What every Padres fan should know, Part 1

Let me get some housekeeping items out of the way before I start. First, this is not a guide to viewing games at Petco. Truth be told I have never been to Petco Park, I currently live in DC and I haven't seen the Padres in San Diego since 1994. In fact, I think the last game I went to was the first game of the double header in which Tony Gwynn collected his 2,000th hit.

Second, this is not a guide to being a fan in San Diego but is rather the opposite. I have lived among high concentrations of Colorado Rockies fans, Washington Nationals fans and Baltimore Orioles fans since 1994 and as such, your perspective about your team changes when you understand how other fans view your team. That is what I will talk about in this first part so without further delay, here is what fans need to know.

1. The Adrian Gonzalez rule. The player may change but the general rule still applies, and it applies to most teams, most players are not as popular away from home. Take Gonzalez's case - he is the premier power hitter in the lineup, is a hometown boy and put up numbers comparable to a certain Crime Dog when he played in town. But outside of SD, Gonzalez doesn't compare to the league's other 1B's, or does he? Ducksnorts has a pretty good breakdown showing that Gonzalez has put up some top slugging numbers on the road. Which brings me to my second point:
   
2. You will probably never convince opposing fans how good our players are until they see them in person. If you ask people in DC who the next big 3B will be, any Nationals fan is ready to argue that Ryan Zimmerman is a superstar in the making. Ask the same thing on the opposite coast and Kevin Kouzmanoff's name will dominate the conversation. I have seen both play last year in DC and guess what, they both have potential ... and they both have some work to do before they are even in a superstar conversation.
3. Our pitching staff is overrated by us and underrated by almost everyone else. The knocks against our staff by others, Jake Peavy and Chris Young had career years and aren't that good, Greg Maddux hasn't been an ace in 10 years and Mark Prior and Randy Wolf couldn't stay healthy even if they pitched for a team made up of doctors. Well, Peavy is a perennial Cy Young contender, Young is becoming more consistent, Maddux isn't supposed to be a staff ace and Wolf and Prior don't have to carry the load so whatever innings they turn in are worth the (relatively) small investments we have made in them.
4. The fan base actually travels well to some places. Maybe the lack of a team in the area for more than 30 years had something to do with it but for the past two years when I have gone to Nationals games against the Padres, there are just as many (if not more) Padres fans in attendance than Nats fans. We are no Red Sox nation but I know you didn't see any Pirates fans a week later when Pittsburgh came to town (but then again that was the Pirates). I can't speak for many other places but I do remember a decent fan base at Rockies games a few years back as well.

Hopefully I haven't rambled too much but these were the first things that came to mind. So now I turn the floor over to you, what are some other things every Padres fan should know? After I get some responses I will add Part 2, and you can bet there will be some info on helping Dodgers fans face reality.

West Coast fan in an East Coast city

As I have mentioned a few times, my San Diego days are long behind me even though I am still an avid Padres fan.

And having been born into a Washington Redskins family (my dad grew up in Northern Virginia) I know all about trying to show your loyalty for a team on the opposite side of the country. Even though I haven't lived in SD for around 13 years, I have always lived in NL West country and because I was still getting settled in from my move across the country last year, it didn't seem to hit me as hard but the East is a hard place to root for a team.

Whether it's because the games don't start (mostly) until after 10 p.m. or just the simple fact that West Coast teams have no media exposure out here, I have to say that following the Padres has been hard this year. I have MLB Gameday and all the wonderful data it provides but it still isn't a TV.

But thinking about the scenario, this is what has made me a dedicated fan. With a Redskins obsession on the West Coast, I constantly had to defend my team to people who didn't watch them much and only knew what they saw on ESPN. It's not necessarily a position I love being in but being more than a fair weather fan means rooting for your team even when the situation is less than ideal, and this is one of those cases.

So as I am surrounded by Nats and O's fans, I proudly let my friends know that I root for SD. And after explaining my long history of growing up during the Tony Gwynn era, I have another thing to take solace in, my team can beat theirs. And with both teams trying to get rid of the mess previous GM's left, I think I can safely say the Padres will be better than them for a while.

So while I may not be able to catch my team on TV or the radio most nights, it's still a good time to be a Padres fan despite losing 2-of-3 to Arizona to start the second half off. Because in the end, you could be a fan of the Nationals.

Waterlogged

Well, the Padres lucked out again, this time winning in the rain after letting the Nationals come back to tie them. This series against the Nationals should not have been this hard and Jake Peavy should not have lost on Friday.

