Padres Spring Training Report – Mar. 9, 2014

MLB’s new instant “Replay Command Center” in NY.

Another fun day of bonus baseball in the desert today, as for the second day in a row the Padres played to a 10 inning tie, this time 2-2 with the Diamondbacks at Salt River Fields.

Stults made his third start of the spring and looked much sharper in my opinion than in his previous two outings.  He allowed 2-runs on 5 hits over 3 1/3 innings.  The runs crossed on a two out rally when he allowed a 2B, 1B, and 3B consecutively to the 8, 9, 1 batters of the lineup, but settled back down.  Overall there were better placed fastballs, and a nice mix of some signature slow CB’s, cutters, and change ups to keep the batters off balance for the most part.  Definitely a step in the right direction.

The rest of the pitching corps posted zeros, and generally looked sharp doing it. Donn Roach continued to show he’s close to being able to help out at the highest level by retiring all 8 batters he faced, 5 by ground ball.  Alex Torres showed off his strong arm today, looking sharper in his second outing as a Padre, retiring his side in order and notching a K.  Benoit followed with a solid “0” of his own once again.  He’s now pitched 4 times, has yet to allow a run, and has struck out 8.  Tim Stauffer may have been the least dominating of the group today making several mistakes up n the zone with breaking pitches, but still working out of it unscathed.  Finally, Dennis O’Grady was called on the pitch the 10th and pitched a flawless frame, even pitching over one of 3 Padre errors today.

As the score indicates the hitters as a whole did not do much, but there were a couple of good individual efforts. Seth smith had 2 hits today including a 2B, to raise his avg. to .313.  Local kid Alex Dickerson also showed he’s starting to find his rhythm by doubling in the tying run for the Padres in the 8th.

The Padres uncharacteristically this spring committed 3 errors today, all of them late in the game by some of the younger players, and none of them ultimately impacting the score.  There were several nice plays, however, and they came from Alexi Amarista at SS.  He had two slow rollers that he got good jumps on, charged nicely under control, and got rid of the ball quickly to record outs, including a double play to end the 3rd.  He then made the play of the day robbing AZ of a hit on the middle as he raced over to snare the ball behind the 2nd base bag, spun 360, and fired a strike to first for the out to end the inning…sexy Alexi!  Tommy Medica showed he’s improving his glove work at first as well, making several nice scoops of throws in the dirt to convert outs.

Also worth noting in this game was Buddy Black’s first use of MLB’s new instant replay system.  It took place on a close play at first on a throw that was in the dirt, and scooped by Cody Decker.  The play was close, and did appear to be the correct safe call, but having been encouraged before the game to use the new system to test it out Buddy complied. The call was indeed upheld, and took about 40 seconds to get a definitive answer from the umpire reviewing the Video.  All in all that instance the protocol appeared to run pretty smoothly, but there was another challenge earlier in the game by AZ skipper Kirk Gibson that wasn’t as slick.  That one also eventual upheld the original call, but took 2:34 to figure that out.  It seemed a little lengthy as we waited there, watching nothing other than a huddle of umpires with headphones on, and players standing around wondering what was taking so long.  It provided everything I have feared IR could potentially bring….a long boring stop in the action, providing an undefinitive review that leads to the call staying as is.  I’m sure it will get better as a process, but truthfully I’ve never been one who felt like my enjoyment of the game was going to be enhanced in any way by incorporating this technology, and so far I stand by that opinion.  In any case we got our first taste of it today, and more to come.

Padres made their first cuts of the spring this morning, and you can read all about it in the article posted earlier on this site.  More cuts are on the way here shortly, probably a few at a time as the days go by, as opposed to picking a single day to send down a group.  We’ll keep you updated of all the changes as they take place. 

Cameron Maybin was back in camp today, and apparently was not open to formally talking to the media just yet.  Can’t blame him for needing at least a day to catch his breath after in just a few hours loosing a family member, and a piece of his season with the torn biceps tendon.

Nothing else to report that I can think of right now. Oh, Yasmani came out of his simulated game test yesterday with flying colors and the next step is apparently live game action which he could see any day now.  It will be interesting to see if he is able to get himself up to speed both skill and endurance wise by March 30th.

Padres will play the Rockies tomorrow, again at beautiful Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale.  Wouldn’t mind a well payed Padres W in 9! Ted Leitner and myself will bring you the call on the Padres.com webcast, with first pitch at 1:10 PST.

Hope you’ll join us!

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