My latest at Baseball Prospectus ($) wonders why the lowly Rockies, a team that should be rebuilding for the future, would trade away 27-year-old right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez and insert 36-year-old Kevin Millwod into the rotation. The article also examines the difficulties in evaluating Pacific Coast League performance, an issue the Padres have experienced firsthand this [...]
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Padres Spend $11 Million on Draft Picks
In the moments leading up to Monday’s 9:01 p.m. PT deadline, the Padres signed three of their “big four” unsigned picks from the June draft. They inked right-handers Joe Ross (25th overall, $2.75 million) and Michael Kelly (48th, $718,000), and catcher Austin Hedges (82nd, $3 million), all of whom had strong college commitments (Ross and [...]
SABR Meeting Highlights
The San Diego Ted Williams Chapter of SABR had its latest meeting this past Saturday, at the Mission Valley library. Presenters included Petco Park groundskeeper Luke Yoder, Padres official scorer Jack Murray, SABR bio project biographer John Green, and local TV personality/book author Jane Mitchell.
Decker, Valdez, and the Next Big Things
I was listening to a San Antonio Missions game over the Internet last week. The Missions won at home against Corpus Christi. Left-hander Pedro Hernandez worked six scoreless and picked up the win, with Sawyer Carroll and Jaff Decker providing much of the offense. We’ve talked about Decker’s struggles this year, and a few items [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Mets Series Preview, and NL West Two-Team Race
The good folks at SNY.tv were kind enough to have me on Monday’s edition of The Baseball Show to preview this week’s Padres/Mets series at Citi Field. My comments on Heath Bell probably sounded smarter before he helped his former team come back from a four-run deficit and kept his current team from its first [...]
I Would Like to Order Brooms from You
I received a delightful note from a fan the other day. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, but apparently he was anticipating this past weekend’s three-game sweep in Pittsburgh. I’ll reprint the message in its entirety: Dear Sir/Madam Am Mr Jerry and i would like to order Brooms from you and would [...]
Comps for Jesus Guzman
People have been asking me about Jesus Guzman, and for good reason. Since his recall from Triple-A in mid-June, Guzman has done nothing but hit, which makes him an anomalous figure on the 2011 Padres. This is exciting, of course, because who doesn’t love the occasional run? At the same time, Guzman is 27 years [...]
Thursday Links (4 Aug 11)
It’s not the space cowboy, the gangster of love, or even Maurice. It’s just links… 50 stolen bases and .500 slugging (Baseball-Reference). Former Padres Tony Gwynn and Rickey Henderson appear on this list, as does arguably the most talented baseball player I’ve ever seen, Eric Davis. Also, how great was Cesar Cedeno, doing it at [...]
Facts of No Particular Consequence
by Geoff Young on Aug 10, 2011 (14) Comments
I am a furious note taker. I scribble quotes, reflections, and factoids with reckless indiscrimination, so that “An island is a ship without sails” (from page 209 of Deborah Tall’s The Island of the White Cow) immediately follows a chart showing Chris Denorfia’s sudden decline: Months PA BA OBP SLG Mar-Jun 208 .301 .359 .446 [...]