Padres Spring Training Report – Mar. 18, 2015

Coming in to today’s game with the Rockies the Padres were tied for the most HR’s in spring training with the Cubs at 19 each, with the Pads having played one less game than Chicago.  They had homered in 10 of the 15 games they had played.  Well, after today’s 10-3 victory over the Rocks, it’s time to change those numbers to 11 of 16 games with a home run, and the MLB leading long ball number at 20.

Today’s list of Friar highlights is a lot more fun than yesterday’s!

• Cody Decker – Bommmmmba!!! He has 133 career minor league home runs, including 27 last year in AAA El Paso.  Today he showed off the power to all in attendance by hitting a grand slam just to the right of dead center field breaking open the ball game in the 8th inning.  It was his second round tripper of the spring, and tied him for most RBI’s on the team with 7.  With the blast also came the usual batch of tweets and emails asking “What does he need to do to get a legitimate chance with the Pads?”  It’s a legitimate question.  There is no easy answer, other than to say he A.) needs to keep putting up big power numbers, B.) has to keep working on his defense at all the various positions he plays, C.) needs to keep fighting and kicking the door in.  He’s 28 years old, so the “prospect” stage has mostly passed him. Now he simply needs to keep putting up numbers and be in the right place when someone ahead of him gets hurt or performs himself out of the big leagues. Simple as that…and as hard as that, but he’s doing what he can this spring.
• Carlos Quentin – Hammered two doubles today, and had to hustle on both to get into scoring position ahead of the incoming throw.  Not only showing that he’s hitting well, but also that his knees are good enough to allow him to aggressively and successfully run the bases.
• Tommy Medica – Another hard hit today….what new? Now hitting .524 this spring.
• Kelley, Maurer, Vincent, Garces & Valverde – Padres ‘pen posted 5 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing only 3 hits while striking out 7.  Solid effort by each of them.  Especially good to see Maurer back out there after missing the past couple of weeks with a sore back.  Vincent broke 3 bats with his nasty cutter. Garces again threw well, and could be getting some consideration for being a lefty out of the ‘pen.  Valverde needed a scoreless outing and got it striking out the side to end the ball game.
• Tyson Ross – An inconsistent outing with flashes of excellence, and moments of wildness. He struck out 5 and at times the slider was its usual unhittable self.  However, he lost control with two outs in the 3rd issuing a walk, committing an error, and uncorking 3 wild pitches, to allow 2 runs to cross.  He got out of it, but it showed he’s still working on getting that rhythm locked in that is so important for his success.

Tomorrow the team gets a much needed day off. Not so much physically needed as much as mentally to freshen the focus and reset the mind for a strong finish these last two weeks heading into opening day.

The Pads will be back at it on Friday at Peoria against the Royals.  It’s a night game 7:05 start, and we’ll bring you the action on the Mighty 1090. Enjoy the off day!

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