NL West race: September 5, 2010

SDP 76-59 [0-4 in SEPT] 
SFG 75-61 [2-1 in SEPT] (1.5 GB)
COL 72-64 [3-2 in SEPT] (4.5 GB)

MLB.com: Slipping Padres drop 10th straight ballgame

In an attempt to breathe new life into a suddenly reeling ballclub, the Padres turned to the music of Michael Jackson, which echoed through PETCO Park as each San Diego batter stepped to the plate. But even the upbeat tunes of the King of Pop couldn’t snap the Padres out of their recent funk.

San Diego’s season-worst losing streak reached 10 games on Sunday, as the Padres were swept by the Rockies after dropping a 4-2 decision in front of a crowd of 23,250.

Giants vs. Dodgers @8:00 EST

MLB.com: Rockies aid playoff climb by sweeping Padres

NL West race: September 4, 2010

SDP 76-58 [0-3 in SEPT] 
SFG 75-61 [2-1 in SEPT] (2 GB)

MLB.com: Missed chances lead to ninth straight loss

It’s been that kind of stretch for the Padres, who saw their season-high losing skid extend to nine games after dropping a 6-2 decision to the Rockies in front of 26,168 at PETCO Park.

MLB.com: Giants’ late lumber cuts West gap to two

Relying exclusively on power, the Giants belted four home runs, including Juan Uribe’s go-ahead clout in the ninth inning, to escape with a 5-4 victory Saturday night over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Canepa: Everyone’s to blame for Padres slump

Twiddles gritty toes while waiting for that “David (3 Wins - 9 Loses) Eckstein’s TRIACular Return!” article.

So, were the Padres of April, May, June, July and most of August an aberration, one of those odd comets? It’s easy to say yes. I’ve been shaking my head in wonder at this team since the end of spring training. You’re supposed to stop being a fluke when you’ve excelled this long.

But they smell now. Can the air be cleared in time?

For every baseball reason, they were good. Over this period, for every baseball reason, they’ve been bad. And there’s nothing much that can be done, except to shake it off and go out and play. Willie Mays isn’t available for a call-up.

Critics say the team got slower when it acquired shortstop Miguel Tejada and right fielder Ryan Ludwick before the July 31 trading deadline, that the Padres are more successful when they run. True to an extent, but Tejada and Ludwick were around nearly a month and didn’t seem to hurt anything before the slump began.

“We felt we needed to help our lineup, and I think we did,” Black said. “You add a Tejada and Ludwick and, over time, it will pay dividends — it’s paid dividends already.

NL West race: September 3, 2010

SDP 76-57 [0-2 in SEPT] 
SFG 74-61 [1-1 in SEPT] (3 GB)

MLB.com: Skid reaches eight at hands of Rockies

Jason Giambi and Troy Tulowitzki each hit a two-run homer to lift Colorado to a 4-3 victory over the Padres before a crowd of 21,877 at PETCO Park and hand San Diego its eighth consecutive loss.

MLB.com: Second-half struggles continue for Zito

Known for performing impressively in the season’s second half, Zito lost his seventh consecutive decision. And the Giants began their crucial three-city, 10-game trip with a misstep as they fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2.

Yahoo: Diamondbacks hand Padres 6th straight loss, 7-4

Giants move to within 4 games…

Miguel Montero drove in the go-ahead runs with a ground-rule double, Gerardo Parra made two critical defensive plays and hit a two-run single, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat San Diego 7-4 Tuesday night to hand the NL West-leading Padres their sixth straight loss.

I suppose I’ll start doing semi-organized postseason race game roundups (at least for the races that are somewhat close at the moment - sorry, AL West and NL Central), like I used to do, starting with Wednesday’s games.

N.Y.Times: Forman: “Keeping Score: The Number Beyond M.V.P. Numbers”

A.L. M.V.P. ... Cano (6.3 [WAR]) is the front-runner, with tremendous offense and good defense at a premium defensive position. He has been the Yankees’ best player by nearly two and a half wins this year.

