Well, the Bronx really but the Muppets never made a movie there. Either way, the Padres continue interleague play on Tuesday by making a rare visit to Yankee Stadium. Jake Peavy made his career debut at Yankee Stadium in 2001 and this Tuesday the Padres will unveil yet another young talent. Chase Headley, by virtue of both the DH and the DL (Hairston hurt, Giles sore, and now PMac "day-to-day") has finally been called up and will likely start, in some capacity, on Tuesday.
Chase Headley is not Roy Hobbs yet he begins his Padres career with Roy Hobbs like expectations. It's important to remember a few things:
- Headley is playing a position that is not his natural position. The Padres drafted Headley as a third baseman long before Kouzmanoff was in the picture. (Another reason why the MLB Amature Draft is not done to fill immediate need).
- Headley is a slow starter. Or so it seems from his season in Portland so far. The first two months of the season in Portland were dreadful for Chase. He has since been mashing however.
- Major League pitching is not Triple-A pitching. If it were it would be Major League pitching.
- His debut is in Yankee Stadium...enough said there.
All that being said, you can't help but be excited to see Chase finally up with the big club. Now, if only he could pitch the 7th inning...
Cleveland Series Wrap-up
Not much to say here. The Padres drew a tough pitching matchup in two of the three days. While Cleveland avoided Peavy, the Padres had the Major League leader in wins (Cliff Lee) followed by the AL Cy Young (C.C. Sabathia).
Padres had chances yesterday though but an uncharacteristically poor defensive performance by Maddux coupled with another Cla Meredith shellacking did the Padres in. Maddux yesterday, hit a batter, threw a wild pitch, made a throwing error and threw over 100 pitches. Not the typical Mad Dog day. And while I can't be upset about the Padres scoring runs and hitting sac flys, it would be nice to see base hit instead of sac flys to keep innings alive for some crooked numbers.
The nice thing is the NL West across the board had a tough weekend, so it may not have mattered all that much.
The Padres get a better pitching draw against the Yankees, avoiding Chien-Ming Wang (who is likely heading to the DL anyway) while throwing Peavy and Banks in the three game set.
Ducksnorts.com writer Geoff Young sat down with Sandy Alderson to discuss all things Padres and baseball. Sandy Alderson is the current Padres CEO and is one of the architects of the Moneyball strategy. Check out part 1 here.
NOTE: This week will be light on post as I will be travelling to New York on Wednesday to catch the Padres day game on Thursday. It's the final year of Yankee Stadium and the Padres are playing them. I had to go.
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