I have no idea what went on early Sunday morning between Shawne Merriman and Tila Nguyen (Tila Tequila), but I do know what's happened since, and little of the reaction has been fair to the Chargers linebacker.
First of all, there's the immediate reaction that he must be guilty because he was arrested. This comes because Merriman is a somewhat controversial persona and because so many of his teammates past and present did in fact commit crimes. I found myself debating a number of people Sunday who said it figured that he was arrested, or "'roid boy' is at it again." The fact of the matter is that Shawne Merriman had not been arrested or charged with a crime since becoming a Charger in 2005. His off-field conduct has been far to the other side, with numerous business and charity interests.
Secondly, there's been a lot of complaints about his those interests outside of football, pursuit of Hollywood celebrity status and active nightlife. People claim Merriman has put himself ahead of the Chargers. I don't understand this, either. I have my job, but then I write this blog, have a couple of outside projects in the works and try to be actively involved in what members of my family are doing. That doesn't mean I'm putting myself above my job. For Merriman, I see his off-the-field interests as being rather refreshing. He's a man of substance. You might not like that substance, but there's something to him. I have zero interest in the celebrity culture he so vigorously pursues. Yet I greatly admire his willingness and ability to start a construction firm after the 2007 wildfires and be the first one to rebuild a house in Rancho Bernardo. I also have a theory that your mind is not something you can switch on and off when you step on a football field. You keep your mind engaged through the day and you don't have to worry about when it should be activated.
I think we know how this is going to go. The deputies who went to Merriman's house in Poway said Nguyen told them she'd been drinking and she appeared to be intoxicated. Nguyen now claims to be allergic to alcohol and the "Tequila" name is a joke because she doesn't actually drink. There are reports that she twittered about being drunk over the weekend, but those tweets were pulled. She'll say she was sober, but Merriman has witnesses who will be on his side, no matter who is telling the truth.
My bet is that the Sheriff's Department by the end of the week will wrap up its investigation by saying it can't prove the allegations and won't pursue charges, so this won't be a distraction leading into Monday's season-opener in Oakland.
That will leave, however, the major distraction, which is the question of whether Merriman will be a Charger in 2010. General Manager AJ Smith has his image of a football player cast in stone, and Merriman ain't it. This distraction was going to exist whether Merriman made his first tackle of the year on a 4-foot-11 woman or not.
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If I'm Brady Hoke, I am ecstatic over the San Diego State season-opening 33-14 loss to UCLA. The big question coming into 2009 for the Aztecs was how much of the previous year's disaster had to do with coaching, and how much was a simple lack of talent. Now we know the answer, it was coaching by a long shot.
Most of the problems that led to the loss were either bad luck or correctable:
1. A UCLA receiver fumbles at the end of a long-pass play and not only do the officials whistle the play dead when SDSU had a chance to run it all way back, but then the replay review took mere seconds to confirm the ref's incorrect call. The ball was coming out before the Bruins player's knee hit the ground.
2. The Aztecs lined up for a field goal that would have made the score a manageable 26-17 but it was blocked. Terrible execution to allow the Bruins defenders to jump up that high so far in from the line of scrimmage, but to have the ball bounce right to a guy in sky blue was just a horrible break. Just a simple block, ok? 26-14 looks bad enough, 33-14 appears to be a rout that the game was not.
3. The defense allowed UCLA QB Kevin Prince too much time, and running backs too much room, in the first half. Defensive coordinator Rocky Long got his players back on track for the final thirty minutes, in which just three points were allowed, despite the offense going nowhere and the defense working with short fields. That was a correction right there.
4. QB Ryan Lindley had a very rough final three quarters while being constantly pressured. He and his receivers were clearly not on the same page when it came to making route adjustments. That can be corrected. Whether SDSU qualifies for a bowl or not will depend on how long that process takes. My bet is not too terribly long, since Lindley has been working with Vincent Brown and Roberto Wallace for several years now.
5. Special teams is always a work in progress. UCLA's are almost always superb, so the contrast was stark. Look for vast improvement by mid-season.
That doesn't mean SDSU's talent pool is where it needs to be. Neither line is up to Pac-10 standards, which means it isn't up to the standards of the upper half of the Mountain West. The running back corps appears neither deep nor talented. The receivers look good but not deep. The cornerbacks didn't stick with anyone wearing blue and gold, but they are so young we'll have to watch and see if they develop.
Again, this team has a shot at 6-6. We'll know a lot more by this time next week, after they've played a Southern Utah team from a lower division. It will be encouraging if the game is a rout, not encouraging if the contest is close.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Saturday, September 05, 2009
SDSU-UCLA Quick Reax
SDSU fell 33-14 in Brady Hoke's debut as head coach.
The good:
1. SDSU's offense got an early jump on UCLA's defense, scoring two touchdowns in the first quarter.
2. The defense in past years would have given up considering the bad breaks they had, but they hung in there for 60 minutes. Bruins only score three points on offense in the second half.
3. Schemes looked good, organization and game plans solid -- very unlike last year.
The bad:
1. Pass blocking and run blocking overwhelmed by a good UCLA defense. QB Ryan Lindley was really thrown off his game and his passes in the second half were mostly terrible.
2. Special teams were terrible.
3. Receivers were shut down after the first quarter.
Lots of work ahead for Hoke and Company, but the schedule gets thankfully easier.
The good:
1. SDSU's offense got an early jump on UCLA's defense, scoring two touchdowns in the first quarter.
2. The defense in past years would have given up considering the bad breaks they had, but they hung in there for 60 minutes. Bruins only score three points on offense in the second half.
3. Schemes looked good, organization and game plans solid -- very unlike last year.
The bad:
1. Pass blocking and run blocking overwhelmed by a good UCLA defense. QB Ryan Lindley was really thrown off his game and his passes in the second half were mostly terrible.
2. Special teams were terrible.
3. Receivers were shut down after the first quarter.
Lots of work ahead for Hoke and Company, but the schedule gets thankfully easier.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
SDSU and Mountain West Predictions
Building on the last post and with just a couple days before the beginning of the college football season, its time for me to make my predictions of what will happen in the Mountain West this year.
Concerning the Aztecs, there are two factors that should result in major improvements on both sides of the ball.
First, the change to Brady Hoke and his celebrated coordinators -- Al Borges for offense and Rocky Long on defense. There was zero thinking that went into the offense in 2008. Chuck Long and Del Miller kept their spread offense even though they were going from fleet Kevin O'Connell to dropback passer Ryan Lindley, a true freshman, and even though they didn't have the skill personnel or linemen to carry it off. The results were predictable. Decent efforts by the defense early last season were constantly stymied by an offense that kept going three-and-out. That won't happen this year. There will not just be an emphasis on the run, but Borges has designed his offense to make sure he has the tools to carry out his plans. He has tight ends and fullbacks who can block, run or go out for passes in order to keep defenses on their heels. The linemen will come out of three-point stances. Lindley will be under center. I could go on. Expect serious improvement.
On defense, the read-and-react defense of the past few years under Chuck Long and Bob Elliott turned into the read-and-get-injured defense as smaller players constantly got pummeled. The attacking style of Rocky Long's 3-3-5 suits a smaller, speedier defense and the Aztecs will be much better for it.
The second reason to expect serious improvement is a general return to health. I think much of the reason for last year's lopsided scores was players just didn't have enough physically as the games went on. This year they do.
Strong points -- quarterback, a deep and quick linebacker corps, an experienced front seven.
Weaknesses -- the left side of the offensive line has two players making their first start, a young and possibly talent-shy secondary.
Running the numbers recently, in several ways, I came up with 6-6. Some good breaks mean 7-5 and a bowl bid. I don't really think six wins sends State to a post-season game, but I could be wrong. Bad breaks or injuries means 5-7, still a three-game improvement over last season.
This is a very impressive coaching staff that's doing things right. If the winning doesn't come immediately, it won't be a long wait.
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I see no weaknesses and a lot of pluses for TCU, so to me they are the choice to win the Mountain West Conference and might be, except for a tough schedule, the best bet to bust into the BCS (I think Boise loses against Oregon Thursday, we'll see). BYU will be no better than last year, though the drop off will be minimal. Utah will slip to third or fourth place because of their extreme personnel losses.
My picks:
1. TCU - defense wins championships, and the offense is experienced with third-year QB Andy Dalton, two versatile RBs and the best set of wideouts in the conference.
2. BYU - better defense makes up for the loss of playmaking receiver Austin Collie. The two great tight ends are back, along with QB Max Hall and RB Harvey Unga.
3. Utah - without Brian Johnson at quarterback in 2008, the Utes might have lost three games. Too many playmakers lost on both offense and defense, as well as steady K/P Louie Sakoda.
4. Colorado State - I'm not sure if this is too high, but the Rams obviously have benefited under Steve Fairchild's coaching and they seem to win close games. It looks like they have the RBs to replace Gartrell Johnson, WR Rashaun Greer is tops and the offensive line is veteran.
5. SDSU - The 4-8 spots are kind of a mix in which any of these teams can finish in any order, but I think the new coaching staff can get SDSU right to mid-pack. The games against Notre Dame and UNLV in 2008 showed what this group of players is capable of.
6. UNLV - Lack of depth ends up hurting the Rebels by the end of the season, it seems like, so this year won't be much different. QB Omar Clayton is efficient and WR Ryan Wolfe is a good one. Big stable of RBs but none seem any good.
7. Air Force - Even though soph QB Tim Jefferson could be great, last year he operated with a veteran team. Now everyone around him is young, so they could fall. I'm not sure it'll be this far, but there's plenty of new faces playing for the Falcons.
8. Wyoming - Looks like they're going with a freshman over veteran and turnover-plagued QBs Dax Crum and Karsten Sween. Smart move, but it will take time to pay off. Not much skill talent on offense, but defense is perhaps second only to TCU. If there was any offense at all on this team, they'd be a trendy dark horse pick.
9. New Mexico - Mike Locksley is the anti-Brady Hoke, it seems like nothing he's done has come off well, and it will hurt the Lobos. No more than three wins total.
Concerning the Aztecs, there are two factors that should result in major improvements on both sides of the ball.
First, the change to Brady Hoke and his celebrated coordinators -- Al Borges for offense and Rocky Long on defense. There was zero thinking that went into the offense in 2008. Chuck Long and Del Miller kept their spread offense even though they were going from fleet Kevin O'Connell to dropback passer Ryan Lindley, a true freshman, and even though they didn't have the skill personnel or linemen to carry it off. The results were predictable. Decent efforts by the defense early last season were constantly stymied by an offense that kept going three-and-out. That won't happen this year. There will not just be an emphasis on the run, but Borges has designed his offense to make sure he has the tools to carry out his plans. He has tight ends and fullbacks who can block, run or go out for passes in order to keep defenses on their heels. The linemen will come out of three-point stances. Lindley will be under center. I could go on. Expect serious improvement.
On defense, the read-and-react defense of the past few years under Chuck Long and Bob Elliott turned into the read-and-get-injured defense as smaller players constantly got pummeled. The attacking style of Rocky Long's 3-3-5 suits a smaller, speedier defense and the Aztecs will be much better for it.
The second reason to expect serious improvement is a general return to health. I think much of the reason for last year's lopsided scores was players just didn't have enough physically as the games went on. This year they do.
Strong points -- quarterback, a deep and quick linebacker corps, an experienced front seven.
Weaknesses -- the left side of the offensive line has two players making their first start, a young and possibly talent-shy secondary.
Running the numbers recently, in several ways, I came up with 6-6. Some good breaks mean 7-5 and a bowl bid. I don't really think six wins sends State to a post-season game, but I could be wrong. Bad breaks or injuries means 5-7, still a three-game improvement over last season.
This is a very impressive coaching staff that's doing things right. If the winning doesn't come immediately, it won't be a long wait.
---
I see no weaknesses and a lot of pluses for TCU, so to me they are the choice to win the Mountain West Conference and might be, except for a tough schedule, the best bet to bust into the BCS (I think Boise loses against Oregon Thursday, we'll see). BYU will be no better than last year, though the drop off will be minimal. Utah will slip to third or fourth place because of their extreme personnel losses.
My picks:
1. TCU - defense wins championships, and the offense is experienced with third-year QB Andy Dalton, two versatile RBs and the best set of wideouts in the conference.
2. BYU - better defense makes up for the loss of playmaking receiver Austin Collie. The two great tight ends are back, along with QB Max Hall and RB Harvey Unga.
3. Utah - without Brian Johnson at quarterback in 2008, the Utes might have lost three games. Too many playmakers lost on both offense and defense, as well as steady K/P Louie Sakoda.
4. Colorado State - I'm not sure if this is too high, but the Rams obviously have benefited under Steve Fairchild's coaching and they seem to win close games. It looks like they have the RBs to replace Gartrell Johnson, WR Rashaun Greer is tops and the offensive line is veteran.
5. SDSU - The 4-8 spots are kind of a mix in which any of these teams can finish in any order, but I think the new coaching staff can get SDSU right to mid-pack. The games against Notre Dame and UNLV in 2008 showed what this group of players is capable of.
6. UNLV - Lack of depth ends up hurting the Rebels by the end of the season, it seems like, so this year won't be much different. QB Omar Clayton is efficient and WR Ryan Wolfe is a good one. Big stable of RBs but none seem any good.
7. Air Force - Even though soph QB Tim Jefferson could be great, last year he operated with a veteran team. Now everyone around him is young, so they could fall. I'm not sure it'll be this far, but there's plenty of new faces playing for the Falcons.
8. Wyoming - Looks like they're going with a freshman over veteran and turnover-plagued QBs Dax Crum and Karsten Sween. Smart move, but it will take time to pay off. Not much skill talent on offense, but defense is perhaps second only to TCU. If there was any offense at all on this team, they'd be a trendy dark horse pick.
9. New Mexico - Mike Locksley is the anti-Brady Hoke, it seems like nothing he's done has come off well, and it will hurt the Lobos. No more than three wins total.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Mountain West Tempers Hokemania Enthusiasm
First, a shout out to the Park View Little League All-Stars, a job well done, and its been a pleasure to write about you. Thanks for a fun couple of weeks, and for reminding us that we don't need the overpriced and inconvenient major leagues to find good and exciting baseball.
