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Padres acquire Shawn Kelley from the Yankees for Johnny Barbato

Cracking myself up, pretending that this is Kelley's pitching form
Cracking myself up, pretending that this is Kelley's pitching form
Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

No one else wanted to blog about this, so I guess I will.  Padres GM A.J. Preller came out of his long winter's hibernation to turn up the hot stove again.  This time he acquired Shawn Kelley from the Yankees as a set up man for Joaquin Benoit.  The Padres only had to give up AA pitcher Johnny Barbato, who among other things has a really cool name. In a corresponding move the Pads designated Keyvius Sampson for assignment to make room on the 40 man roster.

This is a pretty good quote from Corey Brock's article on the whole situation from Kelley:

Padres add reliever Kelley in trade with Yanks | padres.com

"I just made the comment to a friend the other day, 'Wow, the Padres are picking up everybody," said Kelley, who up until Monday was a member of the Yankees. "They're going to be really good this year.'

A few days later, here I am ... one of them."

It doesn't sound like Preller will be flipping Kelley either, he's been making eyes at him for the last two weeks.

"[Preller] was just saying that he'd had his eye on me for the last two weeks and was trying to talk to [Yankees general manager Brian] Cashman, looking for right-handed guy with fastball-slider velocity guy to pitch in that park," Kelley said. "He said that he was excited to get the deal done and get me out there."

I was thinking about the team last night and I have a gut feeling that we're looking at an 80 win team as it stands now.  I couldn't decide if I was being optimistic or pessimistic before I fell asleep.