I don’t think this will come as a surprise to anyone, but I’m really cool. My days and my nights are filled with the hottest parties, traveling, and everything else cool people do but luckily for me, I finally had an open schedule this past weekend. That is, until Jed Hoyer and Theo Epstein got together.

It’s hard to simply put into words how wild this weekend was. First Adrian was traded to Boston, then he wasn’t, then he was again. But instead of giving you a watered down recap, I’m going to give you the authentic. The following is taken straight from our twitter (twitter.com/thesacbunt), is uncensored and unadulterated, and gives you a window into the mind of a maniac named Ray (not really). Enjoy.

espnmlb
Boston Red Sox near deal for Adrian Gonzalez of San Diego Padres, sources say: The Padres were close to finalizi…http://es.pn/gumGui

The one that started it all. This tweet came in late (for me) Friday night and while there was some cynicism at the time, I think many of us have been taking a wait and see approach for years, it turned out that the time had finally come.

thesacbunt
Boo I want Lowire

Oh past me, you have no idea what’s coming.

thesacbunt
@maestro876 Yeah, I’m not sure how I feel about that either. Lowrie would go a long way for us.

With the talk that the Padres would only be getting minor league players in return spreading, I stood by my Jed Lowrie guns. Oh past me again.

thesacbunt
@woedoctor It’s interesting that the article makes no reference to Lowrie, either in a deal or as a Red Sock in 2011.

lol give it a rest

thesacbunt
What would Rizzo mean for Kyle Blanks?

Good question, past me. I’m still a big fan of the Delorean (by the way, that’s his new nickname. Please use it) despite his fading popularity and I expect big things out of him. While acquiring Rizzo could simply be a matter of taking the best talent available, I wonder if Hoyer shares my optimism in Blanks.

thesacbunt
@mickeykoke Kelly has to be obligatory. I’d think any problems would be for Boston to solve, not Jed.

Like a duck to water I was.

thesacbunt
@BR_ToddKaufmann I’m wondering if he’s looking at it as top minor league talent over just pretty good major league talent.

Reading around the internet, many of the complaints regarding the trade have to do with Hoyer not receiving any major league-ready talent in return. Personally, I’d rather not try to cram a square peg into a round hole and since my Lowrie dream had sailed, that seemed like the other option.

thesacbunt
@BR_ToddKaufmann The point should be to maximize our return and if Hoyer’s not sold on the core as it is, he might as well build the future.

There’s also this. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve yet to get the impression that Hoyer thinks the 2010 Padres were a club that could do repeat business. Rather than go the Gunslinger route and throw on bandage after bandage, I hypothesized that Hoyer’s ready to put his own stamp on the team, which now includes Kelly, Rizzo, and Fuentes. We’ll see how that prediction goes.

thesacbunt
@BR_ToddKaufmann Latos, Kelly, Castro, Luebke will make for a solid front four.

Yup. Along with Latos, the Padres have two top 15 pitching prospects and Luebke. They may not all make it, but I doubt they all won’t make it.

thesacbunt
Given what we know about Ludwick and pressure, how’s he going to react to being the big dog once Adrian’s gone?

Ray Lankford, master of psychology.

thesacbunt
@jorgearangure I’m still holding out hope that Hoyer gets Lowrie thrown in.

Gah! Before you know it, I’m going to be out in the bushes behind Lowrie’s house.

thesacbunt
And I was just about to go to sleep @NCTPadres Just was told#Padres-#RedSox deal would only involve Adrian Gonzalez and is “close.”

Good thing I didn’t, I guess.

thesacbunt
Hoyer trades Adrian, takes his chances with the kids.http://fb.me/yZB90Na5

Welcome to Saturday morning. After the trade was first announced, though not confirmed, I threw my reaction to the trade up on the board. Go read it!

thesacbunt
@Kevin_Goldstein @jorgearangure Does Kelly become the number one prospect?

Not to speak for Mr. Goldstein but yes, yes he does.

thesacbunt
Mel here. My only concern, it’s a minor one, is that Jed pulls a Dayton Moore and overvalues what he knows. Back of my kind kind of thing.

Melvin’s contribution. We’ll get back to this idea a little later.

thesacbunt
If we keep Blanks and he keeps 88, can we call him The Delorean?

