Peavy needs to be more careful in words, deeds

Jake Peavy needs to grow up sometimes when it comes to the things he says and does.

The Padres’ ace pitcher stayed silent all winter when it came to possibilities of him being traded to the Chicago Cubs, etc. … which was probably his best course of action.

Why should he be silent more often?

Because as a celebrated athlete, Peavy does get caught up at times in thinking that he and his peers are above the law.

Rather than try to say it myself, consider a “right on” letter to the editor from Bob Bagnall of San Diego in the San Diego Union-Tribune on Sunday:

“So Jake Peavy asks, in reference to baseball players found to have used steroids, “How can you fault a guy for trying to make a living for his family?” Apparently Peavy makes no distinction between those who choose to adhere to laws, ethics, morals and values as they struggle to make livings for their families, and those who choose to ignore them.

So I guess someone robbing or cheating someone else should also be absolved as long as he makes it clear he's doing so to support his family. Unfortunately, Peavy has a history of acting as if sports stars are above the law. He was arrested and jailed after ignoring an Alabama airport official's request to move his unattended truck, responding “Write me a ticket” and “Call a real cop.” (“Peavy gets arrested on disorderly charge,” Jan. 5, 2007 U-T)

I'm a huge, lifelong Padres fan. And I hope Peavy spends his entire, sure-to-be-stellar career in San Diego. But I had also hoped that exposure to influences such as Bud Black and Greg Maddux had resulted in some necessary maturing on his part. His statement here makes me question that. Thank goodness Maddux is back in a coaching role, and Peavy also has an honorable teammate like Chris Young to show him the way. Hopefully he'll listen.”

Well said, Bob.

Dodgers should be hooting, howling in NLCS

During Game 3 of the 1977 National League Championship Series (NLCS) in Philadelphia, the crowd noise caused Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Burt “Hoot Owl” Hooton to lose control.

He walked three consecutive batters, and couldn’t even make it out of the second inning.

Will the Phillies’ fans again get to the Dodgers when the 2008 NLCS begins Thursday?

Probably not.

There are three main reasons the Dodgers should win:

Joe Torre: He was criticized annually for not getting out of the first round with the New York Yankees. The Yankees didn’t even make the playoffs this year; Torre advanced to Round 2. Advantage: Torre.

Manny Ramirez: He stopped playing for the Boston Red Sox but can’t stop playing for the Dodgers. Don’t expect him to stop now. Advantage: Manny.

Greg Maddux. OK, he’s only 2-5 with the Dodgers. But do you see how the LA pitchers – especially the younger ones – immediately go to Maddux when they come out of a game?

The Dodgers’ fourth advantage is a somewhat healthy Rafael Furcal at shortstop. He may not be the .357 hitter he was before being injured in May, but his mere presence at the top of the batting order makes the Dodgers better.

NLCS: Advantage, Dodgers.

Without Maddux, Padres face pitching blues

Now that Greg Maddux has traded in his Padre uniform for Dodger Blue, it sure leaves the Padres’ pitching staff with the blues.

After Jake Peavy (and with Chris Young disabled), who would you now consider the team’s No. 2 starter?

Cha Seung Baek, who is 0-7 at Petco Park?

Josh Banks, whose ERA is 6.51 since the All-Star break?

Chad Reineke, who has one major-league start and throws a fastball without any movement?

Yikes!

Thinking back to the start of the season, the Padres were hoping to make a pennant run with a pitching rotation of Peavy, Young, Maddux, Randy Wolf and eventually Mark Prior.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

Padres don't appear to be good sellers

So the Padres are sellers instead of buyers this year.

What goods do they have to sell?

We saw the answer was “not much” when Tony Clark was traded back to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a minor-league pitcher.

After all, what else could you expect to get for someone batting .239 with one home run and three RBI in 88 at bats?

Now the Padres’ most likely candidates to go are pitchers Greg Maddux and Randy Wolf.

When you consider their recent fates, it’s doubtful they could bring much more than Clark in a trade:

Maddux: He’s winless in his last 12 starts and has been the victim of some bad luck. But when you consider he couldn’t hold a 3-0 lead against Minnesota at Petco Park last month, some of it is certainly on him.

Wolf: In his last six starts, he’s 1-5 with a 6.82 ERA. Considering he tends to be injury prone in the second half, his value isn’t exactly going through the roof, either.

So there you have it. The Padres are sellers with little of value to sell.

So much for baseball interest in San Diego this summer.

Bring on the Chargers!

Padres have thrown in the towel

You think things can’t get any worse than the Padres?

Well, maybe they can.

This pathetic team has to play 45 of its last 79 games on the road, which may sound like a good thing after losing eight straight at home.

Then you consider the Padres are 11-25 on the road and start to wonder if they might be better off playing on neutral sites.

Let’s look at a couple of the bad numbers for a second:

Not only have the Padres lost eight straight on a homestand for the first time in 24 years, they also are second-worst than in more than a decade midway through the season.

