SB Nation User Blog: Dex

Open Thread, 9/4: Padres vs Brewers

Dex — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:18:54 -0000

What if baseball were a contact sport? So like if a runner's on first base and trying to take a lead, the first baseman could either play for the ball or physically hold the guy in place. Maybe he wouldn't be allowed to grab, but it might be more like basketball where you were allowed to try to box somebody out and pivot on one foot or something.

A rival baseball league should make that a rule to differentiate themselves from the competition. That's what I learned in business school. You want to differentiate yourself from the competition. Like if your competition is making lemonade, you make ecofriendly habitats for turtles.

GO PADRES!!

Lineup

San Diego Padres @ Milwaukee Brewers

09/04/08 5:05 PM PDT

San Diego Padres	Milwaukee Brewers
Brian Giles - RF	Rickie Weeks - 2B
Luis Rodriguez - SS	J.J. Hardy - SS
Kevin Kouzmanoff - 3B	Ryan Braun - LF
Adrian Gonzalez - 1B	Prince Fielder - 1B
Chase Headley - LF	Corey Hart - RF
Will Venable - CF	Mike Cameron - CF
Nick Hundley - C	Bill Hall - 3B
Matt Antonelli - 2B	Jason Kendall - C
Shawn Estes - P	Jeff Suppan - P

The Padres and Channel 4 kinda get the blogging thing, kinda don't

Dex — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:18:58 -0000

Looks like the Lexus Postgame Show is getting a blog. Nothing on there juuuust yet, but John Weisbarth, Jenny Cavnar and Jose Carreon will be your bloggers along with somebody named abbie/ep and a generic Channel 4 account.

The blog was set up in August, but looks like it might be more of a proof of concept at this point. I'm not sure exactly what the blog will be about, though the prominent sponsor logo suggests that it'll probably be somewhat official. I see no Scanlan on there and he's the one I want to read. Scan tells it like it is, yo.

In closely related news, I don't understand this:

I thought I'd let this one be a surprise for everyone either watching the game last night or reading the box score this morning. By now you probably know that we've purchased the contracts of both Matt Antonelli and Wade LeBlanc.

I get the move. The move is great. I'm wondering why DePodesta wouldn't have leaked this info just before the game. Or maybe during the game. Why frame it like it's some delightful surprise to the thousands of people who watch the game as opposed to a truly delightful surprise for the couple dozen people who would've seen the news on his site first? This would've been a fantastic opportunity to make the IMBDYGF blog a really must see destination. Of the people who visit Paul's blog regularly, wouldn't this have been a nice treat and a way to get more visibility for the blog?

Paul's a pretty savvy guy and I'm wondering if he wanted to announce the move on the blog beforehand, but was somehow prevented from doing so. Now I know why it's so difficult to get a scoop from the front office. They don't even give scoops to themselves. How're they gonna give one to us?

Open Thread, 9/2: Padres vs Dodgers

Dex — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:10:54 -0000

For my birthday, I got one of those grip-strength devices and I've been using it while in front of the computer. It got me to thinking about how terrific my grip strength will be once I wear the mofo out.

What if a pitcher had such terrific grip strength that he could squeeze the ball into a different shape, like say, a miniature football? That would be an interesting strategy.

GO PADRES!!!

Lineup

San Diego Padres @ Los Angeles Dodgers

09/02/08 7:10 PM PDT

San Diego Padres	Los Angeles Dodgers
Brian Giles - RF	Juan Pierre - CF
Luis Rodriguez - SS	Andre Ethier - RF
Kevin Kouzmanoff - 3B	Manny Ramirez - LF
Adrian Gonzalez - 1B	James Loney - 1B
Chase Headley - LF	Russell Martin - C
Chip Ambres - CF	Casey Blake - 3B
Nick Hundley - C	Blake DeWitt - 2B
Matt Antonelli - 2B	Angel Berroa - SS
Cha Seung Baek - P	Clayton Kershaw - P

Open Thread, 8/30: Padres vs Rockies

Dex — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:20:52 -0000

Speaking of hot dogs... How did the Coca-Cola company get away with their name being shortened to "coke"? Coke is what yuppies from the '80s snort with their turned up snob noses so that they can continue to believe that they're better than you. Isn't that the kind of brand association that you want to avoid?

If I were Coca-Cola, I'd only shorten it a little bit and drop the "ola". Then people would call it a "Co-Kack". I know it sounds a little bit like, "Cold Cock", but isn't that better than being associated with drugs?

Stay in school.

GO PADRES!!!

Lineup

Colorado Rockies @ San Diego Padres

08/30/08 7:05 PM PDT

Colorado Rockies	San Diego Padres
Clint Barmes - 2B	Brian Giles - RF
Willy Taveras - CF	Luis Rodriguez - SS
Matt Holliday - LF	Kevin Kouzmanoff - 3B
Brad Hawpe - RF	Adrian Gonzalez - 1B
Garrett Atkins - 1B	Chase Headley - LF
Ian Stewart - 3B	Will Venable - CF
Chris Iannetta - C	Edgar Gonzalez - 2B
Troy Tulowitzki - SS	Nick Hundley - C
Ubaldo Jimenez - P	Joshua Geer - P

Open Thread, 8/29: Padres vs Rockies

Dex — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:16:31 -0000

Some people don't think ketchup belongs on hot dogs. Personally, I could care less what those people think should go on my hot dogs. To combat this tyranny, I propose that somebody make a hot dog that's filled with ketchup beforehand just to eff with the hot dog snobs' sensibilities.