That sounds like a fantastic idea.

thesacbunt
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned today: We’ve still got Bud Black, the best manager of young players in baseball.

I may not love that robot but the kids sure seem to.

thesacbunt
One positive from today: Gunslinging in San Diego is officially dead.

There were many positives from Saturday, but this may been the positivest.

thesacbunt
@FollowThePadres I’d give it a solid B. I’m excited by Kelly’s potential and Fuentes is intriguing, but I don’t understand acquiring Rizzo.

Again, I understand Rizzo. In baseball, when it comes to prospects, it’s best to get the best talent available regardless of position. But considring that said talent happened to be at a position of depth, I think a B is a fair grade.

thesacbunt
After getting used to the idea of Kelly and Rizzo, I’m going to be kind of upset if we don’t get them.

And welcome to Sunday.

thesacbunt
It’s five past. Did the trade happen or not?!?

Major League Baseball set a ([very] soft) deadline of 2pm EST for the Red Sox to work out an extension with Adrian. The idea was that Boston would kill the trade if they couldn’t hammer out an extension and as 2pm EST rolled around, things got a little tense.

thesacbunt
Adrian Gonzalez just will not stop hijacking my weekend.

Right?

thesacbunt
If Adrian turns down 6-years, $160 million, I will literally eat him alive.

After the deadline came and “went,” rumors started swirling about how much money we were talking about. The 6/160 numbers were thrown out and whether or not it was actually offered, I stand by my comments.

thesacbunt
Wooooo! @Joelsherman1 Heard #Redsox might be ok doing parameters with Gonzo, finalize in spring if healthy #Padres.

thesacbunt
Nooooo! @SI_JonHeyman Source; gonzalez deal fell thru

These were back-to-back tweets and this was that kind of day.

thesacbunt
Can we talk about the Padres saying they won’t field any other offers? That won’t really help squash the ‘collusion’ talk.

Back to Melvin’s point (sort of). Among the rumors that were swirled, it was said that Hoyer said he wouldn’t try again if these particular Adrian talks broke down. That means it was Boston for good or bad, which becomes suspicious when you consider that Hoyer used to work for Boston and got what many people believe was a below-average deal. It was mostly just anxiety enduced ramblings, but it gives a good picture of how the day went.

thesacbunt
After seeing the Werth extension, I understand why Adrian’s playing such hardball.

In the midst of Adrianpalooza, Jayson Werth signed a deal (though not an extension. Why did I say extension?) with the Nationals for roughly 26 years and $4.5 billion. This was bad for Boston and not only because he had been a target of theirs.

Buster_ESPN
Nationals have single-handedly ended all discussion of possible collusion.

I re-tweeted Buster Olney taking out the trash.

thesacbunt
WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! @SI_JonHeyman A gon is now a red sox

Finally? Finally.

thesacbunt
WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! @SI_JonHeyman prospects will remain same in deal. Going to #padres are kelly, rizzo, fuentes and 4th prospect

There we go. All’s well that ends well…

thesacbunt
Adrian’s press conference is tomorrow at 11am EST. That means we’ll get our first horrible look at him in a Red Sox cap in about 12 hours.

Sort of.

With the Padres the proud owners of the best record in the NL (and tied for the second best in all of baseball), the tone of our story has changed. Where everyone had been wondering when the team would trade Adrian Gonzalezand Heath Bell, now people are beginning to wonder if we’ll be buyers instead.

Jed Hoyer started off the talk mentioning he’s not completely happy with the way the offense has been playing:

Frankly we’ve been fortunate to score as many runs as we have given some of the guys we’ve had struggling. The way our pitching staff has thrown has allowed us some patience. At some point our hitters will have to pick up our pitchers. We’re not going to continue to pitch at this rate all season. I think it’s unrealistic to think that.

The team, as of the writing of this article, ranks 23rd in the league in wOBA (13th in the NL) at .312. The team leader is Scott Hairston at .371, followed by backup catcher Yorvit Torrealba at .360, Adrian at an underachieving .359, and Chase Hadley at .349. Everyone else is well below average, with the most egregious offenders being sophomore slumping Kyle Blanks at .305, Evert Cabrera at .250, and Jerry Hairston at .234*.

To this point, the pitching (1st in ERA and xFIP) and defense (2nd in UZR) have led the way, but as Hoyer noted, we can’t just count on getting by with a below-average offense. So who are some candidates to come fix this thing?