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San Diego State football is the epitome of bad timing. With the advent of the BCS, the WAC/Mountain West took an absolute pounding from the esteemed power conferences. The conference SDSU was in presented from 1997 to 2003 some truly horrid football. During that time, the Aztecs were only once able to take advantage of the lack of competition and reach a bowl game. That was in 1998, and then-Athletic Director Rick Bay had to pull a lot of strings to get his school into the Las Vegas Bowl against North Carolina.
Here in 2009, with the pathetic staff of Chuck Long jettisoned and the highly accomplished staff of Brady Hoke ready to take over, SDSU's poor sense of timing strikes again. This is not your father's MWC/WAC. Instead, the Aztecs have to compete in one of the top conferences in the nation. In the old days, it was a big deal for this core group of schools -- BYU and Utah, Air Force and Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico and Wyoming -- to have one preseason ranked team. In 2009, there are three and they all deserve to be there.
So San Diego State should be better in 2009 and will likely improve tremendously in coming seasons, but it's like a greyhound chasing a metal rabbit, the goal keeps moving. It's not like 1986, when Denny Stolz came in and took the Aztecs to the Holiday Bowl in a WAC that offered very little competition. SDSU will be better, but they have to climb a much taller mountain.
That said, the numbers point to a 6-6 season, probably no worse than 5-7 and no better than 7-5, a record I think they'll need to attain a bowl game. There are some teams -- opening night opponent UCLA, TCU, BYU and Utah -- that they just aren't going to beat. They have to play Air Force and UNLV on the road. On the other hand, they get Wyoming and New Mexico at home and play a weak non-conference schedule after Week One. Things are really set for a season that will be close to .500.
If it was the old days, I'd predict a Stolz-style turnaround with no qualms. This team might have the best set of linebackers in the conference, a quarterback who will open eyes in the West this season and some receivers who can make plays. If the offensive line can open some running lanes and the cornerbacks can hold their own, then this team will be vastly improved. But the timing remains poor.
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Reports floated around recently that true freshman Jordan Wynn (Oceanside HS)won the starting QB job at Utah. In reality, while Coach Kyle Whittingham has not officially named a starter, Wynn has been mostly working out with the second team, according to media reports in Salt Lake City ... Former Aztecs QB Kevin O'Connell was cut from New England Sunday, a shocker for a guy who entered training camp as Tom Brady's heir apparent. O'Connell was awful in the most recent exhibition game, and Brady's health is such that the Patriots can't take a chance on the youngster now that Matt Cassell is gone. It appears that a couple teams are interested in the La Costa Canyon HS alum, including the 49ers, so my earlier speculation that I'll soon be writing about Alex Smith (Helix HS) being cut might actually come to pass. Darn it ... I read last week that former USD QB Josh Johnson, who seemed paired with O'Connell during pre-draft All-Star games and workouts, is on the trading block in Tampa Bay ... Deja vu all over again: in Baltimore's 5-2 win over Cleveland in baseball Sunday, USD's Brian Matusz was the winning pitcher over SDSU's Justin Masterson.
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San Diego State football is the epitome of bad timing. With the advent of the BCS, the WAC/Mountain West took an absolute pounding from the esteemed power conferences. The conference SDSU was in presented from 1997 to 2003 some truly horrid football. During that time, the Aztecs were only once able to take advantage of the lack of competition and reach a bowl game. That was in 1998, and then-Athletic Director Rick Bay had to pull a lot of strings to get his school into the Las Vegas Bowl against North Carolina.
Here in 2009, with the pathetic staff of Chuck Long jettisoned and the highly accomplished staff of Brady Hoke ready to take over, SDSU's poor sense of timing strikes again. This is not your father's MWC/WAC. Instead, the Aztecs have to compete in one of the top conferences in the nation. In the old days, it was a big deal for this core group of schools -- BYU and Utah, Air Force and Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico and Wyoming -- to have one preseason ranked team. In 2009, there are three and they all deserve to be there.
So San Diego State should be better in 2009 and will likely improve tremendously in coming seasons, but it's like a greyhound chasing a metal rabbit, the goal keeps moving. It's not like 1986, when Denny Stolz came in and took the Aztecs to the Holiday Bowl in a WAC that offered very little competition. SDSU will be better, but they have to climb a much taller mountain.
That said, the numbers point to a 6-6 season, probably no worse than 5-7 and no better than 7-5, a record I think they'll need to attain a bowl game. There are some teams -- opening night opponent UCLA, TCU, BYU and Utah -- that they just aren't going to beat. They have to play Air Force and UNLV on the road. On the other hand, they get Wyoming and New Mexico at home and play a weak non-conference schedule after Week One. Things are really set for a season that will be close to .500.
If it was the old days, I'd predict a Stolz-style turnaround with no qualms. This team might have the best set of linebackers in the conference, a quarterback who will open eyes in the West this season and some receivers who can make plays. If the offensive line can open some running lanes and the cornerbacks can hold their own, then this team will be vastly improved. But the timing remains poor.
---
Reports floated around recently that true freshman Jordan Wynn (Oceanside HS)won the starting QB job at Utah. In reality, while Coach Kyle Whittingham has not officially named a starter, Wynn has been mostly working out with the second team, according to media reports in Salt Lake City ... Former Aztecs QB Kevin O'Connell was cut from New England Sunday, a shocker for a guy who entered training camp as Tom Brady's heir apparent. O'Connell was awful in the most recent exhibition game, and Brady's health is such that the Patriots can't take a chance on the youngster now that Matt Cassell is gone. It appears that a couple teams are interested in the La Costa Canyon HS alum, including the 49ers, so my earlier speculation that I'll soon be writing about Alex Smith (Helix HS) being cut might actually come to pass. Darn it ... I read last week that former USD QB Josh Johnson, who seemed paired with O'Connell during pre-draft All-Star games and workouts, is on the trading block in Tampa Bay ... Deja vu all over again: in Baltimore's 5-2 win over Cleveland in baseball Sunday, USD's Brian Matusz was the winning pitcher over SDSU's Justin Masterson.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Chargers Sacks, Padres Future
So here we are two weeks into the exhibition season and only now people are starting to worry about the protection QB Philip Rivers is going to receive? I've been complaining about the Chargers offensive line for years now, and the inattention given to the unit by GM AJ Smith, because its so easy to see how things are going to go.
That Rivers was sacked four times in the first quarter at Arizona last Saturday is not necessarily a sign of the times. Weird things happen in these games that don't count, and that was one of them. It doesn't translate to 16 sacks in a full regular season game, and the coaches will tighten things up.
But it was something that we fans have to be concerned about. Even eight sacks in one game is a tremendous amount, because it will mean that the defensive line is getting pressure on Rivers on many more pass attempts.
What's more, the line has not opened running lanes for LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles, both of whom are averaging less than three yards per carry after the first two exhibition games. I stated on this blog previously that I think the Bolts are deficient in three of the five spots on the offensive line, maybe four of the five if LT Marcus McNeill doesn't return to form. I think we're seeing the effects of that now.
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As the Padres head into the final month of the season, it's not to early to start thinking about how to build for next year. As I see it, the Friars are now set in a number of positions on the field, unlike their situation coming into the season.
The 2010 Padres will have 1B Adrian Gonzalez, 2B David Eckstein, Lf Kyle Blanks, CF Tony Gwynn, RF Will Venable and C Nick Hundley. The bullpen appears set with Heath Bell and Mike Adams as the anchors.
Your issues are what to do about 3B, starting pitching and the question of whether Everth Cabrera is really that good at SS.
At third, Kevin Kouzmanoff is doing nothing special (.256-16-74 before Thursday) and Chase Headley has hit.307 since the All-Star break just to lift his batting average to Kouz's level, and has far fewer HR and RBI. Kouzmanoff, at least, is a Gold Glove candidate at the hot corner. While Headley has played more left than third, he'll probably never be the fielder Kouzmanoff is. I go with Kouz and make Headley a reserve since he won't unseat Blanks. At the same time, I'm going through the trade market like crazy. I'd love to get a legit every day guy there and I'd trade both of these guys to get one.
Starting pitching remains pretty weak, leading me to renew my wonder at trading away one of the few legitimate number one starters in baseball. Jake Peavy suffered a new injury in Chicago, which might not have happened here, so his 2009 is probably finished. However, in 2010 he'll be there, not here.
Chris Young is having his second straight injury-plagued season, so who knows what sort of production the Padres will get from him next year. You can pencil him into the rotation but you better keep your eraser handy.
Right now, I'd say the 2010 rotation looks like Mat Latos-Kevin Correia-Clayton Richard. That's three guys and you need five. Pencil in Young to make four. Tim Stauffer could make five, but he's not terribly impressive. If the Padres want to compete in the NL West next season, they really need one more solid guy.
Finally, Cabrera. Headed into Thursday, he's hitting .269-2-23 with on on-base percentage of .359 and 19 steals. Moreover, he's a plus fielder who has committed just eight errors. Yet he needs to be a little more productive at the plate if the Padres are to contend, and I don't know if he is there yet. If the Padres get an every day SS offered in a trade package, I'd really have to consider it.
One more issue to think about. Venable, Blanks and even Headley now are all hitting and Cabrera isn't doing too badly. But the outfielders and SS have not been up from AAA for very long, so pitchers haven't found the holes in their bats. They will, either in September or next year. It happens to all youngsters, and those who go on to be successful are able to adjust. I don't know if they have that ability in them or not. So while they go into 2010 as near-certain starters for the Padres, it's highly questionable that they'll hit as well as they have in August. If they do, and they get more out of Cabrera and Gwynn, Gonzalez stays the same and improvements are made at 3B, this could be an interesting ball club to watch.
That Rivers was sacked four times in the first quarter at Arizona last Saturday is not necessarily a sign of the times. Weird things happen in these games that don't count, and that was one of them. It doesn't translate to 16 sacks in a full regular season game, and the coaches will tighten things up.
But it was something that we fans have to be concerned about. Even eight sacks in one game is a tremendous amount, because it will mean that the defensive line is getting pressure on Rivers on many more pass attempts.
What's more, the line has not opened running lanes for LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles, both of whom are averaging less than three yards per carry after the first two exhibition games. I stated on this blog previously that I think the Bolts are deficient in three of the five spots on the offensive line, maybe four of the five if LT Marcus McNeill doesn't return to form. I think we're seeing the effects of that now.
---
As the Padres head into the final month of the season, it's not to early to start thinking about how to build for next year. As I see it, the Friars are now set in a number of positions on the field, unlike their situation coming into the season.
The 2010 Padres will have 1B Adrian Gonzalez, 2B David Eckstein, Lf Kyle Blanks, CF Tony Gwynn, RF Will Venable and C Nick Hundley. The bullpen appears set with Heath Bell and Mike Adams as the anchors.
Your issues are what to do about 3B, starting pitching and the question of whether Everth Cabrera is really that good at SS.
At third, Kevin Kouzmanoff is doing nothing special (.256-16-74 before Thursday) and Chase Headley has hit.307 since the All-Star break just to lift his batting average to Kouz's level, and has far fewer HR and RBI. Kouzmanoff, at least, is a Gold Glove candidate at the hot corner. While Headley has played more left than third, he'll probably never be the fielder Kouzmanoff is. I go with Kouz and make Headley a reserve since he won't unseat Blanks. At the same time, I'm going through the trade market like crazy. I'd love to get a legit every day guy there and I'd trade both of these guys to get one.
Starting pitching remains pretty weak, leading me to renew my wonder at trading away one of the few legitimate number one starters in baseball. Jake Peavy suffered a new injury in Chicago, which might not have happened here, so his 2009 is probably finished. However, in 2010 he'll be there, not here.
Chris Young is having his second straight injury-plagued season, so who knows what sort of production the Padres will get from him next year. You can pencil him into the rotation but you better keep your eraser handy.
Right now, I'd say the 2010 rotation looks like Mat Latos-Kevin Correia-Clayton Richard. That's three guys and you need five. Pencil in Young to make four. Tim Stauffer could make five, but he's not terribly impressive. If the Padres want to compete in the NL West next season, they really need one more solid guy.
Finally, Cabrera. Headed into Thursday, he's hitting .269-2-23 with on on-base percentage of .359 and 19 steals. Moreover, he's a plus fielder who has committed just eight errors. Yet he needs to be a little more productive at the plate if the Padres are to contend, and I don't know if he is there yet. If the Padres get an every day SS offered in a trade package, I'd really have to consider it.
One more issue to think about. Venable, Blanks and even Headley now are all hitting and Cabrera isn't doing too badly. But the outfielders and SS have not been up from AAA for very long, so pitchers haven't found the holes in their bats. They will, either in September or next year. It happens to all youngsters, and those who go on to be successful are able to adjust. I don't know if they have that ability in them or not. So while they go into 2010 as near-certain starters for the Padres, it's highly questionable that they'll hit as well as they have in August. If they do, and they get more out of Cabrera and Gwynn, Gonzalez stays the same and improvements are made at 3B, this could be an interesting ball club to watch.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Closed to Public Scrutiny, Alex Smith
As an alumnus of San Diego State University and a committed fan of the Aztecs sports teams, or a fan who should be committed, I want to know everything I can find out about the players, coaches, injuries, strategies, etc. when I pick up my morning newspaper or listen to the radio.
That's clearly not happening under the new regime of football coach Brady Hoke, who has closed practices to the public and media, and banned freshmen from speaking with reporters. The lone exception is he'll let the media in for the first 30 minutes of a couple practices each week, mainly so TV crews can get some fresh video. For those not in the know, the first 30 minutes of a football practice consists of stretching. Whoopee.
As a reporter by trade, I believe there is an obligation of transparency for people in public positions. Scrutiny by a good reporter gives the busy populace its only chance to evaluate its public institutions. SDSU football, as part of a state university and dependent on ticket sales to emotionally connected fans, requires scrutiny. If you think this is a stretch, I have two words for you: Chuck Long.
On the other hand, I've spent most of this decade covering the criminal courts and police stories, both government functions. There are times that you just can't get the information you want when you want it. After a while, you learn where the line is drawn, though there are a number of public lawyers who are media unfriendly and won't tell you anything for any reason. But these issues don't involve football.
Again, these people -- from District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders to Hoke -- work for us and should not be allowed to hide behind a "no comment." They're obligated to let the public see what's going on within their offices and, for better or worse, the press is the public's representative in such matters.
