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Hairston Never Got the Memo

Monday, July 28, 2008
by Geoff Young
I spend the weekend at Comic-Con, and the Padres go out and win three straight games. Are they even allowed to do that? Scott Hairston hit another home run on Sunday. Dude is batting .364/.417/.909 in July. He also has eight homers this month and 11 RBI. That's pretty hard to do. Hairston has some unusual splits in 2008. First off, he's destroying left-handers: .297/.313/.658, with 10 homers in just 115 plate appearances. Sure, the OBP is low, but why would you ever let a pitch go by when you're knocking the snot out of the ball like that? Hairston also ...
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Posted in Baseball | 105 Comments »

IGD: Padres vs Marlins (9 Jul 08)

Wednesday, July 9, 2008
by Geoff Young
Padres vs Marlins 12:35 p.m. PT DIRECTV 726 (Fish feed) AM 1090, FM 105.7, XM 186 MLB, B-R Fun game Tuesday night. Nice to see Scott Hairston finally get on track -- two doubles, a homer, and an out to the wall in left-center works for me. Chip Ambres, Brian Myrow, and Joe Thatcher all were recalled to the big club before the game. Ambres got the start in right, singling and walking twice in his Padres debut. Myrow knocked his first big-league homer in the seventh while pinch hitting for starter Randy Wolf. Among the casualties of this latest roster shakeup (does it feel like 2002 around here, or what?) is Paul McAnulty, who cleared waivers and ...
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Posted in In-Game Discussion | 170 Comments »

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Hit or Be Hit

Friday, June 6, 2008
by Geoff Young
I had some computer issues this morning, and I'm still wading through draft material, so I'll save my thoughts on how the Padres did until Saturday or Monday -- then we'll have the entire draft to look at anyway. Based on the information at my disposal (which obviously is much, much less detailed than what the Padres have), I've upgraded my initial assessment of the Allan Dykstra pick ("Man, that stinks" were my exact words) to "Not what I would have done, but I'm beginning to understand the thought process behind it." John Sickels had the Padres taking Dykstra at #42. I'd targeted Dykstra at #42 or #46 in the mock draft I participated in, but the Diamondbacks ...
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Posted in Draft, Game Recaps | 131 Comments »

Unraveling

Monday, June 2, 2008
by Geoff Young
That sucked. In case you'd forgotten how 2007 ended, the Padres gave a nice little encore Sunday afternoon in San Francisco. They battled back from a deficit, took the lead in extra innings on a two-run homer, then watched Trevor Hoffman give it back, with the game ending on a bizarre defensive play. As was the case with Scott Hairston last October, Adrian Gonzalez' dramatic home run is now just a footnote, not the story. Nobody cares that he pounded the first pitch he saw from rookie left-hander Alex Hinshaw over the center field fence at PhoneCo Park. Nobody cares that he sat on ...
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Posted in Game Recaps | 32 Comments »

When Projections Go Bad

Friday, May 30, 2008
by Geoff Young
What the heck, now is as good a time as any to revisit pre-season projections. I know, OPS and ERA aren't the end-all and be-all, but they're good enough for government work... Projections vs Reality: Hitters  OPS PlayerBJCHMAMIZIDSAct Statistics are courtesy of FanGraphs and are through games of May 29, 2008. Click on column head for more info about projection system. Josh Bard785741791728767767540 Adrian Gonzalez839840842810862879894 Tadahito Iguchi760737756723751732657 Kevin Kouzmanoff882796789740837858741 Khalil Greene762764752747742773599 Scott Hairston833740769721722794714 Jim Edmonds830766782739784756498 Brian Giles820777783732773789815 Gonzalez and Giles are doing as well as or better than expected; Iguchi, Kouzmanoff, and Hairston are underperforming; and Bard, Greene, and Edmonds aren't even close. Projections vs Reality: Pitchers  ERA PlayerBJCHMA...
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Posted in Projections | 42 Comments »

Those Who Snooze Don’t Always Lose

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
by Geoff Young
We were walking west along J Street, just past Fire Station 4, when the crowd erupted. Cardinals fans seem to travel with their team, so we assumed that the visiting team had extended its seemingly insurmountable 2-0 lead. I was in a lousy mood before we even got to the ballpark -- I forget why, but it seemed important at the time. The game wasn't helping any. In the bottom of the first, after Jody Gerut drew an eight-pitch walk to lead off the inning, Tadahito Iguchi rapped into an easy 6-4-3 double play and I just smiled. It wasn't the smile of a happy man, mind you, more like the thing Jeff Kent does right ...
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Posted in Game Recaps | 130 Comments »

Shadow Puppets

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
by Geoff Young
For those of you who might have "missed" Monday night's game, here is a quick recap: The Cardinals scored their first runs of the game on a fly ball to deep left that Scott Hairston dropped into the stands for a two-run homer. They scored their next run on a bases-loaded HBP to Yadier Molina -- yes, that Yadier Molina. They scored their next run on a homer by Cesar Izturis -- yes, that Cesar Izturis. Then Albert Pujols homered, which is fine because, well, he's Albert Pujols and that's what he does. Then Todd Wellemeyer drove in a run -- yes, that Todd -- wait, who the heck is Todd Wellemeyer? The game ended. I see the white flag. I'm not prepared to acknowledge it just yet, but ...
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Posted in Game Recaps, Roster Notes | 127 Comments »

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