If it happens — and there are no guarantees anything willhappen — the Padres will most certainly be sellers Friday as theMajor League Baseball non-waiver trading period hits its 1 p.m.deadline.
Harold Reynolds of the MLB Network said the Padres should tradeslugging first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.
Others believe the Padres should deal closer Health Bell.
“Where are the Padres going with Adrian?” Reynold asked.”Nowhere.
“So it’s time to make the move. This is a club that needs to goin a whole other direction.
“There are clubs that want Adrian. So if the Padres can get fouror five players for him, they need to do it.”
The Boston Red Sox are the team said to be most interested inGonzalez with pitcher Clay Buchholz and speedy outfielder JacobyEllsbury mentioned as players who could be coming back to thePadres.
There is talk that 10-15 teams have called the Padres askingabout Bell, with the Marlins offering a bundle of youngpitchers.
The MLB Network plans wall-to-wall coverage as the tradedeadline ticks down.
Coverage of the “MLB Tonight: Trade Deadline Special” is from 8a.m.-1 p.m., followed by a wrap-up show until 4 p.m.
If there are a lot of deals, Friday’s special could becompelling.
If nothing happens, the MLB Network will have a lot of time tofill.
“Our commitment is to showcase events,” said Tony Pettiti, MLBNetwork president and CEO. “We want to be the destination fornational news.
“Is eight hours on the air a gamble? Is it a bold undertaking?Yes.
“But we feel a large chunk of moves, a lot of what will happen,will happen Friday.
“We’ll be there to follow the rumors and analyze the deals. Weexpect stuff to happen. And if it doesn’t, it may be just ascompelling to say why it didn’t happen.”
Pettiti said the MLB Network will run anchors and analysts intothe studio “like it was election day.” Matt Vasgersian, GregAmsinger and Victor Rojas will alternate host duties.
The analysts include Reynolds, John Hart, Jon Heyman, JoeMagrane, Dan Plesac, Mitch Williams and Tom Verducci.
Hazel Mae is with the Blue Jays and will have reaction ifHalladay is traded.
The MLB Network will use its ballpark cameras at U.S. CellularField in Chicago, Busch Stadium in St. Louis and Petco Park forinterviews.
Bob Costas has prepared six “MLB Network Remembers” segments,looking back at significant trade deadline deals.
Hart is the man who could give the telecast greatperspective.
He is a senior adviser for the Rangers, but also is the formergeneral manager of the Rangers and Indians.
Hart is a man who loves the thrill of the deal.
“Every teams loves its prospects,” Hart said. “If you have a lotof prospects and no depth in the organization, you try to hold onto what you have, especially pitching.
“If you have a corner bat (first baseman, third baseman, left orright fielder) with 30-homer potential, you hang on to him. But ifyou have two good catching prospects or two good shortstops, Inever blinked on that.
“But prospects are meant to be traded.”
Asked it he would make a deal for Halladay if he were inposition to get to postseason play, Hart didn’t hesitate.
“You get Halladay for two seasons, this year and next,” Hartsaid. “So if you have a good club, you have him for twopostseasons. He’s not just a rental.
“Make the deal.”
Hart on Strasburg
As a former general manager, Hart has negotiated a lot ofcontracts with first-round draft picks.
He was asked about San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg,the No. 1 pick in the June draft by the Washington Nationals.
“You do all you can do, but you’re dealing with a very difficultagent (Scott Boras), who I have dealt with before,” Hart said.”They knew that when they drafted this boy.
“It’s a roll of the dice, but I’d say it’s 50-50 right now thatthey’ll sign him.”
The Nationals have until Aug. 17 to sign Strasburg or he goesback into the draft for 2010.
NFL notes
– Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman will be featured Friday onthe NFL Network’s “NFL Total Access.” The special 90-minute versionof the show starts at 3:30 p.m.
– ESPN is billing it as “Mort Goes to Camp” as network analystChris Mortensen takes a three-week road trip covering 20 NFLtraining camps in 24 days. His reports can be seen on”SportsCenter” and “NFL Live.” Traveling by bus, Mortensen willcover 6,400 miles. He’ll spend two days at the Cowboys’ camp in SanAntonio. That, however, is as far west as he gets. He’ll also spendtwo days with the Dolphins in Davie, Fla. He will not, however,visit the Chargers, Raiders, Cardinals, Rams, Broncos, Chiefs,49ers, Seahawks, Texans, Bengals, Bills or Panthers. It’s greatMortensen is doing this and ESPN has made the commitment, but whynot have someone do the same thing in the west? I guess there is nofootball in Colorado, Arizona, Washington, Kansas andCalifornia.
Calling all boxing fans
HBO, which rarely misses with its production of sports specials,has hit it again.
