Great win Sunday, after a heartbreaker Saturday night. Tough to see the Pads give the game away Saturday after scrapping back from down six. The silver lining is that the Astros burned up their bullpen in trying to preserve the win, which led to Jimy Williams having to stick with the erratic Ron Villone maybe a little longer than he’d have liked.

Meantime, Jake Peavy was stellar. First inning homer to Morgan Ensberg, two walks to Jeff Bagwell. Ten strikeouts in six innings. Nice work.

Sean Burroughs: another hit, another walk. He’s thriving in that leadoff slot.

Pads come home for a two-game set against the Diamondbacks. Giles makes his hometown debut in a Padre uni. Khalil Greene and Trevor Hoffman will be with the team. Should be fun.

More Giles

Here’s another take on the Brian Giles trade: The High Price of Going Home (longgandhi.com). I will say that if Giles turns into Glenn Davis, and Perez turns into Pedro Martinez, the Pads are hosed. But I’m pretty comfortable that that won’t happen.

My favorite part (comparing the two pitchers):

I was struck by the similarities in their innings pitched, walk and strikeout rates. Of course, there is a significant disparity in the number of hits allowed and home runs allowed, but some of that could be due to team defense, bullpen support, the park they pitch in, and the way that they were used in the games they pitched.

For the record, here are the numbers in question:

         Age    IP   H HR
Martinez  22 107.0  76  5
Perez     22 103.2 103 20

I’d venture to guess that team defense, bullpen support, and the way in which they were used had almost nothing to do with their respective home run numbers. More likely, Pedro wasn’t in the habit of walking a couple guys, falling behind the third, and serving up a jack.

I like the fact that someone is taking an in-depth look at this deal and not jumping to the reflex conclusion that the Padres swindled the Pirates. But I also think the author of this piece has overstated the value of Perez and Bay, and is selling Giles a bit short. Still, good to see someone out there thinking at least.

And this from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette: Long-rumored Giles’ trade to Padres finally reality. Amusing highlights:

The Pirates reportedly also were seeking infielder Josh Barfield, but San Diego refused to budge and the Pirates accepted this deal.

and:

In return for Giles, the Pirates get Perez, a 22-year-old left-hander who has a 98 mph fastball along with a tough breaking pitch and a good changeup.

Somebody needs to recalibrate their radar guns.

More Ollie

His Pirate debut was, shall we say, not good:

 IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST
2.1 4 6  6  5  1  0 66-35

Scoreless first and second, then this: Walk, walk, single, walk, out, double, double. Ouch.

Memo to Pirate fans: be patient with him, and remember it’s not his fault the Bucs gave up Brian Giles to get him. I know Ollie isn’t a Padre anymore but I still want to see him do well.

Other News

• Padres stock up on pitchers after busy week of trades (NC Times). Lou Merloni returns to Boston; Rene Miniel and $150k come to San Diego. BA has more info about Miniel.
• The Jaret Wright experiment is mercifully over; he was waived and claimed by Braves. In his first game for Atlanta, Wright worked a scoreless inning in a 13-6 contest. Except for the scoreless part and the fact that his team was up by seven runs, it was more of the same for the hittable flamethrower. Kevin Walker was recalled from Portland by the Pads to take Wright’s place.
• With Saturday’s loss, the Padres were officially eliminated from race and assured of their fifth straight losing season.
• In the "Shocking to No-one" department, Josh Barfield was named Cal League MVP for 2003.

Junk Drawer

• Boston Dirt Dogs — Red Sox blog. Reader Alan Bernier sent this one in. Scroll down. Keep scrolling. Eventually you’ll get to some content, and it’s quite good.
• Knuckleball Headquarters — Need to learn how to throw a knuckler? Here ya go.
• Wesley Willis passed away last week. If you don’t know who he was, this blurb from his record company’s site pretty much sums it up:
  

  His songs were simultaneously disturbing, hilarious, blunt, and intoxicating. Wesley’s sheer excitement and unaffected honesty about every cultural phenomenon, defined his music as truly individual, and truly punk rock.

  Willis was sort of the Eric Owens of rock music: short on talent, but brimming with enthusiasm. His spirit will be missed. RIP, big man.

Housekeeping

As threatened, I finally reorganized the links there to the right. Sites are organized according to topic, more or less. Just figured things were getting a little out of hand. Hopefully this helps you as much as it helps me.

That’s all for now. Get out to the Q Tuesday night if you can and welcome the new (and newly healthy) guys…