Padre Notebook : Martinez Says He Is Ready

Padre left fielder Carmelo Martinez said he could start if today was the opening day of the regular season.

Wearing a bandage with a protective pad on his bruised left hand, Martinez hit against the batting machine and took batting practice at Monday’s workout.

Contrary to published reports, Martinez and Padre trainer Dick Dent both said the bone in Martinez’s left hand is not broken.

“He has a bad bruise in the soft tissue in his palm,” Dent said.

Said Martinez: “It bothers me a little, but I can swing a lot better than I could after getting hit in winter ball.”

Martinez said he hurt the hand midway through last season. Then, in winter ball, he was jammed by a pitch from the Padres’ Greg Booker.

“I had to quit halfway through the winter ball season,” Martinez said.

However, Martinez returned to lead his San Juan team to a victory over San Turce in the Caribbean League championship series.

At Monday morning’s annual photo session, the players took turns getting in and out of 12 new Padre uniforms and caps.

As usual, stills were taken to run in newspapers. However, for the first time, a video camera was used to take pictures that will run on the Padres’ new Diamond Vision screen at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

When it came time to take a video of pitcher Eric Show, a photographer was overheard saying: “Eric, these are for the scoreboard. You know, that’s where your pitches usually end up on one bounce.”

Some statistics to ponder.

According to Mil Chipp of the Padres’ media relations staff, the average Padre on this season’s spring training roster would be 6-feet 1-inch, 197 pounds and 27 1/2 years old.

The average pitcher would have a lifetime major-league record of 30-30 and his career ERA would be 3.31.

The position players would have hit .269 in 1,953 major-league at-bats. He has scored 252 runs and collected 525 hits, 81 doubles, 15 triples, 46 home runs and 238 RBIs.