XX Sports Radio: Jed Hoyer Interview with Darren Smith (MP3)
- "It's nice to see us get on a little bit of a roll."
- When you evaluate your team you do look at the opponents that you've beaten.
- "Our starting pitching has been really good."
- In the recent winning streak the scores of the games haven't been different the Padres have just been on the winning end of the close games.
- "It's a very big 10 game stretch." They need to get much closer to .500. They can't be as patient now because they had such a bad April. Since April they are one game under .500.
- On Donovan Tate's drug suspension for using spice: "It's a disappointment." It wasn't a surprise because he had a prior offense, but they were surprised that he relapsed. "I honestly believe this, I think long term this is going to be a good thing for Donovan. I think this is going to be a wake up call." Organizationally it's disappointing. "He's continued to sputter in his professional career." Donovan understands that his first two years have been a disappointment. "Losing the better part of two years is not a positive." He needs a long stretch of playing baseball and behaving. "I think he now understands the seriousness and he seems committed to getting past it."
- Hoyer is in San Diego. Yesterday he was in San Antonio for the AA All-Star Game. They had 8 players on the All-Star Game. James Darnell was the MVP. Brad Brach is a legitimate prospect and has really put himself on the map.
- Hoyer has talked to a lot of teams about possible trades. When the team was 14 games under there were more teams calling. Since the team started winning the calls have slowed down. "We have a pretty good sense of the interested parties." The Padres have not been exchanging names with other teams.
- The Padres have had internal discussions about the players who are eligible for free agency at the end of the season to see if they can sign them again or trade them. There hasn't been any final decisions made about Heath Bell, Ryan Ludwick or Chad Qualls. "No final decisions."
- Kyle Blanks has 40 games at first base and about 10 games in the outfield. Hoyer wants to get him more games in the outfield. At some point soon James Darnell will be promoted. Players are more likely to make it to the big leagues if they can play different positions.
- If the team is a buyer then ownership will give them the same amount of money as last year. "I'm sure the money will be about the same as last year if we get to that point."
- Cameron Maybin has been an upgrade in center field. He's been given the chance to play everyday. He's been streaky offensively but has been excellent defensively as they expected.
- Hoyer thinks Bull Durham is the best baseball movie of all time. The baseball footage in Eight Men Out is "so bad", with the sound off it looks like a comedy. The ending of The Natural " with the lights and the cover coming off the ball "is a little much".
- "We need to have a Boston free zone, where we have a couple of shows where we don't mention Boston."