Search results for ‘kevin kouzmanoff

Falling Off the Bandwagon

We are all products of our environment. The recent environment in San Diego baseball has been one of winning. Since moving downtown for the 2004 season, the Padres have seen unprecedented on-field success. For the first time in franchise history they’ve enjoyed four straight winning seasons. In 2005 and 2006, they reached the post-season in [...]

The Shape of Things to Come

Top of the ninth, two on, one out. Adrian Gonzalez steps to the plate. Braves manager Bobby Cox summons ex-Padre Royce Ring, who promptly hangs a breaking ball. Gonzalez swats it high and deep down the right-field line. He, catcher Brian McCann, and plate umpire Wally Bell all watch as it sails into the Atlanta [...]

Winning Is Better Than Knitting

Winning is so much more fun than losing, n’est ce pas? Every starter except Jim Edmonds and Chris Young collected at least one hit on Wednesday in the Padres’ 4-2 victory over Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. Tadahito Iguchi broke out of a season-long slump with four hits, while Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff each [...]

Gee, I Still Don’t Understand Sample Size

The Padres need to go out and get more hitters. I know this is true because I keep hearing it. I also know it’s a complete load of garbage. What they really need is for the hitters they already have to start performing up to their capabilities. Padres Hitters: 2008, 2007, Career     2008 [...]

Howlin’ Wolf and Friends Take the Fifth

Randy Wolf‘s final line looks fantastic, and he pitched a beautiful game, but it didn’t seem dominant while I was watching. The Rockies hitters probably have a different opinion. Because my job is to pick nits, I found myself wondering why Wolf needed to throw so many pitches. He walked four and fanned nine, which [...]

Singles Night

Aggravating. Annoying. Bilious. Discouraging. Disheartening. Dispiriting. Exasperating. Frustrating. Infuriating. Irritating. But enough about me, let’s talk about the game. [rim shot] I finally saw the team that everyone else seems to think the Padres are, the one that should be grateful to the Giants for granting them a spot in fourth place. The Padres have [...]

Series Preview: El Lefty Malo Talks Giants

The Padres embark on their inaugural road trip of 2008. First stop is San Francisco, where long-time Padres skipper Bruce Bochy calls the shots but long-time Padres nemesis Barry Bonds no longer calls home. We caught up with veteran Giants blogger El Lefty Malo to chat about the upcoming series between these two NL West [...]

Friday Links (4 Apr 08)

Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… Friday links: Tom Krasovic at the U-T provides a brief overview of “Sandyball” (h/t LynchMob) — the Padres’ organizational philosophy under CEO Sandy Alderson: The club has made a habit of acquiring major leaguers who can be free agents at season’s end, or [...]

Cold and Windy, with a 100% Chance of Victory

I’ve been advised that dwindling attendance at Petco Park shouldn’t worry me. This, of course, only worries me more. It’s early, and this may all be in my head, but I don’t think so. The ballpark was dead (heck, the entire Gaslamp was dead) on Tuesday night. It’s possible that 20,825 bought tickets, but there’s [...]

Everything in Its Right Place

I couldn’t sit still on Monday. I can’t sit still a lot of the time, but on Opening Day it’s always worse. My nervous tics develop nervous tics. I arrived downtown just after 4 p.m., wearing my Chris Young jersey, and toting my digital camera and scorebook. Mrs. Ducksnorts and I wandered over to one [...]