PEORIA, Ariz. — Greetings friends, hope you’re enjoying the Padres coverage here and at, of course, Padres.com. I’m glad to have so many of you — at least according to the WordPress.com stats. So unless it’s my mother hitting refresh ever three minutes, I truly appreciate it.

Anyway, back to baseball.

Not sure if you went to FanFest or not but there was one point where Huston Street and Andrew Cashner were playing catch on the field during the event. At one point, Cashner — who stands all of 6-foot-6, dropped down as if he was a catcher for Street. Street later returned the favor. Well, that happened here Wednesday morning. Nothing really to note here other than you don’t see a 6-6 relief pitcher who can throw 100 mph drop down into a full catchers squat.

Let’s be honest, though, Cashner’s arm is why he’s here. He’s shown an electric fastball in each of his first two sessions off the mound, without too much effort (or what doesn’t appear to be too much effort). He’s fun to watch. It’s that ball-exploding-out-of-the-hand thing. And, consider, that he isn’t trying to throw hard, not now at least.

Anyway, another fairly quiet day here. More position players showing up but mostly the same routine of pitchers fielding their position while also throwing off the mound. Tomorrow, the starting pitchers get their second crack at the bullpen.

By the way, I’ve posted some video of Street, Brad Brach and Cashner throwing off the mound today. Still new to the video thing, so be kind. But it at least shows you a little something.

So what else happened Wednesday?

– We talked to second baseman Orlando Hudson, who called the 2011 season the most trying of his professional career. He had the two stints on the disabled list and struggled offensively. More on Padres.com but Hudson said he’s looking toward a better 2012. He’s earning $5.5 million and the Padres need him on the field and need him to be better with the bat this season.

– Talked to reliever Cory Burns about his funky delivery. I profiled him on Padres.com where he talks more about his unique delivery. Think Luis Tiant or Hideo Nomo. Burns said he switched to this delivery after a disastrous freshman season at the University of Arizona in 2006. Here is a little snippet from my story.

“My freshman year, I was terrible. I had terrible numbers, walked a bunch of people, still threw hard but I had no command,” Burns said. “[Head coach Andy] Lopez told me we had to do something different for me to be able to stay there.”

Anyway, take a look at Burns Minor League statistics — crazy good. Deception and location can take a guy a long way. I don’t think Burns will make the bullpen out of Spring Training but I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see him in San Diego at some point this season.

– There are 29 pitchers in camp and most likely have a realistic viewpoint of where they’ll start the season — on the Major League roster or in the Minor Leagues. Sometimes, it’s not nearly as clear-cut as that. There have been a few occasions in manager Bud Black’s first five seasons when he has called a pitcher into his Peoria office and told the pitcher that he was headed to the Minor Leagues and the player feigned genuine surprise. Black has made it a point during the morning meetings to tell players that a lot of the pitchers in camp won’t make the 25-man roster. But, as he said, that doesn’t mean he and the staff aren’t watching: “Every day is a test,” he said.

– In Black’s morning meeting with reporters — we usually get him for 10-15 minutes, sometimes longer if he loses track of time — he talked some about velocity and how unimportant it is early in camp (to him, at least). There are no radar guns in camps because he doesn’t want pitchers thinking they need to be throwing harder. That will come later, not during the first week of camp. Black has been around the game long enough to know, roughly, what kind of velocity he is watching. He calls it “Eyedar” … though said he “heard it from someone else. I didn’t make it up.” But Black said he can usually come within a few miles per hour of what a pitcher is throwing.

– Kind of a fun note here. As I’ve mentioned before, there’s any number of front office staff watching these workouts, from GM Josh Byrnes to assistant general manager A.J. Hinch to others. Well, I saw Padres professional scout Chris Bourjos today and talked to him briefly. You might recognize that last name, as he’s the father of Angels outfielder Peter Bourjos, who led the American League with 11 triples last season. Bourjos scouts the NL West, Pacific Coast League and California League during the season but still gets a chance to watch his son play on occasion.

