--RHP Heath Bell, the Padres' heir apparent to Trevor Hoffman as closer, avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to a $1,255,000 contract for 2009. As soon as he reached an agreement with Bell for 2009, Padres GM Kevin Towers said the club was already exploring a two-year contract with the pitcher. Bell, 31, was 6-6 with a 3.58 ERA in 74 appearances last season, primarily as the eighth-inning setup man in front of Hoffman. Bell told The San Diego Union-Tribune that it was important for him to avoid arbitration because "I hear you have to dress up. ... I don't want to wear a coat and a tie."
--Season ticket sales are more than a third below the 2008 total of 15,000, leaving the Padres looking at falling short of 2 million in attendance for the first time since the strike season of 1994. --After signing free agent C Henry Blanco to a $750,000 contract for the 2009 season, Towers said he is not being pressured by the Padres ownership (John Moores is selling to a group led by Jeff Moorad) to get to the $40 million payroll target by Opening Day. With only the players with zero to two years of service remaining to be signed, the Padres' player payroll was headed to just under $45 million. The announcement means Towers is no longer under pressure to trade RHP Jake Peavy before the season starts, although Peavy and RF Brian Giles are still the most likely high-salary players who could be dealt during the season.
--Mark Neely, 43, was hired by the Padres' cable TV affiliate to be the team's lead television voice. Neely succeeds Matt Vasgersian, who departed after seven seasons in San Diego to become an anchor with the new MLB Network. Neely will be supported by holdover color analysts Mark Grant and Tony Gwynn.
Neely had been broadcasting minor league baseball since 1990. He spent last 13 seasons with the Class AA Tulsa Drillers, and he also worked as a national play-by-play man on ESPN telecasts (backup games) and for Fox's Big Ten Network (basketball and baseball).
Said Neely: "There are only two leagues when you are a play-by-play announcer, minors and majors. But there are so few jobs that rarely come open, and when they do there is so much competition. The main thing I always wanted to do was be the play-by-play man for a major league baseball team, I cannot make it simpler than that."
--3B Kevin Kouzmanoff recently resumed throwing for the first time since having shoulder surgery Nov. 15, but he expects to be in the lineup for the season opener.
--OF Corey Adamson, a 16-year-old the Padres signed last June, hit .442 with a .613 on-base percentage with eight steals over 12 games in Australia's National Under-18 Championships.
BY THE NUMBERS: 61 -- Players invited to the Padres' spring training camp.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I'll be ready. I don't see myself not being ready for Opening Day." -- 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff, to the San Diego Union-Tribune. He had shoulder surgery in November.
