2015 San Diego Padres

Posted on September 15, 2015 by admin

This team was going to be a story in MLB in 2015, with all the off-season dealings and free agent signings by newly-hired GM A.J. Preller. Opening Day payroll was increased to $108 million (a record expenditure for the franchise), and everyone in the organization from owner (beer distribution magnate) Ron Fowler to CEO Mike Dee was optimistic about the Padres chances of making the post-season.

San Diego Padres CEO Mike Dee

In reality, it was all over by July or August, depending on one’s level of sobriety. The 2015 San Diego Padres will go down as one of the most ill-conceived teams in modern baseball history. As of this publication, they are 67-77, 4th in the NL West; 16 GB in their division and the wild card. Mercifully, only three weeks remain in the season, with their playoff elimination # now well into single digits.

The 2015 Padres were a tantalizingly streaky team early; one that wins five, then drops six on a whim. The Padres now rank: 28th AVG at .244; 30th (last) in OBP at .299; and 26th in SLG at .387. Despite playing half their games in an extreme pitching park, the Pads are no better than 20th in team ERA. Their pitchers are tied for 4th (w/ TB) in K’s, but they’ve allowed the 4th-most walks. Their Defensive Efficiency Rating (DER) is .687, ranking 20th. Petco Park has one of the roomiest outfields in MLB, so poor defense hurts even more there than in a bandbox.

A.J. Preller Padres GM

The entire starting rotation was right-handed, allowing opposing mangers to stack a lefty lineup, day after day. This extreme right-handedness included relief pitching– until Marc Rzepczynski was acquired at the trade deadline, as LHP reliever Frank Garces (35 IP, 5.14 ERA) doesn’t really count towards winning. Evidently, it took A.J. Preller months to realize the value of having at least one reliable left-hander in the bullpen. It’s really tough (for whomever is managing) to get outs against tough lefty hitters in crucial late-game situations, with only right-handers in the pen. This is baseball 101, not complex sabermetrics.

Bud Black– fired after a 32-33 start

Speaking of managers, the Padres haven’t had one since they fired Bud Black in mid-June. Did you hear about it? Since then it’s been interim manager Pat Murphy, who can best be described as a warm body. Black had been the second-longest tenured manager in MLB at the time of his firing, and was well-respected by the players and other mangers.

Darren Balsley– one of the best

Ace pitching coach Darren Balsley worked well with Bud Black, particularly in the development of their young starters RHP’s Tyson Ross & Andrew Cashner. Since Bud Black was fired as manager, Balsley (who is a master a spotting breakdowns in pitching mechanics while offering helpful advice) rarely makes a trip to the mound anymore.

Ross & Cashner were the most-asked-about Padres players up to the trade deadline, instead of the players they were trying to deal; including closer Craig Kimbrel, SP James Shields, and LF Justin Upton. To GM A.J. Preller’s credit, he didn’t panic and give away valuable assets at the July 31st deadline, despite shrieking hysterics from the media. It was a buyer’s market, as top talent including: SS Troy Tulowitzki, and ace LHP’s David Price and Cole Hamels outshined Shields & Upton, or anything else the Padres had available.

The off-season deals that brought in Wil Myers, Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, James Shields, Craig Kimbrel & Melvin Upton, Jr reshaped this team completely, while affecting their payroll flexibility going forward.

The most hurtful deal to the Padres organization was trading C Yasmani Grandal to the Dodgers for RF Matt Kemp. Grandal is a good defensive catcher, age 26, with a career line of .247/.356/.418; who makes $693,000 in 2015, and won’t be eligible for free agency until 2019 at the earliest.

Matt Kemp is now turning 30, and really is much older in terms of playing age. It hurts him to run; watch closely and you’ll see a once-great athlete with degenerative arthritis in his knees, hips & back. The skills still flash at times, but the body has broken down, so he can’t perform with consistency. Preller not only traded a valuable commodity in Grandal to get Kemp, but also took on too much salary. LA pays $18 million of the $21+ million he’s owed this year, after that the Padres are on the hook for $18+ million/year through 2019.

