Greetings from Peoria (well, presumably I’m there — I’m doing the ol’ fake-a-rooni today and posting in advance; blogger’s best friend, yo). Hey, look, here are some links:
- Our friends at Gaslamp Ball note that Jerry Coleman has written a book. It’s called An American Journey: My Life on the Field, in the Air, and on the Air
(aff link), and it’s coming out April 28. You know the Colonel has some stories to tell.
- Tom Krasovic chats with Padres owner John Moores, who likes the direction his club is headed (hat tip to Steve C. in the comments). Some people will be pleased with what Moores has to say, others not so much. In other words, business as usual.
- Krasovic also has written about the Padres’ new Dominican training facility, scheduled to open in April. Krasovic is keeping busy these days: he also has articles up on Greg Maddux and Callix Crabbe.
- Over at Friar Forecast, MB looks at the Padres outfield defense, which appears to have been improving in recent years. Guess we’ll see how much of that was due to the presence of Mike Cameron.
- Randy Wolf isn’t pitching well. In related news, these games don’t count. As long as he stays healthy, I don’t care what his Cactus League ERA is. Seriously, Chris Young sends his regards:
Chris Young, 2006: Spring vs Regular Season IP ERA H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 Statistics are courtesy of The Baseball Cube. Fake 20 9.45 13.05 1.35 6.30 4.95 Real 179.1 3.46 6.72 1.41 3.46 8.23 Yawn, wake me when the season starts. If Wolf is having problems in May or June, then we’ll talk. Until then, I’ll assume he’s going to pull things together when it matters.
- Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein ranks the Padres farm system #12 in MLB (hat tip to Pat in the comments). That’s up from #29 last year. Still not great, but moving in the right direction and fast.
- Speaking of prospects, the latest installment from right-hander Dirk Hayhurst is up at Baseball America (hat tip to Schlom in the comments). Good stuff, as always. It’d be sweet if we could access all of his entries from a single point. This will do for now, I suppose.
Happy Friday!
Interesting to review the IGD from last years Rocky playoff game. http://ducksnorts.com/blog/2007/10/igd-padres-rockies-1-oct-07.html
New year, new season, but it still sucks. That was a crazy three-day weekend for the Padres.
I’ve got about 20 or so short videos posted from my day @ Peoria yesterday … walked around all the practice fields … and then went to the game … a *very* good day …
http://www.youtube.com/LynchMob98
Question (repeat from end of yesterday’s thread) … is this a Ducksnort? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk0t0SvAT4w
And some pictures posted here … http://picasaweb.google.com/LynchMob98/PadresSpringTraining2008PeoriaAZ
A few notes/thoughts from yesterday …
– Jake looked very good … lots of pitches had batters off balance … looks like 2 hitters were able to guess fastball and connect, I’m not worried about that …
– Even Ianetta stole a base (on Jake/Barrett)
– Wells’ inning was as good as can be … he looked good … he’s bigger than I expected … threw with pop …
– Cla really struggled to get the last out of the game …
– I noticed Crabbe coming in for Edmonds “too soon”, but didn’t notice anything about Edmonds getting hurt (ie. he didn’t visibly limp off the field that I saw/noticed) … his ABs on Tuesday and yesterday looked OK … I’m still upbeat about Edmonds …
– McAnulty did not excel in RF yesterday … he had a poor throw on a SacFly opportunity … and Spilbourghs triple went right over his head (perhaps it would have gotten over 90% of RF’er head, but he just looked awkward on the play) … but he did hit the ball sharply in 2 of his 3 ABs …
– I think Venable’s HR hit the top of the RCF wall … which is about 385 … and he followed that with a line-drive out to the CF’er in the 7th …
– Khalil looked *VERY BAD* in 3 ABs … yikes, it was scary how clueless he looked … 2 K’s looking, followed by an AB with more bad swings to lead off the 5th … whassup? I’m not worried, just sayin’ … it was very noteworthy …
– Myrow continues to hit *every* ball very hard … I feel sorry for the guy … he just doesn’t fit on the Padres … but he will go “Jack Cust” on us if/when we trade him to the AL … he will …
Also, Chase looked bad taking a called 3rd strike in his only AB (following Venable’s HR and a Crabbe single) in the 6th …
– Ambres made one nice catch in CF … but was unnotable in 2 ABs
– Edgar Gonzalez with a solid line drive single to LF … and great hustle into 2B even though the throw to the plate was cutoff … I’m liking that guy a lot … he’s not in camp because he’s Adrian’s bro … he’s in camp because he’s a player!