Learning the Commodores’ "Brick House." Translating those horn parts to guitar is proving to be a bit of a challenge. Of course, my complete and utter lack of funkiness isn’t helping matters.

But enough about me, let’s talk baseball.

Stadium Webcam

First off, my buddy Jeff found a sweet live webcam of the new downtown stadium. I’ve added it to the the new downtown San Diego stadium page so you can keep your eye on the ballpark.

Brady Anderson

Brady Anderson? Well, it’s a low-risk move I guess; he only received a minor-league contract. What concerns me is that because he can still play center field at least occasionally, the Padres may no longer be interested in Orlando Palmeiro. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the kind of decision that cripples a ball club. But it is a bit of a head-scratcher.

I must admit, the Padres’ moves during the off-season have been a bit puzzling to this observer. To recap, they have signed the following players:

• Jesse Orosco, a 46-year-old left-hander who will work 30-40 innings; his contract includes a no-trade clause.
• Francisco Cordova, a 31-year-old right-hander who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since mid-2000 due to injury.
• Chris Sexton, a 31-year-old utility infielder who has played 70 big-league games over parts of two seasons.
• Brady Anderson, a 39-year-old outfielder who is running on fumes at this stage in his career.

Not exactly what one might expect from a team that is rebuilding for the future. But I suppose they don’t add much to the payroll.

[Late note: The Padres have just signed RHP Carlton Loewer, RHP Jaret Wright, and 3B Dave Hansen. More on those tomorrow.]

Middle Infield Help?

Other musings among the Padre faithful include talk of shoring up the middle infield. Not exactly man bites dog but there it is. Our lust for the likes of Marcus Giles and Felipe Lopez has been well documented, and I’ve mentioned Chris Stynes in passing.

Now meet the latest object of our desire: Carlos Febles. A great player? No. A good one? That’s a stretch. A chance to be above-average at his position if he stays healthy? Sure, I’ll go with that.

The dreamers among us are hoping to land Edgardo Alfonzo or Jose Vidro. I don’t know what I’ll do if either of those guys ends up in San Diego, but I’m sure it’ll require an extra helping of bleach to remove.

Meantime, folks are still complaining to the U-T about the Padres’ trading of future Hall-of-Famer Eugene Kingsale. Sometimes I wonder if we deserve a big-league baseball team…

2003 Hall of Fame Ballot

Aaron Gleeman has done a nice analysis of players on the 2003 Hall of Fame ballot. I have intellectual issues with the HOF, but having been to Cooperstown once many years ago (late summer of ’88; Yellowstone was on fire, and the Republican National Convention was being held in New Orleans so we had to stay in a town on the other side of the lake called Slidell–but that’s a story for another day) on a gut level I appreciate it. It’s far from perfect. But as a shrine for baseball fans, the HOF is pretty darned cool.

This year’s HOF ballot is interesting to me because all of the guys on it were either in mid-career or just getting started back when I was first getting seriously into baseball. Vince Coleman burst onto the scene right at the same time as Rotisserie Baseball, which gave equal value to stolen bases and home runs. Thus for many years I had a distorted view of Coleman’s value to a ball club. Probably his most impressive feat came in 1986, when he stole 107 bases despite having an OPS below 600.

I could probably talk at great length about most of the guys on this year’s ballot but instead I’ll leave that to Aaron. As always, he’s done good work here. Much as I might like to, I can’t really argue with anything he says. Check it out when you have a moment. And tell Aaron I say hey.