Wil Myers came over from the TB Rays in a frenzied 4-team deal. Myers was/is a RF. Joe Maddon is considered one of the best, and most creative managers in the game, and he never considered Myers in CF. The Padres started the season with the-player-formerly-known-as B.J. Upton on the DL, with turf toe in the right foot. Wil Venable was the only SD Padre capable of playing centerfield. Instead, Myers was moved to center, flanked by Justin Upton & Matt Kemp.

Predictably Myers was a disaster in center– missteps & bad jumps, taking awkward routes, diving for balls other centerfielder’s catch easily; costing his pitchers outs, runs and wins. None of this was Wil Myers’ fault, as his coaching staff & GM put him in a position to fail– and he did. His wrist problems which began in TB, were aggravated by playing an unfamiliar (and more demanding) defensive position, and Myers ended up needing wrist surgery– costing him half the 2015 season. He’s still one of their most valuable long-term assets.

Justin Upton was brought over from the Braves in a series of multi-team trades that (in hindsight) really didn’t cost the Padres much in terms of prospects. He’s paid $14.5 million in 2015, which is considered a bargain. He’s a free agent at season’s end. The Padres would love to keep him, but the problem is they have Matt Kemp too, and only enough room in the outfield for one of them.

Wil Myers (if he’s going to stay healthy & productive) has to be a corner outfielder. Unless the Padres can move Kemp, which will mean eating a huge chunk of his contract, then they can’t even entertain the thought of resigning Justin Upton. San Diego will likely make Upton a qualifying offer, and then take the draft choice when he signs a free-agent deal elsewhere.

Melvin (I’m calling him B.J.) Upton isn’t the greatest option in CF (thru 72 G: .244/.310/.417), but the Padres have him for 3 seasons at $15 million/year, so they have to play him. Like James Shields (mostly) and Carl Crawford (surely), his best years were in Tampa; and the B.J. stood for Bossman Jr., which was the best name in baseball for years.

Bossman Jr

James Shields is in his 10th MLB season, with over 2000 IP in his career. He will be 34 in December, and is probably best recognized now as a very good #3 starter on a championship-level team. In his prime, Shields was a horse #2 starter. Once again, the problem for the Padres isn’t that the player stinks, it’s that they overpay him. The $10 million this season seems fair enough, but the $21 million/year from 2016-18 limits the trade options.

Yangervis Solarte 3B

Yangervis Solarte at 3B has been a nice surprise hitting .272/.335/.430 as of this writing, while playing good defense at the hot corner. A.J. Preller’s original ‘plan’ was Will Middlebrooks at third, whose 4 MLB seasons have so far produced .231/.274/.399. Middlebrooks is a classic example of someone who is overvalued because he played on a great team (Boston Red Sox). As a comparison, he’s less valuable than NY Yankee utility IF Luis Sojo: .261/.297/.352 in 13 seasons.

Shortstop is still a mess for the Friars, as it’s been an endless carousel since the inconsistency of the Khalil Greene era, from 2003-08. Suffice it to say it’s really an important position, and you can’t be a good team without one.

The latest experiment is to try 2B Jedd Gyorko at SS. Gyorko has the hands & skills, but neither the athleticism nor the arm for shortstop. This move reeks of desperation, and highlights the inability of Padres leadership to learn from their past mistakes. More than anything, Gyorko needs to hit better as his .239/.292/.397 line is approaching replacement level. He is making $2 million this season, but is owed at least $33 million though 2019.

The Padres snagged 1B Yonder Alonso (along with Yasmani Grandal!) from the Reds in the Mat Latos deal. He’s still light on power for first base, and he can’t stay healthy (which is also a skill). His career .282/.361/.381 batting line helps, if only a little. Not all of his injuries have been his fault. This video of Justin Upton unintentionally hitting Alonso with his batting helmet, succinctly encapsulates the frustration & futility of Padres’ 2015 season.

Other SD Padres notes:

1B Adrian Gonzalez would have been a great organizational investment.

West coast bias in sports is real. One reason I chose to be a Padres fan was to test that theory.

RHP’s Brandon Morrow & Josh Johnson both spent the season on the DL, which should have surprised no one.

On 7/19/15, the Padres had their first rainout since 4/04/06. It almost never rains in San Diego. The game against the Rockies was suspended in the 5th inning, and was made up on September 10th– which COL won 4-3.

