Bobby Jones Relieves Bobby Jones

by Geoff Young on Aug 07, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

My computer is still holding up okay; thanks for asking.

The Padres sure do find some interesting ways to lose ballgames. Ryan Klesko getting thrown out at third on a no-out grounder to short in the 13th, Gene Kingsale not bunting with Tom Lampkin on first and nobody out in the 14th. I’m no great fan of the sacrifice bunt, but Kingsale isn’t much of an offensive threat, Lampkin is slow, and you’ve got Mark Kotsay, Phil Nevin, and Klesko coming up next. It’s a no-brainer. I mean, sure, a lazy fly ball to center that doesn’t advance the runner is all well and good, but still…

On the bright side, we did get to see Bobby Jones relieve Bobby Jones. What’s really cool is that in Jones’ next start, we could see the opposite. Jones the lefty surprised me last night. He has a pretty live arm, better than might be expected from his numbers.

Baseball America offers its "Best Tools" for Triple-A. Dennis Tankersley was honored as having the best breaking pitch. No other Padre prospects were mentioned.

Some of you noticed this comment in the Transaction Analysis over at Baseball Prospectus:

Here’s hoping Eric Cyr gets his life and his career in order, in no particular order.

I asked Chris Kahrl what he meant by this and whether he’d heard that Cyr had gotten into trouble again. Kahrl indicated that he was speaking in general terms. So basically he doesn’t know whether or not Cyr has gotten his life in order. Color me optimistic, but without any evidence to the contrary, I’ll assume that he has.

I was at class last night for the first eight or so innings of the game, following it online during breaks (is this country great or what?), and I saw that the Padres had lifted Oliver Perez after 92 pitches. Only later did I find out that this was due not to Bruce Bochy’s game plan but rather to an injury he sustained while diving into first base. Strained left shoulder. He’s questionable for his next start. Not the way you want to see him keep his pitch count down, but whatever works, I guess.

Jake Peavy vs Vicente Padilla tonight. Should be a good one. With an exhausted bullpen, the Padres will be tempted to leave Peavy in longer than might be best for him. Let’s hope he can get guys out early in the count.

Finally, in the ongoing debate over "soda" vs "pop" I offer this remedy: Why not have a beer instead?

Computer Problems, Chick Hearn’s Passing, and a Few Baseball Items

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

In the daily drama that is my computer, I’ve managed to access my hard drive. I still can’t boot to it but after several hours of research and just plain messing around with things, I discovered I could boot to the CD drive. Not really a long-term solution but it’ll have to do until I figure out what is wrong. Meantime, I just won’t ever turn off my machine. ;-)

Just wanted to mention the passing of Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn. My wife doesn’t understand my fascination with the Lakers. She likens them to the Yankees, and I can’t really argue that point. But I grew up a few miles from the Fabulous Forum, and Hearn introduced me to basketball the way Vin Scully did baseball. There aren’t many broadcasters out there who are worth listening to regardless of the game. Hearn was one of them. He’ll be missed.

I’ve added a few sites to the list of Hot Links. Futility Infielder and Twins Geek I mentioned last week. PDX Beavers is an unofficial site of the Portland Beavers and is very nicely done. I’ve made these three sites a part of my morning reading. Check ‘em out when have a moment.

Baseball America has released its "Best Tools" for Double-A. Bernie Castro was named best baserunner, fastest baserunner, and most exciting player in the Southern League. Mike Bynum was cited as having the best breaking pitch, and J.J. Trujillo was named best reliever.

Brad Baker pitched a heckuva game last night against WestTenn. Allowed two runs on five hits and a walk over 7 1/3 innings. Struck out eight. Good to see him throwing strikes.

A call to readers: I don’t have a box score for the August 3 Ft. Wayne/Wisconsin game. I’ve managed to piece together most of Geoff Jones’ pitching line but I don’t know whether he allowed any home runs. If you have this information, could you drop me a line? Thanks.

Khalil Greene, Mark Phillips, and Jason Bay

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

Sigh. Computers are just plain evil. Yesterday I was trying to get my CD writer to work (it’s been giving me trouble ever since I switched to SuSE) when a very bad thing happened. Long story short, I can no longer boot. So I fired up my little P-II notebook and did a little research. Turns out there are known problems with my machine’s BIOS and SuSE. And now, in hindsight, I’m betting that my problems with Windows on that machine were a result of the BIOS, too. (I had considered this at the time but had hoped a fresh OS would fix everything; apparently some things aren’t Microsoft’s fault after all.)

