets an out and then goes and walks 3 batters to load the bases INCLUDING the pitcher, and Bud doesn’t take him out?  Rusch was up and ready in the pen so there was no reason why the switch couldn’t have been made.  The next batter (one of the best hitters on the Dodgers) then smacks a base hit to score two runs and make it a 3 to 1 game.  It seems one of the major flaws from Bud’s first year as a manager is still around in 08, and that is his sometimes blind faith in pitchers.  He has shown that he will let a pitcher work out of their own mess, and it has come back to bite the team many times, including tonight.  When a reliever comes in during a tie game in the seventh, walking the bases loaded should not be acceptable.  To think that the guy who just walked the bases loaded is going to get 2 outs against the heart of the Dodger’s lineup is having too much faith.  I understand Black was a pitcher and he has been a pitching coach and he knows the pitchers want to fix their own mistakes, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere.

In case you haven’t noticed now I always let my emotions get the best of me after a loss and therefore you will see a fair share of criticism and negativity after a loss.

Other Negatives:

-The Padres were just overpowered by Kuroda tonight.  Of course, none of the Padres had faced Kuroda before so he had that advantage going for him, but still….he looked real sharp and threw less than 80 pitches through his 7 innings.

The postives:

Our starting rotation has been lights out the first time through.  Peavy 0 ER, Germano 0 ER, Wolf 1 ER, CY 1 ER, Maddux 3 ER.  Wow.  If we could keep up pitching like this the Padres will be a force to reckon with in the NLwest.

Left Field Battle Royale Update…

So even though the season has started the battle for left field continues.  Once Edmonds comes back to centerfield PMac Hairston and even Gerut are going to battle for who can get the most starts in left.  PMac started great on opening day but Hairston seems to be looking the best after the first series.  With two home runs in the first series and a 3 for 3 day today Hairston is looking very similar to the kind of player we saw at the end of last year.  He is very exciting to watch and I am hoping he can keep this up through the next few series and earn a mostly permanent job there.

Iguchi came through in the clutch today and has had a nice start himself.  Hoffman bounced back (mustve read my last post and taken it personally…) and Wolf had a pretty nice start for our number four starter.

Tomorrow its the Dodgers, lets hope Germano can have a solid outing and take down Kuroda (supposedly one of the best pitchers brought in from Japan this offseason)

Hoffman Blows Once Again

Okay, so maybe I am STILL not over the fact that Hoffman blew two saves that could have sent us to the playoffs last year.  To be honest I didn’t want to see him in the opener in a close clutch situation, I was way too nervous.  He came in last night and closed out the save rather easily, despite my constant predictions of a home run every at bat.  So I woke up this morning and said “ok, its  a new year, maybe he gathered his thoughts and got everything together and will have a solid year, I should really stop hating on him and doubting him”

Tonight:

Hoffman gives up 4 runs with 2 outs in the 9th to blow the save and lose the game for the Padres…even after they fought so hard to come back time and time again to get the lead into the 9th.

Its going to be a LONG season with Hoffy I’m afraid….

I love the guy, and I know he has done SO much for the organization and he is for sure a hall of famer and one of the best closers ever….BUT I think he is hitting the twilight stage of his career VERY quickly and things are not so easy anymore for him.  Watching him get beat by Tony Gwynn Jr. and then pounded by the Rockies and now smashed by the Astros really has left a bitter taste in my mouth.  I would be much happier if Bell got the chance to save some games or split save opportunities with Hoffy.  MLB is getting younger and younger and the stars of yesterday are fading away…unfortunately Hoffman is one of those stars of yesterday…but fortunately Heath Bell is looking more and more like one of the stars of tomorrow.

I’m ready for tomorrow today.

(and yes it is the 3rd game of the season and I am already over reacting)

Peavy is a Beast

I could not have asked for much more from my favorite day of the year. The Padres started the season out with a great game led by Jake Peavy’s 7 innings of 3 hit shut out ball and his 2 RBI’s. This guy can do it all. I don’t believe he had even close to his best stuff tonight but he blew right through a pretty tough and powerful lineup and the Padres came away with a 4-0 victory while compiling 14 hits (many against Oswalt, one of the more dominating pitchers in the game).

Other highlights:

1. Tad Iguchi breaks out for three hits in his Padres debut including two doubles.
2. PMAC has great at bats all around and ends up with a few solid base hits to start the season out.
3. Adrian and Tony Clark come through in the clutch with big RBI’s
4. The bullpen takes care of the 8th and 9th to close out the shutout
5. Hairston throws out Miguel Tejada trying to stretch a leadoff single into a double in the top of the ninth.
6. Petco Robbed the Astros of home runs on a few deep deep drives that would be out in other parks (especially Minute Maid Park)

1. We didn’t have to see Trevor pitch in a clutch situation in a big game (my fear is if he were to choke he would have psychological issues after blowing the last two of last year)

The Few Lowlights:

1. Padres leave 12 runners on base
2. Padres fail to score in some 1 out runner on third situations (the same thing that plagued them all of last year)
3. PETCO robbed us of some home runs on deep shots
4. We didn’t get to see Hell’s Bells and Trevor come in and notch his first save. (woulda been fun with the sell out crowd of almost 45K

Astros manager Cecil Cooper said “It wasn’t by accident that he won the Cy Young last year. That won’t happen too often with us. Three hits, four hits? That won’t happen very often.”

Oh yeah Cecil, just wait until tonight….

CY is unleashed