At least the Padres have Adrian Gonzalez

June 24, 8:15 PMSan Diego Padres ExaminerJudson Green

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The Padres actually have some decent players, but Adrian is the clear king.

Last night's attempt to blow a 9-1 lead over the Mariners was unsuccessful, and so the Padres now have a two-game winning streak. But even then, it's unlikely the Padres will get enough fans on the bandwagon to get much support for their players for the All-Star Game, and so they'll have send Adrian Gonzalez.

Gonzalez, as the voting stands, would only get in on the every team has to have a representative rule, which probably has a more formal name, but I can't be bothered to look it up. Fortunately, he has the credentials, unlike some of the players who make it despite have a comically low number of votes, like seven.

As of this writing, he only has a .274 batting average, but also a .415 and .606 on-base percentage and slugging percentage, respectively, because he walks and hits home runs at a very high frequency (107.5 FM). He's a good fielder. Adrian Gonzalez isn't just a legitimate All-Star, he's also a legit MVP candidate.

The home runs are most notable, because Gonzalez plays in PETCO Park, which depresses home run production more than any park in baseball, as evidenced by the words making up the acronym PETCO: Abandon Hope, All Ye Home Run Hitters Who Enter. Gonzalez has 24 home runs, and two thirds of them have come on the road. In a different park, we might be discussing a player threatening to beat Roger Maris's 61 home runs clean. Of course, that would only happen if Gonzalez got enough pitches to hit. And that would only happen if Gonzalez had some kind of leverage on the pitchers, like a photo of all of them engaged in a cocaine orgy. Which brings us to his walk rate.

The MLB leading walk rate is partly due to the respect Gonzalez commands as a hitter, and partly due to the opposing pitcher usually laughing so hard he can barely stand up after facing the rest of the Padres lineup. If the Padres do have a good game offensively, that goes out the window. Note how, when the Padres dropped nine runs on the M's last night, Gonzalez drew not a single walk, despite his two-run homer that gave the team a lead they would never relinquish, and also the opportunity for me to use the word "relinquish" in my column.

Overall, though, we're starting to get used to multiple walk games for him. He's not getting anything good to hit. Last night's was only his second home run in his last 17 games. Pitchers have taken up the strategy of working around him, sometimes locating their pitches as far off the plate as the Andromeda Galaxy.

But to his credit, Gonzalez is making use of whatever he can get. He's not pressing. If teams want to put him on base rather than give him a chance to hit, so be it. He'll help the team any way he can. And if they accidentally give him a good pitch to hit, too bad for them. That baby is A-Gone.