“Assault in the Ring” is a documentary on the 1983junior-middleweight boxing match from New York’s Madison SquareGarden between up-and-comer Billy Collins Jr. and veteran LuisResto.
Resto upset Collins, but Resto and his handlers were laterconvicted of tampering with his gloves.
The 90-minute show traces Resto as he wrestles with thepast.
I’m only a lukewarm boxing fan and don’t have any recollectionof the Collins-Resto bout, but I found this show compelling.
The program airs at 10 p.m. Saturday on HBO with replays overthe next several weeks.
Ratings game
– NASCAR ratings continue to tumble. Sunday’s Sprint CupBrickyard 400 from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on ESPN — thenetwork’s first race of the season — had a 3.6 rating and was seenby 2.8 million viewers. That’s down 14 percent from last year.
– The World Swimming Championships from Rome drew a respectable1.1 rating with 850,000 viewers for NBC last Sunday. Thecompetition continues this weekend at 9 a.m. Saturday andSunday.
– Last Saturday’s WNBA All-Star game on ABC did a 0.5 ratingwith 385,000 viewers. Wow, that’s bad.
– More than 46 million viewers tuned in to Versus’ three-weeklong coverage of the Tour de France, a 41 percent increase overlast year when Lance Armstrong didn’t compete.Â
Prime time draft
The NFL draft has become such a TV phenomenon that leagueofficials have decided to expand it to three days and carry thefirst two days in prime time.
The first round of the 2010 draft will be live at 4:30 p.m. onthe West Coast from New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Thursday,April 22, on both ESPN and the NFL Network.
Rounds 2 and 3 will start at 3:30 p.m. April 23. Rounds 4-7 willstart at 7 a.m. April 24.
The 2009 NFL draft, which was conducted on a Saturday and Sunday(April 25-26) drew a record 39 million viewers on ESPN, ESPN2 andthe NFL Network.
The first round averaged 6.3 million viewers, beating allbaseball, basketball and hockey games that weekend.
Calling all campers
Designed for high school and middle school students with sportsbroadcasting ambitions, Play By Play Camps will conduct itssportscasters camp Aug. 17-21 on the UCLA campus.
Gary Miller, formerly of ESPN and now with KCAL and KCBS inL.A., Fox’s Chris Rose, USC basketball coach Kevin O’Neil and NBCOlympic announcer Randy Rosenbloom are among the guestspeakers.
For more information, visitwww.playbyplaycamps.com.
X Games 15
ESPN’s Family of Networks — ESPN , ESPN2 and ABC — hascoverage of X Games 15 in Los Angeles.
The event continues through Sunday afternoon.
There will be competition in BMX, Moto X, skateboarding andrally-car racing.
Skateboard legend Tony Hawk joins the telecast team and willwork alongside anchor Sal Masekela.
Around the dial
– In case you’ve missed it, John Kentera and Bob Scanlan areback on the air together working the “World Baseball Network,” ashow that runs from 10 a.m.-noon Saturdays on XX Sports 1090. It’sa great show for baseball fanatics, featuring two men who know thegame, great guests and calls. One of the guests this week is formerVista High great Ray Smith, who has been a coach or manager for theElizabethon Twins, Minnesota’s Short-season A club in theAppalachian League, since 1987.
– Fox Soccer Channel has Saturday’s International Club Friendlybetween FC Barcelona and the L.A. Galaxy live at 8 p.m. fromL.A.
– Versus will have a special 60-minute recap of the Tour deFrance at 1 p.m. Sunday and 4 p.m. Monday.
– The MLB Network will have a special segment Monday on the 30thanniversary of the death of Yankees catcher Thurman Munson. It airs3-4 p.m. and will be repeated throughout the evening.
– Professional surfer and TV host Shayne McIntyre will host aspecial “On Safari Movie Night” at 7 p.m. Friday at Hansens SurfShop at 1105 So. Coast Highway in Encinitas. “On Safari” is atravel surf show that follows Shayne and Shannon McIntyre as theysearch for surf from Russia to Nicaragua, Indonesia and India. Theshow has aired on Fuel TV and the National Geographic Channel.Friday’s event is free and open to the public. The first 100 guestswill receive a free raffle ticket for gear from McIntyre’ssponsors. Additional tickets will be on sale for $1 with allproceeds going to charity.
– Tony Bruno will join JT The Brick on the Fox Sports RadioNetwork. Starting Aug. 10, the show, which is carried on XTRASports 1360 in San Diego and KLAC (570) in L.A., moves to 10 p.m.-3a.m. from JT’s normal slot of 7-10 p.m.
John Maffei’s TV/Radio Column appears every Friday. He can bereached at (760) 740-3547 orjmaffei@nctimes.com.
