At long last, we are back in business! Apologies for all the trouble — what I thought would take hours took nearly a week to fix — and thanks for your continued patience and support. You’ve got a lot of commenting to do, so get to it! First-Half Grades: Overall Right Field Center Field Left [...]
Author Archives 
IGD: Padres vs Braves (14 Jul 06)
first pitch: 7:05 p.m., PT television: Channel 4SD matchup: Chris Young (8-4, 3.12 ERA) vs Tim Hudson (6-8, 4.56 ERA) preview: Padres.com | SI.com | ESPN buy tickets I’ve been doing all the talking lately; now it’s your turn — go crazy!
Server Upgrade Status Update and IGD Workaround
Okay, here’s the deal. The powers-that-be are unable to restore my site, which is unfortunate. The good news is, I have a backup copy. The bad news is, I’ve never attempted to restore from backup — I don’t know how long it will take, what can go wrong, etc. I will be working on that [...]
First-Half Grades: Overall
We’ve covered the individual players, but how about the team? How have the Padres done through the first half of 2006? Executive summary: The pitching has been better than anticipated and the offense has been pretty much about what we expected. With the exception of third base, there aren’t any glaring weaknesses on this ballclub. [...]
First-Half Grades: Right Field
If there were any doubts as to whether Brian Giles‘ power outage last year was a fluke or the beginning of his decline, those have been removed. He simply does not hit home runs anymore and it would be unreasonable to expect otherwise. First-Half Grades: Overall Right Field Center Field Left Field Shortstop Third Base [...]
First-Half Grades: Center Field
I hope you’re good and comfortable. I’ve got three of these bad boys to crank out tonight. Not since Steve Finley called Qualcomm Stadium home in the championship season of 1998 have the Padres had such a capable defender in center field. [Update: Vinay Kumar reminds me that Ruben Rivera, despite his numerous faults, was [...]
First-Half Grades: Left Field
In moving from center field to left, Dave Roberts has gone from a below-average defender to one of the best at his position according to some metrics. The visual evidence supports this, as he is able to cover a lot of ground in the much smaller left field and his weak arm isn’t as much [...]
First-Half Grades: Shortstop
As has been the case since he first came up to the big leagues, Khalil Greene‘s play in the first half of 2006 was good but inconsistent. Although he showed improved patience and power at the plate, Greene also struggled to keep his batting average above the Mendoza Line. A late surge (.438/.486/.719 in 32 [...]
First-Half Grades: Third Base
Apologies for the continued absence of comments, archives, etc. I’m banging on as many doors as possible but to little effect. It’s really weird not being able to hear what you guys have to say about stuff. And when I say “it’s really weird” I mean it stinks. I have no idea when things will [...]
First-Half Grades: Second Base
For a kid who never had faced big-league pitching before the season began, Josh Barfield has acquitted himself well. Like Adrian Gonzalez, he hasn’t shown a lot of patience at the plate — Barfield’s walk rate is about the same as that of the Astros’ Preston Wilson — nor has he been able to generate [...]
Recent Comments