New manager and SDSU alum Bud Black is bringing on a couple more bodies [I misread the original article; big thanks to reader Matt for pointing out the error] former Aztecs to help round out the coaching staff. Craig Colbert and Bobby Meacham will be working under Black in 2007.
Colbert, manager at Triple-A Portland since 2004, is one of two candidates (third base coach Glenn Hoffman being the other) to replace Tony Muser as bench coach. Colbert’s hiring comes as a bit of a surprise — it was announced earlier this week that he would be returning for a fourth season as Portland’s manager.
Meacham spent 2006 as third-base coach for the Florida Marlins and is expected to move across the diamond for the Padres. Meacham, a former manager in the Angels organization, replaces Tye Waller in that capacity.
As for Waller, before becoming the Pads’ first-base coach, he was their director of player development. Among other things, he hired Darren Balsley as a minor-league pitching coach and advocated for opening the second base job to Josh Barfield.
Ducksnorts on the Radio
Regular reader and commenter Ryguy hosts a radio show and has been good enough to invite me to talk about the Padres and baseball in general. The show will run tomorrow (Sunday) morning from 8 to 10 a.m. PT on WMAR. You can catch the live webcast at their site.
My segment comes on around 8:20, but you’ll want to stick around for the entire show — they’ve got some great guests lined up, including Maury Brown, Richard Billingsley of the College Football Research Center, Ken Pomeroy, and Kenneth Massey.
So, if you’re up for a little hot stove and college football talk, be sure to swing by and give a listen Sunday morning. And thanks again to Ryguy for having me on the show!
Programming Note
This is my final live transmission for a while. I’m taking the week off for Thanksgiving, but I’ll have some things lined up for you while I’m gone — at the very least we’ll have an open thread every day. I’ll also have some stuff up at Knuckle Curve, and of course, there are any number of fine blogs you can go read over there on the right.
I’ll be back online November 29 with a pretty big announcement (I’m sitting on this one over vacation because it’s still kind of freaking me out — but trust me, it’s a good thing). Meantime, keep the conversation going and be good to one another.
Go Padres!
51 Comments
All seems quiet on the western front. GM’s are probably all getting ready to watch Michigan-Ohio St.
GY, enjoy your vacation. I’m sure we’ll have something to talk about in your absence. After all, the front office seems to be big fans of “Total Makeover.”
Let’s hope the Pads’ total makeover works out a little better than the Aztecs’: 52-0 after 3 quarters against a conference opponent? Wonder if the athletic director is getting his resume ready right about now.
re:
Maybe you mean “Extreme Makeover.”
Kevin, you’re likely right. I’m not a fan of “Total” or “Extreme” makeover — in life or by way of reality shows.
In life, sometimes they are necessary.
The Mets are close to a two-year deal with Moises Alou.
Oooo, Geoff, the suspense is killing me.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving, Geoff, and all the DSers.
Good to hear about Bobby Meacham. I’ve always been a fan of him and it will be nice to see him in a Padres uniform. I assume Tye Waller is going to go back to work in some other capacity. He’s too good of a guy and too good of a baseball guy for the Pads not to hold on to him.
It’s 8:30 on Sunday and I don’t hear anything like the dulcet tones of Geoff and the Ducksnorts on WMAR. Am I lame or was there a rescheduling (not that those two are mutally exclusive)?
It should have worked. Thanks for tuning in! But I’m a nice guy anyway so I am going to post the spot where you can find the interview with Geoff to download and listen for yourself. As well as I hope the entire show! Sorry if the AM feed did not work but it should have.
But it was at 8:20 am PT… but again I will post all the links to listen to the entire show and Geoff joining me for an interview.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6188248
Looks like Soriano is close to a deal with the Cubs.
They are saying 8 years $135 mil ($17 per), is he really worth A-Rod type money? he’ll be 38 at the end of the deal.
Interesting about Soriano. I believe on this morning’s radio interview (which was taped earlier in the week) I predicted him going to the Cubs for 6yrs/$108M. If all my guesses were that good!
I don’t know if Soriano is worth the money, but I’m glad the Padres aren’t the ones spending it on him.
Re: 12 I agree I want the Pads to sign a big name but not be crazy about it.
You can see why the cubs have a 9 figure payroll and no rings to show for it.
It looks to be official
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2668465
8 Years $136, wow he’s not worth it!
14: He’s not even close to worth it.
At 6pm ET (sorry it took a while) I will be posting the interview I did with Geoff Young on here and if you follow my name’s link it will also be on that site too.
But yes, good job on the predicition Geoff tuesday.
He’s not even worth Soriano-type money.
Soriano is getting paid like one of the elite players in baseball. That’s funny because in the best year of his career, he was barely one of the top 50 hitters.
I guess this is why the Cubs are the Cubs. Too bad it wasn’t Philly that did this, because then Burrell would have been for sure available cheaply.
Justin Speier seems to be close to signing with the Angels. Excellent news for Linebrink’s value.
Ron Blum, AP Sports writer says the Mets are close to signing Alou for 1 yr for $8-$9M with an option for the 2nd year. Bummer.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-mets-alou&prov=ap&type=lgns
it would be the fifth-largest total package given to a major league player, behind Alex Rodriguez ($252 million for 10 years), Derek Jeter ($189 million for 10 years), Manny Ramirez ($160 for eight years) and Todd Helton ($141.5 million for 11 years).
re: 20
Yes, check comment six.
