My wife and I went to Del Mar on Thursday. First time I’d been to the track in years. I studied the horses, jockeys, and trainers to the best of my limited ability and proceeded to lose every race I bet on.
My wife hit a 30-1 longshot in the third race. She liked the name of the horse, Peachy Canyon. Suffice to say, her method is way better than mine.
Also, you really can’t determine the winner until after the race has been run. Funny how that works…
- Kings of the Road (Baseball Analysts). Rich takes a closer look at Jake Peavy and Brandon Webb.
- Jake Peavy’s max effort mechanics (Hardball Times, via PFL in the comments). Speaking of Peavy, here’s some great video analysis from Carlos Gomez on everyone’s favorite Cy Young award candidate:
Let’s get this clear. Peavy is a max-effort pitcher with high risk/high reward mechanics. I happen to love pitchers who “go after it” even if they are considerably riskier. I would love to see Peavy clean up his mechanics in order to reduce the risk. However, I would not be in favor of him toning down his aggressiveness.
Fantastic stuff here. I hope the Padres are reading.
- Clutch Peavy shows his value (San Diego Union-Tribune). And the obligatory fluff piece.
- Pads’ ‘Operation’ needs Milton Bradley’s skills, not his games (CBS Sports, via KRS1 in the comments). Scott Miller takes a closer look at Padres left fielder Milton Bradley. This one gets a little pop psychologyish at times, but it’s a good read nonetheless.
- Greatness, in Mad Dog Years (SI.com, via Phantom in the comments). Geez, is that right? Says here that Greg Maddux has won 135 games in which he didn’t walk a batter and that this total is more than twice the total of his nearest competitor, Don Sutton. Nice.
- More Hall of Fame photos. These are from LynchMob: Saturday and Sunday.
- Longtime Dodgers hater now is one (San Diego Union-Tribune). I remain convinced that David Wells signed with the Dodgers to help the Padres down the stretch.
- Fast Balls. Cool blog alert. If you’re into the whole Gameday analysis phenomenon (and if you’re not, what’s up with that?), you’ll want to pay this site a visit.
Meanwhile, down in the minors (thanks to LynchMob for these!)…
- Prospect Hot Sheet (Baseball America). Eugene outfielder Kellen Kulbacki shows up at #8 this week. He’s hitting .349/.424/.651 in August. That’s not too shabby. Neither is .327/.424/.525 against southpaws (Kulbacki bats left-handed).
- Downs, Durango named co-MVPs (MiLB.com) Another Eugene outfielder, Luis Durango, has been named Northwest League co-MVP on the strength of a .368/.414/.471 performance.
- Headley, Geer headline Texas League’s best (MiLB.com). San Antonio third baseman Chase Headley has been named Texas League Player of the Year, while teammate, right-hander Josh Geer, took home Pitcher of the Year honors. Congrats to both of them!
For the football fans in the crowd, here are a few blogs I’m happy to recommend. My interest in the sport kind of died with the firing of Bobby Ross some years ago, but I still like to see the Chargers do well. Anyway, give these a spin and tell ‘em I sent you:
- Chargers Confidential. Rich of San Diego Spotlight fame does this one, and readers of his work will know that he delivers the goods.
- BoltHype. Rich’s co-conspirator, Rob Zepeda, runs his own Chargers blog as well.
Also, two of my colleagues at b5media have general football blogs that you might enjoy:
These guys both do fantastic work.
Okay, that was a lot. Now over to Peter for the PPR…
by Peter Friberg
You will not see a frown on my face… (read with the appropriate background music:) It’s the most wonderful time… of the year.
- Baseball at the height of its pennant races…
- College football kicking off…
- And NFL about to get started.
I love late summer/early fall!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
AAA
Yordany Ramirez: 5 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; SO – off the DL
Michael Barrett: 4 AB, 1 R, 1 H, 0 RBI; 2B, SO
AA
Matt Antonelli: 4 AB, 0 R, 0 H, 0 RBI; 2 SO
Nick Hundley: 4 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; 2B, CS
Cesar Ramos: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR
High-A
Ernesto Frieri: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR
Low-A
Geoff Vandel: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 6 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR – yikes!
Short Season-A
Yefri Carvajal: 4 AB, 0 R, 2 H, 1 RBI; 2 SO
Rookie
Drew Cumberland: 5 AB, 1 R, 2 H, 0 RBI; SB
Euclides Viloria: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 SO, 1 HR – no idea…
[Ed note: Wow, the Padres have a pitcher named after a Pixies song?]
Commentary:
Not a minor league-topic…
You never want to back-door your way to the top of a leaderboard — especially past your own teammate — however, with Chris Young’s 5 earned runs in 4.1 innings last night, Jake is leading or tied in each of the triple crown categories:
- Tied with Tim Hudson with 15 wins
- Leading the NL with 2.18 ERA
- Pacing the NL with 197 SO (23 better than second place)
Thanks, Peter. But is Jake any good?
The Dodgers are in town for the weekend. I still think we should replace “Beat LA” with “Beat Everyone” but that’s me. Jack Cassel apparently will start for the Padres against Wells in the opener Friday night.
Here’s hoping for a few questionable calls from the plate umpire early to take Boomer’s mind off the task at hand. If recent games are any indication, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Go Padres!
49: In one comment we get Antonelli’s August as an example of his limitations, but a dismissal of nearly 4 years of Linebrink’s road work, and a half season of Bell away from Petco (with no mention of his minor league record) as too small of sample.
Petco may have made Bell more confident. It might also be that he knew he wasn’t going to shuttle back and forth from the majors to AAA like he did with the Mets. Or being home in San Diego county. Or just growing up some.
If he was a prospect you liked, I expect we’d read that Antonelli’s August is normal fatigue for a player in his first full season as a pro, and lots of words on his 1.200 OPS in July.
Bias is a loaded term for any journalist, which is why I went to blinders. And then lazy, which….hell, that was a deliberate tweak. What can I say, if there’s a fight to be picked, I pick it like I’m going after a booger stuck in the deepest reach of a dry sinus cavity.
I don’t think you’re intentionally portraying the Padres as worse than your analysis tells you they are. I don’t think you’re changing the data. Those would be bias. I suspect that before you ever get to the analysis part, your brain has loaded the near-subconscious Padre filters (Petco! Moneyball!).
I thought Antonelli was a weak pick too. Ryan Freel, I called him. I believe I underestimated his athleticism and the potential of coaching to get more load in his swing. A 187 ISO with 21 HR changed my mind.
I guess Antonelli’s July didnt mean anything wow you are such a phony Law
LOL…. I just think that it’s great that this group of Padre fans/bloggers has reached a point where we attract the attention of the national media.
I give much of the credit for that to Geoff, for creating such a good environment. I give the rest of it to all of us who say what we mean and back it up with data.
Sure,I write my own blog for MVN. Proud of it. But I’m a Ducksnorter, too. Count on it.
#53: Thanks, Rich. We’re all Padres fans first.