Spring recap No. 1: Royals 13, Padres 9

Upside: Shawn Estes took the mound, threw 30 pitches and left uninjured. Matt Antonelli flexed his long ball stroke, going deep in the 5th and Will Venable also went yard in the 7th, showing there is some power in the farm system after all.

Downside: Estes gave up 6 runs in 2/3 of an inning (but how much did we really expect out of him?), we lost to the Royals, which preseason or not, is kind of low and this picture on ESPN.com sums up Jim Edmonds in CF for the Padres.


















Let's hope this really isn't a sign of things to come. Welcome to San Diego Jim ... or at least Peoria right now I guess.

Spring Training Game 1 Preview: Royals at Padres

Kansas City vs. San Diego
At Peoria Stadium, 12:05 p.m. PT

Shawn Estes takes the mound, maybe I mentioned that already? To counter, the Royals plan on sending Gil Meche, Hideo Nomo and Jimmy Gobble - hopefully at different times - to the mound (sorry for the bad joke, just shaking the rust off). It's spring and it's the official Cactus League opener for both teams so we can now return to business as usual. Go Padres.

Spring Training: Mariners 10, Padres 3

Spring baseball has unofficially begun as the Padres lost the annual charity game against our "bitter" rivals Seattle on Thursday, 10-3.

Despite being blown out in a meaningless game, si.com is reporting that Trevor Hoffman looked sharp, pitching a "perfect inning."

The one part of the story that gets me is the description that Hoffman "threw sharp breaking pitches and signature changeups in the fifth." Now we all know Hoffman has the wicked change that has made him so effective for so long but I thought he had all but ditched the breaking stuff.

Now before I get carried away I am reminding myself that this isn't even an official Cactus League game, but I can't help but wonder if Hoffman might be reaching into his past to maybe give him some new tricks this year and push off talk of his inevitable decline one more season. But again, it's only the beginning of the spring so I guess we will have to wait and see if this breaking stuff is for real.

Anyways, it's nice to have something other than speculation to talk about. So happy spring and enjoy the return of Shawn Estes to the mound tomorrow against Kansas City.

Estes returns to the mound

Well it looks like the search for a No. 5 starter is about to get a little more crowded, and a little more fragile, as Shawn Estes makes a long-awaited return to the mound in the Cactus League opener on Friday against Kansas City.

It's been almost two seasons since Estes last pitched for SD and I'm sure that many casual fans are wondering either who this guy is or are probably thought Estes has retired.

Looking at Estes' career stats on baseball-reference.com, he was an All Star in 1997 and owns a career record of 99-90 with a 4.71 ERA in 1,634 1/3 innings - 6 of which have been for the Padres (0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in 1 game).

I don't know which is scarier, thinking Estes could be the No. 5 guy until Mark Prior comes back, thinking Prior could be the guy or knowing Glendon Rusch is in the mix. Just thinking about that trio, combined with No. 4 starter Randy Wolf makes my arm start to hurt.