Andrew, didn’t we have a bet on the Mariners-Padres season series or something?

CDs in the mail today. It was time to order something from Columbia House. CH doesn’t have the greatest selection for a guy with my eclectic taste, but it’s good for finding loud, snotty crap to annoy the neighbors with.

Today’s arrivals:

AC/DC, Back In Black: Listening to it now. I shouldn’t like this heavy metal dreck, but I can’t stop myself. I adore this album. I had it when it originally came out, and it was a guilty pleasure way back then, too. Angus Young is the best riff maker this side of Keith Richards. This remastered CD is so crystal clear. What can I say, it rocks.

AC/DC, Highway to Hell: I’ve never owned this, but I figured it was another classic must-have, and so long as I was rotting my soul with Satan’s Minons, I might as well go all the way.

Meat Loaf, Bat Out of Hell: I bought this LP when it first game out. I’ve always loved “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” It’s a true classic, in the class of “Stairway to Heaven”, “Cocaine”, “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Day in the Life.”

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon: This is the fourth copy of this album I’ve own. The first was an eight-track my brother gave me when it first game out. Later, I got my own LP, lost that. Then three years ago, my wife got me the CD for Christmas, and my step-son lost that. OK, this isn’t one you play loud and it won’t have your neighbors calling Officer Opey, but if you don’t have a copy of DSOTM in your collection, your collection is incomplete.

This was a big week for the Pierpont JDAMs of the Original Gold Coast League.

You probably don’t care about any of this, but I want to write about it anyway.

The JDAMs are my fantasy team in a deep NL-only league. This is one of three leagues I’m in, but this is the only one that costs serious money, pays winners, and has a large pool of keepers, so I take this league pretty seriously. I’m trying to build a winner. I joined the league, which was established in 1984, and was handed a crappy team that’s never won.

My strategy is to stock up on as many kids as possible and shun veterans.

To that end, this was fire sale week. I made four trades, dumping four old guys and getting younger players, and mostly players that I want.

Here is my new roster and information on each player:

Sean Casey, 1B — Acquired in an off season trade right after I took over the team. I forget now who I gave up to get him. Casey is a good hitter without a lot of power. I’m leaning toward keeping him because there are few good first basemen available, and few coming up through the minors.

Bo Hart, 2B — Waiver claim. He’s been setting the NL on fire the last two weeks. He’s always been a decent hitter in the minors, but nothing like he’s been recently. My knock on him is that he strikes out more than he walks. That is warning sign that he may not pan out. It’s unclear if he’s going to keep his job with St. Louis once some injured players return, but for now, I’m enjoying the ride.

Barry Larkin, SS — Acquired in the draft. When he’s healthy, he’s decent, but he’s at the end of his career. I haven’t traded him because he has no trade value. When Ramon Vazquez returns from the DL, I’ll probably waive Larkin.

Morgan Ensberg, 3B — Acquired in a trade for Shane Reynolds. Ensberg is a potential stud. He should hit for power and average. He’s also solid defensively. The only problem is, for some reason, Houston manager Jimmy Williams wants to platoon him with Geoff Blum, who’s a total stiff.

Mark Loretta, CI — I’ve always liked Loretta. He just hits. He gets on base. He’s not an RBI guy or Run guy or even SB guy, but good fantasy teams benefit when they have roster fillers like Loretta, because while Loretta doesn’t contribute a lot, he doesn’t hurt you either.

Matt Kata, MI — Waiver claim. Kata is putting up some good numbers with Arizona right now. One of a number of surprising rookies that are helping Arizona win. The D’backs have a spate of injuries to veterans, so Kata is probably headed back to the minors in a couple of weeks when the veterans return, but if I have room on my minor roster when he’s sent down, I can squirrel him away.

Russell Branyan, Util. — Waiver claim. Branyan was considered a stud prospect at one time, but has never worked out. He’s also young and hasn’t completely worn the luster off his prospect label. He strikes out too much, and is on a team where too many guys strike out too much, which could hurt his numbers, but as a last place team, my JDAMs can take a chance on him.

