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I Love It When a Plan Comes Together

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
by Geoff Young

If Tuesday night's opener provides any indication, this series in Los Angeles is going to be tough. Sure, the final score was 9-4, but the Dodgers just would not go away. The Padres even had to get Trevor Hoffman up and warming at the end. Jake Gets It Done Jake Peavy came back strong after last week's disastrous start in Phoenix. He served up a two-out solo homer to James Loney in the third, and worked out of a couple tough jams. In the second, with a 4-0 lead, Peavy allowed a leadoff single to Jeff Kent. Then, after jumping ahead in the count, 0-2, Peavy walked nemesis Luis Gonzalez on seven pitches. After a Russell Martin groundout to first moved runners to second and third, ...

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Posted in Game Recaps, Minors | 29 Comments »

Learning to Drive

Tuesday, September 4, 2007
by Geoff Young

Hard to offer meaningful commentary on a game that wasn't televised. I assume from the 10 runs and five homers that the offense performed well. Either that or Micah Owings pitched like... well, you get the idea. Padres at Ballhype As you know, I've been doing some work with Ballhype of late. Just wanted to give everyone the heads-up on something that I should have pimped a long time ago: a group for Padres fans. This is one more way to connect with folks who dig the Friars as much as we do. Give it a spin if you're so inclined... It seems weird that a guy with 10 home runs this late in the season could have three multiple-homer games, but that's ...

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Posted in Baseball, Minors | 63 Comments »

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Peavy Ties Benes, Bullpen (Barely) Holds On to Beat Mets

Thursday, August 23, 2007
by Geoff Young

Nice to hang on for the win Wednesday night (box score). Congrats to Jake Peavy for tying Andy Benes' career mark for strikeouts by a Padres pitcher. The game wasn't without its white-knuckle moments, aka the ninth inning. Several folks have noted that the Padres are having difficulty closing out games, and I'm happy (or unhappy, really) to report that it's not all in your head: Padres Relievers, First and Second Half PlayerFirst HalfSecond Half IPERABAOBPSLGIPERABAOBPSLG Statistics are through games of August 22, 2007, and are courtesy of Baseball-Reference. Note: Linebrink's numbers are with ...

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Posted in Game Recaps, Minors | 95 Comments »

Friday Links (6 Jul 07)

Friday, July 6, 2007
by Geoff Young

Adrian Gonzalez is very much ready for the All-Star break, and so am I. Light on the links today. Enjoy... On day Padres' Young becomes All-Star, pitcher decides to start suspension (ESPN, via Steve C in the comments). Pretty self-explanatory. Glad to see Chris Young make the All-Star team. I don't care one whit about the game itself, but I voted several times anyway because he is our guy and deserving of the honor. In return for my efforts, I look forward to receiving copious amounts of spam from MLB and its partners thanks to their obnoxious opt-out policy. ...

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Posted in Minors, Notes and Links | 50 Comments »

Brian Guile

Tuesday, July 3, 2007
by Geoff Young

Seeing Brian Giles reach base three times in the leadoff spot and score two of the Padres' three runs Monday night (recap | box score) is great. Seeing how he did it is even better. In the first inning, Marlins right-hander Sergio Mitre retired Giles on three pitches. Call it a mulligan. Next time up, leading off the fourth, Giles smoked a 1-0 fastball out over the plate into left-center field for a double. He took third on a beautiful sacrifice bunt by Marcus Giles (who almost beat it for a single) and scored on an Adrian Gonzalez grounder to second. With the ...

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Posted in Game Recaps, Minors | 42 Comments »

Philosophy Makes My Head Hurt

Wednesday, June 13, 2007
by Geoff Young

My degree is in English (hey, it's my native tongue), but I minored in philosophy. I finished six units shy of a double major. Then, just before my senior year, my head exploded. We're speaking in metaphors here. I'm okay, thanks for asking. Philosophy isn't without its uses. As a discipline, it can be a tremendous tool in developing one's critical thinking skills, learning how to poke (and close) holes in arguments, and avoiding members of the opposite sex. It also gets pretty esoteric at times, and not in the "I can cite Kurt Bevacqua's 1979 VORP from memory" kind of way. That said, I learned some valuable lessons while studying philosophy. Here are a few of them: If you quote Hume, Kant, ...

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Posted in Baseball, Minors | 60 Comments »

Padres Walk to Victory

Tuesday, May 8, 2007
by Geoff Young

I don't mean to sound like a sore winner, but when you put 17 guys on base, you really need to score more than four runs. We'll take the victory, of course, it's just that this game shouldn't have been close (recap | box score). Chris Young looked terrific, allowing just two runs over six innings. Both came in a bizarre fifth that featured a walk, hit batsman, and balk. The bullpen did its thing over the final three innings. The only blemish there came on a ground ball back to the box that Scott Linebrink couldn't handle, but no harm done. On the offensive side, ...

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Posted in Game Recaps, Minors | 43 Comments »