After being traded from San Diego, Chase Headley turned out to be an offensive bright spot in the Yankees' lineup.

Grade: B+

2014 Statistics: .243/.328/.372, 13 HR, 103 wRC+, 4.4 fWAR

2015 Contract Status: Free agent

Going into the 2014 season, the Yankees thought it would be a good idea to have Kelly Johnson, second baseman, and Yangervis Solarte, rookie, split time playing third base. This worked for awhile, particularly during Solarte's hot start to April, but Solarte fell back to Earth eventually and Johnson wasn't able to get anything going at any point. Things weren't looking great, then Brian Cashman did his thing and traded Solarte for the Padre's third baseman, Chase Headley. Although he hadn't been having a great year in San Diego, he turned his season around with the Yankees.

When the Yankees traded for Headley, he was hitting just .229/.296/.355 with the Padres, and the thought was that at the very least he would be a good defensive third baseman. Throughout his career he has been good defensively, and this season was no different, as he finished the season with a 28.0 UZR/150. Though he hasn't been able to duplicate his 2012 season where he hit 31 home runs and knocked in 115 runs, he did improve offensively after the trade. In just 58 games with the Yankees, he hit .262/.371/.398 with 6 home runs. Headley was also responsible for three walk-off wins. The first came during his Yankee debut, when he joined the team at home, midway through their game against the Rangers. He ended up pinch-hitting as the game went to extra innings, and eventually hit a walk-off single during the 14th inning.

Headley is a free agent this year, and he has already expressed how much he loved playing in New York. Unfortunately, he's also stated that he wants to play full-time next year. Alex Rodriguez is set to return from his suspension, and the Yankees have already said that they expect A-Rod to play third base That statement alone might be enough to deter Headley from signing with the Yankees, which would be unfortunate given that there are a number of question marks surrounding A-Rod's ability to stay healthy, field the ball, and hit productively. (Although there have also been some rumors that the Yankees still want him as see A-Rod as a DH.) Headley is only 30 years old, and if his asking price isn't too high, they should seriously consider signing him for a few years and letting him play the majority of games at third base. A-Rod could rotate between 3B and DH, and Headley could also back up Mark Teixeira at first base. If Headley does not return, he will at least be remembered as one of the few bright spots in the Yankees' lineup during the latter half of the season.

On Thursday, the Astros cleared four spots from their 40-man roster.

Per a Tweet from Astros' beat writer Brian McTaggart, the Astros have begun clearing space on their 40-man roster.  Thursday afternoon they outrighted backup 1B Jesus Guzman and LHP Rudy Owens and declined RHP Matt Albers' club option.  Additionally, the Oakland A's announced they have claimed RHP Jorge De Leon off waivers from the Astros.

Guzman, 30, entered the season figuring to receive a large number of plate appearances as the right-handed side of a platoon with incumbent 1B Brett Wallace.  Guzman was acquired from the Padres in December 2013 in return for backup infielder Ryan Jackson.  Guzman's tenure with the Astros can only be classified as a disappointment, joining Carlos Pena and Brandon Laird in the annals of Astros backup first-basemen that did more harm than help.  He finished the season with a .188/.272/.248 batting line, for a 52 wrC+ and -0.5 fWAR, in 184 plate appearances.  Guzman should still be arbitration eligible, and it remains to be seen if he remains in the Astros organization after passing through waivers un-claimed, but safe money would probably be on "no".

Rudy Owens, 26, was acquired in the trade that sent Wandy Rodriguez and none of his money to the Pirates in 2012.  He appeared in 1 game for the Astros this season, a spot start in which he allowed five runs in five innings.  Over four seasons at the Triple-A level, Owens owns a 4.17 ERA, 2.4 BB/9, and 6.2 K/9 over 72 starts.  He will likely pitch in Fresno's rotation in 2015 if he is not traded or granted his release.

Local boy Matt Albers excelled over 10 innings with the Astros after signing for a $2.4 million contract in the offseason that included one option year.  As one of the key cogs in GM Jeff Luhnow's bullpen rebuild, his loss to right shoulder tendinitis left the front office reeling to replace him with the likes of Paul Clemens and Kyle Farnsworth.  It didn't work.  The declining of Albers' options indicate that the Astros have concern that Albers may not return from his injury with his full strength in time to help them for the 2015 season.

De Leon, 27, pitched in eight games for the Astros this season, with a 4.91 ERA and a low strikeout rate over seven Innings.  His 95 mph average fastball velocity and hard slider likely made him an attractive option to an A's squad that could lose several pitchers from its impressive bullpen to free agency.  De Leon figured to receive little to no playing time on the 2015 Astros.

