My latest at Hardball Times is all about the Friars, who continue to defy expectations by playing well and leading the National League West in late May. Here’s a little snippet from the section on Chase Headley: If nothing else, Headley has enjoyed greater success in 2010 than his predecessor, Kevin Kouzmanoff. Beyond the fact [...]
Tag Archive for ‘hardball times’ 
Me, Elsewhere: The Amazing Adventures of Jaff Decker and Friends
We made the trek up to Lake Elsinore this past weekend, and out popped an article at Hardball Times. I got my first look at Jaff Decker and saw several other prospects, including Allan Dykstra, Drew Cumberland, Cole Figueroa, Blake Tekotte, and Anthony Bass. My general feeling on Decker, after seeing him, “is that he [...]
Friday Links (14 May 10)
Before we get to the links, I should say something about Mat Latos’ near perfection on Thursday. Like everyone else in San Diego, I didn’t see the game. After his last two starts, we can all agree that Latos doesn’t need more seasoning at Triple-A. To maintain some perspective, those two starts came against teams [...]
Me, Elsewhere: A Different Look at the Minors
My latest at Hardball Times focuses on an aspect of minor-league baseball that not everyone realizes exists, namely the fact that pitchers sit in the stands charting pitches. As I note, it’s a little different from what you find at the big-league level: Imagine yourself at Dodger Stadium, catching a Dodgers-Giants game with 40,000 of [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Early-Season Surprises
While I’m working on the recap of Tuesday’s victory, here’s a little something to keep you busy: My latest Hardball Times article looks at some of the more unexpected performances over the first two weeks of 2010. There’s no real Padres connection, although former Friars Rickey Henderson, Miguel Olivo, Tony Clark, David Ross, Russell Branyan, [...]
Friday Links (9 Apr 10)
I kind of went overboard today… Gunter Finally on board the sabermetrics revolution (ESPN). Bill Simmons? Oh, my. Good man, and glad to have you with us! [h/t Baseball-Reference] Closer Bell opens door on many topics (Padres.com). Heath Bell has nice things to say about teammate Will Venable: “He’s showed a lot more power than [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Red Sox, Yankees, Radiohead
I tried to make the Opening Day matchup between the Red Sox and Yankees watchable by synchronizing it to Radiohead’s OK, Computer. The experiment, which is documented in my latest at Hardball Times, yielded a few fun results: No. 14 is up for the Yankees. Odd stance. Waggles his bat a lot. “Keep breathing,” advises [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Padres Preview at THT
It’s that time of year again. My annual Five Questions article is up at Hardball Times. One of my questions focuses on the new ownership group and what it is doing to regain fan trust: Jeff Moorad and President and COO Tom Garfinkel have come in and expressed a commitment to the organization, the fans, [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Translating Batting Lines into Pitching Lines
My latest at Hardball Times dusts off an old Bill James toy that attempts to show what a hitter’s output might look like recast as a pitching line. For example, if we take Adrian Gonzalez’s 2009 season, we get the following pitching line (see the article for methodology): IP H R ER BB SO ERA [...]
Me, Elsewhere: Second-Year Players
My latest article at Hardball Times focuses on eight guys who made their big-league debuts in 2009 more or less as full-time players. Padres shortstop Everth Cabrera is among them. We’ve compared Cabrera to Rafael Furcal before, as has everyone else. While digging, I found a few more names worth pondering: Player Year Pos PA [...]
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