Juice And Jacob Leading The Illini Over Minny

Juice started today's game and played well but then went down with an ankle injury. Jacob Charest has since led two scoring drives to put the Illini up 28-7 at the half.

Charest is throwing some nice balls. That's my observation of the game so far.

I Forgot To Mention That Mike Hazen Turned Down The Padres

Mike Hazen turned down his pal Jed Hoyer last week and decided to stay on as an executive with the Red Sox. A shame. I've heard good things about Hazen.

But I'm sure Jed has some other talented beasts in mind to fill the assistant GM role.

Get to it, Jed. Don't let me hold you up.

I Forgot To Mention That The Chargers Beat The Raiders Last Sunday

13 straight wins. Canepa blogged it.

I Forgot To Mention That Illinois Beat Michigan Last Saturday

That Terry Hawthorne play was just outstanding.

Halloween Is Today

We've got Illini-Michigan, we've got the Bolts preparing for the Raiduhs, we've got Jed Hoyer planning out the Padres future and we've got Bruce Weber and the boys scoring 95 points in their opening exhibition.

I am liking all that is happening.

Best. Uniforms. Ever.

Those All Whites the Bolts wore on Sunday were the best uniforms I - or anyone else - has ever seen.

Jed Hoyer Dispenses With Grady Fuson

Looks like one of Jed Hoyer's first moves as Padres GM is removing Grady Fuson as vice president of scouting and player development. Fuson was on the job for 5 years.

Scouting and player development is probably the most important job on a mid-to-small market team, so I have no problem with Jed bringing in his own guy for the job. I'm also confident that Jed will select someone who will know what he's doing. I have no specific reason to be confident about that, but I am.

For Grady's part, he did an okay job in his 5 years. Successes and potential successes include Kyle Blanks, Will Venable, Mat Latos, Nick Hundley, Wade LeBlanc and Chase Headley. Disappointments and potential disappointments include Matt Antonelli, Cesar Carrillo, Cesar Ramos and Nick Schmidt. That's not a complete list. That's just a list I copied from an article in the U-T.

As with any new hire, it will take a few years to know if Jed is moving the Drinos player development system in the right direction. I like the direction the system moved last year with all the power arms KT traded for, and the development of players like James Darnell and Jaff Decker. Hopefully Jed can do even better.