Over 1000 (presumably) Padres fans voted on Paul DePodesta’s latest poll. Somewhat surprisingly (to me, at least), 87% of the fans want the Padres to “sell” as the trade deadline approaches. At this point, I think that’s the obvious choice, but I figured more people would choose “buy” or “stand pat” with the Pads being “just” 10 games back in the putrid NL West.

Tango Tiger did not really like the poll question.

And here’s more from Tango — a good little explanation of WPA.

New Padres blog — “There are Better Deals in August.” Lots of good stuff there, including this post on being “consistently competitive”:

Second, I personally do not care too much about winning the World Series. What I actually care about is that the possibility of winning the World Series exists throughout the season. As all Padres fans have been reminded of this year, it is much more fun to root for a team that is eliminated on game 163 rather than game 63. Would I rather see the Padres win a World Series than not? Of course. But in general, I am content with the team being “consistently competitive.”

Great stuff, as usual, from Dave Studeman’s weekly column. Interestingly, a fliner — a BIP between a line drive and a fly ball – is the second most valuable type of in-play ball (from the hitter’s perspective, of course).

Here’s a breakdown of the Sabathia and Harden deals from a bunch of THT writers.

Patriot’s posted part 3 of his run estimation series — gotta finish reading that.

Skyking is back posting on his blog, and here is his NL all-star team.

Fifth Outfielder proposes a baseball website based on minor league projections and scouting reports … yeah, somebody get on this : )