Patrick and Olbermann jabber on for a few minutes (it almost sounds like they are killing time until he gets on the air).

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an interesting article over at SI about Linebrink. By the sound of it, no one in the clubhouse wants to see him go.

It's a tough call; he's worth a lot. And if 25 (?!?) teams are interested him, even in the slightest, his value will be tremendous by the end of July (if continues to pitch the way he pitches). He's the 8th inning closer and perhaps, to some degree, just as important as Hoffman. I would like him to stick around and become the closer once Hoffman retires (unless the Claw improves against lefties and becomes an absolutely sick reliever), but if trading him can bring a big-time power hitter to San Diego at the trade deadline, I would reluctantly let him go.

Maybe.

I just put this post on an old thread and reprinted it here in an effort to generate more hot stove discussion.

Here's some 2006 stats of two of the free agent names that we've thrown around here on previous threads, compared to two of the more productive Padres from this past season. I'll let someone else slap together career stats and projected stats if all 4 had the same number of at-bats since Soriano has nearly 100 more ABs over Cameron. Richard, I am looking in your general direction because you always manage to put together some crazy stats like OPS for night games with the temperature between 75 and 80 degrees after the clubbie has filled the Gatorade tub with Fierce Grape and the chosen player's toenails have been clipped within the past 33 hours.  Also, keep in mind where these guys bat in the line-up.

I am not putting A-Rod on here because we both know that ain't gonna happen.

2006
AT BATS
A-Gonz  570
Soriano 647
Cameron 552
Beltre  620

AVERAGE
A-Gonz  .304
Soriano .277
Cameron .268
Beltre  .268

OBP
A-Gonz  .355
Cameron .353
Soriano .351
Beltre  .328

SLUG
Soriano .560
A-Gonz  .500
Cameron .482
Beltre  .465

OPS
Soriano .911
A-Gonz  .855
Cameron .835
Beltre  .793

HOME RUNS
Soriano 46
Beltre  25
A-Gonz  24
Cameron 22

RBI
Soriano 95
Beltre  89
Cameron 83
A-Gonz  82

RUNS
Soriano 119
Cameron 88
Beltre  88
A-Gonz  83

SB/CS
Soriano 41/17
Cameron 25/9
Beltre  11/5
A-Gonz  0/1

2B/3B
Cameron 34/9
Soriano 41/2
Beltre  39/4
A-Gonz  38/1

K
Soriano 160
Cameron 142
Beltre  118
A-Gonz  113

GIDP  
A-Gonz  24
Beltre  15
Cameron 8
Soriano 3

RISP 2 OUT AVG/OBP
Cameron .349/.461
A-Gonz  .322/.420
Soriano .197/.380
Beltre  .155/.318
       Well, lookee here. Our Padres are a little more clutch with 2 outs with runners on 2nd and 3rd.

I cannot guarantee if the stats are exactly right as I toggle between screens. (And, yes, it is an extremely slow day at work) It is also worth noting that Soriano's power numbers dropped after the all-star break, whereas Beltre and A-Gonz did better during the second half of the season. And here's a good analysis of all the free agents (including pitchers).

[editor's note, by Dex] I'll admit it. That loss got me down, but we're not eliminated yet. The Padres are at their best when people count them out. Read the words of Pants to get yourselves on the up and up again.

I don't see a Fat Lady anywhere!

This is not the Padres team of 2005. This is not the Padres team of 1996. The feelings that most of us are having right now are more like 1984 feelings. We were optimistic of the post-season back then. Then the Cubs smacked the Padres in the mouth...twice! We were depressed. We were mad. And do you think we just rolled over? NO! Dammit. We BELIEVED!

In Game 3, Ed Whiston took the hill against Dennis Eckersley, and you know what happened? The Padres lost.

No, silly, they won. Did I mention it was Ed Freakin' Whitson versus Eck? Then Game 4 happened. Oh, the humanity! Our collective souls were crushed once again because we are Padres fans.

