“All Things on a Baseball Thursday”

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Padres….Heading into the final two weeks of the Cactus League, and you have a Padres team with a collective (.226) batting average, and a team (5.26-ERA) from the pitching staff. It’s not that they don’t look ready, it’s they don’t have enough players.

So as we head towards opening day, they don’t really know who is their starting second baseman. Do you choose Corey Spangenberg, who has range and a glove, but not a strong bat, or use Ryan Schimpf’s bat, but is a guy with little glove.

Ditto at shortstop, where they think there is some upside to Luis Sardinas, who looks like a young Jose Reyes, but he cannot hit a lick. Eric Aybar has hit, but is surely not a strong glove.

Over at 3rd, that was a strong season for Yanger Solarte, but they think he might be be better at second , than third, so who plays the hot corner?

Moving to left, now Alex Dickerson looks to be starting the season on the DL with a back issue. He had some pop, hit in the (.250’s) but he does not have health.

Oh they can sell Jabari Blash to the fans again, but we saw this movie last year, some power, bunches of strikeouts. So that’s four positions with question marks around them.

And even if guys had locked down jobs, none of those guys are stars.

As for that bloated ERA, that’s what you get when you load your staff with rejects, retreads and rehab cases.

Jered Weaver is trying to get by on guts and guile, and an 84mph fastball. Trevor Cahill is being stretched out to go back into the rotation, but it will take time to determine whether he can do what he did as a young Oakland A a bunch of years back. Who really knows if Clayton Richard can be what he used to be?

Christian Friedrich struggles all the time. We have not seen much of JhoulysChacin, and most all the kids have been sent back to the minor league camp.

Please don’t try to sell me Paul Clemens nor Jared Cosart again either.

We know Luis Perdomo is at the front of the rotation. Poor Andy Green knows nothing beyond the fact opening day is coming, and he has a bunch of number 4-5 starters who will have to be given the ball.

The Padres, more questions than answers, and running out of time to figure it out.

The novelty of the opening spring training has worn off. The WBC will be over shortly, and the Paderes will start playing real baseball soon.

Yes, the video board looks great, it’s a beautiful ballpark, and a destination point for families. And yes this is a melting pot of fans, so there will be some nice crowds out at the yard, but let’s be real too.

How do you think the numbers .226 and 5.26 play out over a 162-game schedule?

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