The San Diego Padres… What A Mess.
As a pretty much lifelong resident of San Diego, I have a deep and undying love for our hometown team, the Padres. What an emotional year and a half it has been. Lets recap some of the events which have unfurled over the last couple years.
February 2008 – Majority owner (90%) John and Becky Moores announce divorce after nearly 45 years of marriage.
August 17(ish), 2008 – In an attempt to cut payroll, Greg Maddux is traded to NL West rival Dodgers, paying $1.3MM of the contract, and receiving 2 low level prospects in return. At this point the Padres payroll was at about $73MM.
End of 2008 Season – Finished season with a 63 – 99 record, good enough for last in the NL West. Only Seattle and Washington had worse records. Payroll is expected to be cut dramatically.
November 7th, 2008 – Kevin Towers exercises Brian Giles 2009 option at $9MM, over a $3MM buyout (This was after Giles vetoed a trade which would have landed him in Boston).
Second Half of 2008 Season – Jake Peavy trade rumors start brewing
December 2, 2008 – SS Khalil Greene traded to St Louis for RP Mark Worrell and a player to be named later, which became Luke Gregerson.
December 15, 2008 – Owner John Moores hires Goldman Sachs to help facilitate sale of his portion of team (90%).
February 3, 2009 – A deal is reached to sell the team to a group headed by Jeff Moored, who was CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Initially, the new ownership group retains 35% share of team, with majority ownership no later than 3 years down the road, and full ownership of Moores shares by 5 years.
Off Season 2008/2009 – Jake Peavy is rumored to be involved in trades multiple teams, with the closest deals coming with the Braves and, later, the Cubs.
Pre-2009 Season – Payroll is set at $40MM by John Moores. This is nearly half of the 2008 mark.
So this painting the broad strokes and major events which have occurred in in the last year and a half with the Padres. Even revisiting these events has made me frustrated and sad. That is a witness as a fan and not in a good way.
What has happened?
During the 2008 campaign Brian Giles put up a respectable .306 BA, 40 2B, 12 HR, 63 RBI. He held the highest BA on the team.
Flash to present day, 2009, a DL warming Giles has put up numbers Mario Mendoza could laugh at. He owns a .191 BA, 10 2B, 2 HR, and 23 RBI to this point. His time has been spent best on the DL, 31 games and counting…
Before tonight’s game, the Padres are 37-55. The only teams with worse records are Cleveland (36-57) and Washington (26-65). Does Washington really count though?
Currently on the Disable List: Jake Peavy, Giles, Henry Blanco, David Eckstein, Chris Young, Nick Hundley, Cliff Floyd, Cha Seung Baek, and Shawn Hill. This provides a HUGE problem. If the team is looking to the future and wants to trade away its talent for young talent, they simply can’t do it right now. First off, the players many teams covet are on the DL. Secondly, even if we could trade them, how do we put a team on the field when everyone is injured?
So what do we do?
In all honesty, and I hate to admit it, I have little to no hope for this year, or next. Ill still go to games, Ill still show my support, but I’m losing hope. I cant wait until the day Moorad and his crew take over. I hope that changes everything,
In my opinion, we need to cut Brian Giles, trade Peavy in the off-season (in retrospect we should have taken the offer from the Braves), trade the awful Kevin Kouzmanoff, and do everything in our power to get John Moores out of our town ASAP.
This is just some basic steps in a laundry list of things the team needs to do. Padres fan cant continue to go through this for much longer. Give us some help. Throw us a bone. Do something. The team is losing its fans. I hate hearing the words “Padres need to save face” with the fans. How can they save face when the fans are already betrayed?
What do you think? Should the Padres continue with a salary cuts and trade Adrian, Peavy, Kouz, Eckstein, and so on?
Love it? Hate it? Suggestions for the team?
Your Infield Fly is Down 
The Padres have had a very interesting year. They’ve had ups and downs. Confusing and interesting happenings over the course of the season and it will be interesting to see how they fare the rest of the year.
-Dillon
http://dillonm.mlblogs.com
My thing is, if you mix vets with newbie’s, you have a strong team. Trading players right and left is a negative for any team.
-Holly
http://irishsoxkid19.mlblogs.com
Good point Dillon, how does a team start 9-3, have a 10 game win streak, then currently ride a 2-8 over the last 10? Guess we never know what we are getting.
Another good point from Holly. A mix is definitely needed. If I had it my way we could sign Eckstein and 3 others just like him for lifelong contracts. Look at the A’s who opened the season with 3 SPs with no previous ML starts. Good talent, but you definitely need that veteran leadership to help along the way.
The way I see it, unfortunately, is let the Pads trade off the vets. Get what we can back and in 2-3 years when the new ownership takes over and the payroll is back where it should be, we will have a solid crew of young players and sign some of those needed vets.
Padres fan here. Nice breakdown. That was the most difficult offseason I had to deal with. Especially since Khalil Greene AND Trevor Hoffman left. So far this season, it’s looking bad since we have ton of guys on DL and lack of offense. We traded away vetrans for minor leaguers. Not good. It’s going to be interesting how the Padres will finish their season. Oh yeah, if the front office trades David Eckstein, I will be pi**ed.
http://hyunyoung.mlblogs.com
I don’t really have hope for this season either. I mean, with the way this team has been playing day after day, there’s no chance. The injuries haven’t helped at all, though. I honestly thing we would be a better team if we hadn’t lost all these players like we did. Scott Hairston trade was terrible. There’s always next year, you know. But we do have a ton of great players in our future. I’m loving Everth, and Latos will be good. Nick, maybe. I think there is hope for this team in the far future. Not this year. This year, it’s just wishful thinking 🙂 Kouz isn’t awful though. But it’s true, the fans aren’t going to take much more of this. I’m dying here (well, that might just be the heat, but still). They have to give us something!! But as always, GO PADRES!!
http://kaybee.mlblogs.com