Time to make a move...

The Padres roll into town for 3 games which could easily determine their season if their swept. Since we swept them in May with Maddux, Mitre and Rusch (which I had to joy to experience in person), hopefully the combo of Prior, Zambrano and Clement can do the same. As usual Clement gets matched up with their best pitcher, in this case Jake Peavy. As a team, they've scored 30 less runs than the Cubs this year with the same team batting average (.267) but a slightly higher OBP (Cubs .325-Padres.335). The Cubs have outslugged them .456 to .395 (Cubs are 3rd best- Padres are 3rd worst (14th overall in the NL). A lot can be attributed to playing at Petco Park as it has played as the most extreme pitchers park so far this year (although most people prefer 3 year averages meaning we really won't know about Petco for 2 more seasons). Phil Nevin though hates Petco:

"I know I had three balls this week that would have changed games this homestand and didn't go out," said Nevin before the postgame exhange -- perhaps the loudest since Towers became GM in 1996. "Just make it real. That's all I asked."

Not exactly sure what "Just make it real" means, considering centerfield at Petco is the 2nd shortest in the NL(according to baseball-almanac.com) interestingly enough only to Dodger Stadium (also a massive pitchers' park) RF is one of the shortest in the league as well and LF is about middle of the road. Considering Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, SBC Park & Network Associates are all pitchers park as well maybe Nevin should not be blaming Kevin Towers but the state of California. I'm sure our governor will be anxiously awaiting his phone call. Of course when I went to Petco, the Cubs clobbered the ball the entire series so maybe it's just that Giles, Klesko and Nevin are 33 and not aging well (particularly Klesko).

Take care of business Cubbies!!! 2 out of 3 at least.