N.L. M.V.P. ... Roy Halladay (6.3 WAR), Adam Wainwright (6.1) and Tim Hudson (5.9) have been more valuable than [Adrian] Gonzalez thus far. But the M.V.P. award has not gone to a starting pitcher since Vida Blue in 1971, and the voters are not likely to change that, barring a Bob Gibson-in-1968 performance.

Freeman: Dave Winfield didn’t need steroids to put his stamp on baseball

One by one, the steroids dominoes have fallen in baseball. The list of finger-waving, needle-pricking cheats has grown to the size of a well-stocked grocery list. Dave Winfield, a legend who made the Hall of Fame the right way, has been watching closely. Just like the rest of us.

“I watched a lot of players over the past decade do some spectacular things and was in awe,” Winfield said in an interview with CBSSports.com, “and then everything fell apart. You weren’t sure what to trust.

“It’s sort of the lost generation in baseball. A bunch of those guys took calculated risks and got caught. They were busted. Now what happens with the Hall of Fame and with legacies?”

... Winfield is a truth teller, not a steroid user. But he dislikes wading into controversy so what he says next is interesting because Winfield is taking a stand not enough veterans from his era have done.

“Look at Mark McGwire and his home runs,” said Winfield. “He hit them out of the park so in one way they’re legit. But they’re suspect, too. You’re putting me on the spot by asking what I would do with him and the Hall of Fame. I’ll leave that up to the voters and they haven’t put him in.

“Let’s say I definitely don’t disagree with [the voters]. I’ll just leave it at that.”

Thanks to Frank Snook into MLB.

stltoday: Ozzie Smith wants to be more involved

Who’ll make it to the top first, Sandberg or the Wizard?

During his visit to the Quad-Cities and the home of the Cardinals’ Midwest League affiliate, Smith served as the honorary coach at a youth clinic, delivered a speech and spent almost 35 minutes answering questions from fans gathered in the stands.

During his public presentation, Smith talked about his desire to become more involved with the game.

“The happiest days of my life have been spent on the baseball field. I get asked a lot if I would like to coach, and typically I’ve said that hasn’t interested me. As I get older, that interest is starting to change,” Smith said.

“For the first time since I retired in 1996, I’ve agreed to go to a Cardinals baseball fantasy camp, and I’m starting to think more about getting back into baseball and maybe coaching. The bug is coming back, and whenever I’m out on the field it feels like home.”

Dayn Perry: Interview: Dave Winfield

DP: You had a lot of success in New York–some really great seasons as a Yankee–but because of the Steinbrenner controversy and the “Mr. May” thing, I think some people look back on those years as somehow being a disappointment. Does that perception bother you?

DW: When I was there it was difficult. There was so much negativity. These days, I think people look over the whole of my career and realize what I accomplished. The people who saw me play in New York knew I could play the game. But at the time it was really difficult.

...DP: Did Steinbrenner ever apologize to you, man to man, for what he did?

DW: Yes, he sent me a card and said he was sorry for what happened, and I accepted. He apologized privately, but some of my friends were like, “He needs to apologize in public.”

DP: So you would have preferred a more public apology.

DW: I guess I would’ve preferred that, but that was mostly my friends talking. What he did was enough for me.

Dave Winfield once sent over a round of drinks to me and my wife for our anniversary. And even though he was wearing severely ill-fitting leather pants…I’d like to give him a public thank you.

SoSD: Amid pennant race, soccer friendly scheduled for Petco Park

Will soccer derail a dream season? Will there be immigration protesters to ignite a new Petco thread?

The Padres confirmed that Petco Park will host an international friendly on Sept. 14 between storied Mexican club Chivas and its American brethren, Chivas USA of Major League Soccer. A news conference is scheduled for this afternoon to make the formal announcement.

“We’re out of town and we had an opportunity to bring soccer to San Diego,” Padres president Tom Garfinkel said. “Anything we can do to bring an event like this to San Diego is great for the city. We know there are a lot of soccer fans in San Diego … and it didn’t get in the way of our No. 1 priority, which is baseball.”

But staging a soccer game on such short notice so close to the playoffs would appear to be curious timing, particularly when it involves removing a pitching mound where baseball’s ERA leaders have allowed 2.88 runs per nine innings at home. Pitchers can be finicky about their mounds — the precise height, depth, angle, even dirt composition.

