All-Time Padres Team

Friday, September 19, 2008
by Geoff Young
Last week I mentioned an all-time Padres team that I've been assembling. This wasn't just an intellectual exercise. Our friends at Seamheads are running a simulation league this off-season with the best players from each big-league franchise, and they invited me to submit a 40-man roster for the Padres. Most of the choices were fairly obvious (I'd already ranked the best players by position in the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual), but some presented a challenge. Usually it came down to questions of longevity versus effectiveness. For example, Luis Salazar spent a lot more time playing third base in San Diego than Gary Sheffield did, but only one of those guys will help you win baseball games. I tried to stick with players who ...
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Prospects, Meetups, and Fantasy League

Thursday, February 21, 2008
by Geoff Young
Uh-oh, another post full of bullet points. I am so jonesing for actual games... I'm seriously stuck in the past. The latest installment in my re-examination of the top prospects of '98 is up at Knuckle Curve. Padres relevance? Rafael Medina checks in at #72, Ramon Hernandez at #74. Turning the clock back another decade, I've written a brief retrospective of the 1988 Pacific Coast League over at Hardball Times. Padres everywhere in this one: Sandy Alomar Jr., Greg Harris, Jerald Clark, Ken Caminiti, Shane Mack, Gary Lucas, Bruce Bochy, Darrel Akerfelds, Kevin Towers. Fun stuff. Ben B. points us to a ...
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Posted in Baseball | 49 Comments »

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OBG08: Chris Young

Tuesday, February 5, 2008
by Geoff Young
I was flipping through The 1996 Big Bad Baseball Annual (aff link) and ran across Don Malcolm's preview of the Padres that year. First off, Malcolm's discussion of Skip Spence was inspired, if a bit incongruous. A small sampling, from page 201: Occasionally there is a scraggy looking, doubled-over raggedy man, with a heavily weathered face and the remnants of a once-toothy grin flashing in a skeletal grimace, who can be seen wandering the aisles in the cheap seats at Jack Murphy Stadium. He stumbles from ...
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Posted in Projections | 28 Comments »

Interview: Steve Poltz, Part 5

Thursday, December 13, 2007
by Geoff Young
In Part 4 of our chat with singer/songwriter/Padre fan Steve Poltz poltz.com, Steve talked about Steve Garvey's homer in the NLCS in '84, shagging fly balls while Tony Gwynn took batting practice, and more. In our final segment, Steve discusses his meeting of Ken Caminiti, the heartbreak of watching USD alum Brady Clark struggle in Colorado, and his favorite baseball movies. *** Ducksnorts: How about the '98 team? Steve Poltz: Back in '98, Kevin Brown did it all. He was such a gamer; I f***in' loved that guy... [Ken] Caminiti, down in Mexico getting an IV... I have a memory of him driving on his motorcycle at Windansea -- that was the year I knew the whole ...
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Posted in Interviews | 121 Comments »

Padres Lose Bradley to Rangers

Sunday, December 9, 2007
by Geoff Young
Milton Bradley is gone. On Thursday, the Padres were optimistic that they'd retain his services, but now it appears that the Texas Rangers have swooped in and grabbed him. Because the Padres didn't offer Bradley arbitration, they won't receive a compensatory draft pick. (We didn't re-sign Bradley, and all we got was this lousy T-shirt.) Congrats to the Rangers, who have made the bargain signing of the winter. Bradley comes with considerable baggage, but he is a difference maker in the lineup, the likes of which the Padres hadn't seen since the days of Ken Caminiti, Tony Gwynn, and Greg Vaughn in '96, '97, and '98, respectively. Here's hoping for better news on the Kosuke Fukudome ...
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Posted in Roster Notes | 25 Comments »

RIP, Cammy

Wednesday, October 13, 2004
by Geoff Young
I wanted to mention this sooner, but I've been searching for the right words. I still haven't found them, and I may never find them, but I have to say something. As you probably know by now, former Padre third baseman Ken Caminiti died of an apparent heart attack Sunday, at age 41. The first thought that came into my head when I heard the news was: what a waste. It is sad beyond words that anyone should die so young. Yeah, I know it happens every day and why should we make a big fuss about Caminiti just because he was a baseball player? A few things come to mind. First is the impact Caminiti had on San Diego and the Padres. He played ...
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