So the Gold Glove winners for the National League were announced today and I am not happy. NOT HAPPY.

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that my favorite player on the Padres and in all of baseball is Kevin Kouzmanoff, our incredible third baseman. He had three errors total this year and a .990 fielding percentage. That's freaking amazing. So amazing, in fact, that the Hall of Fame sent a guy all the way out to San Diego to get one of Kouz's gloves. To put in the Hall of Fame. Because Kouz set a single-season record for National League third baseman. And because he's amazing.

You would think, that a guy who's been in the majors for three years, who had an incredible season like this, who broke a record for goodness sakes, and who the Hall of Fame found themselves worthy enough to want something that he used, should get a Gold Glove.

The guy who won the Gold Glove at third base was the National's Ryan Zimmerman. Basically, I don't care. I don't care if he was ranked the best third baseman in baseball. The guy had 17 errors!

Oh but of course, there is the little matter about his RF and UZR. According to a mlb.com article, Zimmerman's RF is 2.9 and Kouz's is 2.2. Zimmerman's UZR is 18.1 and Kouz's is 7.5. I HAVE NEVER EVER HEARS OF THESE TERMS!!!!! I have no idea what they are and why they should matter. Oh, Zimmerman's UZR is higher than Kouzmanoff's. Let's give the glove to him. 

You have to be kidding me. I doubt that the voters even look at stuff like that!  

Naturally, I'm extremely biased. I wanted my boy to win so badly. But I think Kouz was seriously snubbed here.

These National League managers are morons!!! I mean, they were the ones watching Kouz. They saw his defense. The Padres even sent them DVDs with some of Kouz's highlights. Maybe they just wanted to give the poor Nationals fans something to be happy about. Right.

I mean, come on, the Padres have been pretty depressed lately too!

This is so freaking frustrating. Just reading some of the comments from Padres fans on the website and on Facebook are showing that Kouz got wronged. As one commentator said, "WHAT A JOKE!!!" And as other said, "Just stupid!"

Kouz deserved that glove. He's worked so hard in the last few years, and he has been seriously rejected.

This is very sad for me, too, since I've been pulling for him to get a Gold Glove since like late August. I set up a Facebook page, made my sign, changed my profile pic, and all that's gone to waste. I wasn't sure if he could honestly win it, but I hoped for it like crazy and I guess I really did expect that he would get it. It was so disappointing to see that he didn't. It makes my heart hurt.

I just really hope that he wasn't hoping for it too much. That would have been tough.

I STILL LOVE YOU KOUZ!!!!

Well, on the positive side, Adrian Gonzalez got his second consecutive Gold Glove. But, sad to say, it's hard to be happy for Adrian when we have that flub over Kouz. But it is a great accomplishment for Adrian. I know he's probably not that happy since his teammate didn't get to be happy though. Oh well. Congrats Adrian! 

Poor Kouz. Somebody needs to talk to the National League managers about this - MAJOR TIME.

GO PADRES!!! GO KOOOOOOOOOOOOOZ!!!!     

In my last post, I examined the difference between baseball in football, saying that baseball had "class" and "finesse" compared to football. One of the commenters, C Dobbie, challenged those terms in relation to baseball, and I really appreciated that. Here is what he said:

"I am a British MLB fan. Baseball is one of the very few games where one player plays against the whole opposition team, which is where its greatness derives,
I place it second only to my beloved cricket - a much more sophisticated game in my opinion.
However I find it difficult to accept the adjective "classy" or the noun "finesse".
How classy are the following
1. Arguing with umpires
2. Mass brawling among players
3. Runners deliberately trying to injure opponents
4. Pitchers deliberately trying to hit batters
5. Cheating in various forms
Not my definition of Finesse.
I still think its a great game but I-d like to see some of the above addressed.
C Dobbie"

Thanks so much for looking at my entry with critique and challenging me on this! 

OK, let's start by looking at baseball and football. Looking at both sports, which would you say is more calm? I think most of you would say baseball. You might even say that baseball is boring because of the lack of action. I agree that the game can be slow, but that's what adds so much to it. You have time to absorb what is happening. You can relax, eat, talk with other fans, and be fairly relaxed at a baseball game. Sure, you might be the kind of fan that's constantly jumping around and screaming and never relaxing. That's me. But generally, I think baseball fans are a relaxed sort of people. At least, compared to football fans.

