0-

“Padres Baseball….A Roller Coaster Ride”

-0-

The rides at Coney Island in New York, or Belmont Park in Pacific Beach hold nothing over the San Diego Padres.

Ride that roller coaster and you will get thrills and some spills.

The Padres either hit home runs or they strikeout.

The Padres pitching either dominates or melts down.

And so we watch this summer of psychotic baseball, we feel the ups, lament the downs, and wonder where all this will take us.

Pretty cool to see Eric Hosmer’s screaming line drive grand slam home run against Texas.  This follows what Fernando Tatis, Wil Myers and Manny Machado did over the last three prior games.  1-swing of a bat sure can change a game.

What’s different now, is the Padres wearing out opposing pitchers, getting lots of guys on base, and giving their proven bats a chance to earn their pay, at least for this week they did.

So the Padres are in the MLB record book for a unique statistic.

But all that is offset by what is a serious crisis in the bullpen, and the mishandling of the pitching staff by a rookie manager and his newly hired veteran pitching coach.

Kirby Yates is gone with bone chip surgery in his elbow.

Drew Pomeranz fast start seems to have encountered arm tenderness problems now, a fear I had dating back to his constant injury issues with the Red Sox, regardless of what he did late in the season last summer in Milwuakee.

I don’t understand when Matt Strahm and Craig Stammen are pitching, considering the success they had under prior management, Andy Green and Darren Balsley.

Now you are asking Cal Quantrill to pitch back to back nights as a reliever rather than a starter?

Force feeding the kids, Michel Baez, Luis Patino has not worked out.

Joey Luchessi has been banished to the taxi squad.

Suddenly a trustworthy strength, all those closers, has been greatly diminished by either injury or misuse-mismanagement.

We’re almost tp the halfway point of this pennant race, and the Padres are clinging to the second wildcard playoff spot, but the teams behind them, who had bad starts, are starting to play better.

And just like it’s easy to say the Friars have 30-games or so to get it together, we must also realize, the other potential wildcard teams also have 30 or so games to make a run, and you can never rule out the Cardinals or Colorado or the Phillies.

Guess the biggest question.  Do you believe the Padres bats can carry them to the postseason?  Do you trust Tingler and his coaching staff to solve all the issues in a very shaky bullpen situation?

It’s a roller coaster ride that won’t slow down for another month or so.  We’ll get to the finish line.  No one knows how you will feel.  No one knows how the pitching staff will hold up either.

Hoping it is exhilarating getting to the finish.  Hope it doesn’t make you sick to your stomach if the Padres don’t get there.

Just don’t think we can expect the Friars to hit grand slam home runs every night.

=======================
.

-0-

“Baseball–So What Is Cheating?”

-0-

Like Shakespeare wrote…’Much Ado About Nothing’.

I could not believe the 24-hour news cycle after Fernando Tatis hit a grand slam home run on a ‘3-0’ pitch while his team was up (10-3) on the lowly Texas Rangers.

The outpouring of angst after El Nino and his teammates blew thru the Rangers.

The litany of the language…’he broke the code’….there is an ‘unwritten law’….’where is your ‘respect’.

I have the MLB rulebook in my library.

I could not find any pages, paragraphs, subsections about the ‘code’ or the ‘unwritten law’.

Rookie manager Jayce Tingler compounds it all by relating he wanted Tingler to take the ‘3-0’ pitch.  Then he compounds it again by using the phrase ‘teachable moment’…as if Tatis did something wrong.

Fernando is not responsible for the crap pitching staff on the Rangers roster.

The Rangers get all pissed off about Tatis grand slam as an act of ‘piling on’.

Hey Texas, fix your sorry pitching staff.  That’s what you ought to be whining about.

Hey Tingler, don’t reign in the competitive spirit of possibly the hottest Padres rookie since the Benito Santiago days.

And the media, just off the charts having to explain, defend, apologize for what the kid-slugger did.  Seriously, that can’t be the most important topic on the table is it.

Talkshow radio hosts injured their shoulders reaching for that topic.  And the Padres broadcasters seemed to genuflect in front of the organization talking about ‘no lead is safe’ in baseball.

And the newspaper columnists had to write big exposes on all this.

You look back at all the other incidents in baseball the last year or so, and Tatis’ grand-slam shot comes off as a ‘venial sin’ if that.

But please, what a waste of energy in the midst of all this hot weather in San Diego.

Now if you want to argue about codes, unwritten rules and respect, I will argue with you on my other important topics on the table:

Sign Stealing
Beanballs after home runs.
Retaliating pitches.
Spike High Slides
Taking out the catcher
Bat flips
Dugout dancing
Failure to run out ground balls
Stares and glares.
Dugout baiting of umps
Garbage can banging
Apple watches in the dugouts
Illegal use of video rooms

You’d think this was the equivalent of the steroid era in baseball, you know the cheats in San Francisco, Texas, Yankees Stadium, Wrigley Field and St Louis.

