Ah yes ! Sweet revenge ! Oh my ! How does a week change. I am jazzed up to see Padres’ OF Brian Giles step up and speak out on how important to finish the season. This is the type of leadership the Padres need and it will surely have an impact on the Headley’s and Hundley’s. By the way, what a rocket shot by Padres’ C Nick Hundley against D’backs P Randy Johnson that spark a rally for the Padres. I was also jazzed to see the Padres implementing ‘small ball’ and its about time too. Kudos to Padres’ Mgr Buddy Black and the entire team for a great performance against the NL West leaders D’backs. Next on the plate is Colorado Rockies, its time to knock them out of the playoffs as they did to us a year ago.

Let’s Go Padres…

As I had alluded to in previous posts in this blog, the Giants will continue to give the Padres fits because of their speed and willingness to play small ball. Hey even the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers played small ball and with great pitching performance, beat the powerful Oakland A’s lead by the Bash Brothers in the World Series. Though it was very interesting to read an article in this morning’s Union-tribune, here is a quote….

….Said Grady Fuson, the Padres’ director of
scouting and development: “We need to make something happen at the
plate. You can have all the fast runners you want. Running is not the
reason we’re not competing this year. When you don’t hit, and your
offense doesn’t work, and you’re not moving runners over, and you’re
not driving guys in, yeah, it exposes station-to-station baseball.

“Our offense is supposed to work by getting on base, moving runners and having guys in that lineup who can drive the baseball.”…

I have been to some games where a leadoff walk has been stranded at first base, despite having speed there. For instance, in the most recent series involving Brewers, Scott Hairston lead off the game with a base on balls. Not one attempt to steal or sacrifice was made. To me, that’s exposing a liability in game planning. Which contradicts the statement made ““Our offense is supposed to work by getting
on base, moving runners and having guys in that lineup who can drive
the baseball.”… If a sacrifice is made and Hairston is on second base with the 3rd best hitter at the plate, wouldn’t that in itself change the dynamics on how the pitcher may pitch to Giles ?

Anyhow, hopefully the Padres can squeeze (Pardon no pun intended here) out a win today in the series finale with the Bochy’s “small ball” Giants.

Waves my padres baseball cap, Go Padres.

On the eve of Padres vs Giants series in San Francisco, I sat here in Sandia’s Casino Resort in Albuquerque New Mexico staring at Sandia Mountain on a very sunny hot early evening. I am hoping the Padres can atleast pull two out of three this weekend, perhaps I am not being realistic but dreams do come true. After the D’backs swept the Padres, that place Padres 7 games behind the Giants. Our season comes down to closing the gap between the Giants and us, as well beating the neighbors to the North of us (Dodgers). Oh how time changed so quickly from a year ago.

Hopefully, tonight I will be further elated with news that Padres won. If not, today has been a great day already as I acquired a piece of land in Albuquerque for a good price.

Ah ! I finally got internet access or should I say I have returned to civilization in Santa Fe, New Mexico after spending 4 days in the southern rockies in Chama, New Mexico. While going down the Rio Grande River on a raft, at times there were huge boulders that we had to navigate around. What an awesome experience !

Hmmm, since I’ve been away Greg Maddux has been traded and the Padres continue with their losing ways. In fact, the countdown to 100 is down to 22 and that number is very attainable especially with this team. On the bright side, I met a vendor in Santa Fe’s Old Town Marketplace who was wearing a Padres cap and he acknowledge me since I had my Padres cap on too. There are still a few diehard fans out there despite the embarrassing performance by the ballclub. Though, the parking attendant told me his Giants are better than my Padres. Oh god ! how I had to swallow my pride. 2009 isn’t coming fast enough for me !!

Farewell from Santa Fe New Mexico….

Congratulations to the Padres Entire Front Office in signing 1st round draft pick Allan Dykstra. Now it’s time to move on forward and continue to rebuild this organization. I had a great time on Thursday’s matinee and thoroughly enjoyed the comeback from behind win. To top it off, I took my father to the game and had some bantering back and forth on the subject of his Dodgers. As my father stated, wait til Goldilocks arrives in town, I busted out laughing and it was much needed since it was hard to accept the first two losses against the Brewers. Though, I will admit, Mike Cameron’s 9th inning tater off Trevor Hoffman made me a bit nervous. Geez, Cameron made his presence felt in all three games. What else did you expect from a classy professional ?

Countdown….25 and counting……

Well with 40 games remaining on the schedule, 25 losses will put the Padres at the century mark. If the Padres go 15-25 down the home stretch, we are looking at 100 losses. Considering what looms on the schedule; 9 games with the Bums to the North, oh god goldilocks !!, 6 games with D’backs, 4 games with the Brewers, 7 games with Bochy’s gang, 6 games with the Rockies, 3 games with the Nationals, 3 games with the Pirates. Count them all, 19 games with Dodgers, D’backs and Brewers. That’s alot of tough games and considering the Giants have given the Padres a hard time this year, the total is 26 games. You see where I am going with this, hopefully the Padres can avoid the century mark. But, 105 may seem the water mark for 08.

It surely did not take long before Brewers’ CF Mike Cameron made his presence felt in Petco Park. Cameron made several great catches, roughly 5 on Tuesday night and also homered in his first bat. As I had alluded in my previous post, I knew I would have flashbacks. The Padres returned back to earth after those wild games in Colorado which I placed no value in. As what I had thought, we were entertained again with a boring game from a Padres’ fan perspective unless you count Mike Cameron’s highlight reel. Oh god ! How I wish we can rewind back to that final series with Colorado at home last year. It was that series that deflated the Padres and ever since they have never been the same.

