by Craig on January 16, 2010
Jed Hoyer’s first trade as Padres’ general manager is in the books, and Jeff Moorad should be pleased.
Kevin Kouzmanoff and Eric Sogard to the A’s for Scott Hairston and Aaron Cunningham is clean and simple. No gunslinging here. More like reorganizing the closet. A couple little changes, add a shelf, voila! A more balanced roster free of a growing salary concern.
Kouz was about to be valued more than he’s worth. Solid defense aside, Kouzmanoff managed just 88 RBI hitting behind Adrian Gonzalez. He’s one of those good-but-not-great players that can fit in on a winning team but can’t help rebuild a bad team.
His gaudy minor league OBP numbers never materialized in the big leagues, and as a .300 on-base occasional slugger, Kouz seemed better fit as a 7-9 hitter in an AL lineup than a 4-5 hitter in the NL. Now he’ll get that chance to find his niche.
Throw in arbitration, the natural desire for the Padres to return Chase Headley to his natural position, the growth of Kyle Blanks as an outfield prospect, and the need for a right-handed platoon partner for Tony Gwynn in center field…and then the chance comes to swap Kouzmanoff for Hairston. Perfect. Continue Reading →
by Chris Ello on October 7, 2009
So the Padres closed out the 2009 baseball season this past weekend against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park. And, being as it was the final series of the year and all, they called it Fan Appreciation Weekend.
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.
Continue Reading →
