I’ve been thinking about Nick Hundley’s future again. It’s becoming a problem for me… thinking about Hundley’s future, not Hundley himself. If you’ve been following along, you know that my pet comps for Hundley are Ron Karkovice, Jason LaRue, and maybe Mike Macfarlane if I’m feeling extra confident. I recently ran more numbers and found [...]
Author Archives 
Me, Elsewhere: Sir Not Appearing in Los Angeles
You may have noticed a few empty seats in the Padres’ loss Monday night at Dodger Stadium. Attendance was listed at 29,764, which is 53 percent of capacity (and probably a generous estimate of how many people actually showed up to the game). For all my complaining about the small crowds at Petco Park, the [...]
Perfect Game All-American Classic: The Joey Gallo Show
Remember this name: Joey Gallo. On the evening of Sunday, August 14, in his first at-bat in the 2011 Perfect Game All-American Classic at Petco Park, the left-handed hitting Gallo drove a pitch into the beach beyond right-center field. He hit the ball 442 feet, the 10th longest drive in Petco Park history, with a [...]
Thursday Links (25 Aug 11)
There is a basilica in Santa Fe, New Mexico, whose bells ring every hour on the hour. The basilica is named after Giovanni Francesco di Bernadone, better known as St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order and patron saint of animals. He died in 1226 while singing Psalm 141, which includes the memorable [...]
Padres and Hundley Survive Guzman’s Brain Cramp
Give the Padres credit for clawing their way to a 7-5 victory on Tuesday night at San Francisco. Don’t give them too much credit, though; only shoddy work from the defense and bullpen made such drama necessary.
Me, Elsewhere: San Diego Padres, Scoring Machine
My latest at Baseball Prospectus ($) examines the topsy-turvy NL West, where the formerly front-running San Francisco Giants have played poorly (.405 Pythagorean winning percentage) since the All-Star break and the formerly cellar-dwelling Padres have done the opposite (.600 Pythag). Heck, the Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks are the only two teams in the division with [...]
Sweeping the Marlins, Honoring Hoffman
What’s up with the Padres offense? When they hit the road earlier this month and averaged 7 runs a game on their 10-game swing through Pittsburgh, New York, and Cincinnati, that made a certain amount of sense. But to return home and average 5.4 at Petco Park? Granted, the Mets and Marlins aren’t great teams; [...]
Retiring Number 51
The Padres will retire Trevor Hoffman’s number 51 before Sunday afternoon’s game against the Florida Marlins, Hoffman’s first big-league team. To prepare for this momentous occasion, I thought it might be fun to revisit some past articles about the man here at Ducksnorts.
Wednesday Links (17 Aug 11)
One of these years I will finish my essay comparing the scrappy indie-rock band Pavement to David Eckstein. While we’re all waiting for that to happen, here are some links you might enjoy…
Missing Mark Loretta
by Geoff Young on Aug 29, 2011 (8) Comments
Although no single point of failure can explain this year’s Padres (the departure of Adrian Gonzalez makes for an easy target, but they lost 99 games with him in 2008), it’s worth noting that the team has gotten almost nothing out of the no. 2 hole. That is the usual spot for Jason Bartlett, who [...]