hardball times

Thanksgiving Holiday Schedule

Saturday, November 22, 2008
by Geoff Young

Forgive the lack of updates this past week. I rolled out of bed on Monday, blinked, and it was Saturday. Time is not your friend. We're off to Hawai'i for the annual Thanksgiving shindig at my wife's family's farm. I'm prepping some articles (mostly annotated reruns) to run in my absence; although discussion is always welcome, comments may be held up in the moderation queue a little longer than usual. I will get to stuff when I can, but my priorities over the next two weeks are: Hang out with family Eat good home cookin' Work on the book Do nothing Anything else is a luxury, and I make no guarantees. I also have a couple of articles scheduled to run elsewhere at some point. One is on Padres bench coach Ted ...

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Posted in Site News | 1 Comment »

Links for 18 Nov 08

Tuesday, November 18, 2008
by Geoff Young

Hooray, it's links: Giles and Hoffman (It Might Be Dangerous...). Paul DePodesta offers his thoughts on the re-signing of Brian Giles as well as the latest in the Trevor Hoffman negotiations (or lack thereof). [h/t LynchMob] John Moores to give $2.1 million to Scripps Research Institute (Gaslamp Ball) I especially like how some of the commenters begrudge Moores for, you know, doing some good in the world. That takes a special kind of bitter. ;-) Quite a Haul (Bad Altitude) Mark Donohue isn't impressed with what the Rockies got in return for Matt Holliday, and who can blame him? Here's hoping the Padres do better in any ...

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Posted in Notes and Links | 15 Comments »

Padres tickets Chargers tickets Sports tickets

Links for 31 Oct 08

Friday, October 31, 2008
by Geoff Young

Happy Halloween! To the links... Sabathia's free agency could set up a big payday for Padres ace (San Diego Union-Tribune). Reader Nick G. sends us an update on the Jake Peavy "story" from Tom Krasovic. Quoth Peavy's agent, Barry Axelrod: Making this about money is not my style, nor Jake's style. I think we proved that. But at the same time, I don't think Jake should have to sacrifice anything. I don't doubt Axelrod's sincerity, but these millionaires need to let go of that whole "it's not about the money" thing. Even if they believe it, and even if they're correct in believing it, nobody wants to hear about Peavy's "sacrifice." Don't get me wrong, ...

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Posted in Notes and Links | 8 Comments »

Links for 22 Oct 08

Wednesday, October 22, 2008
by Geoff Young

Notes to self: Always add Sriracha to spaghetti sauce, stop leering at Yvonne Strahovski, listen to more Fishbone... Why not us? Comparing Royals' moves to Rays' decisions (Kansas City Star). Reader Didi sends this article by Joe Posnanski. There's plenty of good stuff in here, but looking beyond the article, what gets me is the fact that the Rays won 31 more games in 2008 than they did the previous season. In fact, they bested their previous franchise high in wins by 27. The Padres are coming off a season in which they fell by 26 games. I guess my point is that large yearly fluctuations can and do happen. In San ...

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Posted in Notes and Links | 14 Comments »

Links for 14 Oct 08

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
by Geoff Young

I'm trying out a tool that pulls links from my Delicious bookmarks and publishes them here on a semi-regular basis... How much should Ben Sheets get? (Hardball Times). Victor Wang uses projected performance and risk analysis to predict that free-agent right-hander Ben Sheets will get $55-65 million for 4 or 5 years. The methodology seems reasonable, although that's an awful lot to pay for a guy who has made fewer than 25 starts in three of the last four seasons. Padres target pair of coaches (Padres.com). Corey Brock talks coaching changes. From the article: "The team has targeted Jim Lefebvre as the favorite for its hitting coach vacancy and ...

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Posted in Notes and Links | 4 Comments »

We’ll See You When We See You

Monday, September 29, 2008
by Geoff Young

The season is over. Thank goodness for that. The Padres played brutal baseball for most of 2008, and fans were in a pretty sour mood all year. Unfortunately I let the negativity get to me more than I should have. I suppose it's safe to admit this now, because I no longer feel it's likely to happen, but on multiple occasions throughout the summer, I came within hours of pulling the plug on Ducksnorts for good. My wife talked me down each time, and for that I owe her many thanks. So do you if you enjoy this site at all. Going forward, I'm developing strategies to help me better survive next season and keep me from reaching the point where I dread visiting my own blog. One ...

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Posted in Site News | 22 Comments »

Fun with Run Support

Thursday, September 18, 2008
by Geoff Young

My latest article at Hardball Times focuses on a technique Bill James employed in his 1988 Baseball Abstract to evaluate the degree to which a pitcher might be aided (or not) by his offense. James used it to compare Danny Jackson and Walt Terrell from 1985 to 1987; I use it to compare Jarrod Washburn and Ramon Ortiz in 2003. . . . Elsewhere, Tom Tango is doing his annual fan scouting report. Go lend your expertise to the project and scout the Padres (h/t It Might Be Dangerous... You ...

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Posted in Notes and Links | 3 Comments »