Oliver Perez and Mark Phillips

by Geoff Young on Sep 13, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

Oliver Perez and GM Kevin Towers are at odds over whether Perez should pitch in Mexico this winter. Perez isn’t a very big guy who has thrown a lot of pitches this year. I can certainly understand his wanting to be loyal to his home town, but as Towers says, Perez has to think about where he’s going to make his living. According to Towers, if Perez pitches this winter, he won’t pitch in spring training and might start the season in the minors. Stay tuned…

In other news, the Storm evened their series with Stockton after a 7-2 victory. Mark Phillips, after pitching his shortest outing of the season last week, threw the first nine-inning complete game of his career (and first of the season for Elsinore). Khalil Greene singled and walked three times in five trips to the plate, and Cal League batting champ Jon Knott hammered a two-run homer in support of Phillips, who spun a four-hitter. The two teams meet again tonight and tomorrow night at the Diamond, with a possible deciding game Sunday if needed.

And now I leave you with what I find to be an interesting site: Knuckleball Headquarters

Enjoy…

Baseball, Beer, and Geekage

by Geoff Young on Sep 12, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

Listening to a cool collection of Japanese Koto music. The melodies are ethereal and soothing. A good antidote to stress.

Baseball

Here’s a troubling split in an admittedly small sample. Jake Peavy vs RHB: .213/.243/.284; vs LHB: .318/.393/.551. FWIW, Peavy had no trouble with lefties in the minors. They hit .239/.312/.310 against him at Mobile this season.

There is concern in some circles about Adam Eaton, who struggled again last night. There needn’t be. His fastball is right up around 91-94 MPH, same as it used to be. The command just isn’t there yet, and it won’t be for a while. Eaton’s out pitch is an overhand curve, which is a feel pitch. He’s throwing it now without pain. The next step is to locate it. If you want an idea of what Eaton’s comeback might look like, check out the game logs of Kris Benson. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Eaton is going to return to form but expect some bumps in the road next season.

Nice pinch-hitting appearance by Sean Burroughs last night. Mike Fetters jumped ahead of him, 0-2, before Burroughs fouled off some good pitches and laid off some bad ones to draw a walk.

The Storm dropped the first game of their series against Stockton, 4-2. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get up to the Diamond Sunday night if there’s a game.

Beer

Two kinds in the fridge at the moment:

  • Eureka Black and Tan
  • MacTarnahan’s Blackwatch Cream Porter

Both are quite good, although I’m particularly fond of the MacTarnahan’s.

Geekage

As the owner now of four domains (yeah, I know, I need to get a life) I sometimes get questions about running a web site. When I’m not thinking about baseball–hey, even I need a break sometimes–I frequently read about trends in web publishing, design, etc. I do this because it’s part of my job in the real world to know about these things but also because I find them genuinely interesting.

With that said, here are a few links that those of you who run a blog or are thinking of starting one might find useful and/or fun:

I know there are a lot of good tools available out there for blogging. I haven’t tried any of them myself; I still pretty much code everything by hand using Notepad and/or KEdit. Yeah, it’s very 20th century, but it’s how I do things.

Now, lest you think I’m rambling aimlessly, there is a point to all this. I will be offline most of the next two weeks, which is fine because there isn’t much going on in MLB right now for fans of about 75% of the teams. After that I’ll be back for a bit, probably through the end of the World Series. Then I’m planning to take a month or two off first to involve myself more in non-computer-related projects that have been waiting for my attention for too long and second to do some development to this site.

I’m on my ISP’s server right now, and it’s a bit limiting. I’ve got some ideas of where to host but I’m open to suggestions. I’m looking for something that allows me to use PHP, CGI scripting, and e-mail. Access to a mySQL database would be a plus, and I’m partial to *nix boxes preferably running Apache. I’m not asking y’all to do my research for me, but if anyone has experiences, positive or negative, with this sort of thing, I’d love to hear about ‘em.

One final piece of administrivia, then you can get back to more important things. I’ve posted a picture of me over in the About section. I leave it to you to decide whether or not this is a good thing. No need to let me know either way. ;-)

A Year Later

by Geoff Young on Sep 11, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

A year later it still doesn’t seem real. But we all saw it happen. We all know it happened. I work on the 20th floor of a building that overlooks the airport in one of the more prominent military towns in the country. The flags on the rooftops of surrounding buildings are all at half-mast. Things have changed in our corner of the world. We’ve lost a great many of the people that make this nation what it is. And yet, here we are, still doing our thing, still making it happen. Just like we have every other time we’ve been confronted with adversity. It’s pretty awesome when you think about it.

