Tag Archive for ‘ryan klesko’ rss

Do the Padres Trade Away Their Stars?

A debunking? Moi? Why, I’d love to give it a go… Reader Peter Thomas writes: I keep reading on message boards and hearing on Hacksaw [San Diego radio personality Lee Hamilton] “react to me” that the Padres are constantly trading away All-Star players and that there’s no reason to root for a team that is [...]

Rizzo’s Debut

Anthony Rizzo made his big-league debut Thursday night at Petco Park. The Padres beat Washington, 7-3, although this was a mere footnote to the “crowd” (if three is a crowd, then 16,464 qualifies), which cheered everything Rizzo did but which seemed uncertain how to occupy the spaces between his moments. The public address announcer helped [...]

Rizzomania

First baseman Anthony Rizzo been recalled by the Padres, and the hype machine is in full effect. Rizzo, acquired in the trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez to Boston, should feel no pressure trying to replace a hometown kid who is one of the best hitters ever to don a Padres uniform. Nor should he suffer [...]

Best Single-Game Hitting Performances in Padres History

I’ve had this on my to-do list for a while. Now’s as good a time as any… Using Baseball-Reference’s Play Index tool, I found the top 300 single-game performances by Padres hitters as measured by RE24 and WPA. One of these measures runs, the other wins… so they’re not on the same scale. It makes [...]

Regardless of Venue, Homers Are Hard to Come By in San Diego

The folks at Gaslamp Ball have a fun article up about polarizing topics for Padres fans. Among the topics is Petco Park’s effect on offense. It’s a legitimate concern, but part of the discussion centers on a fallacy: “Fans used to seeing home runs fly out of a Qualcomm Stadium at an average rate were [...]

What Do You Want from Ducksnorts?

I’m trying to come up with a game plan for 2011 and I need your help. What do you want to see here this year? Game recaps? Analysis? Snark? Minor-league coverage? Interviews? Chats? Question marks? Give me some feedback. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with another year of whatever the heck it is I’ve been doing.

Links for 23 Jan 09

First off, thanks for the excellent discussion on fan disillusionment. You’ve helped me see the problem in new ways, and I’ve got additional thoughts that I’ll share as soon as they make sense. It’ll probably come in the form of a thought exercise — sort of along the lines of Kobayashi Maru. Until then, we’ve [...]

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, [...]

All-Time Padres Team

Last week I mentioned an all-time Padres team that I’ve been assembling. This wasn’t just an intellectual exercise. Our friends at Seamheads are running a simulation league this off-season with the best players from each big-league franchise, and they invited me to submit a 40-man roster for the Padres. Most of the choices were fairly [...]

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 [...]