Wait, what? Oh, yeah. THIS happened:

And that was against Lee Smith. Perhaps you've heard his name recently. Something about someone or other involving "saves" and "all-time"?

Then in Game 5, Eric Show gave the Padres a solid 1.1 innings of work to put the Padres in a 3-0 hole, followed by Andy Hawkins, Dave Dravecky, Craig Lefferts, and The Goose combining for 2 hits and 1 walk to hold the Cubs to 3 runs so that Leon Durham could do his thing in the 7th and lo and behold, the Padres came from 2 games behind to beat a Cubs team that, for all intensive purposes, should have won the NLCS.

So, for all you youngsters out there with your iPods and your myspace and your TRL do not despair. There is no Cardinal mystique. There will be a Game 3 and a Game 4 and there sure as hell will be a Game 5 and then a Game 1 again! This franchise has done it once before and they can do it again.

Unless, of course Suppan and Marquis pitch in a manner that makes Jeff Weaver's Game 2 performance look Jeff Weaver pitching on other day of his life. All they have to do is beat Carpenter, but we all know the Padres have no chance of beating Carpy. None. Right?

The series is not over. Hit your booze bottles or your beer or your crack / hookers / heroin / listening to the Corky's commercial binge or whatever vice that gets you through trying times like this for the next 42 or so hours.

On Saturday morning, take a hot shower, got get yourself some fish tacos, and pray at the alter of Bip Roberts that you've built in your house. Game 3 is just around the corner and that will lead to baseball salvation and, ultimately, the NLCS!

Good luck and Godspeed, you Padres fans! Keep the faith!

GO PADRES!

Update [2006-10-6 15:26:15 by Pants]: Sing along with Aki to get you going.

I am going to be down in San Diego this weekend for a few games staying with my friends Bart and Adrienne, who moved to San Diego in March and lives near Petco (natch). Bart got a little too eager and bought 2 tickets for Wednesday's day game against the Phillies. I have to be back in Los Angeles before then, Adrienne has to work, so now Bart is stuck with two tickets. If anyone is interested in buying them, you can just meet him outside his the stadium and make the transaction. The seats are on the pricey side ($45), and of course, we would appreciate face value for them, but, hey, I guess we will ultimately take what we can get.

Here's the location of the seats:

Section 114
Row 15
Seats 1,2

You can let me know here if you're interested.

Bug Chunks can make the All-Star team with YOUR help!

Go vote or else we are going to see Billy "Mister Flippy" Wagner, Bobby "Please Pass the Mayo" Abreu,  Chris "The Card Shark" Capuano, or Nomar "O.C.D." Garciaparra on the All-Star team instead.

Also, vote for the worst American League player in the bunch to help out the National League team. Or vote for Ramon to show your love to ex-Padres.

If Bochy doesn't know what to say to the team before Game 3, perhaps he can draw upon one of these movie quotes to help inspire them:

KNUTE ROCKNE ALL AMERICAN

Knute Rockne: Now I'm going to tell you something I've kept to myself for years. None of you ever knew George Gipp. He was long before your time, but you all know what a tradition he is at Notre Dame. And the last thing he said to me, "Rock," he said, "sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock," he said, "but I'll know about it and I'll be happy."

ANIMAL HOUSE

Bluto: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...
[thinks hard]
Bluto: the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!
[runs out, alone; then returns]
Bluto: What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble." Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer...
Otter: Dead! Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.
D-Day: Let's do it.
Bluto: LET'S DO IT!

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

Andy Dufresne: There are places in this world that aren't made out of stone, and that there's something inside that they can't get to ,and that they can't touch. It's yours.
Red: What're you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.

DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY

Patches O'Houlihan: It's like watching a bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob out there.

THE KARATE KID

Mr. Miyagi: Wax on... wax off. Wax on... wax off.

