Well I just got back from the Padre warm-up in Eastlake. Pretty interesting. But I guess the big headline was Adrian Gonzalez was NOT there. Surprise to me. I hear they will be going to Granite Hills, but i doubt the brothers Giles will be there.
We watched the '06 wrap up video, previews of '07, video of the padre academy in the Dominican, a Scott Linebrink and Jake Peavy baseball were raffled off along with the chance to be the play ball kid.
Some of the highlights from the Q and A: Kouzmanoff knows he has big shoes to fill, and when asked if he was intimidated by Petco he answered ".....no" but did get to keep his grand slam ball. McAnulty never watched his walk off hr until he did these warm-up things and was sent a DVD of it recently. This will probably be a big story of the season, but pitcher Ryan Ketchner only has 10% of his hearing. Scott Strikland and Randy Jones thought they were the best bunters out of the group. One of the girls asked how old Leo Rosales was, and he said 25, when one of the girl's friends said "Sit down he's too old for you!" and that got a big laugh.
So I guess that's all....I would tell anyone planning on going to the warm-up at Granite Hills not to get their hopes up about the brothers Giles being there...Adrian is a superstar in these parts, and he wasn't there.
MC: Steve Quis
Panel: Justin Hampson, Ryan Ketchner, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Paul Mcanulty Royce Ring, Scott Strikland, Leo Rosales, and Randy Jones (L-R in my pix)
Go Padres!
Donald