Search results for ‘heath bell

Padres Farm Report (21 Jun 08)

Fun win Friday night. A buddy of mine scored us some sweet seats in the Toyota Terrace for the excellent price of free. Among other things we got to see Greg Maddux pitch a gem and Chase Headley knock his first homer in San Diego. My wife and I particularly enjoyed watching Headley and Khalil [...]

Chatting with Sandy Alderson (Part 3)

This is the third of a three-part interview (Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here) with San Diego Padres CEO Sandy Alderson. Big thanks to Mr. Alderson for taking time out of his busy schedule to make himself available, and also to his assistant, Dayle Tedrow, for her indispensable assistance in making this happen. [...]

Unraveling

That sucked. In case you’d forgotten how 2007 ended, the Padres gave a nice little encore Sunday afternoon in San Francisco. They battled back from a deficit, took the lead in extra innings on a two-run homer, then watched Trevor Hoffman give it back, with the game ending on a bizarre defensive play. As was [...]

When Projections Go Bad

What the heck, now is as good a time as any to revisit pre-season projections. I know, OPS and ERA aren’t the end-all and be-all, but they’re good enough for government work… Projections vs Reality: Hitters   OPS Player BJ CH MA MI ZI DS Act Statistics are courtesy of FanGraphs and are through games [...]

Reshaping the Padres: Let’s Make a Deal (or Three)

On Thursday, we examined what the Padres have and what they need. Now we turn to the question of which teams might make good trade partners and then consider some possible scenarios. As of this writing, about half the teams in baseball appear to be in contention. Some will fall of the pace, although it’s [...]

Reshaping the Padres: What Have We Got?

With hopes for 2008 all but gone, I’ve turned my focus to reshaping the Padres so that they can return to the competitive levels we’ve grown accustomed to since the club moved to Petco Park in 2004. I attacked the problem as follows: Take inventory of organizational strengths and weaknesses Identify potential trade partners based [...]

Those Who Snooze Don’t Always Lose

We were walking west along J Street, just past Fire Station 4, when the crowd erupted. Cardinals fans seem to travel with their team, so we assumed that the visiting team had extended its seemingly insurmountable 2-0 lead. I was in a lousy mood before we even got to the ballpark — I forget why, [...]

Frame by Frame

One aspect of the Padres we examined in the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual was their run differential by inning in 2007. Among other things, we learned that the Padres completely dominated the ninth inning of games last year, outscoring their opponents, 81-44. Not including extra frames, the Pads had negative run differentials in just two [...]

Winning Is Better Than Knitting

Winning is so much more fun than losing, n’est ce pas? Every starter except Jim Edmonds and Chris Young collected at least one hit on Wednesday in the Padres’ 4-2 victory over Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. Tadahito Iguchi broke out of a season-long slump with four hits, while Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff each [...]

Monkeys on Roller Skates

Thanks to reader Lance for hooking us up with seats two rows behind the visitors dugout on Wednesday night. First time I’ve been anywhere near that close at Petco Park, and it’s a whole different experience. For a guy like me who lives in nosebleed, just, wow. Also, belated welcome to all the folks at [...]