Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. I was a bit under the weather for most of the long weekend, but that gave me a good excuse to sit around the house with my wife and dogs, watch football games, and plug stats into a spreadsheet. I feel much better now. Think I’ll go for a walk.

Hey, how ’bout those Chargers? The kicking game sure can be an adventure without John Carney. New GM John Butler has made a lot of good moves, but getting rid of Carney isn’t one of them. But hey, they came away with a victory and are looking better than they have since Bobby Ross was let go. Next week: another must-win against the hated Raiders.

But enough football. We’re here to talk baseball, right? Right. As alluded to last month, at the request of one of the good folks over at Fanstop, I’ll be posting pictures of the new downtown stadium every now and then so you can see its progress. The shots are taken from the 20th floor of a building about a mile or so to the north. Check out the first entry at www.ducksnorts.com/stadium; I’ll be adding to it periodically. Just follow the link at the top of the page.

In other news, Jim Callis over at Baseball America recently mentioned that SDSU’s Anthony Gwynn likely will be a mid-second round pick in the June draft. I’ve seen him play only a handful of times, but my general feeling is that he runs well and hits well, plays a decent center field, and doesn’t have much of an arm. He looks more like a left fielder to me, but then again, his dad wasn’t a great defender coming out of college either, so who knows. I can tell you I’m looking forward to seeing both Gwynns out at the stadium this spring.

Next up, I encourage you to check out Aaron’s Baseball Blog (and not just because of the stunning picture of Heidi Klum, although that’s certainly a bonus). Aaron is a Twins fan but he’s really a fan of baseball, and he covers a lot of ground over there. He’s currently working on using minor-league performance as a gauge for future greatness, which, as you know, is a subject very near and dear to my heart (actually, the same could be said of Klum, but that’s another story). Give it a read.

Oh, I almost forgot, the 2002 stats are up at Baseball Reference. If you haven’t visited Sean Forman’s site, do so at once. It is the single most valuable resource available on the web for baseball fans.