Padres should demote more than Germano

The Padres have demoted starting pitcher Justin Germano to the bullpen because of his 0-3 record and 6.35 ERA.

If you’re going to demote Germano, don’t forget:

Catcher Josh Bard, his .216 average and inability to throw out base stealers.

Shortstop Khalil Greene with his .213 average and one home run.

The whole left field tandem of Scott Hairston, Justin Huber and Paul McAnulty.

Center fielder Jim Edmonds with his .171 average and inability to get to fly balls anymore.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget starting pitcher Chris Young (2-3, 4.31 ERA) along with the bullpen trio of Trevor Hoffman (0-2, 6.52), Glendon Rusch (1-2, 6.26) and Joe Thatcher (0-3, 6.75).

With so many underachievers, no wonder the Padres are tied with the Colorado Rockies for the worst record in Major League Baseball at 12-21.

Do the Padres need Mark Prior?

If all goes well, Mark Prior could be pitching for the Padres by June.

But do they really need him?

Maybe not, at this point.

The Padres lead the major leagues with 14 quality starts (six innings minimum, no more than three earned runs) in 19 games through Sunday.

After ace Jake Peavy, their best starters have actually been Randy Wolf and Justin Germano at the back of the rotation.

Chris Young (No. 2) and Greg Maddux (No. 3) are the only starters who have had their struggles thus far.

If and when Prior comes back, it will be like trading for him and obtaining another arm.

Should he come close to where he once was with the Chicago Cubs, he will definitely be a shot in the arm for the Padres.

This is a team with an abundance of pitching that is slow on speed and weak in power.

Too bad Prior can’t hit home runs and steal bases.

There's no power in the Padres

The Padres are going to need to win a lot more games like Sunday’s 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Why?

There is simply no power in the Padres in 2008.

As of Sunday, the Padres have gone 55 innings without hitting a home run. Over the longer haul, they have just one home run in their last 76 innings.

The meaning: Padres pitchers will have to be on their game every day.

Starters Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Greg Maddux, Randy Wolf and Justin Germano have very little room for error. (Thus far, all but Young have been on their game in 2008.)

Cla Meredith and Heath Bell must keep being successful in the seventh and eighth innings; and Trevor Hoffman needs to get back on his horse in the ninth inning.

The Padres are supposedly a powerless team because of the vast dimensions of Petco Park. But that can’t explain why they only hit one homer in six games on their first trip through San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Unless the Padres start hitting the long ball, it could be a long season ahead.

Vin Scully: Anecdotes second to none

Nobody does it better than Vin Scully, the play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Listening to Scully is like taking a walk along the beach, listening to the waves. It's calm, relaxing and just a joyful sound to hear.One of the things that make Scully so great is his knowledge of the opposing team.

For instance, when the Padres play the Dodgers in a three-game series this weekend in Los Angeles, he’ll come up with more than a few gems about San Diego’s players.

Here are some anecdotes he recited when the Padres and Dodgers met last weekend at Petco Park:

Khalil Greene’s first name means “gift of God.” His father served for the United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War and many of his buddies never made it home alive. Mr. Greene thus sought out religion and found the Baha’i Faith, which his family follows to this day.

Justin Germano has seven tattoos on his body. Before pitching, he recites a word three times that Buddhists use while meditating.

Tony Clark was so smart in high school advanced algebra that he didn’t have to show up for class; he only took the tests.

Glendon Rusch’s wife is a forensics expert. She re-creates crime scenes.

While driving from Port St. Lucie, Fla. to spring training this year, Heath Bell blew out a tire in Fort Stockton, Texas. A local mechanic told Bell that Ken Caminiti had stopped at the same gas station before spring training in 1996, the year Caminiti won the National League’s most valuable player award while playing for the Padres.

Only Scully could come up with such gems!

Padres hit the Wall in China

The Padres … or at least half of them … are finding out how the other half of the world lives this week in Beijing, China.

A contingent led by Manager Bud Black is in Beijing to play the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday and Saturday nights (San Diego time) in a two-game exhibition series.

But the real adventure has been the sightseeing, according to media reports.

The San Diego contingent first took a trip to one of the Seven Wonders of the World – the Great Wall of China.

Then four Padres signed autographs at a mall … Heath Bell, Justin Germano, Trevor Hoffman and Kevin Kouzmanoff.

Baseball is basically a side-show to the city that will host the 2008 Summer Olympics.

What does this trip do for the Padres?

It gives those involved a chance to break the monotony during the middle of spring training, among other things.

Sure, they will be tired when they return to Arizona for spring training next week. Then it will set in that they had a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Jet lag will also set in, but they’ll have plenty of time to get over it before the March 31 season opener vs. the Houston Astros.

Can Padres pitchers match up in playoffs?

Since it looks like a strong possibility that the Padres will make the National League playoffs, the team might soon have to figure out its postseason pitching rotation.

Of course, the rotation would start with Jake Peavy, Greg Maddux and Chris Young.

After that, it’s a big question mark since current numbers 4 and 5 starters Brett Tomko and Jack Cassel are not eligible for the playoffs because they were not on the Padres’ roster Sept. 1.

In all likelihood, that would make Justin Germano (who has been dropped out of the rotation), the number 4 starter.

The other three all have question marks to consider:

Peavy is 0-2 with a 12.10 ERA in two postseason starts.

Maddux is 5-3 with a 3.47 ERA in the division series, but he’s just 4-8 with a 3.80 ERA in the league championship series.