Man, I love me some Kevin Kouzmanoff. That's why I was thrilled last week to receive this card (along with two others) from Padres fan, Padres blogger, and aspiring-Tom-of-Finland, Padres Jagoff. As I did with the other two cards, I snapped a picture of it and promptly tweeted it. Nine days later, it caught a certain someone's eye.

@TheThinGwynn@PadresJagoff sick card, bro

— Kevin Kouzmanoff (@Kouzmanoff) October 9, 2014

It certainly is!

I hope one of the 2015 sets has a card of Kouz in Rangers threads. After two full seasons away from the majors, Kouzmanoff got the call to replace an injured Adrian Beltre, and absolutely raked for 13 games before he too was felled by an injury. It wasn't that long of a tenure, but it deserves to be immortalized on cardstock.

The Giants hope that Jake Peavy can give them a road win against Lance Lynn and the Cardinals before the NLCS heads back to San Francisco.

Jake Peavy had his last All-Star appearance in 2012 and it's been eight seasons since he won his only Cy Young award with the Padres in 2007, but he may end this season as a starting pitcher on two consecutive World Series-winning rotations. And he's done so pitching as well as he has at any point in his career after being traded from the Red Sox, with a 2.17 ERA in 12 regular season starts for San Francisco and a victory in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Nationals.

After running up a 4.72 ERA with Boston, a change of scenery and a reunion with his former Padres manager Bruce Bochy turned Peavy's season around. A few "tweaks" by pitching coach Dave Righetti didin't hurt either. As Peavy explained, "It really wasn't anything major, but it's made a world of difference."

His Game 2 opponent will be Lance Lynn. The right-hander pitched exceptionally well in the regular season, posting a 2.74 ERA in 203⅔ innings pitched, both career bests. Lynn feels good about his chances on Sunday. "Confidence has never been a problem, that's for sure," he told reporters. Or, as he puts it: "I just go out and pitch, I don't worry about anything. Pretty simple."

You can see whether Lynn's confidence is warranted starting with the Fox Sports 1 pregame at 7:30 p.m. ET, followed by game coverage starting at 8:00 p.m. on the same channel. First pitch is scheduled for 8:07 p.m. You can also watch the game on MLB.tv and hear it on your local ESPN affiliate.

Game time: 8 p.m. ET (first pitch 8:07 p.m.)

TV: Fox Sports 1

Radio: ESPN Radio (affiliate locator)

Streaming:MLB.TV

Astros news and notes from the past week.

Good morning boys and girls, miss Astros baseball yet? Yes? No? Well I admit there has been a big hole in my life without it on a daily basis. Of course playoff baseball is great, especially with teams that remind me of the future Astros like the Royals. Here are this week's links.

CSN Houston's collapse a cautionary tale for regional sports networks - Houston Chronicle
As Comcast SportsNet Houston approaches perhaps its final days, it will be remembered as a cautionary tale of poor timing, questionable decision-making, hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue, tens of millions of dollars in legal bills and untold quantities of squandered goodwill and lingering ill will.

Roger Clemens: Time for Astros to start winning - Ultimate Astros
Roger Clemens said it’s time for the Astros to start winning.

CSN Houston headache could be reaching its end
It's been a headache for Houston sports fans for two years.

Moran hitting stride at Astros instructional league | astros.com
Before the 2013 First-Year Player Draft, the Astros' shortlist for the top overall selection included North Carolina third baseman Colin Moran.

Imperfect Caminiti still terribly missed | UTSanDiego.com
Former Padres great Ken Caminiti died 10 years ago this week. U-T sports columnist Nick Canepa says he is missed.

Astros' Appel sharp in Fall League debut | astros.com
For right-hander Mark Appel, a trying start to his first full professional season has given way to the results expected from the top overall pick in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft. Appel continued his turnaround Wednesday, as he threw three scoreless innings in his Arizona Fall League debut and Salt River defeated Scottsdale, 6-3.

Stars of tomorrow ready to shine as '14 AFL season begins | astros.com
Over its 23-year history, the Arizona Fall League has developed a reputation as a finishing school for baseball's top prospects. This year, once again, many of the game's best young players will gather in the desert, hoping to prove themselves in the same league that helped catapult Derek Jeter, Dustin Pedroia and Mike Trout to stardom. When the AFL opens play Tuesday, the concentration of talent will again be readily apparent. Two of the three Opening Day games feature premium pitching matchups, and the third game is highlighted by two of the best shortstops in the Minor Leagues.

Judge’s ruling boosts chances of AT&T/DirecTV network for Astros, Rockets - Sports Update
A federal judge removed a potential roadblock Wednesday that could have delayed or prevented the sale of Comcast SportsNet Houston to DirecTV and AT&T, boosting chances the new channel could be available to several hundred thousand additional households in time for the Rockets’ first local game broadcast Oct. 29.

