(Padres Press Release)

Padres now with a full 40-man roster

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Padres today announced they have agreed to terms with right-handed pitcher Micah Owings on a one-year contract for the 2012 season. Executive Vice President/General Manager Josh Byrnes made the announcement.

"Micah will compete for a spot on our staff,” said Byrnes. “He is a proven contributor as a starter and as a reliever.  Micah's character and versatility made him a priority for us as we looked to add depth to our pitching staff."

The 29-year-old right hander went a perfect 8-0 with a career-best 3.57 ERA (25 ER/63.0 IP) in 33 games, four starts, for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2011.  He went 5-0 with a 3.59 ERA (17 ER/42.2 IP), 34 strikeouts against 17 walks and a .236 (37-for-157) opponents batting averages in his 29 relief appearances, while going 3-0 with a 3.54 ERA (8 ER/20.1 IP) over his four starts. Originally selected by the Diamondbacks in the third-round of the 2005 First-Year Player Draft, he has gone 32-31 with a 4.91 ERA (258 ER/473.1 IP) over parts of five Major League seasons with Arizona (2007-08, 2011) and Cincinnati (2009-10).

At the plate, Owings is a .286 (58-for-203) career hitter, with 14 doubles, two triples, nine home runs, 35 RBI, 27 runs scored and a .507 slugging percentage. He has a career .297 (47-for-158) average as a pitcher, tops among all pitchers with 100-or-more at-bats since 2007.

With today’s transaction, the Padres currently have a full 40-man roster.

(Padres Press Release)

Proceeds From March 23 Game to Benefit Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation

TUCSON - Major League Spring Training is returning to Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium on Sunday, March 18 when the San Diego Padres host the Colorado Rockies at 1:05 p.m. The Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers are playing five days later on Friday, March 23 at 1:05 p.m. Gates open at 11:30 a.m. for both games. The Tucson Padres staff is overseeing all game operations for both Spring Training games.

The Pima County Sports & Tourism Authority, Pima County, the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers have committed the proceeds from the March 23 game to the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation.  Christina-Taylor's passing on January 8, 2011 affected the Dodgers organization closely; her father John Green is a scout for the Dodgers.

Tickets
Wednesday, February 15 - Tickets to both games go on sale online via www.tucsonpadres.com.
Tuesday, March 6 - Tickets to both games go on sale on the phone by calling (520) 434-1367 or by visiting the Kino Stadium box office from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. Kino Stadium's address is 2500 East Ajo Way in Tucson.

"Obviously it was an assassination directly at my character for unprovoked reasons. I've been gone for five months. I mean, to just randomly come after Doug Mirabelli? For what reason? Because you don't like me? I mean, you don't have to like me. Obviously he doesn't like me,"  - A former Padre speaking about his former GM

The Friarhood posted a question on Facebook about who was the best Padres catcher.  That got me thinking about all the great catchers in Padres history: Burrito Soggy Taco, Big Ben Davis, Terry "Orville Moody" Kennedy, Mayor Bruce Bochy, Josh "I make bald and high socks look good" Bard, Ramon "The Prick but was cool when he hit that game winning homerun into the PETCO Park Porch in 2005" Hernandez, and so on.  But no one matches the man, the myth, the legend (sorry John Baker, your time will come)...

December 7, 2005: Traded by the Boston Red Sox to the San Diego Padres for Mark Loretta.
May 1, 2006: Traded by the San Diego Padres to the Boston Red Sox for Josh Bard, Cla Meredith and cash.

DOUG "I'm going deep tonight!" MIRABELLI

Over at Corey Brock’s blog, there is a new post in which he was chit chatting with Padres General Manager Kevin Towers yesterday and somehow the subject of, there almost was a deal for Mark McGwire, came up (McGwire was almost a Padre). Oh how I hate you Corey…now I must browse transactions, rosters & box scores from the wonderful years of 1995-1996 in which players such as Archi Cianfrocco, Andujar Cedeno & Jody Reed were roaming our fields, to see who might have been involved in that deal between KT and then Oakland A's General Manager Sandy Alderson. Thanks a lot. Anyways onto the research….

Towers was hired as GM of the Padres on November 17th, 1995. Less than 2 months on the job could be anytime around early January to January 16th 1996 but considering KT acquired first baseman Wally Joyner on December 21st, 1995, then the offer for McGwire had to have happened before then. So I’m gonna set my range at early December to December 20th, 1995….or basically a month on the job.

