marcus giles

Blast from the Past: Old Free Agents, Ugly Drafts, and Great Albums

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
by Geoff Young

Not much of a theme today. Just... whatever... Remember when we used to lust after Marcus Giles? This was in 2002 -- years before he actually arrived and demonstrated an alarming inability to hit baseballs. We kinda had a thing for Jose Vidro and Bobby Hill back then, too. Don't ask. On the bright side, Royce Clayton signed with Milwaukee, leaving the Padres with their fallback option of... Mark Loretta. That same year, we were underwhelmed by the Padres off-season moves, and who can blame us? The big free-agent signings were 39-year-old outfielder Brady Anderson, injured right-handers Francisco Cordova and Jaret Wright, and 46-year-old left-hander Jesse Orosco. I think all of us were expecting big things from the '03 team after those moves. Could you ...

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Posted in Draft, Off-Topic | No Comments »

Blast from the Past: Random Bits of November

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
by Geoff Young

Let's see, what were we talking about this time last year? Two years ago? Four years? Six? 2007 We were chatting with our pal Steve Poltz about music, baseball, and life: I have a song coming out on my new CD that's called "A Brief History of My Life." It starts off with us moving to Pasadena from Halifax and taking an oath that we wouldn't join the Communist party. That's the first thing I remember -- standing next to my dad, and him becoming an American citizen. Then later in the song, the chorus goes: We talked Hollywood and baseball in the car The voice of Vin Scully will travel real far The next chorus says, "The voice of Jack Buck"; the third one says, "The voice of Ernie Harwell"; ...

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Posted in Odds and Ends | 5 Comments »

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OBG08 Revisited: Hitters

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
by Geoff Young

Back in February we did some community projections for the 2008 Padres. In the interest of accountability, here's how we measured up to reality. Catchers Josh Bard, 2008 PABAOBPSLG Projected425.278.357.410 Actual198.202.279.270 Yuck. Our most pessimistic projection had Bard at a 725 OPS. Michael Barrett, 2008 PABAOBPSLG Projected246.263.323.419 Actual107.202.274.298 We need a synonym for "yuck," preferably something that rhymes. If only there were such a word... Infielders Adrian Gonzalez, 2008 PABAOBPSLG Projected641.293.362.517 Actual700.279.361.510 We totally nailed this one. Imagine how many batting titles Gonzalez could win if he didn't play half his games at Petco Park and weren't Molina-brother slow. Khalil Greene, 2008 PABAOBPSLG Projected561.257.309.464 Actual423.213.260.339 Greene and Bard killed the offense this year, but we already knew that. Tadahito Iguchi, 2008 PABAOBPSLG Projected532.263.341.391 Actual337.232.292.306 Iguchi was actually a little worse than Marcus Giles in 2007, which just boggles the imagination....

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Posted in Projections | 19 Comments »

Gee, I Still Don’t Understand Sample Size

Wednesday, April 30, 2008
by Geoff Young

The Padres need to go out and get more hitters. I know this is true because I keep hearing it. I also know it's a complete load of garbage. What they really need is for the hitters they already have to start performing up to their capabilities. Padres Hitters: 2008, 2007, Career 20082007Career AgePAOPS+PAOPS+PAOPS+ Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of April 29, 2008. Josh Bard309554443107136499 Adrian Gonzalez261161267201251673119 Tadahito Iguchi331166453392185796 Kevin Kouzmanoff261236453410971898 Khalil Greene2811657659100233599 Scott Hairston2891922949478586 Jim Edmonds387736411887384132 Brian Giles371141165521097043139 Paul McAnulty276298434914977 The only guy who might be playing over his head is McAnulty. But we don't really know because we've never gotten the opportunity to see what P-Mac is capable of doing at the big-league level over extended periods of ...

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Posted in Baseball | 113 Comments »

That Strange Feeling We Sometimes Get

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
by Geoff Young

Two quick observations about Jim Edmonds and Tadahito Iguchi: Mike Cameron looked lost in center field last April. Marcus Giles hit .327/.376/.459 that same month. What we're seeing from Edmonds and Iguchi right now may not mean much in August in September. In other words, we still don't know what we've got...

Posted in Open Thread | 39 Comments »

Everything in Its Right Place

Tuesday, April 1, 2008
by Geoff Young

I couldn't sit still on Monday. I can't sit still a lot of the time, but on Opening Day it's always worse. My nervous tics develop nervous tics. I arrived downtown just after 4 p.m., wearing my Chris Young jersey, and toting my digital camera and scorebook. Mrs. Ducksnorts and I wandered over to one of the many fine establishments within walking distance of Petco Park, where we snacked on finger foods and quaffed Belhaven Scotch Scottish Ale on tap at $3.50 per pint. I thought about the folks who are outraged at being charged more than twice as much for domestic swill at the ballpark. After brief consideration, I decided that "continuing ...

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Posted in Game Recaps | 81 Comments »

Your Predictions for 2008?

Sunday, March 30, 2008
by Geoff Young

From esteemed reader LynchMob comes this excellent idea for a post on the eve of Opening Day: "provide us with a list of questions which you want us, the commenters, to go 'on the record' with"; he then poses several questions, which you will find below. This might be fun to peek back at throughout the season. I'll lead off with my responses; feel free to follow... How many wins for the Padres in 2008? They'll go 86-76. Is this 2008 team better or worse than the 2007 team? Why? About the same. Randy Wolf and Tadahito Iguchi should represent upgrades over David Wells and Marcus Giles, while Jim Edmonds won't produce like Mike Cameron. Where will they finish in the NL West? Second place. What are ...

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Posted in Baseball | 25 Comments »