Is a playoff run for the Houston Astros possible in 2015?
Houston Astros owner Jim Crane has high aspirations for his team in 2015. He's looking to bump up the payroll by $20 million in order to make a playoff run.

Like Monty Python's Black Knight, CSN Houston's Not Dead Yet | Houston Press
Walking out from a concert at the House of Blues on Monday night, I couldn't help but notice that the...

Jon Singleton and Javier Baez: are they doomed by strikeouts? - Minor League Ball
Joseph Werner at Beyond the Boxscore presented some unsettling historical comps for Jon Singleton and Javier Baez this week. Will their issues with contact prevent successful careers?

Own Disney's Million Dollar Arm on Blu-ray™ and Digital HD today!

Back in the spring of 2013, when Andrew Cashner hit the disabled list thanks to severing a thumb tendon in a hunting accident, I invoked my inner Crash Davis and accused him of having "a million dollar arm and a ten cent head". I'm a fairly prideful guy, but I have to admit that I was wrong in regard to the latter. The former still rings true, though, so I'm batting .500.

Since then, Cashner has put to rest any questions I had about his intelligence through his actions on and off the field. Most notably, he worked, seemingly flawlessly, with manager Bud Black and pitching coach Darren Balsley to covert himself from an all-out, all-the-time "K 'em all, let God sort 'em out" human torch of a reliever to, you know, an actual pitcher. Since joining the rotation upon his return from the thumb incident Cashner has pitched more to contact and been rewarded for it. His strikeout rate has fallen to a more human level, but his walks have dropped even more so, and his ERA, FIP, and WHIP have shrunk each season.

Cashner's 2014 season was disrupted by injury, but when he was on the field he made the most of not only his right arm, but all his other million dollar appendages as well. In addition to his 19 starts, Cashner also got onto the field as a pinch-hitter once and a pinch-runner twice, and even made an appearance in left field. While he didn't match his remarkable 2013 offensive stats (.241, HR, 2 SB), he did manage a good-for-a-pitcher .176 and legged out the first triple by a pitcher in over a year.

Taking into account his full body of tools Cashner is less of just a million dollar arm, and closer to a six million dollar man. Which is interesting, because a charismatic Texan who loves hunting sounds like a completely different Steve Austin.

One of the best-known bits of trivia amongst Padres fans is that Ollie Brown is the "Original Padre" due to the club making him their first selection of the 1968 expansion draft. For the record, he wasn't the first player in the Padres organization. The club made 16 picks in the 1968 June amateur draft and three more in the old secondary phase, but only one of the players they signed reached the majors as a member of the Padres; outfielder Dave Robinson eventually played 22 games in 1970 and '71. With that technicality out of the way, yes, Ollie Brown was the first major league player to join the organization.

Brown is pictured here on his 1970 Topps card, the first to show him in a Padres uniform. He was included in the 1969 Topps set, but the photo of him was from his days with the Giants and features a hat that has been airbrushed completely black, making him look like an undercover cop. His card is alongside of one of Cito Gaston since Gaston was the Padres' final pick in the expansion draft.

Gaston also got the black hat treatment on his 1969 Topps card, which he shared with Bill Davis, and was pictured in the original Padres threads on his 1970 card. I chose to use his 1971 Topps card here for a good reason, though; it's the only card of him I own. One advantage that his 1971 card has over his 1970 one is that it includes the stat-line from his 1970 season, when he put up career-highs across the board and was named to his only All-Star team.

I'd love to do a gigantic card-post featuring cards of all 30 players selected by the Padres in the expansion draft, but that will have to wait until October 14, 2015, since I presently have cards of only about two-thirds of them. For now I'll just provide a table of San Diego's selections, culled from Baseball Reference's documentation of the expansion draft's full results. An "X" in the third column indicates that particular player did not contribute to the 1969 Padres.

Of the four players who didn't take part in the Padres' inaugural campaign, three were traded before the season and one other just never reached the majors at all.

