Padres Need A Bat

The Padres are currently 13th in the NL in OBP and 10th in slugging.  They could really use a hitter – Mike Cameron and Kevin Kouzmanoff have been offensive black holes, Brian Giles has less power than his brother, Khalil Greene never gets on base, and Josh Bard batted cleanup a few days ago.

Phil Nevin’s agent and apparently a San Diego radio station have been campaigning for the Padres to sign the free agent.  I think his supporters are more focused on the 22 homers than the fairly meager .438 SLG or the fact that Nevin can’t play defense.  Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune throws out three other possible upgrades at third base: Troy Glaus, Hank Blalock, and Ryan Zimmerman.

Blalock seems to be bouncing back so far; he’s at .292/.346/.467.  Kevin Towers and Jon Daniels have hooked up for two deals – one the infamous Adam Eaton trade, and the other a minor one that sent Freddy Guzman to Texas. 

We discussed Glaus yesterday – he would have to have a desire to come to San Diego.  Some scouts from other teams have been spotted at recent Blue Jays games, but the Padres were not among them.  As for Zimmerman, I would imagine the Nationals want to build around him.

We went through a Kevin Towers analysis last year, when the Padres were more clearly in need of a third baseman.  We learned that Towers has strong connections with Bill Bavasi and also the Red Sox.  That could make Adrian Beltre and Mike Lowell legitimate candidates.  Lowell is in his walk year and has slugged a surprising .549 so far.