No stranger to trades, Pomeranz remains focused with rumors swirling

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SAN DIEGO -- Padres lefthander Drew Pomeranz is no stranger to being traded. It's already happened three times, and there's a good chance it could happen again by the time the Aug. 1 deadline rolls around.

The Red Sox are one team to whom Pomeranz has been linked.

Pomeranz has blossomed in San Diego this season, with an 8-7 mark and a 2.43 ERA for the Padres. But the Padres are in full "sell'' mode and it stands to reason that the Sox would have some interest, since they could control him for an additional two seasons after this one.

"After the first time I got traded,'' recalled Pomeranz Monday afternoon, "I was in the bullpen warming up (for a start) at Double A and I got called back in and told I got traded (from Cleveland to Colorado). That was probably the craziest it could be.

"Once I got traded the next time, it got a little easier. It's just part of it. It's part of the game. It's something you can't control. All I can focus on is my performance and that's going to help me be successful no matter where I am.''

In recent weeks, Pomeranz couldn't hide from the rumors that he might be on the block again.

"You definitely see stuff, you hear stuff, you read it,'' he said. "I love to win. I like it here (in San Diego); I'd like to win here. I'm just trying to get better and try to repeat what I did in the first half in the second half.''

Pomeranz said he hasn't compiled a list internally about the various destinations.

"Not really,'' he said, "because like I said, it really doesn't matter if I worry about it or not - if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. I learned that very quickly in my first year in pro ball. Just when you think you're settled some place, it seems to happen.''

It's worth noting that, even after the Red Sox and Padres pulled off a five-player deal last winter that brought Craig Kimbrel to the Sox in exchange for top prospects Manuel Margot and Javier Guerra, the Padres had a scout assigned nearly full-time to the Red Sox this spring and one industry executive told CSNNE.com that the Padres "love the Red Sox' (farm) system.''

Until this year, Pomeranz had been used in relief more than as a starter, in part because he hadn't yet mastered a third pitch. But last off-season, he developed a cutter and that enabled him to have another weapon when going through a batting order a second or third time.

"I think that's what kind of pushed me over the edge this year,'' he said. "I tried to throw it in the past and it just didn't work. But a few weeks before the start of spring training, someone said something to me (about throwing the cutter) and it just made sense to me. I started throwing it from there.''

 

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