Heath Bell Recovering From Typhoid Fever

I've been out of commission for several days now due some pretty severe drinking for fantasy football playoffs and then my computer started crashing harder than Lindsey Lohan after a typical Tuesday night. Aw, remember when that was topical? Luckily my my bouts with the Irish flu and my computer's sniffles weren't as serious as what Heath Bell recently went through.

Bell and his wife were in the midst of a vacation including tropical destinations such as Tavarua and Maui. I Google Earth'd Tavarua and it's in the Pacific Rim which I still thought was on the opposite side of the world from Hawaii. Damn you public schools, you've failed me yet again. Anyway, the Padres closer apparently picked up a little Typhoid fever as a souvenir in Tavarua and spent some time at the Maui hospital to get treated. From MLB.com...

Typhoid fever, if left untreated, can lead to intestinal complications, kidney failure and, in some cases, death.

"It's something I ate in Tavarua. It gets in your stomach and you usually flush it out. For whatever reason, my body didn't flush it out," Bell said on Wednesday.

*snip*

"When we got to Hawaii, I had body aches, I was like, 'Man, what do I have?' I usually don't get sick," Bell said. "The next two nights, I couldn't stop sweating. She [Nicole] finally made me go to the ER on Thursday."

Bell spent three days at the hospital in Hawaii which I imagine has coconut jello and some kind of elaborate fruit based rum concoction with an umbrella in it. Bell should be just fine thanks to good old science. If this were 426 BC, Bell's Typhoid fever would have wiped out the entire NL West along with Athenian empire.

Red Sox Get Gonzalez After Two Year Pursuit

While it seemed as inevitable as the Yankees re-signing Derek Jeter, the Red Sox finally made the deal to land their coveted slugging first baseman in Adrian Gonzalez. The Padres won a surprising 90 games in 2010 but rode out their plan to ship Gonzalez off before he became a free agent after the 2011 season. The Padres made the right move in dealing Gonzalez in the off-season to collect a greater haul of prospects and this most certainly puts the writing on the wall for the future of Heath Bell in San Diego. Although, the Padres might wait until the trade deadline approaches to move their closer because there should be more teams bidding on arms for a playoff push.

What This Means For Adrian Gonzalez
There is one and only one drawback for Gonzalez in this deal. He no longer gets to live in San Diego. The Red Sox are and always have been the ideal landing spot for the slugger. In his five years of playing half of his games in the cavernous Petco Park, he still managed to hit 161 home runs and average a .288/.374/.514 line. With Fenway's short porch in right field, Gonzalez should see a nice tick upwards in his slugging numbers. He also becomes a very rich man. The Sox will, presumably, extend him seven years for around $170 million.

What This Means For Boston
The Red Sox have coveted Gonzalez for two years after it became clear that the Padres had no shot at retaining him with free agency looming. Plugging Gonzalez in at first will move Kevin Youklis to third while urging Adrian Beltre not to let the door hit him on the ass on the way out. The Sox also had to hand over a nice package of prospects from a deep if not great system. Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo and Reymond Fuentes are three of the top six or seven prospects in Boston's system plus San Diego will receive what's behind curtain number three in a player to be named later. The move certainly sparks a fun debate about which infield is better between the Sox and the Yanks. I figure Jeter and Marco Scuturo are about a wash.

What This Means For San Diego
The Padres managed to not get all delusional after last season's surprising push for the playoffs and kept their game plan on track. It must have been tempting to take another run with Gonzalez and move him at the deadline if they fell back to earth. But they made the smart move and dealt him when they could get the most bang for their lack of bucks. In Casey Kelly, they get Boston's top pitching prospect who was already pitching at Double A as a 20-year-old. Anthony Rizzo might be the heir apparent to Gonzalez at first base. As a 21-year-old in Double A, he hit 20 home runs and a .263/.334/.481 line. Reymond Fuentes is a toolsy outfielder and the cousin of Carlos Betran. At just 19-years-old, he stole 42 bases during his A ball season. The Padres will certainly deal Heath Bell at some point during the season to continue their youth movement.

Former Zephyr Cameron Maybin Dealt To Padres

Within two days, the Florida Marlins have traded away the top prospects they received in the Miguel Cabrera deal with Detroit from three years ago. Left handed pitching prospect Andrew Miller has underachieved to the point where he was flipped to Boston for reliever Dustin Richardson on Friday. The Cameron Maybin deal is a little more curious.

The Marlins soured on the 23-year-old center fielder but they also had him split time between AAA New Orleans and the Major Leagues both in 2009 and this past season. His stat splits between the two leagues were pretty severe though. As a New Orleans Zephyr, Maybin looked like the potential superstar he was billed to be while he looked like a replacement level player in the bigs.

In 2009, Maybin played 82 games for New Orleans and produced a .319/.399/.463 line that would make him a potential All Star. In his 54 games with the Marlins he only put up a .250/.318/.409 line while playing good defense in center field. The 33 games he spent in New Orleans in 2010 were even better than the previous stint. Maybin hit .388/.407/.508 which would certainly make him an All Star. But in the 82 games he spent with Florida, he hit for a paltry .234/.302/.361 line.

Maybin’s swing has some holes in it. He struck out 51 times in 176 at bats during the 2009 season with Florida and another 92 times in 291 at bats in 2010. He has the chance to be a plus defender in center and is still young at 23. Maybin was out of options which means he couldn’t be sent back to New Orleans but he had nothing left to prove there anyway.

In my opinion, the Marlins gave up on Maybin too soon especially for the pair of relievers, Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica, they received in return. Maybin may be one of the prospects who just needed a change of scenery to flourish at the Major League level and he will have plenty of room to run in Petco’s spacious outfield.

