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"; ...

Links for 8 Nov 08

Saturday, November 8, 2008
by Geoff Young
What the heck, I'm up anyway. Let's have a little Saturday morning linkfest... Organization picks up $9 million option for right fielder in 2009. Tom Krasovic at the U-T reports that the Padres have picked up Brian Giles' option for 2009. Score one for common sense. Adrian Gonzalez-Jim Stone Extravaganza Golf Tournament & Fiesta. Adrian Gonzalez is hosting his annual charity golf tournament on Friday, November 14. Celebrities scheduled to attend include Chris Young, Brian Giles, Randy Jones, Phil Nevin, Willie Buchanon, Maury Wills, Alan Trammell and many more. Minor League ...
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Towers Signs through 2010

Wednesday, January 23, 2008
by Geoff Young
General Manager Kevin Towers has signed a contract extension that will keep him in San Diego through 2010 (hat tip to several readers). To celebrate, here is a high-level look at Towers' year-by-year trading record: Kevin Towers Trades by Year  Win Shares  YearNoInOutDiffBest 199526614+52Roberts for Joyner, Dec 21 19968+178107+71Ausmus and Cedeno for Flaherty and Gomez, Jun 18 199717144169-25Lee for Brown, Dec 15 1998114824+24...

Trade for Catcher in the Works?

Thursday, October 23, 2003
by Geoff Young
Clearing off the ol' desk real quick. Enjoy... A reader alerted me to these two articles over at Prospectus where Jonah Keri interviews Padre GM Kevin Towers. As usual, Towers is pretty candid and it's a good read. The reader who sent this also noted, "He [Towers] says he's working on a trade for a catcher with 3 of the 8 playoff clubs, 2 AL and one NL. Any thoughts on who it might be?" Thoughts, me? Yeah, I've got a few. The only starting catchers on the eight playoff clubs who aren't eligible to file for free agency at the end of the season are Damian Miller, A.J. Pierzynski, Jorge Posada, Jason Varitek, and Ramon Hernandez. There are also some guys ...

Giving Away Phillips

Thursday, March 20, 2003
by Geoff Young
What the heck, I haven't done a good rant in a while. Okay, there was the Junior Seau riff the other day but when you get down to it, that was just football. So, if you missed it, the Pads acquired Rondell White from the Yankees. Yep, Kevin Towers finally found a taker for Bubba Trammell's contract and he managed to pick up a decent outfielder in return. Not bad, right? Certainly no cause for a rant. There was one other player in the deal: Mark Phillips. Honestly, when I heard there was a minor leaguer involved, I figured it was a lesser propect, like Bernie Castro or J.J. Furmaniak. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would be ...

Looking Back at Preseason Projections

Saturday, October 19, 2002
by Geoff Young
Okay, ducksnorts.com is back in effect, so you can forget about all those other nasty URLs I gave you. Once again, your patience is appreciated. Game 1 of the World Series tonight. Woo-hoo! And I'll be at band practice, trying to figure out how to play Rick James' "Superfreak" without keyboards. Sigh. But I'll tape the game; only bad thing about that is I can't listen to ESPN radio while watching the game. You know I'm not going to listen to the Fox announcers. While we're waiting, I thought I'd take a look back at some preseason projections for Padre players (alliteration not intended). Hey, Dennis Tankersley hit .308/.308/.615 in 13 at-bats. Who knew? Long story somewhat shorter, I did the best on three of the ...

Back from Ashland

Wednesday, September 25, 2002
by Geoff Young
I'm back from a week on the road. Drove up to Ashland, saw some plays (Shakespeare's Winter's Tale and Michael Frayn's Noises Off for the curious), hung with the 'rents. It was great to get away and relax for a bit. Vacations are always a little depressing, though. I mean, wouldn't it be cool if you didn't have to go back to work at the end? From the Vault Rummaging through the archives is always amusing. In order to save space, I'll spare you all the things I said that turned out horribly wrong and limit myself to three (yes, amazingly enough I was able to find three) comments I made that actually look pretty smart right now. Last August I brashly predicted that Ryan ...