“We have a great grounds crew,” Garfinkel said. “We have (10) days before our next home game and they’re confident they can put the mound back exactly as it was, so our pitching staff won’t even notice the difference. They’ve researched it. They’ve talked to five different teams about some of the things they’ve gone through and the things they’ve learned.

“We have a lot of confidence it won’t be an issue.”

TIME: Baseball Dreams: Striking Out in the Dominican Republic

An interesting take on the development of Dominican ballplayers with different arguments made concerning whether the system should be changed or not.

To its supporters, the buscón system offers hope to many who have none. After all, in a country where even doctors and lawyers often make little money, why go to school? To critics, that kind of thinking is a cop-out that lowers the country’s expectations to dangerous levels. “In some ways, it’s like human trafficking,”
...
Most teams require only basic English classes for their prospects. But if the Pirates, a small-market team with the lowest payroll in the majors, can afford to offer real schooling to the Dominican players, why can’t everybody else? In their novel approach, the Pirates have partnered with a local education provider, and all players are required to be in the classroom for four hours a day, five days a week. In total, the Pirates’ education initiative cost them $75,000 this year. That’s a rounding error, even for Pittsburgh.

R. Alomar Involved in Alleged Domestic Violence Incident

TV personality and model María “Maripily” del Pilar Rivera went public Monday with her plan to divorce Roberto Alomar, claiming in an interview that she was victim of domestic violence at the hands of the Puerto Rican baseball great.

“It was a living hell for me. I am getting divorced and never going back,” Maripily said in a telephone interview aired on the “SuperXclusivo” program on WAPA TV. The show broadcast an image of an alleged complaint filed by the TV presenter in the state of Florida.

Alomar immediately denied any wrongdoing.

How will this impact his Hall of Fame chances?  :)

Analysis of the Ludwick/Westbrook trade

At Viva El Birdos, azruvatar offers the most detailed analysis I’ve seen yet of the Cardinals side of the Ludwick/Westbrook deal, which he portrays as a trade of future surplus for present wins.

Here’s hoping Jon Jay can keep hitting .390 . . .

Center: Who will be Padres’ odd man out?

Self-Centered: And there’s a ####### I in Ludwick too!

When Ryan Ludwick reports to the Padres’ clubhouse today, another player has to go. And the playing time for some Padres who have been part of the 60-42 start will be reduced.

To make matters even a little more difficult is that the makeup of the 2010 Padres is a little different from most teams — in that it really is a team.

As Padres manager Bud Black so succinctly put it recently: “The sum is greater than the parts.”

“The biggest difficulty,” David Eckstein said Saturday after the acquisition of Ludwick, “is that someone in here will not be a part of finishing what they started. In here, that’s important because there is not a person in this room who has not contributed.”

“We’re getting into some tricky territory here,” said another Padre. “Adding a bat is important. But we’ve been in this together for 5 1/2 months now. A big part of this team’s strength is that if fights together. Someone who has been part of that could be gone.”

Baltimore Orioles IF Miguel Tejada traded to the San Diego Padres?

Baltimore Orioles infielder Miguel Tejada has been scratched from today’s lineup. According to Dan Connolly of the Baltimore-Sun, it is believed that Tejada is being dealt to the San Diego Padres pending league approval.

Connolly adds, “#Orioles Money must be exchanging hands for league approval. Josh Bell has been removed from [Baltimore Orioles’ Triple-A] AAA lineup and is heading to KC for Os game”

Tejada, 36, is hitting .269 with 7 home runs and 39 RBIs in 97 games for the Orioles this season. He’s primarily been playing third base, but the Padres think he can return to his shortstop roots. Earlier today, we heard from Scott Miller of CBSSports.com that Tejada is owed about $2 million for the rest of the 2010 season, and he will likely cost the Padres a mid-level prospect.

Thanks to Beepo.

O’Neill: Whitey Herzog and Garry Templeton ... a memorable clash

Memorable clash? You should see the undertones…

While they occasionally conversed and exchanged pleasantries when their respective teams met during subsequent years, Templeton and Herzog never came to an understanding over what took place in St. Louis.

