Throwdown Thursday – Week 5

Every Thursday, we at Chicken Friars will pick the two best Padres performers over the past week and analyze what they accomplished. Then we will leave it up to you, the fans, to decide who earned the week’s Throwdown Thursday honor.

 The votes are in… The Chicken Friars’ fans have elected Edinson Volquez as the Week Four winner of the Throwdown Thursday competition. 61 percent of the Chicken Friars constituents voted for Volquez while his opponent, Anthony Bass, only managed 39 percent of the vote.

Volquez won the fans’ vote by pitching a combined 14 innings in two starts while only giving up six hits and one earned run. He also walked four while striking out 11 inthose two starts.

On this week’s Throwdown Thursday ballot will be a youngster who was arguably the key piece in the five-player trade that sent Mat Latos to the Cincinnati Reds. The other is considered the elder statesman on the Padres team: Yonder Alonso vs. Jeff Suppan.

Yonder Alonso- Alonso has been on a tear lately. The first-baseman has boosted his season average to .292 by posting a .440 average with four RBI and four doubles while racking up 11 hits during the past week. In a game last week against the Marlins, Alonso had a career-high four hits. He is also riding a seven-game hitting streak. Alonso attributes his recent success to being relaxed. “… I’ve been slowing the game down. I’ve been trying to focus better. I focus a lot better, and my preparation has been a little better. And just trusting myself,” Alonso said on Padres.com.

Jeff Suppan- The crafty 37 year-old veteran of 13 Major League seasons is showing the young Padres pitching staff how it is done at the big league level.  This week Suppan picked up his second win of the season in a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies. In that outing, Suppan battled to pitch five strong innings giving up four hits and two walks all while having an ERA of 0.90. Suppan’s performance impressed manager Bud Black: “He’s got such a good head on his shoulders. He knows how to change speeds, mix pitches knows what he can do to get through the opposition’s lineup. He’s got great pitching instincts,” Black said on Padres.com

Now Padres fans, vote in our poll for the Padres performer of the week.  Is it Alonso or Suppan?