Padres Spring Training Report – Mar 29, 2014 (The Final Edition)

It’s over! With the Padres 9-8 victory over the Indians in the final exhibition game, spring training is officially over, and the regular season is now here…YES!!!

Eric Stults looked sharp in his final tune up of the spring, and the Pads swung the bats with conviction, with home runs by Chase Headley, and seth Smith, and a bases clearing double by Yonder Alonso being the big blows.

So now to the nitty gritty…the opening day roster.  The Pads made their last moves of the spring to get to 25 players for the opener, and here were the final decisions:

• Carlos Quentin will start the season on the 15-day DL with a bone bruise in his left knee that he suffered while sliding for a ball during a game.  Buddy could not speculate as to how long Q would be out, but said that it is something that will eventually heal, and is not related to the last surgery that he had which was on his right knee.
• Kyle Blanks had an option left, and the Padres are using it to send him down to El Paso.  It’s not that Kyle had a bad spring, hitting .255/.386 with 2 HR, 7 RBI, and 5 2B.  There were simply two other players who had better springs.
• Tommy Medica had a great spring from day one, and has made the ball club.  He ended up hitting .333/.389, with 3 HR, 8 RBI, and 4 2B.  He hit the ball hard all spring, and showed the ability to hold his own so far in LF, even making a nice sliding catch in the gap today.  This strong spring, coming off of his impressive showing at the end of last season instilled enough belief in the staff and front office that he deserves a chance to keep the hot hitting going.  Now with Q  on the DL, he may get a solid chance to get some playing time in LF, and establish himself as an MLB power bat.
• Xavier Nady has also made the team.  The former Padres making his return also earned his spot on the roster batting .353/377, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 6 2B.  He had good at bats most of the spring, and seemed to get stronger the more PA’s he got.  On the defensive side he did a nice job manning 1B and the corner OF positions.  Welcome ack X!
• The Padres will start the season with 3 catchers, Nick Hundley, Yasmani Grandal, and Rene Rivera.  All three players had solid springs on both sides of the ball.  The decision to go with 3 leans heavily on Grandal’s inability at this point to catch back to back games.  He will do that in an MLB series soon, and once he does shortly  there after that the Pads will likely figure out which 2 backstops to keep as there probably isn’t enough versatility on the bench to keep all 3, even with Grandal playing some 1B today.  Good competition for jobs this spring that brought out the best in each player.
• Robie Erlin and Don Roach were previously announced as the last pieces of the rotation and bullpen respectively, so the pitching is set.

So here is the summary:

PITCHERS:

• Starters
  • Andrew Cashner
  • Ian Kennedy
  • Tyson Ross
  • Eric Stults (L)
  • Robbie Erlin (L)
• Bullpen
  • Huston Street
  • Joaquin Benoit
  • Alex torres (L)
  • Dale Thayer
  • Nick Vincent
  • Tim Stauffer
  • Don Roach

POSITION PLAYERS:

• Infield:
  • Yonder Alonso (L)
  • Jedd Gyorko
  • Evert Cabrera (S)
  • Chase Headley (S)
  • Alexi Amarista (L) – IF/OF
• Outfield:
  • Will Venable (L)
  • Chris Denorfia
  • Seth Smith (L)
  • Xavier Nady – OF/1B
  • Tommy Medica – OF/1B
• Catcher:
  • Nick Hundley
  • Yasmani Grandal
  • Rene Rivera

Your 2014 opening night Padres!

Thanks for following the spring training action through these Spring Training Reports.  I hope they’ve been helpful and entertaining.  I think during the season what I may do is a Series Wrap Up Report at the end of each series.  I would welcome your input if you would like to see something like this, or anything else that would be helpful and enjoyable to you baseball fans throughout the season.

Also please don’t forget that I will be giving away free Field Level Padres tickets throughout the year, through the HeyScan Trivia Challenges.  All correct answers submitted on this site will be eligible to win that month’s random drawing.  Just thought it would be a fun way to get some of you fans out to a ball game, and have some fun learning the history to baseball and the Padres together, so hope you’ll play along and hopefully win some tickets.

I’ll also be doing the HeyScan Fan Polls throughout the season as well to find out what your thoughts are on the hottest Padres and baseball topics being debated.

Can’t wait for the first game tomorrow, and for the 2014 season to get under way!  Looking forward to spending it with you!

GO PADS!!!

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