Remember the events of September 11 in whatever way you deem appropriate. But remember them. Always.

Oh Yeah, Baseball

I don’t know which is worse: that someone came up with the idea of a Junior Felix, Felix Jose, Jose Cruz Junior outfield or that I’m bummed it wasn’t me.

The Storm beat San Bernardino, 10-5, to take the series. The glamorous life of a minor-leaguer: Play a game in front of 1600 people, finish up a little after 10 PM, pack up and make the 1 hour bus trip back home. Leave Elsinore 7 AM the following morning, make the 7 1/2 hour bus trip to Stockton, play another game at 7 PM.

That’s all for now. More later…

Rocco Baldelli and the Rally Monkey

by Geoff Young on Sep 10, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

After dropping the first two games at San Bernardino, the Storm have won the next two at home, forcing a game five back on the road. Right-hander Mike Bumstead goes against lefty Glenn Bott at 7:05 tonight.

In a minor upset, Baseball America has named Rocco Baldelli 2002 Minor League Player of the Year. Personally I figured they’d give it to Jose Reyes or Sean Burnett. I’m not sure what to make of Baldelli. On the one hand, he’s a former first-round pick who more than held his own in the high minors. On the other hand, 23 walks in 478 at-bats is not going to get it done. He’s a heckuva prospect but I get the feeling that some folks are getting a little too excited about him right now.

USD grad Brady Clark has been traded to the Mets. If ever there were a team that should be willing to give a guy like Clark a shot in the outfield, it would have to be the Mets. Here’s hoping he gets that chance and does something with it.

Frightening Thought

The Angels’ rally monkey has its own web site: www.rallymonkey.com

Junk Drawer

Just looking through some old links. Thought you might enjoy…

Shameless Plug

My band Tunesmith is playing this Friday and Saturday night at Janie’s in Chula Vista. Come check us out if you can. We’re also available for parties.

Yeah, this is a site primarily about baseball, but it’s free, so sometimes you get other stuff, too. Hey, and I don’t even charge extra for it! :-)

Burroughs Starts at Second Base

by Geoff Young on Sep 06, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

First off, thanks to one of my regular readers for setting me straight on the Cal League playoffs. Seems I got a little too excited at the 12-game winning streak and skipped a round of playoffs. At any rate, the Storm now play a best-of-five series against San Bernardino. Meantime, Modesto plays a similar series against Stockton. The winner of those two series then meet for the championship.

Next, I guess I’m not the only one who thought picking up Keith Ginter would be a good idea. The Brewers agreed and grabbed him as a PTBNL in the Mark Loretta deal.

On a more positive note, Sean Burroughs had his third straight two-hit game since returning to San Diego. It was his first big-league start at second base, with Ramon Vazquez moving over to shortstop, where he belongs.

Speaking of Vazquez, he’s hitting a crisp .321/.387/.411 since the All-Star break. As a leadoff hitter, he’s batting .307/.370/.385. That’ll work.

And how about Jake Peavy? Seven shutout innings, four hits, no walks, nine punchouts. Needed only 83 pitches. Oliver Perez has gotten most of the press, and deservedly so, but Peavy is the pitcher around whom the Padres will build. He is a pleasure to watch on the mound.

Finally, Xavier Nady was named by Baseball America as the 11th best outfield prospect in baseball. Nady came on strong toward the end after struggling in his initial exposure to Triple-A pitching.

Tejada, Burroughs, and Storm Winning Streak

by Geoff Young on Sep 05, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

So does Miguel Tejada lose some of his MVP support after dropping that feed from Mark Ellis last night? Yes, I’m being facetious. Sort of. The point is that a couple of game-winning hits late in the season shouldn’t have been enough alone to push him into MVP contention. Don’t get me wrong, Tejada is a heckuva ballplayer. He’s passed Jeter and pretty much caught Nomar. Of course, A-Rod is in a class by himself and will be for a long time to come, but there’s no shame in playing second fiddle to that guy.

What a strange way to extend a 20-game winning streak. How do you blow an 11-run lead over the Royals?

