2. Similar Prospects Who Diverged In Part 1, I outlined the motivation for this study. I also mentioned some of the types of questions we’d be trying to answer. Now it’s time to get our hands dirty. In his 1996 Minor League Scouting Notebook, John Sickels assigns each prospect a grade from A to C-. [...]

The Padres didn’t complete the sweep against the Diamondbacks, but they still took the series. Time now to take a look back at the first month of the Padres’ 2005 season. NL West Standings Actual Pythag* W L W L RS RA LA 15 8 14 9 126 99 Ari 14 10 11 13 104 [...]

Season Previews Christian has posted the NL West Preview at All-Baseball. My contribution is weaker than I’d have liked, but I stand firmly behind what I said about Gary Bennett, Donaldo Mendez, and Eddie Oropesa. Two guys named Neil living on the other side of the Atlantic make their picks. One of ‘em likes the [...]

So are you itching for the regular season to begin, or is that just me? Quick reminder that my Padres Preview is up over at Baseball Think Factory. Check it out, leave some comments. A few items of note: San Diego Padres ace Peavy feels he’ll be ready for home opener (Canadian Press). From trainer [...]

First off, the Lahman Database abso-freakin-lutely rocks. Everybody knows this, but it still has to be said. An article in yesterday’s U-T talks about Adam Eaton taking the next big step and realizing his immense talent this season. It mentions that Eaton is fully recovered from August 2001 elbow surgery and looking for better results. [...]

My readers rock. Thanks to y’all, this blog pretty much writes itself some days. LynchMob points us to this article over at Baseball Prospectus. It praises Kevin Towers for the job he’s done signing good players on the cheap, citing in particular Chris Hammond. But here’s the real attention grabber: He reminds me of Johan [...]

First, a correction. The other day when I was talking about the Chris Hammond signing, I referred to Antonio Alfonseca as an example of a guy getting around $2.5 to put up worse numbers. I’d missed that Alfonseca restructured his deal due to a herniated disc in his back. Anyway, here’s a quick statistical comparison [...]

Started yesterday morning with a delicious loco moco breakfast at the hotel. Watched the koi in the pond get fed. Walked over to Ala Moana and had malasadas (portuguese donuts) filled with haupia (coconut custard). Then ate a plate lunch with kalua pig, lau lau (pork wrapped in spinach), chicken long rice, and lomi salmon. [...]

Too sexy? Too lame is more like it. Anyway, here is what a couple of Royals blogs are saying about Monday’s trade: Royals Nightly doesn’t like it Royals Baseball does Everything really hinges on how well Dennis Tankersley does. If he blossoms, this could be a terrific deal for the Royals. Oh, and for any [...]