Padres Press Clips Tuesday, March 6, 2018 Article Source Author Page Carter Capps taking small, healthy steps forward in return SD Union Tribune Sanders 3 Carlos Asuaje acting (and playing) like he belongs with Padres SD Union Tribune Acee 5 Padres mailbag: left field battle; roster possibilities; Chase SD Union Tribune Acee 8 Headley; genius hair A refined curve could be 'separator' for Dinelson Lamet SD Union Tribune Sanders 13 Brad Hand debuts in Padres' loss to D-backs SD Union Tribune Sanders 15 Padres minor league pitcher Robert Stock made impression SD Union Tribune Acee 16 on Eric Hosmer Aspiring broadcaster Ted Enberg: 'I couldn't have asked for SD Union Tribune Miller 18 a better father' Lin: Friends Chan Ho Park and Fernando Tatis Sr. share The Athletic Lin 21 baseball history—and the desire to see top Padres prospect Tatis Jr. succeed Ross on 'right path' in bid for rotation spot MLB.com Ardaya 28 Lamet flashes arsenal in strong second start MLB.com Ardaya 31 When bad teams sign good free agents Baseball America Eddy 33 Eric Hosmer embraces new chapter with Padres - but USA Today Nightengale 40 won't turn page on time with Royals After Reviving the Royals, Hosmer and Cain Try to NY Times Kepner 43 Spark Other Teams Hand makes spring debut as Padres fall to DBacks FSSD Hovarth 48 With Tatis Jr. not too far away, Freddy Galvis to provide FSSD Hovarth 49 stability at shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. enjoying first big league spring training Fox 5 McMackin 52 with Padres 1 Stinging For The Fences: Bees Swarm Padres Training Huffington Post Dicker 59 Camp Again #PadresOnDeck: 20-year-old Luis Urías is Already a Friar Wire Center 55 Threat at Second Andy’s Address, 3/5 Friar Wire Center 57 2 Carter Capps taking small, healthy steps forward in return Jeff Sanders Carter Capps threw 15 of his first 19 Cactus League pitches for strikes Sunday afternoon, although many of them found a bit too much of the plate. The mechanics of his delivery — sans such a pronounced hop-step — are improving with every outing. The Padres’ 27-year- old reliever reported to the clubhouse Monday afternoon in good health. These were the big takeaways from Sunday’s Cactus League debut, his first since undergoing surgery to correct thoracic outlet surgery in September. The expectation is that the results — three runs on four hits, including two homers — will follow suit in time. “It's always nerve-wracking if you go out there your first outing and you can't throw strikes,” Capps said Monday. “That was a big focus — throwing strikes and working on a few different pitches. I threw quite a few change-ups I was happy with. All in all I was happy with how I felt. “You'd like the results to be a little better, but I feel great today.” It was encouraging, too, to rebound after Oakland’s first two hitters — Kevin Merrell and Anthony Garcia — greeted Capps with homers to start the eighth. He also sandwiched a pair of strikeouts around a double and a run-scoring single before getting out of an inning that Padres manager Andy Green said was a small but significant stride in the right direction. “Honestly, it was a step forward from what I'd seen the previous live batting practice and the live batting practice before that,” Green said. “He keeps taking steps forward. He's doing a better job releasing his backside than the last time on the mound. The results aren't there, but this guy's coming off a major surgery and the important thing is how he feels. “If he feels good and keeps feeling better, you're going to see the (velocity) uptick and you're going to see his stuff start playing better.” Minor league cuts With minor league camp springing into action Tuesday, the first significant wave of cuts hit the clubhouse Monday: Right-hander Walker Lockett was optioned to Triple-A El Paso and right-handers Kyle Lloyd, Brett Kennedy, Jacob Nix and T.J. Weir were reassigned to the minor league side of the facility. 