Who is Kyle Blanks? The man behind the mask.

Kyle Blanks. 6'6", 265 lbs. Crushes the ball....when he hits it.

As a reference, Dave Roberts is 6'7''

And that has been the problem for Blanks, hitting the ball and staying healthy.

In 146 games in a Padres uniform, Kyle Blanks has batted .219 while fanning 154 times, or 1.05 strike outs per game. This would be accepted if he could put up numbers like Adam Dunn does, such as hitting 40 home runs a year while striking out 200 times.

Another thing holding Kyle Blanks back has been his injuries over the course of the last few years, missing large chunks of the last four seasons and leaving Padres fans wondering if Blanks could be effective if healthy full time. 425 major league at-bats, 20 HR's. Those seems like solid numbers and potential to be a great bat if he was around to play more. But the problem now is, Blanks seems to be injury free and he seems to be able to hit, and hit decently well to give more than just a glance at him.

During this years Spring Training, Blanks hit .354 in 65 at-bats in 30 games while only striking out 17 times. I feel this is a large enough sample size to suggest that Blanks is being able to put more contact with the ball without losing shades of his power with 5 doubles, 3 HRs and a .600 Slug %.

But the Padres have sent him down to Tucson to start the year. After the hot spring, I thought for sure he was going to make the roster, but back to AAA he went, where he has continued his hot hitting .294 in 17 at-bats, including a 460' blast in a game versus Salt Lake (Angels AAA).

Now the question is, if Blanks were to stay hot, where would you put him? Easy. We kill the Batman...I mean, we send Guzman down.

"Not bat boy, Bat MAN"

Nothing against Guzman, he just doesn't add much to the team. He can't really play the field better than anyone, he can't really hit well enough to justify a spot on the roster. His slugging last year was just .418 and career a .438. Just another singles hitter. Basically, just another Padres hitter.

 When comparing the two players, I just cannot see much upside to keeping Guzman around when he has had his chances instead of bringing Blanks up who has showed his upside and potential when he can stay consistently healthy. I want to see #88 up sometime soon so he can have a full chance at the MLB level once again. It could be a failed experiment, but with his ability to play 1B and the OF, the Padres wouldn't be any worse off if they had Jesus Boos-Man on the squad.

"Why can't we just sign Stanton and be done with this?"

I mean, I know sooner or later Quentin is going to get hurt anyways and Blanks will get his shot, but I think it should be sooner than later. As painful as it sounds, please Bud Black, call up Kyle Blanks.