Dick Enberg does the Padres play-by-play on television, and he’s still a first-rate announcer. He was selected as the 2015 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. I personally remember enjoying Enberg when he called the NFL, NCAA basketball, professional tennis, and Olympics for NBC in the 1970’s & 1980’s. He’s always been a thoughtful & pleasant conversationalist on the air, and still has a great voice.

Ted Leitner is in his 36th season behind the microphone for ‘My Padres.’ Baseball is a great game to listen to on the radio.

The Padres military programs which started in 1996, are the most successful in baseball– in terms of market penetration. San Diego is home to several of the largest military installations in the world; including the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Naval Base Coronado, Naval Base San Diego, and US Coast Guard Station San Diego. Taped games are sent to the entire U.S. Pacific fleet for on-board viewing, via the Padres at Sea program. Every Sunday home game is Military Appreciation Day (along with Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day), as the Pads wear their camouflage jerseys, which has now been copied by other teams across MLB. I have mixed feelings about all of this.

The Padres organization has tried to reach into Mexico, as San Diego is the city closest to the border, with mixed results. Note to management: the best way to get Latin America to follow your baseball team, is by having good Latin American players in the organization & lineup.

Matt Kemp hit for the cycle on 8/14/15 , becoming the first Padre in franchise history to do so, in the club’s 7,444th game. Now only the Marlins haven’t accomplished this feat.

The Padres still haven’t thrown a no-hitter, nor won a World Series. They began play in 1969.

The Padres enshrined C Benito Santiago and SS Garry Templeton into their Hall of Fame. In 1981, the Padres traded a young Ozzie Smith to STL, for Templeton.

In conclusion, this organization is a mess, and A.J. Preller has a 5-year contract; so it’s going to be up to him to learn on-the-job and fix it, or suffer the consequences. This fan remains unconvinced after the spectacular crash of 2015. Preller often seems enamoured with his ‘rock star‘ image, to the point where it affects his better judgement.

He succeeds GM Josh Byrnes, who left due to serious disagreements with CEO Mike Dee, over where this organization is in terms of winning a championship. As a Padres fan who signed up on a one-season deal, I’d only take another one-year fan contract from this organization. One of the best parts of being a Padres fan is knowing that many of us really don’t care about winning. Baseball is paid-for entertainment, nothing more. I personally love streaming their games, listening to the drunken fans at Petco chanting “Let’s go, Padres!”– then hearing it quickly lose its rhythm & enthusiasm, completely collapsing upon itself several responses– signalling to all, that Padres fans actually know their team.

Darryl Hamilton’s Death & Feminism

Posted on June 23, 2015 by admin

Darryl Hamilton hit at the top of the order, and played all across the outfield for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1988-1995. He was a huge fan favorite, an affable and humble man. His career batting line of .291/.360/.385 made him valuable for his OBP, but a liability for his lack of power. He wasn’t a true centerfielder, although he was often pressed into playing CF because the Brewers needed him to. It’s also worth mentioning that in the PED-era, no one ever wondered if Darryl Hamilton was juicing, because he obviously wasn’t.

As a fan, I liked Darryl Hamilton because he always seemed happy: playing, practicing, warming up, batting practice, during the game, during interviews, etc…. He never ducked the media (he actually welcomed it), as a part of a young Brewers core that could have won a World Series– if they had been managed decently.

Hamilton came up as a prospect in the Brewers organization with 3B Gary Sheffield, and while they looked alike to many of the racist die-hards who still only cheered for CF Robin Yount and DH Paul Molitor, they were completely different in style and character.

Sheffield was brash and outspoken, with unbelievable bat speed and power. By the end of 1991, Brewers management under owner Bud Selig and GM’s Harry Dalton & Sal Bando, had so frustrated the young Sheffield over the course of his first four seasons, that they felt compelled to trade him away.

In return for a 23-year old Hall of Fame slugger (career– 22 seasons, .292/.393/.514); the Brewers received RHP gopher-baller Ricky Bones, quadruple-A outfielder Matt Mieske, and utility infielder Jose Valentin (career 16 seasons, .243/.301/.373) from the San Diego Padres.