Mike Matheny, C — Draft. No takers in trade offers. Matheny is a decent hitting catcher. He won’t be a keeper for me, but I’ll probably ride out the season with him on my roster, unless some kid comes along that I want more.

Todd Pratt, C — Waiver claim. I picked Pratt up this week as best of available options after trading Benito Santiago. Roster filler is all Pratt is.

Xavier Nady, OF — Trade (Jose Reyes). I worked hard to get Nady. He was my number one acquisition goal all season. Potential stud outfielders are hard to come by, and prior to this week, my OF was looking dismal. Also, I need some guys with power potential. Nady shows good plate discipline and his hold his own at the major league level despite being rushed. Nady should work out well. I traded Oliver Perez (who I hated to give up) and Rod Beck to get Reyes so I could get Nady for Reyes.

Scott Podsednik, OF — Trade (Ray Durham) A product of the Oakland A’s farm system, he was never considered an A-list prospect, but he’s proving to be a late bloomer. He has speed and is hitting for average. I originally claimed him on waivers, saw him lose playing time, so dropped him. The next week he was handed Milwaukee’s starting center field job. I hated trading to get him back, but he was a throw in in a larger deal.

Miguel Cabrera, OF — Minor league draft. Cabrera was my number one pick this spring. He’s had the potential stud label since he was 16. He’s now 20. He’s Mike Lowell’s eventual replacement at 3B, but for now Flordia has him playing LF.

Stephen Smitherman, OF — Waiver claim. Smitherman was called up just yesterday from AA. He has good minor league numbers, but isn’t likely to play much. He’ll be sent down in a week or two. In the meantime, I can maybe reserve him. You’ll be able to see him in the All-Star Futures game.

Raul Gonzalez, OF — Waiver claim. Just called up by the Mets. He should be in their starting outfield. He has put up great minor league numbers and has an outstanding K/BB ratio. Unfortunately, the Mets don’t seem to value him as they should, which is a shame, because the Mets really need the OF help.

Dontrelle Willis, P — Waiver claim. This guy is the phenom of the summer. If he stays healthy, he’s going to dominate for a long time.

Adam Eaton, P — Trade (Mark Prior). Eaton is just coming off Tommy John surgery, but he has great stuff. He projects as a low ERA high strikeout guy with good control.

Brian Lawrence, P — Trade (Armanis Ramirez). Not working out as well this season as I would like, but still a good pitcher worth holding onto. He’s got the stuff to become an eventual Cy Young winner.

Vicente Padilla, P — Trade (Mark Prior). Another young pitcher with great stuff who should be a major contributor for several seasons.

Aaron Heilman, P — Minor league draft. Just called up. Good outing last Thursday. Great stuff. Ground ball pitcher. He should be a 20-game winner at some point. He was the Met’s number one draft pick a couple of years ago.

Oscar Villarreal, P — Waiver claim. Young kid with good stuff, but more of a roster filler, unless he gets a bigger roll in Arizona at some point.

Brian Fuentes, P — Waiver claim. If Jose Jimenez losing his closer job in Colorado, Fuentes is his potential replacement.

Paul Shuey, P — Waiver claim. Roster filler.

Denny Neagle, P — Waiver claim. Roster filler.

In the Minors, I have:

Johnny Estrada, C — Waiver claim. He was up for a short stay this season, forcing the owner who drafted him to cut him (or lose one of his established catchers), so I grabbed him before he got sent back down. He should be the Braves starting catcher next season.

David Kelton, OF — Trade (Brad Nelson). Here I traded a good first base prospect for an OF prospect, but he OF prospect is much closer to being an everyday major leaguer (probably next year).

Garrett Atkins, 3B — Draft. He’s ripping the cover off the ball at Colorado Springs, and should be a much better option for the Rookies than Chris Stynes, yet he isn’t getting the call up.

