The Padres have optioned outfielder Will Venable to Triple-A Tucson and recalled outfielder Blake Tekotte from Double-A San Antonio. I don’t know what is wrong with Venable (.224/.293/.291 in 151 PA this year) or how to fix it, but he vows to improve his approach. At his best, Venable is a useful if flawed piece [...]
Tag Archive for ‘mark kotsay’ 
Once Upon My Mind: It’s Just a Big Jumbled Mess
Ah, November… Of all the months between October and December, it is by far my favorite. It’s also the month in which I once wrote many things, some of which have not come back to embarrass me…
Cameron Maybin: When a Player’s Perceived Value Plummets, That’s the Time to Grab Him
I heard about the Cameron Maybin trade while I was in Arizona, taking in some AFL games (more on that later in the week). I thought about it a lot on the drive home and shared the gist of my conclusion on Twitter: Even if Maybin ends up stinking, so what? Webb and Mujica can [...]
Mailbag: Cumberland, Tekotte, and the Rest
Before we get started, I must thank David Eckstein for making me look smarter than I am. In case you missed it, no sooner do I admit to the world that I want Eckstein up in a crucial situation than he whacks an RBI single to tie Wednesday’s game with two out in the ninth [...]
Blast from the Past: Old Free Agents, Ugly Drafts, and Great Albums
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, [...]
Matched Pairs: Batters
I’m addicted to Baseball-Reference’s PI tool. For grins I ran a search on everyone who has accumulated 1500 or more career plate appearances with the Padres (39 in total) and ordered them from top (Fred McGriff) to bottom (Enzo Hernandez) according to OPS+. Then I looked for “matched pairs” — guys who have the same [...]
Kotsay for Hernandez
Hadn’t planned to be away from the blog for so long this time. I started to scratch something together the other day when the Giants went out and picked up A.J. Pierzynski, because I figured that move might impact the Padres. And it did. When last we met, I mentioned that I expected Kevin Towers [...]
Missing Mark Loretta
by Geoff Young on Aug 29, 2011 (8) Comments
Although no single point of failure can explain this year’s Padres (the departure of Adrian Gonzalez makes for an easy target, but they lost 99 games with him in 2008), it’s worth noting that the team has gotten almost nothing out of the no. 2 hole. That is the usual spot for Jason Bartlett, who [...]