It was a weekday in May. The brisk sea air hurried in the marine layer for another cool evening in San Diego. The hair on my face was getting long, as it should be. It is May Beard season as a San Diego Padres fan I know this beard is a good omen.

The living room I sat in was not mine. It was my parents. As a 31 year old man it pained me to be there, but it does not matter. I signed my lease for a new apartment in June. It was temporary, my parents had cable. All was going to be ok, I could feast my eyes on my beloved Padres and all would be fine in the world. Right? Right?

They live in North County... Time Warner Cable Country... so the answer is... NOOOOOO!

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Saturday, while running some errands. My fiancee said she didn't quite understand the extent of the grieving over Junior Seau. Considering how she has only lived in San Diego for 4 years, I could understand.

With the exception of a 3 year stint in Washington DC myself, I have lived in San Diego all my life (I am 31), and am die-hard San Diego Sports fan.

I admittedly don't follow football too closely. I catch a game or two when we are bad, and catch a few more than that when are good. I listen to sports talk, so I absorb more than most casual fans.

However, just opening my mouth to try to explain why Junior's death has had such an impact on San Diegan's, I found myself becoming emotional.

Why?

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Since 1998 the San Diego Padres World Series bound San Diego Padres we have had 5 winning seasons, 2 playoff appearances, and 2 "just missed" playoff seasons.

All of these were fun in some way, but to be honest, only one was, for me, included the "Summer of Fun" and it was 2010.

Those two playoff teams were infuriating on a number of levels. Jake sucked serious bunghole in the Playoffs, the Cardinals taunted and destroyed us... and besides some great battles with the Dodgers, and really fun May's, and a Cy Young season, nothing seemed special for me.

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I am not ashamed of the fact that I love "The Extra 2%" I think most people do. Its the book by Jonah Keri about how the Rays became competitive with the Yankees and the Red Sox.

One of the many things that helped the Ray's to get better was the concept of arbitrage, or making sure that every decision creates a "net positive" for the organization even if only by small margins (the 2%).

I love the way that this Bell and Street thing has gone down. It is a great example of arbitrage and creates a great positive for the team. Follow me below and I will demonstrate, the best I can, as to why this is good.

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Having a somewhat advanced understanding of the old CBA, I have some insight into the new CBA.  I am going to list some things here and open them for discussion. I am not a huge expert, but I do play online games that require a more advanced understanding than some.  Here are some interesting changes from the summary on MLB.com.

1)  Active Roster limits will be expanded to 26 for certain regular or split doubleheaders.

I assume this is to bring up a AAA starter for one of those games without having to make another roster move.  My question: Does the promoted player still have the 10 day promotion penalty? I would hope not, but they probably do.

2)  Article XX(B) free agents signing minor league contracts who are not added to the Opening Day roster or unconditionally released 5 days prior to Opening Day shall receive an additional $100,000 retention bonus and the right to opt out on June 1 

I don't think this has always been the case.  Its interesting.  Basically when you sign those guys to minor league contracts with spring training invites, you have to have them on your Opening Day Roster or you have to pay them $100k, and you can only keep them in the minors til June 1st, at which point its "Promotion or Free Agency".  I wonder if this will result in more teams taking a pass on border line vets / wash outs and these guys spending more time on the couch? Or if they will get their look in spring training, and then released rather than becoming minor league filler?

3) Starting in 2012, “Type A” and “Type B” free agents and the use of the Elias ranking system will be eliminated.

Poor Elias.  It doesn't explain how they will determine if a FA *will* earn the original club compensation under the new rules. *Update: They have to offer #5 below to get compensation.

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I have taken in upon myself to create an open thread to talk about all matter of Padres topics for the off season.

Here are some possible topics:

- More Kotsay signing analysis: For me, I still like it because his PH triple split is: 293./.356/.317 and with RISP: .323/.386/.419... two places the Padres struggled.

- Rule 5 Draft is coming up.  I hope we just protect guys and don't bother signing anyway.

- With 40 Man rosters set, we may make some Minor League FA signings.

- We need to address RF via FA or Trade, in my humble opinion

- Other things: more thoughts on the uniforms, other places we need to address, payroll issues, projected lineup, TRADING ORLANDO HUDSON (face it FO, SS market is jammed up, you have to move O-Dawg!)

Yay Padres!

I am in panic mode.  Its no secret.  I love Jed.  I have agreed with pretty much every move he has made, even if they did not ultimately pan out.  Mostly because they have been well thought out moves.

When you look at the Minors, I have never been so excited. Filled with potential up and down the levels. 

So this news about Jed & McLeod possibly leaving for Chicago bothers me quite a bit.  Here are some reasons Jed *should not* leave.

