After the Padres pumped over $11 million into the 2011 draft I found myself happy. It showed that the Padres were committed to their organizational plan to build through the draft. I mean you can't build through the draft unless you draft guys and sign them, right? I guess you need to develop those players too but that's a post for another time. The Padres spent a lot of money and it seemed to be well spent. We won't know for a few years.
Yet many fans could not refrain from the, "Who cares. They'll be gone once they get good!" and the, "They gave how much to an 18 year old kid!!!???" These exclamations tire me.
Either you love baseball or you don't. It's why I follow the Padres. It's why I go to games. The cynics of San Diego do not understand this. After sustained stretches of Padres futility I guess their cynicism is understood.
I'm not here to tell anyone how to feel. But since you're here I'll take the time to point out a few things I have accepted and a few that keep me going.
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I have accepted reality. This is not the exact game I grew up watching.
The Yankees actually sucked during my youth. Don Mattingly, George Brett, Tony Gwynn, and Cal Ripken Jr. were all lifers of one team. This is not to say that free-agency didn't exist then but at least there was a chance a player could spend his career with the same team. The best player of this era, Alex Rodriguez, is playing for his third team. The best player in the game this year, Adrian Gonzalez, is with his fourth organization. I have accepted that this is the reality of the game in 2011. There are but a handful of teams who will have the economic ability to keep a player for the duration of his career (see Yankees: Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, and Jorge Posada). I can live with that.
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I have also accepted that Jeff Moorad should not have been allowed to buy the Padres.
The guy has no money. He proved it when he gathered 12 partners and arranged to buy the team like it was a 100" Hi-Def Plasma Television during Christmas. Moorad's group won't own the team until 2014 which means low salaries until then. I have accepted this. Perhaps I've even convinced myself that I prefer that method of operation. The idea of fiscal restraint during this age is novel. Or maybe it's just Stockholm Syndrome for fans.
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I'm not going to say I've accepted blue as this team's color...
... but I at least appreciate their efforts to brand the Padres. They have chosen the wrong color. But like I said, I appreciate the effort to move the park away from looking like a jar of M & M's.
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I don't think about Adrian Gonzalez.
He didn't want to play here. There are only a handful of teams who could even think of paying him what he's worth. That team is not in San Diego. Simple really.
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The Padres are not the farm system for the Boston Red Sox.
Nor are they the farm system for the rest of MLB. For that to be the truth then the Padres would have needed to develop an awful lot of players over the last 10 years for it to be a valid argument. They have not. Jake Peavy is not a good example. Jake Peavy was a catastrophic injury away from sinking the organization.
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Trades pump life into an organization. They are a good thing.
The Padres along with a majority of other MLB teams need to move established players who are about to demand contracts that pay them for what they have done instead of what they will do. A trade brings back multiples of players. It loads the farm system with talent and enables the team to compete moving forward. If they evaluate the players correctly. That's the big "if".
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I like Cameron Maybin because he's really good.
I also like that he was obtained in a trade for next to nothing. Do you hear that? I think it's the faint cry of Marlins fan hovering near the Gulf of Mexico.
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I have accepted that MLB is not like the NFL in terms of economics and it never will be.
The NFL has national television contracts. It's easy to share that money. MLB has local television contracts. It's not easy to share that money. And while we're on the subject I don't really think that teams like the Red Sox and Yankees, who had the vision to create their own regional television networks, should have to share that money with anyone. Teams need to be creative to compete. Go read The Extra 2% or something.
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Patience is a virtue.
The Padres farm system is improving, full of young players who will either assume their role in PETCO Park one day or will be used to obtain established players who can help the cause. If you can't wait then drive up to Lake Elsinore. It's cheap and fun.
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Who cares that the Arizona Diamondbacks are having a successful year with Kevin Towers at the helm.
He needed to be fired. Kevin Towers was an absolute abomination when it came to drafting and developing players. This is a fact. I'm fine with him being elsewhere.
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PETCO is an extreme pitcher's park and the fences don't need to be moved in.
The Padres just need to figure out how to play there. It starts with striking out less. A team can't be last in HRs and first in Ks. It doesn't work that way.
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Being a fan of the San Diego Padres is not easy. But life is not easy either.
I enjoy how my fandom mimics life and I accept the challenge of it. If you want easy I can think of a couple different hats for you. I'll stay loyal to mine.
Was that twelve points/thoughts/steps? I didn't count.
If we can handle Bochy and Flannery winning the WS, we can handle KT and the dbags.
ReplyDeleteOh how I remember the days of the early 90s when the Yankees lost 90 games repeatedly.
ReplyDeleteKT is going to decimate Arizona's farm system.
I have been ranting and raving on how bad a strikeout is for the offensive team. I feel like it's falling on (Randy Ready's) deaf ears. :(
All the more reason to justify Bud Selig being excommunicated from baseball for life. Moorad should never have bought the Padres. Frank McCourt and the Wilpons STILL own their teams. Bud's cronyism is just astounding.
I think I'll go back to work now.