Jose Castillo, SS — Draft. The Pirates could call on Castillo to play 2B this year, but if not, he should be the starting SS next year. Castillo is a potential five tool guy and I like him better than Jose Reyes.

Chad Tracy, 3B — Trade (Kenny Lofton and Steve Traschel). Tracy should be in the major now. He’s a better hitter than Shea Hillibrand, but the D’Back’s acquisition of Hillibrand may be blocking Tracy’s advancement now. Still, he has a great K/BB ratio, which is why I traded for him.

Brandon Larsen, 2B — Trade (Eric Young, Benito Santiago). He strikes out too much, but since the Reds are moving him to 2B, it increases his value. He lost his starting 3B job earlier this season, but he’s been making good progress at AAA.

Jason Marquis, P — Waiver claim. At one time, a highly regard prospect. Apparently, there’s no room for him in the Braves rotation right now, but he’s been lights out at AAA.

John Vanbenschoten, P — Trade (Ray Durham). Great, great prospect. He could be in the Pirate’s rotation next year, but probably two years away.

I don’t particularly enjoy going to a concert and seeing a band play the same songs I can hear on their CDs, in the same fasion, in a paint-by-numbers set. The best shows is where the performers, well, perform. Where they put on a show. Where they entertain.

Dick Dale, as I discovered tonight is a performer, an entertainer, and he’s also one of the best damn guitarists you’ll ever see. He knows the fretboard than most men know their own dicks. He doesn’t just pluck notes, he brings them to life. And he obviously has so much fun doing it. Dale doesn’t just confine himself to a corner of the stage. He uses the whole theater, playing to the entire audience, making sure everybody has a good time, from the oldest to the youngest.

We’re just back from his 2-hour+ show at the Majestic Ventura Theater. It was a real treat. He gave all he had, and the audience ate it up. The man even plays trumpet better than a lot of guys who make a living doing just that.

This is what we did tonight for my wife’s birthday. It was a great night.

Webraw is a year old. Go give Eric J. a high-five.

Among the fortunate events in my life was the day in 1976 that my parents moved me to El Cajon, Calif., two blocks from Grossmont High School.

It was fortunate because one of the teachers there was Geoff Anderson, the best journalism teacher (probably best ever) in San Diego County. I’m not making this up. Mr. Anderson’s papers have won more journalism awards than any other in the county. For years I took it for granted that a high school journalism education taught all the basics of news gathering and writing. I was shocked when I became editor of my college paper and found that every freshman we tried to put on the staff couldn’t write. They didn’t know the first thing about news style. That’s when I realized what a good education I got from Mr. Anderson, and I was, at best, a half-ass student.

Daniel Weintraub is among the best newsmen covering California politics. Weintraub is also a former student of Mr. Anderson (about two years ahead of me, so we didn’t know each other in high school, though we met later). Now he has a blog. You should check it out, especially if you’re a cal-poli fanatic (link found thanks to Dean Esmay).

Why should you read Michael Lewis’ Moneyball?

Because Lewis humanizes the sometimes dry subject of sabermetrics, the art and science of baseball statistical analysis?

Or maybe it’s because Lewis helps readers understand how the Oakland A’s have not only used sabermetrics to build a better baseball team, but have extended and innovated the field?

Or maybe you’d like to get a good behind the scenes view of how a major league ball club wheels and deals.

Maybe you’re just an Oakland A’s fan.

Possibly, you’re a less knowledgeable major league GM and you dislike Billy Beane and you figure this book will give you more ammo to ridicule him with.

All of these reasons are good reasons to read Moneyball.

But the real reason you should read Moneyball is it’s a damn good book. In the world of literary journalism, Moneyball must be considered one of the classics. It reads more like a collection of short stories than a non-fiction book on baseball. If this book doesn’t win a Pulitzer Prize this year, they should stop giving out the award because it will be meaningless.

What makes the book great is the stories Lewis weaves about the subjects of his book, from Billy Beane, the all-athlete, all-tools phenom without a clue of how to become a real big leaguer, to Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford — cases off from other organizations who play the game at a level of sophistication beyond the reach of 90 percent of other major leaguers.

