Throwdown Thursday – Week 13

Every Thursday, we at Chicken Friars will pick the two best Padres performers over the past week and analyze what they accomplished. Then we will leave it up to you, the fans, to decide who earned the week’s Throwdown Thursday’s honor.

 Clayton Richard has posted back-to-back wins in the weekly Throwdown Thursday competition.  First, Richard beat out Jason Marquis in a close vote to win the Week 11 Throwdown Thursday award, and then he went on to defeat Huston Street in Week 12.

Street was no competition for Richard, who ended up getting 89 percent of the Chicken Friars fan votes. The remaining 11 percent of the vote went to Street.

Richard won the award for a second straight time by tossing a combined 13 2/3 innings while giving up a total of eight hits and collecting 11 strikeouts in two outings last week against the Seattle Mariners and the Houston Astros. He also gave up four earned runs combined. Richard was dominant on the mound last week, but where he did all his damage was with the bat. Richard put together a .750 average for the week with a double, three RBI and a run scored.

Richard continued his dominance this week, but won’t be on the Week 13 Throwdown Thursday ballot as he was outshone by two other Padres. One is a 5-foot-7 scrawny infielder who found his power stroke. The other is the rookie catcher who was acquired last season in a five player deal. Alexi Amarista VS. Yasmani Grandal.

Alexi Amarista- Amarista has practically came out of nowhere to be one of the hottest hitters of the past week in all of Major League Baseball.  The 5-foot 7, 150 pound infielder has found his inner Babe Ruth as he clubbed four home runs in the past week, including two in one game against the Rockies. He also collected nine hits to accumulate a week average of .480 with 12 RBI,but the number that really stands out is his1.040 slugging percentage. He boosted his overall average to .289

Yasmani Grandal- When the  Padres recalled Grandal from Triple-A Tucson they knew he would make a good first impression, however, he has exceed all expectations and has posted bogus numbers last week. The rookie catcher is the first player to hit three home runs with his first three major-league hits since Keith Mcdonald accomplished the feat with St. Louis in 2000. Grandal has compounded a .316 weekly average with three home runs, four RBI and a .947 slugging percentage.

Now Padres fans, vote in our poll for the Padres performer of the week.  Is it Amarista or Grandal?