Darryl Hamilton stayed behind and was quiet, steady and effective; at the plate and in the outfield. The Brewers of that era had a crowded outfield situation, complicated by the insistence of management that Robin Yount (in decline) be given priority, over younger talent including Hamilton, LF Greg Vaughn, OF/DH Dante Bichette, and C/3B B.J.Surhoff– who needed to be moved to the outfield.

Yount was approaching the 3000-hit milestone, always a bonanza for ownership, and was given disproportionate playing time (which hurt the team’s chances to win) in order to reach that goal. Yount’s line in 1992: 629 PA; .264/325/390. Only SS Pat Listash (.290/352/.349), and DH Paul Molitor (.320/.389/.461- still their best player) had more PAs.

Of course the biggest reason these Brewers failed was their starting pitching. Their ace had been LHP Teddy Higuera, who as a rookie in 1985, through 1988 was as good as any pitcher in baseball. By 1989, his rotator cuff/ labrum became completely torn from the heavy workload, and he was never the same afterwards. Higuera’s last MLB season was in 1994 (1-5, ERA 7.06); after that Señor Smoke pitched in the Mexican leagues for several years.

The Brewers never had a dominant strikeout pitcher after losing Higuera, as their rotation consisted of an endless line of mediocrities including: Jaime Navarro, Bill Wegman, Chris Bosio, Juan Nieves, and Cal Eldred. The Brewers had nothing resembling an ace, or even a solid #2 starter, until Ben Sheets debuted in 2001.

All this conspired to diminish Darryl Hamilton’s true value in Milwaukee, as the Brewers could never score enough runs to keep up with their poor starting pitching. Most of Hamilton’s best years were with the Brewers, and yet he only made the post-season after becoming a free agent.

Darryl Hamilton never seemed to have trouble getting a major league contract from winning teams during his free-agent years, making the post-season with the Rangers, Giants, and Mets (twice), before retiring after the 2001 season. He played 13 MLB seasons in total.

Many Brewers (and baseball) fans, and are now saddened by the news of his tragic & untimely death.

Hamilton was found shot dead at a suburban Houston home, suffering multiple gunshot wounds. Monica Jordan, the mother of their 14-month child, was found dead in another room– apparently a suicide. Their child was left alive.

The woman reporting for ESPN in this video (Antonietta Collins) is unable to state those facts. She states this instead:

“MLB is mourning the death of Darryl Hamilton, who was fatally shot. His girlfriend was also found dead, and according to police of an apparent self-inflicted gun wound.”

Feminism & post-modernism share the common bond being completely irrational and unhelpful forms of ‘thinking.’ Post-modernism is the male intellectual version of nonsense as ideology; feminism is that form of poison for women.

Both ignore hard and ugly truths. Darryl Hamilton’s tragic death is a high-profile celebrity murder, for which feminism has no answers, precisely because their stock answer is to hysterically blame men for all violence.

The answers to these bizarre & horrible crimes, which are now the new normal, is for mankind to use science in all fields; in order to shout down and overwhelm these destructive ideologies & stereotypes, which have been forced upon all of us since birth.

Obviously society now has a problem with women’s violence towards men. Why don’t feminists discuss this using a scientific approach? To not do so, betrays a lack of honesty in intention.

Feminists will throw up smokescreens and run for cover on this until it blows over, as they are organically incapable of any progressive solutions, being tied to the dead-ends of liberalism and the Democratic party. Most of these ‘thinkers’ can’t even allow themselves to acknowledge that a problem exists.

If this tragedy had been reversed, with Darryl Hamilton killing Monica Jordan– then taking himself; the child would likely be dead too, and the tone from the feminist talk-show hostesses would be sensationalized outrage. He would be vilified & disgraced, as a heartless coward.

When it is, what it is– it gets marginalized.

Why?

Fan Free Agency

Posted on April 13, 2015 by admin

Do you have a favorite team, which you have rooted for forever, but never wins?

Does it irritate, depress, or frustrate you that they lose, with no chance of winning?