TSB favorite Tim Sullivan starts us off throwing Carlos Lee, Jose Guillen, and Jermaine Dye’s names into the hat. Sullivan adds that the price tags hanging from Lee and Guillen might push them out of range. This leaves Dye, who’s become something of a boogeyman around baseball. Following a disappointing contract year (-0.4 WAR), Dye failed to find a job this past offseason. He received interest from a couple of teams (the Cubs and Milwaukee were mentioned) but its believed he’s priced himself out of different situations, which makes it all the more interesting that he’d be willing to come here:

“San Diego was one of the places Jermaine was excited about playing,” (Dye’s agent) Bob Bry said Tuesday. “He continues to work out every morning and hits most days and is still waiting for an opportunity with a team that has a chance to advance to the playoffs. San Diego, seemingly, would be a good fit.”

Right.

Dye’s bat could bring some added oomph to this lineup. Even last year, in a down season, Dye hit 27 home runs with a .344 wOBA. Unfortunately, he was also the worst defensive player in all of baseball. His UZR/150 was -26.4 and on his career, Dye is a -16.3 outfielder. This team definitely needs some offense, but what happens to our pitching and defense with Jermaine Dye roaming around the spacious confines of Petco Park?

Moving on.

Another aging former All-Star whose name is in the mix is Andruw Jones. You might remember him from the monster bombs he hit in Petco as a member of the Atlanta Braves. Or you might remember him from the monster bomb he was as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. With his/Jake Peavy’s Chicago White Sox off to a 14-20 start, Jones has made himself into a trade candidate with his .260/.360/.604 line. MLB Trade Rumors has made up a list of teams that might have interest, and said the following about ours:

The Padres have Kyle Blanks in left field, Tony Gwynn Jr. in center field, and Will Venable in right field. Of the three, only Blanks profiles as a top prospect, so the other two could be vulnerable to a Jones acquisition, should San Diego remain in the race.

I’m assuming they mean that AJ and Venable are vulnerable to losing their spot in the lineup to Jones, and not their spot on the roster. At $500K, Jones is a steal not a deal for the production he’s put up, but will it last? I dunno, but Fangraphs took a shot at figuring it out:

Why so pessimistic? Because at this exact point last season, 111 PA, Andruw’s production ceased. For those first 111 PA he hit .278/.405/.544, which amounts to a wOBA, .424, that is nearly identical to his mark this year. Yet from his 112th PA through his 331st, he produced very little. His triple slash sat at .183/.282/.419, a .320 wOBA. His only saving grace was power, as he hit 12 home runs and produced a .236 ISO during that span. Other than that, though, he showed few redeeming qualities.
—
Yet even if he avoids the drop-off he experienced last year, there’s almost no chance he continues at his current pace. Even during his prime years he never produced a .400 wOBA. His peak year came in 2000, when he produced a .390 mark. He came close, too, in 2005, when he hit 51 home runs and produced a .382 wOBA. He might be able to help a contending team, but it won’t be with the numbers he’s producing now.

Jones is a gamble, more so than Dye, because it’s hard to know who exactly we’ll be getting. While he’s slimmed down, this is still the guy who almost ate himself out of the league. He still has the power he’s ever had and if the stars align, he could be the big bopper to help Adrian see more fastballs, but that’s a big if.

As the season progresses, teams will start seeing their dreams of success slip away (but not us) and more and more players will start falling off the tree, leaving us with a better idea of what’s out there. It is only May afterall. Still, isn’t it nice talking about the stars we could trade for instead of the ones we could trade away?**

*Making matters worse, Hairston is fourth on the team in plate appearances. This jack of all trades is truly the master of none: he’s also contributed a -0.9 UZR.

**Buster Posey and Dustin Ackley are future stars, jes’ sayin’.

During last night’s victory over the Diamondbacks, manager Bud Black removed Kyle Blanks in a double switch (with Cesar Ramos) for Scott Hairston and Mike Adams. The score was 5-2 Padres, with the tying run at the plate in the form of Justin Upton, so it was a serious situation, and Blanks’ spot was due up eighth the next inning. After Upton’s run scoring infield single, Adams induced a flyout from Adam LaRoche and came back to pitch a scoreless eighth. For his part, Hairston later drew a walk.

