Happy Tuesday from PETCO Park. Got a few story links for you from what's shaping up to be a busy day at the ballpark.

First, as always, check into http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres for the latest on Padres news you can't get anywhere else.

As for today, here's the latest on pitcher Jake Peavy. He was looked at today by the medical staff.

Also, pitcher Shawn Hill is done for the year and, possibly, parts of next season after having Tommy John surgery on his right elbow last week.

First baseman Adrian Gonzalez injured his right knee in Tuesday's game. The team is calling it a strained right knee. He'll be looked at again on Wednesday where we will likely get a time line on how much time he will miss, if any.

Also (again) former Arizona manager Bob Melvin will be joining the Padres, possibly as early as Wednesday. Stay tuned. He'll likely be an adviser to GM Kevin Towers.

Cheers, Corey Brock
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Thanks for following the Padres here and at http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres, your one stop for Padres news, notes and everything else. Thanks, Corey

Have a look at our story on Jake Peavy, who will have his ankle looked at on Tuesday for the first time since going on the disabled list on June 13. We'll know more Tuesday afternoon before the Padres face the Houston Astros.

Also, just because Interleague play has ended does not mean we won't see any more of Kyle Blanks, as the Padres will look for ways to get his bat in their lineup, especially when facing left-handed pitchers.

Finally, you will be able to watch the Padres on live in-market online viewing, thanks to an agreement between MLBAM and Cox.

Cheers, Corey

http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres

A reminder, to stay on top of all the latest Padres news, check out http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres. Thanks, Corey

Now, about that pitching ...

It's been a rough go of it for the Padres starting pitchers, namely Wade LeBlanc and Walter Silva who have combined to allowed 12 runs on 12 hits while getting only 11 outs the last two games.

No, that's not going to cut it. You already saw LeBlanc dispatched to Triple-A Portland after his start on Thursday against Seattle. Silva gets a little more rope, if for no other reason than these Padres have no one else to call on.

Well, other than prospect Mat Latos, who, as we've discussed before, will probably be here in San Diego at some point this season. But at this rate, we might see Latos sooner than later.

The Padres are 6-16 in June and have a 5.78 ERA. They're 10 games under .500. To stay that they're missing Jake Peavy and Chris Young would be a tremendous understatement. To stay alive in baseball, to stay near .500, to have any kind of success, you need starting pitching.

The Padres simply aren't getting enough of it.

So where to turn?

In the short term, I expect Josh Banks to get the start Tuesday against the Astros where LeBlanc would have taken his turn. Beyond that? There's no immediate help in Portland as Matt Buschmann has a 6.48 ERA, Cesar Ramos is on the disabled list and Will Inman has struggled since a promotion from Double-A San Antonio.

Cesar Carrillo has a 5.13 ERA in San Antonio and Stephen Faris has a 4.97 ERA and has lost nine games. Latos? He's 4-1 with a 1.89 ERA. Like I said before, his success coupled
with the ineffectiveness of guys like LeBlanc and Silva might push his timetable.

So what's the next move? Brian Lawrence, Mike O'Connor? Or, how about promoting Latos and casting aside workload concerns? Promote him after the break, carefully monitor his innings and shut him down at, say, 120 innings.

Does that work for anyone else?

Cheers, Corey Brock
MLB.com
http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres

Here's the story I've been working on since early this morning (two cups of coffee in already) on top prospect Kyle Blanks, who will be at PETCO Park tonight for the start of a three-game set against the Oakland A's.

We'll have the story up at Padres.com in a bit, but here's a sneak preview. As always, stop by the our Twitter for all the latest Padres news. http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres


SAN DIEGO - Kyle Blanks, considered the Padres top prospect, is on his way to PETCO Park.

Blanks, a first baseman and outfielder with Triple-A Portland, is expected to have his contract purchased by the Padres on Friday when he will be added to the 40-man roster.

The left-handed heavy Padres open a three-game series against the Oakland A's on Friday and will be facing three left-handed starting pitchers in the series. The Padres are hitting .215 as a team against left-handers this season.

Blanks, the Padres 2008 Minor League Player of the Year and Texas League Player of the Year, is a right-handed hitter and was hitting .283 with 12 home runs and 38 RBIs for Portland.