Of course, as soon as you put that hot dog on the barbecue or plumped it up in water, the ketchup inside would boil and explode the hot dog, thereby creating a delicious soup. Then everybody's happy.

GO PADRES!!!

Lineup

Colorado Rockies @ San Diego Padres

08/29/08 7:05 PM PDT

Colorado Rockies	San Diego Padres
Clint Barmes - 2B	Brian Giles - RF
Willy Taveras - CF	Luis Rodriguez - SS
Matt Holliday - LF	Kevin Kouzmanoff - 3B
Brad Hawpe - RF	Adrian Gonzalez - 1B
Garrett Atkins - 1B	Chase Headley - LF
Ian Stewart - 3B	Will Venable - CF
Chris Iannetta - C	Nick Hundley - C
Troy Tulowitzki - SS	Tadahito Iguchi - 2B
Aaron Cook - P	Dirk Hayhurst - P

Open Thread, 8/27: Padres vs Diamondbacks

Dex — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:08:29 -0000

What if Major League Baseball suddenly discovered that every single baseball that had been used since 1923 actually was manufactured in a Central American prison that used the human hides of criminals that had been put to death?

I'm thinking it would take at least 3 years for Bud Selig to talk the baseball "purists" into using a different material. It would take another 2 years to talk pitchers into using something different. The pitchers would say crazy things like, "I can't throw a splitter the same way unless I'm using baseballs made from human hide!"

GO PADRES!!!

Lineup

Arizona Diamondbacks @ San Diego Padres

08/27/08 12:35 PM PDT

Arizona Diamondbacks	San Diego Padres
Stephen Drew - SS	Scott Hairston - CF
Conor Jackson - LF	Luis Rodriguez - 1B
Chad Tracy - 1B	Kevin Kouzmanoff - 3B
Adam Dunn - RF	Chase Headley - LF
Mark Reynolds - 3B	Jody Gerut - RF
Miguel Montero - C	Edgar Gonzalez - 2B
Chris Young - CF	Nick Hundley - C
Chris Burke - 2B	Sean Kazmar - SS
Randy Johnson - P	Cha Seung Baek - P

One more fat joke and you're banned

Dex — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:53:23 -0000

I'm sorry, but do I really need to spell this out? Could there possibly be any reason for why I would write this besides "Dex is losing his sense of humor"?

Open Thread, 8/26: Padres vs Diamondbacks

Dex — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:40:17 -0000

JBox and I are going to set up the autopost thingy for every single Open Thread through to the end of the season. The notes we write won't make any sense in relation to the game because we'll have written them over the course of two days at the end of August, but at least they won't be late anymore. Also, if they somehow do make sense given the context of the game, then it proves that we're clairvoyant.

This is also the Open Thread where Drama's hoping that everybody makes an appearance. I'm down with that.

You bring the torches and I'll bring the gasoline. We're gonna burn the mofo down.

WE DON'T NEED NO WATER! LET THE MOTHERF_CKER BURN!!!

Proof that Forbes knows nothing about sports

Dex — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:56:37 -0000

I've always thought that the Forbes Team Valuations were bunk. I understand the financials and how they figure them, but in a real world situation, the values have always come up short of what people were willing to pay.

Now they rank the "Worst Cities to be a Sports Fan" and San Diego comes up as the second worst city to be a sports fan. They base this on median income to cost of attending and then compare that to how well the teams perform.

What blows me away is how terrible we apparently are. Sure, the Padres have sucked this year, but we have made it to the playoffs recently. The Chargers may have disappointed in the postseason, but they basically dominate the regular season.

Well, maybe we can dig deeper. Oh, here's the error. According to Forbes, we've only had ONE playoff appearance. The Chargers have been to the playoffs plenty of times recently, and so have the Padres.

Forbes: "Oh... well our formula only counts last year..."

But we only have two pro teams. Even if you only count one year, that means that we've had HALF our teams in the postseason, which makes it really fun.

Forbes: "Yeah ummm...."

And what's this about us only having a .425 winning percentage? Sure, the Padres are terrible if you're only counting this year, but The Chargers had a .688 winning percentage! (not to mention the previous years, which you've ignored)

Forbes: "Oh... well we just added the wins in football to the wins in baseball..."

But there are only 16 games in a football season. You can't compare a football win directly to a 162 game season. The numbers will get all messed up.

Forbes: "Oh... You can't? I mean..."

The rest of the list is completely ridiculous as well. It sucks being a sports fan in Indianapolis? In Pittsburgh? In New York!?

Wouldn't you have thought that when Forbes had their interns come up with this formula, that they would've checked the results to see if they made sense? When you have those kinds of cities coming up as the worst cities to be a sports fan, and they're actually cities where sports fans thrive, then maybe the numbers need to be reworked before people start to distrust everything else that you write about sports.

Gotta give them credit though. They sure know how to write a linkbait headline. You'd just think that Forbes would have a little more class.

Angel Matos will kick you in the face

Dex — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:27:34 -0000

Ktick - MyVideo

Here's the video of the Cuban Taekwondo competitor kicking the official in the face and the build up to it. My favorite part is the announcers.

"This goes completely against the spirit of taekwondo!"

Maybe it goes against Taekwondo's spirit, but I'm pretty sure the rest of Taekwondo is about kicking dudes in the face, which Matos has down pretty good.

[HT MMATKO]