Anyways, as the academic year winds down, baseball season is just taking off. We are more than a month in and, although I acknowledge it's still very early, you can't tell me what has happened so far doesn't matter whatsoever. Open up your knowledge basket because here it comes. The San Diego Padres are 20-12 (a sultry .625 winning percentage) tied for the best in the NL (and tied for 4th in the entire MLB behind only New York, Tampa Bay, and Minnesota). They have thrown 8 shutouts, and have given up 3 runs or less in 18 of the 32 games. For those of you who aren't math majors, that's more than half. Correia, Garland, and LeBlanc are a combined 10-4. And lastly, so far the Padres have given up 99 runs on the season. You know who else has that? NO ONE! I don't care if San Francisco is at 100, this is proof that right now that the Padres pitching staff is the best in baseball. And you can't even argue it. We have the lowest number of runs allowed. End of argument.
And when you have that kind of pitching, 140 runs scored is a respectable number, despite being in the lower half of the league. I'm not gonna lie and say I wouldn't mind some higher batting averages and less men left on base (11 last night against SF). Wouldn't it be nice if Chase Headley wasn't the only position player batting over .300? (I say "position player" because technically Wade LeBlanc is batting .500 (5 for 10) and Mat Latos is batting .300 (3 for 10). But I digress. I couldn't be more pleased with the current 8 games over .500. I know I shouldn't get sucked in but I can't help feeling hopeful about our young pitching. And we all know Adrian Gonzalez can hit better than his .275 average indicates. Just saying.
Let's switch gears real quick to football. Here was my initial reaction to the Chargers big draft move: "WOOO!! Ryan Mathews!!" And here was my reaction as Chris Berman and the gang struggled through the lack of information in telling me exactly what the trade was: "We gave up WHAT???" And finally here was my reaction as I checked and confirmed the trade "F*CK!" It seems to me as though the Chargers jumped the gun a little bit in giving up multiple draft picks, a decent linebacker (Dobbins) and the rights to play "We got more bounce in California" every frickin' time they score. I understand that Mathews (the 2nd ranked RB) would not have stayed on the board until the Chargers original pick (28), what with C.J. Spiller going 9th to Buffalo (poor chap). But did we really have to give up THAT much to move up THAT early? Only time will tell. I'm hoping Ryan Mathews turns out to be the next LT (although I think we would need a more creative nickname than RM).
One last note, I implore all of you out there to give a listen to the Ocarina of Rhyme by Team Teamwork. Great mash-up, and an even greater IDEA for a mash-up. I approve.