3 Kennedy allowed four runs in 4 1/3 innings in his three Cactus League appearances. Lloyd (2 1/3 IP) and Weir (3 IP) were unscored upon in their outings, while Nix’s leg injury had kept him from progressing him to Cactus League action. “It just got to the point where he wasn’t going to throw for us,” Green said of Nix. The Padres now have 62 players in big league camp. Early impression Only Kennedy and Clayton Richard entered Monday with more innings thrown than Adam Cimber. No one in Padres camp has been cleaner in Cactus League action than the 27-year- old non-roster invitee, who has struck out three over four perfect frames this spring. That’s right. No hits allowed. No walks. Really, no problems at all so far for Cimber, a ninth- round pick in 2013 out of the University of San Francisco. “He's been really good in camp,” Green said. “He's one of those guys that constantly gets doubted because he doesn't have the pedigree that some of the other players do, but he performs and he's performed his entire career.” Health check Slowed thus far by left oblique injury, Matt Szczur could make his Cactus League debut as soon as Tuesday. The right-handed hitting Szczur — who is out of options — is one of eight outfielders on the 40-man roster, is competing with the left-handed-hitting Travis Jankowski for a reserve role and is behind everyone but Alex Dickerson (elbow) in plate appearances this spring. “It’s not the competition that matters; I just want to go out there and play baseball,” Szczur said Monday. “You try not to look at it like that. You go out and play your best and things will take care of themselves.” Dickerson is not close to game action, Green said. 4 Carlos Asuaje acting (and playing) like he belongs with Padres Kevin Acee There is something different about Carlos Asuaje. And it is not just that he walked up to Ron Fowler when he saw the Padres’ executive chairman this spring and said, “We’re the only two team owners in here.” The 73-year-old Fowler, of course, had no idea what Asuaje was talking about, even after it was explained Asuaje owned an esports team called Motiv8 that plays Gears of War. But that’s Asuaje, 26, less than a year’s service time in the major leagues, confidently chatting it up with the big boss. Asuaje walks around the Peoria Sports Complex with the unrestrained joy of a child and the inherent swagger of a Doberman Pinscher. Maybe a miniature Doberman Pinscher. Don’t worry, he’s used to the ragging. “I’m very aware that’s my role on the team,” Asuaje said. “They call me the little brother of the team. I’m great with that. They tease me. I just kind of take it, make jokes and be goofy.” At 5-foot-9, with 368 major league plate appearances spread over two seasons, Asuaje knows who he is. “I am a major league player,” he said. “I deserve to be a major leaguer, and I can play every day in the major leagues.” When you’re 5-foot-9 and maybe the 158 pounds at which your team lists you, you need that belief. And when you’re 5-foot-9 and maybe the 158 pounds at which your team lists you, you sometimes wonder whether it’s true. “I think I made the mistake my first September when I got called up of thinking that I was less than the people I was playing with,” Asuaje said. “I was intimidated and kind of star struck by seeing Buster Posey behind the dish and Miguel Cabrera and all these people you see on TV, and all of a sudden you’re playing with them.” 5 Asuaje’s first big league stint resulted in a .208/.240/.292 hitting line in 25 plate appearances over seven games at the end of 2016. Still, after having gone .321/.378/.473 and being named Rookie of the Year in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, he entered the spring of ’17 with a shot at making the major league roster. It didn’t happen. He was called up for a few days at the end of May and then for good a month later. In 89 games, he went .270/.334/.362 over 343 plate appearances. There is a lot of spring left. And Cory Spangenberg, who is expected to play the field Tuesday, was sidelined for more than a week with a wrist injury. But Asuaje has six hits (including a double and two triples) and two walks in 20 plate appearances, asserting his claim to at least hold the second base spot until prospect Luis Urias is ready. It was clear when Asuaje arrived in camp that he was here with the intent of staying. He jogged — practically skipped — on and off the field, serious in every drill but quick with a smile, stopping to emphatically greet every teammate and coach he encountered. This is who he is. But it wasn’t always this way. That first call-up overwhelmed him in part because Asuaje was uncertain about how to act. “I was quiet, shy,” he recalled. “I didn’t know what to do.” When he was sent down last spring, he was understandably frustrated.