So I’m without a usable home computer again. Sure, I’ve got the P-II, and I’ve still got a P-I lying around with an old version of Red Hat on it, but it’s pretty much just a Mah-Jongg server these days. The great irony of it all is that I was working on the CD writer so I could back up my hard drive. The good news is, I believe the drive is still good. The bad news is, I cannot access data on it.

On to brighter things. How ’bout those Padres? Hmmm, maybe that’s not such a good thing to talk about either. Okay, how about those Padre prospects? Khalil Greene is torrid at Elsinore, hitting .293/.316/.500. He played his first game at second base Friday night but has been back at shortstop the past couple games. The one trouble spot for him thus far is 17 strikeouts against just 3 walks in 92 at-bats. Let’s hope that’s a small-sample abnormality and not an indication of what’s to come.

Right-hander Josh Reynolds, acquired in the Steve Reed trade, was hammered in his Cal League debut, allowing 7 runs on 10 hits over 3 1/3 innings. He’s not a hard thrower, so expect this from time to time.

Mark Phillips continues to fight his control, and it’s not looking like he’ll make it to Double-A this season. He’s been a real mixed bag this year. On the one hand, he’s been extremely tough to hit (.225 BA); on the other, 6.6 walks per 9 innings is way too many. If Phillips can cut that number down to around 4 or 5, he’ll be tough. The thing is, he’s not a guy who misses badly all or even most of the time; when I’ve seen him pitch, his biggest problems are that he tries to be too fine and that he’ll have an occasional spell when he has no idea where the plate is. But that usually only lasts about two or three batters, and then he’s back to business. Phillips still has significant upside. It will be interesting to see what Darren Balsley can do with him next year at Mobile, assuming both of them are there.

The other minor-leaguer to come over in the Reed deal, outfielder Jason Bay, is hitting .200/.385/.400 in his first three games at Mobile. Bay has drawn comparisons to current Padre Bubba Trammell.

Also at Mobile, Tagg Bozied is heating up in a big way. He’s hitting .221/.303/.360 in 125 at-bats, which isn’t particularly impressive in and of itself. But after a slow start at Double-A, he’s put up solid numbers the past few weeks (including a .367 BA over the past 13 games). Also encouraging are the extra base hits and command of the strike zone. It’s looking like the early struggles were more of an adjustment than any change in approach.

Baseball America has released its "Best Tools" for Class-A. The Padres are reasonably well represented. In the Cal League, Marcus Nettles was named the best baserunner and the fastest baserunner. Oliver Perez was cited as the best pitching prospect. Down at Ft. Wayne, Pedro de los Santos was named the fastest baserunner, while Rusty Tucker was identified as the best reliever.

That’s all for now. I’ll try to keep posting updates regularly, but if I miss a few days here and there, it’s probably just me fighting with my computer(s) again.

Geeking at Comic-Con

by Geoff Young on Aug 03, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

I’m spending most of my time this week at Comic-Con being an even bigger geek than usual, so today’s entry will be brief and somewhat scattered. In other words, business as usual.

Very quickly, here are a few sites I’ve recently discovered (in no particular order) that you might find interesting:

Okay, that’ll have to do for now. The next entry will be a little meatier.

Nady, Baker, Greene, and Germano

by Geoff Young on Jul 31, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

Hey, Padres won a game. Woo-hoo! Did ya see the bomb that Bubba Trammell hit off Mark Prior? Oh, my. And Tom Lampkin came through in a big way.

Speaking of the Cubs, how about that walk-off job by Edgar Renteria to cap a six-run ninth the other night? As exciting as it was to watch, I sure felt bad for Antonio Alfonseca, who was in absolute shock.

More trades. Indians sent lefty specialist Ricardo Rincon to the A’s for former college standout infielder Marshall McDougal. Maybe he’ll make Tribe fans forget about Brian Giles. Or not. And, in a headline writer’s wet dream, Boston picked up Cliff Floyd from the Expos for Sun Woo Kim and Seung Jun Song.

Down on the Padre farm…

Xavier Nady: two hits in four trips to the plate.