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I've got a lot going on in my life, wedding planning, work conferences, etc etc.  However, my love for the Padres runs deep.  As a former political campaign manager, and current political account manager for a political consulting and services firm, there is something about being a Baseball GM  that is very appealing to me.  

There are actually a bunch of similarities:

1) In both you have to work within the framework of a pretty strict budget.

2) They work within a finite "season" structure.  Political Seasons and Baseball seasons end, then you regroup and plan for the next one.

3) Both work both in the short term, and thinking about building an "organization".

So I am going to try and look at Jed's moves in the way I would in my professional life.  I also play a lot of "Hardball Dynasty" on whatifsports.com where you are basically a GM and try an lead an imaginary team to victory.  So I have a great understanding for the rules under the current CBA. 

So I will do my best to look at our, League Highest 13 Arb Eligible players and evaluate them under my own criteria.

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The season is over. A 71-91 campaign leaves a sad feeling in ones memory.   However, for those of you who enjoy such posts, here is a quick entry on my visit to the lovely city of Seattle.

Let me be clear.  I hate the Mariners.  However, my first trip to Seattle left me very impressed with the city.

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I am a fan, and an optimist. After a season such as this one, I look at the good and the positive in my team and hope that more of that is to come. I find it fascinating how people on this blog, at the UT, and on the radio immediately begin the wailing and gnashing of teeth about a "culture of losing" in Padreland.  Nick Canepa, Bill Center, Hacksaw, Darren Smith all use the same meme.  Every time I hear this garbage I think back and check Baseball Reference to see if I have been dreaming since 2004.

In those 8 seasons we have only had 3 losing seasons (granted all 3 of  those were in the last 4). However, just last season we had a 90 win season, highest since 1998.

Want to see something awesome? Follow me below the jump!

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The Dodgers are easy to hate.  Mostly because they are in our division, and because LA is a hateful place. Its a place of traffic, smog, tons of delusioned people thinking they are going to "Make it" in Hollywood.

The Dodgers Fans are the worst, disrespectful, always starting fights.

But lets be honest, besides the last year or so we have always owned the Dodgers.  Phillies fans are more belligerent, and the Dodgers, as a team, are far less douchey than the Giants.

So why do we hate them so much?

Here is my #1 reason.  All I have to remember is this one horrible summer evening in August 2006 to remember EXACTLY why I hate the Dodgers.

Hateful. HATED. AWFUL Dodgers.  <Spit> In a heated Division race no less!

This is why you hate the Dodgers.  THIS!

I am going to Seattle in September to visit.  While there I will be catching a game at SafeCo Field to see the HATED Mariners play the HATED Yankee or the *HATED Royals.  As much as I will HATE to see this game it is baseball and I don't hate baseball.  Even if its "Junior" league baseball with "Junior" league rules.  

SO! Knowing this, have any of your visited SafeCo Field? If so can you give me some tips?  Where should we sit?  What are the chances of getting beat to within an inch of my life if I wear Padres gear?  What food should I partake in? Are there any "Secrets of SafeCo" I should know about?

I need to arm myself with as much information as I can before entering the stadium of our "Natural" and HATED rivals.

Thank you in advance for you tips, tricks, and survival methods!

I am not a statistician, sabermetrical baseball dork, nor can I say I am even that good at anything above basic math.  I all of my accumulated statistical information come from:

1) Getting Wonk'd by Wonko

2) Reading Ducksnorts

3) Reading "Moneyball"

4) Reading "The Extra 2%"

5) Playing a lot of "WhatIfSports" (both Simleagues baseball, and Hardball Dyntasy)

So I see myself as "Slightly Above Average" on the baseball statistics world.  I know what a lot of advanced stats measure and what the acronyms mean and  try to measure, no idea how they are formulated.

SO! I knowing this I have been curious as to who, in Padres history has had a decent hitting season.

I looked at the following, completely arbitrary things.

1) Only games played AT Petco (Home Splits)

2) At least 150 PA

I measured a "decent" hitting season by using opinion AND the following floors.

1) Must have hit at least .240

2) Must have had an OBP of at least .330

3) If you hit at least 10 HR at Petco, I ignore 1 & 2.

4) Your name IS NOT Adrian Gonzalez (spoiler, he qualifies every year he played for us)

Who are these magical men? Follow me.

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Well the trade deadline has come and gone.  I personally liked the moves.  I would have liked to see Qualls moved, but then, I doubt it would have been for much more than Ludwick moved for, which is to say, nothing.

It is wildly annoying to see the general Padres populace whine and b*tch about the trades.  They are good solid trades that make the team better.  I think everyone wants to see this craptastic season end. I feel like its been a combination of questionable clubhouse chemistry, bad luck, and bad health that has stopped us from having a more respectable season.

