The State of the National League West, Part 2 http://bit.ly/eXsgJD Remember the first seven games against the Padres last year? Remember how you felt after this game? Good. Hold onto that. Save it somewhere in your bile duct. Because at some point next year, when you see a Padres lineup and laugh a jaded little laugh, burp up a glob of that bile, sit up straight, and yell for the Giants to put their cleats on those bastards' throats

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SN: Rotation-wise, San Diego is pretty strong at the top. What do you expect out of Jake Peavy this year?

Bud Black: You look at Jake and C.Y. (Chris Young). It's imperative that Jake and C.Y. make their starts. Hopefully, they can combine for close to 70 starts. We'll feel pretty good about that if they make their turns.

As I did two years ago, I am using the Wisdom of Crowds approach to determine how often each player on your team is expected to play. Unlike my past surveys, this one is available in real-time! Select your team, then choose how you think each player will be used.

Several other businessmen are involved in Moorad's group, which took control of approximately 35% of the club from John Moores when papers were signed on Wednesday. Moorad's group expects to own 100% within five years in a deal that could top out at around $500 million.

Twenty-eighth, 29th, 12th and 29th again for 2009 have been the most recent rankings by 'Baseball America' for the San Diego Padres minor league system compared to the rest of baseball over the past four years.

Click here to download the spreadsheet chronicling the moves of Padres GM Kevin Towers.

Within a week, Kevin Kouzmanoff is to play third base in a game for the first time since having surgery on his right shoulder.

"Vegemite tastes like bile," said outfielder Jody Gerut.

Gerut missed a sign during a recent game; so, per manager Bud Black's spring-training code, he had to eat the dark, brown food paste made from yeast extract. Black saw a jar of it in the locker of one of his Australian pitchers two or three years ago, then put it to use for reasons both comical and punitive. Even Black has eaten the foodstuff, for failing to introduce all newcomers at a team meeting.

"It's gross, and you're talking to someone who eats pig intestines," said Gerut, a fan of a type of Korean stew that uses that ingredient.

"We're big on second chances," Ricciardi, the Blue Jays general manager said. "Third chances? We're not so big on that."

There are people in uniform who will tell you Bush has the best slider in camp. Roy Halladay, for one, might make the case after watching one of Bush's bullpen sessions with reliever B.J. Ryan. "Some kinda arm," Halladay said.

"You may have noticed the first post of what I hope will be many from sdsuaztec4, who lives in San Diego and has the "Strasburg Package", and so has offered to cover the projected #1 pick in the '09 Draft, and future Nationals' Ace?, San Diego State University starter Stephen Strasburg. If the first post is any indication, sdsuaztec will be providing the best coverage of Strasburg's starts in the blogosphere

Five Devil Rays starters won 11 or more games last year. Overrated Jake Peavy led the Padres with 10 wins. Oh and Peavy says he’s "dang glad to be a San Diego Padre." So, he’s either a liar or a complete fucktard. Also, their second best pitcher is fat and unattractive: Dex from Gaslamp Ball notes that Chris Young has "spectacularly large hips for men." (Best thing I’ve read since Mrs. Professor’s expert analysis of Chris Shelton’s ass.)

Offseason Grade: D

With a pool of young players, 2009 is shaping up to be the first of a 5-year plan for when new ownership takes over. It’ll be painful, but at least they’ve managed to be proactive in trying to field a team capable of winning more than 63 games. Right?

Rarely am I referred to as an optimist, so go with the consensus and call me mad. The Padres meet for the first time this weekend at their Peoria, Ariz., spring training digs, and I believe they're going to be better than the cheap Bull Durhams everybody's cracking them up to be.

Two words help explain it. Well, make it four: Jake Peavy, Chris Young.

Here's a look at the 14 teams in the Cactus League in 2009, with miles from Peoria and year each team started playing at that stadium:

First impression: Last we saw the Padres, they were about the most inept team in baseball. Well, since then, things have only gotten worse. Two seasons since winning their second consecutive NL West title, their objectives are to clear payroll and rework a spotty farm system and get back to creating the formula that will work at Petco Park. Supporting the adage that in divorce it is better to be poor than rich (actually, I might have made that up), John Moores has a new partner in Jeff Moorad and in at most five years will be out altogether. That’s actually decent news for Padres fans, as Moorad had a nice run in Arizona, operating the Diamondbacks on a budget while putting an entertaining product on the field. The never-ending story is the Jake Peavy availability. Moorad hasn’t divulged his feelings on the matter. But while Peavy at $8 million in ’09 seems reasonable, it’s likely the next three seasons (at $48 million) aren’t.

