Someday I will figure out a way to deliver these in a more timely manner, but not today…

Padres

• Original Padre George McDonald dies at 93 (U-T). McDonald played first base for the 1936 PCL Padres. This year’s club honored him on Opening Day. My belated condolences…
• Petco Park Stadium Secrets: Instant Replay Console (Gaslamp Ball). I don’t even know how you notice something like this, but it’s a cool find.
• No place, alas, like home for Padres this season (U-T). Chris Jenkins examines a phenomenon that we’ve been tracking for some time. Good to see the local paper getting on this stuff (also here).
• Former Madison High pitcher Jay Franklin, No. 2 overall draft pick in 1971, blames subsequent problems on baseball (Washington Post). The Padres’ first-round pick in 1971 has had trouble keeping his life in order after injuries derailed a once-promising career. [h/t BBTF]
• “Roll Projector!” Jose Reyes *is* on an Historic Pace (Baseball-Reference). Never mind Reyes, did you know that Tony Gwynn Sr. is the only man since World War II to collect 300 or more total bases in a season while hitting seven or fewer home runs? Well, now you do.

Interviews

• Q&A Adrian Gonzalez (FanGraphs). David Laurila chats with Anthony Rizzo’s predecessor. Fascinating stuff, including this gem: “Some guys see speed out of the hand. I can’t recognize speed, but I can recognize rotation.” [h/t reader Didi]
• The Quaz Q&A: Phil Nevin (Jeff Pearlman). Some surprising stuff from Nevin, who seems to have grown up a bit: “I think, toward the end of my career … what was one of my downfalls was I was probably half manager, half player in my own mind … the last few years thinking I knew a lot more than I did.” Give the man a +1 for self-awareness.
• Interview: Pad Squad Elizabeth (Gaslamp Ball). I like the idea of “Here Comes The Sun” as closer entrance music… maybe not as much as “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” but solid…
• Q & A With A Fellow Vaquero: Kyle Phillips (RJ’s Fro). The Padres catcher recalls his first big-league homer: “It was like an out of body experience. I remember hitting the ball and running to first saying to myself, ‘please, please’.”

Research

• The Real Strike Zone, Part 2 (Baseball Prospectus). Mike Fast continues his quest to refine our understanding of that nebulous area known as the strike zone. Mat Kovach follows up at THT.
• The velocity loss phenomenon (Hardball Times). Kyle Boddy offers his thoughts on the subject: “So what’s the root cause of the velocity drop? I personally believe that it’s the fearful nature of the teams to wrap their investments up tight and not allow them to work hard. Both in theory and in practice, this makes absolutely no sense.”
• Pitching to zones, part two (Hardball Times). It’s all zones these days with the kids… part three is here.
• Hitter Aging Curves (Beyond the Box Score). Good stuff from Jeff Zimmerman…
• A History of Team Defense (Part I of II) (Baseball Crank). The Crank gets defensive… Part II is here [h/t BBTF].

Other

• My Dick Ebersol Story (Joe Blogs). This is one of many Joe Posnanski articles I could have linked. Go read some others while you’re over there; you won’t be disappointed.
• Pujols, Crawford among big names on All-Disappointment team (SI.com). A couple of former Padres make Joe Sheehan’s list, although curiously Miguel Tejada isn’t one of them.
• Any player/Any era: Gavvy Cravath (Baseball Past and Present). Escondido’s own once held the MLB career home run record before some guy named Ruth came along and changed everything. [h/t BBTF]

Tagged as: adrian gonzalez, defensive metrics, dick ebersol, escondido, gavvy cravath, george mcdonald, jay franklin, kyle phillips, miguel tejada, pcl padres, petco park, phil nevin, pitchers, strike zone, tony gwynn