Friday Links (9 May 08)

Friday, May 9, 2008
by Geoff Young
Don't know how we ended up with so many of these, but here they are: Padres can't pin hitting woes on Petco (ESPN, h/t parlo). Quoth Khalil Greene: I'm not going to consistently say it, but the ballpark plays a major factor in it -- more than anybody lets on at times. That's the reality of it. You don't want to make excuses and say, "I would have done this if the ballpark was a different size." But as a hitter, if you hit a ball 380 feet the other way and it's a fly out, that's hard to overcome. If anyone has a right to complain, it's Greene (see pp. 26, 27, and 55 ...
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Posted in Notes and Links | 78 Comments »

Q&A with Tom Krasovic

Monday, March 24, 2008
by Geoff Young
Tom Krasovic has been covering the Padres for the San Diego Union-Tribune since 1994. Recently he took time out of his busy schedule to discuss baseball, the beat, and life. We exchanged emails over the course of several days, and although it's difficult to convey certain nuances over the 'net, Krasovic's passion for the game quickly became evident. Ducksnorts: Who were your favorite baseball players when you were growing up? Krasovic: Immortal Angels such as Tom Satriano, Roger Repoz and Alex Johnson, just because the California Angels were my team as a young boy. Then came the 1970s and a move to southern Ohio so I tracked [Joe] Morgan, [Johnny] Bench, [Pete] Rose, [Tony] Perez, [George] Foster, [Dave] Concepcion, [Cesar] Geronimo. Rooting for the Angels still came ...
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Posted in Interviews | 64 Comments »

Padres tickets  Chargers tickets  Sports tickets

Everybody Loves Tadahito

Thursday, March 20, 2008
by Geoff Young
Says here we've been "dot-com" for 6 years now. Cool. Anyway, I'm working on an interview with Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune (it'll run on Monday), and one topic we discussed was potential surprises among Padres for 2008. The name that came up was new second baseman Tadahito Iguchi: Iguchi had some problems with a finger injury early last year, and the White Sox were looking to save money. He's a solid player, better than his stats of last summer would indicate. When Lance and I visited Peoria a couple weeks ago, Iguchi kind of took us by surprise as well. Although he's a compact guy, as I've mentioned previously, he really can drive the ...
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Posted in Baseball | 110 Comments »

Friday Links (14 Mar 08)

Friday, March 14, 2008
by Geoff Young
Quick reminder for those of you in the Ducksnorts 2 fantasy league: We're drafting Friday at 7 p.m. PT. Be there or be stuck with a crappy team. To the links: MB at Friar Forecast continues his interview with Padres front office staffer Chris Long. My favorite part: Then the robots kill all humans, but hopefully they’ll still play baseball. Excellent. As a fellow robot, I very much look forward to this day. :-) According to the U-T Padresblog, Greg Maddux is fine after getting drilled by a line drive off the bat of Derrek Lee (he sure hates our pitchers, doesn't he?). Quoth Maddux: It's a minor contusion. No worries ...
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Posted in Notes and Links | 52 Comments »

Friday Links (21 Dec 07)

Friday, December 21, 2007
by Geoff Young
Links. Who doesn't love 'em? Short and sweet: Tony Gwynn talks about the Mitchell Report (San Diego Union-Tribune). MB analyzes the Jim Edmonds trade (Friar Forecast). Tom Krasovic offers his thoughts on Edmonds as well (San Diego Union-Tribune). Joe P. Sheehan examines similar pitchers by pitch type (Baseball Analysts, hat tip Friar Forecast). Chris Young is working with Tiger Woods' physical therapist in an attempt to keep himself healthy (San ...
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Posted in Notes and Links | 31 Comments »

Friday Links (15 Nov 07)

Friday, November 16, 2007
by Geoff Young
Wait, didn't we already do a link post this week? Marketing spin: Two for the price of one. Yeah, that's it... Padres build top bullpen through smart shopping (SI.com, via Brett in the comments). Tom Verducci has noticed what we've long known: that Kevin Towers has a gift for acquiring cheap arms. It's weird that Verducci doesn't dismiss the phenomenon as a function of Petco Park. Isn't that pretty much a requirement these days? Speaking of potential cheap arms, here are a few minor-league free agents with interesting statistical profiles (don't know anything about their repertoire, etc.): Lee Gronkiewicz, ...
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Posted in Future Friars, Notes and Links | 48 Comments »

Friday Links (26 Oct 07)

Friday, October 26, 2007
by Geoff Young
I'm terrible at faking enthusiasm. This World Series means nothing to me. I'd just as soon not see Tom Werner win another championship, but I don't even care much about that anymore. Does this make me a bad baseball fan? I dunno. Maybe... Nevin: Poway looks like 'Mars' (San Diego Union-Tribune). Several Padres (and Chargers) have been affected by the fires. It's very foggy in my part of town this morning; hopefully folks on the front line will benefit from this weather shift. Yankees likely to offer Jorge Posada $40 million (New York Daily News). Some folks have mentioned Posada as a possible target for the Padres. ...
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Posted in Future Friars, Notes and Links | 26 Comments »