BallHype User Blog - Geoff Young

Death of a Gunslinger

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:22:07 +0000

As you doubtless know by now, the Padres have fired GM Kevin Towers . It’s taken me so long to write about this because it is difficult for me to articulate my feelings. His departure hits me harder than those of Bruce Bochy, Trevor Hoffman, Sandy Alderson, or Jake Peavy. Towers was the ...

Geoff Young posted 10/12/2009 from ducksnorts.com

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Chase Headley and the Art of the Comp

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:29:44 +0000

Reader TexPadre recently posed the following question : When will Chase Headley show a decent amount of power? Or will he ever? Headley, you may recall, was the subject of much hype in spring training 2008. He had just come off a monster season (.330/.437/.580) at Double-A San Antonio and ...

Geoff Young posted 9/28/2009 from ducksnorts.com

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Hey, I Can See the Off-Season from Here

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:43:42 +0000

I’ve been busy. Part of the reason is that I’ll be contributing to two forthcoming books: The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 (due out in November) and John Burnson’s Graphical Player 2010 (due out in December). I can’t go into a lot of detail just yet because ...

Geoff Young posted 9/21/2009 from ducksnorts.com

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Olive Pudding

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:11:53 +0000

It’s great to see the Padres sign all their top draft picks this year. First-round pick Donavan Tate (whom I was fortunate enough to meet last week, but we’ll get to that in a moment) took batting practice with the big club Tuesday night and impressed the veterans with his ...

Geoff Young posted 8/24/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres, Donavan Tate

Youngsters and Salary Dumps

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:24:31 +0000

We’ve been tracking a few key young players since the All-Star break using Modified Box Scores ( explanation ). Let’s see how these kids are doing as measured by more conventional metrics. Bear in mind that we’re talking about 31 games, a tiny sample. First, the Padres as a ...

Geoff Young posted 8/17/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres, Tony Gwynn Jr., David Eckstein, Chase Headley, Albert Pujols, Tony Gwynn

If Your Heart Never Breaks, You Aren’t Doing It Right

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:59:54 +0000

It’s not the memory of her that lingers, it’s the memory of wanting and not having. The years have transformed her into a song character, a reminder of a former life. These are gifts beyond anything I could have imagined. I was less interested in baseball then. It always hovered ...

Geoff Young posted 8/10/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, Andy Pettitte

I Am Sure I Am Not Sure (I Think)

Mon, 3 Aug 2009 14:21:20 +0000

He knows changes aren’t permanent, but change is. –Rush, “Tom Sawyer” The world is in a constant state of flux. All that we know with any degree of certainty is that what holds true today may or may not hold true tomorrow. The Padres have been awful this ...

Geoff Young posted 8/3/2009 from ducksnorts.com

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Smooth Jazz and Other Questionable Ideas

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:17:03 +0000

According to Google Maps, my work commute takes 14 minutes. In reality, where the freeway is unusable when I need it, the trip takes more like 40 minutes. It’s a stimulating drive, though, as I pass a municipal airport and MCAS Miramar along the way. Sometimes I’ll see jets ...

Geoff Young posted 7/27/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres

Will I Lose My Sight if I Watch, or Just My Lunch?

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:10:54 +0000

Apparently the Padres still have games to play. What a relief… Adrian Hits the Skids I was thinking about whether Adrian Gonzalez’s recent slide might be a result of his being tired and whether he should take a day or two off . Then I realized that I don’t care how he ...

Geoff Young posted 7/20/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres

Takin’ a Break

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:52:13 +0000

Life is good, but there’s a little too much of it right now so I’m taking some time off. Ducksnorts will resume publication after the All-Star break. In the meantime, I’ll continue to publish at Hardball Times and Unfiltered . Also, if you do the Twittter thing, I sometimes ...

