Kevin Kouzmanoff

Gotta give some love to the soulsurfer once in a while. Even when he is wrong.

I just lost a bar bet. Cost me an Arrogant Bastard and a shot of Makers Mark. I was arguing that there was no way that Kevin Kouzmanoff has more hits than Adrian Gonzalez. After all Gonzalez is an All Star. The best Padres player by far.

And Kouzmanoff? Well, he has been so bad that the Padres can't even trade him. Guess what? Kouzmanoff has 80 hits and Gonzalez has 77. Yes, I know that Adrian has 24 home runs and Kouzmanoff only has 12. But with 12 more home runs, Adrian only has 5 more RBI and he has had 16 more people on base in front of him than Kouzmanoff.

In other words, Kouzmanoff has done a better job of driving in runs. Kouzmanoff is hitting 40 points better with runners in scoring position.

Websoulsurfer

So, to summarize his last three seasons:

• Up to May 14: .221/.260/.316 with one homer every 83 pa's
• Post May 14: .278/.325/.483 with one homer every 23 pa's

Is there something about May 14 that we should know? Any astrologers out there that can shed light on this? Is this a simple coincidence, or is it because as Mark Twain supposedly said, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

Unfortunately, we don't have the answer (and I'd be leery of any hard causal theories), but we are happy that May 14th has passed and the post-May 14 Kouz, he of the .808 OPS, appears to be in the house.

DePodesta

Day after day, slumping or streaking, Kevin Kouzmanoff aims for amnesia. The Padres third baseman strives to live in the moment, and to leave the analysis of his baseball feats and frustrations to the folks in the forensics lab. “Whether you hit a home run or you strike out, I think it's important to have short-term memory and forget about it,” Kouzmanoff said after contributing a two-run home run to the Padres' 4-1 victory over the Oakland A's yesterday. “Cause there's no use to dwell on it. It doesn't do you any good.”

Since his batting average plunged to .219 on June 6, Kouzmanoff has hit .314 with five home runs and 18 RBI in 13 games. For a fortnight, at least, he has been a force, so much so that even his outs are being hit harder. Yesterday, Kouzmanoff led off the second inning with a line drive to left field that Matt Holliday snared with a sliding catch. Then, in the fourth inning, Kouzmanoff went to the opposite field with the same robbery result – a sliding catch by Jack Cust.

“It's tough because you hit a ball hard, or two balls hard, and there's nothing to show for it,” Kouzmanoff said. “You feel like you should get rewarded for it. But that's just the game. Tomorrow, I may come out and have two bloop broken-bat hits. I think it's important to take the good and the positive out of that at-bat and carry it to the next at-bat. “Obviously you'd like to see something in there other than no hits, but you can't control the results. It's all about preparation and what you do in the (batter's) box. After you hit the ball and the ball leaves the bat, there's nothing you can do.”

sdut

Correia cruises, looks like No. 1

Nice, to see Kouz a week or two ahead of schedule.

Within a week, Kevin Kouzmanoff is to play third base in a game for the first time since having surgery on his right shoulder.

So the padres team owner is going through a divorce, and the friars get slashed payroll. Just wonderful. and she has been married to him for some 30 years, so you know she is getting a huge chunk of everything. their has even been rumors, she wants the ball club.

I haven't been near Mexicali or Yuma lately, but it is right out my back door, a simple three or four hour drive, and next February the 2009 Caribbean Series, the “Serie del Caribe”, will be held in Mexicali.

Why Mexicali I have no idea. I always remember the area having nothing but a bunch of farm land, lots of factories, being insanely hot, and pretty much a dump. Thankfully this is the winter leagues, eh?

If you ever bought something that said made in Mexico, chances are, it came from Mexicali.

The Serie del Caribe teams are typically from Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and many Major League players are called on to fill the rosters, so the quality of play is high, with national pride often at stake.

Wikipedia - Mexicali Baseball

The Águilas de Mexicali is a Mexican baseball team playing for the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico in Mexicali, Baja California.

The team was founded in October 14, 1976. They have won the championship three times, 1985-1986, 1988-1989, 1998-1999. The team also won the 1986 Caribbean Series, played in Venezuela. Their brightest moment came when they won the 1986 Caribbean Series, only becoming the second Mexican team to take the title

Yesterday morning I was debating padres third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff with a fellow padre fan that many of you may know.

Fellow fan went on and on about how Kevin Kouzmanoff "downright sucks", the padres should just scrap the season, and move Chase Headley back to third. Essentially he was saying, give up on the Kouz, and see what we can get for him via trade, if at all.

Fangraphs just posted a good write up on the friars third base position. 

Nationals first baseman Nick Johnson is currently penciled into the number four spot on a nightly basis, and he is probably flying a little under the radar in a bunch of leagues at this moment.

In the spirit of WR and h0rt's own watch lists, I'll toss in a few players who are currently on my radar. I won't update this series religiously at all, but I thought I'd lend you all (including you lads in my leagues) a helping hand as you scour free agency for that homerun pick which could very well put your squad over the hump (hopefully not in any of my leagues, mind you).