All’s well that ends well, right? Right. But I still have a concern.

Lifting Blanks was the logical decision. While Headley was due up ninth, backup third baseman Jerry Hairston, Jr. was already in the game at second, making a double switch to remove Headley a little less neat. And Headley’s an honest-to-goodness third baseman so it’s not like he’s a defensive liability, not like first baseman-cum-left fielder Blanks. Removing Blanks for a defensive substitution, double switch or no, might not be the worst idea in the world, especially for a team beginning to pride itself on small ball. That Blanks is the second best hitter* on the team however, might be a detail.

Can the Padres really afford to give Blanks the Ryan Klesko treatment**? More to the point, should they? Had the best laid plans not worked out and Arizona came back to tie the game, what happens to the team’s odds of coming back themselves with Blanks on the bench?

(This is where I acknowledge that I’m making assumptions. What happened last night may have been last night specific, with the team having no further plans to Klesko-ize Blanks, if that’s even what it was. Or it might be exactly the team’s plans moving forward, in which case continue reading.)

As I mentioned earlier, the team is priding themselves on playing small ball and stealing a lot of bases in Spring Training. How does Blanks and his outside linebacker’s body fit into this? That’s right, at first base.

Adrian wouldn’t be the first All-Star first baseman let go in part because of a youngster breathing down his neck. Just last year, the Angels were able to live with Mark Teixeira signing with the Yankees because Kendry Morales was ready to jump in and hit 34 home runs. Of course, they could’ve resigned Teixeira and forced the less-than-agile Morales to play out of position, but Kevin Towers wasn’t running the team at the time.

I know Hoyer inherited a mess, but something is wrong when a weak hitting team such as the Padres sees removing a 30 home threat from a game as a viable option. And while I trust Hoyer to clean things up, I hope last night’s move at least made him go hmm.

*According to most projections (Bill James, CHONE, etc.), Blanks will be a 120 wRC+ hitter this year, putting him behind only Adrian on the team.

**Quick history lesson: Ryan Klesko was the team’s starting left fielder in 2004 and 05 and was horrible defensively, which is why he frequently watched the end of games on the bench while someone more capable did his job in left.

With Bud Black busy eating burritos and drooling over Eckstein’s intangibles, I thought I’d give him some help with the state of the lineup and what he could to do make it better.

Last month, Black was pressed to name his batting order for this season, and we’ll forgive it because he was pressed. To further help bail Black out, I have come up with a proper batting order for the skip.

1. Everth Cabrera, SS

Don’t worry Bud, I’m not going to get all weird on you. The baseball constitution dictates that every team must utilize a fast player to leadoff (I think) and I will gladly go along with it. Everth is the fastest player on the team, but he can also get on-base, if only relatively so. Last year, he had an OBP of .342 with a walk rate of 10.5%, and most major projections see him keeping up his pace if not exceeding it. I can see questions arising regarding Cabrera’s age and lack of experience, but what could it hurt to challenge him?

2. Tony Gwynn, Jr./Scott Hairston, CF

AJ and Hairston, Sr. should see time in a platoon this year and they bring differing skill sets. Against right-handed pitching last year, AJ posted an OBP of .379. While his slugging was only .385, he still had a wRC+ of 118 in the split. At .378, Hairston has a similar OBP in his left-handed split, but his slugging was .543. During his previous stay, he was Adrian’s M&M buddy in the middle of the order, but another of my concessions to Bud is that one spot in the order is equal to one position on the field – the center fielders are hitting second. And with Hairston, the heart of the order could frequently find themselves at-bat with runners in scoring position, if not already in.

3. Chase Headley, 3B

If I didn’t put Headley in this spot, I would’ve put him at second. Not only do I value his OBP higher in the order, I don’t trust him hitting behind Adrian. Now that he’s back at third, Headley should hypothetically see an improvement in his offense: he’ll be able to concentrate more on his hitting as a result of concentrating less on his foreign position and he’ll be able to put back on the weight he lost to better run around the outfield. Add to that Headley’s hot-ish second half (.798 OPS) and there’s reason to have confidence in Headley.

4. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B

Right?

5. Kyle Blanks, LF

Stay with me.

