Padres–What Do You Blame in This Mess”

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Padres baseball.

It’s like a toothache that won’t go away. these last two months of Padres baseball.

From first place in an early season pennant chase, to just 2-games back, to this mess.

Losses 24-in the last 34 games.  From 17-games over .500 to a (73-70) record.

From 2-games back of first place to skidding to 20-games back.

A sub.500 record against teams with winning records.  And add on 40-losses to teams playing .500 or worse this season.

This is not what we saw early, an embarrassment beyond belief for the last couple of months.  This is an astonishing collapse of a once highly regarded team.

Caved in by pitching injuries, 14-hurlers on the DL this year.
Done in by 9-pitching surgeries this season on the major league and AAA level.

Ownership gave the General Manager a 171M payroll, highest ever, and are not seeing the return on the dollar.,

The Fernando Tatis shoulder issue robbed the team of energy, firepower, flair.  Get him healthy in the off season and you get all his dynamics back.

Manny Machado has had a rock solid season, home runs, the glove, even with an up and down batting average season.

Jake Cronenworth ran out of gas, but what a player before he was hit-by-a pitch.

The rest of the highly paid lineup has underachieved.  Alot of money to make Wil Myers a part-time player.  Anybody really think Tommy Pham has earned his 8M salary.  A ton of money for Eric Hosmer to be a singles hitter.

A strange fall off in production from Trent Grisham, so which type of player is he, the one Milwaukee gave up on or the guy who had a good season last year?

The bullpen brigade has been a rock of strength virtually all year, but fatigued.

The wins and losses, home runs and stolen bases, ERAs good-vs-bad are all stats we can see in black and white.

The gray area is team chemistry, accountability in the clubhouse, and the relationships between players and the manager, and the roster and the front office.

And all those relationships seem terribly frayed.

The rumblings that players don’t believe in Jayce Tingler’s sales pitches any longer are growing.

The insinuation that players are selfish, caring only about the stats they can run up seems to have validity.

The realization how poor this coaching staff is, from the inability to improve the pitching, to the failures to grow players in the everyday lineup.

And of course, the accountability question about the decision making of GM-AJ Prellar, whose wheeling and dealing stripped the farm system bare.  That and questions about the mishandling of all these young pitchers, a number of them having gone down with injuries bringing on Tommy John surgery.

Something has to change and it will in the off season.

Look for roster changes, maybe a managerial change too.  But can you trust the GM any longer.  Seven years is a long time to have gone thru trial and error, and to see this become a season of failure.

Root canal surgery solves a chronic tooth ache.  Surgery on the roster and in the front office has to be considered too.

Can the baseball fans in San Diego believe in the people who have brought this epic collapse to Petco Park?.

I think not.

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