The nickname “the best team money can buy” was hung on the Yankees of the 1970s, who went on a George Steinbrenner free agent buying binge of star power ranging from Catfish Hunter to Reggie Jackson to Goose Gossage.
AJ Preller signed on as Padres GM last August and immediately tried to assemble a similar star-studded lineup using mostly trades, acquiring marquee (but in some cases tainted) players and dealing away a lot of his farm system prospects. As Billy Ripken put it, “The Padres won the offseason, but the last I checked that doesn’t mean much.” They have dramatically underperformed, 6 games under .500 entering tonight. There is a great Baseball Prospectus article by Sam Miller showing how bad the Padres’ talent has sucked:
Assessing the Mess in San Diego
The interesting line in that article:
“He could have done a full tear-down, cynically shoveling three years of misery at Padres fans while buffering himself from any blame.”
When you stop to think about it, Preller and Jeff Bridich are almost the same guy. Both 37ish (Preller’s DOB is top secret). Both Ivy League, one Cornell, one Harvard. Similarly thought of in executive circles as up-and-comer analytics types. They even look like they shop at the same men’s store.
But the two approaches could not be more radically different. One advantage San Diego had was better starting pitching, so much so they dealt Matt Wisler for Craig Kimbrel. Even without James Shields panning out, Tyson Ross could be a fixture at the top of the rotation for a long time.
The Rockies on the other hand have decided for the three years of misery approach. The only thing left to root for is Jon Gray, making his third start and seeking his first win. If he makes progress on his start in NY, this could be an OK night until the bullpen phone rings and all heck breaks loose.
Kyle Parker has been pushed down to the 8 hole, we’ll see how that works. Typically that isn’t the spot to put a struggling young hitter – but, we see Melvin is 8 hole for the Padres. Somebody has to hit there.
San Diego Padres
3B Yangervis Solarte (S)
1B Yonder Alonso (L)
RF Matt Kemp (R)
LF Justin Upton (R)
2B Jedd Gyorko (R)
C Derek Norris (R)
SS Alexi Amarista (L)
CF Melvin Upton Jr. (R)
P Andrew Cashner (R)
Rockies
CF Charlie Blackmon (L)
SS Jose Reyes (S)
RF Carlos Gonzalez (L)
3B Nolan Arenado (R)
1B Ben Paulsen (L)
2B DJ LeMahieu (R)
C Nick Hundley (R)
LF Kyle Parker (R)
P Jon Gray (R)
[sac_happens]
Chad Bettis pitches 3 1/3 scoreless innings for New Britain, 61 pitches. Why only 3 1/3 innings? I hope it was just a pitch count thing and not a health thing.
Blowpen, Blowpen , Blowpen. Jeez, what a joke this entire group is, day in and day out.
We had Todd and the Toddlers.
Are we entering the Gray and the Gophers era?
Walt Weiss is an idiot. It was obvious right away that Germen has a bad day. Nobody was warming up until after we lost the lead.
Kahnle is simply not fit to be a closer. What a clown shown show now wth the Hundley error. Little League World Series has better play than this group.
Think young Gray is thrilled to be a member of this team? Ha. Kid has two good starts pissed away by his mates. And he’s not going to have any fingers left to pitch with soon. Anybody catch his nervous habit when he first got camera time a few days ago and the closeup of his bleeding nonexistent nails? Chewin em down further tonight. Tired and flat, somebody said? Well, duh. Who wouldn’t be? My my, how low will they… Read more »
Think anybody is thrilled to be a member of this team? Hmmmm, no. And, it’s a looong ways to October 4.
Why is this Name That Needs a Comma (Gonzalez, German) on the roster again? Go back in time and one thing O’Dowd could always do is find a basically capable veteran reliever in the scrap heap to avoid situations like this. Matt Herges. Jay Witasick. Jason Grilli. Jorge Julio. Elmer Dessens. A lot of them were mid-season cheapo acquisitions. Some did better than others, and it’s not like I was thrilled to see them enter a fake or anything. But… Read more »
Bud Norris was available and we would have had “dibs” before SD.Kind of the kind of guy you’re talking about.Don’t know the price though.
To quote DD: “The Rockies on the other hand have decided for the three years of misery approach. The only thing left to root for is Jon Gray, making his third start and seeking his first win. If he makes progress on his start in NY, this could be an OK night until the bullpen phone rings and all heck breaks loose.” As of now (the offseason “could” change this) the Rox have chosen the eternal 70 win per season… Read more »