Brad Baker: six walks in three innings at Jacksonville. He’s issued that many free passes in three of his six Double-A starts. He’s walked four or more batters in all but one of his starts. Not good.

Khalil Greene: three knocks in four at-bats, with a double. Kevin Walker: two perfect innings, two strikeouts.

Justin Germano: eight innings, one run. Two walks in the game brings him to 19 for the season over 22 starts. Germano is one of the more interesting pitching prospects in the Padre system. I’ve heard him compared to Kansas City’s Jeff Suppan. Here’s a quick breakout of Germano by hit prevention:

Qmax(H)  G    IP   H  R ER HR BB  SO  ERA
      1  3  24.0  12  3  3  1  3  24 1.13
      2  5  32.0  21  7  7  2  4  26 1.97
      3  2  13.2  11  4  4  1  3   7 2.63
      4  0   0.0   0  0  0  0  0   0 ----
      5  4  25.2  32 12 11  5  1  20 3.86
      6  5  33.0  47 17 15  1  8  25 4.09
      7  1   5.0  12  6  5  1  0   4 9.00

total   22 145.0 149 55 48 12 19 112 2.98

I gave him an extra earned run in there somewhere, because the columns add up to 49, but he’s only allowed 48. I’ll have to go back and figure that out one of these days.

Deadline Deals

by Geoff Young on Jul 30, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

Traffic school. Ugh. Can’t wait to spend an entire Saturday hanging out with a bunch of folks who got caught in a speed trap. In my case, the cops were hiding out in a church parking lot. A church parking lot. I ask you, is nothing sacred?

Ah well, such is life. The thing is, nobody goes 30 MPH down Sixth. Nobody.

So, what’s going on in baseball? Well, the trades are starting to fly. Everybody and their mother has gotten down on Kenny Williams of the White Sox for his deals, so I won’t bother jumping on that pile. I will say that I’m baffled by the fact that the Sox landed a better return for Kenny Lofton than for Ray Durham. So evidently, Williams isn’t the only GM out there who is a bit confused when it comes to player valuation.

I was surprised to see the Dodgers part with right-hander Ricardo Rodriguez for Paul Shuey. Baseball America had Rodriguez ranked as their best prospect coming into the season. On the other hand, Shuey is a terrific reliever. I guess I’m just a little bummed because I know the Padres won’t get anyone with near the upside of Rodriguez for Steve Reed.

Then you’ve got the Phillies sending Scott Rolen and Doug Nickle to St. Louis for Bud Smith, Mike Timlin, and Placido Polanco. This is a weird trade. On the one hand, Rolen is a Gold Glove third baseman with good offensive skills. And although he hasn’t really developed into a truly elite player, he’s still pretty darned good. It will be interesting to see how much of his lack of growth were due to Dallas Green, Larry Bowa, and artificial turf.

On the other hand, Smith is a promising young lefty who fell out of favor in St. Louis. The optimist sees the move to Philly as an opportunity to escape Tony LaRussa and start fresh, maybe pull an Odalis Perez. The pessimist can’t see how the likes of Green and Bowa are going to help Smith at all, and is reminded of other once-promising southpaws such as Bruce Chen and Dennys Reyes.

For me, the trade comes down to two things: 1) whether Rolen signs with the Cards and 2) how well Smith develops. Given the reputation of the Cardinal organization and the city of St. Louis as a baseball town, I’m inclined to believe there’s a pretty decent chance that Rolen will stick around a while. If that’s the case, and if he’s at all rejuvenated (odd word to use in describing a 27-year-old, I know) by his new surroundings, then this could be a great deal for the Cards. And Smith will need to turn into Tom Glavine to make it worth the Phillies’ while. It’s a calculated risk, but this could be another Jim Edmonds for Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy type deal, and the Phillies may end up regretting this–and their treatment of Rolen in general–for a very long time.

The one aspect of the trade that I don’t understand is Timlin and Polanco heading to Philadelphia. I can’t think of many players who have less value to a non-contending team. Don’t get me wrong, they’re actually pretty useful guys. But they’re only useful to a team in the hunt. A team like the Cardinals.

Of course, all of this assumes that MLB even is playing games by the end of next month. Talk now is that the players will go on strike August 16.

