=======Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus-Podcast…1:30pm
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“MONDAY MORNING MEMO”
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Lots of stories..lots of opinions if I were writing memos::

PADRES..Alot of national mocking of GM-AJ Preller over the hiring of Craig Stammen as manager…Comments like ‘Quit trying to reinvent the wheel’…and ‘AJ-tries for 3rd time to hire a 1st time manager”

DODGERS..Your heart aches when you read the post by Alex Vesia’s wife on the death of their infant child at birth, as the World Series started…How classy of the Dodgers-Blue Jays players to write ’51’ on their hats for the Series as a sign of solidarity for the Vesia family.  Unless you have buried one of your own infants, it is so hard to actually know this grief.  It never ends.

FREE AGENCY…Here comes the next group of Japanese-Korean free agents in baseball.  Interesting to see what the power hitting 1B-3B Kazu Okamoto and Munetaka Murakami turn out to be.  Each have holes in their offensive game.

ANGELS..The painful and dark Tyson Skaggs drug death trial moves into week number three..with Halos President John Carpino and former players likely on the stand.

CHARGERS-STEELERS…That was ugly, but it was a win…and it fit getting your hands duty in beating the Pittsburgh Steelers…it took a 2nd half  run game from Kamani Vidal, a couple of big Ladd McConkey catches, and a continued pass rush that made Aaron Rodgers look old and his offense archaic…the Bolts are (7-3).

AZTECS..An ambush of shocking  proportions at Hawaii…Sean Lewis got ambushed by formations and a move the pocket quarterback; Rainbow recevers were running open all day; QB-Jayden Denegal was awlful (10-27)…and a team that just never looked like the one that brought a 6-game winning streak on the road played awful

USC..Lincoln Riley’s team is (7-2) and still in the hunt for a playoff spot and getting enormous play from its QB-Jayden Maiava, and now backup RB-King Miller and a deep WR group

UCLA..The hopeless season continues with the blowout loss to Nebraska, and just ahead they have to play at Ohio State.  How bad do you think that might be?

INDIANA-OREGON..Find a way to win on the road, and the Ducks and Hoosiers did.  How wild were those last second wins  at  State College and Iowa City.  And thank goodness for modern day instant replay and video reviews.

CLIPPERS-LAKERS…Wow, nothing fits.  The Clippers are (3-6) and virtually none of the 4-veterans they brought in are contributing.  And the Lakers great nights from Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves don’t count for much, when you trail by 30-in Atlanta to a Hawks team playing without 3-starters.

KINGS-DUCKS..What a start in Anaheim..what a disappointment up the road in LA….the Ducks off to a (10-3-1) start and the kids, led by Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson are scoring tons of goals.  And no one is scoring in LA..and Quentin Byfield has had an awful start after his breakout season.

SDFC…What a season for the MLS expansion team as it finished first in the division and marched into the playoffs.  A bit stunning to see  Page 1-of my UT sports section filled with top to bottom soccer stories on SDFC-the Wave and MLS.  Not the Padres, not the NFL, not the wild weekend of college football, but wall to wall soccer coverage…And a great Sunday win sending SDFC to the knockout round next weekend…Job well done for the product on the field and the promotion of SDFC.
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Hacksaw’s Great Sports Weekend Podcast
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“PADRES–A REAL SURPRISE”
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We all come from somewhere, so nothing ever shocks me in sports when it comes to hiring.

The Padres did something very different with the hiring of longtime relief pitcher Craig Stammen, who becomes the team’s 6th manager in the last 12-years since AJ Preller took over as General Manager.

Stammen is surely cut from a different cloth.

A 13-year veteran pitcher with the Washington Nations and then the Padres.  A starter turned reliever, who reinvented himself twice, becoming a setup reliever and then recovering from surgery to become an innings workhorse-trust worthy bullpen guy.

He’s never managed anywhere.  His coaching resume is limited by his interaction with minor leaguers this past 3-summers working for Preller.

Stammen brings so many intangibles to the Padres dugout job.

Experience from a decade plus in the game.
Intelligent, driven, demanding.
A baseball intellect who believes in analytics.
A thinking man manager, who has dealt with stars and scrubs.
A standup guy in every way.

A guy who has seen the Padres clubhouse from lots of different prisms.

The early years of the independent contractor personalities of Matt Kemp,Justi Upton and James Shields.

The turmoil that was from the Mr-Me-Myself-I group that involved Juan Soto and Josh Hadeer.

And observing the growth of raw talents like Machado and Tatis into men.

He has been in pennant races and teams that fell apart. He has seen fire sales and the fury of first place finishes and playoff games.

He knows the players, the farm system, and the structure of what Padres baseball is to represent.

He is a most unique individual, working for an unorthodox GM in Preller, always looking to make a different type of deal.

This was different, this hire.