Consider the team’s record the past 11 years when suffering its 50th loss:

1998: 90-50
1999: 49-50
2000: 39-50
2001: 44-50
2002: 34-50
2003: 23-50
2004: 58-50
2005: 50-50
2006: 55-50
2007: 56-50
2008: 32-50

Since CEO Sandy Alderson won’t fire himself, he may as well start by trading veterans such as Greg Maddux, Brian Giles and Randy Wolf for something.

As for 2008, the Chargers can’t start soon enough!

Padres should trade Maddux to Chicago Cubs

The Padres should do Greg Maddux a favor and trade him to a contending team – the Chicago Cubs.

The last-place Padres aren’t doing Maddux any good, but vice versa isn’t necessarily true.

Maddux is winless in eight starts since career victory No. 350 on May 10, yet it isn’t his fault at all.

Since then, Maddux is 0-2 with a 2.70 ERA and has watched the beleaguered Padres’ bullpen blow the lead four times after he left a game while in line for win No. 351.

This has to stop!

The Padres have long coveted Cubs outfielder Matt Murton, so a Maddux-for-Murton trade could certainly be in line at this point since Murton does little more than warm Chicago’s bench.

Plus, sending Maddux to the Cubs could turn out to be one of those Cinderella stories that are few and far between in Major League Baseball.

Maddux pitched his first career game in relief for the Cubs on Sept. 10, 1986; remaining with Chicago until playing for Atlanta (1993-2003) and returning to the Cubs (2004-July 2006).

As the Cubs seek their first World Series title since 1908, Maddux could be the missing piece to the puzzle in their starting rotation.

It would be quite a story if Maddux could go back and help the Cubs win the World Series in likely his final season.

Frankly, it’s the type of story that happens once every 100 years or so on the north side of Chicago.

Greg Maddux: At a loss for decisions

It took Greg Maddux five starts to go from career win No. 349 to No. 350.

In six starts since, he has gone from No. 350 to stuck on No. 350.

Just call him Mr. No-Decision of the Padres ... until Sunday’s 7-3 loss at Cleveland, that is.

Maddux had five straight no-decisions until Sunday, joining a list of frustrated pitchers who had quite a string of consecutive no-decision starts in 2008:

Shawn Chacon, Houston, 9
Adam Eaton, Philadelphia, 6
Scott Baker, Minnesota, 5
Kason Gabbard, Texas, 5
Shawn Hill, Washington, 5
Maddux, 5

Thus far, Maddux is just 3-5 with a 3.31 ERA.

He’s rarely more than a 5 or 6 inning pitcher nowadays, so it doesn’t help that the bullpen always seems to collapse behind him.

Maddux is one of the best decision-makers on the mound; too bad he can’t get a winning decision nowadays.

What happened to Padres' starting pitching?

Remember when the Padres bragged about having perhaps the best starting pitching rotation in Major League Baseball?

Well, don’t look now, but …

Jake Peavy (4-2, 2.47) is not pitching like a Cy Young winner.

Chris Young (3-3, 3.94) has turned very average.

Greg Maddux (3-3, 3.60) will probably be gone to a contending team in July.

Randy Wolf (2-3, 5.16) has had a terrible May.

Aging Shawn Estes will make his first major-league start in more than two years tonight against the Chicago Cubs.

The starting pitchers were once thought to be the only strength among the Padres. Now, it looks as if the team does not have any strengths at all.

Padres can't draw flies at Petco Park

Did anybody else notice how low the Padres’ attendance was this past weekend at Petco Park?

Playing their only home series in a three-week span, it seemed like the Padres couldn’t draw flies.

Friday night, Cy Young winner Jake Peavy pitched against the defending National league champion Colorado Rockies. Attendance: 31,057.

Saturday night, Greg Maddux earned his 350th career victory on a night when free Peavy T-shirts were given to fans. Attendance: 34,117. (Those free T-shirt giveaways used to draw 65,000 fans at Qualcomm Stadium.)

Sunday afternoon, the Padres won a series for the first time in nearly two months. Attendance: 28,624.

Obviously, the fans are already being turned off by the Padres.

When do the Chargers kick off their season?

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.

Padres to finish third again?

The Padres finished third in the NL West last season, but it really wasn’t as bad as it sounded.

They finished one game behind first-place Arizona and came within a hand of (not) touching home plate vs. Colorado to determine the National League’s final playoff team.

This season?

Don’t be surprised if the Padres finished third again; yet do be surprised if they come within one game of first place.

This is a team with three strong starting pitchers (Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Greg Maddux) and a solid bullpen. But from there, the team has more question marks than Hillary Clinton’s memory of events from when she was First Lady.

