Friday Links (7 Apr 06)
Fri, Apr 7, 2006
by Geoff Young
Well Portland Oregon and sloe gin fizz
If that ain’t love then tell me what is
Well I lost my heart it didn’t take no time
But that ain’t all. I lost my mind in Oregon
- Beavers hope new script makes opening a hit (Oregonian). John Hunt talks about Grady Fuson’s strategy of “controlled aggressiveness” at the plate and how it will impact the players at Triple-A Portland. As manager Craig Colbert says, “This is about wearing down the starting pitcher and getting into the bullpen and seeing what we can do. Never once do we say, ‘Let’s take a strike.’ ” An excellent primer on the Padres’ organizational philosophy and its application. [Tip o' the Ducksnorts cap to Jonathan at the incomparable PDX Beavers.]
- Beavers Win Thriller on Thursday Night, 6-4 (PDX Beavers). Speaking of Jonathan, here’s his recap of Opening Day at Portland. Sounds like a good time.
- Top 100 San Diego Padres: #93 Leron Lee (Friar Faithful). Lance Richardson provides the latest installment of FF’s excellent and ambitious series. Lee, you will discover (if you didn’t already know), is famous for something other than his on-field exploits.
- Kottaras in line to replace Piazza (Mobile Press-Register). A brief profile of George Kottaras, the Padres’ catcher of the future. Kottaras had two base knocks in the BayBears season opener against Carolina. The same paper also has an article on right-hander Jared Wells.
- A few new (to me) baseball web sites of potential interest: Double Play Depth is a Yankees blog by veteran bloggers Benjamin Kabak and Travis Nelson. Elephants in Oakland has been around a long time but they’ve got a new address. Baseball Cube Blog is a blog by the folks at the Baseball Cube (duh). Ballbug is a “meme tracking site that will track the hot stories in the baseball world.” I don’t know what, exactly, that means, but I read about it at the Blog Herald so it must be important.
That’s all for now. Rockies are in town tonight; game starts at 7 p.m. PT. We’ll fire up the IGD about an hour or so before then. Remember, it’s early in the season — try not to lose your heart or mind just yet. 
Picking up where last year's version left off, the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual provides in-depth analysis of and commentary on the San Diego Padres. Get your copy today.
April 7, 2006 at 8:48 am
Lancaster 3
Lake Elsinore 2
Chase Headley 0-4
Colt Morton 0-4
Matt Hagen 1-2 2BB
Michael Ekstrom 5IP 7H 1ER 6K
Anyone have a scouting report of Ekstrom. He had a great year last year, but I don’t know too much about what he throws, and he was always off on some back field in the minor league complex in Peoria.
April 7, 2006 at 10:41 am
Thanks for the kind comments Geoff. Your site is always the first place I go for news at what’s happening up (down?) at the big club’s level.
As far as our site being “incomparable” - I’m frankly surprised that more folks who love baseball and live in minor league cities haven’t done something like this. We’ve been doing this since 2001 and it’s so much fun. I’m surprised there isn’t a similar site for every team in the PCL to be honest.
April 7, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Estes to DL, Cassidy back up:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne.....;type=lgns
That was quick.
April 7, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Is this the karmic payback for BLaw & Eaton?
April 7, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Any word on when he hurt it? It did look on the replay like he was in a little pain after the screwed up attempt to throw home and then throw to first in the 6th…at the time I thought he was just pissed..but maybe that’s when he hurt it.
April 7, 2006 at 3:42 pm
This just proves to me that Barry Bonds is the Prince of Darkness. Who’s the last guy to plunk Barry? That’s right….now he’s on the DL. Barry’s not roiding, he simply made a deal with Lucifer.
Fear that!
April 7, 2006 at 3:42 pm
who replaces Estes in the rotation.. Brian Sweeney?
April 7, 2006 at 3:50 pm
When I told my 18 year-old son that Estes went on the DL, he said, “It could be worse. We’ll just move Chan Ho or Woody into the starting rotation. We’re deep in mediocre starting pitching.”
April 7, 2006 at 5:20 pm
Lamar’s son is wise beyond his years. The good news is that it’s relatively easy to replace Estes. That’s also the bad news.