And this is not your ordinary catcher "foul-to-face" either, kids. Michael Barrett is the one batting when he clocks a ball off his bat and into his grill. If you're adverse to seeing humans take painful shots to the dome, I suggest you not watch this.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.
New York Mets (30-31) at San Diego Padres (27-37) - 4:05 PM ET
The Padres did something over the last four games that nobody in the majors had ever done before. They won four straight games by the score of 2-1. Even for a team that can't score, that's an amazing stat considering the Padres have lost more of these games than they've won, and more amazing that not one of those games went 25 innings. Scott Hairston has been a big help over the last couple ... making a huge diving catch with the bases loaded on Friday, and hitting the walk-off home run on Saturday.
The Mets meanwhile have to live with the sting of losing three straight to a team that was 13 games under .500 coming into this series. How long before the turk starts knocking on Willie Randolph's door again?
Now that the exciting action of MLB's amateur draft has completed it's first round, it's time to take a look at our country's next millionaires. Find out which team drafted the son of the former offensive lineman pictured here and peruse our quick glance at the NL West first round selections.
San Francisco Giants (5)Gerald "Buster" Posey, Catcher, Florida State: Posey was supposed to go number one to Tampa Bay, but a little matter of money nudged the Rays off the scent, and Buster Posey went to the other side of the country to join the San Francisco Giants. Posey's asking price of $12 million wasn't enough to scare the Giants off ... although $12 million has to be nothing to a team who's paying Barry Zito a gazillion dollars to go 1-9 for them. Posey has only been a catcher for two seasons after converting from shortstop, but has been a finalist for the Johnny Bench Award as the nation's best collegiate catcher.
Los Angeles Dodgers (15)Ethan Martin, RHP, Stephens County School, (GA): Scouts took note of Martin after his performance in the LaGrange Invitational, where he struck out 12 hitters and gave up four hits in a 6-4 Stephens County win over American Heritage ... a game where Martin hit 99 on the gun four times. Martin can also get hitters out with a power breaking ball and a splitter. Here's your Ethan Martin oddity: Remember that incident where the pitcher and catcher conspired to hit the home plate umpire in the face with the pitch? The pitcher was Cody Martin ... Ethan's brother. Ethan played in that game at shortstop, and had vehemently argued with that umpire after striking out, which came just before the incident.
When Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed, Rocky had a chance to throw in the towel and save his friend's life. Concern about Creed's pride stopped him from doing it, though. That led to a great training sequence and stirring victory in front of cheering Soviets but it couldn't bring Apollo back to life. That's fictional but in real life, I hope Mark Prior's got a friend who is willing to throw that towel in for him.
Prior needs another surgery on his right shoulder, a torn anterior capsule this time, and won't be able to pitch at all this season. That makes it two years in a row without an appearance on a big league mound for Prior and just 43 and two-thirds innings in the last three.
"For Mark, I can't imagine how frustrated he is," Manager Bud Black said.
Ever read an issue of The Incredible Hulk? In my own imagination, Prior is quaking and fighting the urge to explode the same way Bruce Banner did every time he got angry and felt the transformation coming. That's what happens when you have the whole world in your hand at 22 and no baseball future at 28.
If he is Hulking out right now, I wouldn't want to be in Dusty Baker's shoes. In a perfect world, Prior would get to smash him to bits for destroying his right arm in Chicago. It's an imperfect world, though, which means he'd smash him 135 times and then need reconstructive surgery while Baker lived to continue his nefarious ways.
Special note for Fanhouse regulars: Today's Dugout is taken from a story that happened a few days ago, so if you're the type who can only process immediately new information please direct your attention to whatever shows up above this posting.
Now! Earlier this week we learned an important lesson: If Albert Pujols hits a line drive into the middle of your face and it not only doesn't kill you, but you can wake up the next morning without any mental retardation, you are immortal. Chris Young should throw himself off the side of a building to see if it stuck, and if it did, he should use his newfound powers to fight crime in the old city. Oh, and as a secondary note, if you SEE Pujols hit a line drive that hits somebody in the middle of the face, don't stand in front of him when he's trying to run. It's not going to end well for you. Just move out of the way. You might get the business from your teammates or booed by the fans, but at least you'll be able to move around for the next eight weeks.
'He will be up here,' Towers said Thursday. 'I hate to set a timetable, but he is going to be up very shortly.'
Towers again said the decision is unrelated to money.
'First and foremost,' Towers said, 'we felt that before we wanted to put Chase in a big league environment, we wanted to get him as much time as possible in the outfield, playing under the lights and in different venues, so he's not worried about his defense when he comes up.'
See, it does not really bother me that the Padres are waiting longer to call him up because they want to save money. It is a business decision and Headley -- unlike Longoria in Tampa Bay -- will not increase their chances of winning (because those chances are roughly one percent and even that feels generous).
After June 1, San Diego will tack on an extra year until Headley is available for arbitration. So why not just say that? I know, it sounds ridiculous, this notion of "honesty", but we all know what is happening here. Especially when you call up four other minor leaguers (to replace Chris Young and Josh Bard) but not your best one.