“I try to get to as many games as possible,” Bourjos said. “In Spring Training, I might try to match-up my teams with the Angels or there might be a night game or two I’m able to catch. And with television and the iPad, you can see a lot of games.”

That’s it for today. More coverage, as always, at Padres.com.

Also, have you seen the website: Bad Spring Training Twitpics? We’ve all been a little guilty of sending these, me included. It’s fun and reminds us all that we shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously.

One last one: Do yourself a favor a pick up the new Sleigh Bells disc/download/whatever. Good, good stuff.

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres

PEORIA, Ariz. — Hey friends. We just wrapped up the third day of camp and the second full workout for pitchers and catchers. If pitching is your thing, well, you should probably be here. You can watch pitchers field ground balls, cover first base and throw off the mound for 10 minutes — all under the watchful eyes of manager Bud Black, his staff and the front office folks who usually wander by.

In other words, can some of the hitters please show up soon?

I’m only kidding, of course, as there are indeed catchers here and several position players have already trickled into camp for a little early work and to get acclimated to Peoria, the Olive Garden and every other chain restaurant known to man. I wish that I was kidding.

Pretty quiet day here, as things will start to pick-up the closer we get to report day (Friday) for position players and the first full-squad workout on Saturday.

I’ve wasted enough of your time. What’s with Going Full Gorilla? You’ll have to read on to find out.

– Saw Chase Headley today. We actually had a conversation about ostrich boots. Apparently, they’re super comfortable. I don’t own boots and am not sure I ever will. Aside from that, Headley talked about how he likes to get to Arizona a few days early to hit on the field, get used to the change in time zone (he’s from Tennessee) and to just generally get acclimated. He had a lot of good things to say about his January hitting session with new Padres hitting coach Phil Plantier. More on this at Padres.com.

– I’ve mentioned before how I like talking to the catchers, right? We’ve got a few good talkers here with Nick Hundley and newcomer John Baker. Baker is a Cal guy, so that he’s chatty and introspective isn’t really a surprise. He’s dressing next to Carlos Quentin (Stanford), so that should be interesting. Little known fact: Both of Baker’s parents went to Stanford. Anyway, Baker talked about taking on the responsibility of working with pitchers who he’s never worked with before. He uses a lot of video, something Jason Kendall taught him when Baker was coming up through the A’s system. There’s more at Padres.com, but here’s a snippet of something I cut for space.

“When I go into a game, my main objective is to never put down a sign I’m not sure of.  You want to put the pitcher in the right position. I learned a lot from Jason Kendall, about taking ownership of what you’re doing. If you put the sign down and if it’s backed up with enough research and enough evidence and they give up a hit, then it’s my fault.” — Baker

– A day after the projected relievers throw off the mound, it was time for the projected starters to do so. Everyone threw for 8-10 minutes — again, only fastballs and change-ups. I shot some video that’s on my Twitter feed @FollowThePadres of Robbie Erlin. I was impressed with his clean mechanics and easy delivery. The guy pounds the strike zone, too. He’s a lot like Joe Wieland in that respect.

– Speaking of pitchers (and I have been — a lot), I talked with Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley briefly. He mentioned how good Clayton Richard looked today. Again, Richard, coming off shoulder surgery last July, was firing bullets by any means, but Balsley mentioned how free and smooth his delivery looked and how much more “flexible” he looked throwing, which I gathered to mean that Richard didn’t look so robotic or mechanical in his delivery.

– OK, so what does ‘Going Full Gorilla’ mean? That means coming out, in this case, early in camp, and trying to impress everyone with your velocity. As Balsley told me, again you can find this at Padres.com, he did it, Bud Black did it and everyone does it at some point. As Balsley said on February 21, “it’s not important to air it out.” No, that will come later, though it won’t likely stop a few pitchers from doing so in the near future.

– I wrote about the changing face of the Padres’ bullpen today. The story will be up on Padres.com this afternoon/evening. The Padres had the best bullpen ERA in baseball from the start of 2009 until they traded Adams on July 31 (2.79). A lot of this, of course, has to do with the work of Heath Bell and Adams. Now that they’re gone and have been replaced by Andrew Cashner and Huston Street, I look at how good the Padres really had it. As Bud Black put it, there was a real comfort level with Bell and Adams: “It’s a tremendous advantage for the team and it makes the manager’s job easier because of the performance.”