• Giusti was drafted from the Cardinals, who had traded for him just three days earlier. Less than two months later, on December 3, 1968, St. Louis reacquired him in exchange for Ed Spiezio, Ron Davis, Danny Breeden, and presumably scrappy minor leaguer Philip Knuckles. Giusti went on to become Pittsburgh's closer in 1970, back before a closer was a thing that every team had. He won a World Series ring in 1971, and was named to the National League All-Star team in 1973.
• Former American League MVP Zoilo Versalles wasn't even with the organization as long as Giusti. One day before Giusti went back to the Cardinals, San Diego sent Versalles to Cleveland as the player-to-be-named-later in an October 21 trade for catcher Bill Davis.
• Pitcher Rick James was selected from the Cubs, who had selected him sixth overall in 1965, the first amateur draft. In 1967 he appeared in the only three major league games of his career, allowing seven earned runs in 4.2 innings for the North-Siders. Like Giusti, he headed back to the team who lost him in the draft. Chicago got him back before the 1969 season began, but he split the next two seasons between their AA and AAA teams, never reaching the majors again.
• Left-handed pitcher Fred Katawczik was selected from the Reds organization, for whom he pitched in only seven AAA games in 1968, just one year removed from rookie-league and low-A ball. He pitched well in AA and A-ball his two seasons in the Padres organization, but hung 'em up after the 1970 season.

There were no egregious misses as far as players passed over by the Padres and selected by the other expansion teams. Eventual Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm had seen his better days, as had Maury Wills. Pitchers Marty Pattin, Jack Billingham, Bill Stoneman, and Mike Marshall, outfielders Pat Kelly, Manny Mota, Tommy Harper, and Lou Piniella, catcher Ellie Rodriguez, and first baseman Don Mincher were post-draft All-Stars, with Marshall and Rodriguez each being selected twice. Marshall also won the National League Cy Young Award in 1974.

Of the players picked by the Padres, pitcher Dave Giusti, outfielders Cito Gaston and Jerry Morales, and first baseman Nate Colbert went on to be All-Stars; Colbert topped all players chosen with three All-Star selections after the expansion draft took place. In case you weren't counting along, that's six total All-Star games between four All-Stars for the Padres, while the Pilots, Royals and Expos combined for twelve All-Star games between ten players.

Pro scouting meetings started yesterday; Yankees considering hiring Omar Minaya.

NJ.com | Brendan Kuty: Scouts at FanGraphs have good things to say about Yankee prospect Jorge Mateo.

NY Daily News | Anthony McCarron: Japanese pitcher Kenta Maeda may not be posted during the offseason.

Newsday | Erik Boland: The Yankees may be considering former Mets GM (and current Padres senior VP) Omar Minaya for a front-office job.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Pro scouting meetings started yesterday and the team has a lot of decisions to make.

LoHud Yankees Blog | Chad Jennings: Taking a look at right field throughout the Yankees' farm system.

New York Post | Mike Vaccaro: A list of heartbreaking New York-related sports injuries, including Derek Jeter's broken ankle.

I am shocked – SHOCKED – to find that link dumping is going on in here

This isn't getting its own link, mostly because I don't feel like it, but the 30 For 30 documentary on the 1989 earthquake airs tonight on ESPN at 7. Check it out! Or don't! I don't want to tell you how to spend your evening.

Molina says his season is 'not over'
Yadier Molina strained his oblique Sunday night, leading many to ask if his season was over and many more to respond with "Of course it's over. What are you, stupid?" But he may, in fact, be able to play. Molina is confident that his season isn't over, and will even try to start tomorrow, which seems iffy. Now, not to decry unrealistic positive thinking, which has brought us such cultural touchstones as the Jim Carrey movie Yes Man, but this is all based on one game of catch, so maybe skepticism is warranted here, even when we're dealing with Greatest Person In History Yadier Molina.

Trevor Rosenthal and the Catchers: A Mostly Pointless Exercise
Of course, if Molina can't play, then we'll be stuck with one of the two Cardinals backup catchers, beloved Giants legend AJ Pierzynski or professional Yadier Molina backup Tony Cruz. Cruz was in the game Sunday, of course, and here Jeff Sullivan takes a look at how Molina's absence in the ninth inning hurt the Cards. It turns out Cruz is worse at defense than Molina is, which is weird. You'd think someone would've mentioned Yadier being so good at some point, but I haven't heard a thing about that.

The FOX Sports 1 Sabermetrics Broadcast Reviewed
Game 1 of the NLCS aired on Fox accompanied by the dulcet tones of Joe Buck and Harold Reynolds, but they also simulcast it on Fox Sports 1 as a more sabermetric broadcast. The biggest criticism, shared by Baseball Prospectus, is that the split-screen and muted game audio take the viewer out of the game. If Fox Sports continues to refine this format, they'll presumably address that issue by adding a CGI dancing robot and putting Terry Bradshaw and Seth MacFarlane on the panel, and we all look forward to that.

The Strike Zone Expansion is Out of Control
Over the last few years, the strike zone has gotten slightly thinner, and much, much bigger at the bottom. And all that new junk in the trunk has led to a lower run scoring environment. So the next time you think about 2-1 games or pitcher's duels or the Padres– okay, bad example, no one ever thinks about the Padres – you can thank the low strike zone.