But enough of that. How ’bout those Padres? Nice to see Brett Tomko string together back-to-back solid outings. Here’s a date for you: May 28. Before last night’s game, that’s the last time Tomko struck out more than five batters in a game.

Sean Burroughs is looking real good at the plate and in the field. This is what we were expecting back in April.

Getting back to winning streaks, the Storm won their 12th straight last night against Lancaster. Took ‘em 15 innings, but they advanced and will play Modesto in the Cal League championship. Justin Germano, in what has become almost routine, pitched six solid innings. Call him "QS." Germano has made it through 5 innings in all 28 of his starts this season. He’s made it through 6 innings in 21 of those. All but one of his starts this year has rated a Shandler PQS score of 3 or higher. The one concern is that Germano has worked 180 1/3 innings. On the other hand, he’s walked just 24 batters so maybe he isn’t throwing a lot of pitches. Still, that’s a lot of innings for a kid who turned 20 last month.

The Astros designated infielder Keith Ginter for assignment the other day. Anybody think the Pads could use this guy? Stick him at second, move Ramon Vazquez back to shortstop? Sorry, it’s just that Deivi "466 at-bats with 23 games to play" Cruz is really getting to me.

For the second time in as many weeks, the Padres released Bobby Jones. This time it’s the right-hander. Reliever Jason Shiell was recalled from Portland to take his place. Trenidad Hubbard also was let go.

Felix Jose? Kevin Orie? Pat Borders? All back in the big leagues. Baseball is a funny game…

Bullet Points

by Geoff Young on Sep 04, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

Hey, I’m back. Hope you all had a good Labor Day weekend. My brother-in-law came to town, which meant lots of Playstation 2 games (Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance this time around; highly addictive) and Asian buffet. If you can deal with Anne Murray singing about Jesus (she does some secular tunes, too; you haven’t really lived until you’ve heard her rendition of "What a Wonderful World" while you’re eating, I strongly recommend Arirang House on Convoy for Korean. The ribs and spicy beef are excellent, and I’m told by my wife, who is more tolerant of paradoxes than am I, that the kim-chee is good.

So, what’s happened since last we met? A lot, really. Get ready for bullet points…

  • The MLBPA didn’t go on strike. Woo-hoo! I still wish the fans and media would’ve gotten on the owners more and the players less, but so be it. Games are being played; life is good.
  • Adam Eaton made his first big-league appearance in 53 weeks. Sure, he got pounded but who cares? The important thing is he got out on the mound and reported no pain after the game.
  • The Oakland A’s have won 19 straight games. The Miguel Tejada for MVP campaign is a little silly, but this is an incredible run.
  • The Lake Elsinore Storm have won 11 straight games. Okay, so not as many people know or care about this one but the Storm won the final 10 games of the season to get into the playoffs and won their first playoff game yesterday at Lancaster.
  • Solomon Torres won his first big-league game since 1996. Torres, if you don’t know, was a former top-flight pitching prospect for the Mariners and Giants back in the early-’90s. Injuries derailed his career, and after spending three years as a minor-league pitching coach, Torres started his own comeback. He’s still only 30, so if those 8 1/3 shutout innings he spun last night against the Braves weren’t a complete fluke, he might yet have a career.
  • Sean Burroughs and Oliver Perez are back. Burroughs started at third last night and collected two hits. Perez pitched an inning of scoreless relief the day before, striking out the side (including Larry Walker for the fifth time in seven at-bats against him) in the process.
  • The frightening fascination with Deivi Cruz and Eugene Kingsale continues. Stop the madness! These are not everday players in the big leagues. Not for teams that hope to contend, anyway. Decent stop-gaps until the kids arrive, nothing more.

There’s probably more, but that’s enough for now…

Greene, Peavy, and Baseball-Reference Sponsorships

by Geoff Young on Aug 29, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

Things Not Baseball

Thanks to some "interesting" driving decisions on the part of yours truly, we missed Pat and Oscar’s in Mission Valley by several miles last night. Although at first glance this may appear to be a tragedy of epic proportions, the fact that we ended up at D.Z. Akin’s made it worth the while. If you’ve not been there, I highly recommend it. Even the East Coast deli snobs I know like the place. I had the #33: corned beef, swiss cheese, and cole slaw on an onion roll. A slice of heaven.

