A sweep of the Dodgers at Petco Park has continued a fantastic finish to 2009. Chris likes what he sees from the Padres as they continue to slay the contenders in the NL West, while Craig also notices how L.A. is coasting across the finish line:
As it turns out, it wasn’t losing Trevor Hoffman that wounded the Padres bullpen this year. It was losing Heath Bell that really hurt.
See, Hoffman was replaced by…Heath Bell. And Bell has been perfect as closer. He’s even got a larger-than-life, brash and bold persona, for good and ill. Bell is fine as closer. But he can’t pitch the 8th every day. And the guys who have been asked to replace Bell’s role as setup man haven’t been able to do the job. Same story on Saturday night, as Luke Gregerson and Cla Meredith combine to cough up a late rally in a 5-4 loss to Houston. Continue Reading →
Maybe nothing’s wrong with Jake Peavy. There is no such thing as a definitive 5-game sample. But so far in 2009, the Padres’ ace has been anything but himself. It started with a subpar WBC performance, which led to him being skipped over for Team USA’s semifinal loss. He returned to the Padres with a bang, striking out 18 in his first 15 1/3 innings of work. Peavy has been banged around since, allowing 30 baserunners and 14 runs in his last 16 innings. But the old baseball axiom says, “the hitters will tell you when something’s wrong”, and what Adam LaRoche had to say yesterday was troubling.