John Rocker: 'I Was Miserable' On Survivor
John Rocker was on Survivor, and then he got voted off basically for being John Rocker. That seems like a good reason.

A lost year for the Reds' superstar has the fanbase at a crossroads.

Focusing on just the 2014 chapter of Joey Votto's career is tough.

It's like writing the "Do They Know It's Christmas?" portion of Paul McCartney's biography.  Sir James Paul McCartney, that is.

Votto's most recent season was painful.  Physically painful for him, as his quad and knee or not knee and just quad hampered his power and balance to the point of visible discomfort and frustrations.  Mentally painful for the cerebral nature of his hitting, as his lack of base prevented him from sitting back on pitches and driving them to right field as in his previously dominant years.  Psychologically painful for all nose-breathers, as the questions of his toughness pitted sense and sensibility against the constant berating from the hard-headed and stubborn.

The 2014 Cincinnati Reds tried to play 5/8ths of their season without their best player, a transcendent hitting talent, and they got their butts kicked in historically awful offensive fashion.  Yet the narrative created by many prominent local media members was less about a team losing one player and falling completely apart and, rather remarkably, more about why that one player wouldn't play hurt to magically make things all better.

Indeed, 2014 was when the portions of the media that are wont to ostracize their own stars finally stuck their claws into Votto in much the same ways they've done to Adam Dunn and Jay Bruce, among others.

From 2009 through the end of 2012, Joey Votto and averaged 40 doubles, 26 dingers, 90 ribbies, 90 walks, 110 strikeouts, and 596 plate appearances per season, putting together a .321/.429/.565 (.994) line that should make you all drool.  For some context, the 26 dingers would've merely been the 7th best the NL could offer in 2014, the 90 ribbies 8th, and the 40 doubles a meager 4th.  However, his rate stats would have won him the 2014 NL batting title (Justin Morneau won with .319), the 2014 non-existent OBP title (Andrew McCutchen at .410 was best), and the coveted fictitious 2014 NL slugging title (Giancarlo Stanton at .555 topped the senior circuit).

Unfortunately, that was all pre-2014 Votto, a player as unique and talented as we've ever seen in Reds country, and one whose excellence even he may not be able to replicate going forward.

The Reds' 1B began the season in rather normal Vottonian fashion, as he hit .280/.438/.462 with 4 dingers and 24 walks through the 27 games he played in through the end of April (starting in each one, of course), but after an 0 for 3, 3 strikeout game against the San Diego Padres on May 15th, he landed on the 15 day DL for the first time on the season.  At the time, he was hitting just .257/.410/.449.

Twenty-three games later, Votto returned to action from his left quad injury and immediately put together a 9 game hit streak that led to 6 Reds' wins and returned optimism, but both Votto's health and the optimism around the season soon withered.  Number 19 would hit just .188/.316/.271 with nary a dinger over the next 14 games (57 PA) while showing visible winces and reactions to his ailing knee, and he was eventually sent back to the DL after another 3 strikeout game on July 5th.  Despite prolonged rehab and constant assurance that he'd be back at some point in the lost season should he reach the appropriate level of strength, that game proved to be his last of 2014, his 62nd and final contest of what was undoubtedly a hugely frustrating campaign.

His final stats:  .255/.390/.409, 6 dingers, 16 doubles, 23 RBI, 47 BB, 49 K, 272 PA, 127 OPS+, career lows in each and every category.

The question now becomes whether we'll ever see MVP-level Joey Votto again, and even having to ask the question is assuredly frustrating.  Joey will turn 32 years old near the end of next season, and there's plenty to suggest that his best days would be behind him even if his left leg hadn't given him as many issues as it has in recent years.  Were it not for the $213 million he's guaranteed to make between now and 2024, it's something we'd bypass entirely to focus on whether he could put together even a .290/.400/.460 line to turn the 2015 Reds back into contenders.

But we're a fragile, fallible folk.  Joey Votto's 2014 season made us yearn for how ridiculously good he was just a few years ago while simultaneously having nightmares about what the Cincinnati landscape will look like in 2018.  Just mentioning Votto now sends Reds fans everywhere into an impromptu "what if" wormhole that's a very dark, dingy place.

To me, that all misses the point.  No, Joey Votto likely never would have been worth the quarter-billion bucks he was signed for even if he had been healthy until he was 40.  And no, he'll likely never be worth it now that his left leg has set him so far back.  At this point, neither of those is really arguable.

But that tremendously discounts the fact that the Reds have a guy signed for a decade that will be worth a huge portion of that.  The vast majority of it, even.  Having a guy be worth $175 million over that time means you overpaid, but it means you have a player who puts up $175 million worth of production for a decade! It doesn't mean someone's worthless, and while Votto will never again be anything near a bargain, he still has everything it takes to be an elite player in this game.  2022 Votto may be a part-time DH, but that doesn't instantly mean that's his 2015 destiny.

