“Padres–A Blame Game”
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The San Diego Padres pennant hopes seem to be dimming quickly because of the dark spot on the teams roster.  The pitching staff.

The Padres often talk about the glow of the number 100, the one that flashes in neon lights, you know 100mph fastballs delivered by all these live young arms.

There is another number that should be in a flashing ‘red light’…(18)..the number of elbow-shoulder surgeries this pitching staff has had since 2017.  Think about that, 18-major injuries in less than four years.

Losing games and losing starting pitching.  Bad luck, or bad philosophy?

This has been a bad couple of days for the Friars pitching staff this week, losing 2-members of the starting rotation…in a span of 24-hours.

Promising lefthander Adrian Morejon is gone for the year after a week of evaluation, when it was determined by multiple doctors he needed immediate ligament transplant surgery in his elbow, the Tommy John surgery.  Rehab is 14-to-18-months.

A costly loss for it cost the Padres a combined 22M to sign the Cuban teenage pitcher.  This becomes his 5th injury since joining the Padres organization in the 2016 free agent signing period.

This by-far the worst of the injuries he has had, but he has a history here that should concern you; shoulder impingement, elbow strain, forearm, hip and now the torn elbow ligament.  An investment that has not paid off.  And this from a pitcher who has thrown only 60-62-65 innings in his three years in the farm system.

Now Dinelson Lamet appears to have gone down again, pulled on Wednesday, after just 29-pitches in 2-innings in his first start.  A strained forearm, the same thing that led to his shutdown at the end of his mystical season, in which he compiled a (2.09-ERA) and showed the promise of becoming an ace.

He’s already had the Plasma Platelet Injection procedure.  It did not work obviously after an off season of rehab. He also had elbow surgery earlier in his career.

The Padres traded for Cleveland Indians ace Mike Clevinger, who had two surgeries with the Tribe, and promptly arrived here and damaged his elbow, necessitating a 2nd Tommy John procedure. He sits out this year.

The surgery list is staggering: 15-pitchers-18 surgeries

Adrian Morejon-elbow surgery this week
Dinelson Lamet-elbow-strained forearm-after 8-months rehab
Chris Paddack-elbow surgery in the minors
Mike Clevinger-elbow surgery in November-second operation
Luis Perdomo-elbow surgery last year then left as free agent
Javy Guerra-elbow surgery being converted from shortstop
Michael Baez-elbow surgery in spring
Kirby Yates-bone chip elbow surgery before leaving as free agent
Jacob Nix-elbow surgery and missing last year with alcohol issues
Jose Castillo-elbow surgery-shoulder issues-fractured finger surgery
Anderson Espinoza-two elbow surgeries in minor leagues
Trey Wingenter-elbow surgery-yet recover
Pedro Avila-shoulder surgery-released
Robbie Erlin-forearm surgery-left as free agent
Matt Strahm-two knee surgeries-currently rehabbing

Is it bad luck or a bad baseball philosophy, wanting everyone to throw 100mph at the top of the mountain.

They want everyone to have wicked stuff, sliders, two and four seam fastballs, cutters, spin rate metrics and more.

Is anyone taking into consideration the stress on the arms and the toll taken on what you need to be your strength, pitching.

The Padres entered spring training loaded with pitching candidates.  The numbers have been thinned down.

Do you realize, aside from veteran Joe Musgrove and the young rookie Ryan Weathers, every other starter in that rotation, Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Chris Paddack has had elbow surgery in their career already.

Now there’s not much left to choose from aside from promising 1st round draft pick Mackenzie Gore, who is not ready to pitch at the major league level.

Praise from every corner of baseball directed towards GM-AJ Preller for his free agent spending sprees and his trades.

Wonder if they wish they hadn’t traded away Joey Luchessi-Cal Quantrill or Eric Lauer?.

But now someone needs to look more closely at what Padres pitching has become, flame-throwers, flaming out, burned out by all these elbow injuries and season ending surgeries.

As the Padres get ready to play this four game series at Dodgers Stadium, I see their pitching staff, Kershaw-Beuhler-Urias-May-Bauer and I don’t see any elbow surgeries there.  And this from a franchise that let stars Kenta Maeda-Hyun Jin-Ryu and Rich Hill leave as free agents, and none of them were damaged arms either.

The Dodgers Way seems to be the right way.
The Padres Program seems to have some shortcomings to it.

Somebody needs to evaluate the Padres pitching philosophies.
AJ Preller needs to be held up to the light about what they teach.

A Blame Game for the Pitching Game problems.  There are plenty of Padres to look at, they are all on the disabled list-rehabbing.

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