“He never said anything about it and, you know, I wasn’t going to bring it up,” Herzog said. “You know, (Keith) Hernandez called me and thanked me so many times (years later). And he wrote me a real nice letter, that he appreciated how I protected him and never said anything about the drugs, took the heat for three years over that.

“(John) Mayberry came and apologized when I went in the Hall of Fame in Kansas City, which I really appreciated. I went through that stuff with Garry, but I never blamed him. It was just something that was going on so much in our society and he just got caught up with it. A lot of kids did.”

Herzog acknowledged it would be gratifying to have closure with Templeton. “If he just said to me, ‘Hey I was screwed up, I’m sorry, I wasn’t myself.’ I know he’s not a bad person,” Herzog said. “He went out to San Diego and he changed his life around, and he’s managing now. And I don’t hold any grudges.”

When asked about clearing the air with Herzog, Templeton paused on the other end of the telephone before saying, “No, we never did that.”

SoSD: Loss of Eckstein hurts chemistry

~grumble alert~ Chemistry, Schmemistry! Eckstein can’t even reach the Periodic Table! ~grumble alert over~

The Padres lost more than a game Tuesday night in Atlanta.

They lost their sparkplug, apparently for at least 14 games and possibly longer.

David Eckstein suffered a second strain in the same right calf that sidelined him for seven starts just before the All-Star break.

“It looks like this could be a disabled-list issue,” said Bud Black, meaning it most certainly is, since the Padres manager usually errs on the side of optimism in these matters.

...Eckstein’s loss goes far beyond his .279 batting average and steady play at second. He is at the core of the Padres’ chemistry.

The Padres are 41-30 this season when Eckstein starts and 107-88 when he starts since the beginning of the 2009 campaign. He is the toughest hitter to strike out in the National League and among the league’s leaders in two-out and two-strike hits. Five times this season, Eckstein has either tied or won a game with a late-inning, two-out hit.

Spellczechs (and others): Doug Wayne Gwosdz

One of our punk band names that got thrown out was “Gwosdz Your Balls, NOW!”

Spellczechs degree of difficulty (1 – 5 diamonds, 5 being hardest):  ♦♦♦♦♦

Doug Wayne Gwosdz was a career backup catcher for the San Diego Padres, batting a putrid .144/.244/.202 (for those of you not familiar with “slash stats”, this refers to batting average / on-base percentage / slugging percentage) from 1981 through 1984.  He possesses an unremarkable first name (I can find no record of his first name being anything other than Doug.  You didn’t even think to name him “Douglas”, Mrs. Gwosdz?).  He also has a non-descript middle name.  These however are overcompensated by his “consonant jambalaya” of a last name.

Gwosdz appears to be a variant of the “rare to begin with” surname of Gwozdz, and gwozdz would seem to be the Polish word for “nail” (which seems to be a good sign if you aspire to be a major league catcher).

Approximately 17,000 different players have suited up for a Major League Baseball game.  Of those 17,000, about 4,300 of these players had last names of exactly six letters.  Of those 4,300, a mere 330 or so had but ONE vowel in their name.¹ So what Doug lacked in on-field performance, he made up for in alphabetic rarity.

Black gets extension from Padres

Hoyer signed Bud Black to a three-year contract extension today that keeps the manager in San Diego through at least 2013. There are also club options for 2014 and 2015.

Black, 53, is in his fourth season as Padres manager. Last August the team extended his contract for one season with a club option for 2011.

Sullivan: Bud Black (subtly) gets a beat on slugger Hart

with a baseball bat (tamperingly).

Corey Hart was between rounds of the All-Star Home Run Derby. The Milwaukee slugger’s opening salvo had produced 13 homers and a fact-finding foray by Padres manager Bud Black.

“He had a little bit of time, and I was in the clubhouse,” Black recalled Friday afternoon. “I said, ‘Nice round.’ and he goes, ‘Thanks.’ And that was that.”

The sound you would have heard at that point in Black’s story was dumbfounded silence: eyeballs rolling, eyebrows arching and smirks spreading.

Hart owns one of the biggest bats on the trade market. Black is a manager in need of more offense.

