PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Presley Regrets Coming To Padres

The suitcase was packed in his hotel room. The charges had been paid. Jim Presley had a few hours to kill Sunday before he would board a plane and leave the Padres behind.

“You know something,” he said, “If I knew now what I knew then, I never would have come here. And I’m telling you, there’s other guys in that clubhouse that feel the same way. They just can’t say anything to cut their own throats.”

Presley, signed as a free-agent third baseman during the off-season, was released after Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Most of his teammates didn’t even know he was released until they arrived Sunday morning at Three Rivers Stadium.

That was Presley. He was one of the quietest players on the team during his four-month stay with the Padres. He never caused problems. Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said Presley was a great person to have on the team.

Presley admitted Sunday his entire stay with the Padres was miserable, primarily because of Riddoch’s methods.

“I look for a lot more changes, to tell you the truth,” Presley said, “and I’m not talking about only the players. Certain guys aren’t (Joe) McIlvaine guys, and they’re leery.

“That’s why I can’t see him (Riddoch) lasting either.”

Presley, who batted .136 with one homer and five RBIs, is miffed that he never got a chance to prove his value. He played the first five games of the season, batted .118 with two RBIs, was benched, and was a spot starter until May 11, when Scott Coolbaugh was called up from triple-A Las Vegas. Once Coolbaugh arrived, Presley got only seven at-bats.

Unable to tolerate it any longer, Presley said he went into Riddoch’s office in Chicago this week and requested a trade or release.

“I said, ‘Just get me out of this circus,”’ Presley said. “I don’t even want to be here. I’d just as soon be somewhere else. Trade me, release me, do whatever you have to do.”

The most galling aspect of the situation, Presley said, was that every time he went in and asked Riddoch why he wasn’t playing, he never got a straight answer.

“I don’t know if the guy’s scared of losing his job, or what,” Presley said, “but when I asked him about it, he started saying how ‘they’ didn’t want me in the lineup anymore, and how his hands were tied. He was throwing the blame on somebody else, saying, ‘I don’t have a free reign here.’

“I said, ‘So you’re telling me McIlvaine is making out the lineup?’

“He said, ‘No, then he started doing all this double-talk stuff. You know, double-talk, lying, it’s all the same to me. I just told him I didn’t want to hear it.

“I’d rather have a guy be up-front with you, saying, ‘Hey, you’re two for 20, we’re going with somebody else,’ rather than putting the blame on somebody else.”

Riddoch said: “He misunderstood me. I told him my hands are tied when you’re not hitting or fielding. I said, ‘If you were playing great defense, we’d wait for the bat to come. Or if your bat was there, we’d wait for your defense.’ But we were getting neither.”

Presley, who’ll continue to be paid $500,000 this season by the Padres, returned to his rented San Diego home Sunday, and will wait 72 hours to see if he clears waivers. If he clears, he becomes a free agent and can negotiate with any team. If a team claims him, the Padres no longer would be obligated to pay the rest of his salary.

“I’m just glad to be getting out of there, to tell you the truth,” Presley said. “But I guess I’m not saying anything new. I’m not the first to say it. Everybody’s been saying it.

“I just hope everyone sees what’s going on. I hate for ballplayers, especially veterans, to be looking over their backs all the time.”

Padre reliever Atlee Hammaker, who was called up to replace Presley on the roster, took a red-eye flight from Las Vegas, arriving at the hotel at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

Fortunately, he was not called upon to pitch.

“I’m a mess,” he said. “I feel like a zombie.”

Hammaker, who pitched five times in the minors on a rehabilitative assignment, was 0-0 with a 6.46 ERA in Las Vegas, allowing 21 hits and 11 earned runs in 15 1/3 innings.

“I feel good,” Hammaker said, “I’m ready to go.”

Padre starter Ed Whitson, who felt pain in his right elbow while pitching on the side Saturday, says he plans to visit Dr. Frank Jobe in Los Angeles this week for an examination.

“I just want to find out what the hell’s going on,” said Whitson, who never before has experienced elbow pain. “I’m so frustrated right now I can’t stand it. This is worse than a five-game losing streak.”