Hey, here are a couple of cool baseball blogs worth checking out: TwinsGeek and Jay Jaffe’s Futility Infielder. They’re both informative and entertaining. The former, as one might guess, places an emphasis on the Minnesota Twins but is a good read for all baseball fans. The latter possesses a title I envy to no end. Futility Infielder is a great name and, despite Jay’s affection for the Yankees (yes, I’m still upset at Tino Martinez and his pal Ritchie Garcia), it’s a great site, too.

Quick List

  • CD: Sheryl Crow, Tuesday Night Music Club
  • DVD: The Tao of Steve
  • movie: Men in Black II
  • book: Rob Ruck, The Tropic of Baseball
  • restaurant: Thai House, 4225 Convoy St.

Leaf Quits, Phillips Struggles, Tucker Blows Smoke

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

As you may know, former Charger QB Ryan Leaf retired at the ripe old age of 25. This begs two questions:

  1. What took him so long? The Spanos family gave him a boatload of money and he then married a cheerleader whose father is a prominent local financial hotshot. Leaf was taking a real risk in trying to compete with all those big, mean football players. Which might explain the complete lack effort on his part. You think?
  2. On a more philosophical level, is it even possible for someone like Leaf to retire? The word "retire" generally implies that work has been done. And in Leaf’s case, it’s not so much that he stopped working as that he stopped trying to uphold the illusion of working. It must be a tremendous relief to him that he no longer has to pretend that he’s earning his money. And that’s good, because I’d hate to see him be stressed out and unable to enjoy his retirement.

And if it sounds like I’m bitter, well, that’s because I am. Leaf broke the hearts of a lot of Charger fans and, even worse, he gave false hope to those of us who aspire to attain great wealth at an early age so that we can then sit on our asses and do nothing for the rest of our lives. Thanks for nothing.

Okay, that’s out of the system. Back to the only sport that matters. Caught the Storm/JetHawks game last night. Mark Phillips struggled with his command. He walked only three batters in five innings (actually, all of them came in the three-run third) but he worked behind in the count all night and had trouble throwing his breaking ball for strikes. His velocity also appeared to be down a bit, into the 90-92 range.

Rehabbing Kevin Walker worked a perfect sixth, striking out one of the three batters he faced. His fastball was sitting in the low-90s and he threw some nice breaking pitches as well.

Marcus Nettles lined a couple of singles just over the third baseman’s head. Lancaster had him positioned in such a way that both balls reached the left fielder on just a couple of hops. I was hoping Nettles would yank one over first base, because with his wheels, he might have been able to go for an inside-the-park homer. But, I suppose there’s a reason they played him that way.

Jake Gautreau is back in the lineup. He singled and walked in four trips to the plate. Didn’t do anything to distinguish himself one way or another in the field.

Rough night for Khalil Greene. He walked once and fanned three times in four tries. He also was charged with an error in the fourth, which led to an unearned run. The ball came off the bat funny and appeared to change direction at the last moment, eluding Greene’s glove. It looked bad because the ball was headed right toward him, but the play was far from routine. A tough error to give, in my opinion.

We left after the eighth inning (it was evident that the Storm weren’t going to do anything and I was still recovering from the previous night’s gig), so we missed Rusty Tucker’s scoreless ninth. But we did hear about it on the drive home, and Storm broadcaster Sean McCall had him clocked at 97 MPH. Yummy.

Lancaster features some interesting players. Jesus Cota, playing left field, impressed again at the plate. He singled twice and walked in four plate appearances. His one out came on a fly ball to the wall in dead center against fellow lefty Walker. The kid has a good, short stroke and is now hitting .282/.330/.439. He also looked okay in left, making one nice running catch and showing a decent throwing arm.

Craig Ansman, a catcher by trade, got the start at DH to make room for 2002 2nd-round draft pick Chris Snyder, who went hitless in four at-bats but who made a strong throw to nail Nettles trying to steal second early in the game. Snyder had a good defensive reputation coming out of the University of Houston and is hitting the ball well so far in the pros (.283/.352/.500 in 106 AB).

Fellow 2002 draftee Brian Barden, a third baseman out of Oregon State, was taken in the 6th round. Drawing comparisons to Ron Cey and David Bell, Barden collected two hits in five trips to the plate and is hitting .326/.365/.550 in his pro debut.

The two other intriguing players are shortstop Joandry Berroa and center fielder Dwight Edge. I’m not sure why Berroa is playing in the Cal League. He’s listed as being 17 years old and he’s hitting just .222/.271/.262. Looks completely overmatched at the plate. The reason I call him intriguing is not so much for anything he’s done but because he raises the question of what are the Diamondbacks thinking in putting this kid in High-A ball? He has no business being there.

