Padres-Brewers: Cesar Carrillo Has a Lot to Learn After Getting Roughed Up

It was a debut that Padre fans had been looking forward to, and after a good first inning it looked like he might surprise people.

Then Brewers' first baseman Prince Fielder stepped to the plate to lead off the second inning and everything took a nose dive.  Fielder hit a bomb that was just found in the ivy at Wrigley Field.  Fielder unloaded on a fastball and hammered it some 465 feet to straight away center field to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.

After that Carrillo seemed to lose track of his nerves and couldn't get anyone out after that.  He hit Mike Cameron with a pitch, walked Jody Gerut and then gave up a three run shot to Mike Rivera to give the Brewers a 4-0 advantage.

It would only get worse in the third inning for the rookie.  A two run shot from Ryan Braun and an RBI double from former Padre Jody Gerut would eventually chase Carrillo. 

Luis Perdomo relieved Carrillo and promptly gave up a two run shot to Mike Rivera, his second of the day.  One of the two runs was charged to Carrillo to give him eight earned runs on the day.

His final line isn't what he, or the Padres, were hoping for in his debut.  He would pitch two and a third innings, giving up eight earned runs on four hits, walking two and hitting two batters.

The only good thing to say about the twenty-five-year-old's debut is, his velocity was absolutely back, consistently hitting 93 and 95 MPH on the gun with his fastball.  After giving up the long home run to Prince Fielder, he lost command of what seemed like all of his pitches.

What went from the mentality of challenging hitters quickly changed to trying not to give up any big home runs.  That mentality eventually hurt him, Mike Rivera and Ryan Braun both took him deep—both came with runners on base.

The Padres had a chance to jump on the board early as they loaded the bases in the second inning with one out, but Gwynn grounded out to end the inning and the Padres' threat.

So, from here, the Padres will go back to the drawing board and make a decision whether they keep Carrillo with the team, and see how he does in his second start, or if he'll go right back to Triple-A Portland to fine tune his mechanics.

If they do decide to keep him with the big league club, pitching coach Darren Balsley is going to have a lot of work to do with the young right hander.  The majority of which is going to have to bel; how to keep his mind focused after giving up a big hit or home run, how to stay in control, and how to shake things off. 

Additional news and notes:  According to Corey Brock of MLB.com, the Padres could be close to signing their first overall pick, Donovan Tate.  It's possible that the two sides could come to an agreement by this weekend which will be right up against Monday's deadline.

Baseball America's Jim Callis chimes in on the Padres drafting Tate and says the Padres wouldn't have drafted him if they weren't prepared to sign him.

Speaking of signing draft picks, although several baseball people think the Nationals will sign their first overall pick, San Diego State right hander Stephen Strasburg, it's highly possible that Strasburg could decide to play a year of independent league ball and re-enter the draft next year.  If that ends up being the case, look for the Padres to begin internal discussions to make sure that they draft and sign the local prodigy.

John Smoltz could become a free agent if the Red Sox decide to release him.  Though there are several teams who are interested in Smoltz as a reliever, he wants to remain a starter.  If you're the Padres, do you at least approach Smoltz to gauge his interest, especially seeing as you started your 13 pitcher of the season on Thursday afternoon?

Adrian Gonzalez unloaded for his 30th home run of the season on Thursday.  With that home run, he becomes the first player in team history to hit 30 or more home runs in three different seasons.  Credit to MLB.com's Corey Brock for that tid bit of information.