The outfield has more holes than a golf course; the bench is average. The infield is solid, the catching is adequate; but the power is missing. Here’s a look at predicted 2008 standings:

NL West
Arizona
Los Angeles
San Diego
Colorado
San Francisco

NL Central
Chicago
Milwaukee
Houston
St. Louis
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh

NL East
Philadelphia
Atlanta
New York
Washington
Florida

AL West
California
Seattle
Oakland
Texas

AL Central
Detroit
Cleveland
Minnesota
Chicago
Kansas City

AL East
Boston
New York
Toronto
Tampa Bay
Baltimore

NL Wildcard: Los Angeles

AL Wildcard: New York

World Series: California over Arizona

Padres reside in baseball's best division

In two 2008 baseball preview magazines at Barnes & Noble, the Padres are picked to win the NL West in one; yet the other selects them to finish in fourth place.

This is very representative of the way the division lines up for this season.

John Kruk of ESPN rightfully said Sunday that the NL West is the toughest overall division in baseball. Steve Phillips added that four of the five teams should finish over .500, which is exactly what happened last season.

(And to think the Padres won the division in 2005 with the same 82-80 record that placed the Los Angeles Dodgers fourth in 2007!)

Arizona probably peaked a year early when it won the division in 2007, and now All-Star Dan Haren joins Brandon Webb at the top of the pitching rotation.

Colorado made it to the World Series last year with an incredible run … but it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Rockies go from first to fourth place this season.

The Dodgers have a healthy Rafael Furcal at shortstop and Joe Torre to run the show … which makes them better on paper (but they always seem to underachieve.)

The Padres continue to have a great top-of-the rotation with pitchers Jake Peavy, Chris Young and Greg Maddux. Get left field straightened out and they should contend again.

Virtually all experts are picking San Francisco to finish last. But without troublemaker Barry Bonds around, the Giants have turned younger, happier … and could even escape the cellar if all goes right for them.

As the ESPN experts say, look for this to be the best division in baseball.

Padres pitchers are hurting

The Padres have done quite well taking players off other teams’ scrap heaps the past couple of years, but can it happen again in 2008?

Take a look at the pitching staff after you get past the top three starters: Jake Peavy, Chris Young and Greg Maddux.

What you have waiting in the wings could potentially be dangerous to opponents … or dangerous to the Padres for counting on so many pitchers coming off injuries.

Consider:

Randy Wolf hasn’t pitched since last July 3 because of a shoulder ailment.
Mark Prior hardly pitched at all in 2007 due to shoulder and oblique injuries.
Shawn Estes hasn’t worked since April 2006 due to Tommy John surgery.
Glendon Rusch hasn’t pitched since 2006 because of a blood clot in his lung, a bad back and a strained elbow.

If any two of these four recover and have a successful 2008, the Padres should be sitting pretty. If not, they’re going to be sitting back and wondering why they signed so many hurting pitchers.

The Padres have done well the past two seasons by picking up other teams’ leftovers such as Heath Bell, Josh Bard and Cla Meredith.

But all three came to San Diego in good health … which is more than you can say about the candidates vying for the final two jobs in this year’s starting rotation.

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.

Are the Padres becoming whiners?

David Wells approached the home plate umpire Saturday after giving up a home run.

The Padres pitcher argued balls and strikes, was told to return to the mound, then got ejected for coming back to argue more.

Finally, he ended his day with the childish behavior of throwing the ball against the netting behind home plate.

Greg Maddux spent Sunday arguing balls and strikes with the plate umpire. It’s obvious they’re not calling pitches off the plate strikes for him any more.

When Marcus Giles struck out to end Sunday’s 5-4 loss to Atlanta on a called strike off the plate, ESPN announcer Jon Miller said, “Those were the pitches Maddux wanted all night to be strikes.”

The unfortunate question now is: Are the Padres becoming whiners?

Perhaps that should be deferred to other teams.

The Florida Marlins certainly tired of watching Padres leadoff batter Brian Giles draw walks against them. Arguably, a lot of the pitches called balls were the same ones Wells and Maddux were begging for to be strikes.

“Brian Giles is a product of the system,” TV analyst Tommy Hutton said on FSN Florida. “I guarantee you if a few of those borderline pitches would be called strikes, he’d start swinging more.”

Maddux and Wells are being squeezed much more lately, not unlike all other pitchers. But as soon as the umpires start calling those pitches strikes, it’s certainly going to impact Brian Giles’ approach at the plate.

Black is managing quite well

Bud Black is doing a masterful job of managing the Padres thus far.

The rookie skipper has made almost all of the right moves and can be praised for two things in particular: his patience and handling of the pitching staff.

Patience was a virtue when Black stuck by rookie third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff while most others wanted him sent to the minors early in the season.

And being a former pitcher and pitching coach, Black has shown he knows how to manage a pitching staff. He certainly deserves much credit for the Padres having the lowest ERA in the major leagues.

Sure, he’s not perfect. He wasted reliever Cla Meredith on an intentional walk Tuesday night because Royce Ring did not have enough time to get warmed up while Greg Maddux was getting battered around in the seventh inning.

But that was an exception.

Black could definitely be considered a frontrunner for Manager of the Year at the halfway point of 2007.

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.