What the heck, haven’t done one of these in a while. 7:08 PM Checking out ESPN’s Stat Pack. Great feature. Surprised to see that the Pads are running four lefties against southpaw Odalis Perez. Getting excited at the prospect of watching Terrence Long hit grounders back to the mound. 7:11 PM So much for Stat [...]

I Need You, Boomin’ Granny I Said I Want You, Boomin’ Granny       –Beastie Boys, "Boomin’ Granny" So that was a nice start to the season. Did you catch the LA fans booing their team as early as the third inning yesterday? Talk about harsh. Some random observations: The top three in the order look real [...]

Before we get started, I’d just like to clarify something I said yesterday. I made a flippant comment about anti-depressants. Just for the record, I’m not actually on any medication. However, if I were, I wouldn’t deny that fact for 14 years before coming clean. Speaking of which, can we all just agree to ignore [...]

Apologies to J.D. Salinger for the headline, but I couldn’t resist. Neither, apparently, could the Padres, who have inked soon-to-be 41-year-old left-hander David Wells to be–wait for it–the #1 starter in the rotation this year. According to reports, he’s guaranteed $1.5M, with incentives possibly pushing it as high as $7M. Here is his ZiPS projection [...]

With Mike Cameron now a member of the Mets and Kenny Lofton angling toward the other New York team, maybe it’s time to consider some other options. Supposedly with Cameron and Lofton off the market, Kevin Towers is now focusing his attention on the rotation. But I hold out some hope that the current outfield [...]

Now that the signing of right-hander Akinori Ohtsuka appears to be imminent, it’s probably a good time to take a closer look at the soon-to-be-former Chunichi Dragon. I don’t know how well stats compiled on the other side of the Pacific translate into MLB equivalents, but bearing in mind that the man makes the stats [...]

Quickly this morning. Padres continue to make moves this off-season, re-signing last year’s interim closer and bullpen savior Rod Beck. He’ll work the eighth inning this year, setting up Trevor Hoffman. Also, Japanese reliever Akinori Otsuka is close to signing. Once he’s in the fold, the Pads are rumored to be looking to add a [...]

Have to spend some time brushing up on my ASP, so just the facts today. Sickels 1996 and Win Shares By Position, Outfielders left field Grd WS Marvin Benard C 65 Dmitri Young B- 58 J. Encarnacion C 32 Q. McCracken B 29 O. Palmeiro C 24 Quick and dirty: Left field is the second [...]

I’m going to have to do something about those increasingly unwieldy archives links at the bottom of the page. When I put the original system in place, it was with the assumption that I’d quickly tire of blogging (or, more accurately, that other people would quickly tire of my blogging). But interestingly, that hasn’t happened. [...]