my father and i made the trip from portland OR to sunny AZ from sunday to friday. we saw a game each day we were there except friday. we followed the padres every day except thursday, when they had the day off. i left feeling crappy about the prospects for 2009. on monday chase headley won it with a walkoff homer with 2 outs to beat the royals 9 to 7. it just got worse from there. tuesday cha cha got wacked for 9 runs in less than 5 innings and they lost to the angels 10 to 5. wednesday carl "my elbow still hurts" pavano cruised through six innings as the indians beat us down 8 to 4. hear are some brief observations i gathered over those three games.

-headley seems more patient at the plate than last year.

-david eckstien is really fun to watch. he sprints to first on walks and seems to enjoy being out there all the time. he should be a hard guy to stay mad at even when (or if i guess) things go down the s****er this season.

-cha seung beck sucks.

-as a utility inf off the bench i like chris burke more than egon or cabrera. hes got a decent glove and runs better. cant hit, but most ph abs should go to cliff floyd anyway.

-i like kyle blanks, but if the front office doesent want to teach him to play in the outfield, why keep him behind adrian? why not trade him for bullpen help?

-speaking of the pen....oy vey. all in all i didnt see much to convince me most every media publication ive read is wrong about the pads, but ill bet itll at least be more fun to watch than last year. go padres!!!