Well, “summit” might be a slight exaggeration, although we were sitting pretty high up in the right-field bleachers. Regardless, on Thursday, a few of us got together for drinks and a ballgame.
Attendees included Jason from Padres Revolution (aka sdpadrefan.com), Rich from San Diego Spotlight, Melvin Nieves from Sacrifice Bunt, and yours truly.
We started off at The Field for boxty and beer (Boddington’s on tap, mmm…), then wandered over to the park just in time to hear the reaction to Ken Griffey Jr.’s 598th career home run. We sat in Section 233, which is actually part of Riverside County, and had a great time watching the home team launch mammoth blasts to all fields and earning a rare victory.
Because I’m lame, I forgot to bring my camera. You’ll just have to take my word that we really were all there. Next time, we’ll get more bloggers involved and maybe even secure visual documentation of the event.
Yeah, that was a fun game to be at. We went to the Tilted Kilt with a big contingency. Glad to see Junior went yard after El Hombre hit that Fair pole.
I was certain Thursday’s game would be the turning point in the season. What a great game to be at. I was feeling a 5 or 6 game winning streak after that performance. Oh well. Back to reality. This team is bad and the manager continues to make questionable decisions. I’m referring to him leaving Estes in after the leadoff walk to Dunn in the 7th. He hadn’t thrown a lot of pitches but he had an extended rest on the bench because of the rain delay. He was done. And I didn’t agree with the decision to leave Tony Clark (1-for-10 with six strikeouts against lefties) in to bat right-handed with a runner on third and one out. By the way, now he’s 1-for-11 with seven strikeouts.
#2@JMAR: Yup, I’m totally frustrated with Bud Black. His “faith” in the starting staff has cost us several games this year, and as I remember, with Maddog and Wells, it cost us several last year.
Surprisingly, though, Estes sold him out in his postgame comments by saying that he definitely felt tired while warming up in the 7th. I’m pretty sure that upon reading that comment, Black wont trust Estes again in that situation.
#3@Marsh: Of course, the case of “costing us games” can really only be made for last year when our bullpen was in lockdown mode.
Stella for yours truly.
Dayn Perry at BPro has an article up today (subscription required) proposing a Brian Giles + Greg Maddux for Jordan Schafer trade with the Braves. Giles would move to left for them and provide a massive upgrade over their Diaz/someone platoon. Maddux would be a huge upgrade over Chuck James or whatever relievers they’re throwing out there now. It’s a great proposal and makes a ton of sense for both sides; it probably gives the Braves 4 more wins over the rest of the season. The one big problem is money: Giles and Maddux get paid a lot, and the Braves run the team on a budget. If the Padres would pick up some of the money, it could actually happen.
http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=7569
#6@Ben B.: I was playing with something similar the other day when researching trade possibilities. Schafer would make a lot of sense. If the Padres could get Brent Lilibridge in that package, even better.