Padres Press Clips Tuesday, June 28, 2016

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Schimpf soaking in everything in first call-up UT San Diego Sanders 2

Hot in June, Myers needs help to be All-Star MLB.com Cassavell 5

Renfroe among top prospect performers Monday MLB.com Rosenbaum 7

Minors: Renfroe slams 18th homer UT San Diego Sanders 8

Padres host Orioles for 2-game series starting Tuesday STATS, LLC. STATS, LLC. 10

San Diego leads ESPN’s ‘Sports Misery Index’ UT San Diego Krasovic 11

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Schimpf soaking in everything in first call-up 28-year-old slugged his way out of Triple-A after stagnating for six-plus years in Blue Jays’ organization By Jeff Sanders | 5:23 p.m. June 27, 2016

A former national champion and a fifth-round pick out of LSU, a 28-year-old emerged on the other side of his six-plus year stay in the Blue Jays organization this winter as a husband, a father to a baby girl and a minor league free agent for the first time.

He wondered what lay ahead. He thought about what might not. Then Schimpf leapt.

Of course, he did.

“It was kind of an exciting, maybe a little scary at times,” Schimpf said Saturday in the dugout at the Great American Ball Park. “Sometimes the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Sometimes it's not always that easy to get a job being a minor league free agent, especially with no big league time.

“I was looking for the right opportunity, the right place to land.”

Little did he know how propitious his choice was.

The Padres traded Jedd Gyorko to St. Louis two weeks after Schimpf signed his minor league deal in November after an audience with new skipper Andy Green. Since then, the Padres have lost the first two replacements – and Jemile Weeks – to crippling leg injuries as Schimpf piled up the sort of stats the Padres could no longer ignore.

While the Louisiana native has yet to roll his first at-bat double into the momentum he’d built up in the , Schimpf continues to prepare the way he did to come out of a 4-for-26 start to his El Paso assignment.

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The left-handed Schimpf is hitting .111 through his first 11 games in the majors and went 0-for-3 with a Sunday in Cincinnati in his first start in four days due to the trio of lefties that the Reds threw at the Padres.

He remained busy nonetheless, whether he was working in the cage daily with hitting coach Alan Zinter, huddling with before Sunday’s start or poring over video with Derek Norris on a so-called day off.

“He's all about picking brains and learning,” Norris said. “It surprised me that he's never been in the big leagues because he's a lot further along than a lot of people are.”

That’s just the way Schimpf is. Always has been.

In fact, it’s those qualities that endeared him to when he arrived at LSU in time for Schimpf’s freshman year.

He’d turned a standout prep career in Covington, La., into an opportunity at his dream school. There, the 5-foot-9, 180-pound Schimpf hit four homers as a freshman, 12 as a sophomore and landed on the map with 11 homers in 27 games in a summer league before everything came together his junior year.

“As funny as it is to say, he was an unsung hero on our team,” Mainieri, the Tigers’ Hall-of-Fame coach, said by phone. “He hit a lot of big home runs for us. He could . He could hit for power … and nobody could outwork him.”

It added up to 22 homers in 2009, 10th most in LSU history. As a team, the Tigers rolled to a national title and then saw six players drafted inside the first 12 rounds of the draft.

Schimpf was the fourth, following Jared Mitchell (1st, White Sox), D.J. LeMahieu (2nd, Cubs) and Louis Coleman (5th, Royals) out the door as the Blue Jays’ fifth- round selection that summer.

He was a mid-season all-star the next year in Lansing, an organizational all-star two years later (22 homers in 129 games) and then he was in Double-A for parts of four straight years. 3

“It’s not really my call on why I never got a chance there; I guess it just wasn’t the right time for me,” said Schimpf, a career .242/.343/.464 (AVG/OBP/SLG) with four straight 20-homer seasons coming into the 2016 season. “Growing up a bit undersized, I was always the guy to have doubters – I may not be able to play infield or I may not go beyond a certain point.

“I always play like I've got something to prove every day. It's what always fueled me.”

His production reached new heights in El Paso, the momentum building with each passing month.

He fashioned a .839 OPS the first month of the season, pushed it to 1.107 in May and 1.1664 in June when the Padres were finally forced to take a closer look at their unheralded minor league free agent.

