Search results for ‘jake peavy

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   [...]

I Am Sure I Am Not Sure (I Think)

The world is in a constant state of flux. All that we know with any degree of certainty is that what holds true today may or may not hold true tomorrow... The Padres have been awful this year. I have witnessed it personally and had others confirm the fact for me as well... That's why I feel guilty enjoying this team. I want to hate, but I can't do it.

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, [...]

Is Life Ever Good Enough?

I use baseball to mark the passage of time. The memory of specific events helps keep me grounded in a world that often makes less sense than I’d like it to make (forgive the fact that I grew up rooting for the Dodgers): 1981 — Fernandomania; Rick Monday’s homer off Steve Rogers in Montreal 1988 [...]

Brutal Is As Brutal Does

The Padres are boring. That’s the word on the street… a street apparently filled with people who don’t like baseball. Just give me a game to watch and the rest will take care of itself. There is no pressure with this team, no expectation of success. Every win is a surprise, a gift. Sometimes I [...]

Is It Giving Up if You Never Believed?

I met a girl at summer camp when I was nine. Laura was 16 and the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. We exchanged letters for a while, then got on with our lives. In my dream, we meet again for some forgotten reason. “It’s great to see you,” she says. “You, too.” We stare [...]

Winning Half Is Like Losing Half, and Vice Versa

When last we spoke, the Padres had won 10 straight games. They finally lost on Tuesday, but not without a serious fight. Kevin Correia breezes through 4 2/3 innings, then runs into trouble. Ryan Roberts bloops a single in front of Chase Headley that a more accomplished left fielder might have caught. The inning continues, [...]

Vicodin Dreams

I will do anything to avoid a game in Albuquerque — be it getting hopelessly lost in that fine city, having my car smashed by a big rig en route from Missouri, or as now, recovering from knee surgery. A sensible person would simply admit he didn’t want to watch the Isotopes play, but where [...]

To Sweep and To Be Swept

Sunlight glimmers off the bay like sweat, like flashbulbs, a disco ball, coins from a slot machine, dice rolling, neon signs. Patterns of light moving impossibly fast, not moving at all. Stare long enough, it all becomes one. Time and meaning are lost, like the days themselves, swept out to sea. The Padres had Monday [...]

Play with Your Food

I have the strangest dreams… Maybe the Padres will do okay this year. In your heart of hearts, you don’t believe it, but you’ll commit to it over olives on a fork and flutes of champagne. You’ll sneak it into conversation, right between “My kid is smart, he’s just not motivated” and “I watch Giada [...]