Do the math.

“I did mention, ‘Hey, a lot of those balls would have gone out of Petco.’ ” Black admitted, “I did say that to gauge his response. And then he kept looking at the TV and said, ‘Yeah, they would have.’ I gauged his reaction to see if he would say, ‘Yeah, I know man, let’s go.’ I didn’t get that.

“I was making sure that he knows we’re watching.”

Michael Young becomes 83rd All-Star

Everybody is a star
One big circle going round and round

Adrian Beltre is unavailable for the All-Star game after injuring his hamstring yesterday and Michael Young has been selected to replace him, becoming the 83rd player who gets to say he was an All-Star in 2010…

we’re talking nearly three All-Stars per MLB team… Depending on how you choose to do the math, about 11 percent of players on 25-man rosters have been chosen as All-Stars.

Neyer’s Black Cloud:

However, as Rob Neyer pointed out even 83 picks is still a smaller portion of the total player pool than was selected as All-Stars in, say, the 1960s.

Adam Dunn Hits 3 Home Runs, Nationals Beat Padres 7-6

And with that…Dunn passes David Ortiz and Darryl Strawberry in taters.

Adam Dunn hit three home runs and became the second player in team history to hit three in a game to help the Nationals defeat the Padres, 7-6, at Nationals Park on Wednesday night.

The game was tied at 1 in the first inning when Dunn took right-hander Jon Garland’s 1-0 pitch and hit three-run homer over the center-field wall.

Two innings later, after San Diego cut the lead to 4-2, Dunn took the first pitch from Garland and hit his second blast over the left-center-field wall to give Washington a three-run lead. Garland would give up another home run, this time to Ian Desmond a solo shot.

The Nationals relievers made it an interesting game in the seventh and eighth innings as Joey Peralta and Drew Storen allowed a combined three runs to make it 6-5 game before Dunn came to the plate in the eighth and hit his third home run of the game on a 2-2 pitch off left-hander Joe Thatcher.

The last member of the Nationals to hit three home run in a game was Alfonso Soriano in 2006.

Pirates acquire reliever Gallagher from Padres

The Pirates took on another pitching project today, acquiring reliever Sean Gallagher from San Diego for cash.

He is scheduled to fly from San Diego to Houston Thursday morning and join the team for the afternoon game. That would require removing another pitcher, the most likely candidate being reliever Justin Thomas.

No, not that Cash.

Canepa: MVP surge for Adrian Gonzalez

Why…they oughta name a street after Adrian. Oh, wait.

Manager Bud Black doesn’t think it’s too early to get the Gonzalez MVP bandwagon rolling. The Padres are where they are because of their fine pitching, especially from their bullpen, but without Gonzalez, it’s hard to imagine them in first place on July 1. Some runs have to be scored.

“It’s not too early to discuss it,” said Black, who has to be the leading candidate for Manager of the Year. “He’s right there for MVP, if not at the top. What he does in the middle of our lineup, what he does defensively, what he does in the clubhouse — his whole package.

“There has been a passing of the torch in this organization. It’s been passed on to him, and he realizes that. When you’re a young player, and we have a roster of young players, the first guy they watch from the first day we go to Peoria is Adrian Gonzalez. Guys walk in and look for the best player, how he conducts himself. That’s the way it is in all sports.”

ESPN:AP: DEA investigating teams’ doctors

SAN DIEGO—The Drug Enforcement Administration said Tuesday it is investigating doctors affiliated with the San Diego Chargers and San Diego Padres to verify the accuracy of controlled substance inventories, records, reports and other documents required to be kept under the Controlled Substances Act.

Agency spokeswoman Amy Roderick said 10 administrative inspection warrants were served within San Diego County, including at the offices of the Chargers and Padres, where records and inventories were checked.

There currently are no administrative charges, criminal charges or indictments pending for any of the physicians or pharmacies where the warrants were served, she said.

Padres’ Yorvit Torrealba lashes out at Larry Vanover, umpires

Torrealba: Uglytbeauty speaks out!

The suspension of Yorvit Torrealba had been issued, and while the Padres are appealing to have the length of punishment cut down, their catcher was making the kind of personal appeal that could have the opposite effect.