David Wells is starting to worry me with his up-and-down outings and that shot Ryan Zimmerman hit off him in the third was huge, landing in the upper deck of cavernous RFK. The lineup was devoid of most of the starters but the pen came through so I guess it's good to have something we can usually count on.

Now we get the Dodgers with Chris Young taking the hill first. This should be a spectacular series, especially with our best pitchers taking the hill. So let's gear up for a great series and hope we come out on top.

What should have been

The Padres score six runs in the first against a guy with an ERA over 8.00; Justin Germano's ERA balloons to 1.74 and the Padres easily defeat a team whose pitching staff is not quite ripe. This is what should have happened when I was at the game last night but of course they wait until the next day to completely trounce the Nationals.

I didn't see any of the game because I was working but anytime you can build a big enough lead to easily win a game in the first inning, it seems like it's a good night.

In the battle of who can get their ERA to 5.00 first, David Wells (2-3, 4.74) takes on Jason Simontacchi (2-3, 5.28), who remarkably is one of the few Nationals starters that is actually healthy.

Go Padres, let's get 2 out of 3.

Note: Because of my crazy schedule, Flashback Friday is not yet posted. I will try to get it up sometime in the next day or two ... or at least before next Friday (ha ha).

Corruption of the Young

So I just got back from the game and while it seemed there were a ton of San Diego fans in attendance, we definitely didn't get what we were looking forward too with Jake Peavy on the mound. Granted, he went seven innings and had seven strikeouts but he was far from sharp, giving up 10 hits and looking really erratic again in the first inning.



But on the bright side, I got to take my daughter and son to their first baseball game, and if this photo is any indication, maybe my daughter will grow up rooting for the right team.



Oh well, here's to hoping David Wells can get us on track Saturday. I still can't believe we lost to the Nationals.

Welcome to Washington

I'm stoked that the Padres won Thursday in extra innings, especially since it was on back-to-back HR's by Mike Cameron and Josh Bard in the 11th, but what is even more exciting is the fact that I get to finally see the Padres in person this year.

And what makes this even more exciting is that Jake Peavy's start got moved up and now I will get to see him pitch instead of Justin Germano Friday. Peavy and the Padres should be able to easily dispose of the Nats and Matt Chico, who has been thrashed in the local media here, as well as most of Washington's pitching.

So hopefully we will get our second series sweep of the season this weekend and stay in first place in the NL West.

How sweep it is

They finally did it, the Padres picked up their first series sweep of the season ... and they did it against one of the hottest teams in the early going.

As Padres fans it's got to make us feel good that this team has what it takes to derail a hot Brewers team that has now lost five in a row. And now the Padres are tied for the second best record in the NL and have a share of the NL West lead.

The best part of Sunday's win had to be another masterful performance by Jake Peavy. And while it is still really early in the season, each start like this is helping Peavy build his case for the Cy Young. But what is even more impressive is Peavy's batting stats this year. He's now got a .231 average, better than four of his teammates in the starting lineup. Too bad they don't offer a hitting crown for pitchers because Peavy could win that too.

After a day off the Padres travel to Pittsburgh before heading to my neck of the woods this weekend, meaning I will finally get a chance to see them up close. Let's hope they can keep this streak going and pick up another series sweep.

Do the Peavy

Chris Young tried his hardest to do a good Jake Peavy impersonation last night and for the first three innings it was spot on. Of Young's 10 K's last night, six of them came in the first three innings as he kept the Cubs off the base paths.

Unfortunately, in a 1-1 game, Bud Black left reliever Cla Meredith in a little too long and the Cubs scored two more runs in the 9th to win 3-1. I know that as a former pitcher Black knows what it feels like to be pulled when you feel like you can get out of jam, but for two consecutive nights, he left his pitchers in a little long in tight situations. He got lucky with David Wells Wednesday, but no so much with Meredith on Thursday.

One of the great things about the Padres playing the Cubs, Braves, Nationals and every few years the Orioles is that living in the DC area, I can actually watch those games when those teams televise the games. On Wednesday, the Cubs announcers were talking about why most managers seem to be former catchers and how a lot of former pitchers have a tough time as a manager and this series proved why.

The most difficult decision has to be when do you pull a pitcher and if you have been in the situation yourself, you are more likely to let him work out of his own jam. Now I'm not criticizing Black or his managing - he does have us at 25-21 despite an inconsistent offense and a terrific pen - but not everyone comes through in tense situations and in a tight game you have to have a quick hook. Meredith was great in the eighth, Heath Bell probably should have pitched the entire ninth.

