XX Sports Radio: Kevin Towers Interview (MP3) by Darren Smith
- Towers is scouting USC Shortstop Grant Green. He might be the Padres #3 pick in the draft. They tried to sign him out of High School and after his Junior year at SC.
- Jake and CY haven't been able to go deep in the ball games. The young inexperienced bullpen has been overexposed.
- Baek felt good after his performance last night. He got his work in, got his pitch count up and faced live hitters. The results weren't what they wanted though, but he'll have two more rehab starts.
- Baek will come back as a starter and one of the other guys. Either Correia or Geer will be sent down or sent to the bullpen.
- The Padres aren't using an advanced scout. Josh Stein has been doing the work in-house, breaking down video. KT isn't opposed to advance scouts. The manager has to be comfortable with his advance scout. KT offered Buddy Black the option of getting one if he felt like he wasn't getting enough information. The problem hasn't been the scouting it has been the executing.
- KT is somewhat pleased with the offense, he's is disappointed in the pitching. He didn't forsee Peavy and Young not being able to get deep in ball games. KT doesn't think it's because of a lack of scouting or information. He saw the quote where Peavy said that he didn't have enough information on a hitter. KT said the information is there for him before the game, "some guys utilize it and some don't".
- Giles has more history of being a consistent performer. Jim Lefebvre has Kouz making some changes to his swing and sometimes they take time to return results. Adrian needs some protection in the line up if the team is going to score. Gerut has been swinging the bat well. KT likes Eckstein in the two hole. Hairston and Headley have done a good job.
"For us to continue to score we need better performances from both Kouz and Giles, I'm hoping it's a slow start and a bad April"
- Luis Rodriguez has been doing a real good job. He's low maintence, makes all the plays that he should make. He is playing out of position, he is used to playing second. He doesn't have the range, but he puts the ball in play. They are really missing Cabrera, KT liked the platoon between them at shortstop.
- Cliff Floyd still has fluid in the back of the knee. The fluid hasn't come back yet. He might need surgery he'll be out 4 weeks. [Cyndi Lauper's "Girls just want to have fun" starts blaring]
- KT doesn't have a date in mind to make a decision about moving Peavy. He thinks the Padres could easily be 13-7. He's pretty pleased that the Pads are 11-10 with Giles, Kouz and Peavy not performing.
"For Jake to even be an attractive piece for another ball club, he's going to have to step it up as well. We're certainly not going to just give him away just to move the dollars. Any Peavy deal we would consider doing we're going to have to get good players back and for that to happen he's going to have to pitch better. It's two fold, hopefully we stay in it and stay competitive Hopefully he pitches a little bit better for the next two and a half months, makes it a difficult decision for us either to move him or hold onto him. As for right now, plan on him being here."