I voted for Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Fred McGriff, Mark McGwire, Jack Morris, Rafael Palmeiro, Tim Raines, Lee Smith and Alan Trammell.

It’s a very down year for first-year possibilities on the National Baseball Hall of Fame ballot distributed this month to eligible members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. There’s not a single newbie who comes even close.

We can all vote for as many as 10 candidates. I stuffed my ballot with nine of them, eight who I voted for last year with the addition of Larkin. I’m voting for the Reds shortstop for the first time. It is his third year on the BBWAA ballot.

When anybody says statistics don’t change, they’re right. But strength of the ballot does. In my mind, he had a wonderful, but borderline Hall of Fame career. He was overshadowed defensively in his own National League by Ozzie Smith and completely eclipsed in the American League by Cal Ripken Jr., the two Hall of Fame shortstops who are the comparables in Larkin’s era. But this better be his year. Trammell, who had a similarly long and distinguished career for the Tigers, should also not be ignored.

This is what Larkin has to contend with in the next four years:

What surely will be a controversial vote next year will include all-time home run leader Barry Bonds, 354-game winner Roger Clemens, 3,000-hit-club member Craig Biggio, 12-time All-Star Mike Piazza and Sammy Sosa, who slugged 609 homers. The ballot for 2014 induction will boast a trio of great pitchers in Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina, plus slugger Frank Thomas. The group for 2015 will include another great group of pitchers: No. 2 overall strikeout leader Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz, plus outfielder Gary Sheffield. And finally, the ballot for 2016 will offer outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., Yankees left-hander Andy Pettitte and closers Trevor Hoffman and Billy Wagner.

It’s not unheard of, but Larkin needs a big jump. In 2011, he garnered 62.1 percent — 361 of a possible 581 votes. Based on those figures, he must leap ahead 12.9 percent to gain election. He received 51.6 percent of the vote in 2010, his first year on the ballot. If not, it will be a long wait.

With the steroid era now about to fully infect the election process, the ballots from here on in are going to be very tough.

I’ve often thought that you have to take the players from that era on a case-by-case basis, but I’ve changed my opinion. The Mitchell Report revealed that great pitchers (Clemens and Eric Gagne) were perhaps as guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs as great hitters (McGwire and Bonds). It named utility players, bit players, lower level players and the top players. Thus, the playing field must be considered level. Otherwise, except for rare cases, no one really knows who did what.

Under those circumstances I believe as a voter that everyone should be painted with the same brush. Either you vote all the qualified candidates in or you don’t vote for anyone who is remotely suspected.

As a lifetime member of the BBWAA I take this vote very seriously. I have no desire to be judge, juror or soothsayer. So I’ve decided to judge those players within the context of the era during which they played, and if they’re deserving, vote them in.

Thus, my ballot again includes a player who failed a drug test (Palmeiro), a player who admitted that he used steroids (McGwire), and another who was tainted by the cocaine era of the 1980s (Raines). I believe all of them statistically belong in a Hall of Fame that already includes the likes of Gaylord Perry, who brashly admitted to throwing the spitter when he was active from 1962-83. That pitch was outlawed by Major League Baseball in 1920.

Palmeiro — on the ballot for the second time — may be statistically on the bubble to some, but not to me. His 569 homers and 3, 020 hits places him in rarified company as only the fourth player in Major League history to amass more than 500 homers and 3,000 base hits. The other three are Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray.

I’ve been among the 25 or so percent to vote for McGwire every year he’s been on the ballot. His 583 homers — 70 of them in 1998 and 65 in ’99 — are good enough. The home run race between McGwire and Sosa in ’98 put baseball back on the map after the strike that devastated the sport only a few years earlier. Since the steroid precusor Andro was found in McGwire’s locker — like many — I’ve long suspected him of using PEDs. His public apology didn’t change anything.

It’s the second time I’ve voted for Raines. Listening to Andre Dawson talk about him during his 2010 induction speech in Cooperstown made me take another look at Tim’s record. Certainly, he was the NL’s version of Rickey Henderson before his personal problems affected his career. He played 24 seasons, had 808 stolen bases, 2,605 hits and batted .294. Tony Perez was elected to the Hall with 2,732 hits and a .279 batting average.

