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“Padres-Andy Green Firing…The Blame Game”

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You win as a team…you lose as a team.

At least that’s what they want you to believe in sports.

The Padres have fired Manager Andy Green in the wake of his 4th straight losing season, and a likely 4th straight 90-loss season for the franchise.  Green exits with a (274-366) record…a (.428) winning percentage, the second poorest in modern day Padres history.

They underachieved in his first full year, the Matt Kemp-Justin Upton-James Shields era.
They underachieved in his final year, the learning curve season with the youngest pitching staff in baseball.

In Green’s four years, there were lots of bad decisions about the makeup of the roster.
He made lots of bad decisions about his everyday batting orders.
So-called star players had bad seasons yearly too.

There never was any continuity in a constantly changing batting order, and the use of players.  Of course no one would say whether he made out the lineup’s, or they came down from the analytic guys upstairs at Petco Park.

This was a fractured clubhouse, void of vocal veteran leadership.

The four years featured big money veteran players coming off more as independent contractors, rather than good teammates.

Green’s team either featured a pitching staff made up of virtually all rookies (this year) or seasons dotted by Rule 5-refugees, guys coming off rehab, or aging journeyman like Clayton Richard-Edwin Jackson.

The upheaval among his coaching staff was staggering.  7-coaches left in his first three years.  No one ever answered whether the coaches were his hires, or dictates from the front office.  I must be the only one wondering why that was happening.

The insinuations that Green was a control freak, who wouldn’t let his coaches coach, have not gone away.

It appears he lost the clubhouse emotionally, and that players were just going thru the motions as the losses mounted and the season’s hopes of a wildcard playoff spot drifted away.  Going from 2-games out of playoff spot to the misery of where they are now in the standings, just wore the team out.

There’s no doubt there was erosion  on the roster, or regression of the talent.

There has to be question whether there was enough teaching going on of young players, or whether the line of communication went away, because players did not buy into the constant sales pitch from Green, a journeyman .200-hitter in his career.

The young pitchers showed a competitive spirit.  There were a lot more good outings with the kid starters than there were bad innings from those pitchers.

The over-use of the bullpen likely led to more problems as Green and the front office mandated the manger had to protect the young arms in the rotation.

So many everyday payers let the manager down.  Some terrible streaks, bad seasons, but more alarmingly, the appearance the players didn’t care any longer.

Lack of pride may be worse than lack of talent and I sensed that is part of the problem in that clubhouse now.

Blame Green with not being tough enough.  Blame the front office for the roster they gave him.

Blame Manny Machado for his attitude, and hitting .193 since August 1st.  Blame Will Myers for stretches in which he hit .100 for a month. Blame Austin Hedges for being all glove, but not improving with his bat.  Blame Hunter Renfroe for not making adjustments when he hit potholes in the road.

But this look at what’s wrong with the Padres has to extend upstairs to GM-AJ Preller.
He fired Bud Black.  He hired a mistake in Pat Murphy.  He hired and now has fired Andy Green.

This is the same GM who burned thru enormous amounts of club money, making mistakes on all those first year acquisitions, Kemp-Shields-Upton-Upton and the money he had to pay to get rid of all those aging bad characters.

You can credit him for the farm system, but a closer look shows how much money he has spent to get the numbers of players into the system he has.  You can get anything you want if you are willing to overpay.

And Preller remains under MLB scrutiny, along with at least 4-other clubs, over their business dealings to get players out of Cuba and the Caribbean.  This after he was disciplined twice in the past for his dealings.

So as we go to the final week of another long-lost summer, Andy Green has been fired.

I liked him, found him intellectual, but am disappointed there never was any public accountability about the mess in the clubhouse.  It should not have been the ‘Good Ship Lollypop” as we went season to season with all these non playoff years.

Andy Green had a favorite phrase, “Own It”.  His players never did-never improved.  It cost him his job.

And now with the final 3-games of the home schedule infront of us….it’s time AJ Preller “Owned It” too.  This is his creation, his franchise, his players, and his mistakes too.

The blame game-took down the manager.  Others have to be held accountable now.  And the question, what ownership is going to do about it.

Win as a team-Lose as a team.  It should apply to more than just the Andy Green firing.

Ron Fowler-Peter Seidler need to pay more attention to how their team got to this point.

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