Apr 15, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA; San Diego Padres pitcher Eric Stults (right) is congratulated by Alexi Amarista (left) and Cameron Maybin (center) after hitting a three-run home run in the second inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Padres all are smiles as they beat LA at Dodger Stadium for Jackie Robinson day. By all accounts and measures, the game was clean and respectful with Carlos Quentin serving his 8 game suspension and the Padres playing a man down.  It was almost like the movies with the LA stars and celebrities in place, including Harrison Ford throwing out the first pitch.

The Padres haven’t had a lot to feel good about from the start of the season, but it seems to me that there is still a feeling of resiliency in the air. The Padres are fighters. See Carlos Quentin, heh. Pardon my choice of words for the sake of humor, but the Padres are definitely fighting and battling right now. And not to add that much more to the Quentin side story, but I will say in my eyes he’s a hero. Intimidation and respect play into baseball, and probably that’s what a lot of the confrontation really boiled down too, including what transpired on Zack Greinke‘s end.  Say what you will about Carlos, but I doubt he carried any intent in his heart to injure anyone, that’s why he went in for a tackle and not with fists. Tackle and wrestle. It is unfortunate that Quentin is also a man beast and that his tackle crushed and injured Greinke. I used to tackle my little brother and punch him on the back myself when I wanted to inflict punishment on him without actually hurting him.  Baseball also has this strange order of double speak. For all the publicly shaming and disowning of Carlos Quentin that the media or teams have said about Carlos, there is the same double speak that loves him. He has single handily generated more CPM than any early season story.  Probably more than the Yu Darvish almost perfect game.

Anyways, back to baseball, I felt with all the extra attention generated and all the adversity that the Padres had faced early, that for this day, they had a good game. A few breaks went in their direction for once as well. The end result was a win that was a summation of numerous smaller events and moves that were made.  To highlight a few, in the 1st inning, I liked that Eric Stults did not crumble or falter after falling into a bases loaded scenario. He showed composure and fought back to strike out Andre Ethier to set the tone early.  In the top of the 7th, Chris Denorfia comes in to pinch hit with the bases loaded and drops quickly to an 0-2 count.  He does not panic and battles back, fouling off pitches to stay alive and ends up earning a ribbie with a bases loaded walk.  Excellent!  In the bottom of the 7th, Brad Brach and John Baker had a great sequence to strike out Matt Kemp.  On an 0-2 pitch, Brach loses a borderline call for a ball. On the very next play, Brach throws the same exact pitch back to the same location for a called third strike.  Great experience in the call by Baker.  In the 8th, Luke Gregerson falls into a hole with 2 runners in scoring position.  He fields a comebacker and is able to freeze AJ Ellis at third with a quick look and combines with Yonder Alonso and John Baker to earn the double play, saving the run at home.  In the 9th, again we have Chris Denorfia executing the hit and run with Everth Cabrera on first on a 3-1 count, putting the Padres in a position to have runners on the corners with less than 2 outs. Great management by Buddy Black, putting the right moves into play.

It was very refreshing to see that the fight and the resiliency for the Padres, especially in a big game. Let’s hope the Padres can carry this forward, and with Chase coming back soon, we will have help.  Let’s hope we can still turn this ship around.  Go Padres.

Aug 6, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Padres relief pitcher Huston Street (16) wets his fingers during the ninth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Situation: Last year’s bullpen wasn’t as solid as it had been in years past, but it was good enough to have the ninth best bullpen ERA in the Major Leagues.

The bullpen was a work in progress, as top relief prospects Nick Vincent, Tommy Layne, Brad Boxberger and Miles Mikolas made their Big League debuts.

Joe Thatcher, Luke Gregerson and Huston Street added much needed veteran experience for the younger guys. With a year of experience under their belt, I expect the bullpen to be a much better group this year.

New Additions: Fautino De Los Santos is the newest addition to the relief squad. The Padres plucked the Dominican right-hander off waivers from the Milwaukee Brewers to add depth at the position.

Tyson Ross is more of a starter than a reliever, but if he does not make the starting rotation, he could find his way into the bullpen.