Football is a big, brutal sport. I love it, and I think it has a class and finesse of its own. When you think about a football game, you think of constant action and brutality. The action is constantly moving, and moving fast. The fans get very into the game, screaming like crazy for their team. To me, football seems like so much more of an intense environment. I've never been to a major football game, only high school games. Even at that level, things are pretty crazy.

The games of football and baseball are obviously different. I'm not going to get into all the differences, because, obviously, it would be ridiculously difficult. These games are vastly different. The fans are similar in their passion for their games. Some people love only baseball. Some people love only football. Some love both, equally or not.

Now into the argument.

How classy are the following? Well, let's see.

1. Arguing with umpires.

This is definitely a very debatable subject. Should players and managers be not allowed to question an umpire's judgment? Umpires are an essential part of the game, there's no doubt about that. And that position demands respect from the players and staff on the teams. All teams should respect what the umpire decides in the best call. But we've had a lot of bad umpiring in the last couple years. I'm not sure why. Though teams should respect umpires, I believe that they have to right to let their opinion be known if they think a call was not called rightly.

For those of us who are able to watch games on TV, it can sometimes be obvious whether the umpire made the call right or not. They will show the play over and over from different points of view and different speeds and you, the fan, can see how it actually went down. Maybe the manager in the dugout was able to see the play from a better angle than the umpire was.

I believe that a manager or player should not yell or act angry with the umpire, but just go out there and ask calmly why he thought the play should have been called that way. There are times when a manager goes out there yelling and screaming to fire up his team. But I think that managers should respect the umpire's call and just ask calmly for an explanation.

Say that you're team is in a huge playoff game, and an umpire calls a runner safe at home when it was painfully obvious that the runner did not even touch the plate. Of course the manager is going to be ticked, and it the heat of the moment, will rush out there and argue with them. Can you imagine how boring baseball would be if everyone just accepted what the umpires said without a word? When a play goes against you, you want to see the manager go out there and defend his players and his team. It may not be classy, but it's part of the game.

2. Mass brawling among players

It doesn't really happen that often, does it? Again, I think this is a spur of the moment type thing. "Mass brawling" is basically what football is, just with a little more discipline. Brawling on the baseball field is usually a result of an action like intentionally hitting a batter, or doing something that's considered unsportsmanlike. This is a matter of defending a teammate. If a guy gets hit multiple times for no apparent reason, and he gets mad about it and goes after the pitcher, both teams are going to come out so they can defend their players. Most of the time, nobody gets hurt, and everybody just kind of mingles on the field. Is it classy? No. But it's rare. It's not something that you see everyday.

3. Runners deliberately trying to injure opponents

I wouldn't say that runners deliberately try to injure opponents on a regular basis. Usually, the only reason to "deliberately injure" an opposing player is to prevent a double play by sliding hard into second base. That's understandable. If he's the lead runner, he does not want to get picked off or end the inning. He's just trying to stumble up the second baseman or shortstop so that he can keep the inning alive for his team. I know that there are exceptions, of guys literally trying to hurt the player, but those guys get suspended.

4. Pitchers deliberately trying to hit batters

Not often done without provacation. Unless the pitcher or manager has a ridiculous grudge against another player, they are not going to go around hitting guys. I think most baseball fans can tell when a player getting hit was accidental or intentionally. You're going to see a lot of intentional hitting in big rivalry games like Yankees-Red Sox. If one of the teams hits a player, intentionally or accidentally, the other team is going to seek retaliation, which leads to brawling and warnings and suspentions. It's not a good thing. Intentionally hitting a player is not classy. It's a bad mark on the game but it's a part of the game nonetheless.

I don't think it happens as often as it used to, back in the days of the spitball and things. The game has matured over the years.

5. Cheating in various forms

This is probably the saddest part of the game today. All the taking of illiegal substances had been terrible for baseball. Classy? No way! The players who are doing this kind of stuff are cheating the game. Unfortunately, the majority of the players in MLB are taking substances of some sort. Players are doing anything to get an edge over the competion, whether it be for selfish reasons or just wanting to help their team. Most of the time, it's selfish. These players want to be bigger, better. They want bigger paychecks. They want have an advantage over other players in the minors. There are a lot of guys out there whose dream is to play baseball. If the only way to get there is to get better, they'll do anything to make that happen.

