The Padres offense is going to AWFUL this year, dead last in every major statistic, bank on it. On the bright side pitching will be solid, so we'll finish with around 70 wins.
i wouldn't rule out a .500 season, maybe even 85-87 wins because the pitching is pretty damn good. Of course, with the chances of a letdown slump season from Latos and Richard I wouldn't rule out a 100 loss season either. Either way i won't bet on the playoffs with the offense.
Best case scenario, we're in a race for 3rd place with LA. Worst case scenario, we're the Pirates. Sorry to be so negative, but it seems to me that the Padres have become another small market "fraud"chise that is more than happy to pocket the 30+ million a year they get in revenue sharing without putting a dime of it on the field. I'm not saying go out and get Carl Crawford or Albert Pujols, but for the sake of appearances at least make one offer to Adrian Gonzalez before you happily ship him off. And when the day comes to pony up for guys like Latos and Richard.....well I reckon it'll be time to re-stock that minor league system again. Hey I got a great idea, maybe they can spend another top 10 draft pick on a guy who's already said he has no intention of going PRO!
I don't really disagree with this. It's pretty much what I was getting at in the post you quoted, only I used W/L records instead of predicted standings finish.
As for Adrian, he was adamantly clear that he wanted to go to free agency and test the market. What would be the point of making a pointless offer that he's not going to listen to? I'm not against trading Adrian and I even think they got good value for him. My only complaint was that they traded him in the offseason. I would have preferred to see if they can compete again before selling him.
I don't remember that, I remember him saying they didn't even discuss an extension before he was traded, and I guarantee he would have at least listened to the brass if he'd thought they were serious. He's a San Diego guy, hispanic roots, not someone who seems drawn to big city lights or leveraging for a monster contract etc... signability was high if the Padres wernt so cheap. And what pisses me off most is he's the kind of player both talent and character wise that you want to build a team around, and now we have NOBODY like that. Ludwick? Hawpe? Headley? Give me a break.
He said they didn't give him an offer because they didn't give him an offer. But he was clear that he wanted top dollar and so long as baseball doesn't have a salary cap I don't want the Padres giving anybody what Adrian can command to one player. And don't let his being a San Diego native fool you into thinking he'd take any kind of discount to stay in San Diego had they "only been serious". Adrian was quoted as saying something along the lines of "...I can come back to San Diego in the offseason" or "...when I retire" I can't remember which.
I think for 5yrs 100mil he'd have stayed, or 6/120. 20mil a year is the only way you get players that can hit over .290 with any sort of power anymore....IE: Jason Werth. Baseball needs a cap. Or at the very least a salary floor.
