Tagged: kevin kouzmanoff

Kouzmanoff Update

Just thought that I should let you guys know that Kevin Kouzmanoff (finally) got signed by the Kansas City Royals for a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training last week. It isn’t much, but at least he did get signed. I was getting a little worried there.
Though I would have preferred that he got signed by the Padres, at least he is going to be playing. In Triple-A Omaha. But whatever.

Also, Jan. 16 was the two-year anniversary of his trade from the Padres to the Oakland A’s. That was such a sad day. I can’t believe it’s been two years already. Thankfully, I did get to go see him in August when he was with the Rockies. That was the coolest game ever.

I’m just happy that my boy is still in baseball and still doing the best he can. He hasn’t had an easy career, that’s for sure, but he’s fighting hard. I love him 🙂

Unfortunately, the Padres won’t be playing the Royals in Interleague this season, so I won’t get to see him at all. But hopefully next year, when he gets traded back to the Padres. Right Padres? Right. Sounds good.

GO KOOOOOOOOOOOZ!

Rizzo didn’t make it to Opening Day, got traded to Cubs

Anthony Rizzo was traded to the Cubs today for pitcher Andrew Cashner and Minor League outfielder Kyung-Min Na.

#RizzoMania was obviously very short-lived.

I’m sure a lot of us knew that Rizzo was headed out the door, especially when the rumors were flying right after Mat Latos’ trade. I really didn’t expect him to be on the Padres’ Opening Day roster, and what do you know, he’s not going to be. Oh well.

I did get really excited when he got called up earlier in the year. I was actually bordering on Kevin Kouzmanoff-like excitement about him, but when he didn’t do that well, it wore off. He’s really young, really cute, but I think he got called up too early. He wasn’t ready for it. But we don’t have to worry about him anymore, I guess.

But something that is interesting about this trade is the fact that Rizzo is going to Chicago, where Jed Hoyer and Jed McLeod are now. McLeod was the one who drafted Rizzo to the Red Sox. Hoyer then traded Adrian Gonzalez for him last year, and now he’s bringing him to the Cubs. Hoyer obviously wants Rizzo wherever he is.

This Cashner guy is a pitcher who has started, but the Padres seem to want him as a reliever at the start. He was injured for most of last season. The Padres always seem to get a lot of those.

Hopefully this trade will work out well for the Padres, though I don’t think we got the better side of the deal.

Happy New Year!

2011 is officially over, and 2012 has begun. With that comes a new beginning to the San Diego Padres season. We’ve said our goodbyes to Heath Bell, Jed Hoyer and Mat Latos, and we’ve welcomed Huston Street, Carlos Quentin, Edinson Volquez and of course, Mark Kotsay. There still might be some moves to be made, but it’s time to put the business aside and get down to the game.

We are about three months away from Opening Day.

As usual, I look ahead to the season with excitement, but also a lot of questions.

Are we going to hit? Is our rotation going to be okay? How’s the bullpen going to pan out? Will we still have Anthony Rizzo by the start of the season? And when will the Padres sign Kevin Kouzmanoff already? (He’s currently a free agent.)

Truth is, I have no idea how this team is going to look on Opening Day. I have a good idea of what players will be there, but there are a lot of new guys. I don’t know how well the team will play together or how strong of a team we’ll be.

I don’t think we’re going to do exceptionally well, but we might not do terribly either. It’s all up in the air right now. This year’s team is already looking a ton different from last year’s team.

As always, it’s going to be an adventure.

GO PADRES!

Kooooooooooz :)

Rockies’ third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff warms up before Friday’s game against the San Diego Padres.

I got to see Kevin Kouzmanoff yesterday. After two years, I got to see the player who means the most to me in all of baseball. I got to see my all-time favorite baseball player here in San Diego. It was fantastic.

At about 5 p.m. last night, I was sitting in the bleachers when Colorado Rockies players started streaming out of the visitor dugout. I hustled over to the third base side of the field to see none other than Kouz.

It was so much fun to watch him. Though I didn’t get to interact with him at all, it was so much fun to see him there, to watch him play again. To see his beautiful smile. I’ve really missed him a lot.

Though I wasn’t paying much attention, the game went really badly. We had eight hits and no runs. The Rockies had seven hits and three runs. It stunk. Will Venable made a horrible error that was actually ruled a triple, but it cost us the game, so it should have been called an error. Even without the error though, the Padres’ offense was nowhere to be seen.

Kouz went 0-for-4. He got on base in the top of the ninth on a force out. Defensively, he allowed made one really great play, but the throw wasn’t in time to first base. He was not happy about that one. But it didn’t matter (like the Padres could actually score a run).

We lost 3-0, which added another loss to our eight-game losing streak.

After the game was the Friday night fireworks. I thought it was going to be kind of pathetic, but they weren’t kidding when they called it “Friday Night Fireworks Spectacular.” It was a legitimately good show! It would have been more fun if the Padres had won, but it was very cool anyways.

I can’t tell you how cool it was to see my baby again. I’m so thankful that he’s back in the NL West. Last night was a wonderful birthday present.

I LOVE YOU KOUZ!!!

GO PADRES!!!

 

Beginning of the End

We just got swept by the Dodgers. Which really stinks, but what stinks even more is that we got swept the series before that too, by the Diamondbacks. Not good at all.