Jason Ray, Daniel Stange and Jerry Sullivan all signed Minor League contracts

Re-signed: The Padres avoided arbitration with setup man Luke Gregerson by signing him to a one-year, $3.2 million contract for the 2013 season.

Positional Outlook: As it stands right now, Huston Street is the club’s closer, with Gregerson and Dale Thayer serving as setup men.

The left-handed specialists are Thatcher and Layne. Brad Brach could serve in a dual role as a long reliever and a setup man. I believe there is room for one more in the bullpen, and that spot is up for grabs.

The four leading candidates for that final bullpen slot are Mikolas, Ross, Anthony Bass and Andrew Cashner.

I would like to see Mikolas or Bass get the last spot with Ross or Cashner slotted in the rotation.

This is the last of the Spring Training Position Battles. Hope you enjoyed the series. Let us know in the comment box below who you would like to see win the final spot in the bullpen.

If you don’t have a whole lot of interest in the NFL then this time of year might as well be a black hole; A sucking, destructive mass of nothing that swallows everything in its path and leaves you all but a spec on the timeline of history. I know how it is to be a Baseball “writer” during these days, and unless you’re working for a big market team that’s spending a good amount of money then you are bored. This is not to say that I don’t agree with what the Padres are doing this off-season, cause I do. Josh Byrnes is being smart, and for those who feel like we missed the boat on some players – you might be right, but you also might be wrong. I like playing those 50/50 odds a little safer than in years past. Working for a Baseball specific blog or site or paper can be very trying in January and February, even exhausting or tedious. However, there are times in which you find a gem of a story – a diamond in the rough, so to speak. You dig and dig looking for something, an interesting quote, minor story or tiny a bit of news that could possibly lead you to work up an article about something of interest. You want to grab your audience and guide them through a thrill ride of words and thoughts and facts that spits your reader out the other end and makes them a different person, with a whole new outlook (And maybe a whole new family. Writing can be powerful). During this time of year these gems are hard to find, and even harder to write about. Which, is why I have to tip my hat to Corey Brock over at padres.com for writing an article that might possibly be the most uninteresting story of all-time. Even the headline will make you think you’re about to begin reading something that you will learn absolutely nothing from. Something that might in fact make you dumber, and that in a hundred years would never affect how you look at anyone mentioned in said article. It’s a story so useless that you would hang up on your Mother if she started telling you about it. Even if you were related to the people involved you would hate it. It’s not even ‘filler’ – it’s ‘filler’ for the ‘filler’, and here is the headline:

“Brach’s underdog story an inspiration to girlfriend”

This is of course referencing Padres relief pitcher, Brad Brach, and his singer/songwriter girlfriend. Not his wife, not his fiancé, just his girlfriend. And, once you begin reading it you realize there’s really no inspiration anywhere in it. It’s essentially about two people who kiss a lot and probably sleep in the same bed together sometimes; and those two people decided to choose two of the hardest professions in the history of mankind to be successful at. One of them has pretty much made it, and the other is still working hard and giving it her all! It’s ridiculous and even more ridiculous that somebody, somewhere said, “Sure, let’s do a story about that!”

Just thinkin’ ’bout my lady. (Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports)

However, here’s why I consider it a gem: Because Corey Brock nails it! He crushes the story. He basically took a dog turd and made it a brick of gold. He took what should have been a rough draft to an outline of the worst episode of “Jersey Shore” and turned it into Cormac McCarthy. Going through it, I could not figure out why I kept reading on and on, but I did. I didn’t care about the people involved, or their self-imposed struggles, and I didn’t find anything remotely interesting about how they met. I couldn’t locate any value in the story whatsoever, but Brock had me glued. His rhetoric and prose were flawless, and the length was just enough without feeling like he needed to flog the long dead horse that was the initial pitch. He not only committed to the story, but also committed to trying to make you believe in the romanticism of this seemingly uninteresting couple.

This why I tip my hat to Corey Brock and his career in this business we call “blogging”. I’ve always enjoyed his posts when they’re about anything of substance, but now I enjoy his posts about nothing even more. In this time of non-interesting events happening in the life of Padres fans it’s nice to know that a story about inspiration, that’s completely devoid of any, can actually provide it to someone looking.

For more Padres stuff and other things you might not care about follow me on Twitter @dallas_mc