There are two ways to become a great ballplayer — have great tools and the discipline to exploit those tools, or you play with your head. Hatteberg and Bradford play smart baseball, though Bradford’s head is also his biggest enemy, as Lewis brings out in deep and powerful prose. My favorite parts of the book dealt with Hatteberg and Bradford, especially the way Lewis weaved Bradford’s story around Oakland’s quest last season for 20-straight victories.

This is one of those books that I wanted to read non-stop. If I didn’t have adult responsibilities, I would have read it all within 24 hours of getting it — without sleeping. I haven’t done that with a book since college, and that’s why you should buy this book.

Is there any reason to hope that Jose Lima might win some games in Kansas City?

Joe Posnanski thinks so. Now with a 2-0 start and an ERA of 3.44 is doing better after re-emerging as a major leaguer than anybody expected.

Lima says he’s no fluke. His career stats say other wise. Even in his best years, it looks like he survived more on luck than skill. Horrible OPSs, too many walks. How does a guy who lets 3 of 10 batters reach first base win 20 games? Probably by pitching in the Astro Dome. Unfortunately, the ESPN site doesn’t supply his splits for the 1999 season, but I suspect they would show he was much more effective at home than on the road. (I just found this page, which shows Lima’s Astro Dome career ERA is 2.90. In no other stadium where he’s pitched at least 40 innings, is his ERA even close to being that low. Pretty damning evidence.)

Still, pitchers who develop new pitches, sometimes defy the odds, because they become new pitchers. It will be interesting to see how Lima progresses this season. Former 20 game winners always bear watching. Not that I’ll add him to any of my fantasy rosters any time soon.

Tonight’s big event was the Marlins vs. Mets game. Two of my rookie fantasy pitchers, Dontrelle Willis and Aaron Heilman. Heilman, a second round minor league draft choice for me, was making his major league debut. He gave up only 1 earned run and mostly had Marlins pounding the ball into the ground, which is what I wanted to see.

But this post is really about Dontrelle Willis. If you haven’t heard of Willis yet, you must not follow sports. Willis is now 8-1 and the biggest phenom since Nomo. With a goofy, but determined grin and a funky delivery, he’s already a fan favorite in Florida and starting to catch on nationally.

After posting a 24-5 career record at A ball and AA, Willis is now 8-1 in the majors. Going back to last July, he is 20-1 as a pro. His career minor league ERA is 2.31. He’s 2.54 as a major league pitcher.

If you’re going to beat Willis, you want to do it early in the count. Opponents are hitting .429 against him on 21 first pitches. Surprisingly , 0n 0-1, they have a .750 SLG. In all other pitchers’ counts, Willis is dominating, holding batters to under .100. In all hitters’ counts, batters have at least a .300 average, including a .529 average on 2-1 with a 1.412 OPS. That’s an amazing disparity. Fortunately, Willis usually pitches ahead in the count.

Willis also seems to get strong as the game goes on. Hitters have a .280 average against the Big D in innings 1-3, and are hitting .182 in subsequent innings.

Add to all this a 55/18 K/BB ratio, and you feel compelled to believe Willis is the real deal.

Watching him — and I usually don’t like to watch my prospects on TV anymore — Willis seems fearless. No matter what the situation, he continues to attack hitters, pitching aggressively, maybe even too aggressively at times (as witnessed by his 1.400 OPS with a runner on third). By all accounts, Willis is a good kid (he’s 21) with a good head, optimistic, enthusiastic and big hearted. Those traits should help him weather the growing media attention.

One of the ironies about Willis is that in an age when more and more major league general managers are shying away from drafting high school pitchers, Willis never pitched an inning of college ball. The Cubs took him straight out of HS in 2001.

Yeah, I like Willis. I’m glad I have him on two of my three fantasy teams (most importantly, my deep keeper league), and it was a total brain cramp that caused me to not pick him up in my third league.