And just a note on Jeff Bagwell: Rumors about possible steroid use don’t bother me. I just think he’s a very good player, but not of Hall of Fame caliber. His numbers are very similar to Steve Garvey — Bags .297 batting average to .294 for the Garv, 2,314 hits to 2,599, 449 homers to 272, 1,529 RBIs to 1,308 . But Garvey had two NL Championship Series MVPs, an NL MVP, an All-Star MVP, the longest consecutive game playing streak in NL history (1,207), one of the highest fielding percentages as a first baseman (.996) and an errorless season (1984). Garvey also played on five NL pennant winners and a World Series winner in ’81 with the Dodgers. Bagwell did almost none of this with the Astros. And Garvey didn’t get a sniff from the writers for the HOF.

That’s why I didn’t vote for Bagwell.

I’ve been fortunate in my 35 years of covering Major League Baseball to have sat in on the conversations and been able to absorb the managing skills of the best and the brightest of a few eras.

As a youngster, I cut my teeth on three years of covering Billy Martin with the Oakland A’s followed by three more when Dick Williams managed the San Diego Padres. They were ornery cusses and big drinkers, but I learned the nuances of managing a baseball game from them.

Neither suffered fools easily. Williams was once asked if had thought about lifting his pitcher in the early innings of a game with the bases loaded for a pinch-hitter. He told the unsuspecting reporter in very colorful terms never to enter his office again. No, that wasn’t me, but we certainly had our battles.

As time went by I got to know them all. Some of my favorites have retired in the last two years: Bobby Cox, Lou Piniella, Joe Torre and now Tony La Russa. I’ve known Piniella since he was a player with the Yankees, Torre since he managed the Mets during his first gig in the late 1970s, Cox since his initial tour with the Braves, beginning in 1978, and La Russa through his years with the A’s and the St. Louis Cardinals.

I feel honored to have been able to sit in the same room with them, either in a group or many times one on one, to pick their brains and chronicle how their thoughts on baseball have evolved. Williams and Martin would’ve thought it a challenge to their manhood to even have a bench coach. None existed during their time. The other quartet, who are all among the winningest managers in baseball history, adapted to or created a new environment.

Torre, after stints with the Mets, Braves and Cardinals, instilled a pride, discipline and professionalism in the clubhouse that was incomparable when he managed the Yankees to six American League pennants and four World Series titles. His teams didn’t have award winners or year-in-and-year out league leaders. They just simply played as a team and won.

Cox told me his secret to the great Braves era of 14 division titles in a row was largely due to his turning the reigns of the pitching staff over to Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Greg Maddux, who were so smart that they were able to be their own coaches and guide the rest of the staff. If Cox had had the likes of Mariano Rivera as his closer he would have certainly won more than one World Series title.

La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan totally altered the game by installing Dennis Eckersley as a one-inning closer in the final inning and by establishing a series of setup men to bridge the gap between the starter and that essential component. Early on, La Russa embraced the notion of using statistics as a way of evaluating players, but in this era of Moneyball -– the book and the movie – he never totally embraced it.

“You’ve got to be careful, because I think about when I first came in the league years ago and I had no experience. I was a lousy player with no managing experience,” La Russa said before the World Series ended in the Cards’ favor last week. “You had all these great guys who managed for years, so preparation was the only way that myself and my staff could survive. We were looking for everything.

“I think a lot of those stats and tools, they’re helpful when you prepare. But they eliminate to a great degree the human element, which is a big part of every day that you play. Wherever those numbers are, that’s one starting place, and then you look at how a guy feels.”

Cliff Lee had a WAR of 6.9 this past season pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies. But that doesn’t account for the fact that he’s been terrible in his three most recent important starts: Games 1 and 5 of the 2010 World Series for Texas and Game 2 of this year’s National League Division Series. In the latter, he blew an early 4-0 lead to the Cards, who won the series in five games. Certainly, that one game alone is why the Phillies paid him $11 million this past season as a free agent.