I'm not typing here to demand Hoke immediately open his practices to one and all. I do think he's erred by a matter of degree in that he's trying to reconnect local football fans and SDSU alumni to the program and yet he's shutting them out of watching practice. He should have said practice on this day or that day is open and the others are closed, or some formula of that type. He's installing new systems and it appears he's going to be using a lot of new players, including true freshmen, and he doesn't want anything revealed, or distraction to the kids trying to learn new things. I understand that.
Hoke has said, however, that at Ball State he loosened up the restrictions after the first couple of years and thinks he'll do the same here. We the media and the public need to make sure he does so.
---
SDSU defensive coordinator Rocky Long justifies the restrictions by saying practices really don't tell you much about players, that to really judge them you have to see them perform in games. That appears to be applicable to former Helix QB Alex Smith, who lost his battle to start for the 49ers to Shaun Hill.
Smith, who missed the 2008 season with an injury, has failed to live up to his promise when he was drafted first out of Utah. The 49ers as a whole were awful the past few seasons but appear to be building steam in 2009, so this is a big season for them. I actually think the NFC is weak enough for San Francisco to be a wild card contender, so coach Mike Singletary better get his QB choice right.
The trouble is Smith looked great throwing the ball in off-season workouts. The Bay Area newspapers all had articles along the lines of: guess who's back in the QB mix? That's how well he was doing.
Then came the exhibition games. He threw a TD pass in the first contest against Denver but his completions averaged just over six yards. Against the Raiders last week he completed just 3 of his 9 throws and tossed an interception. His passer rating was 4.2. Not good.
So he lost his chance to start and, I'd bet, maybe his job. The 49ers have veteran Damon Huard and drafted Hoke's old Ball State signal-caller, Nate Davis. Therefore, look for Smith to be released in early September. Just my bet.
---
Raiders LB Kirk Morrison (SDSU) separated his shoulder in that second exhibition game and will be out a few weeks. Former Aztecs WR Chaz Schilens had all but nailed down the Raiders top receiving spot before he also got hurt. Yuck. Best to the recovery for both.
That's clearly not happening under the new regime of football coach Brady Hoke, who has closed practices to the public and media, and banned freshmen from speaking with reporters. The lone exception is he'll let the media in for the first 30 minutes of a couple practices each week, mainly so TV crews can get some fresh video. For those not in the know, the first 30 minutes of a football practice consists of stretching. Whoopee.
As a reporter by trade, I believe there is an obligation of transparency for people in public positions. Scrutiny by a good reporter gives the busy populace its only chance to evaluate its public institutions. SDSU football, as part of a state university and dependent on ticket sales to emotionally connected fans, requires scrutiny. If you think this is a stretch, I have two words for you: Chuck Long.
On the other hand, I've spent most of this decade covering the criminal courts and police stories, both government functions. There are times that you just can't get the information you want when you want it. After a while, you learn where the line is drawn, though there are a number of public lawyers who are media unfriendly and won't tell you anything for any reason. But these issues don't involve football.
Again, these people -- from District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders to Hoke -- work for us and should not be allowed to hide behind a "no comment." They're obligated to let the public see what's going on within their offices and, for better or worse, the press is the public's representative in such matters.
I'm not typing here to demand Hoke immediately open his practices to one and all. I do think he's erred by a matter of degree in that he's trying to reconnect local football fans and SDSU alumni to the program and yet he's shutting them out of watching practice. He should have said practice on this day or that day is open and the others are closed, or some formula of that type. He's installing new systems and it appears he's going to be using a lot of new players, including true freshmen, and he doesn't want anything revealed, or distraction to the kids trying to learn new things. I understand that.
Hoke has said, however, that at Ball State he loosened up the restrictions after the first couple of years and thinks he'll do the same here. We the media and the public need to make sure he does so.
---
SDSU defensive coordinator Rocky Long justifies the restrictions by saying practices really don't tell you much about players, that to really judge them you have to see them perform in games. That appears to be applicable to former Helix QB Alex Smith, who lost his battle to start for the 49ers to Shaun Hill.
Smith, who missed the 2008 season with an injury, has failed to live up to his promise when he was drafted first out of Utah. The 49ers as a whole were awful the past few seasons but appear to be building steam in 2009, so this is a big season for them. I actually think the NFC is weak enough for San Francisco to be a wild card contender, so coach Mike Singletary better get his QB choice right.
The trouble is Smith looked great throwing the ball in off-season workouts. The Bay Area newspapers all had articles along the lines of: guess who's back in the QB mix? That's how well he was doing.
Then came the exhibition games. He threw a TD pass in the first contest against Denver but his completions averaged just over six yards. Against the Raiders last week he completed just 3 of his 9 throws and tossed an interception. His passer rating was 4.2. Not good.
So he lost his chance to start and, I'd bet, maybe his job. The 49ers have veteran Damon Huard and drafted Hoke's old Ball State signal-caller, Nate Davis. Therefore, look for Smith to be released in early September. Just my bet.
---
Raiders LB Kirk Morrison (SDSU) separated his shoulder in that second exhibition game and will be out a few weeks. Former Aztecs WR Chaz Schilens had all but nailed down the Raiders top receiving spot before he also got hurt. Yuck. Best to the recovery for both.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Little League Brings Home Title Hopes
The sluggers of the Green Machine, the mighty 11- to 13-year-olds of Chula Vista's Park View Little League, head to South Williamsport, Pa., this week with a chance to merely bring home the first national championship for a San Diego team since 1973.
There's some pressure to place on young shoulders, huh? Not really. While we all hope for the best for the squad that will now be labeled simply "West" in their upcoming games, they will come home as conquering heroes no matter what happens on the exalted ballfield back east. Both Oceanside and Rancho Buena Vista fell just short of winning it all in their 2000 and 2005 appearances and came home to raucous welcomes. Park View will, also.
I bring up the connection not to longingly look to pre-teens for championship salvation, but to point out the utter futility of being a sports fan around here. Not since San Diego State's volleyball team shocked the world by winning the NCAA volleyball crown 36 years ago has a local team gone all the way. The 1980s Sockers? Please. Indoor soccer was a novelty. The Gulls played minor league hockey, albeit mostly successfully. USD had a women's tennis national champion, but she was an individual and an Eastern European import for Chrissakes.
The Padres, the Chargers, the Aztecs, the Toreros. None of them have won a team title for that period covering nearly four decades. Some teams have at least come close. SDSU soccer made a national final and I think USD made a soccer final, too, or at least a Final Four. I think UCSD won Division III girls a couple times but I doubt if anyone noticed. It's been frustrating.
These kids from Chula Vista, who have rocket launchers for bats, have a chance to go the distance. With Little League, they could even make it an international championship, so much the better.
If they don't, no big. If they do, then the kid sitting next to you in sixth grade English class might be more accomplished than Tony Gwynn, Junior Seau or Marshall Faulk. How about that?
---
As of this writing, Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State has yet to sign a contract with the Washington Nationals. You can never really tell what's going on behind closed doors. I hope the kid went into his relationship with agent Scott Boros with his eyes open. One gets the impression that with Boros, you work for the agent, instead of the other way around. Some of the talk -- which could be just that -- is that Boros is pushing for some kind of fundamental change in how draftees are evaluated and valued by the baseball clubs. If I'm Strasburg, that's fine, but in the meantime, get me signed. I hope it happens.
---
The layoffs at The San Diego Union-Tribune are now cutting deeply into the sports department. Just last week, SDSU sports beat writer Mick McGrane was sent packing, joining former Padres writer Tom Krasovic and several high school writers.
Padres coverage has suffered terribly without Krasovic, who had a nose for what was not just newsworthy but also interesting to read. Now you can pick up the sports page and read the same news about the Friars players you saw the day before, and the day before that. Not good.
I feel better about the Aztecs coverage. It appears Brent Schrotenboer is taking the spot, and he has a great record of investigative reporting. He, I hope, will give some needed direction to the coverage of the Aztecs. I also hope that with Brady Hoke throwing a virtual cloak of invisibility about his team, that he has the insight and energy to do the legwork to actually find the news instead of simply taking what's been handed to him.
There's some pressure to place on young shoulders, huh? Not really. While we all hope for the best for the squad that will now be labeled simply "West" in their upcoming games, they will come home as conquering heroes no matter what happens on the exalted ballfield back east. Both Oceanside and Rancho Buena Vista fell just short of winning it all in their 2000 and 2005 appearances and came home to raucous welcomes. Park View will, also.
I bring up the connection not to longingly look to pre-teens for championship salvation, but to point out the utter futility of being a sports fan around here. Not since San Diego State's volleyball team shocked the world by winning the NCAA volleyball crown 36 years ago has a local team gone all the way. The 1980s Sockers? Please. Indoor soccer was a novelty. The Gulls played minor league hockey, albeit mostly successfully. USD had a women's tennis national champion, but she was an individual and an Eastern European import for Chrissakes.
The Padres, the Chargers, the Aztecs, the Toreros. None of them have won a team title for that period covering nearly four decades. Some teams have at least come close. SDSU soccer made a national final and I think USD made a soccer final, too, or at least a Final Four. I think UCSD won Division III girls a couple times but I doubt if anyone noticed. It's been frustrating.
These kids from Chula Vista, who have rocket launchers for bats, have a chance to go the distance. With Little League, they could even make it an international championship, so much the better.
If they don't, no big. If they do, then the kid sitting next to you in sixth grade English class might be more accomplished than Tony Gwynn, Junior Seau or Marshall Faulk. How about that?
---
As of this writing, Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State has yet to sign a contract with the Washington Nationals. You can never really tell what's going on behind closed doors. I hope the kid went into his relationship with agent Scott Boros with his eyes open. One gets the impression that with Boros, you work for the agent, instead of the other way around. Some of the talk -- which could be just that -- is that Boros is pushing for some kind of fundamental change in how draftees are evaluated and valued by the baseball clubs. If I'm Strasburg, that's fine, but in the meantime, get me signed. I hope it happens.
---
The layoffs at The San Diego Union-Tribune are now cutting deeply into the sports department. Just last week, SDSU sports beat writer Mick McGrane was sent packing, joining former Padres writer Tom Krasovic and several high school writers.
Padres coverage has suffered terribly without Krasovic, who had a nose for what was not just newsworthy but also interesting to read. Now you can pick up the sports page and read the same news about the Friars players you saw the day before, and the day before that. Not good.
I feel better about the Aztecs coverage. It appears Brent Schrotenboer is taking the spot, and he has a great record of investigative reporting. He, I hope, will give some needed direction to the coverage of the Aztecs. I also hope that with Brady Hoke throwing a virtual cloak of invisibility about his team, that he has the insight and energy to do the legwork to actually find the news instead of simply taking what's been handed to him.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Coaching Question to be Answered at SDSU
When San Diego State’s football team begins its first pre-season workout Monday, it will not only usher in the new era with head coach Brady Hoke, but it will answer a question asked by local fans for years: can the Aztecs program find success if it ever gets a good coaching staff?
The group under Hoke certainly qualifies. Al Borges (offense) and Rocky Long (defense) are among the game’s best coordinators over the past couple decades and Brian Sipe, brought in to tutor the quarterbacks, is merely a former NFL Player of the Year. There’s something to say for the other guys on the staff, too.
I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say this is the best group of football coaches assembled on the Mesa since the beginning of the Ted Tollner-era in the mid-1990s. Those guys, remember, led the Aztecs to two 8-win seasons. The current staff might not rival the NFL coaching factory under Don Coryell and Claude Gilbert but that’s only because they’re just now getting their first season underway.
There’s plenty of reason for the diminished number of Aztec faithful to be desperate for a quality staff:
After the news of the past couple of weeks, I don’t think I need to pile on the legacy of Chuck Long, who now goes down as one of the worst coaching hires in the history of American sports.
As great an offensive mind as he has, Tom Craft needed an offensive coordinator to help with in-game adjustments, but the athletic department wouldn’t spend enough money. The lack of financial support resulted in a low-quality staff that recruited poorly and left their successors in a lurch.
Tollner had the great staff initially but those early successes were stymied by the development of the BCS, which redirected players and assistants to the Pac-10 and other major conferences. They ran out of steam by the new millennium.
(By way of full disclosure, from my dealings with both men, I really like and respect both Craft and Tollner personally. Both had nothing but love for SDSU. Tollner was beat down by the changed landscape of college football and Craft’s resurrection program simply didn’t work.)
Longtime fans are certainly aware that Al Luginbill, Denny Stolz and Doug Scovil all had their issues, too.
Now a good staff is on hand, guys with solid track records. One gets the impression of a sea change at San Diego State because of these coaches. We’ll finally find out what SDSU football can do with another great coaching staff -- especially interesting because the sport’s landscape has swayed back into State’s favor with the ascent – finally – of the Mountain West Conference.
How long it will take to get the answer is obviously unclear. It took Tollner and Luginbill two seasons each to find success. Stolz did it his first year, before he discovered he liked golf even more than Steve Spurrier. I bet we’ll have our answer, good or bad, sometime in November 2010. However, anyone who prays for something – and Aztecs fans have prayed for salvation for years now – knows the answer sometimes is “no.”
Friday, August 07, 2009
Assault Prompted Long's Firing, Little League
Considering that San Diego State University has one of the finer business schools in the country, it's perhaps fitting that a highly teachable episode of mismanagement occurred on campus last fall and apparently led to the removal of Chuck Long as head coach of the football team. This could serve as a great "how not to" lesson, in case management professors believe that students won't be able to relate to General Motors.
According to Friday's edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune, former offensive lineman Lance Louis, apparently annoyed by being poked with a stick by safety Nick Sandford, later came up from behind and attacked his then-teammate in an athletic building meeting room, injuring him enough to require hospitalization. The article said that Louis went ahead and played the Aztecs final three games, as Long tried to handle the matter internally and protect Louis' chances to move on to professional football. When Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel found out about the incident and aftermath two weeks later, that's when he went to school President Stephen Weber with the recommendation that Long be fired, the article read.
There are so many problems that come out of this episode. Remember that SDSU was mired in an injury-plagued 2-10 season and was getting absolutely crushed by teams both good and mediocre. The preparation for the season and individual games by the coaching staff was some of the worst I've seen in my decades of watching college football.
