Catch Up
As you can tell, I haven't been posting content related stuff lately. Yeah links & Giant bashing are great and all but where's the content? So to catch everyone up, here is the Padres off-season to date...in one post.
-When I was a we little lad my favorite player was always Tony Gwynn. Yeah, the stuff he did on the field was great, but the thing that made him stand out for me was how cool he was to his fans in person. I used to go to tons of Padres games and tons of baseball card shows and every single time I met him he had a big smile on his face and would actually take the time to talk to each person instead of like some other players who would just keep their head down signing the whole time so the line would move along without saying a word to anyone. So I was pretty sad when he revealed that he has cancer. Hopefully it was caught early enough and everything will be fine and Mr. Padre will be back in the dugout at SDSU and behind the mic at Petco in no time. I'm pulling for ya T!!
-Heath Bell won the MLB Delievery Man Award. This award is given out the the best closer in all of baseball (not just NL). He also racked up the Sporting News NL Reliever of the Year Award and despite not being announced yet, is shown as the winner of the NL Rolaids Relief Award as well. I like Heath. He was super cool to do an interview for the site, always says it like it is and did a hell of a job this past season. But with the payroll apparently starting with a 4 next season, I'm not sure he'll be around. Then again with Adrian almost surely moving on after the 2011 season there may be room in the payroll to lock up Heath for a few years with a backloaded deal. Honestly I'm not quite sure about Adams durability and question whether or not Gregerson can handle the role next season. We also know that the bullpen was a HUGE part in those 90 wins this past season, so why screw up a good thing?
-Buddy Black also won a Sporting News Award winning the NL Manager of the Year. Pretty cool honor when your peers are saying you deserve it.
-Padres fan favorite Dave "Doc" Roberts will be the first base coach next season, replacing Rick Renteria who is moving to the Bench Coach position vacated by the departing Ted Simmons. Simmons, who served in that role for 2 seasons, informed the team back in September that he wouldn't be returning due to wanting to find a managerial gig. I'm a huge fan of this move. Roberts worked with the team in Spring Training on their base running. As many of you know I laid down the Breakfast Burrito Challenge. For every 2 stolen bases I'd consume a breakfast burrito. In years past that would have been a simple challenge, but unfortunately 124 stolen bases later, I had to throw in the towel pretty early in the season. Don't get me wrong, I love breakfast burritos, but 62 of them at 62 different places ia pretty difficult...even in San Diego.
-Padres owner Jeff Moorad purchased the AAA Portland Beavers. They will be playing the 2011 season in Tucson and will hopefully be playing in Escondido the following season. I have visited Portland about 5 times the past 3 seasons and would always go to a Beavers game. PGE Park was hands down one of the coolest ballparks I've been to, so I was a little sad to hear this news at first. But 3 Padres teams all within hours of me? Where do I sign up?
-Adrian Gonzalez had shoulder surgery...everything seemed to go fine.
-Sandy Alderson was named the new GM of the Mets. I may be in the minority on this but I liked Sandy during his time in San Diego and think he got a raw deal by the fans. Yes he came off sounding like an arrogant a-hole at times but I think the good outweighed the bad. Personally I think people would have liked him better had he not been as open to the media. When you are running a company and don't want to reveal all your secrets yet you are on the radio every week and getting interviewed by the print media all the time, questions are going to come up about those secrets. There were also rumors going around that he was going to bring in Paul DePodesta. DePodesta was never given a shot at the GM job here in San Diego and from what I've heard isn't really that involved with the baseball side of things anymore, and perhaps he doesn't want to be? I don't blame him for staying in sunny San Diego, determining what price seats in the Toyota Terrace should be, having no media criticize your every move & make a boat load of money (rumored). Plus I think he's an extremely bright guy who is still an asset to this team so I'm OK either way.
-Jon Garland ($300,000 buyout) & Yorvit Torrealba ($500,000 buyout) declined their mutual options with the Padres. Honestly I don't think either one would have been picked up by the Padres anyways. Garland had a solid season but $6.75 million next season was way to much and they could go out and get another Jon Garland type for much cheaper. Torrealba I wouldn't rule out resigning though for less than the $3.5 million he was to make under his current contract. He arguably had his finest season in 2010 and will most likely see a decline next year but he worked well this season with the pitching staff and Nick Hundley. Here's my question though: When will Nick Hundley step up and stop having to have a "mentor" catcher every year? Torrealba, Blanco, Bard & Barrett...that's a lot of "mentors".
-In the least shocking news this off-season, Adrian Gonzalez's 2011 option was picked up. $6.2 million is quite the bargain for Adrian and going into a free agent year, he will hopefully have another stellar year in 2011. People keep asking about if he will be traded this off-season. Jeff Moorad has publicly come out and stated that he will be in a Padre uniform on opening day and I 100% believe him (more on that in a post that will be up tonight or tomorrow).
-OK so maybe I spoke to soon regarding the "least shocking news". But the Padres declined Chris Young's $8.5 million option. CY just can't stay healthy. Publicly the Padres say they aren't ruling out his return. But I think with Latos, Richard, Stauffer & Luebke lined up for starting spots next season you honestly can't bring back CY. They need to get someone, like Garland, who can eat up a lot of innings and have no major health concerns. When your payroll is around $40 million then you need to be safe and can't afford to gamble on pitchers who have a track record for injuries.