This one hurts. Fortunately Joe Buck wasn't calling this game, because he would have been disgusted. Albert Pujols took what looked to be an 0-2 cutter/sinker and, trying to get a piece of it, sent a liner right back at Chris Young's face. Young did not get his glove up in time.
Pujols -- class act that he is -- felt awful, saying that "He was bleeding all over the place ... I would rather have hit into a double play." And, after the grounds crew got done sopping up all the blood, he also took out catcher Josh Bard's ankle (3:17).
Not a great night for the Padres. Or Pujols really. It's awkward how secretly excited Bud Black and Kevin Towers are right now. Young suffered a nasal fracture and broken nose while Bard is dealing with a high ankle sprain.
There is so much freaking room on the San Diego Padres bandwagon these days, it is kind of awkward. You could jump on the back, look around and you might not even see General Manager Kevin Towers. And with the recent news that Jake Peavy is bound for the disabled list, it should come as no surprise that there are shake-ups a-plenty coming around the bend. Assuming you base that on Towers' little post game freak out last night.
'We're bad, no question about it,' Towers said Monday. 'You can't just say it's early in the season. I haven't seen any signs in the last couple weeks that lead me to believe or our fans to believe we're going to turn this thing around.
'It's up to the guys in this clubhouse. I am certainly not going to watch this for four more months.'
[...] 'You're looking for even a little bit of progress,' Towers said. 'It's like Groundhog's Day, over and over.'
+1 for the Bill Murray reference. -10 for throwing your squad under the buss and acting like it's not your job to assemble the team. But wait, there's more!
'I hear morale is good, but I can't believe it's good,' he said. 'When you hear the morale is good, then we've got major issues. If morale is good, then they have no expectations of getting better. That's not what championship ballclubs are about.
'Morale should be horrible right now.'
What rules the shouting!!! Sorry, I got caught up in the late 90's slapstick references. Look, Towers is panicking and lobbing Bud Black's nearly fired corpse underneath the nearest set of moving wheels. It's kind of embarrassing, yeah, but what do you expect? The guy wants to protect his job.
And if it's anything more than just his next start, the already struggling Padres are in a world of hurt. At 16-28 and in last place in the N.L. West, the Friars cannot afford a long term injury to reigning Cy Young award winner, Jake Peavy.
Peavy, who is 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA this season, said he's been bothered by the discomfort in his elbow for his last three or four starts and it's beyond the normal soreness he feels after his starts. He has lost three of his last four decisions, and lasted just four innings last Wednesday against the Cubs.
Could it be that Peavy is throwing too hard trying to win five games at once and trying to pull the Padres out of last place by himself? Again, to state the obvious: if something is wrong with Peavy's elbow that will keep him out for a month or longer, it may be safe to say that the Padres season is pretty much over in May. We'll find out more after an MRI on Monday tells the story. Wil Ledezma takes Peavy's place in the rotation tomorrow, and perhaps for the foreseeable future.
When your shoulder makes the sound of a firecracker, that's usually not a good thing. When Mark Prior's shoulder makes the sound of a firecracker, sadly it's just another day at the office. Prior, Padres fans, and those who care about him were hoping that this was just a freak thing and that he'd be all right. But after all, this is Mark Prior we're talking about.
Prior's agent John Boggs confirmed Friday that the right-hander has a tear in the capsule of his right shoulder, the shoulder he had surgery on in April 2007. (...)
"It's a setback, but in terms of how big of a setback, we won't know until you know how [Prior] is feeling," Boggs said. "We just hope it's not a major setback.
"Mark is looking at it in a positive way. He will just lay low for a few weeks and let the shoulder settle down."
I also hope that this isn't a major setback. There's one problem: Every setback that has to do with Prior, who hasn't pitched since August of '06, is major. Because every setback could be the one that convinces (forces?) Prior to reevaluate his desire to rehabilitate and work his way towards standing atop a major league mound again. Hopefully, this isn't that setback, and that Prior can come back after some rest.
Now that the exciting action of MLB's amateur draft has completed it's first round, it's time to take a look at our country's next millionaires. Find out which team drafted the son of the former offensive lineman pictured here and peruse our quick glance at the NL West first round selections.
When Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed, Rocky had a chance to throw in the towel and save his friend's life. Concern about Creed's pride stopped him from doing it, though. That led to a great training sequence and stirring victory in front of cheering Soviets but it couldn't bring Apollo back to life. That's fictional but in real life, I hope 
Special note for Fanhouse regulars: 
Remember 
There is so much freaking room on the San Diego Padres bandwagon these days, it is kind of awkward. You could jump on the back, look around and you might not even see General Manager 
And if it's anything more than just his next start, the already struggling Padres are in a world of hurt. At 16-28 and in last place in the N.L. West, the Friars 
When your shoulder makes the sound of a firecracker, that's usually not a good thing. When Mark Prior's shoulder 