Chris Carpenter of the Cards had a 3.7 WAR and earned $14.2 million from the Cardinals this past season. He was 4-0 in the postseason, winning the critical Game 5 of the NLDS over the Phillies and Game 7 over the Rangers in the World Series on three days’ rest.

In hindsight, who would you rather have had this postseason, Lee or Carpenter? Everything seems clearer in the tinted glare of hindsight. Doesn’t it? And that’s what these stats are all about: trying to predict future performance based on the past. But La Russa is right. The numbers and equations don’t take into account heart, character and what happened in a given player’s life that day. Is he prepared or depressed? Did he have a stomachache or a spat with his wife? Was he able to execute the game plan?

I’m a big proponent of working the count. And in Game 5 of the World Series in Arlington I was aghast when David Freese didn’t do it. After C.J. Wilson walked Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman to open the second inning, Freese swung at the first pitch and popped out to right. Likewise in the seventh, reliever Alexi Ogando walked the bases loaded, strolling Albert Pujols and Berkman intentionally to get to Freese, who again swung at the first pitch. Freese popped out to center, ending the inning, and the Rangers won the game, 4-2.

On the rainout day of Game 6 in St. Louis, I asked La Russa his thoughts about it and if he had spoken to Freese. His response was classic, Tony.

“Well, [he did it] because it was our tribute to all the scouts and baseball people that were dissed by Moneyball,” La Russa quipped. “That’s why I walked out of Moneyball.”

On base percentage and working the count are prime tactics of winning baseball in the Moneyball era. The idea is that if a batter gets on base he has a chance to produce a run. It doesn’t matter how he gets on base: walk, hit by pitch, hit. Just get on base. And don’t get thrown out on base trying to steal or forfeit an out through a sacrifice bunt.

Here’s La Russa’s counter to that argument:

“On-base percentage is one of the most dangerous concepts of the last seven, eight years because it forces some executives and coaches and players to think that it’s all about getting on base by drawing walks, and the fact is that guys who have the best on-base percentage are really dangerous hitters whenever they get a pitch in the strike zone,” La Russa said.

“You watch your productive hitters in the big leagues, and when they get a chance to drive in a run, they look for the first good strike. The better the pitching, especially this time of the year, when you get that first strike it may be the last one that you’re going to see. So you’d better be ready to swing early.”

So, La Russa concluded, Freese was correct both times because he swung at a good pitch even though it was the first.

La Russa was only kidding. He didn’t walk out on Moneyball. He went to see it on the night of that Game 6 rainout.

His reaction? “Good acting,” La Russa said in his evaluation of the movie. “I’m serious. Good acting. I mean, I was offended because of what the book represented, and I know a lot of those guys [who] were portrayed. I knew a few of those guys as scouts. It strains the credibility a little bit.”

I saw the movie twice and enjoyed it. Sure, there was no mention of how Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez contributed to that 102-win, 2002 season. But that wasn’t the point. Though Billy Beane found the low-cost gem in Scott Hatteberg to replace Jason Giambi at first base, he wasn’t able to follow his bliss and win the final game of the season. He still hasn’t.

For winning, is what it’s all about, isn’t it? No matter how you get there. With the highest payroll, lowest payroll or anything in between. In the end, the brightest general managers and managers of this day use it all: old school, new school, stats, scouting and the human element. That’s what I’ve learned over the course of 35 years. Don’t discount anything when it comes to winning.

“The win is the most important statistic in baseball,” D-backs manager Kirk Gibson told me this season. “That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?”

Gibson won that last game twice as a player. One of them came four games after he hobbled off the bench as a Dodger and hit the most famous walk-off, pinch-hit homer in World Series history.  La Russa, Cox, Torre and Piniella combined to do it nine times.

Not bad.

PHOENIX — Giants fans may feel like they’re in free fall after watching the club deteriorate from World Series champions to National League West runner ups in less than a year.

But the stark truth is that aside from an 18-10 September 2010 and an 11-4 postseason run, this team is playing much as it did for the first five months last season.  The Giants had trouble scoring runs then when they clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season and are in the same situation now.

