My statement to Rich Hill and Tony Gwynn is: "Now show me what you got."
The head coaches of the two major local college baseball teams at USD and San Diego State have something to prove as their seasons get underway Friday. For Hill and his Toreros, the question is whether they can reclaim the mantle after an injury-ruined 2009? For Gwynn and the Aztecs, the issue is whether there is any staying power after making the NCAA playoffs for the first time in 18 years.
College baseball can be a tough sport to scout, so I can't sit here and write that I know the answers. Let others do the talking:
-- Collegiate Baseball has USD ranked 24th nationally in its preseason Top 40, with no West Coast Conference rivals ahead of the Toreros. SDSU is in "others receiving votes," well below Number 15 TCU.
-- Baseball America has the Toreros 19th and SDSU unranked in its preseason Top 25. Even scarier for the Aztecs, TCU is 11th in this publication.
-- In conference predictions by coaches and media, USD was picked first in the WCC and SDSU third in the Mountain West behind TCU and New Mexico.
Clearly, the experts believe Hill has a better chance of overcoming last year's obstacles than Gwynn does of making it to another regional. Part of Gwynn's trouble, of course, is losing pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg. But he also lost his two other weekend starters.
Both are undertaking the interesting experiment of converting all-star closers to Friday starters: Hill with Grossmont High alum AJ Griffin and Gwynn with Addison Reed. Think trying to make Heath Bell a starting pitcher and that's what you have. It'll be interesting to see if those moves work out, and whether either of these programs still have something in the tank.
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Ah, pitchers and catchers report for pro baseball's spring training. It's a wonderful time of year.
One of the really interesting guys to watch in Peoria this year will be Lance Zawadzki, the big-hit no-field former Aztecs second baseman who batted .289 for AA San Antonio in 2009. He's the type of kid who will rip the ball in exhibition games and make you think really hard when the final cuts come down. I'm not sure he's built for Petco Park, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him as part of a trade package for another quality player who is a better fit.
I only see one available spot for Padres position players, and that will probably be filled by bench veteran Matt Stairs, unless he shows he's done. If that happens, another interesting name is OF Aaron Cunningham, who enjoyed cups of coffee with Oakland in 2008 and 2009.
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Curious how TV ratings for the Olympics zoomed up after the Opening Ceremonies. We like the competition, I suppose, even in warm San Diego. Just about everyone I know is talking about the Winter Games. So far, I think my favorite part was watching Lindsay Vonn winning gold in the women's downhill after so many competitors crashed. It was kind of like watching NASCAR, but thankfully no one was hurt.
I think the story of these games might end up being how we're pushing the limits of the events, particularly for the women. You look at the speed of the luge run, the crashes in the downhill and even some of the accidents in the women's half-pipe, and it makes you wonder whether we humans are capable of much more.
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I didn't watch the Tiger Woods news conference. So he apologized. Who cares what he has to say, really? What he does over the next few months or even years is what counts. It's like politicians. What they say in their speeches is almost irrelevant, it's their actions that are important. I want to see how Woods conducts himself. Over the course of time, perhaps many years, we'll be able to judge whether his affairs describe the true Tiger Woods or proved to be a youthful indiscretion.
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