Hardball Times 2007 Season Preview
Thu, Mar 8, 2007
by Geoff Young
While I’m putting the finishing touches on my own book, I should mentioned that The Hardball Times has published its first ever season preview book. From the site:
We think it’s somewhere in between a typical fantasy baseball magazine and an in-depth book like Baseball Forecaster or Baseball Prospectus. It contains three-year statistical projections for virtually all major leaguers and many minor leaguers, as well as reviews of every major league team and several general articles. When you purchase the book, you’ll also have access to a spreadsheet that contains all of the player projections.
It’s good stuff, and I’d say that even if I didn’t contribute the section on the Padres. 
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.
March 8, 2007 at 7:38 am
Hey, can someone tell me how the whole D.H. thing works in Spring Training baseball? If an NL team is playing an AL team do they use the D.H. rule as per the home team’s league? Or does each team just play by whatever rules they want? I realize with all the subbing it’s not so big of an issue, but I’m sure it must come up.
March 8, 2007 at 8:19 am
Re: 1 here how it works:
AL @ AL = DH
NL @ AL = DH
AL @ NL = up to NL manager if he wants a DH
NL @ NL = no DH
but since all of these games a exhibitions and don’t count there is really no official rules.
March 8, 2007 at 8:46 am
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/ne.....s&
Yet another national article on the Wacky Giles boys…
March 8, 2007 at 8:59 am
It surprised me to hear a friend mentioned that baseball is way early this year! HUH??? I’ve been waiting all winter.
It’s here. Yeay!
March 8, 2007 at 9:00 am
Barfield to steal 50 bags this year…so says Sandy Alomar…
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/sports/16858450.htm
March 8, 2007 at 12:10 pm
3 - a line from that article that bugs me a bit is this … re: Marcus Giles as Padres lead-off hitter …
(Marcus) Giles is an aggressive hitter and not one to work the count for a walk, but Black doesn’t see that as a problem.
… I thought “work the count” was a core-value for the Padres as an organization???
March 8, 2007 at 12:24 pm
For reference (first number is #P/PA, second is BB/PA):
Dave Roberts:
2005: 3.84, .113
2006: 3.95, .091
career: 3.86, .099
NOG:
2005: 3.71, .098
2006: 3.88, .100
career: 3.69, .096
Giles was 66th among 160 MLB qualifiers in #P/PA last year, and #50 in BB/PA.
IOW, I ain’t real worried.
March 8, 2007 at 12:44 pm
NOG has drawn as many as 62 walks in a season. He’s not patient like OG but he’s not flying blind. The writer of that article seems misinformed.
March 8, 2007 at 12:56 pm
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/bo.....=270308125 … Blum goes deep! … I must be in a bit of a pissy mood today as that does not cheer me up …
March 8, 2007 at 1:05 pm
According to the radio guys, Blum’s homer came on a hanging curve; he won’t see as many of those once the season starts.
On another note, I’ve just installed a “Recent Comments” plugin over in the sidebar (below the poll). Useful, or not so much?
March 8, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Sledge just hit a grand slam off a Kerry Wood fastball.
March 8, 2007 at 1:23 pm
3 HR’s for Sledge this spring.
March 8, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Coleman with the line of the spring so far: “If you want to move to Phoenix, don’t.”
March 8, 2007 at 2:02 pm
10 - I like the idea of a “recent comments” box … but now the sidebar is rendering below all the posts … I’ve seen this behavior on other web sites … it seems like you are forcing the active part of the web page to be narrow? … and now it doesn’t fit … so it postpones it to the bottom of the page where it can make it fit???
March 8, 2007 at 2:07 pm
13 - LOL. I’m visiting a friend in Phoenix this weekend who goes to ASU, and he’s trying to convince me that Phoenix is the greatest place to live on earth when you factor in cost.
I like the recent comments box.
March 8, 2007 at 2:11 pm
5: If he gets 29 more stolen bases next year, I’d be willing to bet his SB% drops off enough to lose most of that new “productivity.”
March 8, 2007 at 2:14 pm
#14: Thanks, LM. I’m looking into that.
March 8, 2007 at 2:23 pm
17 - seems to be working now … thanks!
March 8, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Love the recent comments thing btw.
March 8, 2007 at 3:47 pm
What do y’all think it will take for the Padres to resign Mike Cameron? The market is a bit nuts right now, but there are a plethora of CF’s available as FA’s at the end of this year (Andruw Jones, Torii Hunter, Milton Bradley, Eric Byrnes, Aaron Rowand, et al)…
March 8, 2007 at 4:05 pm
20: He should probably be worth around $20M from ‘08-’10, but I expect he’ll get some over $30M if he signs a 3 year deal. Also, it might take more than 3 years to get a deal done and I think we’re going to start to see a pretty serious drop in his on-field value three years from now.
March 8, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Sledge is on fire! I love it! I’m about ready to pick him up in my fantasy league, just for kicks. I already have three Pads on the team, though, I don’t want to go too crazy.
BTW the recent comments thing is great.
March 8, 2007 at 11:07 pm
The Padres expected bench gets second place (behind the Brewers and ahead of the Cardinals) in Jeff Sackmann’s brief column in THT. I’d not thought of it as that good, but the judgement seems fair on reflection.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/m.....al-league/
March 9, 2007 at 1:45 pm
This is a test … to demo that comments on “old” threads show up on “recent comments” side bar … which is something I think is a good side-benefit …