But there are six primary reasons why the Giants  are such a sizable distance behind the D-backs with about three weeks to go:

1) Last year, Buster Posey was brought up to the Majors in late May and went on to have a Rookie of the Year season. This season turned for the worst on May 25 when the catcher was seriously injured in a collision at home plate. The Giants have played without Posey ever since and general manager Brian Sabean hasn’t been able to replace him with at least a viable front-line catcher.

2) Last year, after Madison Bumgarner was elevated to the Majors near the end of June, the five pitchers in the rotation made all of their starts for the remainder of the regular season or until Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy decided to drop Barry Zito from the postseason roster. This year, injuries to Zito and Jonathan Sanchez have placed an undo burden on Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain even though the 34-year-old Ryan Vogelsong emerged to have such a dramatic and surprising All-Star season.

3) Last year, Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell and Cody Ross were all taken off the scrap heap and contributed greatly to the cause. This year, Huff has reverted to previous form — regression to the mean it’s now called — Burrell has been injured, and Ross is only now generating some offense after opening the season on the disabled list with a calf injury. It’s no wonder that before Sabean signed them, Huff was left to languish as a free agent, Burrell was released by the Rays, and Ross was waived by the Marlins.

4) Last year, Brian Wilson was stellar when his 48 saves led the league. His strikes outs ended the NL Division Series, NL Championship Series and World Series. This year, the Beard  has been beset by injuries. It’s tough to do a Mariano Rivera year-in and year-out. Perhaps, like Rivera and the now retired Trevor Hoffman (more than 1,200 saves between them), Wilson should shave off the beard and take a more humble, low-key approach.

5)  Last year, second baseman Freddy Sanchez came off the disabled list in May, months after surgery on his left shoulder, and was a solid contributor even playing through the postseason with an injury to his other shoulder. This year, he damaged the right shoulder diving defensively and hasn’t played since June. The Giants are still trying to fill the void.

6) Last year, no one can minimize the contributions made by veterans Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria. Renteira, who was injured throughout the regular season, won Game 5 at Texas with a homer and was named World Series MVP.  Both left as free agents.This year, Sabean signed and subsequently released Miguel Tejada, and made a July trade for the over-the-hill Orlando Cabrera.

On all of this, Sabean didn’t catch lightening in a bottle twice.  Neither, unfortunately, did the Giants and their fans. That is why it’s so hard and frustrating to repeat.

CHICAGO — I’m sitting in my hotel room listening to the soulful sax solo in “Jungleland” and I’m not ashamed to say that I’m openly weeping. I’ve heard it hundreds of times in recording and live and it  never seems more fresh than it does tonight. The Big Man blows those notes as if they came from his gut, not just his lips. And perhaps they did, but will do so no more. Clarence Clemons is dead and another piece of our shared experiences went with him.

Of all the Bruce Springsteen songs he’s written over the course of 40 years, “Jungleland” is my favorite. It is part rock opera, part poem about the struggles of the Magic Rat and the Barefoot Girl trying to survive in the seedy underbelly of New Jersey. There’s a sweet piano opening, a guitar solo, the Big Man’s sax solo followed by another soft, pretty piano riff. Bruce tells the story in his raspy, unforgettable voice. It ends with the Rat being shot, but even that he can’t  seem to get right.

“In the quick of the of the night they reach out to find their moment and take an honest stand,” says Bruce, speaking the story now. “But they wind up wounded and not even dead. To-night — in — Jungle — land.”

I saw Bruce and the E Street band for the first time in 1985 in the midst of his “Born in the USA” tour. I was on the Padres beat back then and as fate it would have it, the concert was at a place then called “The Horizon” in the Chicago suburbs near O’Hare. I met up with Ken Gurnick and Gordon Edes and a group of other writers who were then covering the Dodgers for their local papers. The concert blew me away and I’ve been a Bruceophile ever since.

The last time I saw the Band was on Nov. 8, 2009, in New York at Madison Square Garden. I was accompanied by my daughter, Joanna, who was five years old in ’85, but a full-grown woman of nearly 29 that night. She never could get my Springsteen thing, but she got it at the Garden. It was one of the last concerts of their  last two-year tour and they were playing whole signature albums by then. On that night, it was “The River,” the only time they’d ever done that one in concert. It is a mega two-album affair that predates “Born in the USA,” the album that put the group on the map. It was a singular show.

