For the working magician, the best tool in his toolbox is a little thing we like to call the false expectation. If played right, it can stun an audience into total submission. 1973 Draft Need a break from the current season? My article on the ’73 amateur draft is now up at Hardball Times. Where’s [...]
Tag Archive for ‘mike_cameron’ 
Peavy Ties Benes, Bullpen (Barely) Holds On to Beat Mets
Nice to hang on for the win Wednesday night (box score). Congrats to Jake Peavy for tying Andy Benes’ career mark for strikeouts by a Padres pitcher. The game wasn’t without its white-knuckle moments, aka the ninth inning. Several folks have noted that the Padres are having difficulty closing out games, and I’m happy (or [...]
Brian Guile
Seeing Brian Giles reach base three times in the leadoff spot and score two of the Padres’ three runs Monday night (recap | box score) is great. Seeing how he did it is even better. In the first inning, Marlins right-hander Sergio Mitre retired Giles on three pitches. Call it a mulligan. Next time up, [...]
Another City, Another Series Win
Good to see the boys wrap up the road trip with a couple of wins in Chicago. Even better to see Mike Cameron playing well again. Since May 1, he’s batting .288/.341/.532. That’s more like it. The fight on Saturday? I’ll be honest; I hate that aspect of professional sports — nobody walks away from [...]
Friday Links (1 Jun 07)
I can’t even begin to tell you how glad I am the Padres came back to win Thursday night. I’m not sure how much enthusiasm I could’ve faked if they’d lost to Shawn Chacon. Nice to see Khalil Greene render the umpires’ confusion regarding Josh Bard‘s 11th inning “double” irrelevant by driving home pinch-runner Rob [...]
Padres Sign Latos, Beat Bucs
It’s not often that a 9-0 victory takes a backseat to a draft signing. Then again, it’s not often that the Padres sign a guy like Matt Latos. In case you missed it, the Pads and Latos agreed to terms late Wednesday evening. Jim Callis at BA has the bonus at $1.25 million, well off [...]
Lots of Lumber, a Little Ballet
For the second straight start, Jake Peavy worked extremely hard in the first inning and then settled down to pitch a good game. I’m mostly encouraged by this. It’s great that Peavy is showing the ability to pitch to contact; maybe next he can figure out how to do that out of the gate: Jake [...]
Maddux Forgets He’s Old, Spins Complete Game Against Reds
Vintage Maddux? I didn’t watch enough of Greg Maddux during his prime, but I can’t imgaine him (or anyone else) pitching much better than he did on Monday night against the Reds (recap | box score). How good was The Professor? According to the U-T, Jake Peavy, who charted the game, said that Maddux “missed [...]
Good Isn’t Good Enough
Tough loss Tuesday. Justin Germano comes up from Triple-A and pitches the game of his life, and the normally brilliant bullpen blows a late lead (recap | box score). Of course, if the batters could get a key hit every now and then, the bullpen wouldn’t be under such constant pressure to be brilliant all [...]
A Lot Can Go Wrong in a Game
I don’t have the heart to watch this one a second time on TiVo, so we’ll have to rely on my impressions of Wednesday night’s game (recap | box score) as viewed from the upper deck. Scary proposition, I know, but there it is. David Wells pitched a beautiful game. Honestly, I don’t know that [...]
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