An attack like this shows two things:
1. Morale among the players must have been horrible. Even in a losing season, Louis must have recognized that he had NFL potential (and is now in the Bears training camp), which should have given him light at the end of the tunnel. That he didn't see it and studiously avoid confrontation, even if provoked, is a sign of how bad things must have been in the locker room.
2. The coaches completely lost control of the players, and the players had no respect for the coaching staff. When you have a group of 100 people in close proximity nearly year-round, things are going to happen. Guys will confront each other somewhere, usually after drinking, throw some punches, and teammates will break it up. Happens. Not in a meeting room of the athletic administration building. No way.
Clearly, Long had a problem and should have taken it to higher-ups. I understand his reasoning in wanting to cut Louis a break. The kid suffered a terrible injury early in his career and spent the last two seasons playing out of position, sacrificing himself for the good of the team. You want someone like that to leave school with a chance for a career, not as a criminal. He should have gone right to Schemmel and incorporated his concern for Louis into a plan of action.
I think that the ultimate blame goes to Schemmel, who supported Long through all the horrible losses until he learned about the alleged assault. It's his job to determine how well things are going for any Aztecs team, and for him to back Long and completely miss the inner turmoil among the football players is absolutely inexcusable. I've never thought much of him as an athletic director, was not surprised when Weber led the effort to fire Long, and I now think that Schemmel needs to go, too.
The bottom line for management students: you have to draw the line in the sand early. I have a hard time believing the alleged assault came out of nowhere. As a manager, coach, administrator, you have to recognize problems in their early stages and solve them immediately or they will snowball. Enterprises go bad, God knows we've seen that in the current economy. The big wigs in the failing entities still have to maintain some discipline, amongst themselves and their employees. Frustration needs to be taken out elsewhere, in some other manner. Respect has to be maintained and recognition has to be made that despite everyone's best efforts, sometimes the best-laid plans don't work. If you're in middle management and a situation is spiraling out of control, you take it to upper management. You can't hide the problem, you'll be found out. If you're in upper management, your focus can't just be on the one level below you. You have to go all the way to ground level and see how life is for the line employees. Taking interest in their welfare doesn't mean you're passing up middle management. Eyes open, all the time. It's called diligence.
---
No surprise that they brought in a disciplinarian like Brady Hoke, huh?
And also, congrats to Sandford for staying the course for his senior year. I don't know whether he's a good guy or a bad guy, but the easy thing would have been to leave and point fingers at everybody. Not only is he back, but he won a starting role in the new rover position in defensive coordinator Rocky Long's 3-3-5 scheme.
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I can't tell you how thrilled I am that Chula Vista's Park View Little League baseball team made it to the Western Regionals this week. There was so much excitement from recent Little League World Series appearances by Oceanside and Vista, and the anticipation of Solana Beach making it to the regional final, that I'm glad we're able to experience it again. My own son has played LL ball the past two years, and I find those games and the kids far more interesting than major league ball. Good luck.
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Kyle Banks sucks! There's the dose of karma, go have a big weekend.
According to Friday's edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune, former offensive lineman Lance Louis, apparently annoyed by being poked with a stick by safety Nick Sandford, later came up from behind and attacked his then-teammate in an athletic building meeting room, injuring him enough to require hospitalization. The article said that Louis went ahead and played the Aztecs final three games, as Long tried to handle the matter internally and protect Louis' chances to move on to professional football. When Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel found out about the incident and aftermath two weeks later, that's when he went to school President Stephen Weber with the recommendation that Long be fired, the article read.
There are so many problems that come out of this episode. Remember that SDSU was mired in an injury-plagued 2-10 season and was getting absolutely crushed by teams both good and mediocre. The preparation for the season and individual games by the coaching staff was some of the worst I've seen in my decades of watching college football.
An attack like this shows two things:
1. Morale among the players must have been horrible. Even in a losing season, Louis must have recognized that he had NFL potential (and is now in the Bears training camp), which should have given him light at the end of the tunnel. That he didn't see it and studiously avoid confrontation, even if provoked, is a sign of how bad things must have been in the locker room.
2. The coaches completely lost control of the players, and the players had no respect for the coaching staff. When you have a group of 100 people in close proximity nearly year-round, things are going to happen. Guys will confront each other somewhere, usually after drinking, throw some punches, and teammates will break it up. Happens. Not in a meeting room of the athletic administration building. No way.
Clearly, Long had a problem and should have taken it to higher-ups. I understand his reasoning in wanting to cut Louis a break. The kid suffered a terrible injury early in his career and spent the last two seasons playing out of position, sacrificing himself for the good of the team. You want someone like that to leave school with a chance for a career, not as a criminal. He should have gone right to Schemmel and incorporated his concern for Louis into a plan of action.
I think that the ultimate blame goes to Schemmel, who supported Long through all the horrible losses until he learned about the alleged assault. It's his job to determine how well things are going for any Aztecs team, and for him to back Long and completely miss the inner turmoil among the football players is absolutely inexcusable. I've never thought much of him as an athletic director, was not surprised when Weber led the effort to fire Long, and I now think that Schemmel needs to go, too.
The bottom line for management students: you have to draw the line in the sand early. I have a hard time believing the alleged assault came out of nowhere. As a manager, coach, administrator, you have to recognize problems in their early stages and solve them immediately or they will snowball. Enterprises go bad, God knows we've seen that in the current economy. The big wigs in the failing entities still have to maintain some discipline, amongst themselves and their employees. Frustration needs to be taken out elsewhere, in some other manner. Respect has to be maintained and recognition has to be made that despite everyone's best efforts, sometimes the best-laid plans don't work. If you're in middle management and a situation is spiraling out of control, you take it to upper management. You can't hide the problem, you'll be found out. If you're in upper management, your focus can't just be on the one level below you. You have to go all the way to ground level and see how life is for the line employees. Taking interest in their welfare doesn't mean you're passing up middle management. Eyes open, all the time. It's called diligence.
---
No surprise that they brought in a disciplinarian like Brady Hoke, huh?
And also, congrats to Sandford for staying the course for his senior year. I don't know whether he's a good guy or a bad guy, but the easy thing would have been to leave and point fingers at everybody. Not only is he back, but he won a starting role in the new rover position in defensive coordinator Rocky Long's 3-3-5 scheme.
---
I can't tell you how thrilled I am that Chula Vista's Park View Little League baseball team made it to the Western Regionals this week. There was so much excitement from recent Little League World Series appearances by Oceanside and Vista, and the anticipation of Solana Beach making it to the regional final, that I'm glad we're able to experience it again. My own son has played LL ball the past two years, and I find those games and the kids far more interesting than major league ball. Good luck.
---
Kyle Banks sucks! There's the dose of karma, go have a big weekend.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Short Stuff
This has been a good year for young local baseball players, with Sean O'Sullivan of Valhalla HS being called up to the Angels for a few successful starts and Adam Jones of Morse HS making the American League All-Star team for the Orioles. Add now Brian Matusz of USD, who will be making his first big league start for the O's tonight. Who is next? ... The down side was the Padres releasing Mark Prior of USDHS, who just couldn't overcome his shoulder injuries. Another year or two of rest and rehab might give him another chance, but by then he's going to have to do an awful lot of talking to get a team to give him a minor league roster spot over a deserving youngster. That said, I think the Padres made a reasonable move in signing him. He was a great pitcher at one time and wow, what could have been ... I think the Padres recent winning ways have mainly come against teams -- Reds and Brewers -- heading into the tank, yet the success of young starters Mat Latos and Tim Stauffer is encouraging ... Weekly rant against Kyle Blanks for the sole purpose of keeping up the karma which has improved his hitting: against struggling Brewers starter Braden Looper Friday, he twice missed on a couple straight fastballs so we all knew what was coming next, a breaking ball in the dirt. He swung like he was fooled. Why? I guess that's a young player for you. I do like how he knocked one of those lifeless fastballs 428 feet in his next at bat -- I hope the nice word doesn't send him into a slump.
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Tough crowd! QB Alex Smith gets booed on the first day of the 49ers camp. This is what happens when people don't read newspapers, because there's tons of news reports out there saying the Helix HS product has been sensational during off-season practices and may be ready to reclaim the starting position ... Kevin O'Connell of La Costa Canyon and SDSU suddenly has competition for the backup QB spot for the Patriots, who signed big-armed former Raider Andrew Walter. There had been talk of the Pats signing less-threatening Cleo Lemon, but Walter is a former (not-too-successful) starter ... Reggie Bush of Helix not only no longer has no GF but his surgically-repaired left knee is proving balky, so he's going to sit out a couple practices for the Saints ... Kellen Winslow Jr. of Scripps Ranch is missing a couple practices for the Buccaneers with an ankle sprain ... Remember Teyo Johnson, who came down with Amon Gordon from Washington state to play at Mira Mesa HS for their senior seasons before going on to Stanford? He's now a slotback for Toronto in the CFL. Gordon was recently waived from the Eagles after rupturing his Achilles tendon.
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If SDSU's mens basketball team jells and becomes as good as it could be, the Mountain West Conference schedule appears favorable, at first glance. The Aztecs last two games are against Colorado State at home and at Air Force, a school that Coach Steve Fisher's bunch has taken to physically dominating. The week before is a potential match to determine the league title at BYU.
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Tough crowd! QB Alex Smith gets booed on the first day of the 49ers camp. This is what happens when people don't read newspapers, because there's tons of news reports out there saying the Helix HS product has been sensational during off-season practices and may be ready to reclaim the starting position ... Kevin O'Connell of La Costa Canyon and SDSU suddenly has competition for the backup QB spot for the Patriots, who signed big-armed former Raider Andrew Walter. There had been talk of the Pats signing less-threatening Cleo Lemon, but Walter is a former (not-too-successful) starter ... Reggie Bush of Helix not only no longer has no GF but his surgically-repaired left knee is proving balky, so he's going to sit out a couple practices for the Saints ... Kellen Winslow Jr. of Scripps Ranch is missing a couple practices for the Buccaneers with an ankle sprain ... Remember Teyo Johnson, who came down with Amon Gordon from Washington state to play at Mira Mesa HS for their senior seasons before going on to Stanford? He's now a slotback for Toronto in the CFL. Gordon was recently waived from the Eagles after rupturing his Achilles tendon.
---
If SDSU's mens basketball team jells and becomes as good as it could be, the Mountain West Conference schedule appears favorable, at first glance. The Aztecs last two games are against Colorado State at home and at Air Force, a school that Coach Steve Fisher's bunch has taken to physically dominating. The week before is a potential match to determine the league title at BYU.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Peavy Trade
Okay, I know I said I wouldn't start another post with a Padres comment, but I really didn't foresee them trading away injured P Jake Peavy, who was sent to the White Sox for four hurlers, three of them minor leaguers.
Immediate reaction: there are fewer true number one starters than major league baseball teams, so if you have one, you don't get better by sending him away.
The logical argument for trading Peavy is that his injury is nowhere close to healing and the front office is concerned about his future, whether he'll ever approach what he once was. GM Kevin Towers has unloaded damaged goods on other teams before, after all. However, you'd have to wonder what the White Sox are thinking in bringing such a guy to their ballclub.
The Padres organization has alienated local fans to the point where no one will buy the logical baseball argument. It's all about dumping salary. I gotta think the fans are right on this one.
The Padres are a better team today than they were yesterday for bringing in the new blood to the pitcher's mound, since Peavy was still on the DL. Lefty Aaron Poreda is a top prospect and could have some good years at Petco Park. But today no longer matters. What's important is whether the Padres will be better for this trade in April 2010 when everyone is healthy again, and the answer is clearly no.
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Randy Ready for Jim Lefebvre, who took over from Wally Joyner and on it goes with the batting coach position for the Padres. As long as they're trying to coax hits from the same ballplayers, it doesn't matter who the coach is.
Immediate reaction: there are fewer true number one starters than major league baseball teams, so if you have one, you don't get better by sending him away.
The logical argument for trading Peavy is that his injury is nowhere close to healing and the front office is concerned about his future, whether he'll ever approach what he once was. GM Kevin Towers has unloaded damaged goods on other teams before, after all. However, you'd have to wonder what the White Sox are thinking in bringing such a guy to their ballclub.
The Padres organization has alienated local fans to the point where no one will buy the logical baseball argument. It's all about dumping salary. I gotta think the fans are right on this one.
The Padres are a better team today than they were yesterday for bringing in the new blood to the pitcher's mound, since Peavy was still on the DL. Lefty Aaron Poreda is a top prospect and could have some good years at Petco Park. But today no longer matters. What's important is whether the Padres will be better for this trade in April 2010 when everyone is healthy again, and the answer is clearly no.
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Randy Ready for Jim Lefebvre, who took over from Wally Joyner and on it goes with the batting coach position for the Padres. As long as they're trying to coax hits from the same ballplayers, it doesn't matter who the coach is.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Last Chance for Current Chargers?
With LaDainian Tomlinson's advancing age, unsettled lines and injuries catching up to Shawne Merriman and Antonio Gates, one of the themes we'll be hearing as training camp opens this week is whether 2009 is the last legitimate Super Bowl opportunity for this crop of Chargers.
I tend to think not. My belief is more that core players including those three have a two-year window before age and injuries begin to take their toll and reduce their status as contenders. By way of clarification, Philip Rivers is clearly part of the core but he's emerging as one of the two or three best quarterbacks in the NFL and has plenty of good years in front of him unless he's injured.
It would make us all feel better, of course, if they get off to a decent start, if Merriman can reignite the aggressive butt-whipping style of the defense of years-past, and Tomlinson and Gates can pair with Rivers to score points aplenty. An opening trio of the Raiders in Oakland, and the Ravens and Dolphins at home, is encouraging. A Chargers team headed for a deep playoff run emerges 3-0 before a showdown in Pittsburgh.
I'm still old school and I'll say it until I'm blue in the face -- or blew in my nose -- that the Bolts front office is ignoring the line of scrimmage at its peril. The offensive line is now subpar at three of the five positions, a ratio that will increase to four of five if Marcus McNeill doesn't return to the form of his rookie season. The defensive line offers aging Jamal Williams, career backup Ryon Bingham and inconsistent Luis Castillo. An improvement at linebacker will do no good if opposing blockers are allowed to get in their way. Therefore, I suspect teams with good running games will be the Chargers Achilles heels. Uh, the first three opponents were among the better rushing ballclubs in the league last year. Oops.
Therefore, you might see Coach Norv Turner come out with very aggressive offensive gameplans early in order to get a jump on the other team and force them to pass.