– Lastly, if you didn’t get a chance to read my story on Padres non-roster pitcher Jeff Suppan, here’s the link. He’s an interesting guy and from everything I’ve read and from those I’ve talked to, is a great teammate. He’ll be good as a mentor to young pitchers like Casey Kelly, Wieland and Erlin. And Suppan even owns a restaurant in Woodland Hills. He doesn’t change light bulbs but he will clean the restrooms and take out the trash.

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres

PEORIA, Ariz. — For those of you long-suffering baseball fans who have gone without a Padres game to watch since the end of last season … well, you have to wait a little longer for some game action.

But Monday was the start of something substantial, as pitchers and catchers went through their first workout of the spring here in Peoria under sunny skies with a slight breeze.

Rather than gush about how wonderful it was to see baseball again — well, pitchers throwing off a bullpen mound and also taking PFP — let’s get to some highlights from the first full workout.

- First, be sure to check back on Padres.com tonight for a story on veteran pitcher Jeff Suppan, who is a non-roster invitee in camp. He’s got an interesting story. Long time Major League pitcher, played all of last season in the Minor Leagues and is still at it. Also, he owns a restaurant in Woodland Hills, Calif. Fun story.

– I talked to Joe Thatcher (story to appear soon on Padres.com) about having a healthy left shoulder and being able to go through came with sound health — something he couldn’t do in 2010 and 2011 because of the shoulder. He had surgery on it last May and returned in August and said that he’s ready to win a job on the staff. The team will curtail his throwing program to some extent early, but there’s no other restrictions.

– Speaking of restrictions, left-handed pitcher Clayton Richard — who had arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder in July — doesn’t have anything working against him health-wise. He’s on a normal routine and will throw off a mound with the rest of the starting pitchers on Tuesday. If you’re wondering, pitchers are throwing between 8-10 minutes, throwing only fastballs and change-ups for now.

– I got a chance to watch new relief pitcher Cory Burns today (see picture below). Burns, as you might remember, was obtained from the Indians in the deal that sent outfielder Aaron Cunningham to Cleveland. Burns will likely start the season in the Minor Leagues but he’s certainly interesting to watch. He’s got this Luis Tiant/Hideo Nomo twist of a delivery that’s sort of funky.

– There’s a television crew from ESPN, led by Tom Friend, here trailing Padres bullpen coach Darrel Akerfelds, who is battling pancreatic cancer. Wrote about Akerfelds here yesterday. Not sure when the segment is going to air but I’m sure it will be good. If you didn’t get a chance to read the story Friend did on Akerfelds in December, you really need to.

– Had a nice talk with Micah Owings today. He’ll be featured in my notes on Padres.com today. He told me about the comfort level he has here because of all the familiar faces around — some from his time in Arizona, Cincinnati and his days as an amateur, pitching with Huston Street on Team USA in 2003. Ten minutes after I sent that story in to be edited/published, Owings came into the media workroom to tell me he thought of another players — Jeremy Hermida, who was a teammate of his in 2001 when East Cobb won the Connie Mack World Series.

– Fun with numbers. There’s a total of 36 players in camp, 29 pitchers, seven catchers. Ten of the pitchers weren’t with the organization at the end of last season and 12 of them weren’t with the organization a year ago at this time. Also, five of the seven catchers in camp are new with just Nick Hundley and Jason Hagerty as the incumbents.

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres

PEORIA, Ariz. –

Hey, been waiting to use that dateline for a long time. But here it is — the start of Spring Training (well, sort of). A total of 35 players (all of them pitchers or catchers) showed up at the Peoria Sports Complex today for a rousing round of physicals and tests. The first workout will be Monday.

What exactly did pitchers and catchers do Sunday?

– A routine physical, with blood and urine work.

– They had their height tested (no fudging for the program guys!)

– They had their weight, well, weighed.