It's extremely sad. The game is almost turning fake. The competition is very, very tough. You have to perform or you're out.

There are other forms of "cheating" that are a very established part of the game. Trying to steal signs, for instance. You rarely think about it when you're at a game, but there's some major stuff going on down on the field. The coaches, manager, catcher and pitcher, and all sorts of players are exchanging signs and trying to figure out the other team's signs.  
 

It's not classy. It's cheating.

I'm not saying that this game is perfect. I'm not saying that it doesn't need to be improved. As another commenter, mccombs2425, said, "all those arguments aren't the best for baseball but its been apart of the game since forever. its part of the game. and the way other players don't argue and don't hit batters deliberately is what makes it classy. but like any other sport their are a few bad apples. i.e. milton bradley"

The game, at its bare bones, is amazing. If we didn't have to cheating players, the unfortunate brawls, and any other thing that makes the game tainted, baseball would have class and finesse. When you're out at the ballpark having a good time, you need to forget all the bad stuff and just enjoy the game as it is. There's nothing we can do to change it.

You can't say that the beauty of a center fielder making an improbable catch, pulling the ball back from over the fence isn't finesse. The full-out dive of a shortstop, grabbing the ball in his out-streched glove, springing up, and getting the runner out at first. The confident stroke of a star hitter, sending the ball way out into the stands. What about an opposing player, whose hit found it's way into the pitcher's face, who puts his arm around the pitcher's teammate and prays for him, forgetting their uniforms and prejudices? That's classy. Or a runner who slides into second base and gently knocks the shortstop off his feet so he can prevent a double play and then makes sure the guy is OK. He understands. It's part of the game.

Baseball had class. Baseball has finesse. It also has problems, but this game is amazing.

Thank you, again, for your challenge on this subject.

I really, really miss Padres baseball.

I've been watching a lot of football since the season ended, and I'm really falling in love with the sport. I know, I know, I used to be a huge hater of football, but it's been growing on me. It's a fascinating sport. It's new, it's exciting, and it's constantly moving. The atmosphere is so different from a baseball game to a football game though. Football is all about constant action, constant noise, but baseball is so laid-back, no stress. I miss it a lot.

I really miss listening to Padres baseball. I miss hearing about the guys like Kevin Kouzmanoff and Everth Cabrera and all our amazing new pitchers and everybody. I've been keeping busy ever since the season ended, but it's finally hitting me how much I miss it.

Though football is really growing on me, baseball will always be my #1 sport. Baseball is just so much better in so many ways. Football is all about hitting guys and throwing a ball. Brutal chaos, basically. But baseball, ahhh. Football is like a wave of heat in the desert, but baseball is like a breath of cool air in the night. You get the point. Baseball has so much class, so much finesse. It's an incredible sport. I miss it like crazy.

GO PADRES!!  

I feel really terrible about my neglect of the blog. It's been like a week since I last blogged. But seriously, there is nothing to write about. Or maybe there is, but I'm just not motivated. Like, at all. It's not good, I know.

But seriously, the World Series is really not interesting me at all. Sure, I want the Phillies to win (GO PHILLIES!), but I just don't have any stakes with either team. You know, if it was Red Sox-Phillies, I would be a little more excited, but still. It's not my team.

And I really don't like the Yankees. I don't like having the Yankees in the World Series. And I don't like all these calls that are going for the Yankees. It's not cool. The Yankees already have a bazzilion World Series, and they really don't need another one. It's like, oh, the Yankees are in the World Series...again. Whatever. You know, some teams haven't even been there. There are a few teams that are dying to win a championship like that, but they can't because the Yankees are stealing all the money. So frustrating. There are days that I hate being a fan of such a low-budget team who has to watch all the big mean money machines win all the time. It's really really sad.

Well, lookie there, I found something to write about! Wow!

So Hyun Young put this picture in her latest entry and I just had to steal it. SO CUTE!!!

They'd better not trade him.

Well, hopefully things will start picking up soon. Ahhhhh we need some new news!!!

GO PADRES!!!

Yesterday the San Diego Padres officially announced that Jed Hoyer is their new General Manager.