He was hitting .355/.432/.729 with 15 homers, 48 RBIs and just 33 when the long-awaited call arrived just after midnight after putting 9-month-old Kenley down for the night.

He, his wife Felicia and his new baby girl boarded a plane the next day for San Diego. Hours later, he roped a 105 mph double down the line for a hit in his first major at- bat, a sampling of the surprising power in his unassuming frame.

He’s had just two hits since then, has struck out eight times in 26 at-bats but has also worked five walks in demonstrating a sound approach at the plate.

“He gets all his body into it from the ground up,” Zinter said. “He's got bat speed and he's got a good swing plane. I like everything he brings to the table.

“We just have to get him some more opportunities and get him to relax and have some fun with it.”

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Hot in June, Myers needs help to be All-Star Kemp, Jay also playing well but not in top 15 in NL outfield voting

By AJ Cassavell / MLB.com

SAN DIEGO -- Despite their impressive offensive surge this month, several Padres remain on the outside looking in on the All-Star ballot, after Major League unveiled its final voting update Monday afternoon.

Wil Myers -- who is putting forth a June performance that could earn him consideration for NL Player of the Month -- was not among the top five vote-getters at first base. Meanwhile, Matt Kemp and Jon Jay didn't factor into the top 15 outfielders on the ballot.

All-Star rosters will be unveiled on Tuesday, July 5.

Although Myers trails by a wide margin in voting, he appears to be a favorite to represent the Padres at their hometown All-Star Game as a reserve. He's batting .323/.404/.742 this month while tying a Padres franchise record with 10 June homers. For the season, Myers is hitting .282 and leads the team with 17 homers.

One long ball behind Myers is Kemp, who is batting .337 this month. Jay, meanwhile, is currently battling a forearm injury, but leads the National League with 24 doubles and is hitting .296 and playing a steady center field. Fans can cast their votes for starters at MLB.com and all 30 club sites -- on their computers, tablets and smartphones -- exclusively online using the 2016 Esurance MLB All-Star Game Ballot until Thursday at 8:59 p.m. PT. Vote up to five times in any 24-hour period for a maximum of 35 times.

Fans may also receive the ballot by texting VOTE to 89269 (USA) or 101010 (Canada). Or text VOTA for a ballot in Spanish. Message and data rates may apply. Up to five messages. No purchase required. Reply STOP to cancel. Reply HELP for info.

Following the announcement of the 2016 All-Stars, be sure to return to MLB.com and cast your 2016 Esurance MLB All-Star Game Final Vote for the final player on each league's All-Star roster. On Tuesday, July 12, watch the 2016 All-Star Game presented by MasterCard live on

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FOX, and during the game visit MLB.com to submit your choice for the Ted Williams Most Valuable Player Award presented by Chevrolet via the 2016 MLB All-Star Game MVP Vote.

The 87th All-Star Game, in San Diego, will be televised nationally by FOX, in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS, and worldwide by partners in more than 160 countries via MLB International's independent feed. ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide national radio coverage of the All-Star Game. MLB.com, MLB Network and SiriusXM will also provide comprehensive All-Star Week coverage. For more information, please visit allstargame.com.

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Renfroe among top prospect performers Monday Cubs' No. 3 and No. 6 prospects combine to go 5-for-6 with 7 RBIs

By Mike Rosenbaum / MLB.com

A pair of Top 100 Cubs prospects shined on Monday for Double-A Tennessee as Ian Happ and Billy McKinney combined to go 5-for-6 at the plate with seven RBIs to lead the Smokies past Pensacola, 12-1, in a rain-shortened game.

Happ, No. 67 overall on the Top 100, hit his ninth and drove in three runs in what was his third straight three-hit game for Tennessee. The 21-year-old second baseman and Cubs' No. 3 prospect owns an absurd .733/.706/1.267 slash line with two home runs, two doubles and six RBIs through five games since his promotion from Class A Advanced Myrtle Beach, where he hit .296/.410/.475 with 26 extra-base hits, 42 RBIs and 10 steals in 69 contests.