He'll be back in 2015, he'll be odd and cerebral, he'll surely have at least a handful of announcers label him "mercurial" again, and he'll knock the snot out of baseballs so often that the RF wall in GABP will need replacing.

And he'll be better than almost any other player playing baseball in doing it, because that's who Joey Votto is.

Jeff Bridich, as well as Dave Stewart and A.J. Preller, really have their work cut out for them now.

It's annoying when the rich get richer, but that's what happened when the Los Angeles Dodgers hired Andrew Friedman away from the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.

Friedman will take over as the Dodgers' new president of baseball operations, the team announced, while former GM Ned Colletti is being kicked into an advisory role. Friedman comes to the Dodgers without compensation due to the fact that he had been working for the Rays without a contract.

In Friedman, the Dodgers land an excellent analytical mind who is also no slouch at building a winning baseball team. The Rays struggled to a 77-85 record this year while dealing with a myriad of injuries and a trade of their best starting pitcher, but Friedman's squad finished with a winning record in every season from 2008 through 2013 and made the postseason four times during that span.

Friedman has been able to get a lot of results out of a miniscule amount of money in Tampa Bay, and now he'll head a Dodgers franchise that has unlimited resources. There's always a chance that being able to write blank checks will have Friedman way in over his head, but that's doubtful. The more optimistic (for the Dodgers) -- and frankly, realistic -- way of looking at this is that Friedman will be able to build championship-caliber teams the way he always has, but now he'll have a crapload of money to use to fill in holes with deadline deals and last-minute free-agent signings.

In other words, Jeff Bridich's job just got a lot harder. And so did the jobs of the other two new NL West GMs -- Dave Stewart in Arizona and A.J. Preller in San Diego. Meanwhile, the Giants will likely make their move in the form of winning yet another World Series.

Bridich, Stewart and Preller are going to have to get creative to compete with Friedman's Dodgers and Sabean's undeniably fortunate but also extremely well-put together Giants. That starts with the three newbies needing to find a way to continue their advantage in player development, and extends to having an even smaller margin of error when it comes to having success with draft picks.

Beating the Dodgers and Giants is also going to require finding a leg up at the big league level. It means that the Diamondbacks need good fortune with their pitching rotation and have to do a better job of finding better depth to surround a highly capable core of Paul Goldschmidt, Miguel Montero, Chris Owings and A.J. Pollock. For the Padres, it means getting any sort of offense to complement what is, and pretty much has always been, an adequate-or-better pitching staff. And for the Rockies, it means fully embracing Coors Field, and quite possibly going to drastic means to upgrade their offense to the point where it can compete away from Denver, as well.

Baseball is hard. It always has been. But for Bridich (and Stewart and Preller), it just got even harder.

A.J. Hinch's staff continues to take shape with the arrival of former third base coach Gary Pettis.

Gary Pettis is heading down I-45 for his new job with the Astros, reports Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. Pettis was an original member of Ron Washington's staff when he took over in 2007, during that time he served as outfield instructor, base running coach, and first base coach. He would later move over to third base coach in 2013. Pettis interviewed for a position with the Astros before the Rangers decided to hire Jeff Banister as their new manager.

Pettis was drafted in the sixth round of 1979 draft by the Angels. He played eleven season in the majors with the Angels, Tigers, Rangers, and Padres. During those eleven seasons, he collected five gold gloves.

There is no word yet on which position Pettis will be filling for the Astros, but it appears Tarrik Brock is out the door with this hire - leaving a hole at first base coach. Brock served as outfield instructor and base running coach for Houston last season.

Last night as San Francisco Giants won the National League pennant,  I thought about how the Padres had beaten them in the season series.  The Giants made it much closer toward the end but make no mistake they were dominated 10 games to 9.

I then thought back to 2010 when the Padres did filthy things to the Giants and then let them squeak by them in the last game of the season.  The Padres won 12 of 18 games against the Giants that year.  I wondered if that was the highest winning percentage the Padres have had against an NL Pennant winner in a season series.

Today I did the research.  The Padres have had a 66.67% winning percentage against three NL Pennant winners.  You've the 2010 Giants (12-6), the 2006 Cardinals (4-2) and the 2000 Mets (6-3).

Overall the Padres are 227-343 (39.82%) against the winner of the NL Pennant.

Take a look at this chart for the rest.

Padres record against NL Pennant Winners

When I ordered a bunch of Padres commons last month it was with days like this in mind. I mean, how am I supposed to do a birthday card post about Michael Barrett without a Michael Barrett card?