Hoyer was pretty much the leader for the job ever since Kevin Towers was fired. He was the assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox before this. That's one thing I'm really excited about. He's had a lot of experience under an excellent general manager in Theo Epstein. I was very pleased to hear that he was instrumental in pulling off the deal that brought Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to Boston. I think this guy is going to be great for us.

I was very impressed by the press conference that was held yesterday. This guy looks really young, but he spoke very well about his visions and goals for this team. I really like him already. This is really exciting...having a new owner, a new general manager. I can't wait to see how Hoyer does for us. He just seems like an excellent young man, and he's really excited about this job. It's going to be fun to see how he works.   

Hoyer is only 35, but I think he's going to do very well for us. Welcome to the San Diego Padres, Jed.

I don't know how far this news has spread, but a junior in high school died in a car accident yesterday morning in San Diego. One of my closest friends goes to the same school as he did. It would be really great if you guys could pray for this situation, for the young man's family and the school. I'm feeling pretty mentally and emotionally drained right now. You can read the story here. Please, just pray.

Well, let's see what this new GM can do.

GO PADRES!!! GO FRONT OFFICE!!! 

Congrats to the Philadelphia Phillies on their second straight National League title!

I don't care that they're an NL East team. I certainly wasn't going to cheer for the Dodgers during this series! Isn't this exciting? When was the last time we had team win two World Series in a row? Not going to be easy, but man, the Phillies have been good.

Looks like the Yankees are going to take the ALCS, but who knows, maybe the Angels will be able to make a comeback here. GO ANGELS!

So the Padres re-signed their entire coaching staff for next year. All the guys who have pretty much been here for years are back again. And Randy Ready for pitching coach. Let's see if 1, he'll stay with us instead of getting hired for the Astros' manager, and 2, if he'll be able to last a whole season as pitching coach of the Padres. In recent years it hasn't been able to be done, but maybe Randy will have better luck.

And it looks like Red Sox assistant general manager Jed Hoyer will soon be general manager for the Padres. Seems like he's the leading choice here, and Jeff Moorad wanted a new GM by the beginning of the World Series, which is in about six days.

Thinking about the general manager situation today, I kind of felt like we're in a Animal Farm thing here. You know, the animals get rid of the farmer thinking that things will be better without him. But in the end, things really are a lot worse than they were before. I really hope we're not getting into that situation. I'm still not sure if getting rid of Kevin Towers was the right thing to do. It's good to have change. The fans are excited about the changes in leadership. But what if it's not as good as we thought it would be? What if it gets worse? Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully things will turn out a lot better than they have been.  

Well, I think that's about all for today.

GO PADRES!!!! 

I know. I've been super lazy about blogging and commenting lately. For some reason, ever since the season ended, I haven't had much motivation to blog. Not good. So when I looked at the Latest Leaders today, I was super surprised that I was still in my general area with #19!!! I was pretty shocked. Thanks so much to all my incredible readers here. Even though I haven't been giving you much, it's so cool to know that you're still visiting. Thank you. It really means a lot to me.

UPDATE: So I didn't realize that this Latest Leaders was for the whole regular season. That's so cool! From April to October, this blog was #19 in popularlity. Wow. THANK YOU!!!

I've dedicated this number to this man before, but it's worth doing again:

So this last weekend I was in Arizona. Since we really didn't have anything to do, I thought this would be a perfect oppurtunity to go check out some of the Spring Training stadiums. We only got to one, Hohokam Stadium, which is the Cubs' Spring Training facility.

It was a very interesting experience. First of all, it was 100 degrees outside. When we got there, there was about half an hour until a game was starting between the Mesa Solar Sox and the Surprise Rafters. Craziest thing. You would have never guessed that there was a game about to be played. It was so quiet! Sure, there were a few people in the stands, but it was so still and peaceful.

We walked behind the field and were able to get a great view of the stadium.

It was really, really cool to see a Spring Training stadium like that. 

Well, since the Red Sox got elimiated, I haven't really been tied to the playoffs. I got to watch a few of the games while I was in Arizona, which was really cool. Though I'm definitely not cheering for the Yankees, I gotta say that that walk-off win the other night was pretty cool. But only because it was Jerry Hairston Jr. who scored the winning run. He's so much like Scotty, it's incredible!