Geoff Young posted 6/29/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres

Is Life Ever Good Enough?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:14:40 +0000

I use baseball to mark the passage of time. The memory of specific events helps keep me grounded in a world that often makes less sense than I’d like it to make (forgive the fact that I grew up rooting for the Dodgers): 1981 — Fernandomania; Rick Monday’s homer off Steve ...

Geoff Young posted 6/22/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres, Dennis Eckersley, Steve Finley, Felix Rodriguez, Jim Leyritz, Trevor Hoffman

Brutal Is As Brutal Does

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:37:48 +0000

The Padres are boring. That’s the word on the street… a street apparently filled with people who don’t like baseball. Just give me a game to watch and the rest will take care of itself. There is no pressure with this team, no expectation of success. Every win is a surprise, ...

Geoff Young posted 6/15/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Jake Peavy, Chase Headley, Chris Snyder, Adrian Gonzalez

Is It Giving Up if You Never Believed?

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 12:54:49 +0000

I met a girl at summer camp when I was nine. Laura was 16 and the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. We exchanged letters for a while, then got on with our lives. In my dream, we meet again for some forgotten reason. “It’s great to see you,” she says. “You, ...

Geoff Young posted 6/8/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres, Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Correia, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Brad Lidge

Winning Half Is Like Losing Half, and Vice Versa

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 23:04:53 +0000

When last we spoke , the Padres had won 10 straight games. They finally lost on Tuesday , but not without a serious fight. Kevin Correia breezes through 4 2/3 innings, then runs into trouble. Ryan Roberts bloops a single in front of Chase Headley that a more accomplished left fielder might ...

Geoff Young posted 6/1/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres, Chris Burke, Kevin Correia, Ryan Roberts, Chase Headley, Chris Young

Vicodin Dreams

Tue, 26 May 2009 10:41:09 +0000

I will do anything to avoid a game in Albuquerque — be it getting hopelessly lost in that fine city , having my car smashed by a big rig en route from Missouri , or as now, recovering from knee surgery. A sensible person would simply admit he didn’t want to watch the Isotopes play, ...

Geoff Young posted 5/26/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres, Vin Scully, Greg Burke, Chris Young, Scott Hairston, Barry Zito

To Sweep and To Be Swept

Mon, 18 May 2009 17:30:52 +0000

Funny week. Get swept at Wrigley. Come home, sweep the Reds. On average, it was average… Like the guy whose left side is freezing and whose right side is at 100 degrees. On average, he’s at room temperature; it just doesn’t feel that way.

Geoff Young posted 5/18/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, Adrian Gonzalez, Jake Peavy, San Diego Padres

Lousy, Yet Affordable

Mon, 11 May 2009 15:12:44 +0000

Padres manager Bud Black has to work with what he’s been given, which points to the larger question: How can you enter a season with four legitimate big-league pitchers and hope to survive, let alone contend?

Geoff Young posted 5/11/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres, Bud Black, Adrian Gonzalez, Heath Bell, Chase Headley

Play with Your Food

Mon, 4 May 2009 16:29:13 +0000

Maybe the Padres will do okay this year. In your heart of hearts, you don’t believe it, but you’ll commit to it over olives on a fork and flutes of champagne. You’ll sneak it into conversation, right between “My kid is smart, he’s just not motivated” and “I watch Giada De Laurentis for the recipes.”

Geoff Young posted 5/4/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres

Eight Sliders Sliding

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:21:13 +0000

I am relieved that the Padres have lost five out of six. I’ve said that this team will win 72-75 games. When they shot out to a 9-3 start, people began asking questions. My catch phrase became, “I have no idea,” which is a terrible catch phrase.

Geoff Young posted 4/28/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres

Do What You Cannot Do

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:24:01 +0000

This team doesn’t quit. These guys never give up on themselves. They don’t know that they cannot do this. They have no appreciation of how much they are supposed to suck. They just go out and play, unburdened by expectation. This may not last, but right now it’s a beautiful thing.

Geoff Young posted 4/21/2009 from ducksnorts.com

Find more top sports news, videos, and blogs on BallHype: MLB, San Diego Padres