On one hand, I feel like there’s no explanation necessary. Last year, in 148 at-bats, Blanks hit 10 home runs with a wOBA of .372. Stretch that out over a full season and Blanks could hit more than 30 home runs. That would make Blanks only the second player to accomplish such a feat in Petco Park. This guy has prodigal power. But then those are the only 148 at-bats of Blanks’ career. He could still be a bust, or we could be lucky and he could just suffer through a sophomore slump but if it doesn’t work out, the team could still try Headley or Venable, or move Hairston to a more permanent position.

6. Will Venable, RF

I’ll let you know right now, the batting order gets pretty predictable from here on out. While I’m not a big believer in Venable, he has 20 homer potential and he’s left-handed, which only makes sense coming after the right-handed Blanks.

7. Nick Hundley, C

I’m not going to try to sell you on Hundley. It comes down to not being:

8. David Eckstein, 2B

I feel that it’d be better if I didn’t say anything at all.

Fangraphs has now added the 2010 Marcel Projections, to go along with the other ones we’ve already covered:

Kouzmanoff’s name is long enough to throw off my graph (and force me to shorten it) but not long enough to have a comical uniform. What’s that about?

All this complaining talking about marketing and creatives got me thinking: how would I promote the team?

First of all, the Padres marketing department is in a tough position. They’ve lost two franchise players over the course of about a year, and will likely lose Adrian Gonzalez via a trade or when his contract expires in November of 2012. Most of their other well known players have been hit by injuries (Chris Young), or are trade candidates (Kevin Kouzmanoff, Heath Bell, [please!]).

Clearly it’s time for a youth movement. But we’ve known that, considering it began halfway through the 2009 season.

Who should the team expect to step forward, not just on the field, but in the eyes of the fans as the face of the franchise?

Some might expect Tony Gwynn to take reigns as team diplomat. Unfortunately, Gwynn has but two things going for him in that regard: his last name, and his 2009 season. Every year from 2004-2008 Gwynn has demonstrated he will never be a starter on a championship team. I hope those in charge have a good think before Franoeuring him into a role for which he isn’t ready.

That leaves three players, each with a chance of becoming stars in Petco Park over the long haul. Though they have yet to prove themselves, Everth Cabrera, Mat Latos, and Kyle Blanks all have bright futures in San Diego, and should be introduced to the public as the future of the Padres.

To do a job for which I’m not being paid, nor was I ever invited to do, I would like to help this effort. As such, I set my creative juices in motion, and present this Cablanktos wallpaper for your viewing pleasure.

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Huge thanks goes out to SD Dirk, who publishes his gorgeous photos on Flickr and licenses them for others to use in their own projects. My work is published under a similar license. Here are his Cabrera, Blanks, and Latos shots.

Happy 2010 everyone.

As they do every year before the season, Fangraphs has added projections for the 2010 season. Now, on every player’s page, they are listing the Bill James and CHONE projections, and while they haven’t gotten around to everyone yet, they have also started listing projections made by the fans.

(Also, projections projections projections)
Here’s how the starting 10 for the 2010 Padres might look:

Adrian Gonzalez

David Eckstein

Everth Cabrera

Kevin Kouzmanoff

Chase Headley

Tony Gwynn, Jr.

Will Venable

Kyle Blanks

Nick Hundley

I’ll go ahead and say what we’re all thinking: AJ is popular enough to get voted on by the fans? I like it (but I like AJ).

Overall, there’s not a lot of surprise here. The experts have Adrian coming down from his monster 09 campaign, putting him more in line with his very good 2007 and 08 seasons, while the fans put him somewhere in-between. Headley and Blanks are also looking good, and that’s about it.

Personally, I’m glad to see that Cabrera projects to stay average. I’ll take that from a toolsy shortstop who should only be in Triple-A.

*wRC+ is essentially wOBA on the OPS+ scale

Now that the World Series is finally over, the good part of the season can begin. Some teams have already started, like the Angels, who just signed Bobby Abreu to a new two-year contract, and the Pirates, who traded for Akirnori Iwamura. And while the Padres have already cut ties with Edgar Gonzalez, new general manager Jed Hoyer has yet to show us what he can do.

So, Jed, before you start shopping, would you mind taking a look at my wish list? Thanks.

• Rocco Baldelli
• Kelvim Escobar
• Eric Hinske
• Dan Uggla
• Juan Uribe
• Jason Varitek

I’ll start with the outfielders, Baldelli and Hinske. Both are capable players, Baldelli so much so he could platoon with Will Venable in right. Hinske can  be the strong left-handed bat to come off the bench. Uribe joins them as the backup infielder who can actually play on the left-side of the infield.

