Jed Hoyer’s predecessor, Kevin Towers, was known as “The Sludge Merchant” for his ability (born out of necessity) to pick up discarded scraps and turn them into functioning parts. Claiming Scott Linebrink off waivers and flipping him for Joe Thatcher after five great seasons, stealing Heath Bell from the Mets, signing Brian Sikorski from Japan [...]
Tag Archive for ‘baseball prospectus’ 
Me, Elsewhere: Sir Not Appearing in Los Angeles
You may have noticed a few empty seats in the Padres’ loss Monday night at Dodger Stadium. Attendance was listed at 29,764, which is 53 percent of capacity (and probably a generous estimate of how many people actually showed up to the game). For all my complaining about the small crowds at Petco Park, the [...]
Me, Elsewhere: San Diego Padres, Scoring Machine
My latest at Baseball Prospectus ($) examines the topsy-turvy NL West, where the formerly front-running San Francisco Giants have played poorly (.405 Pythagorean winning percentage) since the All-Star break and the formerly cellar-dwelling Padres have done the opposite (.600 Pythag). Heck, the Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks are the only two teams in the division with [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Millwood in Denver, and Scoresheet Podcast
My latest at Baseball Prospectus ($) wonders why the lowly Rockies, a team that should be rebuilding for the future, would trade away 27-year-old right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez and insert 36-year-old Kevin Millwod into the rotation. The article also examines the difficulties in evaluating Pacific Coast League performance, an issue the Padres have experienced firsthand this [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Mets Series Preview, and NL West Two-Team Race
The good folks at SNY.tv were kind enough to have me on Monday’s edition of The Baseball Show to preview this week’s Padres/Mets series at Citi Field. My comments on Heath Bell probably sounded smarter before he helped his former team come back from a four-run deficit and kept his current team from its first [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Baseball as a Three-Act Play
My latest at Baseball Prospectus ($) breaks down NL West teams’ run scoring and prevention tendencies in three-inning increments. Surprisingly, the Padres are easily the best (+18 run differential through July 31) from the seventh inning onward — this despite being outscored by 13 runs in extra frames. Of course, when you are getting obliterated [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Bruce Bochy and One-Run Games
My latest at Baseball Prospectus (free) examines San Francisco’s outstanding record (27-13 at time of publication) in one-run games this year. Bruce Bochy’s Giants aren’t historically great in that regard (current winning percentage of .675 would place them in a tie for 35th place all-time), but they’re pretty darned good. Bochy, in fact, has enjoyed [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Kids in the NL West
My latest at Baseball Prospectus ($) explores the success of young hitters in Arizona and lack of same in Los Angeles. It also touches on the resurgence of old guys in Colorado, namely Jason Giambi and former Padres draft pick Todd Helton. Ah, Helton. I sometimes wonder what might have been had Tom Werner spent [...]
Stauffer’s Struggles
by Geoff Young on Sep 13, 2011 (5) Comments
I’m a little concerned about Tim Stauffer’s workload this season. The obvious reason for this, which I mention in my latest at Baseball Prospectus ($) — it’s about that bizarre walkoff walk/protest game between the Padres and Diamondbacks this past Saturday — is that Stauffer has been a completely different pitcher down the stretch than [...]