Here are a few things

You’re reading this because for whatever reason you find pedantic details of a High A Padres affiliate interesting, or you find me wildly hilarious, or you’re my father and you want to pick a fight with me about RBIs. Nonetheless, I appreciate your attention, because I need validation and none of my friends care enough about sports to talk to me.

So, my goal is to keep you informed about the team, its stand out players and transactions, though I suspect I will deviate from them from time to time to address major baseball news and let you know when some superstar does a rehab stint through the Cal League (MANNY RAMIREZ WAS HERE). I plan on utilizing some advanced metrics, though I am still relatively new to the SABR community so hopefully your knowledge of advanced stats will increase as mine does. When I do use them, I will be sure to give an acceptable explanation as to why I believe a stat is worthwhile as well as how it works. I will not use RBI, because hitters can not magically put the batters in front of them on base(more on this in the future). Also its a good bet that I will get side tracked talking about music, because I know I have a truly unique taste that I will be compelled to share.

I suppose it would be proper to tell you a couple things about the Storm, just to get you up to speed. The Storm have been around since as long as I can remember, though the early days are awfully hazy to me. In 1994 the Storm were still a high A affiliate, but unfortunately they were a part of the hated California/Anahiem/Los Angeles of Anahiem/Los Angeles Angels. This meant scrappy, gritty players along the lines Darin (Fucking) Erstad, one of the heroes of the Angels prolific 2002 World Series run, who make me sick because they look like they try harder or whatever bullshit perpetuates their careers. Thankfully, the clubs ownership changed hands, as well as its MLB affiliation. This, however, meant the loss of the beloved mascot Hamlet, who, in the early years, meant more to me than any ball player could.

Hamlet: A Dragon who has no correlation to the team name

These days the Storm call the San Diego Padres their papa(I regret this joke) and as such have continued to field interesting prospects and a bevy of high draft picks. For example, Jake Peavy pitched here(hey thats the name of the blog), though I have a very vague recollection of watching him pitch. I distinctly remember watching Khalil Greene during his brief stint in Lake Elsinore. Also they used to have Xavier Nady’s number retired but then I guess they felt it wasn’t deserved and it was replaced with Peavy’s number, which will become another hilarious footnote in the Padres register of faliures.

This year’s team contains a lot of very interesting offensive prospects and a couple eventual major league bull pen arms. My next post will discuss the up and comers and a couple other interesting guys who might surprise the Cal league.

Other Interesting Facts You Can Learn From Wikipedia:

• The stadium is called Pete Lehr Field, I can’t be bothered to do a search as to why
• It seats 7,866 fans, though the only time I’ve seen it that full was my graduation ceremony
• One time the storm beat the Lancaster JetHawks 30-0, who deserved it because they have an idiotic name.

Things only a fan can tell you

• Thirsty Thursdays are the best day to go to the games, because who doesnt like dollar beer night
• If you feel like heckling, come on a Monday, because the park is empty, but please harass the visiting team
• Avoid Wednesdays if you like to swear in public, because kids get in free

So thanks for reading this rambling introduction, in the future I hope to be a bit more concise and maybe a bit more serious.

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