Friar Watch

Considering how close the Padres were to sweeping the Dodgers series it’s especially aggravating to come out of it with only one win. After a full month in which Kevin Kouzmanoff hasn’t looked anything other than overwhelmed it’s time to make a move. The Padres need to send Kouz to Portland until he starts hitting and let Branyan take over at third. At this point even Geoff Blum would be an improvement.

The good news for the Padres is that the Washington Nationals are in town. If you can’t get things turned around against the worst team in baseball you need to seriously reasses your situation.

I confess I have no idea what’s going on with the Nationals so let’s take a look at some of the Nats blogs.

Chris at Capitol Punishment points out some bright spots: Jason Bergmann has pitched well, Ryan Church has drawn 7 walks this season and Austin Kearns has been hitting. Ouch. You know your team is bad when a guy drawing 7 walks is one of your highlights. The Nats do have something to look forward to in Petco Park:

The good thing about the Padres series is that we likely won’t have a lead, so Cordero won’t get a chance to yak the game away.

Basil at Federal Baseball isn’t sold on Bergmann yet but likes what he sees so far. He also notes that the Nats have recalled prospect Kory Casto, who hit .172 with the Nats before he was demoted. He hit .324 with 4 homers in 10 games in Columbus so he sounds like he fixed whatever his problem was. Definitely someone to keep an eye on.

Nats 320 Is impressed with the Nats starting pitching but points the finger at the weak bench which limits Manny Acta’s options in a close game. Casto’s return should help there, while Christian Guzman and Nook Logan will be back soon as well.

The Nationals have some great fans and some great blogs, they deserve a better team. I’d love to see the Nationals turn things around and become competitive over the next few years. As they say on the 1090 pregame show, good luck on Thursday.