22 sorry, thought I’d looked at all the previous posts
Those guys make Soriano look like a minor leaguer.
Replay of Geoff Young interview at 6:40ET, replay of the whole show starting now!
http://www.maristradio.net/webcast.html
bottom links to AM station will get you the feed!!!!!
I’m also about to post all the interview links in an hour or two
soon like now.
Are the Pads better off waiting until 2008 to sign their power-hitting left fielder? With Alou off the market (unfortunately) and Soriano gone (fortunately), looks like the choices are down to Burrell (maybe we wait on him to see how bad the Phils want to get rid of him), trading Peavy, or Linebrink and a prospect and taking on some salary. Of course, there are some other options and variables — and I’m sure KT and SA will explore them all — but maybe a Branyan-Sledge-Kouz -McAnulty(?) platoon and a solid bench will have to do.
Read Suppan and Eaton want $40 mil. and $32 mil., respectively. Long-term Zito or Schmidt will probably be too costly, not worth the risk or investment. I’d still like to see a 2-yr. deal with Schmidt, even if we have to overpay by a couple of mil. per year, but most seem to think no way a 2 yr. deal gets it done.
Richard, any thoughts on Schmidt?
27: Burrell would be nice. Also, I’m in favor of “overpaying” for shorter term contracts. I’m not 100% clear on Schmidt’s health.
Heyman at SI.com:
“Folks doubted last winter whether Alfonso Soriano would score for $50 million on the free-agent market. But now it looks like he may come close to doubling that figure. Yes, $100 million doesn’t look out of the question from here.”
Ha! Little did he know! Although, Soriano hitting in front of Derek Lee on a windy day at Wrigley might be fun to watch…
Kevin,
Peter Gammons will have you know that Soriano is an “exceptional fielder … whose throwing arm makes him a rarity.”
30: He was 16th by Pinto’s PMR.
31: PMR = Probablistic Model of Range
How much baseball did Peter Gammons watch this season?
Soriano is a gifted athlete who could be an excellent fielder if he wanted to, and Piniellla may convince him to be one. But my criticism of him (as a fielder) has always been that he doesn’t try.
i thought of your posts when i read that. gammons is a softie; he said last week that jd drew plays hard.
Yeah, he is well connected to a lot of sources, but it’s hard to buy his praise when he is never critical of anyone.
Even if JD Drew does play hard – often – Gammons’ comment then just struck me as warm-fuzzy contrarianism.
So is that Vick-LT trade once and for all decided in SD’s favor?
Yeah, that Tomlinson fellow – he’s a pretty good player.
Rivers and many other players for Eli Manning is also pretty lopsided.
RE: 38 & 39
Did you see the interview with Kramer? LT refused to take credit for himself. Gave it all to his teammates. And Jimmie Johnson of El Cajon won the Nextel Cup today…not a bad day for San Diego sports….
41: Agreed. It was a great day. Olshansky’s post game interview was another highlight.
Philip Rivers for Eli Manning would have been an awesome deal for the Chargers. Getting Kaeding and Merriman, too, was just ridiculous.
I swear, I’ve come to expect the Chargers to win if they can make it to the second half down by less than 20.
First team to come back by 17+ points in consecutive weeks.
45: They’re quite amazing. Imagine how good they’ll be if the defense ever gets healthy.
re 19: me too; i was hoping for soriano to philly and burrell to SD. still waiting on the 2B free agents; my hope is durham, if not too costly; getting loretta back would be ok too.
the bolts are fun to watch; of all the afc west teams, i hate the broncos the most; shanahan is a smart coach, but i can remember a lot of cheap shots by his players (they took out jamal a bunch of years ago with a uncalled chop block) and one game where they played on a warm weekend in sd and “forgot” their road uni’s, forcing sd to play with the warmer, darker uni’s (10k fine, which is nothing for a team), so it is awesome to see them go down. the play where olshansky lost his cool was typical; not a real play (spike), but the center goes for his knees, i think trying to injure him; i would have lost my cool too, but gets the penalty. typical shanahan: smart but cheap.
Would have loved to hear the Igor interview. I thought that was a classic Denver O-Line play – cheap and dirty. RE: #47, I have also never forgotten them taking out Jamal Williams with a cheap shot – as I recall it was a block to the back of the knees downfield on a long run, behind the play. Igor should have kept his cool, given the situation, but that was a totally dirty play. I’m sure that lineman for Denver had sized up Igor as a hothead early on, took a few shots at him to get him on edge, and then took that opporunity to get his team a cheap 15 yards. There’s a reason the Denver O-line never does interviews, it’s so they never have to answer questions about their dirty tactics.
Still, what a win! In Denver no less. Scored 1 more point than Indy did on the Broncos too. This offense is clicking so well, I can’t recall the last time we even ATTEMPTED a FG. Definitely not in the last 2 games.
Big trap/letdown potential vs a suddenly fiesty Raider team this week. Good thing it’s at home, but we’ll need to focus and not make mistakes. Too bad Indy’s remaining schedule is so weak, but honestly – of all the places to have to play a road playoff game in January in the AFC, I’ll take Indy. Better than New England or Baltimore, for sure.
Let’s not forget about SDSU mens hoops roaring out to 5-0 including this weekend’s win over a pretty good Cal team. Good sports weekend for Diego, baby.
Oh, yeah …. and it was like 85 every day. I guess this is why I live here.
Craig Colbert went to Oral Roberts University, not SDSU.