The other kid, Edge, fascinates me because he’s listed at 6’6″, 235 lbs. Basically he’s the biggest guy on the club. But he plays center, and he has absolutely zero power. He’s hitting .263/.333/.301, with just 10 extra base hits in 316 at-bats. How does a guy that big end up with an ISO of .038?

Anyway, I don’t think Berroa or Edge is considered much of a prospect, but I found them interesting. Maybe you will, too. That’s all for now…

Sickels and Win Shares: Prelude

by Geoff Young on Jul 24, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

I come from a family of English teachers. When I was in high school, I used to grade papers for my Mom’s junior college composition classes. I myself received a B.A. in English. For several years I worked as a proofreader and copy editor for a large publishing house and then on my own as a freelancer. I still have trouble reading books without editing them in my head. Heck, I can’t even look at billboards without an overly critical eye. It’s a curse.

With that in mind, this article in The Onion is one of the funniest things I’ve come across in a long time. What makes The Onion so great is that it really is hard to distinguish their stories from the "real" news.

Back to baseball. Here’s a little something I’m playing with right now: John Sickels’ grades for prospects and Bill James’ win shares. Without getting into a lengthy discussion of the relative merits of James’ system, and acknowledging that it is far from a perfect tool, it should suffice for our purposes. And before I go any further, I should warn you that I’m only about halfway through the data, so what follows is what is known in the business as a teaser. Proceed at your own risk. No warranty is implied, etc.

Basically, I’m looking at Sickels’ 1996 Minor League Scouting Notebook and determining the number of win shares for each player in the book. I’ve broken everything down by age, position, and grade, and recorded the number of win shares earned from 1996-2001. So far I’m through players whose last names begin with "K".

Top 10 hitters

Name            Grade    WS
---------------------------
Jeter,De          A     150
Jones,An          A     122
Guerrero,Vl       A-    119
Garciaparra,No    A-    119
Giles,Br          B     116
Abreu,Bo          A     107
Kendall,Ja        A-    106
Damon,Jo          A      98
Aurilia,Ri        B-     94
Cameron,Mi        C+     90

Top 10 pitchers

Name            Grade    WS
---------------------------
Colon,Ba          B+     63
Foulke,Ke         C      58
Helling,Ri        C-     58
Graves,Da         B+     55
Hermanson,Du      B+     52
Baldwin,Ja        C      50
Estes,Sh          C      46
Adams,Te          C+     42
Carpenter,Ch      C+     40
Alfonseca,An      C+     33

Those pitchers sure are an unpredictable lot, no? Anyway, I’ll be working on this over the next several weeks, so this is just a little something to whet your appetite until I’m done.

Finally, a real quick look at last night’s games: Portland Burroughs 2-5, 1 2B, 0 E; Nady 0-0, 1 BB; Bynum 7 IP, 1 ER. Mobile Faison 2-5, 1 BB; Bozied 2-4, 2 BB; Johnson 3-5, 1 BB. Lake Elsinore Nettles 1-5, 1 BB, 3 SB; Greene 4-5, 1 2B.

Game Recap and Farm Report

by Geoff Young on Jul 23, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

Did ya miss me? Never mind, I don’t want to know. ;-)

I’ve been absent due in part to my disgust with the looming labor situation, which has put me in something of a foul mood when it comes to discussing baseball, and in part because I’ve been spending a lot of time this past week finishing up and launching a web site for my band Tunesmith. Check it out if you’re so inclined. We play parties.

Okay, enough of the shameless plugs. Let’s get back to baseball. Amazing game the Pads won last night. Brian Lawrence scattered 12 singles, the Dodgers had the leadoff man aboard in each of the first six innings, and the Pads infield showed a profound reluctance to record outs.

Honestly, have we all seen enough of Deivi Cruz at shortstop yet? Two steps to either side does not constitute range. The thing is, early in the season I could understand the decision to play him over Ramon Vazquez. The latter looked completely lost at the plate. But over the past couple months, Vazquez’ approach has changed and he looks like one of the few legitimate leadoff candidates on this club. He’s a better hitter than Cruz, and much better with the glove. And younger. Why isn’t he playing?