– Their body-fat percentage was tested.

– There was a grip tested administered. This is done to established a baseline for strength that can be checked later if there’s an injury.

– A flexibility test.

– Vertical jump

What else happened?

– Veteran pitcher Jeff Suppan, trying to make the team as a non-roster invitee, showed up early –though not as early as he would have hoped. Suppan, who came in carrying a Giants workout bag, admitted to getting a little lost trying to find the complex.

– It’s was hard to tell who had the biggest smile on Sunday — first base coach Dave Roberts (who, honestly, is always) smiling or pitcher Ernesto Frieri. Seriously, this guy never has a bad day. He wants to be called “Big Ern” … and as the longest tenured Padre (remember, he signed with the Padres as a non-drafted free agent in 2003). OK, so ‘Big Ern’ it is.

– A few changes in uniform numbers: Yamani Grandal is now wearing No. 12 and Logan Forsythe is wearing No. 11. Suppan is wearing No. 38, which was Mat Latos old number. Also, Andrew Cashner is wearing No. 34. He apparently switched with hitting coach Alonzo Powell, who will now wear No. 32.

– The main locker in the corner of the room now belongs to outfielder Carlos Quentin. It previously housed Ryan Ludwick, Adrian Gonzalez, Jake Peavy and, from what Bill Center of UT San Diego tells me, Tony Gwynn and Phil Nevin.

– I talked to catchers John Baker and Nick Hundley today. Both very good talkers. I’ve always found catchers to be very introspective and very interesting. Baker had some good stuff that I’ll share at Padres.com in the next week or so. Hundley mentioned how excited he was to be here. He said being in camp makes everything feel more real. “It’s second to none,” he said.

– Everyone is here on time, according to manager Bud Black. It doesn’t appear anyone will have any restrictions either. It’s a happy, healthy clubhouse. That, of course, can and probably will change. But the Padres will begin their first workout on Monday with everyone cleared to participate.

– We’ll have much more later in the day at Padres.com and on Twitter at @FollowThePadres.

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres

This isn’t really Padres related, but on the day that veteran pitcher Tim Wakefield retired about 19 seasons, I thought I would relay a story about a young, hopeful sportswriter (hint: me) who saw Wakefield get shelled during a rare bad night in the Kingdome in 1995.

I’m not entirely sure how many Mariners games I had covered for my old newspaper, The News Tribune in Tacoma, by the time the Red Sox rolled into the Kingdome on August 18 with Wakefield looking like second coming of Cy Young. He was 14-1 with a 1.23 ERA to that point in what was his first season in Boston.

The Red Sox, if you remember, were loaded that season. They went 86-58 under Kevin Kennedy and won the American League East before being swept by the Indians in the ALDS in three games. Mo Vaughn hit 39 bombs that season, Jose Canseco hit 24 home runs and Roger Clemens had a 4.18 ERA two seasons before the Red Sox decided he couldn’t pitch anymore. Spoiler alert: He could.

Anyway, the Mariners — who won the AL West that season before losing to the Indians in the ALCS — tortured Wakefield on this night in the climate-controlled confines of the Kingdome. He allowed seven earned runs and four walks in three innings as his ERA ballooned from 1.23 to 2.08. He opened the game with walk, strikeout looking, walk, walk, fly ball center field. The Blowers grand slam came with two outs.

Mike Blowers hit a first inning grand slam off Wakefield and later added a three-run home run in the third inning in what was easily Wakefield’s worst start of 1995 (he went on to win 16 games). The Mariners won the game, 9-3.

As for me, young sportswriter who was trying to impress his bosses and give my mother something to be proud of, I probably pushed deadline more than I needed to by writing something about how Wakefield’s knuckleball didn’t knuckle much in the Kingdome. I’m sure I labored over that bad boy far too long before sending it in with my TRS-80 laptop via modem. And I’m sure I was proud of myself just as sure that I would cringe if I ever saw a copy of that story now.

