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“Padres-Losing But Not Failing”

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San Diego Padres baseball, played in a Crown Jewel of a Ballpark, a great place to be, even with a losing team.

Coors Field-Colorado, home of the Rockies, where there is excitement every night, slugfests, home runs, extra basehitx, high scores,a beautiful yard, and fun place to be, even if they are losing.

Both teams are trying to fix their franchises on the fly, and that can be painful.

The Rockies, managed by ex-Padres boss Bud Black, are just ahead of the curve, while the Padres remain buried in last place.

Colorado has decided to put all their kid pitchers in the starting rotation, let them learn on the job. That’s painful, that takes time, but if you are right on the players you have, then you have a foundation in place for years.

The Rockies rotation is growing together. Jon Gray, Kyle Freeland, German Marques, Tyler Anderson and Chad Bettis, were all high draft picks, taken fro 1st thru 3rd rounds.

The Padres may need to flip the page in their game plan, photo copy what the Rockies are doing, and have their kid arms learn on the go.

Enough of this dragging Clayton Richard and Bryan Mitchell out there to get shelled. Enough with the rhetoric of ground ball outs, ad lively fastballs, leadership and potential.

Richard has 1-win this year, sandwiched around lots of starts and losses. Despite a strong outing on Tuesday night, he has just 3-wins in his last 19-starts dating to the middle of last season. Mitchell is winless in 7-starts here, out of the rotation now, and has never accomplished anything as a starter in the majors.

Everytime you look up, they have men on base in scoring position. Richard has a (6.21-ERA) while Mitchell’s is (6.47) as he sits in the bullpen. Between them, a combined 69-innings and 129-baserunners allowed. You don’t need anymore metrics than that.

Tyson Ross has embarked on a bounce back season from blood clot surgery, and competes (3.89-ERA) but is there much upside to him?

The loss of Dinelson Lamet to season ending elbow surgery was tough, but he will be back. Luis Perdomo hit a plateau, and needs to grow. Robbie Erlin needs more time to bounce back from his surgery.

The kids, Joey Luchessi and Eric Lauee are the future of the rotation. Both have pitched well, avoided catastrophic losses, and survived a bad inning here or there.

The Padres farm system is teeming with pitching talent. The top two farm clubs, El Paso (18-14) and San Antonio (21-10) are off to sparking starts because of the arms there.

Take a look at what’s happening with those closest to the major leagues.

..Cal Quantrill (2-2) 3.52
..Brett Kennedy (3-0) 2.45
..Luis Perdomo (2-1) 3.18
..Logan Allen (4-1) 2.78
..Miguel Diaz (1-1) 3.06
..Jesse Schultens (4-1) 2.80

Further down the ladder, there are positive numbers too, though those arms might be a couple of years away.

..Nick Margeviscius 2.81
..Luke Bachar 1.98
..Reggie Lawson 1.44
..Charis Paddock 0.00
..Michael Baez 3.80.

Aside from young Cubans, most every arm in the system is doing well

..Adrian Morejon (0-3) 6.45
..Ron Bolonas (0-2) 7.45

In the past, the cry has always been the Padres should go out and take a gamble on a veteran. This year they passed on Clay Bucholz, who has a (1.03-ERA) in the minors coming off rehab. They elected not pay for ex-Giant Tim Lincecum. They did not keep 39-year old Chris Young coming out of camp. They seem ready to pass on an affordable deal that could rent them Matt Harvey.

They have 11-pitchers having quality seasons in the minors right now, most of them coming off similar quality seasons last summer in the lower ranks of the farm system.

The losing wears you out. Andy Green is (152-216) with the players GM-AJ Preller has given him. He puts up a good front but this losing is hard on him. Maybe time San Diego do what Colorado did. Commit to all the kid pitchers, get them to the show, and let them learn on the job.

The Padres are losing, and might lose more, but the future is about to happen. Might as well start now. Colorado did, and feels good about it. Time to let the Padres fans start to feel good about this franchise.

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