Loose Padre Ends

I missed that he would come off the DL yesterday, so Bard's capsule is one day late:


Joshua David Bard

Bard has turned into an on-base-machine at a somewhat late point in his career. Even at Petco he above a 0.400 OBP last year.

From the ages of 24-27 he was up and down between the minor leagues and Cleveland ( and the DL ), and never showed much in the way of hitting at the highest level. He started to put things together once he came to Boston, and he really blossomed after being traded along with Cla Meredith to San Diego. What an awful trade that was from a Dodger fan's perspective!

He has a little bit of power at Petco, hitting 5 homers there last year. He's a switch hitter, and appears to be equally good from either side of the plate. The one caveat in all of this is that he still has only 300 at bats of playing at his current high level.

It helps the Padre lineup if he's in the game, obviously. He's a high ball hitter. This is another batter that Lowe should dominate if his pitches are working.