Anyway, I would like to think that we (you know, Wakefield and myself) went on to bigger better things. He made close to $56 million in his career, made an All-Star team and won a World Series ring. I no longer have to watch or cover games in the Kingdome. Seems pretty fair to me.

Bonus coverage: Padres manager Bud Black was 0-for-3 at a batter with one strikeout against Wakefield. Impress your friends with that one. You can thank me later.

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres

I want to talk about FanFest for a moment, though it’s not so much about the joy I had watching people rummage through the Padres Garage Sale (to benefit their wonderful Padres Foundation) for Portland Beavers uniforms — even though I do love me some Portland.

Instead, I want to talk about a panel I listened to last Saturday.

The highlight of the day for me was listening to the Bloomberg Sports panel that discussed the Padres used of sabermetics and analytics, one that included radio broadcaster and former Major League pitcher Bob Scanlan as a moderator, assistant to baseball operations/professional scouting Alex Slater, vice president, strategy/business analysis John Abbamondi and vice president/assistant general manager A.J. Hinch.

It should come as no surprise to you that the Padres — like many other Major League teams — have people in their front office who handle the club’s quantitative analysis needs – sabermetics, analytics, whatever you want to call them. The club values this information, integrating it with all of their traditional scouting means (physically watching and evaluating a player) so to make the best informed decision on their own or prospective players.

The Padres have also developed their own proprietary formulas that they use — formulas that they don’t share with anyone, for good reason. How secretive are they? Remember the movie, National Treasure, and the coveted ‘Book of Secrets’? It’s kind of like that only worse. I’m not sure Nicholas Cage could pry these secrets from the team even with the promise of Opening Day box seats and breakfast.

I’ve strayed a little here, but I had a nice conversation with Scanlan about sabermetics on Saturday. Scanlan, for those who don’t know, pitched for six Major League teams in a nine-year career (1991-96, 1998, 2000-01). He relayed to me an anecdote about sabermetrics that I found to be interesting, though probably not entirely unique for a player of his generation.

Here’s what Scanlan told me, in his own words (and thanks for the information Scan!):

“The first time that I was exposed to sabermetics and the use of statistical analytics to evaluate and project players’ performance was in the 1995-1996 off-season. I was a free agent coming off a disappointing and injury plagued season, looking to hook up with a team for spring training.  I had several teams interested in my services, and spoke directly with either the GM or assistant GM of most of those teams, with the questions from them being, “How does your arm feel?”, “Can you start, or can you work out of the ‘pen?”, “Can you come out and throw for us to take a look?”, etc. All reasonable and relevant questions from baseball men.

“There was one team, however, that was completely different. I received a call from Anaheim Angels, but it was not their GM on the other end of the phone, but a member of their player statistical analysis department who said he had a few questions for me about my performance last season. His first questions was about my K/BB and K/9 ratios last season, and why they had gone down, and if the changes in those numbers were related to the change in my GB/FB ratio. Up to this point in my career the only stats I ever payed any attention to were W-L, ERA, and if someone really wanted to go the extra mile they would wow me with a report on my OBP against when throwing a first pitch strike.

“I answered the Angels analyst that I had elbow problems early in the season, but that my arm felt better at the end of season and it took me a little while to get the feel of my slider back, but I finished strong at the end. I felt like he ignored my response, and came back with his next salvo of diagnostic questions including, did I know why WHIP was higher last season? I responded that as I just explained my arm was feeling better and I thought my arm had good whip at the end of my release point…which evoked a long silence on the other end.  He then asked if that explained why my BABIP (batting average on balls put in play) was also higher last year. Having no idea what my BABIP really was, or how to answer his question I simply said, “I guess so”. He curtly thanked me for my time and hung up.  As I hung up my phone I had no idea what had just happened, or what language that guy was talking, but I was fairly certain the interview had not gone well, and that I would not be hearing back from the Angels. I thought about for a few minutes perplexed, then finally concluded within myself how ridiculous that line of questioning had been.”

Well, Scanlan was right. The Angels weren’t interested, though he did end up signing with the Tigers for 1996. That’s not important as much as what he had unknowingly stumbled upon — the sabermetric movement which was essentially in its infancy stage (yes, I realize that Bill James had been doing this for a while, but Major League teams were nowhere near ready to embrace the concept).

