Mercifully, the season is over. Not that I’m happy to see baseball go away for awhile, but watching the Padres these past few weeks has been painful. At least they were able to end on a positive note.
Hey, and how ’bout those Chargers? I followed them seriously from the late ’70s through the time they fired the wrong Bobby. When Ross left, I kinda lost interest. That, followed by the whole Ryan Leaf debacle and, later, the way the club treated John Carney, never quite sat right with me. I still hope they do well, but I’d feel like a hypocrite if I jumped on the bandwagon now.
Minor Leagues
Several Padre minor leaguers have been named by Baseball America among their league’s best prospects:
- Sean Thompson, LHP, IdF (R+), #19 PIO
- Josh Barfield, 2B, FtW (A), #19 MDW
- Oliver Perez, LHP, LkE (A+) #2 CAL
- Xavier Nady, DH, LkE (A+) #6 CAL
- Khalil Greene, SS, LkE (A+) #14 CAL
- Mark Phillips, LHP, LkE (A+) #17 CAL
- Jake Gautreau, 2B, LkE (A+) #20 CAL
- Jake Peavy, RHP, Mob (AA) #1 SOU
- Dennis Tankersley, RHP, Mob (AA) #10 SOU
- Sean Burroughs, 2B/3B, Por (AAA) #6 PCL
- Dennis Tankersley, RHP, Por (AAA) #14 PCL
Personally, I think they’re underestimating Greene and Phillips. Most of the others seem reasonable to me.
Places To Go, Things To Do
I haven’t yet cast my votes at the IBA. Off the top of my head, I’ll probably go with Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, Jason Jennings, and Jim Tracy for MVP, CYA, ROY, and MOY, respectively, in the NL. In the AL, it’ll be A-Rod, Barekro Zitowetinez (one of Barry Zito, Derek Lowe, or Pedro Martinez; this is probably the toughest call for me), Rodrigo Lopez (maybe Eric Hinske; the party line says Hinske but I’m not 100% convinced), and I guess Art Howe. Maybe Ron Gardenhire. I mean, MLB didn’t even want his team to exist and they made the playoffs. How cool is that?
Speaking of which, is it just me or is it great to see — with apologies to their fan — the Milwaukee franchise so utterly and completely disintegrate? Karma is a beautiful thing…
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