“Three games, man,” said Torrealba of his suspension for making aggressive contact with plate umpire Larry Vanover on Monday night. “For what I have to say, it might be five games.”

And then he said it.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” Torrealba said. “Three games is too much. I didn’t mean to touch him. Obviously, I just had to let him know what I was thinking. He was real inconsistent all game. I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t see any umpire getting suspended whenever he touches any player or whenever he bleeps a call up.

“If it’s a fine, all right, whatever, but three games is a little bit too much. One game, two games, I’m gonna get my lesson no matter what. But I don’t see umpires getting fined and I don’t see umpires getting suspended. They make a lot of mistakes.”

...“I understand they’re going to miss some calls. I understand that. But to the point where you cannot even ask them where is that pitch and they get angry, that they talk to you like a little kid? I’m a grown man. I’m 32 years old. I don’t need anybody to start yelling at me like a little kid. Bottom line.”

MLB: Earthquake shakes Jays, Padres at PETCO

Dick Enberg…“I thought that was you doing the Funky Chicken…”

Depending on where you stood or sat on Monday at PETCO Park, the 5.7-magnitude earthquake that sent a ripple through the downtown stadium was either a big deal, nothing to get upset about or an event that went largely unnoticed.

Same earthquake, different reactions and, to be sure, entirely different opinions to be had.

An earthquake that struck near the United States-Mexican border in Ocotillo in southern San Diego County was felt at PETCO Park at 9:26 p.m. PT and in the bottom of the eighth inning of the Blue Jays’ 6-3 victory over the Padres.

What was left of the announced crowd of 16,542 howled in delight, even while the public address announcer urged them to remain calm.

Former major leaguer Oscar Azocar dies

Farewell Oscar Azocar…and one classic card.

Former major leaguer Oscar Azocar, a free-swinging outfielder when he debuted for the New York Yankees in 1990, died Monday. He was 45.

The native Venezuelan died at a hospital in Valencia, said Diogenes Nazar, press spokesman for one of Azocar’s former teams, the Navegantes del Magallanes.

NYBD: Getting to Know Heath Bell

Heath: 10 Things I Hate About The Mets Trading Me Away.

Feelings about being traded away by the Mets

I gave my heart and soul to the Met organization and loved the team. They gave up on me and I feel that I could have excelled here in NY, which is the center stage of baseball. When they traded me, I looked at it as a fresh start and I wanted to start proving to the Mets and all my doubters that they made a mistake in getting rid of me. I especially want to show the NY fans what they are missing. I am confident in my abilities and now when I face the Mets, I am passionate and try to do extra well to prove my point. I’d love to come back to pitch for the Mets one day. I think its karma, as my Met debut came vs. the Padres, my Padre debut came vs. the Mets, my first save was at Shea Stadium and I got that first ever save in Citifield on Opening Day 2009. It would make my career complete to one day come back and play in NY. I do enjoy SD, but if they choose to go in a different direction, it would be my first choice to come back and lead the Mets to a championship.

Morosi: Peavy rips Padres over firing GM

Pulling weeds at the Peavy arboretumult…

“Kevin Towers getting let go out there is an absolute joke,” Peavy told FOXSports.com on Wednesday. “You can quote me on that. Kevin Towers is a heck of a general manager.

“You see the product of his work. Moorad and those guys just took over the team last year. They didn’t change that team — (Jon) Garland’s pitched well for them, but they didn’t make any significant moves to that team, that coaching staff.

“Kevin Towers put that team together. That’s almost all his people there. And he didn’t have hardly anything to work with, either. That was not the right move, letting him go.”

... Peavy expects San Diego to be competitive all year, despite an offense that has produced one of the lowest home run totals in baseball.

“I don’t think it’s a fluke,” Peavy said. “They’re not going to hit. They understand that. They’re not hitting now. But they pitch great, and those guys battle. They fight. They play the game the right way. They don’t give guys extra outs.

“Are they going to win the West? Probably not. Some of the other teams have a little more talent. But I can’t see why they’re not going to compete all year. And I pull for them. I still have a lot of good friends over there. I wish them all well.”