The L.A. Times and other news organizations got scooped bad when Ventura County Star reporter Aron Miller secured Drew Luster’s notebook at the hotel he had been hiding at recently, so it isn’t surprising that the Times would try smearing Miller:

On Saturday, a Star reporter fished a notebook from a trash can at Luster’s motel in Puerto Vallarta, motel manager Oscar Lopez told the Associated Press. Motel staff later threw out the notebook, Lopez said.

I happen to have it on good authority that the motel manager gave Miller access to the hotel room where he found the notebook. It wasn’t in the trash, but neither the AP nor the LAT bothered to verify the facts. They just printed the claim without question. And they should have questioned. If Miller had the notebook, why was it up to Lopez to discard it? If you found a notebook in the trash, would you keep it, throw it out yourself or give it to the hotel manager to throw out? I mean, there is a disconnect between Lopez’s claim that Miller found the notebook in the trash and that the hotel staff later threw it out themselves. Yet, neither the Times nor AP bothered to question Lopez about this discrepency. Of course, it’s really a minor matter in the larger scheme of things, but I find it rather slimy of the times to smear another journalist on just an unimportant matter — a matter that could easily have been left out of the story if they couldn’t confirm it. It only matters because it contradicts Miller’s version of events, not because there would have been anything wrong with Miller or any other reporter retreiving the notebook from the trash. Miller’s a good, honest reporter. If he said he found the notebook in Luster’s room, that’s where he got it. Still, the Times did a good job on its story about Luster’s hiding the last few months. Of course, the FBI, which has whined about bounty hunter Duane Chapman’s handling of the case, didn’t bungle it:

The couple first contacted the FBI, Labanauskas said, but were frustrated by the response. They then contacted Duane Lee “Dog” Chapman, the bounty hunter who had publicly vowed to find the fugitive. But with only vague information, Chapman was not that interested, Labanauskas said.

On June 8, the couple called their hosts in Mexico, asking Labanauskas and Rains to take a look at the “most wanted” list on the FBI’s Web site.

Under Andrew Luster’s name, Carrera’s face stared back.

“I was 100% sure it was him,” Labanauskas said.

Why am I not surprised the FBI was slow to respond on a tip about the whereabouts of a convicted rapist?

If you’re like me, which you probably aren’t, and mired in last place in an NL-only fantasy league, you’re looking at the wires for young players who might help you a little this year, but more in the future.

Here’s my quick scouting report on AAA NL-affiliated teams.

Name	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	Runs	BB	Ks
Chad Tracy - 3B	.468	.390	5	42	58	26	23
Johnny Estrada - C	.405	.515	6	40	25	18	18
Dave Kelton - OF	.364	.449	8	31	30	28	58
Ryan Freel - 2B	.366	.432	2	9	25	12	12
Brandon Larson - 3B	.376	.574	10	38	31	14	45
Garrett Atkins - 3B	.384	.529	12	53	54	22	35
Val Pascucci - OF	.442	.442	7	42	39	60	67
Terrmel Sledge - OF	.432	.560	12	48	48	43	50

Notes: With the acquistion of Shea Hillibrand, who isn’t nearly as good a hitter as Chad Tracy, Arizona has seemingly delayed Tracy’s arrival in the major leagues. Johnny Estrada is the Braves catcher of the future, just not this year, especially with Javier Lopez having a breakout season. But Lopez will be gone by next season and Estrada will finally get the opportunity he deserves at the ML level. David Kelton was supposed to be the Cubs 3B of the future, but they’ve been trying to convert him to LF (replacing Moises Alou) and bidding for Flordia’s Mike Lowell. Kelton’s AAA numbers look good and if Alou goes down, look for him to get another shot at the bigs. Ryan Freel failed to win a starting job with the Reds earlier, but he’s still a prospect and may get another shot. Of course, he’s way may be blocked by Brandon Larson. Larson, a converted 3B, could be handed the starting 2B job soon. Larson strikes out a lot, but the Reds seem to like players who strike out a lot. That’s bad baseball, but not necessarily bad fantasy ball. Garett Atkins — one question, why isn’t he already the starting 3B in Denver? It’s not like they have a better option (Chris Stynes, Greg Norton) there now. Val Pascucci is an enigma — he’s an OBP machine, but he strikes out more than he walks. Always has. But he has good power numbers. But it’s not likely that the Expos will give both him and Terrmel Sledge a shot at a starting job this year, and the edge for that honor has got to be given to Sledge.