Blanks, in his first season at the Triple-A level, has a .393 on-base percentage and is hitting .370 in June. He hit his 12th home run of the season on Thursday for the Beavers.

Blanks has mostly played first base this season but has made 15 starts in left field. The decision to have him take fly balls in the outfield in Portland was made late in Spring Training as Kevin Towers, the general manager of the Padres, wanted to see if Blanks took to the position after he arrived in Portland.

All-Star and Gold Glove winner Adrian Gonzalez currently plays first base for the Padres and Towers has said he's not on the trading block.

The move wasn't unlike the one Chase Headley made a year ago, when the third baseman was moved to the outfield. Headley, though, had the benefit of Spring Training in 2008 to learn the position before he was recalled from Portland by the Padres in June.

Several current members of the Padres who have played with Blanks this season say that the 6-foot-6, 285 pound Blanks held his own in the outfield, broke well on balls, both in front of him and behind him. Many said Blanks athleticism made learning a new position easier.

Scoring runs has been a struggle for the Padres of late, scoring one run over 29 innings during a stretch that ended on Wednesday.

I just talked to Padres general manager Kevin Towers who told me that 21-year-old top prospect, right-handed pitcher Mat Latos, won't be recalled from Double-A San Antonio to fill a spot in the starting rotation.

The Padres had given the promotion of Latos some consideration recently, though, ultimately, have decided against such a move because of workload considerations -- not because they're worried about how he'll handle such a leap.

"He's on our radar ... he's making it tough," Towers said before Wednesday's game against the Mariners at PETCO Park. "I just think he's still inexperienced. He's never thrown more than 55 innings [in one season]. Even though he's flat-dominated, if we bring him up, he would could end with 150 or so innings. That's more than triple what he's used to."

Latos is a combined 6-1 with a 0.84 ERA between Class A Fort Wayne and Double-A San Antonio. The Padres allowed him to skip over advanced Class A Lake Elsinore. They keep pushing him and Latos keeps producing.

Latos is 3-1 with a 1.29 ERA in five starts. He has 34 strikeouts and 28 innings and eight walks. He struck out 12 in his last start with no walks.

Don't get the wrong idea here, Latos is coming, though it will likely be August or possibly September before you see him. Latos has already pitched 53 1/3 innings this season. His career-best is 56 innings between three stops a year ago.

"To me, a good barometer is to no more than double the innings," Towers said.

That means Latos has about 50 more innings left in him. Where those will be spread, with San Antonio or San Diego, will be decided soon enough. It just won't start this weekend, as the Padres will go with Wade LeBlanc on Friday against Oakland and Walter Silva Saturday.

What are your thoughts? Let Latos get more seasoning or bring him up now to learn on the run?

Cheers, Corey Brock
MLB.com
Padres.com
http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres

Hey, the Mariners are in town, which takes me back to my Seattle roots, where I used to cover the Mariners for MLB.com and worked at the News Tribune in Tacoma, going way back. I've got several links for your perusal this morning.

First of all, a reminder to everyone that our following is growing by the day at http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres. Especially for the Facebook friends of the San Diego Padres, check in for your best source for the latest Padres news, notes and insights.

OK, to the links. Here's a few I posted over at http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres earlier today.

Preview of today's game. http://tinyurl.com/mjcezt. Note in there on Kouzmanoff cutting down his swing. Got to love fangraphs! (O-swing %).

Padres Minors: Story on LHP Nick Schmidt, a year after TJS. http://tinyurl.com/l96ydx. A recap of Mat Latos outing. http://tinyurl.com/lmyvat Maybe we'll see Latos on Saturday? Stay tuned.

My intern Amy Brittain put together a nice off-day story on #Padres catcher Nick Hundley's defensive development.http://tinyurl.com/ndgjnk  Check out the quote from bench coach Ted Simmons. I think it's very telling.

Here's a link to my weekly interview on 1360 AM, talking Padres with my boys Josh and Brian. http://tinyurl.com/nh6zvj

We'll have more later, of course at http://twitter.com/FollowThePadres and Padres.com.

Cheers, Corey Brock
MLB.com

Hey, I hate to be a downer here, but, well, I think the Padres flirtation with .500 baseball might be coming to an end.

