Hope those last couple of posts weren’t too depressing. One of the problems with examing something very closely is it’s real easy to find things that don’t look good, or at least not as good as you’d hoped. But we learn from the process, so we persist.

Without rhyme or reason, here is some stuff that has been piling up on the virtual desk over the past week or so:

• Chicken to Make First Petco Appearance (ESPN). “‘From a bird’s eye perspective, I think it’s an unflappable ballpark,’ said Ted Giannoulas, the San Diego resident who has been entertaining sports fans since 1974 with his brand of fowl humor while dressed in a chicken costume.” Where is PETA and why aren’t they protesting that sentence?
• Petagine Boston-bound (Japan Times). Former Padre returns to North America. I’m holding out for the SNL episode where he tells a room full of statheads to get a life. And before anyone asks, yes, I’ve kissed a girl.
• Baseball Amateur Draft is More of A Crapshoot Than (Scout.com). It’s not the most thorough study in the world (those in glass houses…), but Martin Lee comes up with some interesting findings. This is geared toward the Giants and Brian Sabean, but here’s an eye-opener: “Even for teams picking in the first 10 picks, there is about a 1 in 9 chance of picking a Star. Given that these top picks get anywhere from $3-5 million in bonus and contract, a regularly lousy team could end up spending $30 million just to get that one star in 9 years of drafting.”
• Probabilistic Model of Range, Leftfielders (Baseball Musings). Of the 41 players ranked, who finished last? Ryan Klesko – oops, pow, surprise! On the bright side, we may finally have found a defensive metric that matches what our eyes tell us.
• The Best and Worst Teams of the Trade (Hardball Times). From yesterday’s comments: “Studes over at Hardball Times has examined every trade made in MLB from 1961-2002 and found that the Padres are third best (behind only the Royals and ChiSox) in terms of a measure he calls Net WSAB (has something to do with win shares).” Those of you still recovering from our look at the Pads’ recent drafting history might want to read this.

There it is. Have an excellent weekend, and we’ll get it going again on Monday…