Happ, whom the Cubs selected with the ninth overall pick in the 2015 Draft, has hit .322/.426/.522 in 74 games to begin his first full professional campaign.

As for McKinney, the Cubs' No. 6 prospect (No. 79 overall) went 2-for-3 with a triple and four RBIs for the Smokies, while also reaching base via a walk. After posting a .525 and .776 OPS during April and May, respectively, the 21-year-old outfielder has continued to make offensive strides in June with a .782 OPS through 22 games.

The rest of the best performances from top prospects Monday

• No. 83 overall prospect Hunter Renfroe hit a grand slam -- his 18th homer of the season -- as part of a three-hit performance in Triple-A El Paso's rout of Reno. ThePadres' No. 3 prospect has collected multiple hits in three of his last five games for the Chihuahuas.

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Minors: Renfroe slams 18th homer Recapping the previous day of action for the Padres' minor league affiliates By Jeff Sanders | 9:36 a.m. June 28, 2016

The Pacific Coast League Player of the Week, did extend his homer streak to six games. Triple-A El Paso’s did collect three more hits in a 13-3 win over Reno on Monday night. Hunter Renfroe hit a grand slam for his 18th homer and finished with four hits, Jabari Blash (.253) hit his eighth homer and Hector Sanchez (.444) hit his third.

Hedges’ three-hit game pushed his average to .372.

Before Monday, he had become the first player in Chihuahuas history to hit homers in five consecutive games. He was 11-for-20 for the week in being named the PCL Player of the Week.

The only other PCL players to hit five homers in a game this season was Tacoma’s Mike Zunino.

Right-hander Bryan Rodriguez (4-1, 4.28) started Monday’s game with five strikeouts and two runs allowed in six innings.

HIGH SINGLE-A LAKE ELSINORE (35-40)

Inland Empire 10, Storm 1: RHP Chris Huffman (6-3, 2.79) allowed seven runs – six earned – on six hits in 3 1/3 innings. 2B Luis Urias (.324) went 2-for-4 with a triple and a run scored. LOW SINGLE-A FORT WAYNE (39-36)

Dayton 5, TinCaps 0: RHP Jean Cosme (7-4, 2.80) allowed a run in five innings. LF Jhonatan Pena (.230) went 2-for-3 and 1B Brad Zunica (.252) and CF Tyler Moore (.222) both doubled.

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SHORT-SEASON TRI-CITY (6-5)

Dust Devils 7, Salem-Keizer 2: 1B Carlos Sosa (.278) drove in two runs on two hits and 2B Jose Savinon (.364) and DH Kyle Overstreet (.250) each had two hits. RHP Emmanuel Ramirez (1-0, 1.20) struck out five and allowed a run on three hits and two walks in six innings. ROOKIE AZL PADRES (5-1)

Padres 4, White Sox 3: SS Fernando Tatis Jr. (.364) went 3-for-4 with his first homer and two RBIs and DH Hudson Potts (.333) went 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored. RHP Lake Bachar (1-0, 3.60) struck out five and allowed a run in three innings in relief. ROOKIE DSL PADRES (9-10)

Orioles 1, Padres 0: CF Edward Burgos (.367) doubled in four at-bats for his team’s only extra-base hit. RHP Angel Acevedo (1.98) struck out four and allowed three hits and two walks over five scoreless innings in the start.

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Padres host Orioles for 2-game series starting Tuesday The return home where the weather has been as warm as the team.

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Padres return home where the weather has been as warm as the team.

The Padres (33-44) welcome the (45-30) on Tuesday, the first of a brief two-game, interleague series at Petco Park. The set kicks off a five-game homestead for the Padres, their last before the All-Star break.

San Diego returns from a six-game road trip in which they went 4-2 and continued to swing hot bats.

Before taking three of four from the , the Padres split a pair of games at Baltimore.

In the first game between these two on Tuesday night, the Padres right-hander Erik Johnson (0-5, 8.54 ERA) squares off against righty Ubaldo Jimenez (4-7, 6.97).

Johnson came over from the Chicago White Sox in the trade which sent veteran starter James Shields to the South Side. But Johnson has struggled since landing with the Padres. It is his fourth start as a Padre and his second with the team against the Orioles.

