Leadership

My worst nightmare is starting to become a reality. The Padres are in last place and so far no one has taken on the leadership role. I know that teams traditionally look at coaches to be leaders to pick the team up when they are struggling, but as is the case with most championship teams almost every single team has a player on the field to turn to for leadership.

Look at the team that won the Super Bowl this past February the Green Bay Packers. Sure they had a lot of talent on their team but they also had a leader who put it all together and made them a team, Aaron Rodgers.

How about the World Series Championships from last year the San Francisco Giants. Similar to the Green Bay Packers, the Giants had talented players at key positions. But it wouldn’t have mattered much if they didn’t have the leadership of Tim Lincecum who guided them through the playoffs and eventually to the promise land as world champions.

The Padres have talent throughout their starting roster. Their bench unfortunately is weak this year but the starting line-up and pitching staff has seriously potential to compete and that was proven last year when the team won 90 games. The difference from this year and last year is plain and simple, leadership.

Last year’s leader for the Padres was Adrian Gonzalez who is now playing first base for the Boston Red Sox. Gonzalez was the leader on the field but he was also the vocal leader in the clubhouse. His presence has been missed greatly but it is now time for the new generation of Padres to step up to the plate.

Is it going to be Chase Headley or maybe Nick Hundley ? I don’t know who it is going to be but I do know that until someone steps up to be the leader of this ballclub, they are going nowhere fast.

Procrastination Study Earns Teen an Award

I thought that was a very interesting article that really hits home with me because I am known as the ultimate procrastinator. It is rarely the case that I start doing an assignment a week before it is due. I usually start my assignments the day before they are due or hours before they are due. Why is this? I honestly do not know the reason; I have been this way for as long as I can remember when it comes to doing assignments for school.

I think that Caroline’s research is interesting because it might lead to a lot of answers that teachers have been asking students for literally years. I think a big part of procrastination comes from parents and teaching their children to work efficiently and to get work done in a timely fashion. Now I am not trying to call out my parents by saying that they did a bad job in teaching me how to do my homework. And I honestly do not think it is my parents fault because I am the one that makes the decision to procrastinate and to put things off until the last minute.

Another reason for the procrastination is because like Caroline’s mother said, kids today are so many activities that it is not so much that kids are being lazy, but simply there are not enough hours in a day that time is sometimes not managed properly.

School should always be the number one priority. Parents should teach their kids to complete their school work before engaging in other activities. But some parents have problems saying no to their kids.

 I personally believe that it is on the kid to get his work done and to stop procrastinating. A parent, teacher, or adult can tell a kid to stop procrastinating until they are blue in the face but it ultimately up to the child to want to change his ways.

Further research on this matter should be interesting to not only students and teachers but parents as well so that possibly everyone could be helped.  

Moseley Deserves Better

This edition of Friars Row is going in a different direction this week because honestly I am upset. There are a couple reasons as to why I am not a happy camper right now. First of all, my intramural softball team finished the season 9-0-1 and our one tie has given us the number two seed in the playoffs. It might sound a little greedy and I know that is not a good reason for me to be upset but I really wanted to finish the regular season undefeated and go into the playoffs with that number one seed. The second reason why I am upset is because my precious Anaheim Ducks just lost to the Nashville Predators and are down 2-1 in a best of seven series. It is something that I have never mentioned on this blog but I am a die heart Ducks fan and after missing out on the playoffs last year, the Ducks have to prove that they are a serious contender that can compete in the playoffs. And finally, I am really upset because Padres pitcher Dustin Moseley as of today has a 0-3 record with a 1.83 earned run average.

            Now with those stats being presented I ask, where is the justice? New York Yankee fans know Moseley well because he won them a playoff game last year and was one of their highest rated prospects last year. Fortunately for the Padres, the Yankees do what they do best and did not keep their prospect and Moseley became a free agent. The Padres got a great discount for Moseley signing him to a $900,000 contract during the offseason. In his three starts this season, the Padres could not have asked anymore of Moseley. All three starts have been quality starts. I personally think that ‘wins’ for a pitcher is one of the most overrated stats in all of sports. Think about it, a pitcher could come into a game and throw only one pitch and get the win. The most important stat for a pitcher is earned run average and after 15 games, Moseley has one of the best ERAs in baseball. The Padres offense has to get the bats off of their shoulders and start producing some runs for this man. Moseley deserves better and the offense needs to be better.     

TJ's News Story

Mobile, Alabama Leprechaun News Story

Original Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8

NL West

The Padres have been a part of the National League's Western Division since the team was founded back in 1969. Since 1969, both the National League and the Western Division have expanded. For the better part of a decade however, the American League has been looked at as the better league because they have won more World Series and more All Star Games. American League baseball has also become more popular than the National League and there are many theories as to why this is. Some believe that it is because the American is a more offensive league because of the designated hitter that does not exist in the National League. Others believe it is because the American League has more historic teams with amazing traditions like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Tigers just to name a few.

            But things changed last year as the National league won the All Star Game for the first time since 1996, and the San Francisco Giants won the World Series. Unfortunately for the Padres, they are in the same division as the Giants. Three other teams call the National League West home, the Diamondbacks, Dodgers, and Rockies.

            After looking at each team’s roster and start to the 2011 season, I think that the Diamondbacks are not going to compete this year because they have a young team with new management and it is going to take time for them to get settled in. The other four teams in the division are going to battle for the title.

            I think that the Padres are going to finish third with 85 wins. Even though the Padres won 90 games last year, there has many changes to the 25 man roster and they lost their best player from last year (Adrian Gonzalez). The San Francisco Giants are going to win the National League West because they are the defending World Series Champions who have experience, pitching, and a solid lineup that can produce runs.   

Man On The Street

Do people like Montgoris Dining Hall? Lets find out

Padres First Series

The first series of the 2011 season for the San Diego Padres is officially history. The Padres won the 3 game series (2-1) as they kicked off their season against the National League Central’s St. Louis Cardinals. All things considered I am pleased with the performance of the team and its new players.

Going into this series I honestly was not expecting a lot. I thought that the Padres were going to lose their opening series for a couple of reasons. First, the Padres’ number one pitcher Mat Latos is starting the season on the 15 day disabled list and was not available to pitch on opening day against the Cardinal’s number one pitcher Chris Carpenter, who when healthy is a threat to win the Cy Young Award very year. Second, I thought that Albert Pujols was going to give the Padres a tough time in this series. Pujols is the best player in baseball and he is currently in a contract year (which means he will be a free agent at the end of the season if he does not sign a new deal with the Cardinals), and I thought he was going to make a statement to start the season but fortunately I was wrong. And finally, the Padres historically have not played well in St. Louis. The Padres had not swept the Cardinals in St. Louis since 1980 so it has been a generation’s time since the Padres have had any great success.

There were plenty of positives that came out of this series. Pitching was a positive because the pitching staff did not give up a lot of runs. The Padres did not allow more than three runs in their first three games. Another positive was the emergence of the new players like Cameron Maybin. Maybin made his presence known in his Padres debut when with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning he tied the game with a solo homerun to force extra innings.

The one negative I saw was timely hitting. In game three of the series the Padres had the bases loaded with one out on two separate occasions and could not produce a run. The Padres are going to need clutch hitting as the season continues if they want to give themselves a shot at the division.