Good reading:

This is getting too predictable. Khalil Greene homered and singled three times in four at-bats against Bakersfield. In just 168 at-bats, he’s fifth on the club in homers. Justin Germano makes his third start for the Storm tonight.

Did ya see Jake Peavy battle Roy Oswalt last night? Pretty impressive. He’s gonna be a lot of fun to watch in a few years.

Last but not least, you may have noticed that Baseball-Reference.com is allowing folks to sponsor pages for a fee. Sean Forman does a tremendous job with this site, and it ain’t cheap to maintain. If you’ve been there and you like it, think about contributing to the fund and getting your name slapped onto a page. I’ve managed to get five pages so far:

  • Adam Eaton — My favorite player
  • Mark Kotsay — My wife’s favorite player
  • Mike Darr — Saw him at Rancho Cucamonga several years ago
  • Gary Matthews, Jr. — Can’t think of Darr without thinking of Matthews
  • Brady Clark — To the best of my knowledge he is the lone USD grad in the big leagues right now

Two others I wanted were already taken. I just saw "Field of Dreams" for the first time this weekend, so of course I looked up Moonlight Graham. No dice. The other was Brian Lawrence but Ducksnorts reader and fellow Pads fan Vinay Kumar beat me to that one. I don’t mind; it’s nice to know that B-Law’s page is in good hands. :-)

Around the Organization

by Geoff Young on Aug 28, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

Here’s an interesting look back on history. In 1995, two catching prospects put up the following numbers:

             Age Lvl(Lg)   BA  OBP  SLG
Catcher A:    19  A(MdW) .321 .398 .564
Catcher B:    22 AA(Sou) .224 .340 .361

Both were switch-hitters. In his 1996 book, John Sickels assigned Catcher A a letter grade of A, Catcher B a letter grade of C minus. Catcher A is Minnesota’s Javier Valentin, Catcher B is Boston’s Jason Varitek.

This isn’t a shot at Sickels by any stretch; I admire his work a great deal. It’s just another indication of how inexact the science of prospecting is. Interestingly, that same year Baseball America had Valentin rated as its #58 prospect and Varitek as its #51 prospect. So even among experts, there can be significant differences of opinion.

Meanwhile, Back in Padre Land…

Xavier Nady is coming on strong. He singled, homered, and doubled twice in five at-bats Monday night at Sacramento. Homered again last night. He’s now hitting .280/.329/.412 at Portland. Adam Eaton worked five innings in yesterday’s game. Assuming they’re still playing games, Eaton is scheduled to start for the Padres this coming Tuesday.

Brad Baker spun eight innings of shutout ball Monday at Birmingham, allowing just two hits. He struck out 10 and walked five.

Mark Phillips had another solid outing last night. Three runs on four hits and just one walk over six innings. He struck out seven. Khalil Greene doubled twice in four at-bats. He’s at .299/.348/.508 and looking ready for Double-A. In his Cal League debut, Josh Barfield went hitless in four trips to the plate. Barfield replaces Jake Gautreau, who has been shut down for the season due to colitis.

At Ft. Wayne, Javier Martinez, whom I spotlighted a couple days ago, also threw eight shutout innings Monday night. He allowed three hits and a walk while fanning six.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Padres beat Houston, 11-6. Woo-hoo! I try to maintain my enthusiasm for the big club but sometimes it ain’t easy. Nice to see ‘em win once in a while…

Potentially Promising Pitchers

by Geoff Young on Aug 26, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

I have a newfound respect for session musicians. Studio work is grueling. We spent about 18 hours this weekend laying down what will amount to roughly 20 minutes of music. And we haven’t even gotten to the mixing yet. But it was a blast, and we learned a lot.

One of my regular readers mentioned that organizational soldier Clay Condrey has been recalled to take the place of Tom Davey, who hasn’t been sharp since returning from off-season surgery. Condrey is a 26-year-old right-hander who throws strikes and keeps the ball in the yard. Presumably he’ll be used in long relief.

Just taking a quick look through the pitching logs; here are some guys to keep an eye on next year:

McAdoo and Oxspring are the only ones I’ve personally seen. All of these guys have put up intriguing numbers this year and bear watching.

If you’re sick of the labor situation and need a laugh, check out this thread over at Fark. Even my friends who don’t like baseball are digging it.

Enjoy…