I’m surprised Canepa didn’t mention that he was celebrating his 50th birthday at that game.

We’ve gotten comfortable with the “in the 7th inning, no hits” bid, it’s just not that uncommon for us now. No complaints. :)

Seriously, what is with all the off-days in April?

The shortstop is actually 33, not the 31 that is listed in the Astros media guide.

"The thing is I didn’t want Houston to find out from somebody else," he said. "I wanted to find out just from my face. I’m a man and I’m responsible for everything. That’s why I prefer to come to them and say, ‘You know what? That’s the way it is and we’re moving forward.’

"I was feeling like I had something to say in the last three days. That’s why I waited for today to do it."

Ummmm…what?

I just read this at Baseball Prospectus:

Part of the reason for that success is the excellent defense San Diego has played this season. San Diego’s staff has allowed a .226 batting average, second lowest in the majors, and on balls put into play that average raises to a BABIP of just .256. Turning that figure around tells us that Padres’ fielders have converted 74.4 percent of balls put into play into outs, which leads the majors. The Padres ranked sixth last year in Defensive Efficiency, so that they are first so far is not too much of a surprise. However, San Diego did bring in new starters up the middle, Tadahito Iguchi at second base, and Jim Edmonds in center field. Iguchi rated as terrible with the glove during his time with Chicago, by both Dan Fox’s Simple Fielding Runs metric (SFR) and Clay Davenport’s FRAA. Oddly, upon his move to the NL last year at the trade deadline, Iguchi improved in both systems substantially, to the point where he rated as above average, and he has already been a whopping +4 FRAA at second so far this year. It was thought that Edmonds, at the age of 38 this season and in the midst of a steep decline phase, was no longer even an average glove in center due to aging and the toll of multiple injuries, but so far he too has out-performed expectations, with a FRAA Rate of +111 (11 runs better than average per 100 games). Third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and right fielder Brian Giles were the Padres’ two worst defenders last year by SFR and FRAA, but each has been much better in the early going of 2008. While the 37-year-old Giles will probably see his performance slip, there is hope that Kouzmanoff, starting his second full major league season, has made real strides at the hot corner.

CY has a hitch in his giddyup and will be moved back a day. The Professor will ptich tomorrow in his place. We knew something was wrong – since like the last half of last year.