P.S.: In my own league, I control Estrada, Atkins and Kelton. Larson, Freel and Tracy are controlled by other Owners. Since I’m in last, if any of these other guys get called up, they’re mine. I’m waiting for Sledge cause I need OF help most of all. Besides, how can you pass up a guy named Terrmel Sledge?

P.P.S: I’m disappointed to have so many guys with poor K/BB ratios, but you take what you can get. There are precious few legitimate prospects (meaning likely to get promoted) who have good plate discipline. I’ll probably try to acquire Larson, even though he is a strike out machine.

I missed the news about The Sporting News laying off its baseball correspondents.

I grew up with TSN.

If I had heard the news sooner, I might have written something like this:

If you’re a sports fan, say, 32 or older, I don’t need to tell you what The Sporting News used to mean. It was our sports magazine. Sports Illustrated had all those literary stories about dog fighting and sumo wrestling and stuff like that. Inside Sports and Sport magazine were often beautifully written too, but as a kid who cared about that? Plus, they came out only once a month, and they would have NFL Previews in May and stories with odd headlines like “Why Kurt Rambis is better than Magic Johnson.”

The Sporting News was for us. For real sports fans. It was based in St. Louis, and it had real stuff in it. There was no place else to get stuff then. Every week, The Sporting News gave us rumors, statistics, opinions, interviews, analysis and those great team-by-team notes (each team’s notes had a wonderfully goofy headline related to the team nickname. I seem to recall the Cleveland Indians notes were called “Smoke Signals.”).

You didn’t read The Sporting News cover-to-cover. No, you wildly flipped pages to find out what was happening to your teams. Then you flipped to the league reports to see if there were any good trade rumors. Then you flipped to your favorite columnists to see what they were talking about. Then, only then, did you read the rest.

Exactly.

Of course, there was also Baseball Digest. I haven’t seen a copy in years, but I guess it’s still in business, though I don’t see how — it’s never on any newsstands I frequent.

Normally, teams in last place don’t make big deals to acquire veterans before the July trade deadline. Usually, that’s an exercise reserved for contenders.

Enter the 2003 San Diego Padres (25-52). The Padres open Petco Park next year and want to build some momentum (they say) heading into 2004. Hence, the talk that the Padres will try to acquire somebody who can help them win this year.

It won’t be enough to have Phil Nevin return in July or August. The Padres need some pop in the lineup.

The question is, where will it go and who will it be.

For a longtime the rumor was that Kevin Towers would trade for Miguel Tejada. Tejada, last year’s AL MVP, could be an important addition to the team, but recently Towers is rumored to have taken less interest in Tejada. After seeing Khalil Greene (the Padress AAA franchise), Towers doesn’t want to acquire a shortstop who will block Green’s path to the major leagues. Tejada out, Luis Castillo in.

I’m even less thrilled about the possible acquistion of Castillo than Tejada.

Even though the Padres have more money to play with (thanks to insurance payments on Nevin, Trevor Hoffman and Randy Myers, and the move into a new stadium next year), they are still not a large market team, and they shouldn’t spend like one. Few big stars produce to the level of their free agent contracts (which is the kind of money it would take to retain either Tejada or Castillo).

Over his career, Tejada has a career OBP of .326, a slugging percentage of .455 and OPS of .781. These are not great numbers. Good for an SS, but as a former MVP, the market will give Tejada more than he’s worth, if you believe worth is measured in wins and not fan appeal or past glories. His strikeout to base on balls ratio is an abyssmal 254/508. He’s a free swinger, which is one reason the Oakland A’s are willing to let him go. Giving Billy Beane any sort of value for Tejada in a trade would be a gift, and the Padres are in no position to hand away young talent. He’s averaged about 20 eras per season and already has 13 this year.