Last Wednesday, Johnson was punished by the Orioles in a loss. He surrendered six runs on nine hits, two of which were home runs, in a season-low four innings.

Johnson has reached the sixth inning in just one of his three starts with San Diego.

"He's run into a little bit of tough luck," Padres manager Andy Green told MLB.com. "If you look at his last outing, we didn't do some things defensively behind him that we should've done, in Baltimore, some balls found holes.

"I think the No. 1 thing for him is we've got to keep the ball in the ballpark, give our defense an opportunity to make plays. If he does that, he's going to have the opportunity to be successful."

To do so, Johnson needs to keep his pitches from hitting the outfield seats. He has been touched for seven home runs in 14 2/3 innings, which helps explain his 9.82 ERA in his three Padres starts.

Jimenez has struggled after the calendar flipped to May 1. Since, he has fashioned a 8.44 ERA and issued 30 walks in 48 innings.

But Jimenez is coming off a solid performance, when he stymied the Padres on Wednesday. Jimenez picked up the win as he worked six innings and allowed two runs on six hits. He struck out five but walked a season-high four.

To get back on track, Jimenez simplified his plan.

"I think the approach was going back to the basics," Jimenez said. "Just see the target, hit the glove and try to get him out."

The results were positive as Jimenez won for the first time since April 13.

"It was good to see him go home and feel good about himself," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said.

Now the Padres are back home, hoping to change their luck against Jimenez.

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San Diego leads ESPN's 'Sports Misery Index' ESPN writer says San Diego has replaced Cleveland on his Sports Misery Index By Tom Krasovic | 6 a.m. June 27, 2016 Good morning.

As Cleveland sports fans nurse celebration hangovers, pundits are left to weigh the fallout of Cleveland finally winning a major sports title.

Such as...which major American city now assumes Cleveland's spot as the unluckiest spectator sports market?

Bill Barnwell of ESPN.com, indulging his zest for sports analytics,devised a Sports Misery Index. When the point-tallying was done, the successor to Cleveland was, predictably, Cleveland West. San Diego, you get to wave a foam finger.

With a nod to the hardcore fans of the Chargers and Padres, the pundit also threw cold water on a popular theory that San Diego sunshine dulls the pain of local sports fans.

The idea of fans suffering in perennially gorgeous weather by the beach feels wrong, like there's something inherently more meaningful about losing when you have to trod back home and shovel snow for six hours.

There's not. San Diego fans have suffered for 53 years while barely sniffing a title; there are grandfathers who have spent their entire lives in San Diego rooting for local teams without ever feeling for a moment like they're close to winning a championship. That's every bit as depressing as it must have been for Cleveland fans during their dry spell...

Exit Cleveland. Enter San Diego, now the most tortured sports city in North America.

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My take: The monthly rent bill in San Diego can feel like torture. Caring about the Chargers and Padres? I'm just an observer but would go so far as to say as it's not a walk on the beach, unless you're barefooted and broken seashells abound. Barnwell's article and the comments from readers triggered several thoughts on the San Diego sports scene.

1) San Diego's spectator sports experience rewards out-of-town sports fans and locals who grew up elsewhere. They get to see their childhood teams in pleasant conditions.

Admittedly, venerable but woefully neglected Qualcomm Stadium is past its prime.

2) Chargers fans are known to sell game tickets for the same reasons the Spanoses charge $9 for beers and $25 for parking: profit.

3) Paradise ain't cheap. San Diego is very expensive, even more so for locals because incomes here haven't kept pace with soaring costs.

Sports palaces are costlier to build here, by a lot, than in many other cities like Phoenix or Las Vegas.

Yet even when money was tight, the City of San Diego guaranteed for almost 10 years to buy every Chargers ticket that went unsold.

4) No other city can beat the San Diego experience for the non- fan of the home team when it comes to proximity to airport/local fun spots/lodging, predictably good weather, availability of tickets, ballpark amenities and polite hometown fans.

(I've been to some 40 other major league ballparks. Petco Park isn't quite in my top-5, but the whole San Diego experience -- see the above list -- is relatively low hassle and affordable. And not cretinous. At ballparks in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, I've seen fanatics direct unspeakable abuse at fans of visiting teams.)