That's how I see things. It's a long season, and one of the things we learned last year is that the first half of the epic is not necessarily a predictor of the second half. There's also the advantage in competing in the AFC West, which might not be as strong as the SEC.
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Speaking of college football, San Diego State opens camp Aug. 10 and it will be very interesting to see how Brady Hoke and his staff have molded their players. By the end of spring practice, it was clear this team was lacking in experienced talent. The kids who were playing, with a couple of notable exceptions, weren't all that good. The promising younger players were just that, promising.
A lot can happen in a few months, though, and by all accounts just about the entire roster and most of the incoming recruits have been working diligently. How Hoke, Al Borges, Rocky Long, Brian Sipe and the others on the staff can "coach them up" will be interesting to see.
One of the themes we could have for the Aztecs this year is turnover -- not just of the coaching staff taking over for Chuck Long, but for the two-deep of players. It wouldn't be too suprising to see a wholesale number of younger players in the lineup by the end of the season. Hopefully, that will be from a talent infusion instead of an injury siege like last year.
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Back in the old days, 13-1 losses to the team with the worst record in baseball would get someone fired. For the Padres, it was just another day at the office ... Will someone end the misery for Josh Geer? Jeez, four earned runs and three homers in four innings pitched? I know Cincinnati is a hitter's park, but come on ... Kyle Blanks sucks. There, I wrote it. Last week I mentioned the young outfielder's inability to reach the cheap seats and he suddenly knocked a few out. He got some other hits too and has his average nearly up to .200. So now that my latest criticism has been offered, maybe he'll go out and have another big week ... I'm not a huge animal rights activist, but as time goes on and there continues to be fatalities at Del Mar, the validity of the protestors arguments improves. You can't ignore a problem and hope it will go away.
I tend to think not. My belief is more that core players including those three have a two-year window before age and injuries begin to take their toll and reduce their status as contenders. By way of clarification, Philip Rivers is clearly part of the core but he's emerging as one of the two or three best quarterbacks in the NFL and has plenty of good years in front of him unless he's injured.
It would make us all feel better, of course, if they get off to a decent start, if Merriman can reignite the aggressive butt-whipping style of the defense of years-past, and Tomlinson and Gates can pair with Rivers to score points aplenty. An opening trio of the Raiders in Oakland, and the Ravens and Dolphins at home, is encouraging. A Chargers team headed for a deep playoff run emerges 3-0 before a showdown in Pittsburgh.
I'm still old school and I'll say it until I'm blue in the face -- or blew in my nose -- that the Bolts front office is ignoring the line of scrimmage at its peril. The offensive line is now subpar at three of the five positions, a ratio that will increase to four of five if Marcus McNeill doesn't return to the form of his rookie season. The defensive line offers aging Jamal Williams, career backup Ryon Bingham and inconsistent Luis Castillo. An improvement at linebacker will do no good if opposing blockers are allowed to get in their way. Therefore, I suspect teams with good running games will be the Chargers Achilles heels. Uh, the first three opponents were among the better rushing ballclubs in the league last year. Oops.
Therefore, you might see Coach Norv Turner come out with very aggressive offensive gameplans early in order to get a jump on the other team and force them to pass.
That's how I see things. It's a long season, and one of the things we learned last year is that the first half of the epic is not necessarily a predictor of the second half. There's also the advantage in competing in the AFC West, which might not be as strong as the SEC.
---
Speaking of college football, San Diego State opens camp Aug. 10 and it will be very interesting to see how Brady Hoke and his staff have molded their players. By the end of spring practice, it was clear this team was lacking in experienced talent. The kids who were playing, with a couple of notable exceptions, weren't all that good. The promising younger players were just that, promising.
A lot can happen in a few months, though, and by all accounts just about the entire roster and most of the incoming recruits have been working diligently. How Hoke, Al Borges, Rocky Long, Brian Sipe and the others on the staff can "coach them up" will be interesting to see.
One of the themes we could have for the Aztecs this year is turnover -- not just of the coaching staff taking over for Chuck Long, but for the two-deep of players. It wouldn't be too suprising to see a wholesale number of younger players in the lineup by the end of the season. Hopefully, that will be from a talent infusion instead of an injury siege like last year.
---
Back in the old days, 13-1 losses to the team with the worst record in baseball would get someone fired. For the Padres, it was just another day at the office ... Will someone end the misery for Josh Geer? Jeez, four earned runs and three homers in four innings pitched? I know Cincinnati is a hitter's park, but come on ... Kyle Blanks sucks. There, I wrote it. Last week I mentioned the young outfielder's inability to reach the cheap seats and he suddenly knocked a few out. He got some other hits too and has his average nearly up to .200. So now that my latest criticism has been offered, maybe he'll go out and have another big week ... I'm not a huge animal rights activist, but as time goes on and there continues to be fatalities at Del Mar, the validity of the protestors arguments improves. You can't ignore a problem and hope it will go away.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Baseball America was Right
Remember the uproar when Baseball America a few years ago called the Padres minor league system the worst in baseball? They were right, weren't they? Oh, yeah.
Because of injuries and poor performances by veterans, the Padres have had to pull up a bunch of players this year from Portland and San Antonio, and they're not exactly cutting the mustard.
Last season's savior-to-be, Chase Headley, is batting just .239 with 9 home runs and 34 RBI through Sunday. Will Venable is at .227 with 5 RBI in 75 at-bats. Luis Rodriguez is looking more like Mario Mendoza every day, batting .205 with 9 RBI in 132 at-bats. This season's savior, the tall Kyle Blanks, is hitting .163, hasn't knocked one out of the park and appears to have too giant of a strike zone for his swing.
And those are just the hitters. Don't get me started on pitching. Let's hope Tim Stauffer has another good start vs the Marlins tonight, which would give him a pair of quality outings in his second stab at a big league career. He is the only guy among the youngsters who seems to have a chance at fulfilling his promise this season. I think Blanks still has potential. He's very athletic for such a big guy. If he's smart and a hard worker -- and I don't know if he is or is not -- then he could iron out his problems at the plate and turn himself into a solid outfielder. It's up to him.
Otherwise, no one the Padres have brought forth from their system has impressed me a bit, so I'd have to say Baseball America's editors knew what they were writing about. I don't know where Mat Latos fit into their thinking. At the time, he was so low in the Padres system that he might not have been much of a factor. Now he's in San Diego after only a few AA starts and actually looked like he had a clue against the Rockies on Sunday. He's still tender young so there's no sense counting on him. I just hope he's a sign of what's to come from the lower levels of the farm system in future years, because the guys brought up to help this year aren't helping much.
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Whenever someone of Slavic descent would come into the sports world someone would throw out a stupid joke like, so-and-so needs a vowel. Latos could use a consonant.
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Interesting article in The San Diego Union-Tribune by Mark Zeigler Sunday about how most professional sports teams in the world, if they finish in the last couple places in the standings, are relegated to a lower division. It would be like the Padres being sent to AAA for next year.
I just don't see how that can happen in the American system of sports, with the vast financial commitments made by the teams and communities to be of major league caliber and our natural abhorrance of caste systems so prevalent around the world.
There are instances, however, of professional sports franchises that have become so used to losing that they need to have some sort of wake-up call. Just a few off the top of my head:
1. Detroit Lions. No doubt they should be punished for the past two decades. There is no minor league pro football, but if there was, they should go.
2. Arizona Cardinals. Until the last couple years, the face of futility in the NFL. No longer applies, but I think you get my drift.
3. Philadelphia 76ers. They haven't done anything since Dr. J was around.
4. Los Angeles Clippers. Their logo might be next to the word 'losing' in the dictionary.
5. Pittsburgh Pirates. How they can co-exist in the same city with the Steelers and Penguins is beyond me. You have two stellar franchises right there to emulate.
6. Kansas City Royals. Starting the beautiful ballpark trend no longer excuses their annual losing.
Sure, the Padres are bad now, but they do have a few division titles in the middle of the decade along with the 1998 World Series appearance and 1996 NL West crown. So they don't deserve to be on the above list, but they are so bad right now it's interesting to talk about.
---
I'm sorry, but we're headed into late-July and I'm ready for football. Unless something wild happens I doubt if I'll lead any posts with baseball for the rest of the year, until October demands season-ending comments.
Meanwhile, I promised to mention kayaking if the Padres were this bad in the middle of the summer. Santa Clara Sports Center on Mission Bay. Rent one and get some good exercise. I'm actually waiting until our strangely cold water warms up. The weather people claim El Nino is coming, so I think all the warm ocean water has congealed over the mid-Pacific.
Because of injuries and poor performances by veterans, the Padres have had to pull up a bunch of players this year from Portland and San Antonio, and they're not exactly cutting the mustard.
Last season's savior-to-be, Chase Headley, is batting just .239 with 9 home runs and 34 RBI through Sunday. Will Venable is at .227 with 5 RBI in 75 at-bats. Luis Rodriguez is looking more like Mario Mendoza every day, batting .205 with 9 RBI in 132 at-bats. This season's savior, the tall Kyle Blanks, is hitting .163, hasn't knocked one out of the park and appears to have too giant of a strike zone for his swing.
And those are just the hitters. Don't get me started on pitching. Let's hope Tim Stauffer has another good start vs the Marlins tonight, which would give him a pair of quality outings in his second stab at a big league career. He is the only guy among the youngsters who seems to have a chance at fulfilling his promise this season. I think Blanks still has potential. He's very athletic for such a big guy. If he's smart and a hard worker -- and I don't know if he is or is not -- then he could iron out his problems at the plate and turn himself into a solid outfielder. It's up to him.
Otherwise, no one the Padres have brought forth from their system has impressed me a bit, so I'd have to say Baseball America's editors knew what they were writing about. I don't know where Mat Latos fit into their thinking. At the time, he was so low in the Padres system that he might not have been much of a factor. Now he's in San Diego after only a few AA starts and actually looked like he had a clue against the Rockies on Sunday. He's still tender young so there's no sense counting on him. I just hope he's a sign of what's to come from the lower levels of the farm system in future years, because the guys brought up to help this year aren't helping much.
---
Whenever someone of Slavic descent would come into the sports world someone would throw out a stupid joke like, so-and-so needs a vowel. Latos could use a consonant.
---
Interesting article in The San Diego Union-Tribune by Mark Zeigler Sunday about how most professional sports teams in the world, if they finish in the last couple places in the standings, are relegated to a lower division. It would be like the Padres being sent to AAA for next year.
I just don't see how that can happen in the American system of sports, with the vast financial commitments made by the teams and communities to be of major league caliber and our natural abhorrance of caste systems so prevalent around the world.
There are instances, however, of professional sports franchises that have become so used to losing that they need to have some sort of wake-up call. Just a few off the top of my head:
1. Detroit Lions. No doubt they should be punished for the past two decades. There is no minor league pro football, but if there was, they should go.
2. Arizona Cardinals. Until the last couple years, the face of futility in the NFL. No longer applies, but I think you get my drift.
3. Philadelphia 76ers. They haven't done anything since Dr. J was around.
4. Los Angeles Clippers. Their logo might be next to the word 'losing' in the dictionary.
5. Pittsburgh Pirates. How they can co-exist in the same city with the Steelers and Penguins is beyond me. You have two stellar franchises right there to emulate.
6. Kansas City Royals. Starting the beautiful ballpark trend no longer excuses their annual losing.
Sure, the Padres are bad now, but they do have a few division titles in the middle of the decade along with the 1998 World Series appearance and 1996 NL West crown. So they don't deserve to be on the above list, but they are so bad right now it's interesting to talk about.
---
I'm sorry, but we're headed into late-July and I'm ready for football. Unless something wild happens I doubt if I'll lead any posts with baseball for the rest of the year, until October demands season-ending comments.
Meanwhile, I promised to mention kayaking if the Padres were this bad in the middle of the summer. Santa Clara Sports Center on Mission Bay. Rent one and get some good exercise. I'm actually waiting until our strangely cold water warms up. The weather people claim El Nino is coming, so I think all the warm ocean water has congealed over the mid-Pacific.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Ups and Downs of Baseball, SDSU Stadium
Baseball, the good: Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State and West Hills HS in Santee wins the Golden Spikes Award as the Player of the Year in college baseball. No surprise there and congratulations. Strasburg, with all the stories about how he came to college soft and turned himself into the monster pitcher that he is, makes for a great life story for parents to use with their children.
Baseball, the good: Adam Jones of Morse HS and now the Orioles drives home the winning run in the All-Star game with a sacrifice fly off the Padres' Heath Bell.
Baseball, the bad: The Padres Heath Bell is the losing pitcher in the mid-summer classic.
Baseball, the worse: The Padres really suck. I accept to a certain degree that their poor play of the past month is, in part, due to injuries. They were within hailing distance of .500 when starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Young went down with injuries. Add to that the loss of 2B David Eckstein and C Nick Hundley, and that hurts a bit, no question.
What really strikes me about the team's futility is that the Friars have the second worse team ERA and have given up the second-most runs in the National League despite playing half their games at pitching-friendly Petco Park. If these guys hurled in Cincinnati, the team ERA would be over 6.00.
I have to admit to not being impressed by the recent statements made by Padres president Tom Garfinkel, who is busying himself with improving the "fan experience" at a relatively new baseball park. As one letter writer to the Union-Tribune mentioned, get a better team and the fan experience will be great. Garfinkel's reaction to the current predicament is to baffle us with BS. I know it will take a couple of years probably to turn things around, but we'd rather see progress on the field than a new video board.
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A barely noticed tidbit from Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani on XTRA 1360 Tuesday: SDSU AD Jeff Schemmel has mentioned a couple times something about building the school's own stadium. Interesting. He also said with the state's budgetary difficulties that any talk was unrealistic, and his NFL team fully considered SDSU to be the main tenant of their new facility.
As reported here recently, Fabiani says the Bolts have talked to the city of San Diego more the past few months than in the four years that Michael Aguirre was the city attorney, and they were looking at sites downtown, though nothing has jelled.
Fabiani also said the state of the nation's monetary system means financing will take a while for a new Chargers stadium, so my thinking is by the time they come up with money, the state of California also might come up with money. I can see a lag time of a couple of years between private and public capital markets returning to normal, but the Aztecs might be able to get their own place sometime in the next few years.