Escobar is a great low-risk project for this team. He’s a good pitcher and he’ll be coming off an injury, which means that he’ll come cheap. If he works out, he could be a solid veteran arm for the front of the rotation. And if he doesn’t, the team can part ways with him without losing too much, as the team has depth at young starting pitching.

Then there’s Dan Uggla. I’ll admit that this is a bit of dreaming on my parts, but Hoyer’s pretty dreamy, so excuse me for soing so. I know that Florida is looking to move Uggla, but I don’t know what they’d want in return, I hope they would want Heath Bell. Uggla would fill many holes for us. He’d knock David Eckstein out of the lineup, and he’d be the real-live slugger to hit behind Adrian Gonzalez. This takes the heat off of the youngsters, especially Kyle Blanks. He’d likely become the highest paid Padre, unless Adrian signs an extension, but it wouldn’t be obscene. Plus it would make the reader’s comments section of Union-Tribune articles just a little bit easier to read.

Finally, I threw in Jason Varitek as a welcoming gift for Jed. He’s the Captain, or a captain, he’d be Hundley’s shoulder to lean on, and he’d be someone for Hoyer to hang out with if the other guys are mean to him.

Happy shopping, Jed.

First off, I want to make this clear: I’m a big fan of Milton Bradley. He carried the Padres down the stretch in 2007, and I was disappointed he wasn’t resigned that offseason. That said, I have no idea what the guy was thinking while “fielding” big Kyle Blanks‘ inside the parker last night. Let me explain with a helpful diagram:

A couple notes that need to be mentioned: this screen was taken after the throw was made, so center fielder Kosuke Fukudome may have taken a couple more steps toward right, exaggerating his distance a bit. Also, the frame doesn’t show Bradley’s starting position, so he may have had to run a bit further than his arrow shows.

The ball was hit to left center, so it’s a bit understandable that Bradley wasn’t sprinting towards the landing spot on contact. But once it started rolling towards right, I have no idea how Fukudome could possibly beat Bradley.

Oh yeah, Kyle Blanks is the man. If you’re a loyal Sac Bunt reader, you would already know that. And someone should tell all those Cubs fans if they like their team so much they should just go home.

Melvin Update 8/19: Good news for us Bradley fans. That shot above is misleading. This view exonerates him a bit:

Still up for debate, as far as I’m concerned, is if the right fielder kicking back watching a well struck ball to left-center field is justified, before the ball landed and rolled to right.

It’s been a little over a week since Adrian tweaked his knee sliding into third, and he’s playing like a guy who might just have a tweaked knee.

Over the past week, Adrian’s had an OPS of .494 (which is good for a tOPS+ of 9). And his defense hasn’t been much better. During today’s game, the daily implosion followed a bungled routine ground ball by the Gold Glover.

To the quotes!:

“Right now, things aren’t clicking for me,” Gonzalez said. “I thought I was all over that ball, but it hit off the edge of my glove. It’s a reaction play, one shot.”

Padres hit bottom after being swept in Arizona

Promising. Let’s continue:

Might Gonzalez need a day off now?

“In my eyes, there are two options,” Gonzalez said. “Either don’t play the entire series in San Francisco or let me grind it out.

“I’ve never believed one day off is going to change anything. So those are the only two options I see worth anything. Two days, no.”

Is Gonzalez tired?

“Physically, no,” he said. “Mentally, yes.

One game note that you won’t find in the UT article is that much of Adrian’s problem was indeed mental. After the ball bounced off of his glove, he ran to grab it and picked it up in enough time to maybe toss it to the waiting pitcher at the bag. But he didn’t. Instead, Adrian “The Big Cat” Gonzalez scrambled to first base in an attempt to get the one out. He didn’t make it. You can imagine how the rest of the story goes.

Let’s take Adrian’s threat seriously: It’s either the entire San Fran series or nothing. Should we sit him anyway? WIthout giving you my opinion, I’ll just say that Kyle Blanks has started two games since Interleague play ended, and that the team jumped past the Diamondbacks to the 3rd pick in the draft this afternoon, thanks in large part to Adrian. They had been at 4th.

Once more, take it to the comments.