5) All money is green, meaning operators of the Padres and the Chargers benefit from San Diego's status as a tourist destination. Is there less incentive, then, for ownership to go all out to deliver a championship? 12

6) I've attended every Padres postseason game in San Diego and am sure that pro- Padres crowds, long ago, were as loud as in most other cities. Former Braves Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux said Padres playoff crowds in 1998 were the loudest they'd heard, anywhere, during their yearly trips to the postseason. Back then, the Padres played in Mission Valley, which isn't the tourist destination that downtown is.

7) The days of San Diegans actually caring about the Padres feel like several lifetimes ago.

8) San Diego is a good football market, and historically more ardent about the Bolts than the Padres.

Even when the Chargers lost the Super Bowl, some 150,000 fans turned out for a pep rally.

Pro-Chargers crowds are a noisy bunch, louder than the Raiders home crowds of the 1980s and early 1990s at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. They've caused communication snafus for numerous opponents dating to the days of Air Coryell (or earlier). Playoffs games were very loud in the Boss Ross Era and in the mid-to-late 2000s.

Attendance fluctuates, but the Chargers, who would lose 12 of 16 games, still sold more than 90 percent of their tickets last season (yes, opponents' fans helped). Ratings for their game telecasts tend to hold steady. Zero times in 50 trips has the journey reached the ideal destination -- a Super Bowl winners circle -- but the journey is still interesting to a large number of San Diegans.

9) Were the Chargers to move downtown, I think the vibe would end up being similar to at Petco Park if the team didn't also take care of business on the field.

10) I'd wager Tevas are more popular with tourists than with San Diegans.

11) I think the Chargers would own a Lombardi Trophy, had team owner Gene Klein paid Fred Dean instead of trading him to Bill Walsh's 49ers.

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12) Kyrie Irving is the Cavaliers point guard whose 3-point shot ended Cleveland's sports title drought.

Chargers tight end Antonio Gates is Irving's NFL spiritual doppelganger. But only to a point, unless the Bolts can win a Super Bowl. Like, eight or 20 months from now.

The previous NBA Finals, Irving tried to play through injuries, only to break his kneecap in Game 1.

Irving when healthy cannot be stopped by one man, as the Golden State Warriors discovered this month.

Gates was like that when he was Irving's age, not that he's a slouch today at 36.

For any football fan not for the Patriots, watching a hobbled Gates in the 2007 AFC Championship Game was a downer. Bill Belichick put linebacker Teddy Bruschi on him and got away with it because a dislocated toe robbed Gates of his explosiveness (and because Philip Rivers was limited by a torn anterior cruciate ligament).

Gates, like Irving, made a complete recovery. And when the 2009 Bolts got the AFC's No. 2 seed, Gates was quietly confident about what would unfold. Months later, he said he had believed the '09 Bolts were set up very well to win the Super Bowl trophy.

Gates did his job in the playoff opener, catching eight passes and creating space for teammates. But the Chargers made too many mistakes, got outplayed, and lost to the New York Jets as a 9-point favorite. The New Orleans Saints, led by ex-Bolts quarterback Drew Brees, would win the Super Bowl.

13) I think the 1998 Padres were the best of San Diego's major sports teams not to win a championship.

They won 98 games. They had a first-ballot Hall of Famer in Tony Gwynn, a future Hall of Famer in Trevor Hoffman (yes, he'll get in) and an ace on the verge of becoming baseball's first $100-million in Kevin Brown.

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Greg Vaughn hit 50 homers. Steve Finley, a Gold Glove center fielder, would go on to stardom with the World Series-winning Diamondbacks. Ken Caminiti was a unaminous MVP two years earlier. Wally Joyner could hit top-flight pitching and was a deft first baseman. The bullpen was very good, and the rotation behind Brown was also stellar. The middle infielders almost never made a mistake.

The manager, Bruce Bochy, will get a bronze bust in Cooperstown.

The Padres, unlike many other San Diego teams that won a division, raised their game in the postseason. They beat the Astros, who won 102 games. Winning the pennant, they wiped out the Braves, who won 106 games.

Then they ran into a great Yankees team and got swept.

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