Depending on which rumor you believe, Albert Pujols did not get this job done because he demanded it be his team, dugout, clubhouse and coaching staff.  That or his financial demands were too steep.  He may have to learn something about demands, considering he was viewed as favorites for the Angels, then the Padres jobs, and got neither.

Nick Hundley brought alot of intellect to the interview, but maybe he needs to be a bench coach first before he elevates into the manager’s chair.

Ruben Niebla is gifted at what he does, handling pitchers, but maybe he was not ready.

The unique aspect of what happened on Thursday, was the Padres now have two strong beacons from the pitching world, casting their knowledge and light on Friar arms, with Niebla and Stammen working together.

Will it work?  Only if Preller’s next set of surprise decisions nets him front line pitching.

The back of Stammen’s baseball card will show wins-losses-games-innings and respectable ERA’s.  He squeezed every ounce of talent out of his right arm in a nice career.  Now he will be asked to lead a team that has not finished the job over the last five years.

His baseball card won’t detail this.

Craig Stammen, gem of a guy, and bright light baseball mind.

Interesting start to a critical Padres off season

We all come from somewhere.  Craig Stammen’s somewhere has led him to the Padres manager’s office.

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Hacksaw’s Thursday Podcast..1:30pm
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“DODGER BLUE = GREEN
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They earned the World Series diamond encrusted ring.
They held the Victory Parade in the streets and the Dodger Stadium celebration.
They are now ready for next season.

And it may be the same old..same old.

The Dodgers accounting sheet showed a payroll of (383M), an all time record.
The Dodgers owe MLB a payment of in excess of (151M) as a luxury tax on players.
The Dodgers look ready to strike in free agency again.

They are looking for an ideal power hitting left fielder.
They are pursuing a veteran closer to add to the bullpen.

Get ready for them to move players off the roster, days after they earned a World Series ring.

Goodbye slump ridden OF-Michael Conforto (17M).  They could part ways with battered relief pitcher Blake Treinen (13.5M).  Kirby Yates and his (13M) should exit too.

Clayton Kershaw (7.5M) and Miguel Rojas (5M) come off the books in retirement.

Might they walk away from oft injured Tony Gonsolin, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech and Brock Stewart?

If all that happens, it means the Dodgers would clear some (74M) off the payroll, plenty enough for them to play ‘checkbook baseball’ again in the coming weeks.

How would Alex Bregman look at 3B?  Bo Bichette at SS? Kyle Tucker in LF?  Robert Suarez in the bullpen?

And of course, using the Dodgers form of ‘new math’, any or all deals could be accompanied by ‘deferred payments’, the kind we saw for 8-players on last year’s roster, led by the Ohtani contract stretched out till 2036.

Can you imagine the angst in the 619-858-760 area code, if Robert Suarez and Roki Sasaki become teammates in the Dodgers bullpen?

Can you imagine putting Bregman or Tucker into a Dodgers lineup with Showtime, Mookie, Freddie and more?

It’s a new world.

Just get ready as the free agent signing window opens on Friday.

Dodgers Blue = Dodger Green Dollars.
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“PADRES OFF SEASON-VERY IMPORTANT”

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Dear Padres Fans:

Hope you have enjoyed the last five years of fun at Petco Park.
I am not so sure the coming years will be equal to the great summers of baseball you had.

Teams change every year.
Rosters evolve.
Injuries take a toll.
Players leave as free agents.
New players arrive in trades and deals.

And that’s where we are at this hour with the Friars.

GM-AJ Preller has alot of work to do, not just on finding some power bats for his depleted lineup, but now to likely construct a whole new starting rotation.

Nick Pivetta, coming off a fantastic season, is your number 1-starter.

After that, there are question marks lots of places, on the roster and in the rotation.

Yu Darvish’s illustrious career may be in the rearview mirror, after his 3rd elbow surgery since 2015.  This brace surgery to repair the UCL and the tendon will sideline him 12-to-15 months.  No 2026 season.  Only hopes for a 40-something pitcher by the time 2027 rolls around.  And Preller owes him (3Y-46M) on the rest of the contract.

Dylan Cease has headed to free agency, with reports the Cubs are willing to look at a 4-or-5 year contract for the high velocity-strikeout-but streaky pitchers.  Too expensive for me.

Michael King-beloved for what he has become a starter, has walked away from his (15M) deal to become a free agent in search of a new 3-to-5 year contract at a bigger price tag.  I’d give him the (22M) qualifying offer-but doubt he would take it.

Joe Musgrove has done everything possible in rehab from his own Tommy John surgery, but understand more often than not, it takes two years to come back to be the pitcher you used to be, if you can come back.  This is a waiting game.

That’s the front four of what used to be a pretty good rotation.

Now your rotation might involve Randy Vasquez, JP Sears, Matt Waldren.  There will be no Jhonny Brito (elbow surgery), Kyle Hart  (option not picked up), Ryan Berget-Steven Kolek (traded away).

