Slow news day, so we’ll run our link roundup a little early this week. Before we do that, though, a quick update on the book: I just finished Chapter 3 yesterday, and I’m about halfway through Chapter 6 (I’m working out of sequence in part because the Hall of Fame vote hasn’t taken place yet — I know, but we all have our superstitions).
Anyway, as it stands now, the book is 90 pages long. Not counting fact-checking and editing, I’d say I’m about 30% done. I need to finish writing by the second or third week in February, so I’ll be banging out a chapter a week from now until then. I haven’t posted an excerpt in a while, but I’ll have more of those up as they become available — probably starting next week.
To the links:
- Seventh Annual Weblog Awards. Once again, the Bloggies are upon us; they are accepting nominations through January 10. For the first time this year, there is a “Best Sports Weblog” category.
- 2007 ZiPS Projections – San Diego Padres (Baseball Think Factory). Dan has posted his projections for the Padres. Off the top of my head, the numbers for Adrian Gonzalez, Todd Walker, and Clay Hensley seem a bit pessimistic. Then again, if Terrmel Sledge hits .260/.339/.436 and Jake Peavy finishes with a 3.23 ERA, I think most of us will be happy.
- The Bandwagon Stops in San Diego (Baseball Prospectus). Several folks (thank you!) pointed me to Nate Silver’s enthusiastic piece on the Padres. I’m not sure, but I think Nate also likes fish tacos.
- Extremely Early Projections (via Baseball Musings). SG applies CHONE projections to each team and runs 100 Diamond Mine simulations of the 2007 season. The Padres come in at 83-79, six games back of the Giants and four back of the wild card. Two teams from the NL Central in the playoffs? Sorry, not seeing it.
- San Diego Padres Trade Tree. I wish I could take credit for this, but no such luck. Andy at Really Awesome Things has created a graphical representation of the trade that brought Adrian Gonzalez, Terrmel Sledge, and Chris Young to San Diego. It traces the deal back to its roots, invoking names such as Bob Geren, Sixto Lezcano, and Gene Tenace.
- Baseball in Fort Wayne. I found this through a post on Chad Gramling’s Baseball Blog and thought it was mighty cool. Not everything here is Padres related, obviously, because baseball has a fairly rich history in Fort Wayne, but I like to give some love to our minor league towns and Chad does good work.
- 2007 San Diego Padres Prospects (Minor League Ball; thanks to Peter for the heads-up). This is John Sickels’ list and there aren’t any real surprises, although it’s a bit irritating to see guys like Vince Sinisi and Royce Ring at the bottom. This organization should be able to do better than that.
- Countdown to 2007: Baseball Digest Daily’s Top Web Sites of 2006. Joe Hamrahi offers a list of “the most important and influential web sites to us here at BDD” and I’m honored that Ducksnorts is on it. Actually, it’s fascinating to look at these names and realize how many of them I’ve been in varying degrees of contact with over the years. Glad to see Top Prospect Alert still is going strong — I wrote for them in 1999-2000.
That’s all for now. More as it happens…
46: Not my intention, although I’ve earned the rep. It was more a preemptive response to anyone who might think that the Johnson trade is a potential franchise killer. They didn’t scratch their minor league system, Johnson’s salary isn’t a burden, and they can easily replace what they traded.
We’ve gone cheap in the draft regardless of our major league payroll.
50: I always wanted Knott to get a shot with us. We could use a RH pinch-hitter, but apparently Mike Adams and Craig Stansberry are more important.
45: I’m a huge fan of the old ugly jerseys that were worn for the throwback game last year. I don’t really care how aesthetically pleasing the colors are; I just like uniqueness. The blue and orange unis were good too. Basically, I liked everything we had before we went bland with the blue and white and sand.
With the Johnson trade, the NL West looks like the second best division in baseball this year.
Tom, I usually agree with your assesments, so I was not offended…
I would say that if we made a similar trade it would have been a system killer b/c the prospects they traded were about as good as most of our top 10 guys…
The “enemy” over at http://www.truebluela.com has a series of interesting posts up comparing the Dodgers to every other NL West team using ZIPS projections (they’re a couple of posts down on the main page). The conclusion seems to be the Padres are the slight favorites, with the Dodgers and D-backs right on their heels, and the Rockies a couple of good breaks away from being right there. If Barry Bonds somehow plays in 150 games, the Giants could compete as well. It’s going to be a very tight division.
RE Unis: I love the originals from 1969. Very basic, but classic in design and yet unique because of the brown and gold color scheme, which I absolutely love. I think it looks great, and they were my high school colors.
If I can’t have that, I like the change to brown and orange with the pinstripes the team went to after the 1984 season. Still unique in color scheme, good looking, simple design, and a classic look.
Don’t care for the blue in any shape or form in large part because of the association it has for me with the Werner ownership. It’s also overused. Everyone uses blue as a base color, almost no one uses brown.
MOBILE, Ala. — San Diego Padres pitcher Jake Peavy was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct Thursday at Mobile Regional Airport.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2720716
RE 56: As far as Padres history and pitchers run ins with law enforcement, this barely ranks a footnote. LaMar Hoyt, Eric Show, now those were pitchers who knew how to get arrested.
Yeah — he was arrested for double parking his car and being a smart ass. I don’t know what’s more ridiculous — what he supposedly said to the officers, or them arresting him.
Well, I guess we know now — no star treatment for Peavy in his home state!
45 – my favorite uni’s were definitely the blue and orange!!! So much so that my wedding was blue and orange!
Also, from Rotoworld:
According to CBS Sportsline’s Scott Miller, the deal the Padres and the Yankees were working on would have sent Scott Linebrink and third base prospect Chase Headley to New York for Randy Johnson.
That sounds quite a bit better than the package from Arizona. However, the Yankees would have had to pay about $7.5 million of what Johnson was owed, as opposed to $2 million in the deal with the Diamondbacks
The Peavy arrest brings me back to my comment at #35. Now I’m starting to believe the whole reason Maddux signed with the Padres was to get a crack at Peavy’s bankroll.
Peavy’s arrest does not bother me so much, but it is showing a bit of the arrogance that I had never gotten from him.
Just a bummer really…
I love the brown orange and mustard jerseys!
If Jake’s efforts were to increase his marketability by developing street “cred,” his arrest for disorderly conduct while flying to Costa Rica for Christian purposes, likely falls short.
I’m not sure I’d put this on Jake for arrogance yet. I happened to like his line, “Go tell a real cop.” to the Mobile equivalent of the Harbor Police.
I guess that is where I have a problem with what he said…Call me over-respectful, but if the Harbor Police ask me to move my car, I will say “yes, sir” and do it. Not say something like “I have more money than I need. Write me a ticket and I will pay it. I won’t be inconvenienced by carrying my bags like the rest of the little people.”
62 – Steve, you need help ;>)
63 & 64 – I like Peavy alot, but I agree with you CM. Not the best witness of his faith when this kind of thing happens (and it usually happens to all of us at some time or another in our lives).
Re: 65 I know
PF4L…That is why I am thankful that I am not famous. Has to be a very tough place to live out Christian faith.
67 – Can’t agree more, but then consider the impact you can make if you remain true.