Last place awaits the loser of today's game in Arizona. The SHAME of it all. Padres fans deserve better than this, and yet quietly, the NOT fire sale is on again. It's been going on since the Padres traded future All-Star pitcher Fred Norman for a bag of used baseballs back in 1972.
In dealing dependable outfielder Scott Hairston to Oakland last week, the brass resent a message to the players that no one is safe. Padre players should not be surprised. That's how it's done here in San Diego. Here today, a Brewer tomorrow...
Fact is, if you are productive as a player, you deserve to make more coin, and you "ain't gonna git it round here..." The pattern is thus, the Pads either trade for, or call up a young cheap player. Player gets a grateful chance to play in the majors. Some sink quickly, some manage to hang around for a season, and a couple actually become players.
Useful players eventually get raises and that's when the other side of the process begins, as in a discreet shopping of said player, for young, cheap players looking for a chance. Do ya sense a pattern here?
What reason does that kind of thinking give San Diego fans to have any hope that good players will remain Padres? As an example, if the Chargers All Pro TE Antonio Gates had been developed by the Padres, he would currently be a member of the Dallas Cowboys.
The Padres have been famous for dealing All-Star talent for scrubs. That's why the early 80's and the mid to late 90's were so special. The Pads actually signed real players. Goose Gossage, Steve Garvey, Kevin Brown, heck, even Sterling Hitchcock were all real honest to goodness baseball players, who came to play.
Walter Silva (pictured above) also came to play, but should never have seen the mound at Petco. Silva got signed because he was a bargain, and a couple Padre players said good things about him. "We could not hit him." DUH, you guys cant hit anyone... Fantasy note: pitch your guys against the Pads whenever possible. It's good for your ERA and WHIP...
1998's business model is not anything like what's happening at Petco Park now, which is toss a stiff out there and see if he has got any game. I always thought that's what Portland's AAA team was for. At these top prices, the Padres should be trotting out Manny Ramirez, not Joe Thatcher...
I have been a Padre fan since the early 70's and it's becoming positively CUB like around these parts. Cub like, as in 100 years of futility.
It's only been 40 seasons. Will it be 60 more before the Pads finally win one World Series, Ala the Red Sox? A long wait indeed...
That will make me 105-years-old, sitting in my mighty electronic Doc Ock tentacle suit, chasing foul balls with a tractor beam. I guess it's something to look forward to...
Stay Tuned...
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