I for one don’t buy the rumor of moving Mason Miller or Adrian Morejon into the rotation.  That’s where they came from, and they were often injured pitching as starters in the minors.  I don’t see flipping Jeremiah Estrada either into a starter now that he found a niche in a strong bullpen.

And by the way, Robert Suarez is gone to free agency too, so everybody in that bullpen moves up a slot.

The farm system is barren of arms right now (Preller at his wheel-deal best).  Aside of Omar Cruz-Jackson Wolf (El Paso) and Henry Baez-Brayden Nutt (San Antonio), those are the only arms who put up good numbers.  And again that is AAA-AA baseball-yet to prove yourself in the bigs.

Luckily the free agent window just opened.

Luckily, there are arms becoming available, Brandon Woodruff (Milw), Shoto Imanaga (Cubs), Shane Bieber (Toronto).

But the price tag on pitching keeps going up, even for guys coming off injury problems.

Luckily though Preller has a history of finding reclamation projects in the minors and by heading back to the Pacific Rim, Japan-Korea-Taiwan.

All that being said, it looks like he has limited payroll available, because of the pay hikes Manny Machado-Fernando Tatis will get.  He does have the Cease-Luis Arraez-King-Robert Suarez money to be freed up (combined 50M) plus the Eric Hosmer (13M) coming off the books.

But how are you going find a truckload of pitchers and get some type of power hitting bat?  And he has very little to trade in the system (Preller factor again).

And I remind you, look at that Padres pitching rotation at this hour, and then look up the road at the ‘Gold Standard-Dodgers Blue’ starting rotation.  The ones with the World Series rings I might add.

Hope you enjoyed the last 5-summers of Padres baseball.  It just might not be the same next year, even if the baseball calendar reads ‘November’ and opening day is a ways away.

Off season is a most important season to not let this franchise success slip away.  And it might.
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Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus {Podcast
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“AZTECS…IT IS TIME”
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It’s right there infront of them.
The Aztecs are (7-1) with a nationally ranked defense.

Just ahead key games at Hawaii-vs-Boise State.
Just ahead too, if they run the table, they could host the Mountain West title game

A realistic chance to go (11-1) on a football season.

An amazing turnaround by SDSU, considering the disaster of last year’s (3-9) season.  But a combo of a power run game, a legendary defense, a fairly healthy season, and player continuity along the offensive line.

Add in an easy first half schedule, and we have arrived at this.

The only thing missing, fan support, alumni support.  How you could win all these games and be so dominant and draw just 17,000-in the stadium for a Homecoming game.

But right infront of them, win at Hawaii, get Boise here, and the MWC world could be theirs.

Coach Sean Lewis comments:
———-
Excited at direction of where we are heading
Defense is operating at elite level
Good offensive moments but some bad moments too
We are in a good spot

Hawaii has not been home in a long time
Tim Chang done a great job with passing game
Very aggressive team when they play at home

Tim Chang-origin of offense is run and shoot
They have built out of it
Alejado makes them go, strong in pocket, but can move
He has a unique skill set..he extends plays
Gets ball out of hands quickly
Pressure does not faze him-he always looks downfield
Drops dimes all over the yard

They stress you all over the field..spread field
Sims is a downhill runner-I really like
Preset motion..movement

Keys to this game…limit their throw game
They will get explosive plays
We need red zone points..not leave them on the field.

Ranked 29th in country..keep proving ourselves
Recognition comes if we keep winning
Block out external noise about AP poll
Where we are 2nd week of November does not matter
Must keep on winning

Talk about us in the playoffs..that’s good
Nice to be talked about..end of the day..keep improving
Wait for first CFB playoff poll to come out

Hawaii trip is a business trip-not a vacation trip
We will be in the heart of it in Honolulu
Kids protect their hard work and stay focused

Going West-later start time-has a different feel
Gone East..practiced early..practiced late..we will be ready
Return trip home eats into prep time
Worry about how we handle shorter prep time for next week game

Us winning-we always believed-don’t worry about what you think outside
All things that don’t show up on stat sheet-these kids are continuing to do
Handle each week’s opportunity-kids created this-tunnel vision this week
Yes, win big games, win league, host championship game
Internal standards are part of this program
This is really hard…hard is meaningful

Went to Hawaii one time when I was a player at Wisconsin
Reached out to Coach Long about how to prepare for this
Want their information and wisdom

Upsets in Mountain West..not surprised
Everyone has great talent..Talent spread across the MWC
Every team in league has a chance to beat the other team.
Just because you won yesterday not mean you win next time

Aztecs recruiting…we had 110-recruits on sideline for Wyoming game
We think they will have 200-recruits visiting for Boise game
San Diego is such a hot bed for talent..we want hometown heroes to stay here
We will knock on every door-players will have to tell us ‘no’ to our face.
We are cultivating, elevating this program.
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