Lets have some baseball fun!

This is all.

Melvin Update: Turns out it’s not all

Honest to goodness this is purely coincidental, as I originally posted this photo for the sole reason that it gave me a curious case of the giggles. Turns out Cesar Carrillo (yes, the man in the photo, and the Padres 2005 first round draft choice) pitched an outstanding game last night in San Antonio. One run, 8 innings, 4 strikeouts on a single walk.

Eckstein embodies St. Louis’ success at playing ‘little ball’
Padres’ new 5-foot-7 sparkplug will provide toughness and tenacity

Sullivan is foaming at the mouth. An entire year to write articles filled to the brim with absolutely nothing.

It is a well known fact that writers who regularly cite equivalent average, Pythagorean record, and major league equivalences are known as “dope” and “super rad” by hip urban youth.

In order to cement our image of popularity in the eyes of the Dragonball Z fan club, where the hip urban youth hang out, naturally, we are excited to announce The Sacrifice Bunt Theme Song. It will now play automatically every time our site is loaded.

Don’t worry, we’re well aware autoplaying music never gets old.

Warning, there is swearing. Yes, we also wish swearing was illegal.

Smack by Zion I and The Grouch.

We make pesos
Plus we do want we want
Rather swing for the fence than go for the bunt

Protip: Listen for references of blogging and free agency as well.

P.S. Who in San Diego isn’t depressed after that Chargers loss to Baltimore? This photo of LaDanian is the only good thing to come out of it.

In honor of the Cubs recent dismissal from the playoffs, (way to stay up to date there, Melvin) please enjoy this look back at the 2003 Cubs – Marlins playoff series.

I do find it appropriate that you’re reading this post on a Padres website, and it is my favorite baseball article of all time, and only about 1/3 of the article actually relates to the Cubs, or baseball for that matter. No matter. Without further adieu, since there’s obviously no other news to talk about relating to the possible trade of a star player, or any type of important series happening right now, I submit to you “Did Steve Bartman Cost the Cubs the Series?” by Jay Pinkerton. I should warn you though, the article is juvenile, not safe for work (there’s swearing but no pictures), and very unfunny.

Here’s the requisite excerpt:

Let Bartman go. The Cubs not winning the World Series is hardly cause for alarm — they’ve been doing it successfully for decades without any help. The fact that someone in the audience decided to pitch in this year just means it was one less mistake for the Cubs themselves to make.

Craption this pic:

My entry: Extra support for the troops!

San Diego @ Pittsburgh, 7/24/2008, Channel 4 Padres broadcast.

The Good

He brought up OPS.  He called its O-P-S.  Do people do that?  In my head it’s always been “Awps”.  Either way, Ops isn’t perfect but it’s a step in the right direction for Channel 4. And it wasn’t the first time Quis used the decent compared to most metrics they use on TV.  Cheers to him.

The Funny

Grant: See those seven X’s?  That’s the size shirt I wear. XXXXXXL.*

Quis: And the kind of movies you buy.**

This was followed by a long, awkward pause, presumably Quis getting yelled at for saying something so outrageously inappropriate on air.

The Quis

He’s kinda spazzy, and not as flashy as Vasgersian, but he comes across like he actually does research.  I like Steve, though I think I’m the only one.

* Paraphrased

** Definitely not paraphrased, but hiliariousiphrased.

Opportunity cost is of course is the value of time doing one thing (say watching a baseball game) that is forgone in order to do something else (say stand in line at concession stands, or point out dudes in jeans shorts [or both!]).

Now suppose the dollar value of a college educated blogger’s time is worth roughly $30 an hour.  I submit for your review an opportunity cost computation of the Padres dollar days promotion from Friday, July 11th, 2008.

• $0 – They ran out of soda, but provided free Raspberry Iced tea.  Though I wouldn’t bank on that, I’m a sweet talker.
• $3 – Three hot dogs, limit four items per blogger.
• $15 – Opportunity cost of waiting in line for 30 minutes.

Total expenses: $18

The final three home games for the promotion are Monday the 28th though Wednesday.  Concessions lines move much slower than usual.  Don’t believe everything you read.

More Recenter Edit: After pulling the article I received confirmation that the contents of the speech were not to be published.  Sorry to all involved.  This sucks.

EDIT: Crap, I’m really nervous.  It sounds like something was said before we arrived about not reporting the contents of Paul’s speech.

On one hand, I don’t particularly understand this since the event was announced to the public and anyone who wanted could buy a ticket.  On the other hand, this isn’t a press conference.  Paul would enjoy way less freedom to speak freely and honestly if he knew the entire interwebtubes were disseminating his every word.

I for one appreciate when a public figure has the desire and opportunity to speak openly.  Because of this, the report may disappear soon.

Of course it has to happen for our one opportunity to pretend to be a real media outlet.

Baseball Prospectus hosted a fun little evening at PETCO on Friday, beach towel night.  It featured a talk with San Diego Padres special assistant for baseball operations Paul DePodesta.  Paul is famous as a central character in Michael Lewis’ renowned book “Moneyball”, in my opinion the Most Influencial Sports Book of all Time™.  Paul is also the former GM of the Dodgers, run out of town by the myopic LA media, who (surprise!) aren’t as smart as they think they are.

The Sacrifice Bunt flagged him down after the event (may or may not involving a scared, girlish scream of “ahhh Paul!!” as he walked away) for a quick chat and photo.  During the chat and speech, Paul came across as down to earth, pleasant, and spoke with the care and accuracy one would expect from a Harvard graduate.

Ray commented that Paul’s demeanor seemed opposite of Sandy Alderson’s guarded, defensive, and some might say arrogant attitude during appearances with Billy and Daren on the radio.  I responded that if knuckleheads did no research and attacked me under the guise of balanced “journalism”, I’d probably act the same way Alderson does.

Snip

If we weren’t already doing it this way, is this the way we would start?