Ron Gant was spectacular last night. Incredible diving catch of a drive off the bat of Dave Roberts that kept the Dodgers from getting back in the game. Great throw to home to nail Mark Grudzielanek to end an inning. Had a couple of hits, too.

Speaking of Grudzielanek, the Padre announcers were mentioning last night that he reminds some people of Paul Molitor. Excuse me? I dunno, maybe Bubba Trammell reminds those same people of Mike Schmidt.

Down on the farm, Sean Burroughs had a triple and a homer in five at-bats at Portland, in the Beavers’ 11-5 victory over Omaha. Burroughs played an errorless second base. Xavier Nady singled and struck out three times in four at-bats.

At Mobile, Tagg Bozied is starting to show signs of life. He collected two doubles, a single, and a walk in five trips to the plate last night in a 9-8 win over Huntsville.

At Visalia, Mark Phillips had his second straight rough outing, surrendering six runs in four innings, but the Storm tallied eight runs in the seventh to win, 8-7. Khalil Greene tripled in four at-bats and is hitting .244/.277/.400 in 10 Cal League games.

Ft. Wayne lost to Dayton, 3-2. Greg Sain accounted for the Wizards’ only two runs with his 10th homer of the year. Josh Barfield had two hits. Lefty Nobuaki Yoshida pitched six solid innings but took the loss.

Catcher Omar Falcon is putting up some fascinating numbers in the Pioneer League. Despite striking out 45 times in 89 at-bats, he’s managed to hit .281/.420/.573. When Falcon makes contact, he’s hitting .568/.701/1.159. Yeah, it’s a freak stat but it’s fun. Here’s hoping he learns to make better contact…

Sitting on Top of the Padres Dugout

by Geoff Young on Jul 17, 2002 (Comments Off) Comments

More wacky Bud Selig stuff: Former minority partners charge Selig, Loria with fraud (CBS SportsLine). Go get ‘em, boys.

Good chat with Tony Gwynn over at ESPN.com.

Closer to home, Monday night, thanks to my buddy Don, I had the best seats I probably will ever have at a big-league game. We sat literally on top of the Padres dugout. We were so close to the action, it was downright scary. Occasionally Bruce Bochy or one of the players would look up, and he’d be staring right at us, about 5 feet away. We were just to the first base side of the protective netting, so we pretty much had to watch every pitch. Nothing wrong with that, but it was to the point where we didn’t even talk much except between innings. Very intense.

Good game, too, except for the fact that the Pads didn’t score any runs. Again. Oliver Perez looked terrific, fanning nine batters in six innings and change. He worked quickly, as usual, throwing fastballs, sliders, and the occasional change-up from three-quarters (and sometimes sidearm against lefies Todd Helton and Larry Walker). When Perez came out of the game (after 98 pitches; looks like Kevin Towers had a little talk with Bochy), we all gave him a standing ovation.

Colorado’s starter, Denny Stark, pitched a nice game, too. It didn’t look like he threw real hard, but he was constantly jamming hitters. Particularly impressive was the fact that Stark seemed to be able to tie up both lefties and righties.

The game is very different when viewed from so close to the field. Suddenly these millionaire ballplayers that you’re used to seeing on television are just guys playing a game. It’s precisely this experience that has pushed me toward the minor-league brand of baseball, where being a part of the action is the norm rather than the exception.

Speaking of the minors, Khalil Greene is tearing it up at Elsinore. So is Mark Phillips. His command still wavers at times but he’s been downright overpowering for the better part of two months. Mike Bynum is also looking good, having made a fine debut at Portland after dominating at Mobile. And while we’re on the subject of good young lefties, Kevin Walker is set to begin a rehab assignment at Elsinore shortly.

Back to the big leagues, how about Jake Peavy last night? That’s the best I’ve ever seen him throw his change-up. He credits Darren Balsley (who else) for helping him to develop that pitch. The best number in Peavy’s line: 92. That’s how many pitches he threw in seven innings of work. Good to see (a) Peavy being more efficient and (b) Bochy being more prudent with the pitch counts.

Last, but certainly not least, here’s a feel-good story about a fellow blogger. Ray Kerby has an outstanding site dedicated to all things Astros. MLB, in its infinite wisdom, recently sent him a cease-and-desist letter, and it looked as though AstrosDaily.com would be no more. Way to go, Ray!