The moral outrage was staggering.

El Nino, just do what the umpire tells you.  “Play Ball”

Per Shakespear…”Much Ado About Nothing”

======================

0-

“A Strange-Sad Summer Day”

-0-

I sat and watched the game last night.

Not Major League baseball in the middle of this 60-game shortened season.
.
Not the opening round of the NBA playoffs.

It was a weird evening in San Diego.

Here it was mid August.
Here is was 104-degrees in my driveway in Rancho Bernardo.
Here was I, watching the Stanley Cup hockey playoffs in August.

It was indeed a strange sensation.  I love playoff hockey.

And there at center ice, right before the Calgary-Dallas playoff game, the lights went down.  Players stood along the blueline.  They stood at the bench. The coaches stood in the corner of each bench area.

A quiet arena without fans, became even quieter.

And there were tears in their eyes.

Hockey was about to play the National Anthem and then O-Canada.
But first they were going to honor one of their fallen.

Hockey is mourning the passing of a truly special human being, a special player, a special coach, a Hall of Famer.

Dale Hawerchuk passed away on Tuesday after a bitter multi-year battle with stomach cancer.  Taken off the ice, away from the game at age (57).

He leaves behind a wife and kids.  He leaves behind Hall of Fame memories.  He leaves behind 518-career goals .  He leaves behind friends everywhere, from fans, to the media, to teammates, to opponents.

An NHL superstar in the smallest of markets, Winnipeg and Buffalo.  An icon in both locations, and a head coach there too. An 18-year old sensation who never played a minute of minor league hockey as the first pick in the overall draft.

A teacher, a comrade, a leader, a friend, and a confidante.

His Hall of Fame of speech years ago was moving.  Not about himself.  Not about his accomplishments, or even his teams.

But instead it was about the legacy of the sport and the people in the sport, and what the sport means to every little hockey community, from the rock that is St. John’s Newfoundland to far off places like White Rock, British Columbia.  Not so much in places like Toronto or Montreal or Edmonton, but places like the Gaspe Peninsula-Quebec or in Whitehorse-Yukon Territory.

Everything about the sport was important to Dale Hawerchuk.  He gave messages of respect to the game, right vs wrong.  The dedication it takes to become a complete player. The meaning of the room, the crest on the sweater, and loyalty to the team.

His life and career was about serving, and scoring goals, and guiding others.

I met him thru Teemu Selanne while covering the Ducks.  They were teammates in Winnipeg with the Jets back in the day.

All you need to know were the tears in the eyes of the players and coaches on the ice during the moment of silence before that playoff game last night.  Grown men, about to go to hockey war, their heads cast down in a moment of silence-respect.

He was a fine player, and a better person, who squeezed everything he could out of his career talents, and every minute he could after this long courageous fight against stomach cancer.

it was a strange day, 104-degrees outside, watching hockey on ice inside, and remembering sadly a truly nice person, who left the game and players a better place, because he was part of the sport.

====================

-0-

“How Do You Feel This Day?”

-0-

The mood swings led me all over the place yesterday, last night and going forward.

Think about what I say and tell me how you feel?

A bad day for the Padres.  Relief ace Kirby Yates facing season ending surgery for bone chips and left-fielder Tommy Pham having surgery for a hamate bone fracture-he too gone for the year, as a promising playoff chase seems to be slipping away..

…The Democratic National Convention begins a weeklong condemnation of everything about President Trump.

Chargers star linebacker Melvin Ingram refuses to workout in pads, demanding a contract extension from his 14M-salary due this year.

..The death toll from the Corona-Virus scoreboard now tops 170,000 in the US.

San Diego State breaks ground for construction of the new Aztecs Stadium, an event that should bring joy, but one overshadowed by the trauma in our country.

..The unemployment rate is still above 3M by virtue of the pandemic.

The Dodgers array of home run hitters powers the team into first place in the NL West in this shortened baseball season, while the Angels season slips away again, done-in by terrible pitching.

..The country is overwhelmed by a horrid heatwave, tornadic fires, overwhelmed hospitals, and bitter partisan decisions state-by-state.  The total number of sick is now 5.1M ill in our country.

The Lakers begin their drive to the NBA championship with Anthony Davis and LeBron James, hoping to fight off Kawhi Leonard’s Clippers, and the Bucks Giannis Antetokoumnpo.

..The tone of conversation across America rings with words like divisiveness, racial hate, unemployment and partisan politics.