Let's take a ride in the Way Back Machine to April 27, 2005:

"It's hard to put together a game as bad as we did today. There's absolutely no excuse for it. We were just horrible. That's pathetic baseball. They know it.''
     -Bochy

"First order of business: Invest in some diapers. If every single player on this team is going to just go ahead and crap on himself every other game, spare the clubhouse guy the pain of having to clean it up."
    -Dex

The Padres had just been killed by the Giants, 10-3. This coming off the heels of a another mistake ladden loss the previous day. Now, I don't know if it was Bochy's 15-minute tirade or Dex's rant, but the Padres went 16-3 over the next few weeks. Most will say that it was Bochy's tirade, but shouldn't he have gone into meltdown mode by now? And I'm not talking about one with a St. Louis cabbie

Today, with their off day, Bochy needs to get medieval on their asses. He needs to channel his inner Patches O'Houlihan. This team is allowing the city of San Diego and Padres fans to be portrayed as chumps. The media is making a mockery out of them and us. Well, Bruce, don't tell it to Scottie and B.R. Tell it to the team; put a freakin' chip on their shoulders.

Those of us who have been fans since the Bob Owchinko days have had to put up with (mostly) everyone outside the 619 either making fun of us or ignoring us. When ESPN and Regis mock the Padres, they are mocking us, the fans. The team represents us. And then that team goes out, makes dumb mistakes, faltering in the clutch, and not playing good fundamental baseball, it elicits either anger or depression from us. Padre fans are starting to lose hope. Hope! Hope is what we have at the start of every season. Something that drives each of us to believe that this year is THE year. But we can only have hope if we believe that the outcome is possible...even if there is only a 99.99% chance of it happening. We have faith that the .01% possibility could actually happen. But it is hard to place faith in a team that seemingly doesn't even want to win. Someone has got to light a fire under them. It is time for Boch to do what he did back on 27th of April. They can either continue to have themselves, their manhood, and their abilities to be mocked and ridiculed, or they can sack up and play like they once did for one glorious month when they fooled some us into thinking that they were '84, '96, or '98 good.

A comeback this weekend would be more impressive, more unbelievable, more emotional than the comeback of 1984. They have to come together as a team, with or without Jake Peavy, and punch the Cardinals, the media, and fans of every other team in baseball in their collective mouth (and why not kick them in the jock while they are down), just so they can deliver the line from "Coming to America" when everyone reminds Eddie Murphy (as the barber) that Rocky Marcianao kicked Joe Louis's ass, "F--- you, f--- you, f---  you.  Who's next?" Even if they get rolled in the NLCS, at least they would have gone down fighting.

Hey now, Gaslamp Ballaz (Ballians?).

I will not be attending the Baseball Prospectus Pizza Feed because [1] I will be at work and [2] said work is behind enemy lines (i.e. Los Angeles). However, I will be attending Saturday's throwback-uni game sans the wife (she will be in New York for the weekend).

Now the problem I have every time I head south to see the Padres is that I never have any time to hang out in San Diego. This is because I am usually with friends/in-laws/in-law friends who usually stop at my house an hour or so after I request them to show up. Then they usually have to get home immediately after the game.

This weekend, I am embarking on my first solo project. I got my tickee. I got my circa 1984 adjuatable cap (which has been jinxing the Padres in the games that I have attended, so perhaps I will now switch to the circa now, size 7 7/8 Padres roadie cap). I got my alarm set to get to San Diego early-ish.

Now the issue at hand for me is the last time I ate at a restaurant in San Diego that wasn't some random taco stand in P.B. or didn't have word "Rubio's" in its name, I was 8 years old, living in Rancho Bernardo.

Anyhoo, can anyone recommend a place to get breakfast either in the Gaslamp or some place between Venice Beach and San Diego that is so outstanding, that I should pull off the freeway.

Thanks.

And let me know if anyone is attending the game. We can have a beer and take pictures of you wearing my Bochy-esque cap on your puny little dome.

Remember the old, OLD game show "Concentration" when you had to solve a picture puzzle at the end of every game? How about the just old "Classic Concentration"?

Well, we need to help out our Gaslamp pal Dex figure the crafty puzzle from Bat Girl's website from yesterday (see his posting from earlier).