The headline lies. What should have been a walk in the proverbial park almost turned into disaster. Thankfully the Padres managed to pull off the victory Wednesday night (box score) in spite of themselves. Hall of Fame Meetup Tony Gwynn’s induction into Cooperstown is nigh upon us. As a reminder, we’re brainstorming ideas for a [...]
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Weekend in the Desert
Shutting out the Diamondbacks on Sunday took some sting out of the weekend series. Saturday night’s game was particularly frustrating, but what can you do other than hope the bullpen holds next time out, which it did. Some positives: Adrian Gonzalez is starting to get his stroke back. The single and double on Sunday were [...]
Fun with Win Shares
On page 970 of The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (aff link), James uses win shares to compare several teams throughout history. He suggests many reasons for doing this, among which are “comparing groups of players” and “studying how pennants are won in one era as opposed to another.” With that in mind, here [...]
Who Are the Padres’ Marquee Players?
One factor in determining a player’s worth is his “marquee value.” On page 95 of his book Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball (aff link), Vince Gennaro calls marquee value “the point where the baseball department and the marketing department intersect” and notes that “players with marquee value contribute not only to their [...]
Young, Padres Too Good for This Headline
Wednesday night’s victory (recap | box score) was particularly gratifying in light of Tuesday’s meltdown. Chris Young? His usual dominant self. Thanks to seven scoreless innings, he now has the best ERA in the big leagues. Incidentally, you still have time to vote for Young for the All-Star game, and if the fact that he’s [...]
Monthly Roundtable: June 2007
Welcome to the latest edition of the Ducksnorts monthly roundtable. Participants this time include Anthony Trifiletti (Friar Watch), Peter Friberg (various; currently covering prospects here at Ducksnorts under the title “Padres Prospect Report”), Jim Higgins (FriarBall), John Conniff and Denis Savage (MadFriars.com, a webzine that covers the Padres’ minor leagues), Larry Brown (AOL FanHouse), and [...]
Brian Guile
Seeing Brian Giles reach base three times in the leadoff spot and score two of the Padres’ three runs Monday night (recap | box score) is great. Seeing how he did it is even better. In the first inning, Marlins right-hander Sergio Mitre retired Giles on three pitches. Call it a mulligan. Next time up, [...]
IGD: Padres @ Dodgers (29 Jun 07)
Game #78 time: 7:40 p.m. PT tv: 4SD sp: Chris Young (7-3, 2.08) vs Hong-Chih Kuo (1-3, 6.33) pre: Padres.com, SI.com I guess Luis Gonzalez didn’t get the memo. You know, the one that says he’s washed up. Gonzalez is batting .350/.424/.624 over 132 plate appearances since May 21 and .301/.393/.500 overall. Russell Martin? Still [...]
Overlooked Players in Padres History
Shifting gears a little, one idea I have for the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual is a chapter devoted to three or so former Padres that didn’t make our lists of top players in franchise history (2007 Annual) but whose accomplishments deserve attention. I’m knee deep in the 1969 season, so one of my subjects will [...]
What Is Luck?
I’ve been wrestling with the term “luck” — specifically, as it applies to the Padres’ record in one-run games so far this season. Bill James has said that “winning or losing close games is luck” but also that “winning or losing close games is probably not all luck.” When such seemingly contradictory statements emanate from [...]
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