Saturday, December 31, 2011

Welcome Back Home

I don't know about you but if I were a professional athlete I would be thrilled to be able to play for the team I grew up watching and that is exactly what newly acquired outfielder Carlos Quentin is going to be doing. The Padres traded two pitching prospects to the White Sox for the 29 year old outfielder. Quentin is a Silver Slugger winner and two time All Star with the White Sox as well as placed fifth in the MVP voting back in 2008. His six seasons has been split between Arizona and Chicago earning him a career average of .252 and a fielding percentage of .980. In his four seasons with Chicago he has hit 107 out of his 121 homeruns. I like a guy with power but I wonder how he will fair here considering our ballpark. I also wonder how quickly he will be able to adapt to pitchers he didn't see on a regular or even semi-regular basis playing in the AL the past four years. I'm sure he will get his studying in, he is a product of Stanford after all. Now that we have a power hitter in the lineup who are we going to get or use to prevent him from being intentionally walked like Adrian so often was??


I wasn't a huge fan of Josh Byrnes after losing Bell and Latos, though the Latos trade did benefit us, but if he continues to make moves like this I think I might just start to like the guy. I'm not entirely excited to basically have a brand new team next season but if we continue to get some legit guys I will be perfectly happy learning everything I need to know about these new guys.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Dear Padres, Stop It!!

Welp, the Padres traded Mat Latos on Saturday to the Reds for pitcher Edinson Volquez, first baseman/left fielder Yonder Alonso, catching prospect Yasmani Grandal and pitching prospect Brad Boxberger.

So lets take a quick look at the newest additions to the Padres family starting with Yonder Alonso. Alonso bats left and throws right, which freaks me out. I'd prefer for my players, pitchers or not, to not have the chance to get drilled in their throwing arm when they are up to bat. Anyway, based off  the limited number of games he has played in during his two seasons he looks like he will be a good addition to the team. He is batting .299 in 127 plate appearances striking out 24% of the time and walking 7% of the time. He doesn't have any stolen bases or attempts which disappoints me but he is a young guy and with the help of Dave Roberts maybe that will change. Next we have Yasmani Grandal. Grandal is a switch hitting catcher, which I like aside from the exposing of his throwing arm, who quickly moved through the minor league system. So far in his career he has an average of .303. I like the sound of that, though we have seen before that minor league numbers don't always translate. The other prospect we received is minor league pitcher Brad Boxberger. He spent last season between AA and AAA with an ERA of 2.03 collecting 11 saves in the  62 innings he appeared in.

Finally, lets compare the stats for Mat and Volquez. Last season Mat's ERA was 2.24 points lower than Volquez's was which doesn't make me any kind of happy that we lost Mat. However, Volquez only started twenty games last season compared to Mat's thirty-one. In his career, Mat has had one complete game whereas Volquez, in his seven seasons, hasn't had any. During Mat's three years he has only pitched about 67 less innings than Volquez has in his career which tells me that Volquez doesn't often go deep into games. Oh yeah, this really makes me feel good about the trade especially since we all know that the Padres have serious issues scoring and rely heavily on our pitching. Looking at the numbers Mat is the better pitcher which is clearly a reason Cincinnati wanted him. I would love for Volquez's ERA and everything else to be better but the one thing I am okay with is he does have more experience which should mean he will be able to control himself better when an outing gets out of control, though I kind of loved that Mat would get so pissed off with himself when things weren't going his way.



This trade was definitely a good one for the Padres but on a personal level for many of us this trade sucks. I do not appreciate the Padres trading away players we all like and neither do the rest of the fans and if you pay any attention to Twitter this recent trade of  Mat Latos has seemingly hit us the hardest. Sure we all loved cheering for #TeamLatos but what hurts the most is that we are not only losing Mat but we are losing, his wife, Dallas, as well. If you don't follow her on Twitter you need to, I'm talking to you Reds fans. Well, I am beginning to get sick of saying this but, we wish you two the best of luck in Cincinnati and hope you return to the Padres soon.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Waaaaahhhhhh

The Padres traded Mat Latos to the Reds. We did get four players for him but still I'm not happy about this. Unfortunately at this moment I do not have time to make a post about this but when I get back from Big Bear there will be a post!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

2012 Might Just Be the End of the World

My friend pointed out an interesting fact earlier he said, "The Padres make it to the World Series every fourteen years, 1984 and 1998". So in theory 2012 should be our year. If this happens I am taking it as a sign that the world might just be coming to an end and if we do make it to the World Series and win I will know the world is ending. Any San Diego sports fan knows we just don't win championships so the only logical explanation for us winning something is that the world is ending.




