No time for original content, so grab a companion and hop in the Tardis as we travel back through time…

• Did Somebody Report a Fire Sale? (July 25, 1999)
  

  The bottom line is this: The 1999 Padres aren’t as good as the 1998 club (which was better than it “should” have been), but it’s doubtful that the players and their $22,713,000 who departed San Diego would be contributing enough to make this year’s team any better than it already is. That doesn’t fit too well with the “greed is evil” agenda some would foist on the masses but it is an accurate assessment of reality, which is what we are (or should be, in my opinion) interested in, anyway.

  Did I really used to say things like, “foist on the masses”? Apparently I did. This would have been a good time to bust out “hoi polloi.”

• Padres Rumors Heating Up (July 28, 2001)
  

  [Sterling] Hitchcock to Yankees rumors are heating up. Kevin Towers has his eye on minor-league outfielder Marcus Thames, who is hitting .305/.393/.579 at Double-A Norwich. Bad news is, he’s 24 years old. Not a bad prospect but probably more of a fourth outfielder type. Honestly, if Dennis Cook and Turk Wendell can fetch Bruce Chen and change, you’d think the Pads could get something more than Thames for Hitchcock. The Giants also were looking at him but balked at moving Armando Rios.

  The Padres, you may recall (or not), ended up getting Darren Blakely for Hitchcock. In retrospect, where the grass is always greenest, Thames would have been a nice haul. At last count he has 104 big-league home runs, or 104 more than Blakely and Hitchcock combined.

• Deadline Deals (July 30, 2002)
  

  I was surprised to see the Dodgers part with right-hander Ricardo Rodriguez for Paul Shuey. Baseball America had Rodriguez ranked as their best prospect coming into the season. On the other hand, Shuey is a terrific reliever. I guess I’m just a little bummed because I know the Padres won’t get anyone with near the upside of Rodriguez for Steve Reed.

  The record will show that the Padres got Jason Bay for Reed. No, really, they did.

• White Stripes, Web Sites, a Little Bit of Baseball (July 28, 2003)
  

  The rumors are flying all over the place right now, and it’s hard to separate fact from fiction, but names being mentioned as possibly coming to San Diego are Brian Giles and Jason Kendall, J.D. Drew, Milton Bradley, and Ramon Castro. Sure wouldn’t mind seeing Giles and Kendall in Padre unis. Right now the Rondell White to Florida for Castro and Blaine Neal rumors are pretty hot. Tomorrow the names may be different. Then again, nothing may come of any of this. We shall see.

  Kids may not realize this, but Kendall used to be very good, if a tad expensive. Giles came to town later that summer (for Bay), while Bradley arrived several years later. Bradley, for all his faults, remains one of my all-time favorite Padres. I will never forget the time he hit two home runs in Philadelphia and started screaming “I am that good” to fans behind home plate who had been riding him all game. Ah, Jenga…

• Quasi-Random Thoughts (July 29, 2004)
  

  My wife makes me so proud. After the Pads’ big inning, she turns to me and says, “With that lead, it’ll probably be Neal or [Ricky] Stone.” It was Stone. I like to think I’ve made a difference in her life. And if it can’t be for something important, at least it can be for something fun.

  Neal? Stone? Rich Aurilia and Terrence Long get mentions as well… How did that ’04 team win 87 games?

• Please Help, My Shortstop Is Broken (July 31, 2008)
  

  “In 2004, [Khalil] Greene’s home numbers were a lot like Pepe Mangual’s 1975 overall numbers; Greene’s road numbers were a lot like Will Clark’s 1991 overall numbers.” Suffice to say, when your performance calls to mind Andres Galarraga one year and Andres Thomas the next, that’s not good.

  I still find it incredible (and sad) how quickly Khalil’s career unraveled. When the Padres shipped the former Jose Valentin clone to St. Louis, it looked like a salary dump, plain and simple. Now we refer to it as “the Luke Gregerson trade.”

• Will I Lose My Sight if I Watch, or Just My Lunch? (July 20, 2009)
  

  I understand why the Padres moved [Scott] Hairston. As anyone who has watched the Pads and their 80 ERA+ this year can attest, they desperately need pitching. Am I super excited about the arms they got in return? Not really, although Sean Gallagher sounds somewhat intriguing.

  Two things stand out here: First, I’d forgotten I liked Gallagher for about two minutes. Second, last year really sucked.

There you go. Padres try to take the series against LA this afternoon. Mat Latos squares off against Vicente Padilla, which should be a favorable matchup for the home team. It’d be nice if they could get win number 60 today. That didn’t happen until September 4 last year (and September 20 the year before). Let’s do it.