PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK / BOB NIGHTENGALE : Andersen Expected to Return Today from the Disabled List

The Padres’ bullpen will get a much-needed fresh arm today when reliever Larry Andersen is expected to be activated off the disabled list.

“Mentally, I don’t have any questions about my arm,” Andersen said. “I’m not tentative. I’m not unsure.

“Really, it’s the first time since last September that I felt comfortable on the mound.”

Andersen, who pitched in a simulated game Friday, said he experienced the normal stiffness Saturday, and feels ready to go after enduring a bout of shoulder inflammation.

“They’re going pretty good without me,” Andersen said, laughing, “so I don’t know if they want to bring me back.”

The Padres probably will send reliever Terry Bross, who joined the team Friday when reliever Mike Maddux went on the disabled list, back to Las Vegas.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Bross said, “because to tell you the truth, I was more excited to get the call when I was traded from the Mets than I was (Wednesday night).

“When they told me I was traded, I just burst out laughing. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I just wanted to go somewhere and play ball.”

So in a matter of 13 days, Bross’ travel itinerary should read: Port St. Lucie, Fla. to Yuma, Ariz. to Las Vegas to Albuquerque to San Diego to Las Vegas.

“I have no idea where my stuff is,” Bross said. “Everything I own is on a truck, and I have no idea where it’s going.

“All I know is I have one suitcase to my name, and I don’t know much longer I can keep wearing these same pair of jeans.”

Although there were plenty of candidates for the Ex-Padre Player of the Week we can’t ignore the week by the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays went 5-0 the opening week of the season, and became runaway winners of the Ex-Padre Team of the Week.

The quartet of Roberto Alomar, Joe Carter, Dave Winfield and Pat Borders combined to hit .312 for the week with 16 runs scored, 13 RBIs, four homers and seven doubles.

Why was Borders included in the quartet? He was the catcher the Padres recently rejected when they talked to the Blue Jays about trading away catcher Benito Santiago.

Borders batted .313 with two homers and four RBIs the first week. Santiago went six games before collecting his first hit.

Said one Blue Jay executive: “With the way Borders is playing, why would we make the trade now?

In fact, all trade talks with Santiago have hit a stalemate, according to sources in the Padre organization.

Padre starter Dave Eiland, who was injured in the fifth inning in Friday’s game, sustained a strained back, trainer Bob Day said. He suffered the injury in the third inning and aggravated it in the fifth when he was knocked to the turf by a line drive hit by Stan Javier.

“I shouldn’t miss a start,” Eiland said. “Actually, the way that ball was hit, I’m lucky I wasn’t killed.”

Cincinnati Red Manager Lou Piniella doesn’t want to sound ungrateful, but the next time Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda gives him pasta sauce, he’ll respectfully decline.

“Last year, he gave me a couple of jars of his pasta sauce in spring training,” Piniella said. “They broke in my suitcase and ruined about $1,000 worth of pants, shirts and ties.

“This year, I took the Slim-Fast instead.”