The 20 numbers on “The River” include some of Springsteen’s long-time classics. And when he was done with that, he still had another 11 songs in him. During his much more recent “Waiting on a Sunny Day,” a little boy joined the group on the stage and haltingly sang some of the lyrics. When it came time for the Clemons sax solo, the kid exuberantly yelled: “Take it Big Man.” The crowd uproariously cheered.

As it had become his habit in those last concerts, the then 60-year-old Bruce kept telling his fans that he wasn’t saying goodbye, only so-long “for just a little while.” Somehow, though, I had the feeling that it would be the last time I’d ever see the Band in that makeup. Clarence, after all, was nearing 70 and not in the greatest of health. If they stayed off the road for another two years it was doubtful that the Big Man would ever be out there again. They haven’t played together since and tonight those thoughts turned out to be prescient.

The band in its reconstituted form will undoubtedly tour again, but it will never be the same. As Bruce said today about Clemons: “He was my great friend, my partner and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band.”

Certainly, the Big Man’s memory will live on in those soulful notes he perpetually plays in “Jungleland.”

NEW YORK –- Dick Wiencek, one of the most successful scouts in Major League history, passed away in southern California from complications of a heart attack, his daughter, Susan Newell said on Sunday.

Wiencek signed 72 players, the most in baseball history, according to data provided by the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation. Among Wiencek’s discoveries are upcoming Hall of Fame inductee Bert Blyleven, Mark McGwire, Jim Kaat and Graig Nettles.

The well-liked and much-respected Wiencek began his baseball career as a player in the New York Giants system in 1947 and became a professional scout three years later. During his time in Major League Baseball, he was assistant general manager for the Angels from 1971-74 and director of scouting for the Oakland A’s from 1981-84. He retired in 2003 after working 56 years in organized baseball.

In 1976, Wiencek drafted and signed six Major League players in one year, still a Major League record, according to the Scouts Foundation. Those players were Steve Kemp, Alan Trammell, Dan Petry, Jack Morris, Dave Stedman and Steve Baker.

Trammell, Petry and Morris all went on to star for the 1984 Tigers, who defeated the Padres in five World Series games. Trammell, now the bench coach for the D-backs under manager Kirk Gibson, was MVP of that World Series.

Wiencek was born on Feb. 7, 1926, in Michigan City, Ind., and moved to Kalamazoo, Mich., as a toddler, living there for 33 years. He was a World War II veteran, serving in the U.S. Navy for 31 months before attending Western Michigan University from 1947 to 1949.

Wiencek moved to Claremont, Calif., due east of the Los Angeles area, in 1961 with his late wife, Miriam, and their six children, eventually settling a little further east in Rancho Mirage.

He won numerous “Scout of the Year” awards during his career and most recently was honored in 2005 with the George Genovese Lifetime Achievement Award by the Scouts Foundation, during their annual dinner in Los Angeles.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Anthony Rizzo said he is ready for the Major Leagues when asked on Friday night after his Class AAA Padres lost by one run to Fresno at what is now called Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium. And he didn’t sound cocky when asked the question.

“I’m just waiting for the call,” he said. “If and when it happens I’ll be ready and it’ll be a blast. Otherwise, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Ready for the Major Leagues? Rizzo nodded his head in the affirmative. “Yes,” he said.  He’s a cancer survivor so there may be good reason for that kind of confidence.

Rizzo hit his sixth homer of the season — a prodigious two-run shot deep into the right-center field bleachers — and third in as many nights in the 9-8 loss.  He went 1-for-3 with two strikeouts and a pair of walks. A big, strapping first baseman, in 15 games he’s hitting a gaudy .452 with 24 RBIs.

The left-handed hitting Rizzo was a big part of the deal that sent Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox. In San Diego they are waiting. The Padres, at .214, are currently the worst hitting team in Major League Baseball and their platoon of retread first basemen replacing A-Gon are Brad Hawpe   (.116, no homers, two RBIs) and Jorge Cantu (.140, one homer, six RBIs). That can’t last long.

