Drinos 8, Mountains 3

Kouz has been absolutely raking of late.

Since July 5 he's raised his batting average from .266 to, as of this morning, .278. His slugging percentage is up from .422 to .450, and his OPS has jumped from .734 to .768.

That's pretty impressive, and I don't even know what OPS means.

After a little dip earlier this week after back-to-back 0-fers in the last two games at Shea, Kouz has three hits apiece in both games in Denver this weekend. On Friday, he hit 3 for 4 with a double in an otherwise disgusting, mistake-filled 6-3 loss to the Mountains. Then, last night, he smoked 3 hits in 5 at-bats, including another double, a ribeye and 3 runs scored. And, as today's headline indicates, the Drinos won this time 8-3.

Obviously opinion is divided on this issue, but the Padres should be very wary of trading away Kevin Kouzmanoff. First, in what is probably the most important factor to the front office if grumblings in the press about impending budget cuts are to believed, he's a very inexpensive 3B option for the next few years. Second, I think the numbers Kouz is putting up this season - by no means shabby - are going to be his low-median numbers over the next 5-7 years. His numbers this season will be a slight improvement over his numbers from last season, and I can't see him having a drop off going forward. More likely he'll continue to improve. And who knows what his numbers would be if he ever found himself playing home games in Colorado or Cincinnati or Philadelphia or Arizona.

Could be sick ridiculous.