1-Man’s Opinion on Sports–Thursday “Padres-Decision Day Is Coming-What Will It Be?”

Posted by on October 24th, 2019  •  0 Comments  • 

 

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“Padres-Decision Day”

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Waiting.  Waiting for a decision from the Padres.  Waiting for an explanation from the Padres.

They have interviewed the five candidates on their list of finalists for their managerial job.

It appears the job is going to Ron Washington, a baseball lifer, and an entrusted teacher, valued by GM AJ Preller.  Or is it?

They spent a lot of time with Jayce Tingler, a Player Personnel guru, who has also spent a lot of time with Preller, when they were both in Texas. Not him, not yet.

A last minute interview with former player, front office exec, and Cubs bench coach Mark Loretta.  Why the delay in talking to him?

They had alengthy interview with Brad Ausmus, who had mixed success in the beginning of a rebuild in Detroit, and then was treated poorly in his one year with the Angels.

The Padres ownership told us they valued experience, but they never had  a sit down with retiring Giants manager Bruce Bochy., who rebuffed overtures for a meeting.  They never got the chance to talk to Joe Maddon of the Cubs.

They bypassed making calls to Joe Girardi and Buck Showalter, both who have won other places in the major leagues.

Maybe they weren’t willing to pay, nor value an investment of 5M per year, what the Angels paid Maddon.

Maybe Showalter is too much of a control freak for their liking.

Maybe Bochy, who has had heart procedures, decided he needed some time away from the baseball grind that consumed his life.

I don’t know why the World Series credentials of Girardi, or the attention to detail style of Showalter would not merit an interview.

So we march on and wait for the announcement.

Washington has had success as a manager, and he is a teacher, with great rapport with players.  He did it with a young group in Texas, help usher in success with the money-strapped A’s, and had huge impact on the kid players in Atlanta, Ozzie Albies, Ron Acuna and more with the Braves.

Tingler has credentials in the new world of baseball, where analytics are viewed as important as experience in the dugout.

Whomever takes the job, will be challenged to get this everyday roster to play better, improve and grow.

He will need to solve the clubhouse chemistry, and find a leader, a voice, on that roster who will hold players accountable, stretching from a star like Manny Machado to an erratic young Francisco Mejia.

Taking the pitching staff to the next level will be equally important, as they grow the learning cufve that the young group of starters went thru last year.

Ron Washington has a track record as a teacher of young players in Atlanta and Oakland and the success he had as the Rangers manager.  It appears his off the field issues that stained his reputation, women and drugs, are a thing of the past.

Might there be a hidden message the club does not want with Tingler, another inexperienced clone of Andy Green, full of philopshy, but absent bench experience.

And of course the unanswered question, will the next Manager be his own man in the dugout, or a puppet to the people in the front office, who want to pull the strings.  You wonder if all these 90-loss seasons in a row have changed the way they might do business in the future with their next manger?

If it were my team, I would have taken a big run at Maddon, or on Girardi’s leadership skills.

We find out soon, for Thursday is an off day in the World Series, or maybe later on Monday, the next off day, or maybe they wait till the Fall Classic is finished.

Me, I’d hire Washington, give him the data you want, but let him manage “his” team.

The process seems agonizingly show.  I thought the Padres brass knew what then wanted.  Maybe people they want, don’t really want to be in the situation in San Diego.  They blew out Andy Green in mid-September, had lots of time to think, find and finalize a deal.  But it has not happened yet.

I think the guy coming into the Padres job is coming unto a good situation.  Maybe we’ve misread the value here.  Maybe the Padres have misread potential candidates.

Job still open.  Situation unresolved.

Padres, possibly paralysis by analysis.

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