Baseball, the good: Adam Jones of Morse HS and now the Orioles drives home the winning run in the All-Star game with a sacrifice fly off the Padres' Heath Bell.
Baseball, the bad: The Padres Heath Bell is the losing pitcher in the mid-summer classic.
Baseball, the worse: The Padres really suck. I accept to a certain degree that their poor play of the past month is, in part, due to injuries. They were within hailing distance of .500 when starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Young went down with injuries. Add to that the loss of 2B David Eckstein and C Nick Hundley, and that hurts a bit, no question.
What really strikes me about the team's futility is that the Friars have the second worse team ERA and have given up the second-most runs in the National League despite playing half their games at pitching-friendly Petco Park. If these guys hurled in Cincinnati, the team ERA would be over 6.00.
I have to admit to not being impressed by the recent statements made by Padres president Tom Garfinkel, who is busying himself with improving the "fan experience" at a relatively new baseball park. As one letter writer to the Union-Tribune mentioned, get a better team and the fan experience will be great. Garfinkel's reaction to the current predicament is to baffle us with BS. I know it will take a couple of years probably to turn things around, but we'd rather see progress on the field than a new video board.
---
A barely noticed tidbit from Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani on XTRA 1360 Tuesday: SDSU AD Jeff Schemmel has mentioned a couple times something about building the school's own stadium. Interesting. He also said with the state's budgetary difficulties that any talk was unrealistic, and his NFL team fully considered SDSU to be the main tenant of their new facility.
As reported here recently, Fabiani says the Bolts have talked to the city of San Diego more the past few months than in the four years that Michael Aguirre was the city attorney, and they were looking at sites downtown, though nothing has jelled.
Fabiani also said the state of the nation's monetary system means financing will take a while for a new Chargers stadium, so my thinking is by the time they come up with money, the state of California also might come up with money. I can see a lag time of a couple of years between private and public capital markets returning to normal, but the Aztecs might be able to get their own place sometime in the next few years.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Jones to All-Stars, Hairston Trade
Another blog entry, another "local baseball product makes good" story. Gotta love it.
This time it's Adam Jones, who was named to the All-Star Game as a reserve outfielder representing the Baltimore Orioles. Jones was the great shortstop and pitcher who, with help from a then-young Bruce Billings and if memory serves right Glenn Swanson, led Morse to the semifinals of the Division I baseball playoffs. The Tigers, who really never had much happening in baseball before Jones showed up and haven't done much since the Billings brothers left, really pressed Rancho Bernardo hard before falling.
Jones was a clearly dominant presence, easily the best baseball player on the field that day or just about any day he showed up. That was back in the day when I had a say in who was selected the CIF Player of the Year, and I pushed really hard for Jones. I wish I could have been more persuasive, because events since have proved out what a great high school ballplayer he was. The award isn't to honor the best pro prospect. It's for the best high school player, no matter whether he plays another inning anywhere. But pro success certainly proves vindicating, and what Jones has done this season makes me feel better for standing up on his behalf.
His stat line as of this writing is .308-12-46 as the regular number two hitter in the Birds lineup. He's struck out only 60 times in nearly 300 at-bats. He's only 23 years old and is exciting an organization that traded P Erik Bedard to get him. There hasn't been much to cheer for during the summer in Baltimore since I was a young adult.
On the other hand, as in the post on Sean O'Sullivan, there's always a downside. Jones was hurt over the weekend when he crashed into the outfield wall chasing down a fly by Kevin Youkilis. That's the same guy Jones stole a home run from a week earlier. It doesn't look too bad, and hopefully he'll be able to make his appearance in St. Louis.
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It's tempting with the Padres back in last place to think that Kevin Towers will start trading everyone in sight since the deadline is only a few weeks away. He started by trading OF Scott Hairston to Oakland Sunday for pitching prospects. But the question becomes who do they trade?
I looked through the Padres roster and, assuming the Padres don't trade pitching, there's no one I want besides OF/1B Kyle Blanks. Gonzalez, of course, but he's not going anywhere. With Peavy on the DL, don't expect any more significant trades unless some GM gets blinded by Kevin Kouzmanoff. Cough, cough, hack. Sure.
This time it's Adam Jones, who was named to the All-Star Game as a reserve outfielder representing the Baltimore Orioles. Jones was the great shortstop and pitcher who, with help from a then-young Bruce Billings and if memory serves right Glenn Swanson, led Morse to the semifinals of the Division I baseball playoffs. The Tigers, who really never had much happening in baseball before Jones showed up and haven't done much since the Billings brothers left, really pressed Rancho Bernardo hard before falling.
Jones was a clearly dominant presence, easily the best baseball player on the field that day or just about any day he showed up. That was back in the day when I had a say in who was selected the CIF Player of the Year, and I pushed really hard for Jones. I wish I could have been more persuasive, because events since have proved out what a great high school ballplayer he was. The award isn't to honor the best pro prospect. It's for the best high school player, no matter whether he plays another inning anywhere. But pro success certainly proves vindicating, and what Jones has done this season makes me feel better for standing up on his behalf.
His stat line as of this writing is .308-12-46 as the regular number two hitter in the Birds lineup. He's struck out only 60 times in nearly 300 at-bats. He's only 23 years old and is exciting an organization that traded P Erik Bedard to get him. There hasn't been much to cheer for during the summer in Baltimore since I was a young adult.
On the other hand, as in the post on Sean O'Sullivan, there's always a downside. Jones was hurt over the weekend when he crashed into the outfield wall chasing down a fly by Kevin Youkilis. That's the same guy Jones stole a home run from a week earlier. It doesn't look too bad, and hopefully he'll be able to make his appearance in St. Louis.
---
It's tempting with the Padres back in last place to think that Kevin Towers will start trading everyone in sight since the deadline is only a few weeks away. He started by trading OF Scott Hairston to Oakland Sunday for pitching prospects. But the question becomes who do they trade?
I looked through the Padres roster and, assuming the Padres don't trade pitching, there's no one I want besides OF/1B Kyle Blanks. Gonzalez, of course, but he's not going anywhere. With Peavy on the DL, don't expect any more significant trades unless some GM gets blinded by Kevin Kouzmanoff. Cough, cough, hack. Sure.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Good News on Chargers Stadium Search
At this point you might think that just about all is lost on the Chargers stadium front, what with the Chula Vista option closing and the new potential site in Oceanside being rife with likely insurmountable problems. But that assessment of the situation would be wrong. There's some very good news here, actually.
I spoke Friday with Mark Fabiani, the Chargers point man on the stadium search, and a spokesman for the city of San Diego, and lo and behold, the Bolts and San Diego are talking again. I wrote a story for my employer that you can find on Web sites of various local television stations.
Fabiani cautioned that nothing really substantive is in the works, but he did say the team and city have spoken more in the past four months than they did in the four years when Mike Aguirre -- an opponent of Chargers hopes for a new facility -- was city attorney. The city spokesman confirmed "informal" discussions.
According to Fabiani, there's even been discussions of potential sites: a plot of land just east of Petco Park and maybe part of the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal again. That strikes me as being a little more substantive than not.
What really struck me was the tone of his voice. My original question to him was whether, with other hopes fading, there was any microscopic grain of possibility that America's Finest City might re-enter the picture? He proceeded to give me the information I'm sharing here, but he sounded genuinely excited about the prospect. Not only that, it sounded like he was home washing dishes, judging by some clanking noises in the background. What guy sounds excited when he's doing dishes? So he had to be happy about the Chargers and San Diego talking again.
After probing the topic a little deeper with him, it turns out that certain conditions are favoring San Diego's return to the game:
1. Fabiani claims the city is losing millions of dollars annually at Qualcomm Stadium, and city officials recently learned the extent of the problem. I have no independent confirmation of this myself, but its true that we have an aging concrete stadium sitting empty except for about 20 football games a year and a remarkably few special events.
2. The economy has dragged down the local real estate market, so any land purchases the Spanos family has to make will be less expensive than they would have been a few years ago. That's particularly important for downtown property.
3. No one is getting financing for large projects right now, so the Spanoses have time to extend their site search and get their ducks in a row before hitting the financial markets.
4. The financial picture for the city of San Diego has cleared dramatically in recent years. The city's problems are all about the larger economy -- they're battling the same deficits all the other governments are. But the fix they were in with with SEC has been resolved. When the time comes, the city should be ready to move, and the city spokesman said Mayor Jerry Sanders is committed to getting the Chargers a stadium somewhere in the region.
Again, excitement needs to be tempered with reality, but this is the first sign of progress between the NFL franchise and the city of San Diego in many years. We'll just have to see how it goes.
I spoke Friday with Mark Fabiani, the Chargers point man on the stadium search, and a spokesman for the city of San Diego, and lo and behold, the Bolts and San Diego are talking again. I wrote a story for my employer that you can find on Web sites of various local television stations.
Fabiani cautioned that nothing really substantive is in the works, but he did say the team and city have spoken more in the past four months than they did in the four years when Mike Aguirre -- an opponent of Chargers hopes for a new facility -- was city attorney. The city spokesman confirmed "informal" discussions.
According to Fabiani, there's even been discussions of potential sites: a plot of land just east of Petco Park and maybe part of the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal again. That strikes me as being a little more substantive than not.
What really struck me was the tone of his voice. My original question to him was whether, with other hopes fading, there was any microscopic grain of possibility that America's Finest City might re-enter the picture? He proceeded to give me the information I'm sharing here, but he sounded genuinely excited about the prospect. Not only that, it sounded like he was home washing dishes, judging by some clanking noises in the background. What guy sounds excited when he's doing dishes? So he had to be happy about the Chargers and San Diego talking again.
After probing the topic a little deeper with him, it turns out that certain conditions are favoring San Diego's return to the game:
1. Fabiani claims the city is losing millions of dollars annually at Qualcomm Stadium, and city officials recently learned the extent of the problem. I have no independent confirmation of this myself, but its true that we have an aging concrete stadium sitting empty except for about 20 football games a year and a remarkably few special events.
2. The economy has dragged down the local real estate market, so any land purchases the Spanos family has to make will be less expensive than they would have been a few years ago. That's particularly important for downtown property.
3. No one is getting financing for large projects right now, so the Spanoses have time to extend their site search and get their ducks in a row before hitting the financial markets.
4. The financial picture for the city of San Diego has cleared dramatically in recent years. The city's problems are all about the larger economy -- they're battling the same deficits all the other governments are. But the fix they were in with with SEC has been resolved. When the time comes, the city should be ready to move, and the city spokesman said Mayor Jerry Sanders is committed to getting the Chargers a stadium somewhere in the region.
Again, excitement needs to be tempered with reality, but this is the first sign of progress between the NFL franchise and the city of San Diego in many years. We'll just have to see how it goes.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Glover Retires
The signing of La'Roi Glover ushered in a new era at San Diego State, where the fierce defensive players would come from high schools, not junior colleges or four-year college transfers. Glover is the second athlete of his surname to make news on this Monday as he retired from the Saint Louis Rams following 13 NFL seasons.
Glover recorded 83 and a half sacks in his career, which also included stints with the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. His best years were in the Big Easy, where he led the league with 17 sacks in 2000, and had 10 sacks two seasons prior.
At Point Loma High School, Glover was a man among teenage boys, throwing opposing linemen out of the way so he could make a tackle. He was going to be a star wherever he went, so when wherever turned out to be San Diego State, it was something of a surprise. For years, SDSU struggled to keep elite high school players at home. They finally scored some breakthroughs in the 1980s, bringing in Helix QB Jim Plum, Lincoln WR Patrick Rowe and, in 1990, Kearny WR Darnay Scott.
Glover was different. He was a defensive player, and in 1992 the Aztecs under head coach Al Luginbill were desperate for defense. They were just beginning the Marshall Faulk hysteria. One of the reasons why Faulk scored so many touchdowns is the Aztecs needed every single one of them -- sometimes more. Bringing in Glover was a coup.
He was everything he was advertised to be. He started all four seasons, clogging the middle and chasing opposing passers. He still ranks third in SDSU history in career tackles for loss and fourth with 18 and a half sacks. While the defense worsened in terms of yardage allowed, it improved by a touchdown in points allowed per game over the Glover-era.
Glover toiled in anonymity at State, never winning All-American status and gaining first-team All-WAC only once. This for a guy who consistently held up his end. Might be the most overlooked player I can remember. He'd have had far greater acclaim if he'd gone to a Pac-10 school, but instead he chose to stay home and help build up SDSU football.
It nearly worked. Luginbill was an awesome recruiter and brought in a number of other top- flight defenders such as S Robert Griffith and CB Ricky Parker, and successor Ted Tollner's staff showed they could make good use of the bounty with a pair of 8-win seasons once Glover had gone pro.
The era of elite defenders flocking to Montezuma Mesa was short-circuited when the "haves" of college football took it upon themselves to cut off the "have nots" by forming what eventually became the BCS, and elite recruits of all positions no longer considered attending SDSU nor other WAC schools. Under those conditions, there is no way Glover would have stayed home. A little illustration of the travesty the BCS has been for college football.
---
What would the odds have been before spring training that here in late-June Kevin Correia would be the Padres best starting pitcher? Yes, of course, if Jake Peavy and Chris Young are on the disabled list as they are. But Correia is doing this legitmately -- he's dealing. Over the past three weeks, he's been by far the Padres best starter. In his last four outings, he's won three times with a 2.02 ERA and has allowed just 12 hits in 26-plus innings. Three of those starts were in the pitcher-friendly confines of Petco, though he won the other with a superb performance in LA.
Glover recorded 83 and a half sacks in his career, which also included stints with the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints. His best years were in the Big Easy, where he led the league with 17 sacks in 2000, and had 10 sacks two seasons prior.
At Point Loma High School, Glover was a man among teenage boys, throwing opposing linemen out of the way so he could make a tackle. He was going to be a star wherever he went, so when wherever turned out to be San Diego State, it was something of a surprise. For years, SDSU struggled to keep elite high school players at home. They finally scored some breakthroughs in the 1980s, bringing in Helix QB Jim Plum, Lincoln WR Patrick Rowe and, in 1990, Kearny WR Darnay Scott.
Glover was different. He was a defensive player, and in 1992 the Aztecs under head coach Al Luginbill were desperate for defense. They were just beginning the Marshall Faulk hysteria. One of the reasons why Faulk scored so many touchdowns is the Aztecs needed every single one of them -- sometimes more. Bringing in Glover was a coup.
