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Beane Counter
13 Feb 2004 Some very bad news for Padres fans everywhere: Paul DePodesta is about to be named Dodgers' GM. Featured in Moneyball, DePodesta seemed to serve more than just a supporting role as assistant to Oakland As GM Billy Beane. The Hahvahd educated stats wiz was the brain behind Beane's whirlwind reshuffling of the entire As organization. He made statistical analysis (scouting/evaluation) of players a priority over more in-the-flesh empirical methods. In the baseball world, his talent best manifested itself in his ability to find undervalued players. He'd then 'underpay' them to 'overproduce'. It's yet to be seen how DePodesta will lead, but his ideas are brilliantly simple and simply brilliant -- the combination could be a real threat to the Padres Nation. |
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PG-13
11 Feb 2004 When Peter Gammons called the Padres "this year's Marlins/Angels" last weekend, I was at first a bit giddy. Whenever PG mentions my Padres in an article I have trouble reading anything before or after the mention until I've completely devoured his latest 'insight' on my favorite subject. Usually PG's revelations fall short of revolutionary (Hoffy and Eaton need to perform for the Pads to have a chance --like that's all that needs to happen!) and his predictions are often predictable (Boston to win it all this year) and rarely bear fruit (no, this year...). Still, I couldn't help getting psyched when I heard this 'expert' predict Padres success. That is, until I realized: such praise from such a prolific columnist meant the Padres could no longer be "this year's Marlins/Angels". It's now a paradoxical impossibility. After all, going unnoticed and unrecognized (and, to some extent, being unlikely and unpredictable winners) is precisely what it means to be the Marlins/Angels of any year. Now recognized and predicted, I'm afraid all hope is lost. Another year to "Keep the Faith" in something I've never seen. |
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Dimensia
09 Feb 2004 Just for fun (yeah, I know, 'fun' --ha!), I averaged the dimensions (L, LC, C, RC, R) of all of the major league's 30 ballparks (including the two new ones). The imaginary average ballpark would be a nearly symetrical 331 to left, 376 to LC, 406 to center, 377 to RC, and 329 to right. The closest real ballpark was KC's (330, 375, 400, 375, 330). Toronto (328, 375, 400, 375, 328) and Arizona (328, 376, 402, 376, 335) were also pretty close. The furthest from average were San Francisco (335, 335, 404, 420, 307), Chicago-N (355, 368, 400, 368, 353), and New York-A (318, 399, 408, 385, 314). Where does Petco Park rank in all this? Only slightly cozier than average (334, 367, 396, 387, 322). |
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