Former Padres outfielder Brian Giles announced his retirement Thursday. I’ve had plenty to say about Giles over the years, most of it good. I’ll defend the trade that brought him home to San Diego for as long as anyone will listen. And I’ll always appreciate him for carrying the club on his back in 2005, [...]
Search results for ‘kevin kouzmanoff’
Friday Links (29 Jan 10)
Don’t waste your links or links will waste you… The nickname game: all nicknames all the time (Hardball Times). I don’t recall ever hearing Mike Cameron referred to as “The Black Cat” in his two years with the Padres. I still have a soft spot for two other ex-Padres, Milton “Jenga” Bradley and Kevin “Mashin’ [...]
Kouzmanoff for Hairston
New Padres GM Jed Hoyer made his first trade on Friday Saturday, shipping third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and minor-league second baseman Eric Sogard to Oakland for outfielders Scott Hairston and Aaron Cunningham. I’ve thought about this trade a lot, and the word that keeps coming to mind is “fair,” which is one I didn’t tend [...]
Reviewing the 2009 IVIEs
In the interest of accountability and because there’s not much else to do in January, I thought we’d look back at our community projections made in March 2009. First, the hitters: Projected Actual Player PA BA OBP SLG PA BA OBP SLG Comments Matt Antonelli 224 .237 .322 .343 0 - - - [...]
Obligatory and Somewhat Awkward Year-End Summary
I’m supposed to write something about baseball here. That’s my recollection, anyway. First, a quick programming note: The long, once-a-week pieces from last year are done. Turns out they required a lot of work, and I’m lazy, so no mas. I’ll be publishing more frequently this year and the articles will be shorter. If 2009 [...]
Chase Headley and the Art of the Comp
Reader TexPadre recently posed the following question: When will Chase Headley show a decent amount of power? Or will he ever? Headley, you may recall, was the subject of much hype in spring training 2008. He had just come off a monster season (.330/.437/.580) at Double-A San Antonio and people got a little silly, mistaking [...]
Hey, I Can See the Off-Season from Here
I’ve been busy. Part of the reason is that I’ll be contributing to two forthcoming books: The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 (due out in November) and John Burnson’s Graphical Player 2010 (due out in December). I can’t go into a lot of detail just yet because — well, I’m not done writing — but [...]
Olive Pudding
It’s great to see the Padres sign all their top draft picks this year. First-round pick Donavan Tate (whom I was fortunate enough to meet last week, but we’ll get to that in a moment) took batting practice with the big club Tuesday night and impressed the veterans with his “respect and humility.” Tom Krasovic [...]
Youngsters and Salary Dumps
We’ve been tracking a few key young players since the All-Star break using Modified Box Scores (explanation). Let’s see how these kids are doing as measured by more conventional metrics. Bear in mind that we’re talking about 31 games, a tiny sample. First, the Padres as a team: Padres Offense, First and Second Half [...]
Smooth Jazz and Other Questionable Ideas
According to Google Maps, my work commute takes 14 minutes. In reality, where the freeway is unusable when I need it, the trip takes more like 40 minutes. It’s a stimulating drive, though, as I pass a municipal airport and MCAS Miramar along the way. Sometimes I’ll see jets landing or giant helicopters hovering overhead, [...]
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