Marco Andretti will start on the pole in the delayed Indy 500.  There will be no fans at the Masters in Augusta.  NFL teams will likely play in empty stadiums.  College football is torn to play games to make money, or to cancel the season till spring to protect the players.

..Raging rhetoric continues over opening schools and the economy at the risk of more explosions in viral outbreak.

The NHL continues to play hockey in its hub cities, it’s testing program a tremendous success.

..Peaceful protests, riots, looting, bad photo ops, the post office controversy, the impeachment movement, foreign tampering with elections.

It never seems to end does it?

You tell me-how you feel at this hour, about sports and our society.

=================================

0-

“Padres Baseball–Is What It Is”

-0-

This is like Groundhog Day…again and again.

Last year at this time, we saw half a season of exciting baseball from the Padres. It infused enormous enthusiasm.  Being at Petco Park was like being at an NFL playoff game.  It was electric.

You remember them bashing the Dodgers three straight games, driving to the All Star break with a (45-45) record and hopes it might be a playoff season.

Wasn’t to be, as they fell apart, bad play, bad attitudes, bad hitting over the second half of the summer.

This year, a quick start.  Energy, home runs, good starting pitching.  Aggressive baserunning.  Strong defense.  It was a (6-2) start and they were in first place out of the gate.

Not any longer.  Now they are closer to last place than they are first place in the NL West,in this shortened baseball season.  They have lost 10-of-15 since that start.

They get swept by a rather poor Arizona Diamondbacks team.

As you have breakfast in the morning, the record is (11-12).

Home runs have been replaced by strikeouts.
The starting pitching has been pretty competitive.
The trustworthy bullpen has collapsed without explanation.

Injuries, some major, some nagging, are plaguing this year.

Kirby Yates, Tommy Pham, Wil Myers all lost this weekend as the Friars lost 3-in a row to the D-Backs.

But this is more than just those hurting, and the Yates elbow injury is big.

This is about a collective bullpen that has let this team down, something none of us could have forseen, projected or believed in.

Yates is probably facing some type of arthroscopic procedure for the bone chips in his elbow.  It could be a 4-week rehab at the minimum.

Drew Pomeranz has been 4-save strong so far, but is he a power pitcher who can do it 2-or-3 days in a row.  Matt Strahm will have to step up, and his (1.80-ERA) is second only to Pomeranz’s (0.00) over 7-innings of work.

But beyond that, everyone else is staggering.

Craig Stammen has had 3-rough outings, and has (7.27) ERA.
Emilio Pagan, who gifted Arizona the win on Sunday, is at (8.31)
Pierce Johnson is standing there at (6.14).
Tim Hill came from Kansas City and has a (9.00) mark.
Luis Perdomo is lost in whatever role they assign him (10.13).
Javy Guerra may have to go back to shortstop with an (11.05) mark
Luis Patino isn’t ready and has a (7.04) ledger.
David Bednar is at (6.23)

Maybe Michel Baez gets called back from the taxi squad?
Is there hope Gerrardo Reyes resurfaces?

Maybe they promote back Joey Luchessi, who was sent out a couple of weeks ago with an (8.14) ERA and location problems.

Not sure Jared Eichoff can really make a difference.

Jose Castillo is still recovering from his multiple of injuries, the latest the lat shoulder problem.

Andres Munoz had surgery.  Miguel Diaz had knee surgery.  Ditto Trey Wingenter elbow surgery.

The bullpen has 6-saves in this shortened season.  They have 6-blown saves this year.  The bullpen has compiled 5-losses.

Batting orders are hitting (.270) against the relievers, and (.236) against Chris Paddack and the other starters.

The bullpen brigade has given up 16-home runs in just 23-games. And the next time they call somebody in from the pen, please note that group has a collective (6.11-ERA).

Is Mackenzie Gore ready for a role?  How about Adnan Morejon?  You can have all the prospects in the world in the farm system, but is anyone else near ready to help, now that you need help?

Trevor Hoffman, Brad Hand, Kirby Yates and a list of other strong relievers of the past would be aghast.

The season is not over, but the teams above them are pulling away in the standings.

The Dodgers are 5-infront right now.  In the fight for the wildcard spots, the Padres trail the Rockies-Arizona-Milwaukee-Atlanta in the chase for the two wildcard berths.

There are alot of smart guys in the Padres front office.  Somebody better do something, whether that is Jayce Tingler, the manager, Larry Rothschild, the pitching coach imported this year, or GM-AJPrellar.

They still have lots of games against teams with lots of bats, the Astros, Angels, Athletics, Rockies and of course the Dodgers.

37-games left against a bunch of power hitting teams, in a season that is starting to get away from them.

The Padres bullpen, like a collapsing beach chair right now.

 

It is what it is…but it’s not good right now.

==================