Anyway, just a little anecdote that I found interesting.

As for the panel, it was made abundantly clear by everyone involved that the Padres take all of this very seriously (see previous lame analogy on the ‘Book of Secrets’) as well as how numbers can’t tell you the entire story and that there’s variance when it comes to performance because you are dealing with players.

I’m trying to broaden my horizons as far as sabermetrics, taking in what information I can that doesn’t test my shaky grip on remedial math. I’m trying to include them in my daily missives at Padres.com where it’s applicable. I’ve used the Cory Luebke/xFIP analogy way too much during this off-season, so my solemn vow to you is I’ll work twice as hard to find a new stat to run into the ground.

Stick that in your Book of Secrets!

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres

Hey friends, we’re creeping closer and closer to Spring Training — I start the drive early Saturday morning, heading through such hot spots as El Centro, Yuma and Gila Bend before ultimately parking in Peoria for six weeks of good times in the Valley of the Sun.

Hope you’re getting excited for Spring Training as well. I’ve said it countless times before but I would highly encourage everyone to get over to Arizona this spring to watch some baseball. Even if you’re not a diehard fan, it’s still a very good time.

OK, done with my chamber of commerce moment. Let’s get back to baseball.

As I’m sure you’re well aware, FanFest was last Saturday at Petco Park and the team had about 18,000 fans attend. I’ve got some thoughts on the garage sale, which I thought was really cool. I’ll share those later. But Saturday was also the start of single-game ticket sales for 2012.

According to the Padres, these were the five games that the most tickets were sold to on Saturday:

– April 5, Dodgers (Opening Day).

– May 18, Angels.

– May 19, Angels.

– April 7, Dodgers.

– April 21, Phillies.

A quick programming note: The Padres say that Opening Day is 80 percent sold-out.

I can’t say I’m surprised that these games have drawn the most interest. Subtract the Dodgers games, because those were going to sell well because, as mentioned, it’s the opening weekend of the season.

The Interleague games against the Angels are selling well, presumably because of the additions of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. Sorry, Alberto Callaspo, you’re a nice players but not the marquee draw here. Honestly, I would expect all three of these games to be sold-out eventually. The same probably goes for most of the four-game series against the Phillies in April.

Pujols, in case you’re wondering, is a career .258/.345/.526 hitter in 97 at-bats at Petco Park with seven home runs and 17 RBIs. So take that for what it’s worth.

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres

I get some pretty interesting email. Some are thoughtful questions, some are so poorly written that I have trouble reading them. Some, honestly, I couldn’t print if I wanted to. Let’s just say they would make George Carlin blush.

Anyway, I got an email last week from a reader who asked me to re-evaluate the Jake Peavy deal as this point, two and half years after Padres GM Kevin Towers made that trading-deadline deal with the White Sox on July 31, 2009.

Given that pitchers and catchers report to Peoria on Sunday — and that only pitcher Clayton Richard remains from the deal –  this seemed a good time to revisit the deal.

First, a very, very brief background.

The Padres had been trying to deal Peavy in 2009 and he had previously shot down a deal to the White Sox before July 31. Remember, Peavy had a no-trade clause, something that Towers, later on, lamented giving him (in fact, it’s safe to say Towers won’t include a no-trade clause in future deals). The Padres were struggling and the three-year, $52 million contract that the team gave Peavy only months after winning the NL Cy Young in 2007 (with an option for 2013) was going to be a difficult contract to carry moving forward.

So the Padres (but with Peavy’s blessing this time) dealt the right-hander to the White Sox for four players, all pitchers — Richard, Aaron Poreda, Adam Russell and Dexter Carter. Oh, and there was the not-so-small matter of moving Peavy’s remaining contract, which called for $16 million last season, $17 million in 2012 with a $22 million club option and $4 million buyout the White Sox will surely exercise.

Imagine that: Peavy will make $17 million this season. But this post isn’t about the merits of that deal. It’s about the long-term repercussions.