Young has been the only winning pitcher for the Padres during the last two years of the playoffs, yet he has not won this season since July.

Looking at the Padres’ possible chances playoffs, these numbers are only food for thought.

Padres need starting pitching

In the immediacy, let’s hope the Padres do not allow Barry Bonds to break the Major League Baseball home run record in San Diego this weekend.

But there’s suddenly an even bigger issue with Padres’ pitching.

Jake Peavy is finally back on track, but:

Chris Young is injured.
Greg Maddux can’t go past five or six innings, even when he’s on.
David Wells is getting paid $170,000 (on top of his $3 million base salary) each start to get pummeled.
Justin Germano isn’t fooling anyone any more with his hanging breaking ball.

Enter Clay Hensley. The injury-plagued pitcher has had a terrible 2007 season thus far, but he seems to have regained his form in a pair of three-inning relief stints since being recalled from the minors.

Let’s see how he does in Saturday’s start against the San Francisco Giants.

Luckily for the Padres, the Dodgers and Arizona are not deep in starting pitching either.

So, it may all come down to a battle of attrition in the NL West.

Bonds will break record in San Diego

Bad news for Padres fans.

Barry Bonds is going to break Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record in San Diego this weekend.

Doesn’t it figure he will do it against the Padres?

After all, Bonds has 86 career home runs against San Diego. He does not have more than 65 against any other team.

Bonds also hit No. 700 off Jake Peavy of the Padres.

And speaking of the Padres, aces Chris Young and Peavy will not pitch this weekend against San Francisco.

Bonds probably won’t hit record-breaker No. 756 Friday night against Greg Maddux. But don’t be surprised if it comes Saturday against Tim Stauffer or Sunday off Justin Germano.

Let’s hope we’re wrong. Just the thought of Bonds breaking the record in San Diego makes me ill.

Stick a fork in Padres?

The Padres is dead.

(Hopefully, we’re only saying that with tongue in cheek.)

We all know this team couldn’t hit if it faced Double-A pitching.

But now, it’s obvious that the pitching staff is becoming burned out from carrying the team all season.

Or did you not watch the last three losses against the Fighting Phillies of Philadelphia?

Starting pitchers Justin Germano, David Wells and Jake Peavy allowed 15 runs in 15 2/3 innings. They were only bottomed-out by a bullpen that gave up 13 runs in 11 1/3 innings.

The Padres are also gaining a reputation around the National League for excessive whining.

For instance, the Padres kept complaining yesterday (and rightfully so) that some Phillies’ batters did not have their back foot in the batter’s box. That made television announcers Harry Kalas, Chris Wheeler and Gary Matthews on CW Philadelphia laugh aloud and wonder why the Padres were not complaining about this Thursday when Chris Young was pitching a shutout.

For now, the Padres are a laughingstock. The same thing happened last year when San Diego came out of the All-Star break and was swept by Atlanta by giving up 36 runs in three games.

The Padres were good enough to bounce back last year. This year ...

Padres keep on whiffing

Scott Kazmir of Tampa Bay tied a career high Tuesday night with 11 strikeouts.

Big deal. It came against the Padres.

Or haven’t you noticed that the Padres have struck out 72 times in their last seven games?

Suddenly, lots of deficiencies are showing up in the Padres during their current four-game losing streak.

We’ve documented all season that they can’t hit. Their pitchers also can’t hold runners on base, which cost them the game-winning run in Sunday’s 4-3 loss to Seattle.

And then there’s the once magnificent bullpen. With three starters (David Wells, Greg Maddux and Justin Germano) rarely going past five or six innings, the bullpen is burning out.

The Dodgers are back in a three-way tie for first with the Padres and Arizona. This corner’s money is on the Dodgers to win the NL West.

Hensley will soon replace Germano

This just in: Clay Hensley will replace Justin Germano in the Padres starting rotation around the All-Star break.

Impossible, you say?

After all, Germano is 4-0 with a 1.74 ERA. Hensley is 1-3 with a 7.62 ERA for the Padres … and now pitching in the minors.

What will change?

Starting tonight with the Seattle Mariners, some teams will see Germano for the second time this season. And they’re going to love jumping on that hanging breaking ball they just missed the first time.

Hensley, meanwhile, has much better movement on his ball than Germano.

So don’t be surprised when the Padres alter their pitching rotation about mid-season.

Black manages Peavy well

Bud Black has done a masterful job of managing San Diego Padres pitcher Jake Peavy.

Black continues to move Peavy up in the rotation after off days to maximize his ace’s production, especially at home.

Through Black’s maneuverability, Peavy has pitched the first and last games on each of the last two homestands. In fact, Peavy will make his first road start in his last five appearances when he pitches tonight at Washington.

Not that the star right-hander has failed away from home. In his last road start May 6 at Florida, he allowed just one run and one hit in seven innings while striking out 10 and earning the victory.

Oh, and there’s another part to Black’s strategy of pitching Peavy tonight and moving Justin Germano back to tomorrow.

It means that the Padres top three starters – Chris Young, Greg Maddux and Peavy – will likely pitch in that order during a three-game home series against the hated Los Angeles Dodgers that starts Tuesday.

This blog first predicted on April 27 that Peavy would be the National League’s All-Star starting pitcher this year. That hasn’t changed with his 7-1 record and 1.47 ERA.

Black deserves credit for doing an all-star job of setting up Peavy in his rotation.