Search results for ‘heath bell

Eight Sliders Sliding

Got my coffee. Got my Neko Case. Like when I drove from Asheville to Durham en route to Cooperstown for Tony Gwynn’s Hall of Fame induction. So many trees. I miss the road. * * * Jody Gerut rocks the ’69 uni Stupid game Tuesday night at PhoneCo. Top of the fourth, Kevin Kouzmanoff bangs [...]

Do What You Cannot Do

The way it works with cover bands in this town is you play two nights — Friday and Saturday — from 9 p.m. to close. Three one-hour sets punctuated by 10-minute breaks, with a longer (80-minute) set to end the night. Wait, are we playing Jimmy Buffet and then Slayer, or is it the other [...]

The Ride Is All We Have

Opening Day. An affirmation of spring, life, and all that is good in the world. Moments of perfection will carry us through difficult times. There is no other way. Baseball is my pulse, my clock, my book of days. Seasons all run together. I was in high school discovering Roto, now I’m a month shy [...]

Third Door on the Left/Patchwork Pitching Staff Blues

You are in the wrong place. You want hope — third door on the left, just past apathy and before foolishness. Take a good look at what you cannot have. It is written that the Padres will be terrible this year, and what is written must be true. Cancel the games, record them as losses, [...]

IVIE 2009: Relief Pitchers

You may have heard me on the radio during your Monday morning commute… if you happen to live in Montreal. Big thanks to Elliott, Shaun, and Denis at The Team 990 for having me on to talk Padres baseball. IVIE community projections catchers infielders outfielders starting pitchers I’ve also got a guest post up at [...]

Seventy-One Awful Potential Closer Songs

Chris Jaffe at Hardball Times recently identified 50 great potential closer songs. Thus inspired, I’ve compiled a list of 71 awful potential closer songs. Why 71? Why not. This is actually an updated version of our original list from ’06 with reader suggestions incorporated. Maybe we can add even more now and go for 100 [...]

You Don’t Have to Go Home, but You Can’t Stay Here

Trevor Hoffman has signed a 1-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers for $6 million with incentives that could kick it up to $7.5 million. Like football’s Brett Favre, Hoffman now has the pleasure of being almost universally associated with one team despite neither starting nor finishing his career with that team. We’ve got lots to [...]

Links for 17 Oct 08

The topic du jour seems to be Jake Peavy, so let’s get busy… Paul DePodesta weighs in on the situation [h/t LynchMob]: “If you have something you value at one million dollars, it would be foolish to refuse to consider selling it for twenty million dollars. On the flip side, it would also be foolish [...]

OBG08 Revisited: Pitchers

We’re looking back at our pre-season community projections. On Wednesday we covered the hitters; today we turn to the pitchers. Left-Handers Justin Hampson, 2008   IP ERA Projected 48 4.21 Actual 30.2 2.93 Our most optimistic projection had Hampson at a 3.50 ERA. Joe Thatcher, 2008   IP ERA Projected 58 2.86 Actual 25.2 8.42 [...]

All-Time Padres Team

Last week I mentioned an all-time Padres team that I’ve been assembling. This wasn’t just an intellectual exercise. Our friends at Seamheads are running a simulation league this off-season with the best players from each big-league franchise, and they invited me to submit a 40-man roster for the Padres. Most of the choices were fairly [...]