Say No to all of this, with Fan Free Agency; in which fans (like the players & owners) can renegotiate their loyalties, whenever its convenient. Let me illustrate…

Growing up, I was a Cincinnati Reds fan. It was the mid-1970’s, and they were baseball’s best team. Joe Morgan (2B) was my favorite player, because he played smart and could do it all. When the Big Red Machine was traded away/ broke down, I hung with them through the losing of the 1980’s. After being denied the playoffs in 1981, despite having the best record in baseball, the Reds once proud farm system now produced more suspects than prospects– in the forms of Ron Oester, Gary Redus, and Nick Esasky. Player/ manager Pete Rose’s betting scandal rocked the organization by decade’s end, and Marge Schott’s racism & ignorant ownership meddling always lurked in the background. Patience was finally rewarded in 1990, when the Reds went wire-to-wire and won the World Series, sweeping the mighty Oakland A’s.

Diehards stayed with them when they were quickly surpassed by the Atlanta Braves in the 1990’s. Center-fielder Eric Davis & SS Barry Larkin were my favorite players. I really didn’t care for other Reds ‘star’ players including Reggie Sanders, Ron Gant, and Hal Morris; whom I noticed were almost always neutralized by good pitching. But hey–you still stick with your team, right? So I did, even when I knew they couldn’t compete with the best.

When the Reds went all-in on Ken Griffey Jr. in 2000, fans were excited. A few years later, the reality of Griffey’s superstar contract on the DL had left hardcore supporters waiting on the next crop of prospects including: Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, and Johnny Cueto. The bandbox ballpark they had just built, to accommodate Griffey Jr. in his pursuit of Aaron’s career HR record, hurt their development of starting pitchers and outfield defense.

Despite all that, things started looking up for the Reds when they acquired perennial Devil Rays prospect Josh Hamilton from the Cubs in 2007, who hit .292/.368/.554 in 90 games in CF for Cincinnati. Reds management didn’t recognize what they had, and dealt Hamilton to Texas in the off-season for Edinson Volquez; where Josh became a 5-time All-Star, AL MVP, and helped the Rangers win two pennants.

To complete the 2007-08 off-season double-disaster, the Reds also brought in Dusty Baker to be their manager. Dusty Baker’s low-OBP, small-ball, “aggressive” style has long been been a losing strategy in MLB– even since his playing days in the 1970’s.

Dusty is also notorious as a wrecker of pitchers (see Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Jason Schmidt, Russ Ortiz), managing the SF Giants from 1993-2002, all with superstar Barry Bonds; winning his only pennant in 2002. The Giants were set to win it all, until the 7th inning of Game 6, when the Giants suffered one of the worst meltdowns in World Series history. [collapse starts at 2:15 in the video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB-mFRKQBQE

* Barry Bonds was the real MVP of the 2002 World Series

After losing the heart-breaker shown above, and then Game 7 the following night; the Giants didn’t renew Baker’s contract. Cubs GM Jim Hendry signed Baker to manage the Northsiders. Dusty’s reign ended ignominiously when star RF Sammy Sosa & Baker both mishandled game situations & criticism, wearing out their welcome in Chicago. Wrigley Field normally has the most optimistic, soft-hearted & forgiving fans in baseball; but a majority of Cubs fans had little affection for Baker’s brusque style by the end of his tenure in 2006.

Baker’s problems have always included: not trusting younger players; overemphasis on small-ball tactics; bullpen management; and of course– abusing his starting pitchers. He, like many old-school ballplayers, refuses to understand the value of sabermetrics, statistical analysis, medical science, etc; and is therefore ill-equipped to manage a MLB team in this era.

The video above, from the infamous ‘Steve Bartman’ game, is vintage Dusty Baker; staying with his young stud starter too long (119 pitches), while his team falls apart fundamentally. He ceaseless fidgets his toothpick throughout. Mark Prior was never the same after this outing, as his promising career was cut short by rotator cuff injuries.

Dusty Baker: Cincinnati Reds Manager 2008-13

Bad decisions don’t win, and the Dusty Baker-managed Cincinnati Reds of 2008-13 confirmed that theory; as he never won much in Cincinnati, even though he had talented players with an owner willing to spend.

Still a lifelong Reds fan through 2007, it no longer made sense to let myself be held hostage to the short-sightedness of professional nitwits. I simply did what any reasonable, non-masochistic baseball fan would do– pick a new favorite team.

