Padres skipper Bud Black started Alberto Gonzalez at first base on Friday evening against the Dodgers. The results were predictably awful, as Ted Lilly and three relievers proceeded to blank the home club on four hits. With Kyle Blanks and Jesus Guzman nursing injuries and a lefty on the mound, Black’s options were limited. He [...]
Tag Archive for ‘heath bell’ 
Thursday Links (22 Sep 11)
Hey, how ’bout a sweep at Coors Field? There’s still time for the Padres to knock the Rockies out of fourth place (c’mon, pretend that’s a worthy goal). I especially like that Anthony Bass needed just 25 pitches to get through the entire Colorado lineup once and 52 to get through 5 innings. Efficiency is [...]
Sweeping the Marlins, Honoring Hoffman
What’s up with the Padres offense? When they hit the road earlier this month and averaged 7 runs a game on their 10-game swing through Pittsburgh, New York, and Cincinnati, that made a certain amount of sense. But to return home and average 5.4 at Petco Park? Granted, the Mets and Marlins aren’t great teams; [...]
Retiring Number 51
The Padres will retire Trevor Hoffman’s number 51 before Sunday afternoon’s game against the Florida Marlins, Hoffman’s first big-league team. To prepare for this momentous occasion, I thought it might be fun to revisit some past articles about the man here at Ducksnorts.
Wednesday Links (17 Aug 11)
One of these years I will finish my essay comparing the scrappy indie-rock band Pavement to David Eckstein. While we’re all waiting for that to happen, here are some links you might enjoy…
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 [...]
Thursday Links (4 Aug 11)
It’s not the space cowboy, the gangster of love, or even Maurice. It’s just links… 50 stolen bases and .500 slugging (Baseball-Reference). Former Padres Tony Gwynn and Rickey Henderson appear on this list, as does arguably the most talented baseball player I’ve ever seen, Eric Davis. Also, how great was Cesar Cedeno, doing it at [...]
Bell’s Tell
One scenario we examined yesterday in discussing how Heath Bell’s situation might play out is that he could accept arbitration and remain in San Diego another year rather than pursue long-term options elsewhere. The notion that a professional ballplayer would take less money to stay in a place he considers home may seem curious to [...]
Hoyer Learning to Love the Sludge
by Geoff Young on Sep 06, 2011 (18) Comments
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 [...]