Sports at Lunch, Kevin Towers and Bruce Bochy

The Padres tandem of general manager Kevin Towers and manager Bruce Bochy once again speak at Sports at Lunch at the Hall of Champions.

Towers and Bochy, long-time partners in the franchise, annually appear at the HOC before leaving for Spring Training. Towers and Bochy have guided the Padres to three division titles, with the latest last year's National League West crown, as well as the 1998 National League pennant and World Series trip.

Towers and Bochy talked about the new roster, saying they were anxious to get to Arizona to start learning about their new players. The general manager and manager gave a position-by-position rundown of the rosters, with a focus on the nw players.

They said having Mike Cameron in center field running down balls with Dave Roberts in left field and Brian Giles in right field will make the Padres stronger defensively in the outfield.

They also expect the Padres to improve their power with Ryan Klesko moving to first base and Vinny Castilla adding both his glove at third and his bat in the lineup.

They envision catcher Mike Piazza batting in the middle of the lineup between left-handers Giles and Klesko to provide balance.

Bochy explained the team will be workong Piazza's timing with the pitcher to improve his release. They feel adding his bat to the lineup will make up for any defensive deficiences.

Towers and Bochy also broke down the new pitchers. What did they say? You should have been at Sports at Lunch.