Peavy, as you’re likely aware, has had injury troubles with the White Sox and has appeared in only 39 games (38 starts) since the trade, going 17-13 with a 4.49 ERA. According to Baseball Reference, his WAR with the White Sox is 3.6. In case you’re wondering, it was 24.0 in eight seasons with the Padres — including 6.2 the season he won the Cy Young.

How have the Padres fared in the deal? Richard has a 2.6 WAR, though he missed the second half of last season. He has easily been the most productive player from the deal, going 24-20 with a 3.84 ERA. He made 33 starts and topped 200 innings in 2010 and probably would have done so again last season.

Adam Russell pitched 28 innings for the Padres from 2009-10 before being traded to the Rays as part of the Jason Bartlett deal. Poreda, who was a former first-round pick, never conquered his command issues and was designated for assignment by the team in June. He finished the season with Triple-A Tucson and was selected by the Pirates in the Minor League phase of the Rule 5 Draft. Finally, Carter struggled and was eventually released. Oddly enough, he has re-signed with the White Sox.

So there you have it.

I get asked often about how I think this trade turned out. If you go WAR vs. WAR, then, it’s the White Sox, though not by much. Poreda was a disappointment as was Carter. Russell had a 3.03 ERA with the Rays last season, though that kind of success doesn’t appear to be sustainable. Richard, of course, has been good at times with the Padres and at least in 2010 was an innings-eater.

Of course the Padres would have liked to have done better in this trade, though for my money (and theirs I’m sure) the trade was a success if for no other reason than the hefty contract they unloaded (the White Sox assumed something like the remaining $48 million). So again, can you imagine if Peavy was still on the books for $17 million this season? Even with a bump in payroll this season, there’s no way the Padres could have been so active in rebuilding this team with Peavy a part of it.

This all gets me to wondering: How will we eventually view another momentous trade in recent Padres history — the Adrian Gonzalez deal. I’m sure we’ll end up kicking that around at some point.

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres

I should have just called this ‘Padres Minor League players to watch in 2012′ … though that seems like a boring title, doesn’t it.

At any rate, I had a conversation with Randy Smith, the Padres vice president of player development and international scouting last week. We talked about a number of topics — maybe you saw the post Saturday on the prospect list?

I asked Smith who he thought could take a big leap forward in 2012 — sort of like outfielder Rymer Liriano did in 2011, when he treated the Midwest League like his own personal playground as a 19-year-old who only turned 20 on June 20.

Liriano, of course, is regarded as one of the Padres top prospects (again, it depends on what list you’re looking at … ha!). He’s a pretty dynamic player who will take a crack at Class A Lake Elsinore this season.

So who will be the Rymer Liriano of 2012? I was hoping for a real sleeper, but the main name Smith gave me was one I’ve talked with others about and read plenty about — outfielder Luis Domoromo.

You might remember Domoromo from that ballyhooed class of international prospects the Padres signed in June 0f 2008 when they spent nearly $5 million on four highly-touted Latin American players and an outfielder from Australia. I wrote about it here when it happened.

Domoromo, who turned 20 on Feb. 4, was one of those players, an athletic outfielder who had a bat the Padres were excited about at the time. He actually played alongside Liriano last season in Fort Wayne, compiling a .283/.335/.405 slash line with a .740 OPS in his first full season in the Minor League system where he received more than 400 at-bats.

Domoromo has a little pop (32 extra-base hits) but doesn’t walk much (36 times in 112 games). He’ll make the jump to Lake Elsinore to start the 2012 season where — like Liriano — he’ll be young for that league. At the very least, Liriano and Domoromo are reasons enough to make the short drive to Lake Elsinore this season.

Smith mentioned a few other names that he’ll keep his eye on in 2012:

Pitcher Matt Lollis, who opened some eyes during big league camp in Spring Training last season but struggled in the California League, going 4-8 with a 5.35 ERA in 31 games (19 starts). There’s no denying that Lollis has a big arm (114 strikeouts in 119 1/3 innings). The Padres would like to see him miss more bats in 2012. He won’t turn 22 until September, so he’s still very young.

