Padres Mid Season Report Card

Posted by on July 16th, 2014  •  0 Comments  • 

The scoreboard does not lie and neither does the stat sheet.  The Mid-Term report card is out.
 
You are what the record says you are, and for the San Diego Padres, the glass is not half empty for half full, but you’d have a hard time convincing the fans the bottom of the franchise looks as if it is going to fall thru and the roof is going to cave in.
 
How this team has won 41-games this year is beyond me.  Well actually, pitching won 41-games despite next to nothing support from the batting order.
 
And the mid-season report card grades are in.
 
Ownership-(C)…They’ve just about completed two full seasons, the Fowler-Seidler-O’Malley group.  The franchise is a combined 85-games under .500 since they bought the team at the end of August 2012.  The payroll has gone up.  The production gone down.
 
General Manager (F)…You fired one general manager already for mistakes made in contracts given.  Josh Byrnes made some astute veteran trades and some blunders too.  Not to blame for this shame entirely.
 
Manager (B)..Yes Bud Black has never made the playoffs, but he has made the team proud, never let it quit, never gave up despite ridiculous injuries.  You’d wonder what he would do if they gave him a 25-man roster sprinkled with guys like Caminitti-Finely-Kevin Brown-Gwynn from back in the day.
 
Coaches (B)..Daren Balsley is the best in the business at scoping out, sighting, and fixing pitchers flaws.  Phil Plantier can only teach so much, the rest has to come from the players  themselves.
 
Offense (F)..Major league hitters with a combined batting average of .214 when they resume play Friday.  Chase Headley healthy can hit.  Carlos Quentin used to hit when healthy-but cannot.  The jury remains out on Cam Maybin.  You wonder if Grandal-Cabrera; success in the past was PED driven.  Alonso needs a healthy hand.  Gyroko needs to figure out pitching.  The rest are just utilitymen elsewhere-here they are starters.
 
Defense (B)..If all the starters were on the field, a pretty competitive bunch, but when was the last time all the starters were on the field.  Better than the norm, but they have to be to patrol the wide expanses of Petco Park.
 
Pitching (A)..Never has so much been done, with so little run support.  The team has scored 5 runs in Tyson Ross’ starts.  Ian Kennedy’s teammates scored 27-runs in his 20-starts.  See what I mean.  Andrew Cashner has now had five different arm injuries in his short career.  Might he be better as a closer.  The rookies Hahn-Despaigne have 7-wins in 3-weeks, and the bullpen brigade, Street-Benoit have shined.
 
Franchise (D)..Until they rid themselves of bad contracts, till the cavalry in the farm system arrives within a year, till they take the payroll to 100M and spend it correctly, we are looking at non-playoff baseball, and 11-losing seasons in 16-years.  At least a night out at Petco Park is fun for the family-fans, even if the team isn’t fun watching.
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