Tejada would not be a good fit for the Padres, so what about Castillo?

Castillo currently has an OPS of .762, with a career OPS of .715. Of course, you might counter, Castillo is a spark plug. He gets on base, wrecks havoc, steals bases. First, SBs are that important in creating runs. Second, even though Castillo has slightly better than acceptable stolen base rates (72 percent), this year he’s hovering around 60 percent. That means he’s cost his team more runs than he’s creating.

But even if he were able to steal bases at a 70 percent plus rate for the Padres, he’s likely to demand a high salary, and SBs aren’t worth overpaying for. You might ask, then, what are the Padres’ alternative?

How about Mark Loretta?

Look at Lorretta’s current stats:

G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
72	264	32	80	15	2	6	28	29	27	3	1	.303	.372	.443	.815

Now here’s Castillo’s numbers:

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
	72	288	42	89	7	3	4	19	25	21	13	9	.309	.366	.396	.762

So far this year, Loretta’s OPS is .815 compared to Castillo’s less impressive .762. When hitting in the number 1 spot, Castillo’s OPS is a horrible .523, while Loretta is at a not great but better .688.

Castillo is more of a free swinger, having hacked at twice as many first pitches as Loretta so far this year, with Loretta having an impressive OPS of 1.731 when he does chase the first toss. Loretta gets on base half the time when he swings at the first pitch, Castillo has an OBP of .387. That’s not bad, but easier on pitchers by swinging at so many first pitches. Meanwhile, when he’s on the verge of getting into a good hitters count (1-0), Castillo has put the ball in play 42 times this season and has an OBP of only .238, whereas Loretta is 11/.455.

In other words, Loretta is a much more efficient hitter, making the most of his opportunities and only bringing the bat around when he has a pitch to hit.

(I’ve gone into detail on this season, but the numbers don’t vary much looking at the last three seasons. Castillo’s improve slightly, and Loretta’s decline slightly, but the changes are not large enough to change the basic analysis.)

If you can afford to pay for speed, Castillo might be a good acquistion, but when you’re the Padres, Loretta is a much better bargain. He doesn’t hit for power, so he doesn’t get the respect he should (especially among fantasy players), but he creates runs, and it takes runs to win games. Yeah, I know the Padres aren’t winning many games these days, but put Loretta in a more experienced line up (like they’ll have next year and the year after), and his value goes up, but it’s not likely his salary ever will — at least not as much as Castillo’s and Tejada’s.

One last question: What about acquiring Castillo and moving Loretta to short. Well, defensively, Ramon Vazquez might be better than Loretta, but offense is the most important consideration. So far, Vazquez can’t match Loretta. Vazquez has an OPS of .717. He’s showing slightly better plate discipline than Castillo, but he’s not delivering the results. So moving Loretta is an option, but not neccessarily a good one, especially if you want to make room for Green some time next season.

If the Padres want to improve, I think the one place they can do it is center field. As much as I love Mark Kotsay personally, he’s the weakest link on the team right now. With a career .338 OBP and anemic numbers on 1-0 and 2-1 counts, Kotsay isn’t an efficient hitter.

Who might the Padres acquire? How about Carlos Beltran? The potential free agent is putting together his best year yet with a .412 OBP and .920 OPS. The price for Beltran will be high, both in dollars ($8 to $11 plus per season) and prospects the Padres would have to surrender, but he’s also a player would could anchor the Padres outfield for the next 10 years. Ken Griffey might be an attractive short term fix, but only if Beltran’s price is too high or the Royals decide he’s untouchable (not likely).