There are some people who get how baseball works, and some people are will scream in righteous indignation no matter what we did. (See foulweather fans)

I trust the Hoyer team quite a bit.  They know what they are doing.  We have some very decent young guys coming up, and we are not as far from competing as people would like to think.

So here are my moves I think the front office can do to calm some of the hysteria, and let us know they are planning to win sooner than later.

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It was about two months ago that my girlfriend dropped a bomb on me.  She wanted to go to Phoenix Arizona to see her friend, and watch a dissertation defense.  I think I said something along the lines of "Have fun!", while internally cringing at the idea of 120 degree heat in a dust bowl of a state that was known for having a douchy baseball team, and an enormous whole in it.  Plus I am half Mexican, with a Mexican surname, I am pretty sure that is a one way ticket to deportation even if I was born and raised in the US, and look mostly white.

When my girlfriend suggested that I come along, I panicked.  Then agreed, under the condition we go to a Tucson Padres game.  She agreed. 

Guess what?

I have pictures!

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After listening to Darren Smith quote from and talk about the book: The Extra 2% by Jonah Keri; I took it upon myself to read this for our site.  The quote that made me wince and essentially pissed me off comes from page 267, in Chapter 11: David vs Goliaths.  Which is a rather depressing chapter that talked about inequity between teams in baseball.  Jonah outlines how big teams are starting to run their franchises like mid / small market teams with analysis and focus on the draft.  Darren focused on this:

Building slowly over a long period of time, as the Rays did with their LaMarera draft picks and a decade of losing, might be the only way to get it right.

Overall Darren, and to an extent, other sports talk personalities have taken this quote, and other things Hoyer and Moorad has said, and made is sound like they plan to tank for draft picks and compete in 2020.  To be fair, I didn't hear *everything* Darren Smith said.  But the outrage about our payroll and our situation as an occasionally competitive mid-market team doesn't settle well with people.

I understand that it is the job of sports talk, to get people hot and bothered.  To purposely piss people off, but to use their position, as Hacksaw is specifically guilty off, to generate false notions about a team, is damaging to a teams health.  It keeps people from the ballpark.

If you come with me after the jump, I will my review and personal insights from the book, and explain the context of this quote and what I believe it can say about as Darren says "The Reality of Padres Baseball". 

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Its time to do something about it. I cannot stand to watch this team any more.  Flashes of brilliance blended with a horror stories of epic proportions. I didn't want to believe it, but in Baseball, not all things make sense. Sometimes you have to just face the facts. 

What is this fact we have to face? 

We have a Jonah in our midst's! Yes, someone who has defied God and therefor is sinking our Padres ship!!!  Not sure what I am talking about? Go see the Movie "Master and Commander". There is a lieutenant who is inexplicably cursed.  Everything he does leads to death and horrible weather for the HMS Surprise.  As soon as he jumps off the boat, the weather gets better, and they go on to kick some serious British arse.

So who is this Jonah?  Who is sinking this Padres Ship? Who is this curse this cancer? Who must we be rid of before he threatens to consume us all?

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Here we are on another baseball adventure.  This time in lovely Lake Elsinore!

I was inspired to make the hour long drive due to the regular comments from Darren Smith on my evening commutes. Darren seemed impressed by the July 4th program, and I decided to check it out, and I dragged my girlfriend (and child saving heroine from our last adventure) out with me to the park.

So after a day, already jam packed with Transformers in IMAX 3D, and breakfast with the Parents... we set out on our journey up the I-15.

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Breakfast at the Park: An Sunday Adventure in Breakfasttown USA

I don't do pictures in my fanposts, mostly because I don't take them, and I don't get the pictures from my friends and family who so.  So I will have to paint a picture with words on what my Sunday morning / afternoon adventure was like at Petco Park Sunday June 26.   Prepare yourself for an exciting adventure one sunny day in America's finest city!

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There has been a ton of talk lately about the status of San Diego sports, and we are hearing it from from sports talk radio to this blog.  We hear it because the Chargers want a new stadium, and the Padres fans want a higher payroll.  What it is going to take to get the San Diego fan base to more regularly sell our stadium is a conversation topic because of the economic and political ramifications of large stadium projects and the financial viability of franchises.

The media seems overwhelmed by righteous indignation over our lame fans and how we don't sell out games and we "let" opposing teams fans crowd our stadiums. San Diego's fair-weather fans and "got something better to do bro" sports culture is a death trap for profitable and competitive sports franchises and the viability for new stadium projects (see Chargers and Padres AAA affiliate).

Overall I find it to be an unfortunate mischaracterization of the situation we have here in San Diego.  Our fans in San Diego are just as good (or better) than those fan in other cities, and it is not the fault of these misguided talking heads that they are wrong.

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