1-Man’s Opinion on Sports–Tuesday “Padres-Chance to Talk-Go Silent-Miss Opportunity Again”

Posted by on December 5th, 2017  •  0 Comments  • 

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“Padres-Missing the Opportunity–Again”

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AJ Preller, with a new 3-year contract extension in his pocket, is getting ready to head to the Winter Baseball Meetings.

He spoke to the media for the first time on Monday, since the end of the season, but said little, and especially nothing, in regards to the biggest baseball story out there.

The impending bidding war for Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese superstar, who this week can officially begin meetings with clubs about a free agent contract.

They call him the Japanese version of Babe Ruth, which might be a bit of an exaggeration.

He is a 22-home run hitting…323-hitting outfielder, when he plays in the outfield for the Nippon Ham Fighters.

He is a 100-mile an hour pitcher, with a (42-15) record, when he has pitched in Japan.

He wishes to do both with the MLB team he signs with in the next couple of weeks.

The Padres, who have boat loads of money to spend to big on Ohtani, refused to talk about him, different than Mariners GM-Jerry DiPoto and Yankees GM-Brian Cashman, who both talked this weekend.

Obtain says the Padres will be one of 7-clubs he will grant a meeting too.

The Giants-Mariners-Angels, Dodgers, and Texas and the Cubs are the others.

The Padres gave us a 90-loss season again this past summer, with a young team, and a small market 38M payroll, all while paying 35M of salaries to players no-longer on the team.

Some of that Melvin Upton type money becomes available to use on Ohtani, and they hope to use that 20M cap space to place a bid, and use their 300,000-slot to sign him.

Ohtani is limited by the new International cap rules, and the max money he can make is limited to at most 3M a season going forward.

But he is coming anyway, rather than wait till age 25-when he could be an unlimited free agent with no cap restrictions.

Preller missed a golden opportunity to tell one and all, why San Diego, of all places, is a great spot for Shohei’s big bat and big arm.

He could have extolled for the national media to gobble up and then write about, the enormous success of the Padres farm system.

He could have talked about the special relationship the franchise has developed with all its international signing. About the International blueprint they have developed teaching language, education, history, financial help, health and culture for all their international players.

He could have talked about the special things his lead assistant Logan White has done in the international venue in Japan.

Could have talked about Hideo Nomo and Takashi Saito, the former Dodgerts pitchers, and the relationships they could develop now that they work for San Diego.

Describe Petco Park, a pitchers park, but a haven also for left-handed hitters.

The team told us “no Ohtani” questions.

Too bad, because all those answers, put out in public by the national media, would have helped spread the word of what the Padres have accomplished in a short period of time.

Yes Ohtani will hear from the Padres, but the Mariners have already extolled their past track record with the likes of Ichuro Suzuki and their Japanese ownership.

The Dodgers history is well known dating back to the Jackie Robinson days of all they have accomplished.

The Cubs have a world history and now Rings being the thing.

Preller could have said so much to help his “national media coverage cause”, but he didn’t want to help sell the beauty of San Diego, baseball and more..

Missed opportunity to expand the Padres small media market image….again.

Make yourself a ‘player’ and maybe you have a better chance to ‘be a player’ for that player..

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