I think this is an attracive line up for the Padres, which could be in place by mid July:

1. Ramon Vazquez, SS
2. Mark Loretta, 2B
3. Carlos Beltran, CF
4. Ryan Klesko, 1B
5. Phil Nevin, LF
6. Xavier Nady, RF
7. Sean Burroughs, 3B
8. Gary Bennett, C

Swap in Griffey instead of Beltran, and it’s still impressive. I might switch Loretta and Burroughs in the order, but otherwise I think it makes a lot of sense, if the Padres can acquire one of these CFs.

The main point, however, is please, Mr. Towers, don’t waste our money on Tejada or Castillo.

A few days ago, I indulged my inner nerd and sprung for a Treo from Handspring. It’s a phone, PDA, web browser and e-mailer all in one. I can do it all and I feel empowered. When I first took it out of the box, I was feeling a little guilty. It is a true luxury, or so it seemed, so I had a sprite of buyers’ remorse. In just a couple of days, though, I’ve decided it’s the best gadget I’ve gotten since I bought my first Mac in 1985. Now, I can’t imagine life without it.

A year ago, a friend gave me a Palm VII, which was fun to play around with, but carrying both a phone and a PDA was a bit awkward. After about eight months, I started leaving the Palm in my briefcase and was using it less and less. Using it to access the web and e-mail was also cool, but expensive, so that went by the wayside. Every since I got that VII though, I’ve been jonesing for a Treo. I could see the real utility of having it all in one and getting internet access wrapped into my existing PCS bill. So far, my visualization of what it would be like to have a Treo and what it actually means to have a Treo are in synch.

And with this new toy (flip it open, put it on speaker phone and pretend you’ve got a communicator zinging messages to the Enterprise — of course, this is more like a tricorder and communicator all in one), I move one step closer to alphageekdom. Ever since my trip to Knoxville, I’ve aspired to be more like Glenn. Franxman has a Blackberry, but the Treo is in the same ballpark. Now all I need is an office with three large white boards scribbled full of UML diagrams and class definitions.

P.S.: Yes, I know Kirk never said, “Beam me up, Scotty.”

I am with Haspel on this one — you admire a baseball player (or scorn him) for what he does on the field, not in the club house. Eighty percent of the stiffs in the press box butcher more sentences than Dick Stuart did ground balls, so who cares if the peckerwoods of the C section don’t like Barry Bonds? It’s not like they appreciate excellance in their own craft, so why should we expect them to recognize it in sport? (Halbertsam’s arrogant pronouncements not withstanding.)

Most of this weekend has spent spent in gin joints and smoke shops with a fellow escapee of the a now defunct saltmine in El Cajon, Calif. I’ll transition soon to a pipe, a bottle and my half-read copy of Moneyball. If you haven’t read Moneyball yet, get it. Or at least read Matt’s zippy little piece on how one mad stathead pissed off the establishment.

In a previous post on the four-man rotation, I wondered if there are more arm injuries today than in the past. This Baseball Prospectus piece doesn’t address that issue, but it makes a compelling case that pitchers must work harder each inning than they did 20 or 30 years ago.

If a pitcher never gets an easy out, and needs to bear down on every pitch, and throw more breaking pitches, that could explain why there are more injuries (if there are more — and I would expect there to be more, if this is truly the case).

I’m not sure, though, if these stats make the idea of a four-man rotation a bad idea. The recovery time of throwing 120 pitches in 7 innings should be about the same as throwing 120 pitches in nine innings, except, of course, you’ve had to throw 120 higher-effort pitches today than 120 pitches 30 years ago.

All I asked for for my Birthday was Moneyball by Michael Lewis. Got it. As a bonus, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract.

I was going to post more tonight, but Matt Welch and I got involved in this long IM conversation. Hell, it was so involved that I didn’t have a chance to get up and mix another drink, and so long that I’m almost sober now. And it’s almost my birthday. But at least Matt and I solved all of the world’s problems. Too bad neither of us saved a transcript.

Well, my wife would never let me get a lapdance anyway, so why should I give a shit?

BTW: Did I mention that tomorrow’s my birthday?