"I ripped the capsule off the bone," he said. "I was throwing with no pain and on one pitch, I knew I had done a lot of damage."

Eric Gonzalez
The first player born in the Canary Islands to sign a professional baseball contract with a MLB franchise. Currently a pitcher in the San Diego Padres minor league system.

Floyd is not going to help the Padres win many games next year. There’s a perfectly correct case to make that the Padres should be taking shots on high-upside players rather than playing the twilight of Floyd’s career. I agree with that and Floyd would be better suited to serve as a coach with San Diego, but even still I’ll miss Cliff Floyd the person next year.

"I'm Matt (expletive) Bush," and "(expletive) East County,"

Welcome to The Show! On Friday, San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers will stop by to chat about ESPN.com's Battle of the Budgets.

The Battle of the Budgets takes a look at the economic situation in MLB. Teams are looking to build more cost-conscious rosters. But how? Is it doable? Are there enough talented, relatively inexpensive players to build a competitive roster for, say, $40 million, which is roughly the payroll the San Diego Padres hope to operate at in 2009?

Send in your questions now and join Towers at 1:30 p.m. ET on Friday!

The depth of Moorad's pockets remains to be plumbed, and the identity of his partners remains unrevealed. Probable suspects include Panda Restaurant Group CEO Tom Davin, a partner in Moorad's Hall of Fame (Auto) Racing venture. Like Moorad, Davin is based in Newport Beach. Like Padres CEO Sandy Alderson, Davin is a Harvard-educated Marine

At least at one aspect of the minor leagues the Padres are near the top. That is in the bullpen. As a result, they had some of the best pens in the minors (check out Fort Wayne’s pen).

Since he is now a Milwaukee Brewer, one could understand why Hoffman wasn't on hand.

But when the Padres ran a highlight film of their first 40 years, a number of players popped up on the screen. Conspicuous again by their absence, Hoffman and Peavy.

Hey, it's snowing outside and we're in the midst of Super Bowl week, so what better time to share some Baseball news and schedules with you? ESPN is planning on bringing you around 80 games in 2009 and FOX is planning it's normal set of two or three regional games each Saturday. Here's your first look....

Look for St. Louis to explore other options outside the organization at third base, though a likely scenario would have them calling on AAA prospect (and St. Louis native) David Freese . He hit 26 home runs last year at AAA, while amassing 91 RBI and an excellent .306 BA.

Inman’s season in the Texas League resulted in very good K/IP and H/IP ratios, reflecting the quality of his stuff. His walk rate was too high, and scouts report that he had trouble with his fastball command as the season progressed, though he battled through it. His delivery is funky but deceptive. I’ve liked Inman a lot in the past and still think he is underrated by scouts, but the slippage in his control, as well as an excessive fly ball tendency that could result in too many homers, lower his rating to Grade B- Many scouts would say that is still too high. Perhaps I’m just stubborn about this one, but I still like the K/IP and H/IP.

''We've had no talks about Jake Peavy since they were well-documented during the winter meetings,'' assistant general manager Randy Bush said. ''I don't anticipate anything happening with that.''

San Diego Padres are quite a bit worse at finding second basemen than the Reds are good. Their second basemen have been almost entirely atrocious—the only real bright spots are Mark Loretta and Roberto Alomar, both of whom only was a starter there for three seasons. Only one guy, Tim Flannery, made it to four seasons. Quilvio Veras, the third-best second baseman they’ve ever had, was roughly 7% below average offensively by the already low standards of the position. Before Alomar came along, their best full second base season came from Alan Wiggins, who put up a sOPS+ of 98 and stole 66 bases. The only negatives were defense (he was really an outfielder), a stormy personality, and drug problems.

"David Eckstein is one of the most unimpressive baseball players in the league," Wren said. "He’s not big. He’s not fast. He’s not strong. He has one of the worst arms of any shortstop in the majors. But he’s one of the best shortstops in the majors. He prepares more than anyone in the game."