Tonight (Wednesday), the game was even more boring. Padres’ CF Scott Hairston lead off the bottom half of 1st inning with a single. But there was no attempts to put on the hit and run OR run and hit OR try to steal. Why not ? Hairston is a speedy fella and this team needs to take advantage of a run here and there. I guess they are still waiting for the long ball…grrrrr. Add insult to injury, the Padres left the bases full without scoring a run. They had 3rd, 4th and 5th batters with the bases juiced and NOT ONE ball left the infield, POP-UP, STRIKEOUT, and a FEEBLE Grounder to 3rd. Adios !! Game over and Brewers win the series….This sums up the Padres offense which was designed by the Front Office. Maybe Larry Lucchino will return to San Diego to purchase the Padres. How ironic would that be, especially the man who lead the effort to get Petco Park built.

First, it was Manny Ramirez and now it’s Adam Dunn. Both Los Angeles and Arizona are taking advantage of this window of opportunity to show not only their players but fans they are serious in winning this year. I know I am harping on some old news, though I continue to hope the Padres do something rather than roll over on the carpet. Most likely a slim chance the Padres will do anything given their track record over the past three years during the season. Rewind back to the off-season when I had posted on this blog, the Padres should have given some serious consideration in entertaining offers for Khalil Greene and Jake Peavy when their market value were enormous. Something has to give sooner or later, standing pat is no longer a viable option especially when the team is stuck in the cellar and all other teams in the division are getting better.

Brew Crew and Phillies coming to town…..

Two powerful offensive ballclubs are coming into Petco Park this week and the return of Ex-Padre Mike Cameron. I will be glad to see Cameron patrolling CF as Mike has been always a great player to watch. There will be definitely alot of flashbacks in my thoughs when seeing Cameron in the opposition’s uniform. I would like to take a moment and say this….Mike Cameron, thank you very much for your outstanding two years here in San Diego. I was very honored to see a true professional, on and off the field as a Padre. Thank you for the memories and may your dreams of winning a championship come true this year.

I plan on being at all three games when the Brewers are in town. On Friday night, the Phillies lead by Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard are in town. As always, the excitement of seeing Ryan Howard will be well worth it. I will be at the game on Saturday night before leaving town for the high country of New Mexico and get re-acquainted with god’s country (white water trip and some hiking).

Hopefully with some luck, I’ll witness some good baseball at Petco…. 

Ever since the take down of Milton Bradley, the Padres franchise has crumbled and lost value just like the US Dollar has been doing over the course of the last few years. In my most humble opinion the following are items that took a beating on the Padres franchise:

• Fail attempt to re-sign OF Mike Cameron, was crucial and had an enormous and profound impact on the franchise for 08 and 09.
• Fail attempt to re-sign OF Milton Bradley, who knows what really went behind the scenes. Though, evidently Milton was happy to go to Texas, yes Texas.
• Acquired OF Jim Edmonds and released him after one month into the season. By god ! This is the same franchise who let Burroughs, Castilla, and Klesko to hang on during their declining years for months during the season.
• Major blunder again with 1st Round pick in the draft. Not good for the track record 4 consecutive years with no instant (ROI) with 1st round draft picks. So what makes you think 09 Draft will be different ? Especially with the pending martial crisis with the ownership.

For the record, finally there is some talent brewing in the minor leagues and major investment has been put forth into the latin country of Dominican Republic. There lies in the hope of the franchise, though realistically the Padres are about 2 years from being very competitive. I expect the ballclub in 2010 to be not only competitive but challenging for a NL Championship. It is no longer acceptable in San Diego to just be competitive, the bar has been set to achieve Championships (take a clue from AJ Smith). With all this being said, who’s accountable for this current mess ? Someone has to take the heat. Just like in any credible organization, when businesses go under or projects fail, someone takes the blame. Question is who will go next ? No, I am not referring to any of the players.

Jake Peavy pitched his heart out and the anemic Padres offense showed up again. In fact, the Padres hitters showed no passion combined with lack of game plan by the Mgr and Coaches. It seems every time a Padres player get on base, they are simply stuck in quicksand. There is no attempt to put on a hit and run or run and hit sign. Where has the strategy gone ? Has the coaching staff surrender as well ? I don’t believe it, since Mgr Buddy Black was groomed under Angels’ Mgr Mike Scioscia. But in 1 1/2 yrs+, I’ve yet to see Bud Black institute some of the strategy he learned from Scioscia. I believe when people have been successful or been associated with successful organizations, they bring in some of the philosophy into their new organization. The fundamental question is….Does Mgr Bud Black have voice in the game plan strategy or is he getting instructions from the Front Office ? Which ever may be the case, the game plan strategy is unacceptable and downright embarrassing. Tonight, a walk, stolen base and base hit produced the winning run for the Giants. Oh, how Bruce Bochy is getting the last laugh at the Padres Front Office. I guess Giants coach Tim Flannery is right, that he wants to teach the players how to play the game. In contrast, the Padres are preaching on base percentage and wait for the long ball. Heck, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out, it will not work in Petco Park. What will work is some rabbits (speedsters) and a big cannon (power hitter). Ahh, sounds like the 1980′s St. Louis Cardinals, Ozzie Smith, Vince Coleman, Willie McGee and Jack Clark.  We have the big cannon (aka Adrian Gonzalez) and only need some rabbits ! Maybe its time to admit the Padres philosophy needs a minor modification to incorporate speed. Five years in Petco Park is enough time to figure that out and that’s half a decade. Perhaps a few Padres employees should watch some games in Anaheim, we can always learn a few things, particularly from successful organizations.

Enough said from a long time season ticket holder….