Seven game losing streak. It hasn’t been a good season by a long shot, but a streak like this is annoying anyways. At least we had been getting in a win every few games consistently. But losing so many in a row? That’s rough, man.

And now we enter the month of the NL West. We are literally playing teams from our division every game in September EXCEPT for the last series of the season, which is against the Cubs of all people.

We’re coming down to the end, folks. Some might be relieved. For me, I’ll be glad to see the end of the season and the start of hopefully a better team next year. But I’ll miss my boys a lot. Football is great and all, but nothing compares to Padres baseball. And really, this season hasn’t been too hard on me at all. Sure, we were in the basement all season, but like I said, we were able to win at least one game in every series pretty consistently, and that made things easier.

But we’ve still got some game left. Starting with this Friday, when Kevin Kouzmanoff and the Rockies are coming to town. Yours truly will be in the stands near third base, drooling over that fine third baseman. So excited. I can’t wait to see my boy and take a ridiculous amount of pictures of him. The Rockies haven’t been doing so hot lately either, so maybe my boys will have a chance. GO KOUZ!!

GO PADRES!!!

Six days until the Kouz sighting :)

Guess what? I’m going to see Kevin Kouzmanoff next week!!

The Rockies are coming to town next weekend, with the newly aquired Kevin, and my parents bought me tickets as an 18th birthday present. Thank you!!!

I am so excited beyond belief. I haven’t seen Kouz since 2009, before he was traded. I am so happy that he’s back in the National League, back in the NL West. Even if it is the Rockies, it’s much better than the A’s. Now, at least we’ll get to play against him a lot more that we could have against the A’s.

I’m sitting near third base, so I’m going to get to stare at his beautiful face all game long. I just want to see him, cheer for him (just him, not the Rockies), and maybe, just maybe get the chance to talk to him. That would be so cool. I really, truly have missed him these past couple years. I can’t wait to see him!!!

Six days and counting 🙂

GO PADRES!!!

Kouz to the big leagues!

Kouz has now been called up to the Rockies!!! Yay!!!! I’m really, really happy for my boy. It’s good to see that he’s going to finally get back in the majors. And guess what? We’re playing the Rockies next weekend at home. Oooohhh…an idea comes to mind. I need to go!

ANYWAY, the Padres won last night! It was so great. Gotta love beating the Giants. We won 7-5. The Giants tied the game 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth, but thankfully, we got two runs in the top of the ninth, and Heath Bell got the save.

Speaking of which. Heath Bell got placed on waivers yesterday, and the Giants claimed him today. I don’t think he’ll actually go over to them, but it would be kind of funny. No, not really. I love having Heath here. It would be really sad if he went away.

Tim Stauffer against Tim Lincecum tonight.

GO PADRES!!

Kouz to the Rockies!

Big news: Kevin Kouzmanoff has been traded from the Oakland A’s to the Colorado Rockies!

I’m really excited for my boy. He was playing in Triple-A for the A’s, and he’s probably going to be doing the same for the Rockies, but this is a new chance for him. I’m excited for him.

Especially because he grew up in Colorado, he must be so thrilled. Even though the Rockies aren’t my favorite team, I would be so happy to have him play with them because that would mean that he’s in the majors. And I’m pretty sure he would look really hot in that purple and black.

Congrats, Kouz. You’d better be appreciated by those Colorado Rockies.

Padres play tonight in San Francisco. It’s Mat Latos vs. Matt Cain. That will be fascinating. And then tomorrow Tim Lincecum is going tomorrow against Tim Stauffer. That will be even more fascinating.

GO PADRES!!

 

Looking Up

Last night’s game was a great one for the San Diego Padres.

We had 15 hits, which is rare. But it was so much fun to watch! Nick Hundley, who recently came off the disabled list, had three hits, two triples and a double. Two triples!! It was so great.

Then Logan Forsythe, Jesus Guzman, Kyle Blanks, Orlando Hudson and Alberto Gonzalez had two hits each. Cameron Maybin hit a solo homer in the seventh.

We actually got the early lead with two runs in the bottom of the first, and kept that lead for the rest of the game. The Mets were able to get one run in the top of the fourth, but we added one run in the bottom of that inning, two runs in the seventh, and one run in the eighth.

Cory Luebke, who started the game, threw very, very well. He had a no-hitter through 3.2 innings. He ended up only giving up three hits on one run with five strikeouts. What an outing!

In relief, Chad Qualls allowed the Mets’ only other hit in the game. Luke Gregerson and Erik Hamren threw the eighth and ninth with no problems.

It was a really good 6-1 win. We had some really solid hitting, really solid pitching. It was great to see.

 Guess what? Trevor Hoffman day is only a few days away!!!! I am sooooo excited. But I’m going to cry so bad. Just the sound of Hell’s Bells makes me freak out, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to be a mess on Sunday. But that’s okay. Trevor Hoffman is my all-time favorite Padre (besides Kevin Kouzmanoff), but more than that, he’s one of the all-time favorite Padres in San Diego. I have so much admiration and respect for Trevor, I could go on and on about how much this guy means to me.

I’m just so happy that this retirement ceremony is happening. There was a time just a few years ago where I thought Trevor and the Padres would never be on speaking terms again. Those were some bad days. But I’m so, so, thankful that we have new leaders in the front office, people who respect Trevor and all he means to San Diego, people who will give him an amazing ceremony to honor his incredible career. It’s going to be a great day to be a Padres fan.

GO PADRES!!!!!