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“Padres-Owners-Players-Fans”

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That was pretty much to the point, owner Ron Folwer firing a blast heard round the country, about his last place franchise.

We haven’t heard words like that since the day owner Ray Kroc took over the microphone in the pressbox, and blasted his team, and apologized to the fans for a pitiful performance.

Ron Fowler was right on with what he said, calling the team pathetic and an embarrassment. And he asserted people in everyday jobs would likely get fired if they performed as badly as his baseball team has performed.

Of course, this is baseball, this is sports, and there are lots of guaranteed contracts, you cannot just get rid of.

But Fowler’s blast involves more than just a (16-4) shelling on Tuesday in Seattle. It’s a season long failure of a roster that was flawed from opening day.

It’s an organizational problem that dates back to the culture of how the Padres have been run. Constant ownership instability, fired GMs, bad drafts, some bad trades, lots of bad luck with injuries;.

This mess did not happen over night, and it won”t be solved overnight.

If Fowler is going to hold people responsible, it starts with the top ofhis organizational chart. CEO Mike Dee recommended GM-AJ Preller.

Ownership approved the deals that took on massive contracts of Matt Kemp and Melvin Upton. They agreed to the mega deal for pitcher James Shields.

So Fowler and co-owner Peter Seidler bear responsibility for signing off on this.

It’s way too early to fire anyone, especially since they bounced popular manager Buddy Black out last year. And they mis-guessed on the hiring of El Paso manager Pat Murphy.

The biggest victim of this entire situation is Andy Green, the rookie manager, who comes with credentials and accolades. He can only play what he is given, and that is a bad roster. He defended Fowler saying it shows his passion.

But in the end, it’s only words. They have chosen a path, bought into the philosophy of the GM, and that means a comittment to do it his way going forward for a couple of years.

The Padres on field product has really been poor, just 5-winning seasons in 17-years. Ownership has made Petco Park a destination point for family fun. But somewhere along the line, you have to start winning baseball games.

A few high priced players not playing well. A wrath of injuries that never seems to end. and a struggling farm system. A bad combo, and it takes time to fix all that.

There’s an old axiom in baseball, after you get blown out of a game, that there’s always a game tomorrow, and things could change. Of course the game tomorrow will be played by the same roster that played yesterday and got blown out. The same roster that has you in last place.

Even last night’s rally-back 16-run explosion against Seattle is really just a 1-nite thing. It counts as just a victory, and unless you string together a bunch of those, doubts will be everywhere.

Ron Fowler’s words won’t mean much unless the people he hired in that front office do a better job.

Don’t think anything gets better for some time. The way the Padres have done business recently has all caught up to this franchise..

It won’t get better. Too bad. San Diego fans deserves better.

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