Barrett's brief stay in San Diego was captured on a few cards. The one I have was the first to be released; it's from the 2007 Topps Update and Highlights set. I'm always criticizing Topps' airbrushing and Photoshopping, but they did a fairly decent job on this one. At a glance, one is liable to think it's unaltered. But since it's my nature to nitpick, here are the red flags:

• The wordmark on his jersey is misaligned. If he were standing perfectly upright, that would slant downhill.
• The logo on his helmet is also at a funky angle, and doesn't curve properly.
• The sleeve piping is far too wide.
• He's wearing a baby-blue sweatband on his forearm, signifying that this photo was taken on Father's Day. In 2007, Father's Day fell on June 17, meaning this shot was snapped just three days before Barrett was traded to the Padres. That seems ridiculous to me. The Cubs lost that game, which was coincidentally against the Padres, by the score of 11 to 3. Barrett was 1-4 with an RBI double against former and future battery-mate Greg Maddux. [Edited, 11:58am] I did some looking, and it turns out that photo is recycled from Barrett's 2006 Topps card, meaning that it dates back to 2005. The Cubs lost 6-3 to the Yankees on May 19, 2005. Barrett was 1-4 in that game also, with a seventh-inning single off Mike Mussina.
  
• Below the baby-blue one is a Cubs-blue wristband which escaped the photo editor's eye.

I just flipped the card over and checked out the back, which I apparently had never done before. It notes that "Michael [is] the only player in baseball history ever to hit exactly 16 HRs in three straight years..." I knew that Barrett hit 16 homers in three consecutive years, but I didn't think about that being a record. Oddly, I made note of his home run redundancy about six hours ago, while I was poking around on his Baseball Reference page.

Khalil Greene HR by yr, 2004-06: 15, 15, 15 Michael Barrett HR by yr, 2004-06: 16, 16, 16

— Joe Lies (@TheThinGwynn) October 22, 2014

In yet another coincidence, Greene's birthday was yesterday. 2007, the year the two became teammates, was the year that both of their streaks ended. Greene set a career-high with 27, and Barrett dipped down to nine. While their three-year stretches of consistent power came to a close, a more impressive one got more people's attention. That year, Adam Dunn hit precisely 40 home runs for the third year in a row; amazingly, he did it again in 2008.

But this isn't about Adam Dunn, it's about Michael Barrett. While this is my only card of Barrett, it's not my only memento of his 2007 season.

It's Michael Barrett's 38th birthday... I know what jersey I'm wearing today. pic.twitter.com/42ioYs02m7

— Joe Lies (@TheThinGwynn) October 22, 2014

The reason I specify his 2007 season is that that's the only season he wore number 4. In 2008 he switched to number 8, which he had previously worn in Chicago. It was unavailable when the Padres acquired him, as it was worn by Terrmel Sledge.

...now, if only I had a Todd Sears jersey to wear tomorrow. Oh, well, at least I have a card of him.

Padres beat writer Corey Brock announced this morning via Twitter that the team fired their hitting coach Phil Plantier but hinted that he may end up with another role in the organization.

I hate to see anyone lose their job but I'm glad that GM A.J. Preller is mixing things up because Plantier was clearly not getting results out of the team's hitters.  He probably should have been fired in June when the team was on pace to be the worst hitting team of all-time.  The hitters share a good portion of the blame as well and hopefully they'll be dealt with in a similar fashion.

Padres dismiss hitting coach Plantier | padres.com

The Padres ranked 30th in the Majors in runs (535), hits (1,199), RBIs (500), batting average (.226), on-base percentage (.292) and slugging percentage (.342).

Plantier's firing comes on the heels of hitting coordinator Sean Berry being fired last week.  Strangely enough the Padres assistant hitting coach, Alonzo Powell, is being retained for now.  It's not clear if Preller will continue with the Major League trend of having two hitting coaches.

Jed Hoyer hired Plantier, Powell and Berry in 2011.

The Padres have a tradition of cycling through hitting coaches.

Ben Oglivie, Duane Espy, Dave Magadan, Merv Rettenmund, Wally Joyner, Jim Levebvre, Randy Ready and now Phil Plantier. These are all the hitting coaches that have come and gone since Rettenmund initially left the Padres after the 1999 season. Some didn't even make it to the offseason before moving on, but Plantier rode out this rough season before getting removed from his position. This has been a standard play in the Padres playbook with each result almost seeming worse that the last (if you just go by the hitters' production).

There is no reason to think that this will make the team better. Alternatively, it probably won't make them any worse. What strikes me as weird is that this is the only move on the big league coaching staff. Without some sort of explanation it seems like a scapegoat scenario. The team actually had two hitting coaches, the second being Alonzo Powell, but only fired one of them. One would assume that if coaching were to blame then both should have a share, but that is not the message being sent here.