Then again, Rizzo is just 21 years old and its a big jump from the Pacific Coast League to the Majors, Tucson manager Terry Kennedy acknowledged and Brandon Belt of the Giants recently discovered. Belt was all everything last year at all three Minor League levels. This year, with Cody Ross opening the season on the disabled list, Belt hit .192 with a homer and four RBIs for the Giants. Ross is off the DL. Belt will rejoin the Grizzlies on Saturday in Fresno.

The Padres are loathe for that to happen to Rizzo. He’s had only 62 at bats in Triple-A. So there’s no harm in waiting and Rizzo may not be the immediate answer anyway to the Padres’ hitting woes. They had trouble scoring runs last year even with Gonzalez in the middle of the lineup. So far this season, driving in runs has been a huge problem. They have 58 RBIs, 29th in the Majors.

Rizzo was just 18 when he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, which is cancer of the blood system. He was a Single-A kid in the Red Sox’s system at the time and decided to take off what was supposed to be his first full professional season coping with the disease and fighting it. After six months of chemotherapy doctors told him he was cancer free. He has remained such for three years, he acknowledged Friday night.

No doubt, there’s a sense of urgency on Rizzo’s part to move on as quickly as possible to the next level. Afterall, any cancer patient is only as clean as his last test. So time is wasting here in Tucson when there’s a hole to fill in San Diego.

The Padres are as aware as any organization about living with cancer. Tony Gwynn, Dave Roberts and Darrel Akerfelds have all dealt with cancer in its various forms during the past year. With Rizzo they must balance out the normal growth curve of any player and what’s going on in his personal life.

“Maybe because of the cancer he’ll be able to handle the Major Leagues better than anyone,” said Kennedy, the Padres starting catcher on their 1984 pennant-winning team.

Rizzo says he’s ready to try it. The Padres have to determine when it’s the best time to bring him up.

LOS ANGELES –- Barry Zito doesn’t intend to look back. That just generates too many negative thoughts and feelings. Right now, he’s focusing on making his first start of the 2011 season on Sunday evening at Dodger Stadium after suffering a neck injury in a two-car collision earlier this week.

Zito’s rented Cadillac was broadsided on its right rear side by a taxi that ran a red light on Wednesday evening in Hollywood at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Sunset Plaza Drive. Zito was trying to make a left at the time. The crash rattled the veteran left-hander, sending him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he spent three hours. He had an X-ray that night and was released. On Thursday he showed up at the ballpark wearing a neck brace and was sent off for an MRI that evidently showed no severe damage.

Sans brace, Zito underwent therapy and threw to a catcher on the flat surface of the right-field grass hours before Friday night’s game. Beforehand he proclaimed himself fortunate. Afterward he said he felt well enough to make the start.

“Everything was normal. I’m really blessed in that right,” Zito said. “It’s scary. It’s a scary sound hearing metal hitting metal. If I hadn’t made a decision to hit the gas when I did, he would’ve hit me in the front and it would’ve been a whole different story.”

Zito added that his neck still felt sore.

“It feels a lot better than it did yesterday,” he said. “We’ve been treating it a lot. I expect to feel even better tomorrow.”

The Giants are still reserving judgment about Zito’s availability on Sunday. They have a day off Monday before playing the Padres in their home opener at PETCO Park on Tuesday afternoon. Manager Bruce Bochy said he probably wouldn’t move Madison Bumgarner, Tuesday’s starter, into Zito’s spot, if necessary. Instead it may be a start by committee.

“It looks good,” Bochy said on Friday about Zito pitching. “He has a couple of more days to feel better and improve. When you lose a starter that’s not easy to replace. With a day off the next day that does allow you to use your guys in the bullpen.”

Pitching coach Dave Righetti gave a thumbs up.

“I like where he was today,” he said. “There’s no question about it.”

PEORIA, Ariz. –- The Padres added Minor League right-hander Samuel Deduno to the 25-roster and officially placed Mat Latos on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday as the club played its final Cactus League game of the spring against the Brewers at Peoria Stadium.

Latos has a strain of his right shoulder, but the good news is that he is significantly improving, manager Bud Black said, and will travel with the team to St. Louis for the season opener. If everything goes as planned, Latos will throw off the mound on Thursday prior to the game against the Cardinals at Bush Stadium.

