With Adrian Gonzalez's OBP on the rise, that'll simply create more RBI opportunity's for Kevin Kouzmanoff, and Kouzmanoff has a history of being a second half player .. This is a plus, plus.
If a walk were as good as a hit, Adrian Gonzalez's slump would seem like a streak. The Padres' prolific first baseman has lost 37 points of batting average since May 16, from .302 to .265, but he's accumulated so many bases on balls during this span that his on-base percentage has actually improved.So San Diego's favorite rhetorical question – Why does anyone dare to pitch to this guy? – has recently received the appropriate response: When in doubt, you don't.
“The last 3½ weeks or so, I've noticed a change in how they're attacking him,” Padres manager Bud Black said yesterday. “I think you can look at pitch sequences, types of pitches, pitchers coming out of their own style, doing something different than what they usually do, (but) during the course of an at-bat, you can tell they're being cautious.”
