“When is Losing Acceptable?”

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In baseball terms, maybe we need to issue a ‘free-pass’ to the San Diego Padres ownership and leadership for this summer of bad last place baseball.

At least we are not the Baltimore Orioles with a (43-107) record with bad ownership and a failed farm system. San Diego is not the Reds, nor Kansas City where losing has returned after the World Series appearances.

The Padres hope to be the next Astros or Cubs, going thru summers of suffering, waiting for a truckload of minor leaguers to arrive.

It’s too early to tell if there is a Jose Altuve-Carlos Correa-George Springer group of stars in San Diego yet.

1-thing is certain, 14-rookie have made their debuts in this (60-90) learn on the job summer.

Hunter Renfroe has arrived. We are awaiting the return to health of Fernando Tatis-Luis Urias to see if that is the double play combination for a decade.

Franmill Reyes has hit his way into some type of consideration for everyday plate, at least with his bat, but not so much his glove.

We have seen Manny Margot and Austin Hedges,

The flashes of kid-catcher Francisco Mejia have been impressive with his power displays.

We now know Joey Luchessi and Eric Lauer can pitch. You only hope Dinelson Lamet and Luis Pedomo return to form from arm problems.

The hard-throwing kid releivers Castillo-Wingenter-Maton all appear tohave roles.

The next wave of pitching talent will show up in the spring with an opportunity to show they belong, most notably Logan Allen and Calvin Quantrill.

The team is sending 71-prospects, from its 8-farmclubs, to the Arizona Fall League for further play and instruction.

The truckload of Cubans they signed 2-summers ago are all expected to move up a notch or two in the farm system, though Adrian Morejon and Jorge Ona seem miles and miles away still.

This year’s draft crop, led by Owen Miller and othrs had great debut seasons, but that’s in the lower minors, not close to the National League level.

This summer has been hard to watch. High ERAs, record strikeouts, poor defensive lapses, and more trades of veteran pitching.

But for the bad spell of 23-losses in 28-games, with the terrible spring plunge, when they went from 4-games under .500 to 31-games under that mark, you always knew the blueprint was in place, and patience was going to be as important as base hits, home runs and ERAs.

So we sit here with just 1-more short homestand left after this Giants series.

We see some progress, but of course there are still lots of questions.

Losing wears you out. Attendance may just sneak across the 2-million threshold, where once upon a time, the team, in the new ballpark, drew 3M.

I will issue a ‘free pass’ to the Fowler-Seidler ownership group and the Preller-led front office, this one time only..

The Padres may lose 95-again this year, but they are ahead of the curve in terms of talent arriving, and more to be delivered. I’d rather be in San Diego rather than Baltimore-Cincinnati-Kansas City, and I’m not just talking about the wether.

This is the 1-summer where losing has to be acceptable. Next year, better be a .500-team. A playoff team in two years.

That’s what my blueprint reads. Their’s better too.

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