Search results for ‘russell branyan

Padres Beat Cain, Giants

Do you notice any themes emerging early in the season? Here’s one: Keep the game close and then let the bullpen take care of things. It happened again Monday night (recap | box score). San Francisco’s Matt Cain took a no-hitter into the seventh. That inning, Khalil Greene smashed a double down the left field [...]

Oh So Quiet

Welcome to the calm before the storm. Not much going on right now, but the Opening Day roster is starting to take shape. Right-hander Scott Strickland will be waived today, leaving righties Kevin Cameron and Mike Thompson as the leading candidates for the final two bullpen spots. Kevin Towers and Bud Black both think highly [...]

Padres Set to Release Walker

Veteran second baseman Todd Walker will be released today by the Padres. Walker won an arbitration hearing in February that set his 2007 salary at $3.95 million. By releasing him now, the Padres owe him just $987,000. GM Kevin Towers, however, claims that Walker’s salary “didn’t factor into the decision.” Should we take Towers at [...]

Notes from Peoria

I’m back. There is an overwhelming amount of information for me to process, so we’ll just go with bullet points of things learned or rediscovered along the way: The late Jeff Buckley was a musical genius. The parking situation at Phoenix Municipal Stadium stinks. How a parking lot cannot prepare itself to accommodate actual cars [...]

Young, Giles, McAnulty Strong in Padres ’07 TV Debut

Got to watch my first Padres game on TV last night. Thanks to the magic of TiVo, I got to watch it again this morning. Yes, I forgot to set up an IGD. We’ll get the first one of the year going this Saturday for the game against Colorado. While we’re waiting for that glorious [...]

Friday Links (23 Feb 07)

Short and sweet, like Adrian Gonzalez‘ swing: Walker wins arbitration case, surprising both sides (San Diego Union-Tribune). Backup second baseman Todd Walker won his case and will receive $3.95 million in 2007, making him the highest paid infielder on the team. If the Padres release Walker by March 15, it will cost them about $658,000. [...]

Padres’ 2007 Opening Day Roster: Our Best Guesses

We had 21 entrants in our little contest. Here is the consensus: SP: Clay Hensley (21), Greg Maddux (21), Jake Peavy (21), David Wells (21), Chris Young (21) RP: Heath Bell (11), Doug Brocail (13), Trevor Hoffman (21), Scott Linebrink (20), Cla Meredith (21), Royce Ring (19), Scott Strickland (13) C: Josh Bard (21), Rob [...]

Friday Links (16 Feb 07)

Super lightning style today. Manager Black ready to be second-guessed (San Diego Union-Tribune). Tim Sullivan talks about new manager Bud Black. A lot of fluff, but one passage stood out for me There’s some things that we can’t let you know. (Maybe) a guy is having personal problems at home and something happened and he [...]

Friday Links (9 Feb 07)

Quick update on our guess-the-roster contest, and then we’ll hit the links. Here is the consensus opening day roster so far: C: Bard, Bowen INF: Blum, Branyan, M. Giles, Gonzalez, K. Greene, Kouzmanoff, Walker OF: M. Cameron, Cruz, B. Giles, McAnulty, Sledge SP: Hensley, Maddux, Peavy, Wells, Young RP: Brocail, Hoffman, Linebrink, Meredith, Ring, Strickland [...]

Kouz and Reminders

The 11th annual list of Sports Weekly’s 100 Names You Need to Know has been published. Who is at #6? None other than Kevin Kouzmanoff. Two passages demand comment: They have plenty of options there [at third base] if he [Kouzmanoff] fails, among them Russell Branyan, Geoff Blum and Todd Walker. Those of you who [...]