General Manager Kevin Towers has signed a contract extension that will keep him in San Diego through 2010 (hat tip to several readers). To celebrate, here is a high-level look at Towers’ year-by-year trading record:
| Win Shares | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | No | In | Out | Diff | Best |
| 1995 | 2 | 66 | 14 | +52 | Roberts for Joyner, Dec 21 |
| 1996 | 8 | +178 | 107 | +71 | Ausmus and Cedeno for Flaherty and Gomez, Jun 18 |
| 1997 | 17 | 144 | 169 | -25 | Lee for Brown, Dec 15 |
| 1998 | 11 | 48 | 24 | +24 | Hamilton for Williams, Dec 12 |
| 1999 | 9 | 362 | 70 | +292 | Sheets for Nevin, Mar 29 |
| 2000 | 11 | 62 | 55 | +7 | Wall for Trammell, Dec 11 |
| 2001 | 9 | 112 | 79 | +33 | Clement & Owens for Kotsay, Mar 28 |
| 2002 | 12 | 12 | 78 | -66 | Reed & Middlebrook for Bay, Jul 31 |
| 2003 | 8 | 150 | 175 | -25 | Herges for Hensley, Jul 13 |
| 2004 | 10 | 40 | 20 | +20 | Payton for Roberts, Dec 20 |
| 2005 | 16 | 73 | 27 | +46 | Nady for Cameron, Nov 18 |
| 2006 | 13 | +158 | 52 | 106 | Eaton and Otsuka for Gonzalez and Young, Jan 6 |
| 2007 | 9 | 18 | 24 | -6 | Brown for Bradley, Jun 29 |
| Total | 135 | 1423 | 894 | +529 | |
(Shameless aside: One chapter in the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual documents every trade Towers has ever made. Yeah, I got my geek on.)
Trades aren’t the only way to judge a GM, of course. Then again, the Padres are enjoying an unprecedented level of success right now, so the front office must be doing something right. I’m in favor of pretty much anything that keeps it intact.
Thank You, Mr. Gammons
Reader Tom Waits points out that ESPN’s Peter Gammons mentioned Ducksnorts the other day. Suffice to say, I’m blown away by this. Gammons also noted a few other baseball blogs:
Unfortunately, time keeps most of us from getting to those sites specific to teams. It’s amazing how many club officials read USS Mariner (Seattle), Fire Brand of the American League (Boston), Ducksnorts (San Diego), Athletics Nation (Oakland), Viva El Birdos (St. Louis), Lone Star Ball (Texas), River Ave. Blues (Yankees), MetsBlog.com, FishStripes (Florida), Dodger Thoughts, Bronx Banter (great writing), The LoHud Yankees Blog, Reds Reporter (Cincinnati), Bleed Cubbie Blue, Brew Crew Ball (Milwaukee) and more.
Yeah, “blown away” is the right phrase. I also appreciate Gammons’ larger point:
There are probably hundreds of sites I have missed. If so, hopefully, they’ll run by my laptop. But as we begin the 2008 season, our information, understanding and thought processes have been dramatically altered from the days when a Sunday newspaper notes column seemed significant. And, as fans, we are so much better off for all the work that is being done.
I’m sure I’ve told this story before, but one of the reasons I started Ducksnorts back in ’97 was that the outlets I frequented at the time weren’t covering things that interested me. I didn’t think anyone else would read my writing, but at least I might get some cathartic value out of the experience.
When I adopted the blog format in 2001, I sure as heck didn’t think I’d still be doing this 6 1/2 years later. I wasn’t even certain that “blogs” would last through the weekend. There were maybe a dozen of us blogging about baseball back then — you literally could read every baseball blog on the planet every day.
Did I mention the part about walking uphill both ways to school? Or when dinosaurs roamed the earth?
Anyway, the point is that getting a nod from Gammons (and also Rob Neyer) is pretty crazy. Maybe not as crazy as Patti Page covering the White Stripes, but still pretty crazy.
February Ducksnorts Meetup
Folks have expressed interest in getting together for the USD/SDSU game at Tony Gwynn Stadium on Friday, February 22, so that’s what we’re going to do. This is super informal. The game starts at 6 p.m. PT. Meet at the ticket office about 15 minutes before then, and we’ll all buy our own tickets. More info is available at the Aztecs web site. I’ll post a reminder closer to the actual date.
Programming Note
Book editing is getting hot and heavy (thanks to all who have volunteered to help!), so over the next couple of weeks, I thought I’d rip off an idea from every other blog and do “Community Projections” for the 2008 Padres. We’ll get that started tomorrow and keep it running most every day — unless something newsworthy happens — till we’re done.
Happy Wednesday. Go Padres!
Good stuff Geoff, love the win shares. Again, looking forward to the book! — Corey
Wow I guess the Cust trade hurt more than I thought. I figured it would even out with the bradley trade.
2: It’s all playing time.
Cust played 124 games with Oakland, 397 at-bats. He drew 105 walks!
Jenga, good as he was, played in only 42 games as a Padre (144 AB).
Kids these days with their wireless laptops and gadgets. Get off of my lawn!!!
4: Pat, I am so much that guy. Except it’s people with dogs and pooper-scoopers.
TW, at least their scooping the poop; it’s the ones without the scoopers who piss me off.
In light of the old men bickering on the blog, we should do a demographic cross-section type thing. I think it’s really interesting that this blog attracts people of all ages from all across the country.
Re: 7 hey padres fans come in all shapes and sizes.
7 … for the “all across the country” part of what you want, may I remind you that GY has a frappr set up …
http://www.frappr.com/ducksnorts
… if you haven’t ready put a pin in the map, please do so!
7: Old man! As soon as I get done butchering this mastodon with my stone knife, I’ll have more to say about that……
10: Hah!
9: Frappr’s a good idea. I’ll have to upload a pic once I get home.
Dirk Hayhurst, a relief pitcher non-prospect with the San Antonio Missions, has another hilarious diary up at Baseball America, this one tangentially relating to baseball.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/prospect-diary/2008/265480.html
Re: 12 ha good find Ben!
Re: 12…I wonder if he ever tried Badger Milk.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=8185756
I sooo wish I was anywhere near SD next month, I’d love to do the meetup.
Great news about Gammons mentioning DS, that’s really awesome. I don’t know if any of you ever experienced his now-defunct Sunday column in the Boston Globe. It was pretty much the best thing ever for a baseball fan in the 1980s and 1990s.
15 … yesiree … Gammons and Ringolsby were the staples for me in the pre-www-era … and I still subscribe to the local newspaper … box scores from a newspaper first thing in the morning is what wakes me up and starts my summer days … ahhh …
OT … this column is a good read … an analysis of what GM’s are doing/thinking in general … and Billy Beane in particular
http://tinyurl.com/3xglet
… for example, i don’t think i knew about Japanese import Hiroki Kuroda signing with the Dogs for three years and $35.3 million.
I think it’s always good to keep an eye on Billy Beane … here’s a comment I like: “We have to almost entirely home-grow our pitching. And we’re going to deal in bulk.†… and this: “In this environment, there’s no such thing as a bad one-year deal.â€
These thoughts apply to the Padres as much as the A’s … or at least that seems to be Moores’ attitude …
hey geoff, i checked my schedule, and i’ll be working the Feb 22nd at the ticket office and will be selling the tickets for the game. i can get some discounts going if you’d all like that. i work from 4pm thru like the 7th inning.