I understand the reasoning behind the whole thing. The idea, of course, being to thank the fans who supported this team throughout what really — when you add it all up – was another rather mediocre year.
Sure the Padres finished strongly, moved up into 4th-place in the standings, and denied the Dodgers last week the chance to celebrate the NL West title on their home turf.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe that former GM Kevin Towers – fired prior to Game One of the weekend (celebration?) – felt much appreciation.
And…were there really any fans who appreciated another baseball season that was basically over by the end of May? To me, if you really want to show appreciation to your fans, how about doing some things between now and the beginning of 2010 that we can actually appreciate?
So now that you’re done shooting off a bunch of fireworks and handing out a bunch of really cool prizes, here are few moves for you to contemplate — moves that I know at least I’d appreciate.
First and foremost, spend at least half of the money you wasted on Brian Giles this past season on a free-agent right-fielder. You gave the broken down Giles $9-million bucks, and I figure for around $4.5 mil you could find yourself a player that could make a difference.
Why right field? Because, the way I look at things: Kyle Blanks comes back next year holding down left field, and Will Venable is my starter in center. Tony Gwynn, Jr. did enough during the second half to grab a roster spot, but he’s really a fourth outfielder at best. That leaves a hole in right.
In addition to that, you’ve still got plenty of holes in your everyday batting order — and a real, bona fide hitting threat who can play right field could not only protect Adrian Gonzalez but also inject some extra life into your offense.
Mostly, though, you need to spend some money in free agency, and I’m not just talking about the nickel-and-dime guys. You might say that you can’t afford to spend any big money, but I say you can’t afford not to. If you think the 13-and 14,000-seat weekday crowds you regularly drew the second half of this season were small, just wait until you’re 21 games out of first place at next year’s All-Star break.
Next, find someone — anyone — to take Kevin Kouzmanoff off your hands. I know you might think that his 88 RBI’s and stellar defense will be difficult to part with, but you simply can’t afford another .303 on-base percentage — fourth-worst in the entire league — in the middle of your lineup killing rally after rally for another season.
With Kouz out of the way (and I know that won’t be easy, because the rest of baseball sees the same dreary statistics I do), you can finally put Chase Headley at his natural position of third base. Headley hasn’t yet been the hitter you envisioned, but I think that has more to do with the time he has had to spend learning not to embarrass himself in the outfield than anything else.
I’d like to see what Headley could do if he could concentrate solely on hitting.
With a new right-fielder — and might I suggest you look at free agents Bobby Abreu and Vladimir Guerrero of the Angels or Rick Ankiel of the Cardinals — and Headley at third…your opening day lineup would look something like this:
Everth Cabrera leading off at short, Venable batting second in center, Adrian at first base batting third, right-field-free-agent-hitter-guy batting cleanup, Blanks fifth in left, Headley sixth at third, Nick Hundley catching and batting seventh, and gutty-little David Eckstein at second base batting eighth (I’d really appreciate you taking him out of the two-hole).
With Gwynn, Oscar Salazar and Henry Blanco, you have the beginnings of a decent bench.
The key move on the mound is to not waste a bunch of free agent money bringing back Kevin Correia…I know Correia had a solid season, but if you look at his career numbers, this season was an aberration. If Correia is willing to settle for No. 4-type starter’s money, then sign him. But if somebody else wants to pay him as a No. 2 (or shudder the thought, a No. 1) let him walk.
The 2010 staff, though lacking a true ace, can still get the job done with Mat Latos, Clayton Richard, Chris Young, Tim Stauffer and perhaps Wade LeBlanc or Aaron Poreda.
The bullpen, acquired mostly through brilliant trades by Towers during the course of this season, should be stellar with any combination of Luke Gregerson, Joe Thatcher, Mike Adams, Adam Russell, Luis Perdomo, Sean Gallagher, Greg Burke, Edward Mujica and Ryan Webb to set up Heath Bell.
You guys put this ballclub out there on the field next April at Petco Park, and any fan will appreciate that far more than anything you might have done for them this past weekend.
– Ello –