I expect to be giving a similar send-off post to Brandon Wood anytime now.

Clayton Richard's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

I skipped writing the last few Sombrero because they just happen so much more frequently than I thought they would. And I'm lazy. But occasionally one will spike my interest which brings us to today. Well, technically yesterday. Everything has to line up just right for a pitcher to record a Golden Sombrero. Clayton Richard threw a complete game and was responsible for 10 strikeouts. He struck out 6 Dodgers and tacked on 4 of his own at the dish. Let's go to the lowlight reel...

Top 2nd: Richard struck out looking against Chad Billingsley. Richard was dealt to the Padres with Aaron Poreda (and others) for Jake Peavy last year. The Padres are getting the better end of that deal and haven't gotten anything out of Poreda yet.

Top 4th: Richard struck out swinging against Billingsley. Okay, so maybe Richard isn't a wizard with the bat but neither are most of the other Padres.

Top 6th: Richard struck out swinging against Carlos Monasterios. Never heard of him.

Top 8th: Richard struck out swinging against Ramon Troncoso. I'd like to take this moment to thank Bud Black for resting his bullpen and the Padres' lineup for somehow scoring enough runs to put this game out of hand.

Fun fact: the last pitcher Golden Sombrero was Anibal Sanchez on 8/10.

Adrian Gonzalez's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Listen, I love my little strike out segment here but 4 Golden Sombreros in one day? What are MLB hitters doing this season, aside from not hitting the ball? I hope you guys will be patient as these posts trickle in over the next day or so. I tackled Koyie Hill's masterpiece yesterday so Adrian Gonzalez is the first up today.

I like Adrian Gonzalez and I will continue to do so until he is inevitably traded to the Red Sox. Then I will hate him because that's how I roll. But Gonzalez had an unusual night yesterday when he went 0-6 with 4 strikeouts. He also only saw 17 pitches because, I assume, he was in a hurry to get home in time to watch Top Chef. Let's break out this tequila and duck amuse bouche I made in the Quick Fire Challenge and see why Gonzalez struck out so much.

Top 1st: Gonzalez struck out swinging against Tommy Hanson. By the way, I covered Tommy Hanson's MLB debut here and here. I'm not so good at the reporting.

Top 5th: Gonzalez struck out swinging against Tommy Hanson again.

Top 7th: Gonzalez struck out swinging against Jonny Venters. You might remember Venters as the guy who rented you The Scout at Blockbuster last week. And I hate to break it to you but you have terrible taste in baseball movies.

Top 11th: Gonzalez struck out swinging against Takashi Saito.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

I apologize for getting the shot of the night up so late. But I did make it in time for happy hour so last night's shot of the night will just kick start tonight's drinking. Last night's shot of the night is a San Diego: 1.5 oz light rum, 1.5 oz orange juice, 1.5 oz cranberry juice. That actually sounds quite refreshing, just like San Diego's weather. It's 209 degrees in Louisiana today. Anyway, the shot of the night is in honor of the Padres but specifically Chris Denorfia.

Yeah, I had to look up Denorfia's position. For some reason, I don't pay much attention to the Padres. The Padres are now 54-37 and 4 games up in the NL West. Bud Black comes from the Mike Scioscia managing tree and just inked an extension with The Fathers. They produce relief pitchers like they have a factory built under Petco. I should pay more attention. But I digress. Chris Denorfia went 4-4 with 2 home runs. The 2 homers doubled his season total which earned him his first and probably last shot of the night.

Honorable Mention: Rickie Weeks
I have a soft spot for Rickie Weeks. Last year, he started to put it all together before getting hurt and missing the rest of the season. Weeks is off to another pretty nice start this year and went 3-4 with 2 home runs last night. The Brew Crew still got manhandled by the Braves 11-6 thanks to All Star extraordinaire Omar Infante's 4-5 night.

Honorable Mention Part Dos: Paul Maholm
A little bonus action. You should know by now that I love strikeouts. I can't explain it but a Golden Sombrero beats a cycle for me every time. That's what makes Maholm's 3-hit shutout so improbable. He only struck out 1 batter. A 3-hit, complete game shut out and he only struck out 1 batter. Weird.

Shot Of The Night

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

Last night's shot of the night was Young Lovin: 2 oz vodka, 2 oz Fanta® orange soda, 1 oz ginger ale, 1/2 oz Rose's® grenadine syrup, 1 splash lemons. More of a drink than a shot but, hey, it has orange Fanta in it. I'm not sure what happened last night but my eyes burn. I really hope I wasn't talked into drinking vodka through my eye hole. Anyhoo, the shot of the night has nothing to do with high school girls and it's in honor of Chris Young.

Chris Young, the hitter, went 3-5 with a double, a home run, 5 RBI and a stolen base. He also struck out once and only saw 19 pitches in his 5 at bats. Just when I thought I couldn't get any nerdier, I'm developing a weird fascination with pitches seen. I'll be over in a minute, Baseball-Reference. The Diamondbacks crushed the Dodgers 12-5, proving what I always say, "Kirk Gibson will one day manage the Diamondbacks to a 12-5 win over the Dodgers." Sometimes I'm really specific.

Honorable Mention: Mat Latos
Chris Young, the pitcher, was just placed on the 60 day DL. That guy loves the disabled list. Luckily for the first place Padres, Mat Latos is turning into an ace. Latos pitched another gem last night going 8 shutout innings giving up 4 hits and striking out 7 without allowing a walk. The 22-year-old ran his record to 9-4 with a 2.62 ERA and an impressive 138 ERA+. The Mat with one 't' bothers me a litle though.