Here are all the players who were on our roster in 1995 and were not with us in 1996

FINALLY!  The Padres make a signing to address our offensive woes.  Word came down today that the Padres will be signing right handed pitcher, and 2007 Silver Slugger Award Winner Micah Owings to a Major League contract (tweets Ken Rosenthal).  This looks to be the last piece to the 2012 puzzle.  We definitely needed anotther free agent starter to throw in the mix and why not kill two birds with one stone here.  Owings is a prolific hitter (for pitchers' standards).  He owns a career line .286, with 9 homeruns and 35 RBI.  Not too shabby, that's better than 90% of the 2011 Padres position players.  Not only can he hit, but he isn't that bad on the rubber too.  He pitched in a relief role for the division champs Diamondbacks last year, including a 8-0 records and 3.57 ERA over 33 appearances.  I get the feeling, with this being a Major League contract, that he will compete for that fifth starter spot with Dustin Moseley with the loser moving to the pen.  For a million bucks, I say this was a low-risk/high-reward move by Byrnes.

(Padres Press Release)

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Padres today announced they have agreed to terms with right-handed pitcher Dustin Moseley on a one-year contract for the 2012 season. Executive Vice President/General Manager Josh Byrnes made the announcement.

The 30-year-old right-hander went 3-10 with a 3.30 ERA (44 ER/120.0 IP) over 20 starts with the Padres last year, his first season in the National League.  Moseley underwent surgery on his left shoulder in August of 2011, missing the remainder of the year.

In 100 games, 52 starts, over parts of six Major League seasons with the Los Angeles Angels (2006-09), New York Yankees (2010) and Padres (2011), he has gone 15-21 with a 4.61 ERA (181 ER/353.1 IP).

With today’s transaction, all arbitration-eligible players are now under contract for the 2012 season.

Here's a "series" that I really enjoyed doing called the "Almost" Awards. I call it a "series" because it lasted 3 posts before, quite frankly, I completely forgot about it. Well it's back! To fill you in, here is how I described it back in February of 2011....

"..starting with the 1969 season onward, I'm going through all the voting for awards and writing about the Padres who received votes but came out on the losing end. Also of note the word "Almost" is used very loosely, because I am writing about them whether they finished 2nd or 25th. If they received a single vote they get mentioned."

That's right, you won't find any winners here. Everyone remembers the guy who won the awards, but these are the guys that need some love. Perhaps some of them were even more deserving than the winners even? To bring you up to date here are 1970 (Cito Gaston), 1971 (Dave Roberts), and  1972 (Nate Colbert). Now onto 1973!!

The final chapter of Padres and Pints Episode 2 with Corey Brock is here for your viewing pleasure!

In Part 2 you get the latest scoop on the El Cajon Brewing Company from their General Manager Lisa. Then find out what Padre-damus has predicted for the future and FINALLY you get to check out the Padres and Pints RAPID FIRE! If you like beer and you like baseball then you are clearly in the right place.

Enjoy!

Hey, hey, hey! What do we have here? A video posted on time? CHECK. A video that you can hear the audio? DOUBLE CHECK. RJ's Fro & Avenging Jack Murphy drinking beers whilst chatting with MLB/Padres writer Corey Brock? CHECK, CHECK & CHECK.

For Episode 2 of Padres and Pints, we ventured into the Fro's backyard of El Cajon. The El Cajon Brewing Co. is only a few months old but is quickly making a name for themselves. The beer and food is fantastic. The service is great. There are tons of TVs for your viewing pleasure. How can you resist? You'll get to know more about them in Part 2 on Friday.

In Part 1 here, we chat with Corey about the 2011 season, the Padres off-season and Beautown just won't stop raving about the John Baker acquistion!

*EDIT - I had this setup to auto post BEFORE the Preview of Episode 2. It obviously didn't.

Welcome to the final chapter of our first ever Padres and Pints episode. In case you missed the others, check out the Preview & Part 1 first................Are you up to date now? OK let's continue onward.....

Being that this was our first ever episode, we ran into quite a few problems along the way. The audio sucked, we rambled at times, we talked about Kyung-Min Na for almost 20 minutes (all of which hit the cutting room floor) and I decided to upgrade my operating system, not once, but twice, resulting in glitchy editing programs. But we are learning from these mistakes. An audio recorder w/mic has been purchased, we became a little more organized question wise, Na wasn't mentioned once in Episode 2 and Mac OS X Lion has been removed from my computer until it's up to par. Still, we'd love some feedback or suggestions regarding future episodes. We may have mastered the drinking beer part already but we also want to get better at all the other stuff as well.

Also the Avenger-in-Chief and myself thought a Monday-Preview, Wednesday-Part 1 & Friday-Part 2 format would be better than our initial Friday-Monday-Wednesday idea. We don't want you guys forgetting about us over the weekend!

So with all that said, sit back, relax & enjoy Padres and Pints at Ballast Point with special guest Geoff Young. In this episode we go deep down into the depths of the brewery and chat with Geoff some more about the media in San Diego. Unfortunately the Rapid Fire had to be cut thanks to the audio just being completely unbearable....sorry.

Once again, we'd like to thank Geoff Young of Ducksnorts and Baseball Prospectus & Chris and everyone else at Ballast Point for their hospitality.