Hot Kouz Excites Friars

[anatta]

There is no official Padre thread, so I thought I'd give the home team some love. Padres look primed to move into a tie for first place with a win tonight. We gave Peavy his due here, he and Chris Young are pitching well at the top of the rotation. Maddox and Wells still have something left, can usally keep it close for the good bullpen. Hoffman is still hanging on and closing down games.

Padres locked up 1B Adrian Gonzalez and he is an all-star. At the other corner, Rookie Kevin Kouzmanoff, has finally started to hit in a big way. He hit a grand slam yesterday, and his average is up to .217 (he was hitting .110 or something all year.).

National League is pretty wide open. After the Mets, why not the Pads! I like Bud Black as a manager. Bochy is doing well in SF, good, I liked him too, but a change was needed after 2 straight 1st round exits. Padres got NOTHING from 3B and CF Cameron all year, but now both are hitting, and if everybody else plays normal, well, who knows?

edit: oops - Cubs bullpen might let Dodgers win.

[BJLTNYK]

Kouz was probably worried about his job security. Chase Headley is tearing the cover off the ball at AA and is a much better defender to boot.

[kyleb]

The Padres' pitching is ridiculous - Peavy and Young are easy #1 and #2 pitchers on almost any team, Maddux gives you league-average stuff, and Wells probably has something left in the tank. The bullpen is clearly insane with Meredith, Linebrink, and Hoffman all being plus-plus relievers.

The defense is probably average or slightly above average with Khalil Greene and Marcus Giles being strong defenders up the middle, but Kouzmanoff is definitely one of the worst defensive third basemen in the game (scouts say his glove is completely unacceptable there and needs to be moved to first - impossible in San Diego due to Gonzalez). Mike Cameron is at least average in center field and probably above-average by most metrics, though Brian Giles isn't going to win any gold gloves at this stage of his career.

However, the offense isn't exactly great. Brian Giles is nothing more than a high OBP low SLG guy and a defensive liability in the field, Marcus Giles doesn't have the line drive power we saw a few years ago, and Kouzmanoff still has a lot of holes in his swing that scouts fear will be his demise. I really don't like the trade for Kouzmanoff, since Barfield was an outstanding second baseman and will be for the Indians for a long time, though I guess getting nothing from the hot corner for two years in a row is a bit frustrating.

All in all, the Padres are clearly one of the two best teams in the NL West (Dodgers being the other one), and should contend for the division title barring any nasty injuries. I say this as a person who bet on the Diamondbacks to win the NL pennant, so I'm being pretty objective here. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[IggyWH]

I was at the Cinci game a week and a half ago when he went 3-3 with 2 RBI's and the walk off walk to win it. It was pretty cool seeing the crowd really get into it and back him.

I'm not used to seeing that kind of fan support. I went to the game just to enjoy a game and didn't care about either team but found myself cheering hard for Kouz.

[Momo]

I too am glad to see him hitting well. Was getting to the point where I wanted Branyan to start and Kouz to be sent down so he could crush the minors and build some confidence. BTW kyle have you seen him play? I know the report his D was suspect, but for a rookie in the majors having only 3 errors is good. Along with that he has made some pretty amazing plays down there. Theres no way Kouz is going to move Gonzalez from first. Over all I think the padres pitching will carry they like it has for the last two years.

[kyleb]

His range is very poor at third base, despite the low amount of errors.

[DesertCat]

The Dbacks have just started to hit. Randy Johnson is just getting healthy. The Friars should start thinking wildcard.