He was everything he was advertised to be. He started all four seasons, clogging the middle and chasing opposing passers. He still ranks third in SDSU history in career tackles for loss and fourth with 18 and a half sacks. While the defense worsened in terms of yardage allowed, it improved by a touchdown in points allowed per game over the Glover-era.
Glover toiled in anonymity at State, never winning All-American status and gaining first-team All-WAC only once. This for a guy who consistently held up his end. Might be the most overlooked player I can remember. He'd have had far greater acclaim if he'd gone to a Pac-10 school, but instead he chose to stay home and help build up SDSU football.
It nearly worked. Luginbill was an awesome recruiter and brought in a number of other top- flight defenders such as S Robert Griffith and CB Ricky Parker, and successor Ted Tollner's staff showed they could make good use of the bounty with a pair of 8-win seasons once Glover had gone pro.
The era of elite defenders flocking to Montezuma Mesa was short-circuited when the "haves" of college football took it upon themselves to cut off the "have nots" by forming what eventually became the BCS, and elite recruits of all positions no longer considered attending SDSU nor other WAC schools. Under those conditions, there is no way Glover would have stayed home. A little illustration of the travesty the BCS has been for college football.
---
What would the odds have been before spring training that here in late-June Kevin Correia would be the Padres best starting pitcher? Yes, of course, if Jake Peavy and Chris Young are on the disabled list as they are. But Correia is doing this legitmately -- he's dealing. Over the past three weeks, he's been by far the Padres best starter. In his last four outings, he's won three times with a 2.02 ERA and has allowed just 12 hits in 26-plus innings. Three of those starts were in the pitcher-friendly confines of Petco, though he won the other with a superb performance in LA.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
O'Sullivan
Sean O'Sullivan carried that "can't miss" label through his years of baseball at Valhalla High. Now, after a call up to the Angels, the former San Diego County Player of the Year is a "didn't miss."
In my five years of operating Sandiegosportstown.com, I came across a lot of really good high school baseball players, including some who made it to the big leagues, like Junior from Poway, Wes Littleton from Vista and Adrian Gonzalez of Eastlake. None were quite the sure thing as O'Sullivan.
Baseball, as we all know, is a humbling game. There are people who insist that Barry Bonds was the greatest hitter they ever saw, steroids or no, and look at how he struggled so badly in the postseason with the Pirates and Giants. Same to some extent for A-Rod. It's something they carry with them. For O'Sullivan, as a senior he carried the Norsemen into the CIF final at SDSU and got crushed by El Capitan. He had a few shaky starts that year. He won awards when pitching at Grossmont College but my increasingly feeble memory makes me think he wasn't quite himself there, either.
His initial rise in the Angels organization was typical, not the swift sort of jump through the lower rungs that you expect from phenoms. He was in the Pioneer League before a year at Cedar Rapids in what's described as "low-A" ball. He spent 2008 in "high-A" at Rancho Cucamonga, where he was 16-8 but with an ERA of 4.73 and a stat line that showed more hits than innings pitched and too many BBs.
Then there was this year, where he went 1-2 in three starts at AA Arkansas. He rose to Salt Lake City in AAA and went 5-2. His ERA was 6.02 but the Pacific Coast League, filled with small stadiums at high altitudes, is notoriously rough on pitching stats.
The next thing you knew, Angels starter Ervin Santana was hurt and manager Mike Scioscia needed a pitcher. O'Sullivan got the call, allowing just one run in seven innings, giving up just five hits and a walk and striking out five. That's dealing. He also singled and scored in the Halos 8-1 win in San Francisco, close enough for the family to travel.
O'Sullivan's rapid rise turned out to be through the high end of the minors, making him a rare commodity indeed.
Alas, Santana is due back for his next start and, as I wrote this, O'Sullivan was returned to Salt Lake City. That's baseball for you -- a humbling game. But Sean O'Sullivan didn't miss and, if his first major league start is any indication, he'll be back for more.
---
You can never really tell who'll be the next local kid to make The Show. So much is dependent on injuries and teams that suddenly go into an early-summer tailspin. You can be batting .350 in AAA but if your major league club is solid, you might be stuck.
One of the SD Sports Town faves, former USD and Grossmont High infielder Mike McCoy, has made AAA look easy in the Rockies organization. As of today, he's hitting .338 with an outstanding .445 on-base percentage and has 21 steals while playing third base. Of course, he needs Garret Atkins to get hurt or traded. Fat chance.
Braves infielder Brooks Conrad has been playing well at AAA Gwinnett. He's a longtime minor leaguer who has been on the cusp for years.
Otherwise, there aren't too many local kids who look ready to make the jump, that I can see.
---
Speaking of Junior, it seems like Major League Baseball came to him, not the other way around. Anthony couldn't make the Brewers fulltime because they were still looking for big boppers to go with Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, while discounting whether any runners would be on base ahead of them. So bringing Gwynn to San Diego where his speed and ability to draw walks and make contact will be huge assets at the top of the batting order -- along with his defense on the field -- made sense.
But the Brewers, while moderately successful, in recent years, are playing yesterday's game. Baseball is thankfully bringing speed, defense and contact hitting back into the fold after a 10-year-plus absense. That will only benefit Gwynn The Younger even more. And I still can't get over how much he sounds like his father.
In my five years of operating Sandiegosportstown.com, I came across a lot of really good high school baseball players, including some who made it to the big leagues, like Junior from Poway, Wes Littleton from Vista and Adrian Gonzalez of Eastlake. None were quite the sure thing as O'Sullivan.
Baseball, as we all know, is a humbling game. There are people who insist that Barry Bonds was the greatest hitter they ever saw, steroids or no, and look at how he struggled so badly in the postseason with the Pirates and Giants. Same to some extent for A-Rod. It's something they carry with them. For O'Sullivan, as a senior he carried the Norsemen into the CIF final at SDSU and got crushed by El Capitan. He had a few shaky starts that year. He won awards when pitching at Grossmont College but my increasingly feeble memory makes me think he wasn't quite himself there, either.
His initial rise in the Angels organization was typical, not the swift sort of jump through the lower rungs that you expect from phenoms. He was in the Pioneer League before a year at Cedar Rapids in what's described as "low-A" ball. He spent 2008 in "high-A" at Rancho Cucamonga, where he was 16-8 but with an ERA of 4.73 and a stat line that showed more hits than innings pitched and too many BBs.
Then there was this year, where he went 1-2 in three starts at AA Arkansas. He rose to Salt Lake City in AAA and went 5-2. His ERA was 6.02 but the Pacific Coast League, filled with small stadiums at high altitudes, is notoriously rough on pitching stats.
The next thing you knew, Angels starter Ervin Santana was hurt and manager Mike Scioscia needed a pitcher. O'Sullivan got the call, allowing just one run in seven innings, giving up just five hits and a walk and striking out five. That's dealing. He also singled and scored in the Halos 8-1 win in San Francisco, close enough for the family to travel.
O'Sullivan's rapid rise turned out to be through the high end of the minors, making him a rare commodity indeed.
Alas, Santana is due back for his next start and, as I wrote this, O'Sullivan was returned to Salt Lake City. That's baseball for you -- a humbling game. But Sean O'Sullivan didn't miss and, if his first major league start is any indication, he'll be back for more.
---
You can never really tell who'll be the next local kid to make The Show. So much is dependent on injuries and teams that suddenly go into an early-summer tailspin. You can be batting .350 in AAA but if your major league club is solid, you might be stuck.
One of the SD Sports Town faves, former USD and Grossmont High infielder Mike McCoy, has made AAA look easy in the Rockies organization. As of today, he's hitting .338 with an outstanding .445 on-base percentage and has 21 steals while playing third base. Of course, he needs Garret Atkins to get hurt or traded. Fat chance.
Braves infielder Brooks Conrad has been playing well at AAA Gwinnett. He's a longtime minor leaguer who has been on the cusp for years.
Otherwise, there aren't too many local kids who look ready to make the jump, that I can see.
---
Speaking of Junior, it seems like Major League Baseball came to him, not the other way around. Anthony couldn't make the Brewers fulltime because they were still looking for big boppers to go with Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun, while discounting whether any runners would be on base ahead of them. So bringing Gwynn to San Diego where his speed and ability to draw walks and make contact will be huge assets at the top of the batting order -- along with his defense on the field -- made sense.
But the Brewers, while moderately successful, in recent years, are playing yesterday's game. Baseball is thankfully bringing speed, defense and contact hitting back into the fold after a 10-year-plus absense. That will only benefit Gwynn The Younger even more. And I still can't get over how much he sounds like his father.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Aztecs Flog Demons, Padres at .500
Demons are really hard to kill. Ask anyone who has an addiction or depression.
I am one of those who actually believes San Diego State athletics has been cursed over the past several decades. I've seen too many weird things here that I can't logically explain, so I guess I turn to the supernatural.
The past six months or so have shown me, however, that the Aztecs are finally throwing off the shackles. What few big-money men we have shower the university with money so the ineffectual Chuck Long can be replaced as football coach by Brady Hoke, who merely goes out and hires two of the best coordinators in recent history and convinces Brian Sipe to leave his comfortable situation to coach the QBs. The women's basketball program goes worst to first in three years in the MWC and wins an NCAA Tournament game on its home floor.
The men's basketball team missed the Big Dance as part of the major conference takeover of the once thrilling event -- like I say, demons are hard to kill, but cruises to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Final Four and hosts one of the most exciting sporting events in the history of the city. The softball team goes to the NCAA regionals as an at-large participant, continuing a string of recent success.
Now, the baseball team has just been chosen to play in the NCAA regionals for the first time since 1991, an obscene drought considering the talent this area produces. The demons might have clung harder to the baseball program than anything, because there are some SDSU teams over those years that appeared to be good enough, but always fell short.
Even this year, the breaking of the drought was uncertain. The Aztecs were ranked for several weeks at one point, but went through a mid-season slump that knocked them all the way to a fourth place finish in the MWC. Then they reached the conference tournament, caught some breaks to reach the final without a loss and only had to beat sixth-seeded Utah once, and couldn't come through. It was the Utes who were hot at the right time.
With the demons hanging by a fingernail, the Aztecs woke up on Memorial Day unsure of whether they'd make the regionals even though their roster included the nation's best starting pitcher in Stephen Strasburg, the nation's best closer in Addison Reed, some good young position players and Hall of Fame manager Tony Gwynn. Thankfully, the NCAA selection committee -- no doubt with some convincing from ESPN -- gave the Aztecs one more chance and placed them in the regional at UC-Irvine beginning Friday. The Aztecs are seeded third of four teams and will play Virginia. The nationally top-ranked hosts will play defending champion Fresno State in the other game.
The demons have been flogged, stomped on and nearly put out of existence. Maybe that SDSU was put in by far the toughest of all the regionals shows some bad karma is still out there. If SDSU can put forth a good showing, the demon might finally be dead.
---
I never figured this Padres team, really with few changes, would get back to .500 so quickly. It's amazing. The biggest turnaround has come from the starting pitching and the bullpen, both of which were getting ripped during the long road trips that marked the season's first two months. After some good home cooking, the Padres head out onto the road at Arizona and Colorado with signs that 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff and RF Brian Giles are finally warming up at the plate. It could be an interesting week.
I am one of those who actually believes San Diego State athletics has been cursed over the past several decades. I've seen too many weird things here that I can't logically explain, so I guess I turn to the supernatural.
The past six months or so have shown me, however, that the Aztecs are finally throwing off the shackles. What few big-money men we have shower the university with money so the ineffectual Chuck Long can be replaced as football coach by Brady Hoke, who merely goes out and hires two of the best coordinators in recent history and convinces Brian Sipe to leave his comfortable situation to coach the QBs. The women's basketball program goes worst to first in three years in the MWC and wins an NCAA Tournament game on its home floor.
The men's basketball team missed the Big Dance as part of the major conference takeover of the once thrilling event -- like I say, demons are hard to kill, but cruises to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Final Four and hosts one of the most exciting sporting events in the history of the city. The softball team goes to the NCAA regionals as an at-large participant, continuing a string of recent success.
Now, the baseball team has just been chosen to play in the NCAA regionals for the first time since 1991, an obscene drought considering the talent this area produces. The demons might have clung harder to the baseball program than anything, because there are some SDSU teams over those years that appeared to be good enough, but always fell short.
Even this year, the breaking of the drought was uncertain. The Aztecs were ranked for several weeks at one point, but went through a mid-season slump that knocked them all the way to a fourth place finish in the MWC. Then they reached the conference tournament, caught some breaks to reach the final without a loss and only had to beat sixth-seeded Utah once, and couldn't come through. It was the Utes who were hot at the right time.
With the demons hanging by a fingernail, the Aztecs woke up on Memorial Day unsure of whether they'd make the regionals even though their roster included the nation's best starting pitcher in Stephen Strasburg, the nation's best closer in Addison Reed, some good young position players and Hall of Fame manager Tony Gwynn. Thankfully, the NCAA selection committee -- no doubt with some convincing from ESPN -- gave the Aztecs one more chance and placed them in the regional at UC-Irvine beginning Friday. The Aztecs are seeded third of four teams and will play Virginia. The nationally top-ranked hosts will play defending champion Fresno State in the other game.
The demons have been flogged, stomped on and nearly put out of existence. Maybe that SDSU was put in by far the toughest of all the regionals shows some bad karma is still out there. If SDSU can put forth a good showing, the demon might finally be dead.
---
I never figured this Padres team, really with few changes, would get back to .500 so quickly. It's amazing. The biggest turnaround has come from the starting pitching and the bullpen, both of which were getting ripped during the long road trips that marked the season's first two months. After some good home cooking, the Padres head out onto the road at Arizona and Colorado with signs that 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff and RF Brian Giles are finally warming up at the plate. It could be an interesting week.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Someone Finally Gets it With Stadium Plan
Entering the far turn with the lead in the race to develop a new football stadium in San Diego, Perry Dealy. And if that's not a brilliant last name for the kind of person needed to kick-start such a development in this town, nothing is.
Dealy is thinking big, which strikes me as being the right way to go if we're ever going to get a new facility for the Chargers, Aztecs, and Holiday and Poinsettia bowls. As a former president of Manchester Development, I'm sure this man is quite capable of thinking big.
