Thoughts on the Night Shift

Another duty day onboard the ship, another boring watch finished.  I’m up working late, so I figured I could surf the web for a bit to pass the time.

The losses keep piling up.   Jake Peavy pitches pretty decently, but as he put it,  “Just good enough to lose.”  The Friars have gone 4-17 in their last 21 games, extinguishing all hope for fans excited by the 9-3 start.  Bad hitting, bad defense, and bad pitching make for an awful team.

Adrian Gonzalez is having a stellar season, probably the best season nobody is talking about.  His stat line so far is .301 AVG, 11 HR, 24 RBI, .593 slugging.  He plays in a park that notoriously favors pitchers, to the point that its gotten in the heads of the likes of Phil Nevin, Ryan Klesko, and Khalil Green.  He is the only threat in the Padres lineup, so most opposing pitchers never give hime anything to hit.  Brian Giles (.161 AVG) and David Eckstein (.263 AVG) are hitting in front of him, keeping his RBI totals low.  They’re not exactly the ideal table setters at this point.  But Adrian is still putting up amazing numbers.  For a former #1 overrall pick, he gets almost zero national press.  It’s a shame this team is squandering his talent.

Kyle Blanks, the Padres top prospect, is playing a few games in leftfield for AAA Portland.  At first, I got excited that this might mean trading the slow starting Kevin Kouzmanoff, sliding Chase Headley to 3rd, and bringing up the behemoth to play left.  But Corey Blog brings up a few points that long-term, Blanks might be better off staying in Portland.

Upper Deck is announcing that they will insert cards featuring “rare butterflies and horse hair encapsulated into thick insert cards.”  The goal is to get people not normally interested into buying trading cards to cough up some dough.  But I think this would turn off most collectors.  I’d hate to buy a hobby box of Upper Deck, only to find that the big hit wasn’t a key rookie card or HOF autograph, but an encapsulated Red Spotted Purple.  Can’t wait for the youtube box breaks.

Hate the fact that Yahoo Fantasysports is blocked by the Navy.  Have to wait until I get home to tinker with the fantasy team.

Lots of talk from disgruntled Padres fans about Brian Giles.  Not only is he not hitting, but he isn’t playing up to his strength which is getting on base.  However his non-production is killing the lineup, especially since they currently have him leading off and in position to get the most at-bats.  Paul Depodesta responds basically saying that with a veteran like Giles, “players with long track records of success ought to be given more leeway before making irrevocable decisions.”