Pitcher Joe Ross, who like fellow draftee, catcher Austin Hedges, turned down UCLA to start his professional career. “Everyone is excited about Ross,” Smith said. What’s not to like? Ross impressed during the fall instructional league, sitting in the mid-90s with what might be an advanced approach to pitching. It will be interesting to see if Ross is ready to start the season in April with Fort Wayne. That’s a decent sized jump for a pitching essentially just out of high school.

Catcher Austin Hedges. We just mentioned him but the Padres feel good about his chances to begin the season in Fort Wayne, where he’ll be one of the youngest players in the league. Hedges, like Ross, was impressed in instructional league, especially with his handle on the mechanics of catching, handling pitchers, etc. The Padres are also pleasantly surprised with his bat. There might be some struggles offensively at times in the Midwest League for Hedges, but the Padres have no doubt he’ll shine behind the plate. “I’ll be very surprised if he’s not the Opening Day catcher in Fort Wayne,” Smith said.

Pitcher Adys Portillo, like Domoromo, was part of that 2008 international signing class. Portillo struggled mightily as a 19-year-old in the Midwest League with Fort Wayne in 2011, posting a 7.11 ERA in 23 games (20 starts). Still, there’s a lot to like here, like the 10.60 K/9IP rate. Better still, the Padres were very impressed with the way he pitched this winter, going 2-1 with a 4.29 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 21 innings. He could start the season back in Fort Wayne. This guy was clocked as high as 100 mph last season and sat at 94-95 mph this winter with success against veteran hitters, many with Major League experience.

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres

I spent a lot of time alone at home during the day.

Don’t feel bad for me, that’s just how it during the off-season. My wife works, I work from home and our dog, Sofie the Schnauzer, sleeps 22 hours a day.

Except last week when Sofie set aside some time to compile her list of the Padres top 10 Minor League prospects. Now mind you, it took her a while … some lame excuse about lacking opposable thumbs. It involved her pushing around her dry food on the kitchen floor in the shape of letters.

G-Y-O-R-K-O … woof! Good girl!

I kid, of course. Sofie can’t really type, but if she could she might have joined the popular movement this winter of assembling a list of the top Padres prospects.

Take a look around — these lists are everywhere. From reputable organizations (those who talk to scouts and others in the industry), to those fans who follow the team closely all the way to those who have grown tired of watching reruns of Glee and have no idea what a Yasmani is.

At first, I found this a little comical until I had an epiphany of sorts that this was actually kind of cool.

After all, how many people were doing this five years ago (people meaning those who aren’t in the habit of compiling such lists every year)? — “Now where do we put Sean Kazmar, hmmm” — Hey, even some major media outlets have started to develop and subsequently run wild with these lists in recent memory.

My point is people are excited about the Padres farm system.

These prospects — and where they came from, how the Padres acquired them, that’s not important to this post (well, let’s be honest, nothing about this post is important). What is, if you’re a Padres fan, is that this influx of young talent has fans genuinely optimistic about the future of the team.

So all this prospect talk got me to thinking. I wonder if Randy Smith — the Padres vice president of player development and international scouting — has a list of his own. Since Smith essentially presided over the entire farm system, if anyone has a list worth looking at, it would probably be his, right?

I talked to Smith on Friday and asked him if he has such a list (and, you know, if he could tell me the exact order of it).

“To me, it’s awfully hard to do. To get them into groups is easy … this is one tier, this is the next, then the next,” Smith said. “But to break them down and say who is 1, 2 and 3 and then who the seventh or ninth guy is … that’s tough. And it changes. It changes as soon as you get these guys on the field.”

Smith essentially shared the same sentiment I hold on all of these prospect lists: The more the better. And does it really matter where you have Jaff Decker on your list? No, it’s your list. Run with it.

“I think it’s great. It means there’s interest out there,” Smith said. “All the years I’ve been around this organization, almost 30 years now, I have  never seen this type of interest in the system. It’s a healthy debate.”

Corey Brock, MLB.com

Twitter: FollowThePadres