I will resume posting relevant stuff after finals are over. I just felt like this needed to be pointed out.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Brother Knows Best

Well, it looks like my brother was right last week when he told me the Padres were about to get Huston Street. From what I have read, the Rockies have traded Huston Street to us for a PTBNL and cash. Last season Street was 1-4 with an ERA of 3.36 collecting a save in 87% of his opportunities. In his seven seasons as a major league player (four with the A's and three with the Rockies) his ERA is 3.11, a whole 0.05 points higher than Heath Bell's ERA in his eight major league seasons (three with the Mets and five with us). Street has had eleven appearances at Petco and in those appearances he has 17K's and 3BB while the batters hit only .132. I honestly don't know much about him but based of those facts lets just say I am glad he won't be doing that to us anymore. Seeing as how his home games will now be at sea level it will be interesting to see his numbers by the end of next season, providing we even give him an opportunity to get some saves.

Now to get back to the vagina part of this blog. Adding Huston Street ups the level of attractiveness on the Padres slightly... he's kind of adorable when he smiles. 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Congratulations Heater

Welp, looks like the Marlins are being saved by the Bell. It's reported that he will get $27 million for three years. Way to go Heath!! It is going to be sad to see him leave because he is such a nice guy but he did what was best for him and his family so congratulations on your new deal, Heath. At least with him going to the Marlins he will be reunited with fellow former Padres which has to make the transition that much easier. Now that Heath is gone my question is, who the hell is going to be our closer now?! We all know that Mike Adams was supposed to be the next closer but they traded him to the Rangers this season. With Adams gone it's making me wonder if they are going to try to fit Luke Gregerson in the closers spot or bring in someone else. From what my brother was telling me earlier, the Padres are looking at Huston Street for Orlando Hudson. I don't know how much truth there is to this rumor and haven't heard anything about it besides what my brother told me but, if it is true there will be a sudden increase in "mow my lawn" tweets before those come to a sad end. If this is true than I would assume he will be our closer and Luke will remain a setup man.

One thing that I will miss the most about not having Heath on the team is his personality. You see it from things like him sliding into the pitchers mound in the All Star Game to him flicking sunflower seeds at the camera crew during the games... or anyone near by. However, I will not miss his need to make things "interesting". My actual heart muscle thanks you Padres for making this deal and I continue to look forward to the trades and other acquisitions that will happen this off-season and hope that these scraps make for a decent team next year. Once again, congratulations Heath on your new deal, I hope you kill it out in Florida.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Someone Is About To Be Saved By The Bell...

Word has it that Heath Bell is close to signing with a mystery team. "A source close to Heath Bell said his FA deal is about done but no word on what team it is... so not sure you should have read this tweet" - Jim Bowden. If I had to guess who this mystery team is, I would say the Padres. Why?? Because pretty much every Padres fan thinks that he is about to go and what would be more shocking than to see him stay?! Everyone that knows anything about Heath knows that he has stated that he would take the hometown discount to play with the Padres. Personally, I wouldn't be upset if he left. Don't get me wrong he is an All Star caliber pitcher and a really nice guy but his tendency to make the ninth inning 'interesting' is going to give me a heart attack one of these days. If he does stay with the Padres, I'm going to have to start working out and doing everything I can to prevent the stress of watching him pitch from giving me a heart attack. Though there are rumors flying around, Heath posted himself via twitter "The most exciting thing that happened today..put up my Christmas lights. No news people.So whatever happens, happens and I will cope with it in my own ways. C'est la vie.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Bye Bye Blackbird

Ok so I realize this isn't exactly the best title for this post considering it's about Wade LeBlanc and blanc is French for white but I like it so you can suck it. Lets cut to the chase, Tuesday, LeBlanc got traded to the Marlins for lefty catcher John Baker adding to the list of Padres that have gone Florida's way. The stats might show that LeBlanc killed it at home but wasn't all that on the road. From my personal experience he sucked balls at home. I don't know how many games of his I have been to but the majority of the time he felt the need to show that chicks dig the long ball, for the opposing teams women that is. In 2010 he gave up 24 home runs... pretty sure I was there to see 23 of them. Ok that's an exaggeration but it sure felt like I witnessed that many. I felt bad because I really wanted to like him but the second I would start to he would give up another home run.


