Peoria, at night....

Good afternoon all, and greetings from the media room at the Peoria Sports Complex.  2nd scheduled night game of the spring is coming up tonight at 7pm.  Before we get to the news and notes, here is the Padres lineup tonight...

CF - Cameron Maybin 
LF - Mark Kotsay 
3B - Chase Headley 
1B - Yonder Alonso 
RF - Will Venable 
   C - John Baker 
SS - Everth Cabrera 
2B - Andy Parrino 
SP - Edinson Volquez 


Volquez will start against his former team the Reds tonight.  He was an all-star in 2008, going 17-6 with a 3.21 ERA for Cincinnati.  This will be his 4th start of the spring and he is scheduled to go 5 innings. He's coming off a crazy outing against the Giants in Scottsdale.  The rain and hail came down in his final inning, where Volquez walked a couple of batters gave up a triple and a run came in on a wild pitch.  Volquez was having all sorts of problems getting the mud from out of his spikes.  He had no landing area and each baseball put into play was basically soaking wet.  All things considered he did a great job, just finishing the inning.   The Padres won the game 5-1.  


News/Notes:


News from the manager's desk.....


- Kyle Blanks had an injection in his sore shoulder the other day, he's improving and is considered day to day. 


- Orlando Hudson is progressing from a 'tweak' of his right groin injury, and is also considered day to day. 


- Nick Hundley (right oblique) is scheduled to play in one of the Padres split squad games tomorrow.  He's been out since March 14th.  


- Carlos Quentin returned to the clubhouse today, with his knee wrapped and holding some crutches.  He didn't appear to be using the crutches, instead walking gingerly around greeting teammates.  He said the surgery went well.  Original time frame from the surgery to recovery was 4-6 weeks.  


- Bud Black traveled with the split squad to Tucson yesterday and reported to us today that Yasmani Grandal was the star of the game.  He hit a homer that cleared the batter's eye in center, without any help from the wind, and made a great block on a ball, then threw a runner out on the base paths.  Black also mentioned that Andy Parrino looked good at shortstop.  


Ear wax build up?


So today I started preparing for my stints on television this year, by getting outfitted with all the technical gear one needs.  That includes a little earpiece that is used to hear instructions from the TV truck, from the producer or director.  This instrument is called an IFB, and in order to make sure it doesn't pop out of your ear, there is a company that makes custom fit earpieces.  So with the help of seasoned veteran Mudcat Grant, we took a mold of my right ear to send away.  Of course I had to walk around with this 'silly puddy' like substance in my ear, for about 15-20 minutes.  It was at this point of course that we were summoned into the manager's office for our chat.  I felt a bit silly since the mold was visible to everybody.  Ah, the price of fame in the big city huh?  


That's it for now.  Join Uncle Teddy and Bob Scanlan for the broadcast tonight on XX 1090 starting at 7pm. 


Andy