Monday, March 18, 2013

Hooray For Padres Injuries...

News broke not to long ago that Chase Headley will be out for about a month with a broken thumb after attempting to break up a double play in yesterdays spring training game. At this point I'm thinking the Padres need to rename the team to something like "The San Diego Afflictions" with the motto "we only afflict pain on ourselves". Super stupid and cheesy, I know, but I can't think straight anymore and as they said in the horrific Alice in Wonderland remake, I've lost my muchness. 

Along with losing my muchness I've also lost count of how many players are injured but I'm pretty confident the ratio has shifted and there are more broken ones than healthy ones. I'm also pretty confident that may have been my biggest exaggeration yet and I have taken it upon myself to recruit my brother as made apparent by this short Facebook message.

As you can see, I've also taken it upon myself to help out with the training staff. I sure as hell couldn't do much worse than they are. Either way the Padres continue to struggle with injuries and continue to crush our hopes of having a decent season.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Padres Pitching Hits Another Bump

As if the Padres weren't suffering enough with pitching, word has it, Casey Kelly may need Tommy John surgery. Oh and apparently Cory Luebke has hit a bump in his recovery. These not so fun facts combined with the not so fun facts of the whole not doing much in the off-season thing makes me one pissy little girl and yes, I'm about to bring up the Latos trade again and yes, I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record. Deal with it... like I should be doing with that trade but won't anytime soon.

Given the fact that we are possibly down yet another pitcher while another's return might be pushed back and the fact that Grandal is suspended for 50 games really makes me question what the Padres were thinking when they made the trade. We NEED pitching, kinda can't win games without it.

I know that trading Latos had little to nothing to do with pitching and more about filling "holes" but the fact that we seem to be hemorrhaging pitchers, is like pouring salt into the wound. Trade: 0, Ashley: 1.

I've probably said it before how we didn't necessarily need a 1B or another catcher and we wouldn't have needed a starting pitcher had we not traded a starting pitcher and well our bullpen, yeah, I'm going to ignore that. Sure they didn't know that Hundley was going to get hurt last season/suck and we were going to need to rely on Grandal but they lucked out with that... at first. Trade: 1, Ashley: 1.

Then the numerous injuries screwing with out pitching during the season and the freak Cashner incident of the  off-season happened. PLUS Grandal's fantastic off-season news came about. I have to believe they didn't know Grandal was using PED's... or maybe they did and overlooked it, who knows but it doesn't help make them look good for making the trade. Trade: 1, Ashley: 2.

I don't follow our minor leagues close enough to know who we have in the system that would be close enough to starting at first or any other positions we claimed the traded filled but we did have Blanks who could have played first, though he was probably hurt too. So I can see the Alonso part of the deal making sense but that's about it since we know I hate Volquez and forgot who the reliever was we got. Trade: 2, Ashley: 2.

Yes, we need guys that are going to do more than just play small ball but what good is that going to do for us if we don't have solid pitching?? To me, the game revolves around pitching. We don't necessarily need the big bats or super fancy defensive skills to win games, though the super fancy Brandon Phillips like plays would be fantastical  and the David Wright, WBC type AB's would be just as fantastical. We have seen it before that we can win games with pitching. Ya know, back in the day when we had one of the best, if not the best, pitching staff. A whole, what, three years ago??

Despite my want for pitchers that can carry the team on days where we can't hit to save our lives, I pretty much hate pitchers duels and would rather have high scoring games than 1-0 shutouts or 2-1 team wins with the starting pitching getting a no decision in both incidences. Though sometimes those no decisions mean a lot more than the pitcher recording the win. Sometimes, they mean the pitcher worked his ass off and did everything possible to give us the best chance of winning with the least amount of power hitting. Of course, at other times, they mean the pitcher completely blew it and our bats magically showed up. But in the case of the Padres, as we all know, we rely heavily on the first example. As you can tell, I can't make up my mind about pitching. I very strongly acknowledge the need for dominant pitching and desperately want that but my attention span seems to be more than okay with high scoring games which completely goes against the logical want.

In my nonscientific or probably even really logical opinion, the trade evens out with me, though I should dock points for the suspension and therefore my logic or lack there of wins. Let's just face it, I'm a mess of a blogger and counteract my own points at times but that's what happens when I'm too emotionally involved in the team and can't separate wants from needs.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Sweet Baby Jesus, There's Baseball On

So I'm watching the World Baseball Classic and not even an hour into me watching it, we have already had our first "DROP, DROP, DROP!! FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!" of the season. Oh, baseball, how I've missed you so much!! I knew I missed baseball and was ready for it to be back but I didn't think I was going to be THAT excited for it already. Clearly, I'm more than excited for baseball to be back than I thought or even expected I would be.

First thing's first, this is I think the first time I've bothered to watch the World Baseball Classic. I got excited to see that Brazil was playing. Though, I'm not Brazilian, I am Portuguese so I feel a slight connection to all things Brazil. If Brazil is competing and Portugal is not, you can bet your ass I'm cheering for Brazil. With that said, I was extremely caught off guard when I looked up at the batter for Brazil to see that he was Asian. I promptly yelled at my TV "Why are you Asian?!". I was expecting more along the line of a typical Brazilian. I was also expecting a lot of those typical Brazilian asses. Needless to say, I am very disappointed right now.

My next question, where are all the Rodrigues' and Correia's and Teixeira's on Brazil?! Or are those strictly Portugal Portuguese names?? Seriously, where are they?! I'm so confused right now this is ridiculous. I understand not everyone is going to have a typical Portuguese or Brazilian name but shit, at least the dudes from Cuba have typical Latin names. Stop confusing me, WBC.

Now for the final moment of utter confusion, Barry Larkin. Why is he the coach for Brazil?! I tried to Google to see if maybe he was Brazilian or something but I got a tad bit sidetracked and frustrated with Google. I still have no clue why he is the coach or why there are so many atypical Brazilians on the team. They explained earlier why there were so many Asians but I stopped listening.

Brazil is losing and pissing me off and forcing me to call them the one bad word that I do remember in Portuguese. Ugh, can we not disappoint me before the actual season starts?? I seriously feel like I'm watching the College World Series or even the Little League World Series but, hey, it's baseball. Baseball that I'm about to turn off. Why am I about to turn it off?? Because Cuba has the bases loaded and no outs. NOT OKAY, BRAZIL. NOT OKAY!! Also, I'm sick of seeing the same Under Armour commercial with Bryce Harper, though his arms look amazing. Yeah, umm with Cuba winning 5-0 and have the bases loaded with 2 outs, I'm totally turning this off now. Tomorrow I will at least have my Padres to watch, even if it is only Spring Training.