So what do we do?? We trade him for a guy who only played 16 games last season cause he had Tommy John surgery in 2010. Awesome. I understand we need catching depth but at this point LeBlanc had a better career BA than Baker and Lord knows we need bats. Baker is 30 and has only had four major league seasons under his belt which tells me that he isn't the greatest catcher out there and that he is dirt cheap, which is why the Padres acquired him. I'd go into more stats but lets be honest, I really could care less about this trade at this point in time. I'm sure I will have a follow up post when the season gets going and I can see for myself how this trade worked out or didn't work out.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Bullshit Unicorn Rainbow Calisthenics

The Astros move to the AL West, two more Wild Card spots open and interleague play all year?! To quote Ruxin from The League, "bullshit unicorn rainbow calisthenics". More interleague games, to me, takes away from the World Series. I didn't care for the random interleague play during the season to begin with and personally believe that it should be reserved for the World Series. That's how the baseball Gods created it and you Bud Selig, are not one of the baseball Gods. If I wanted to watch a team play with a DH all season I wouldn't be an NL fan. What I want to know is why they felt the need to make an even number of teams in each league. Also the addition of a one game playoff game is not something I want to see... bad memories. Since Selig is in the mood to screw up baseball, why don't we go ahead and give the players aluminum bats?? After all, they will make the game more "interesting" due to the number of home runs produced. Needless to say this league change is not SanDiegoGirlie approved.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Grady Sizemore and why I think the Padres should cough up the money and sign him

We all know the Padres do not have the money to spend on any player that they want and after the events of the last off-season they proved they can't and or won't cough up enough money to afford their best player. So why should they go after Grady Sizemore?? Any baseball fan knows that Grady has been plagued with injuries the past few seasons turning him into a high-risk player. However, baseball fans also know the ability he has when he is healthy, making him a high-reward player as well. The question is, is the reward worth the risk?? If you ask me, yes. Sure, I am slightly bias... ok a lot bias, since he is one of my favorite players but, look at it this way... He played in only 71 games last season and his average (.224) was still better than about 75% of the entire Padres team, he had 38 RBI which is again better than about 75% of the Padres and he had more home runs (10) than everyone with the exception of Ryan Ludwick (11), who in 30 more games only had one more. Sure last season he didn't have any stolen bases but credit that to his knee injuries. His strikeout per plate appearances has gone up and down throughout his career with his highest percentage coming last season, most likely due to having to adjust his swing after having elbow issues, we can all agree that the Padres do not need anymore strikeouts.

I know that there is a very good possibility that he will never be the same Grady that he was from '06 - '08 but if he lets himself completely heal before going all out he can be a big help to the Padres. For one, he is a lefty and we can use more of those in our lineup. Two, he has played the majority of his career as a lead-off man and we would for once be able to see some consistency in our lineup, cue the Bud Bot hashtag. Three, he is willing to play a corner outfield position in order to prove himself again, “He wants to have an opportunity that will allow him to show he’s still the elite player he’s been,” Urbon said. “In a perfect world, he’d love to play center field. You can’t ignore the fact that’s where he won two Gold Gloves, where he’s been a three-time all star. When healthy, he’s one of the best players in the game. But if he feels the best opportunity is for him play in a corner spot, then he has the ability to do that.”. As his agent mentioned, he is a three-time All Star and a two-time Gold Glove winner. He is also a Silver Slugger winner, has placed four times in the MVP voting and is still relatively young. What team wouldn't want a player like that?! Four, his presence will add attractiveness which just might bring in more female fans and hopefully boost attendance... at this point I don't care how the seats get filled as long as they do. With all this said, it is highly unlikely that the Padres will cough up the nine million that he was looking to get from the Indians this coming season therefore crushing my hopes and dreams of seeing Grady in a Padres uni. Instead the Padres will get Mark Kotsay pending physical which means I will be keeping my fingers crossed that this acquisition doesn't turn out to be another Jim Edmonds or Brad Hawpe situation.

God's Vagina . . . where Padres fans are born

First things first, I have to give credit to Avenger-in-Chief for not only the title of this post but also the title of this blog. I suppose I should also give credit to Pineapple Express for the title, if it wasn't for that movie this blog would not exist... though the blog has absolutely nothing to do with the movie. What does God's Vagina has to do with baseball you ask, well in my mind it goes a little something like this... Friars/Padres are God's homies and vagina = girl. So yeah that's what God's Vagina has to do with baseball. Secondly, as you might guess from the title, I will be posting about the San Diego Padres from my point of view... WARNING: There may be frequent baseball pants posts and possibly some Grady Sizemore posts as well. I will however try to keep this as Padres related as possible. Oh yeah and I will probably post about any epic injuries around the league e.g. Buster Posey and Stephen Drew's injuries. Finally, yes, I am a girl. Yes, I watch baseball on a regular basis. No, I don't just watch for the pants.



PS. I feel the need to emphasize that this is all in fun and if you don't like what I have to say, you can keep your bitchy comments to yourself.