Enter the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who were the joke of MLB from their inception in 1998, until Stuart Sternberg acquired controlling interest of the team from Vince Naimoli in 2005. From there the TB Devil Rays invested in sabermetric scouting & evaluation, with much-improved player development; quickly putting together an enviable farm system, even as they were still perennially finishing last.

They changed the franchise name to the Tampa Bay Rays for the 2008 season, just as their prospects were maturing; and to the complete surprise of most, won the AL pennant in 2008. It looked like the beginning of many trips to the fall classic, with a roster full of young talent and another top draft pick to come.

Under GM Andrew Friedman and savvy manager Joe Maddon, the Rays competed with the high-payroll Yankees & Red Sox for six seasons on sheer hard work, brains and a shoestring budget; until it finally snapped on July 31, 2014 when the Rays dealt LHP David Price (the best pitcher they’ll ever have, with another year of arbitration remaining), to the Detroit Tigers for prospects.

In the 2014-15 off-season; RF Wil Myers, 2B Ben Zobrist, and OF Matt Joyce (all championship-level players with team-friendly contracts) were jettisoned for no good reason. A return to the World Series for the Rays was never-to-be, as poor drafts & stunted player development ended the talent pipeline. Ownership’s refusal to invest in talent eventually whittled the short-stacked Rays into the AL East fodder they are today.

Now, everything with the Rays centers on getting the taxpayers to build them a new stadium. Tropicana Field was designed by original owner Vince Naimoli. It is a charmless domed stadium located at the end of a peninsula, making it poorly accessible to most of the Tampa-St. Petersburg population. It rightfully stands as a monument of Floridian thoughtlessness & greed, with the TB Rays locked into a 30-year lease through 2027. Rays fans are annually bombarded with veiled threats from ownership to move, if the taxpayers don’t pitch in. [1]

Stuart Sternberg in a 2011Tampa Tribune interview said, “Every year that goes by increases the possibility that we won’t be here. If there is something inevitable, you have to deal with it. At some point, my partners in baseball are going to throw their hands up in the air and say, ‘enough is enough.’” [2]

A baseball fan’s advice to Stu Sternberg who is worth an estimated $800 million [3]: try keeping your best players, and fill in on-the-field needs with (at least) mid-level contracts. If you always punt on C, 1B, DH, and LF; then you don’t score enough runs for your awesome pitching staff. That’s how you piss away chance after chance to win it all, with 70-80% of the talent already there.

The Rays revolutionized team defense, proving Defensive Efficiency Rating (the percentage of batted balls in play, minus home runs, converted into outs) and other defensive sabermetrics to be superior in comparison to traditional defense metrics (errors, assists, put-outs, etc). Advanced metrics show the Rays defense at their peak (CF BJ Upton/ LF Carl Crawford era) was historically great.

Rays ownership & front office consistently played for tomorrow with arbitration eligibility, holding back its best prospects (even when they were desperately needed [see Desmond Jennings, Wil Myers]), in order to extend their peak seasons before free agency. Many players rightfully resented those tactics (see Upton & Crawford for sure), and considering the talent the Rays organization had, it seems a shame the front office never was allowed to value winning ahead of cost savings & revenue projections.

The Rays consistently had one of the lowest payrolls in MLB ($40-70 million), while competing in the AL East against the NY Yankees & BOS Red Sox, both in the $140-220 million range. Their pitching staff, along with their defense, was the best in baseball. Nobody put together & managed a bullpen better than Joe Maddon. What the Rays needed was another $15-20 million, well-spent on bats; but ownership would never approve it. That will be the sad, but enduring legacy of the 2008-14 Tampa Bay Rays.

For me, the Rays and their remaining hardcore fans will suffer on their own– with the assurance that winning is but a distant memory. Outside of 3B Evan Longoria (signed to a ridiculously low long-term deal), most of their winning talent is now somewhere else– or on the DL. Their championship window was carelessly squandered, by an ownership that refused to care for its product on the field, because it really only cares about getting itself a new field.

