I'm adding my thoughts from last night to this thread, since that one might fall off the front page quickly.
Eyewitness account from section 103 (close enough to heckle AJ - yeah, that was me):
Blair doesn't trust his stuff. He's a nibbler. Maybe the curveball just off the plate works at the other levels, but even the lowly Padres don't offer at it. The fastball is 91 and either in the dirt or belt high, depending upon whether it's a three-ball count. The change was by far his best pitch, but alone was not nearly enough to get big league hitters out.
Casey Kelly and Withrow looked very good. Johnson was better than OK. Some nights you watch the guy and wonder why he struggles - imposing, downhill plane, hard sinker. Vizcaino's velocity was fine...the fastball to Norris bled back over the middle - that ball made it out in two seconds, wonder what the exit velocity was? - and then he left the pitches to Jay and Myers up. Why the **** didn't Snitker walk Myers to get to Kemp? He runs like **** and hits the ball hard, perfect double play candidate. No matter. Padres were excited to win.
Castro is overmatched at the plate. d'Arnaud looked okay, which surprised me. Garcia had all the discipline of Panda at an all-night buffet. Not much to say about Kelly, except good bye and good luck. AJ's blocking skills were tested and are ****. However, I think he'll still be able to square up a baseball and hit a line drive when he's 70. He has a gift.
On this night, at least, Freddie was engaged. Nimble defensively. I don't know that he ever reaches his power potential because I can't see from the very good angle I had how he will ever pull the ball. His strength is to let the ball get deep and then hit it hard away, but his power comes from his torque and size, because he's simply not ever in an ideal power position to use his legs and ass. The triple/homer ball should have been eight rows deep.
Markakis can help a team. He hit, made a terrific play and throw from the corner. He could hit two or seven on a contender but is assured to disappoint hitting fourth on this club. If the expectations were sized properly, Markakis is a nice player.
Which leaves Inciarte and Mallex. I was eager to see Ender, but he didn't show much this night. He stroked a solid single that hopefully marks the beginning of a turnaround.
As for Mallex - oh, Mallex, you friggin' knucklehead. He took a fantastic defensive swing on 0-2 for an infield hit, made a nice running catch, hosed a runner (the pitcher, but still) at the plate, stole a bag against the best throwing catcher in the league....and cost the Braves a big inning with his over-aggressive, reckless Little League base running. It's taken him time to adjust at every level, and I'm hopeful it's the same here. But there's a lot to like about the guy. He was the most electric player on the field.
