Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Padres Go For Broke.
The San Diego Padres are in some kind of a meltdown. The team lost 99 games last year. Published stories indicate that payroll next year will be in the $40 million range, which is a bit more than half of payroll last year.
The team has let Trevor Hoffman go. To be frank, that's probably the right thing to do. Hoffman has lost his edge. Plus, he's a closer. Even when he's on, he's no good to the Padres unless the team has the lead entering the ninth inning. Better to put the money elsewhere and give Heath Bell a shot at closing.
The real heartache for fans is the effort to push Jake Peavy out the door. Peavy is the team's front line starter. Without him, there's just one truly top of the line starter on the team in Chris Young. With Peavy, the Pads have the edge going 2 out of 5 games they play.
Peavy trade talks are going nowhere, which is hurting the team's effort to rebuild the rest of the lineup.
My guess is it's tied to owner John Moores' divorce. California is a community property state and so everything he and his wife owned must be split 50-50. (Well, there can be exceptions to that, but let's not worry about those.) My guess is that shedding payroll is part of an effort to drive down the value of the Padres to improve John Moores' bargaining position when it comes time to swap assets with his wife in the property settlement. The less the Padres are worth, the less John Moores has to give up in exchange, if he wants to keep the team for himself.
-tdr
The team has let Trevor Hoffman go. To be frank, that's probably the right thing to do. Hoffman has lost his edge. Plus, he's a closer. Even when he's on, he's no good to the Padres unless the team has the lead entering the ninth inning. Better to put the money elsewhere and give Heath Bell a shot at closing.
The real heartache for fans is the effort to push Jake Peavy out the door. Peavy is the team's front line starter. Without him, there's just one truly top of the line starter on the team in Chris Young. With Peavy, the Pads have the edge going 2 out of 5 games they play.
Peavy trade talks are going nowhere, which is hurting the team's effort to rebuild the rest of the lineup.
"And for a team coming off a 99-loss season in 2008, there are several areas that need to be filled, as general manager Kevin Towers wants to add starting pitching, relief pitching and shore up his bench for 2009.It's obvious to anybody that Padres management is moving Peavy purely for financial reasons. The team needs to shed payroll. The question is why?
"But not knowing if the team can or will move Peavy and his $11 million contract for 2009 has all but left Towers in a standby mode until the future of the 2007 National League Cy Young Award winner is decided.
"'That's pretty much it,' Towers said. 'It's certainly a large sum of money we would be moving. Once that's decided, we will have a better idea of what holes we would be plugging.'" (Here.)
My guess is it's tied to owner John Moores' divorce. California is a community property state and so everything he and his wife owned must be split 50-50. (Well, there can be exceptions to that, but let's not worry about those.) My guess is that shedding payroll is part of an effort to drive down the value of the Padres to improve John Moores' bargaining position when it comes time to swap assets with his wife in the property settlement. The less the Padres are worth, the less John Moores has to give up in exchange, if he wants to keep the team for himself.
-tdr
Labels: Baseball, Padres, San Diego
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Jody Gerut: My New Favorite San Diego Padres Player.
The San Diego Union-Tribune published an interview with centerfielder Jody Gerut today. Apparently he has a history degree from Stanford University with an emphasis on Russian histroy. Here's a snippet:
-tdr
Q: What about Russian history made it so interesting to you?I love this guy!
A: "I was not fascinated with personalities like Lenin and Stalin. What was more interesting to me was the struggle for existence and what it was like to live in a communist state. We still have an example close to home in Cuba, where people just got the right to have personal cell phones, and feminine hygiene products are still rationed. Think about that when you think about where we are."
Q: Needless to say, you studied communism.
A: "Absolutely. I wanted to know as much as I could. I wasn't interested as much in what people thought about Stalin, rather in the lifestyle under communism. I was interested in the impact of the ideology. In the Soviet Union, if you invented the widget, the widget belonged to the state, not to you. So there was really no reason to develop the widget." (Here.)
-tdr
Labels: Baseball, Padres, San Diego
