Boy money does not buy you what it used to buy you.
 
Anybody remember when gas was 18-cents a gallon….your newspaper was 25-cents…..a loaf of bread 49-cents?
 
Now it’s 3.25 for gas, 1-50 for your paper, loaf of bread 2.99.
 
Same thing in baseball.
 
Money just doesn’t buy what it used to, especially when you are talking star-power players.
 
The Padres are just about to the halfway mark of the National League season.  They play Seattle tonite and tomorrow, before going back on the road.
 
For the 110-M payroll they currently have, they are 10th out of 15-teams in the National League.  6-teams are in front of them for the chance to play the ‘one and done’ wildcard play-in game.  That’s an awful lot of teams to hop scotch over, and we can no longer use the favorite term ‘small sample size’.
 
The National League West standings sure don’t lie, with this (37-41) record they drag onto the field tonite at Petco Park.  And the stat sheet does not lie either.
 
The Padres team batting average, with all those additions this winter, is (.244)….ranked 23rd out of 30-in all of baseball.
 
All the promise of power hitters in that lineup, aside from Justin Upton, not much to shout about.  Shout at them with 65-homers, ranked 20th in baseball.
 
On base percentage, grab something so you don’t fall, all that payroll has brought you is an on-base percentage (.297), 4th worst in baseball.
 
The Swinging Friar is still more swing and miss…664-K’s this year, 3rd most strikeouts in the game.
 
Pitching is just as bad.  The once proud staff, which always had ERA’s around 3.00 and led baseball much of the past couple of years, now with a (4.11) mark, placing it 23rd in baseball.
 
The starters, so brilliant a year ago this week, are at an abysmal (4.23ERA), and the relievers, once known for numbers like 1.90, are at (3.89).
 
And the balls are flying out at Petco Park and other places.  The staff has given up 24-bombs this year, that’s 2nd most in baseball.
 
Not piling on here, but just telling you the scoreboard does not lie, halfway thru what could be a most disappointing non-playoff season.
 
I can’t believe it.  Bet GM-AJ Preller and lead owner Ron Fowler can’t believe it either.
 
Money sure doesn’t buy now what it used to.

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