The strained tendon in pitcher Jake Peavy's ankle, one that will sideline him until August at the earliest, coupled with the start of Interleague Play, is certainly enough to derail a team that for all of its warts, has been hanging around .500 for most of the season.

Sadly, I don't see how this current group can play at or stay near the .500 mark without Peavy anchoring the starting rotation. Chris Young, for as dominant as he can be, hasn't been able to piece together consistent starts in a while while  he rest of the rotation, Correia, Gaudin and Geer haven't shown they can pitch consistently well.

That the Padres are entering a stretch of 14 consecutive games against teams that are from the American League, beginning Saturday, won't help either. Remember, the Padres were 3-15 last season in Interleague Play and I don't think it's any secret that the AL is by far the superior of the two leagues. Better players, better hitters.

Care to guess what the Padres record will be by July 1? It might not be pretty, though I do think there are ways to help the team stay close to .500. Here's a few thoughts.

* When Everth Cabrera comes off the disabled list Friday, stick the 22-year-old in the starting lineup at shortstop and leave him there. I think we can all agree that Cabrera has the most upside of any of the shortstops the Padres have used this season and he represents the future for the team at that position. You didn't sacrifice a spot on the 25-man roster because you think he's a nice guy. He's hitting during his Minor League rehab stint and his defense is better than anything yo have going. Everth Cabrera, your starting shortstop.

* Also, promote Minor League pitcher Mat Latos, who is considered the prized arm of the farm system. Yes, he's 21 and doesn't have a vast Minor League resume. You know who else did not? Jake Peavy, who jumped from Double-A to the Major Leagues. Latos is someone who might grow bored with the Minor Leagues and I believe you have to keep pushing these guys to see what they can handle. He's 6-0 with a 0.56 ERA in two Minor League stops with 49 strikeouts and 11 walks in 48 innings. He'll be here and it will be before September.

* Promote outfielder Drew Macias from Portland and work him into your outfield rotation with Headley, Hairston (when he returns from the disabled list) and Giles (leaving TGwynn alone in center, I like what he brings). I would say even give him some of the at-bats Giles was getting. Give him some of the at-bats Headley is getting. Macias is an athlete, is a good defender and can hit. I don't know if he'll ever be an everyday player, but he deserves a longer look.

In case you're wondering, I'm close on calling for Kyle Blanks to be promoted. He's hitting .343 this month and has his average back up to .271. He's hitting with power, taking walks and has played 13 games in left field. If you promote Blanks, he's coming up here to play every day, not sit on the bench. That means a dramatic shift in personel. I don't think the Padres are quite there yet.

Anyway, a few ideas on a day where I got to the ballpark here in Anaheim way too early. Let me know what you think.

Cheers, Corey

So the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft is tomorrow, three days of fun that start Tuesday with at least the first round being televised by the MLB Network. I don't know just how excited the general public will be about the draft, but it's a good first step to get this thing into prime time.

Anyway, about the Padres, who will select third behind the Nationals and Mariners. I think that, by now, we all know the direction the Nationals are going. I'm going to attempt to avoid dropping the name of you-know-who into this blog because, honestly, it's been a bit much.

The Padres, by now, know who they want and have a backup plan in place if Dustin Ackley of the University of North Carolina goes to Seattle at No. 2. I've heard that plan is prep outfielder Donovan Tate of Georgia, a potential five-tool player.

Picking Tate would represent a hug shift away from the draft plan the Padres have stuck to in recent years, drafting college players who are close to being finished products and that can move quickly through the farm system. With Tate, should the Padres go that route, you have to give him 4-5 years to know what you have. That's how it is with high school players.

There are other options at No. 3 that could be very enticing, like pitcher Aaron Crow, who was selected ninth last June by the Nationals but could not agree to terms. He's a guy who could move fast and could help the Padres in possibly fewer than two years.

But I think the Padres are generally happy with the progress of some of their Minor League arms this season -- Latos, Luebke, Schmidt has thrown well after missing '08 -- that I think they can afford to choose Tate, who pegs as the best high school position player in the draft.

What are your thoughts? College player vs. high school players? Best player available vs. a player who could help this team sooner than later?

Cheers, Corey