Wow, I just checked the score from last nights Phillie-Dodger game: 11-0 Phillies!!! Wow, I really love that score!

No Padres news lately :(

GO PADRES AND PHILLIES AND ANGELS AND THE PADRES' FRONT OFFICE!!!! 

Kevin Kouzmanoff donated one of the gloves that he used in his spectacular 2009 season to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday. The president of the Hall of Fame himself came to San Diego to recieve the glove.

If you've read this blog in the past few weeks, you've probably heard these numbers like five times. But they're so worth repeating. In 309 chances at third base this season, Kouz only had three errors, none of which were on throwing, by the way. That's a .990 fielding percentage, and that's incredible! It's gotten him a lot of attention, even from the Hall of Fame! Hopefully it will get him a certain award soon...

Anyways, here's some pictures from the big event.

This is just so cool for Kouz and the Padres. Kouz's season was just amazing, and I really really really really really hope that the Padres keep him. He's got a lot of worth to this team, and let's hope that the Padres see that. Who knows? Kouz himself maybe going into the Hall of Fame someday :)

Congrats, Kouz. We are so proud of you!
Love you :)

GO KOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZ!!!!   

Here's my awards that I'm "giving" out to the boys for this season:

MVP: David Eckstein. Sure, it doesn't look like it in the numbers, but his value to the team this year was unmeasurable. HONORABLE MENTION: Adrian Gonzalez (40 home runs and 99 RBIs)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Everth Cabrera. Beside showing us his incredible glove over at shortstop, he showed that he can also swing the bat pretty well. HONORABLE MENTIONS: Luke Gregerson, Kyle Blanks, Luis Durango, Will Venable.

VETERAN OF THE YEAR: This one is pretty hard, since mostly all the players this season were very young. But I'm going to go with Eck. He's definitely a veteran, and he was just incredible for us this year. HONORABLE MENTION: Kevin Kouzmanoff :) He's been in the majors for three seasons now...that's almost a veteran, right? :)

STARTER OF THE YEAR: Kevin Correia. We signed him to a minor league deal before Spring Training, and he had a great season. He had his downs, but he was able to put together a very good record. HONORABLE MENTION: Clayton Richard.

RELIEVER OF THE YEAR: Heath Bell. He had 40 saves, though he did blow quite a bit near the end. He settled right into the closer's role in the place of Trevor Hoffman, which is not an easy spot to fill, and he showed that he can close games consistently. He makes things interesting, that's for sure, but he gets the job done. HONORABLE MENTIONS: Greg Burke, Edward Mujica.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Kevin Kouzmanoff. Of course. He had three errors in 309 chances for a .990 fielding percentage. I'd say that's pretty good :) HONORABLE MENTION: Everth Cabrera.

COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR: I'm going to go with Tony Gwynn here. He really wasn't playing that well with Milwaukee, mostly because he wasn't getting a chance. But when he came here, when he came home to San Diego, he thrived. He played a great center field and hit just like his dad. It was really cool to see.

SURPRISES OF THE YEAR: Mat Latos and Wade LeBlanc. Both are guys that have been in our minor league system for a while, and it was great to see them come up and do so well. Mat had a horrible Spring Training. It was his first time facing major league hitters, but still. He was not good. When he finally came up, he made some great starts. Wade also did awful late last year and earlier in the year. He was terrible! But he did something, and was able to have a string of excellent starts at the end of the season.

MOST PATHETIC PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Brian Giles. First, he gets in a huge mess with his ex-girlfriend about abuse, then he gets hurt and misses a huge part of the season. Not good, Brian. Not good at all. NOT-SO-HONORABLE MENTION: Marcus Giles.

What a season. I just hope we can have all these positives with a winning record next season :)

GO PADRES!! 

Today is Trevor Hoffman's 42nd birthday. Wow. That dude is getting old!! But man, he's still pitching extremely well, and I'm sure he'll get at least 600 saves. Hopefully he will also get a couple more in a Padres uniform too.

Well, Trevor, we missed you a lot in San Diego this season. There was something missing when we went into Spring Training and the season. Heath Bell was able to do a great job in your place, but "Blow Me Away" is just not as good as "Hell's Bells." I can't wait to see you back in a Padres uniform, Trevor. I hope you have a great birthday. We love you!!!

GO TREVOR HOFFMAN!!!