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 [...]
Search results for ‘heath bell’
Death of a Gunslinger
As you doubtless know by now, the Padres have fired GM Kevin Towers. It’s taken me so long to write about this because it is difficult for me to articulate my feelings. His departure hits me harder than those of Bruce Bochy, Trevor Hoffman, Sandy Alderson, or Jake Peavy. Towers was the primary architect of [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
Lousy, Yet Affordable
Another day, another loss. We had tickets for Monday night, but I didn’t get off work until 7 p.m. and the knee was killing me, so instead we watched on TV over Greek salad and Sam’s spaghetti with spinach and blue cheese. Why does Kevin Correia’s windup put him in such horrible fielding position? He [...]
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