Perhaps you can tie this in with the other organizational changes being made. Parts of the player development staff were let go, but that seems a bit separate from moves made to the major league staff. Perhaps there is a whole philosophy change at work here. But without any word of that going on, the conclusion most will draw is that the hitting was bad so the hitting coach got fired. Nevermind that most experts would tell you that the hitting coach can only do so much. This isn't football where the offensive coordinator calls plays, puts guys into the right position and makes sure everyone knows his system. Hitters have 99% (or some high percentage) of what they need to succeed already in place and the hitting coach is more of a mentor than a difference maker. Changing that role doesn't change the team's offense, so why make a change?

On top of all of that is that Plantier came to the job with a reputation in the organization for helping to develop its young hitters. He was a Jed Hoyer hire. A GM with a reputation for player development, just like Preller does. If one were to give Preller the benefit of the doubt and think that he is making changes that help player develop, then it still leaves you scratching your head a little on this one. In the end though, there's not much additional info to go on here. But on the surface it seems like the same tired move of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Phil Plantier's 1994 Topps card is a classic. The anguished photo of him on the front cements that, but as is often the case, the back is what really got my attention.

I had a fairly decent idea what the concept of biorhythms is, but I checked up with trusty ol' wiki-wiki-wikipedia (REMIX!) to make sure I wasn't completely off-base, and it confirmed my vague overview. Some people believe our lives are guided by a series of cycles that determine our aptitude in various areas at certain given points. Of course these people aren't scientists, but I hear the jury's still out on science.

I'm from the Crash Davis school of thought, that if you believe something is working for you, it is. If Phil Plantier woke up on the 29th or 30th of each month thinking he was going to sock some dingers, half the battle was out of the way. On the same token, it must have weighed on him on other days when he believed that his cycles were at low points. This is where we could get into a whole chicken-or-the-egg thing, but I'm apt to think that someone who is certain they will fail, will fail. Of course, like the biorhythm believers, my evidence is anecdotal on a personal level.

I do find it interesting and ever-so-slightly amusing that Topps opted to put the word "biorhythms" in quotation marks, which came across to me as a passive-aggressive editorial. It reads like "Get a load of this kook" while other, more widely accepted, belief systems would certainly go without quotes. Is that just me?

An alternate name for this quiz could be "Padres taller than Andrew Cashner". He and his former teammate Kyle Blanks (who was born the same day) are among those who missed the cut, standing "just" 6'6". But I had to draw the line somewhere, and setting the cutoff at 6'7" left eleven players, which is a good number for a quiz.

As with any other quiz, be sure to log your score in the poll, and use spoiler bars where needed in your comments.

Because of course they are.

In a move that can only be described as Schumakerian, the Cincinnati Reds are reportedly interested in bringing in former Arizona Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers as part of whatever Dinobot mega-monster Walt Jocketty is creating in the front office, per Buster Olney.

The expectation of sources is that Kevin Towers will soon be hired by the Reds, and work with his good friend Walt Jocketty.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) October 24, 2014

Since Jocketty's arrival, former GM's have been popping up like hotcakes in the front office, with the likes of Cam Bonifay and Bill Bavasi holding down spots of various merit over the years.  With the recent departure of assistant GM Bob Miller, it now appears the man who chose grit, gutsiness, and getting his butt handed to him in favor of advanced analysis and common sense in Arizona may well be part of the Reds' brain trust going forward.

Remember when he traded away cost-controlled Justin Upton for peanuts and shipped off top pitching prospects Tyler Skaggs&Trevor Bauer in back to back off-seasons?  Yeah, he did that.  We'll casually not mention that he was...oops, yes we will...part of the San Diego Padres front office that let Bruce Bochy go to the divisional rival San Francisco Giants, too.

So, on the same day that universally lauded baseball mind-person Joe Maddon becomes a free agent, the Reds target a man universally questioned as such to be a part of their organization.

Groovy.

If you can remember all the way back to mid-July, you might remember that Fox and MLB made no mention of Tony Gwynn during the All-Star Game, despite his recent passing and his participation in a whopping 15 Midsummer Classics (apparently it's because it's policy not to single out a specific player, unless they play for the Yankees and are retiring). Well, MLB tried to right that wrong last night by paying tribute to Tony during a pre-game ceremony at AT&T Park. For reasons known only to Bud Selig, you can't see the actual video tribute online. You can, however see the Gwynn family acknowledged at home plate following the video.

Later, the family was joined by Commissioner Selig as they stood up to cancer in memory of Tony.

It's still frustrating that Gwynn was ignored in July, but this does give as an opportunity to remember Mr. Padre's greatest postseason moment.