bullpen

Partly Focused, with a Ten Percent Chance of Useful

Thursday, September 11, 2008
by Geoff Young

Like that new Metallica song, I'm scattered and unfocused today, with hopefully a touch of good stuff in there somewhere... Folks have been singing the praises of Cha Seung Baek because his fastball actually creeps into the mid-90s. I look at his track record and apparent disinterest in attacking hitters, and have concerns, but Monday night against the Dodgers he made Manny Ramirez look terrible twice. In the fourth inning, Baek kept pounding fastballs in on Ramirez, who eventually popped weakly to the right side of the infield. Then in the sixth, on a full count, Baek got Ramirez to chase a fastball out off the plate. ...

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Posted in Notes and Links | 14 Comments »

Unfinished Notes on a Bullpen

Wednesday, September 3, 2008
by Geoff Young

Warning: This post is a mess; proceed at your own risk... I was thinking about the bullpen a while back and got to wondering a few things: How have Padres relievers performed this year as compared to the starters? How does this compare with league average? How does this compare with recent Padres teams? How does this compare with all Padres teams? What were some shared characteristics of the good bullpens? Of the bad ones? How was workload distributed (i.e., was it spread fairly evenly or did two or three guys carry most of the burden)? How often were relievers used? How hard were they worked? As is often the case, I got distracted. I ended up tackling (well, maybe not tackling, more like tapping on the shoulder) #3 and #4, and ignoring the rest. ...

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Posted in Baseball | 3 Comments »

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Series Preview: Mac Thomason Talks Braves

Tuesday, May 6, 2008
by Geoff Young

The Padres continue their East Coast swing with three in Atlanta starting Tuesday evening. To learn more about the 2008 Braves, I checked in with Mac Thomason, of the venerable and most excellent blog Braves Journal. Ducksnorts: The NL East looks to be tight again this year. How do you like the Braves' chances? Thomason: I'd like it better if I was confident in John Smoltz's shoulder or Rafael Soriano's elbow. The Braves are going to score some runs; they're outscoring the Phillies this year even with the Phillies' park advantage. But right now the starting pitching is a huge mess (I realize that the Braves have been better at preventing runs than scoring them so far, but looking at ...

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Posted in Interviews | 45 Comments »

IGD: Padres @ Diamondbacks (20 Apr 08)

Sunday, April 20, 2008
by Geoff Young

Padres (8-10) @ D'backs (13-4) Randy Wolf vs Randy Johnson 1:10 p.m. PT Channel 4SD AM 1090, FM 105.7, XM 189 MLB, B-R I love Greg Maddux's attitude. Dude took one for the team on Friday, throwing 113 pitches to give a beleaguered bullpen some rest following the 22-inning contest that finished earlier in the morning, in a different city. Not that you want to see a guy surrender nine runs in a game, and not that Maddux needs my approval, but that was solid. Padres try to avoid the sweep in Phoenix on Sunday. ...

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Posted in In-Game Discussion | 113 Comments »

Series Preview: Jim McLennan Talks Diamondbacks

Friday, April 18, 2008
by Geoff Young

Yeah, it's Friday, but we've got something way cooler than links. We've got Jim McLennan, of AZ Snakepit fame, with us, and he's going to give us the dirt on this year's Diamondbacks. Ducksnorts: I picked Arizona to win the NL West in 2007 on the strength of its good young position players. The team took the division, but without much help from said players. Now that these kids have a year of experience under their belts, what are your expectations for the Diamondbacks in 2008? McLennan: For obvious reasons, the experience is certainly going to help. This time last year, Chris Young had just made his major-league debut, Mark Reynolds was in Double-A and Justin Upton was all the way down in High-A. Now, ...

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Posted in Interviews | 88 Comments »

Singles Night

Wednesday, April 9, 2008
by Geoff Young

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 more talent than they get credit for, but not so much that they can play stupid baseball and still expect to win games: Two homers to Bengie Molina? Granted, the first got a good push from the 30-mph wind, but c'mon, there's a reason we chide the Giants for batting Molina cleanup. Thirteen singles, no extra-base hits? I don't know a nice way to say this, but the Padres may have the slowest team ...

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Posted in Game Recaps | 75 Comments »

Friday Links (21 Mar 08)

Friday, March 21, 2008
by Geoff Young

Reminder to folks here in San Diego: I'll be on "SportsWrap" this Sunday evening at 11:35 p.m. PT. Tune to NBC 7/39 for your chance to see a real-live baseball dork on television. To the links... Bill Center at the U-T takes a look at roster possibilities. According to this, Glendon Rusch will be in the bullpen and Wil Ledezma (who is out of options) likely will be on the staff in some capacity. In related news, Jim Edmonds is optimistic hopeful he'll be ready for Opening Day. Tom Krasovic at the U-T ...

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Posted in Notes and Links | 108 Comments »