But hopefully Meredith learned something from this and will not get rattled so easily next time. Our pen, no matter how great it is, will not come through every time but if it can learn as the season goes, we should be able to avoid losses like Thursday's.

Quiet off day

Only two things to say on this off day.

1. I have added links to other blogs and Padres sites. One to definitely check out is at Ducksnorts, where I was involved in a roundtable discussion with other Padres bloggers and writers. We discussed the good, bad and ugly of the first month of the season.

2. According to Padres.com writer Corey Brock, Kevin Kouzmanoff is sticking around a while at third, even though Russell Branyan is back. Rumor was Kooz would be shipped off to Portland allowing Branyan to take over but apparently Kevin Towers and Bud Black are willing to ride out his slow start. I have been critical of Kouzmanoff in the early going but he looked like he was starting to get the hang of things against the Nationals and hopefully he can keep it going. Although, he was getting it together against the Nationals' staff, which doesn't exactly have the most dominating pitchers. But you have to turn your confidence on somewhere and the Nats seem like a good team to do that against.

Greg Maddux squares off against Dontrelle Willis and the Marlins tomorrow in what could be a good pitchers dual if Maddux can hit his spots.

More bad luck

Poor Clay Hensley. After struggling at the beginning of the year with a blister on his throwing hand, he left Wednesday's game in the third inning with a groin injury. Could your season start any worse?

Luckily for the Friars, they were able to overcome their early 1-0 deficit and beat the Nationals 7-3, thanks largely to a five-run fourth inning.

It was hard to think the Padres were going to lose this game, especially since they were facing Matt Chico, who demonstrated such command of a pitch earlier this year he made Rick Vaughn's first spring training performance in Major League look like the second coming of Nolan Ryan.

The win prevented the Nationals from winning their first series this year and helped the Padres enter their day off with a two-game winning streak. The Padres will be back to work Friday when future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux faces off against Marlins ace Dontrelle Willis. That should be quite a matchup.

Friars squeeze one out

Not only is it great to see the Padres back in the win column, but it was great to see how they won. The things that impressed me (in no particular order):

1. Kevin Kouzmanoff finally got some luck when Austin Kearns mistimed his jump on Kouzmanoff's hit to the wall in right, giving Kevin a RBI triple. Hopefully this will be a turning point for the rookie and his hitting this year.

2. Have to love the suicide squeeze Oscar Robles laid down to score Kouzmanoff later in the 7th right after the Nationals pulled Shawn Hill.

3. Chris Young had a great performance on the mound, pitching eight solid innings where he gave up only three hits and struck out eight. Young seemed in control all night and if he could pitch that way consistently, he could be almost as dominant as Jake Peavy.

4. It was nice to see Adrian Gonzalez get retribution on Dmitri Young. After Young robbed Gonzalez of a hit Monday and turned it into a double play, Gonzalez came back with the same play Tuesday, catching a shot from Young and doubling off Kearns.

5. And of course it's always good to see Trevor Hoffman get one save closer to 500 for his career, especially when it helps the Padres get back above .500.

Another outing wasted

Jake Peavy has 26 strikeouts in his last two games yet he is 0-1. How does that happen, especially when you are facing a Nationals team whose starter is 0-4 with an ERA just under 8?

There is no reason the Padres should have fallen short in Monday's 3-2 loss. Granted the lineup had to be adjusted because of Marcus Giles' injury, but as good as he has been, other players have been generating offense this season and one man should not have that much impact on it.

With Chris Young set to take the mound tomorrow against the only Nats starter not struggling that much this year, Shawn Hill (yes 2-2 with a 2.76 ERA is almost Cy Young worthy out here in DC), the Friars need to get the bats going tomorrow if they want to avoid falling below .500.

I hate losses.

Another game, another loss

Is it me or are a lot of the Padres games lately coming down to the last out or extra innings? After their 17-inning marathon Sunday, the Friars have fallen to fourth place in the NL West but are still one game above .500.

I don't think you can complain too much when the bullpen pitches 12 solid innings before giving up a single run, and I think the only thing to do here is to get excited for this week because it is just what a struggling team needs as the Padres face the Nationals for three games beginning Monday and the Marlins. If there is one way to get back on track, bringing Washington into town is about the best way to do it and I should know considering I live in Nationals country. An undefeated Jake Peavy facing a winless John Patterson should help too.