His plan includes gobs of office space, hotel rooms and commercial development to go along with a stadium. I'm not sure about the office space, I think the vacancy rate in this town is rather high no matter what the economy is doing, but I always thought if the stadium was combined with a major retail and entertainment center, along with hotels and residential units, then this project could get off the ground.
The Chargers original proposal included a lot of those points, but it came at a time when the city of San Diego was incapable of making any moves. With the down economy, the city will not be able to play ball for at least another year, the better for Dealy to fine-tune his plans. But go big. There will be people who will be repulsed by the idea of a massive project but, in my mind, the bigger the plans the more capacity you can build into it to mitigate some issues, such as traffic. And, yes, the project needs to include a significant amount of public parkland.
My idea of a mitigant: I think The Q is kind of ugly plopped right there in the middle of Mission Valley. In a major redevelopment, you can build the stadium first (I envision the trolley line going through the stands where people can see it and riders can momentarily experience whatever event is taking place) and then surround the stadium with more attractive residential and hotel buildings -- not nearby, but lining the outside of the actual stadium building.
I know it's counter-intuitive to think big in this economy and against some of the opposition a stadium project has already encountered, but in this case, bigger might truly be better.
---
Next day update: both the mayor's office and Chargers have come out against the plan, basically citing an unworkable density. The devil is in the details, of course, and I'm sure there's specifics in Dealy's plan I wouldn't support myself. However, Dealy might have provided a road map out of the current stalemate in regards to a new stadium. If the mayor's office and Chargers can think big, they might get a project rolling.
Dealy is thinking big, which strikes me as being the right way to go if we're ever going to get a new facility for the Chargers, Aztecs, and Holiday and Poinsettia bowls. As a former president of Manchester Development, I'm sure this man is quite capable of thinking big.
His plan includes gobs of office space, hotel rooms and commercial development to go along with a stadium. I'm not sure about the office space, I think the vacancy rate in this town is rather high no matter what the economy is doing, but I always thought if the stadium was combined with a major retail and entertainment center, along with hotels and residential units, then this project could get off the ground.
The Chargers original proposal included a lot of those points, but it came at a time when the city of San Diego was incapable of making any moves. With the down economy, the city will not be able to play ball for at least another year, the better for Dealy to fine-tune his plans. But go big. There will be people who will be repulsed by the idea of a massive project but, in my mind, the bigger the plans the more capacity you can build into it to mitigate some issues, such as traffic. And, yes, the project needs to include a significant amount of public parkland.
My idea of a mitigant: I think The Q is kind of ugly plopped right there in the middle of Mission Valley. In a major redevelopment, you can build the stadium first (I envision the trolley line going through the stands where people can see it and riders can momentarily experience whatever event is taking place) and then surround the stadium with more attractive residential and hotel buildings -- not nearby, but lining the outside of the actual stadium building.
I know it's counter-intuitive to think big in this economy and against some of the opposition a stadium project has already encountered, but in this case, bigger might truly be better.
---
Next day update: both the mayor's office and Chargers have come out against the plan, basically citing an unworkable density. The devil is in the details, of course, and I'm sure there's specifics in Dealy's plan I wouldn't support myself. However, Dealy might have provided a road map out of the current stalemate in regards to a new stadium. If the mayor's office and Chargers can think big, they might get a project rolling.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Padres Judgment Week Unimpressive
So in my last post I decided it was best to hold off on the doom and gloom surrounding the Padres, because the National League West other than the Dodgers didn't seem too lively. I was half-right. The division indeed stinks, as evidenced by the Friars at least splitting in its homestand with the Rockies and Diamondbacks. However, they then went to Houston and were swept in three by the Astros.
In the week in which I suggested the Padres could reasonably be judged, they won two games and lost five.
That's not good. Sure, they might compete for third place in the division -- San Francisco appears to have the best pitching outside LA -- but they'll be 20 games under .500 as they go.
My biggest problem with this team right now is the lack of hitting. We all knew they wouldn't be able to pitch, having just two quality starters and a bullpen thrown together at the last minute. That part was obvious. But even though the lineup looked pretty good in April, this team just doesn't hit well at all, especially with Brian Giles and Kevin Kouzmanoff off to such slow starts.
What do I do if I'm Jeff Moorad and seeing 2009 getting away from me? Two words: youth movement.
The worst part of the Padres struggle is we're not watching a bunch of kids trying to get used to major league ball and jelling with each other. This is a hodge-podge team of some veterans, some youngsters and far too many journeymen brought in to plug gaps. There are few people like Chase Headley to give us hope for coming seasons. That has to change right now.
1. As bad as P Josh Geer was Sunday, he has to stay in the rotation to give him the experience he needs so he can be more consistant. Heck, he was pretty good in his previous outing. That's youth for you.
2. I give Kyle Blanks a week of left field at AAA Portland and then promote him. Headley and Kouz then platoon at third base until one of them really claims the position. Blanks is hitting .290 with 7 HR and 20 RBI.
3. Promote P Mike Ekstrom, a reliever who has had a fabulous start to the season in Portland.
4. Assuming the front office doesn't know anything I don't, I think you have to give Giles until June to straighten things out at the plate. He's too experienced to not figure it out if still capable. If the front office does know something I don't, then make the move now.
5. Set up a frequent flyers account with Alaska Airlines. While Blanks and Ekstrom appear to be the only Beavers right now ready to come up, there are others down there who are on the radar screen and need to be promoted as soon as it makes sense. Some names: pitchers Josh Banks, Wade LeBlanc and Cesar Ramos; and outfielders Emil Brown, Will Venable and Chad Huffman. Banks and Brown have big league experience and Huffman is considered a top prospect who is new to AAA and might not be ready until August.
---
Trade update: as poorly as P Luke Gregerson has worked out for the Padres, SS Khalil Greene is at .235 with just 2 HR and 11 RBI, though he seems to have cut down a little on his strikeouts. He also missed time with a sore arm.
---
Baseball's fickle fortunes are well on display all over San Diego, where north of Petco Park, the USD Toreros are just 28-25 after losing two of three games at home to San Francisco this past weekend. They will not participate in the WCC Tournament championship series, which will be between Gonzaga and Loyola-Marymount.
The Toreros led the league in team batting, slugging percentage and a bunch of other offensive statistics, but were undone by a pitching staff with an ERA over 5.00 and gave up more walks than all but one team. They also had the league's worst fielding percentage.
After scrapping so hard to get his once-bare bones program into the NCAA Regionals on a regular basis, I bet Coach Rich Hill is re-energized by this setback of a season and will get back to rebuilding right away. The Toreros finish at top-ranked UC Irvine Tuesday, so figure Hill to be ready for the job ahead first thing Wednesday.
In the week in which I suggested the Padres could reasonably be judged, they won two games and lost five.
That's not good. Sure, they might compete for third place in the division -- San Francisco appears to have the best pitching outside LA -- but they'll be 20 games under .500 as they go.
My biggest problem with this team right now is the lack of hitting. We all knew they wouldn't be able to pitch, having just two quality starters and a bullpen thrown together at the last minute. That part was obvious. But even though the lineup looked pretty good in April, this team just doesn't hit well at all, especially with Brian Giles and Kevin Kouzmanoff off to such slow starts.
What do I do if I'm Jeff Moorad and seeing 2009 getting away from me? Two words: youth movement.
The worst part of the Padres struggle is we're not watching a bunch of kids trying to get used to major league ball and jelling with each other. This is a hodge-podge team of some veterans, some youngsters and far too many journeymen brought in to plug gaps. There are few people like Chase Headley to give us hope for coming seasons. That has to change right now.
1. As bad as P Josh Geer was Sunday, he has to stay in the rotation to give him the experience he needs so he can be more consistant. Heck, he was pretty good in his previous outing. That's youth for you.
2. I give Kyle Blanks a week of left field at AAA Portland and then promote him. Headley and Kouz then platoon at third base until one of them really claims the position. Blanks is hitting .290 with 7 HR and 20 RBI.
3. Promote P Mike Ekstrom, a reliever who has had a fabulous start to the season in Portland.
4. Assuming the front office doesn't know anything I don't, I think you have to give Giles until June to straighten things out at the plate. He's too experienced to not figure it out if still capable. If the front office does know something I don't, then make the move now.
5. Set up a frequent flyers account with Alaska Airlines. While Blanks and Ekstrom appear to be the only Beavers right now ready to come up, there are others down there who are on the radar screen and need to be promoted as soon as it makes sense. Some names: pitchers Josh Banks, Wade LeBlanc and Cesar Ramos; and outfielders Emil Brown, Will Venable and Chad Huffman. Banks and Brown have big league experience and Huffman is considered a top prospect who is new to AAA and might not be ready until August.
---
Trade update: as poorly as P Luke Gregerson has worked out for the Padres, SS Khalil Greene is at .235 with just 2 HR and 11 RBI, though he seems to have cut down a little on his strikeouts. He also missed time with a sore arm.
---
Baseball's fickle fortunes are well on display all over San Diego, where north of Petco Park, the USD Toreros are just 28-25 after losing two of three games at home to San Francisco this past weekend. They will not participate in the WCC Tournament championship series, which will be between Gonzaga and Loyola-Marymount.
The Toreros led the league in team batting, slugging percentage and a bunch of other offensive statistics, but were undone by a pitching staff with an ERA over 5.00 and gave up more walks than all but one team. They also had the league's worst fielding percentage.
After scrapping so hard to get his once-bare bones program into the NCAA Regionals on a regular basis, I bet Coach Rich Hill is re-energized by this setback of a season and will get back to rebuilding right away. The Toreros finish at top-ranked UC Irvine Tuesday, so figure Hill to be ready for the job ahead first thing Wednesday.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Padres Relative Standing Remains Unclear
By the tone of newspaper columns the past couple days, you'd think the Padres season was over right now, here in the first full week of May. There's some truth to what's written. The Dodgers are clearly better and, unless injuries happen, will likely win the National League West by a comfortable margin. If that's all you care about, strictly winning the division, then it's time to put up those remaining Padres tickets on Stub Hub.
However, if you're still interested in exciting major league baseball, stay tuned. While LA is the class of the division, I don't at this point see much difference between the Friars and Arizona, Colorado or San Francisco. We will learn more this week as the locals host the Rockies and Diamondbacks for a pair of games each. If they're swept, I'll be back with other ideas of how to spend the summer, like kayaking on Mission Bay, taking the canines to Dog Beach or saving up some extra dollars to bet on the horses in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. I'm betting that the Padres will at least split, particularly since pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Young will get a shot at the Snakes.
While no one likes to suffer a four-game sweep, especially in LA -- where tweaking the early-leaving "fans" is a sport in itself --the fact remains that the Dodgers are off to a hot start, which says little about the way the Padres are playing even when it generates angry newspaper columns. When you run into good pitching and what turned out to be very strong unDodger-like defense, you're going to look bad. It's just how it is.
So let's move on to some other division opponents and host the apparently really bad Astros for the weekend and then we'll have a much better idea of how things are going to be this year.
For me, nothing has changed since my preseason assessment of the team. There's Peavy and Young and nothing else in the starting rotation and the bullpen beyond Heath Bell and Cla Meredith is a mess. Manager Buddy Black is desperate for RF Brian Giles to begin hitting.
My eyes, and I think yours, too, are on 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff and CF Jody Gerut. Kouz we know is a slow starter but usually warms up in May. If he still has only a couple home runs and a small number of RBIs at the end of the month, you might start looking at him as a bust. Right now, the only thing keeping him in the lineup is his surprisingly strong defense. If he remains cold, he might be traded for a pitcher, which would bring Chase Headley in from left and result in the promotion of slugger Kyle Banks from Portland, whose been practicing in the outfield. Gerut, mainly because of injuries, has never been a regular before, so he doesn't have Kouzmanoff's track record. Everyone thought after 2008 how nice it would be if he only had a chance. The shot he's getting might not be a long one.
The bottom-line is, sure, the Padres are on a bad streak right now but it was exacerbated by four road games against a strong team, and they've had a hot streak as well when they played good ball and were interesting to watch. I think we all know where the truth really sits, but if they can at least get back to the "interesting to watch" mode, the season will in no way be a total loss.
However, if you're still interested in exciting major league baseball, stay tuned. While LA is the class of the division, I don't at this point see much difference between the Friars and Arizona, Colorado or San Francisco. We will learn more this week as the locals host the Rockies and Diamondbacks for a pair of games each. If they're swept, I'll be back with other ideas of how to spend the summer, like kayaking on Mission Bay, taking the canines to Dog Beach or saving up some extra dollars to bet on the horses in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. I'm betting that the Padres will at least split, particularly since pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Young will get a shot at the Snakes.
While no one likes to suffer a four-game sweep, especially in LA -- where tweaking the early-leaving "fans" is a sport in itself --the fact remains that the Dodgers are off to a hot start, which says little about the way the Padres are playing even when it generates angry newspaper columns. When you run into good pitching and what turned out to be very strong unDodger-like defense, you're going to look bad. It's just how it is.
So let's move on to some other division opponents and host the apparently really bad Astros for the weekend and then we'll have a much better idea of how things are going to be this year.
For me, nothing has changed since my preseason assessment of the team. There's Peavy and Young and nothing else in the starting rotation and the bullpen beyond Heath Bell and Cla Meredith is a mess. Manager Buddy Black is desperate for RF Brian Giles to begin hitting.
My eyes, and I think yours, too, are on 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff and CF Jody Gerut. Kouz we know is a slow starter but usually warms up in May. If he still has only a couple home runs and a small number of RBIs at the end of the month, you might start looking at him as a bust. Right now, the only thing keeping him in the lineup is his surprisingly strong defense. If he remains cold, he might be traded for a pitcher, which would bring Chase Headley in from left and result in the promotion of slugger Kyle Banks from Portland, whose been practicing in the outfield. Gerut, mainly because of injuries, has never been a regular before, so he doesn't have Kouzmanoff's track record. Everyone thought after 2008 how nice it would be if he only had a chance. The shot he's getting might not be a long one.
The bottom-line is, sure, the Padres are on a bad streak right now but it was exacerbated by four road games against a strong team, and they've had a hot streak as well when they played good ball and were interesting to watch. I think we all know where the truth really sits, but if they can at least get back to the "interesting to watch" mode, the season will in no way be a total loss.
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