Tag Archive for ‘petco park’ rss

What Rhymes with Yorvit?

The Padres have signed veteran catcher Yorvit Torrealba to a 1-year, $1.25 million deal, with a $3.5 million mutual option for 2011. The deal was agreed upon last Friday and made official on Tuesday. Things to know about Torrealba: He hit .258/.316/.394 over the past four seasons despite getting to play half his games at [...]

Kouzmanoff for Hairston

New Padres GM Jed Hoyer made his first trade on Friday Saturday, shipping third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and minor-league second baseman Eric Sogard to Oakland for outfielders Scott Hairston and Aaron Cunningham. I’ve thought about this trade a lot, and the word that keeps coming to mind is “fair,” which is one I didn’t tend [...]

IVIE 2009: Starting Pitchers

I hope you had an excellent weekend. I finally saw Stephen Strasburg pitch on Friday and was not disappointed. Then I watched Team Mexico and Team Korea work out at Petco Park on Saturday in preparation for their WBC games here this week. If you don’t mind dropping $50 for a $19 seat, you might [...]

Rapid Revolution

What fascinates me is how quickly it all happened. The Padres lost their 99th game of the season on September 28, and a little more than four months later, everything had changed. Sure, Petco Park is still here, as are Kevin Towers and Bud Black. Adrian Gonzalez hasn’t left, nor has Jake Peavy (though not [...]

Links for 18 Dec 08

Before we get to the rest of the links, I have to call my own number. I’ve got a new article up at Hardball Times that looks back at some old projections I did here at Ducksnorts many moons ago. Good fun… Lots to cover this morning: Padres experienced relative success in Moores Era (San [...]

Links for 28 Oct 08

Mmm, linkity link links… Padres remain a preferred spot for pitchers staging comebacks (U-T). Mark Mulder, Mark Prior, and Matt Clement all have expressed an interest in pitching for the Padres or, failing that, at least wearing the uniform. Mark Prior Halloweeen Update. Speaking of Prior, Planet Padres caught up with the right-hander at a [...]

Writing the Book (13 Oct 08)

I’m still making good progress on the Ducksnorts 2009 Baseball Annual. This week I worked on player profiles and dashboards. My goal was to complete eight of ‘em, but I ended up doing 13. Next up: a few more full profiles to write, plus several shorter pieces on guys who didn’t contribute as much; I [...]

OBG08 Revisited: Hitters

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   PA BA OBP SLG Projected 425 .278 .357 .410 Actual 198 .202 .279 .270 Yuck. Our most pessimistic projection had Bard at a 725 OPS. Michael [...]

Here, There, and Everywhere

My latest article at Hardball Times looks back at a 1989 game in which the Cleveland Indians collected six hits, all home runs. Joe Carter knocked three of them. Carter, you may recall, came to San Diego the following year and gave a convincing demonstration of how utterly useless the RBI statistic is. Ten men [...]

Congratulations, It’s a Center Fielder

One of the few pleasant surprises in a miserable season has been the resurrection of Jody Gerut’s career. Gerut, who hadn’t played in the big leagues since 2005, signed a minor-league contract with the Padres back in January. Talk about under the radar. As Mick Jagger once sang, “I’ve got no expectations.” It’s not like [...]