The point of all this is: why support teams that run themselves poorly? Why should fans be loyal to teams that don’t invest in themselves? One solution is to become a free agent fan, and choose an organization that runs itself well; that proves it wants to win by building from within, while spending (& dealing) wisely. Those are qualities a baseball fan can admire and get behind.

This free agent fan chooses the San Diego Padres as his favorite MLB team in 2015. I’ve never seen much of the Padres, but I like the moves they’ve made in the off-season. They play in a pitcher’s park (cool), and newly-acquired RHP James Shields was my favorite player with TB. He joins Wil Myers (the guy he was dealt to KC for), so I’m in on the Padres. BJ Upton is also in the mix, so no West-coast bias here. Matt Kemp is a great player, and his health is key.

The Lowdown: the Padres are trying to compete against the defending world champion SF Giants (who haven’t repeated in their run), and the sky high-payroll LA Dodgers in the NL West. Rockies & Diamondbacks are considered to be second division clubs, until proven otherwise. Padres have upped their payroll to $108 million in order to take a shot.

The new format of two wild-cards helps their chances. As always in baseball, you never know how it will turn out, but at least 2015 Padres fans can feel like their team has committed itself to winning.

Think in terms of winning value & money spent, and see you in October. Good judgement in those areas are all a baseball fan can expect from management & ownership under capitalism.

Play Balls & Strikes!

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Mariano Rivera #42: Elegance in Performance

Posted on September 27, 2013 by admin

Every season in every sport, great stars leave their game due to age and limitations in their ability to perform. This is often a painful reality for once-great athletes, who can no longer live up to their earlier levels of excellence. The ending is mostly a sentimental journey for these players, with fans usually honoring them as old heroes, about to be put out to pasture. It is often difficult to watch at this point, without cringing slightly.

Mariano Rivera is different, and here is why?

Mariano Rivera, at age 43, (with 3 games left in his final season) is still just as good as he’s ever been. His career ERA is 2.21. His 2013 ERA is 2.11. He injured his knee during the 2012 season, in a freak accident, shagging fly balls in batting practice. No one wanted to see it end that way for him, even though it looked like it was the end.

Rivera promised to come back to finish on his terms; and what would be impossible for most, appeared as inevitable & effortless as any other time he took the mound in the 9th inning, during his career.

Mariano Rivera pitched on the biggest stage, in the biggest media market in the world, for 18 seasons; and NEVER once in all that time was there any type of scandal connected to his name. This quiet, unassuming gentleman was satisfied enough with simply being the greatest closer ever, helping his team win 5 World Series championships. No PEDs. No tabloid scandals. No negotiating his contracts through the media. No badmouthing, anyone. Just elegance & class.

Mariano Rivera is everything we want our athletes to be. That is the only explanation for the ovations he received in every stadium he pitched, in 2013. Rivera made rooting for the Yankees acceptable for non-Yankee fans, through how he conducted himself; in victory as well as defeat. It is impossible to hate Mariano Rivera; if you do, then you are a hater. It would be comparable to not liking the Beatles.

Sandy Koufax was always revered for retiring when he was on top. Koufax, the best pitcher of his era, was forced to retire at age 30, due to an elbow injury that threatened to cripple him if he continued to pitch. His sense of dignity would not allow him to become ineffective and maimed. Under difficult circumstances, he correctly made the most important career decision any successful athlete ever has to make.

Rivera retires like Koufax, only with his career fully completed. Rivera had the advantage of modern sports science, training, nutrition, surgery, etc.; that allowed him to finish the way he & his fans wanted it to finish.

The symmetry of Rivera being the last MLB player to wear #42 is recognized by baseball fans everywhere. No better player from this era could represent that connection to Jackie Robinson first wearing #42 in Brooklyn on April 15, 1947. MLB’s #42 ends with the most extraordinary player of our modern era– the way it should be. Very rarely is there such universal love & admiration for any player. Rivera’s performance, along with his personal conduct, throughout his amazing career are what make him so special, and so loved by fans everywhere.

Ric Size

Songwriter, Musician, Artist

Tag Archives: MLB

2015 San Diego Padres

Darryl Hamilton’s Death & Feminism

Fan Free Agency

Mariano Rivera #42: Elegance in Performance