“Latos is doing well,” Black said. “He’ll play catch today and probably tomorrow and if things go well hopefully a side session on Thursday in St. Louis. But he’s doing much better. We think he’s turned the corner in regard to the inflammation.”

Latos last threw against the White Sox here on March 21 and reported soreness in his shoulder two days later. The White Sox scored three runs in the first inning that night without recording an out before Latos settled down to pitch into the fifth inning.

Latos struggled this spring, allowing 10 earned runs, 16 hits and nine walks over 10 innings in his four starts.

In other news, the Padres made a Minor League trade on Tuesday sending Single-A first baseman Allan Dykstra to the Mets for Double-A reliever Eddie Kunz. Dykstra, a San Diego product out of Rancho Bernardo High School, was a first-round selection (23rd overall) in the 2008 First-Year Player draft and was a questionable choice from the very beginning because of degenerative hip condition. The right-handed Kunz was 7-8 with a 5.34 ERA in 42 appearances (12 starts) last season for Double-A Binghamton.

SURPRISE, Ariz. –- Injured Giants closer Brian Wilson threw soft toss without incident again on Sunday in nearby Scottsdale, while his teammates closed the Cactus League portion of their spring schedule with a 7-4 loss to the Royals at Surprise Stadium.

Wilson will remain behind in Arizona. The Giants broke camp and headed back to the Bay Area where they play their annual three-game Bay Bridge Series against the A’s beginning at AT&T Park on Monday night. The season opener is in Los Angeles against the rival Dodgers on Thursday at 5 pm PT.

Wilson injured his left oblique on March 17 against the Angels and hasn’t thrown in a game since. Barring any setbacks, he’s slated to toss a bullpen session on Tuesday after which the Giants will make a decision about his status. The Giants don’t have to set their 25-man roster until Thursday morning.

“He played catch today and he felt fine,” Bochy said. “He’ll probably play a little more catch tomorrow and it’ll be Tuesday as far as getting up on the mound. We’ll evaluate it after that.”

Wilson was the Major League leader with 48 saves as the Giants won the National League West and ultimately the World Series this past season. This spring, he appeared in five games, allowing a run on three hits for a 1.80 ERA. Whether a total of five live innings will be enough work to put him on the roster for Opening Day is the pending question.

“That hasn’t been determined yet,” Bochy said. “We’ll talk about it after he takes his bullpen and we see where he’s at. The good news is he felt great throwing today. If he makes the type of progress he needs to make, once he take his bullpen we’ll have a better idea of what we’re going to do.”

SURPRISE, Ariz. –- Giants rookie first baseman Brandon Belt received some good news on Sunday and it had nothing to do with him making the team.

Belt received the Harry S. Jordan Award as the top first-year player in camp this spring, it was announced before the Giants closed the Cactus League portion of their schedule against the Royals at Surprise Stadium. The vote of his teammates, coaches and trainers was unanimous.

Belt said he was still awaiting word from Giants management on his status: big league or Triple-A.

“They’ve told me absolutely nothing,” said Belt, who was in the cleanup spot and playing first base on Sunday. “I have no idea what’s going to happen. I’m just trying to do my best every day and whatever happens, happens.”

Belt is traveling with the team back to the Bay Area where the Giants are playing their annual three-game Bay Bridge Series against the A’s beginning at AT&T Park on Monday night. The season opener is in Los Angeles against the rival Dodgers on Thursday at 5 pm PT.

Manager Bruce Bochy said before the game that there certainly will be an answer by then and that the last couple of spots on the big club are still up for grabs. The Giants don’t have to set their 25-man roster until Thursday morning.

Belt’s chances of making the team certainly increased with the calf injury to Cody Ross, who’ll start the season on the 15-day disabled list and is expected to miss the first three weeks.

“It makes us get more creative, that’s for sure” Bochy said. “Does it make it any easier? Maybe a little bit. We lost a pretty good bat in Cody Ross. That will certainly play into it when we make that decision. [Belt] would give us another left-handed bat on the bench or we could do what we did in the past. We came off a great year last year. We could go similar to what we had last year when we started the season.”