Podcast: Now It’s A Two-Team Race

Site-wide request: minimize the use of "After the jump" and "meh". Those are two of my most hated "blog" phrases that a lot of blog writers use to sound "cool" when it actually just sounds really lame. :) I prefer the simpler: "down below" or "after the break" and "eh" or "hmmm".

Other than that (and a few weird layout errors on the site) I love 619sports.net! As a displaced Chargers and Padres fan living in the San Francisco Bay Area, it's great to read insight from the locals in San Diego! Keep up the great work! :)

I dont think its time to eliminate LA or the Rocks, just yet...I really dont. If "the good guys" were working on widening the gap between them and their closest rivals, Id join you...but over the course of just the last 3-4 games, I see a Padre team that is playing tight...I see guys who are playing for something and not playing with house money, and as such, they're playing tight...and believe it or not, I see a team that doesnt play as focused without that little guy, Eckstein, on the field...kinda weird.

Now I know what you media types mean when you call him the glue that keeps everything together. My ol man says that the key to having a guy like Eck in the lineup, shows up in how the other guys look at him thinking, "if he can do it, I know I can do it, too"..And since Eck's been out, some or a lot of that kind of enthusiasm has been missing.

Tejada and Ludwick have been nice pieces and I believe they'll keep pitching in as wee go along...but David Eckstein is a LOT more important than people really know. Im wilking to bet that our win/loss record would show that when he's out of the lineup we lose more games than when he's in the lineup.

positive side note: it looks like Adrian is back and that bodes well for August. I could care less about the loss last nite. I was just excited to see my 1st baseman back in the saddle, ready to hurt some pitchers in Aug/Sept.