Dodgers Dollars and Baseball

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The Padres have hated rivals.  
 
For years it was always the Dodgers.  It’s an LA-big city-San Diego second cousin thing.  Or maybe it was Garvey-Cey-Lopes-Russell.  Or maybe it was just Tommy LaSorda, or Fernando Valenzuala, or Orel Hershiser.
 
Then there was a chunk of time it was the Colorado Rockies, Coors Field and all, and you and I agree Matt Holliday still has not touched home plate in that critical game, has he?
 
And of course now, nobody likes Orange, not Denver Broncos orange, nor San Francisco Giants orange, with the 3-World Series rings on their hand.
 
It has come full circle now, and the Dodgers are the team that represents the bad things in baseball, an “Evil Empire’ edition on the West Coast.
 
The big money team, that had a payroll in the $240M range last season, with a luxury tax payment that took expenditures over $270M, is doing it again.  Stockpiling talent, buying contracts, and now paying off contracts.
 
Yes we can say thank you Los Angeles for the Matt Kemp trade, and hope you like the return you got for him, for we will like the way he plays at Petco Park, while guys steal lots of bases on Yasmani Grandal, and you hope Joe Wieland, nice guy, does not have another elbow setback.
 
But now the LA-way is surely different than the O’Malley way, or the Branch Rickey way, from back in the day.
 
The Dodgers, who took on all those Red Sox contracts a couple of years back, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford etc, are now into the ‘writing checks game’.
 
They said goodbye to Kemp and Hanley Ramirez, Dee Gordon and Dan Haren, in a weeklong shuffle of the roster, five deals in a weeks time at the Winter Meetings..
 
But the stunning revelation, is not what they brought in, the Padres duo, plus Jimmy Rollins of the Phillies, and the Angels’ Howie Kendrick, and then signed free agent pitchers Brandon McCarthy from the Yankees,  and Brett Anderson of the Rockies..  The shocker, is what they are doing when they open the checkbook for departing players..
 
They are paying $32M of the Kemp contract with the Padres.  They are paying the $10M-contract of Dan Haren, whether he reports to the Miami Marlins or not.  They are paying the $2.6M arbitration deal for Dee Gordon in that Miami trade.  And now they are eating the $9.5M contract in releasing aging closer Brian Wilson to open up a roster spot.
 
If you were bothered by last year’s payroll, are you bothered the Commissioner’s office has signed off on the Dodgers writing checks totaling $54M of players playing elsewhere next season?  They are, and baseball just seems to sanction it, buying their team, and paying you off for you to take their players too.  Some modern day way to do business.
 
You may not have liked Dodgers baseball of years gone by, or Barry Bonds and the Giants, or the Rockies and their stadium, but this wrong.  
 
54M to have guys not to play for them.  Big market, big TV contract, big attendance at Chavez Ravine.  Is it good for the game?  Is it right for the game?  Should it be allowed by baseball?
 
I tried to think of the correct term to describe this way of doing business, and all I could come up with was one word.
 
‘Obscene’…fitting for how Padres fans have felt in the past about the Dodgers, and how they should now feel about the enemy up the road, for how they spend all their money.

 

Risk vs. Reward

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That’s the storyline this morning as the San Diego Padres continue to wheel and deal coming out of the Winter Baseball meetings.
 
The latest, this proposed 11-player trade, involving 3-teams, that ships more young arms out of San Diego, imports another bat, gives the Padres power hitters,  but players also with injury problems.
 
The Padres-Tampa Bay-Washington trade changes alot of things, not just on the Suncoast (Tampa Bay), but also in San Diego (Petco Park).
 
The Padres get power hitting bat outfielder Will Myers, power hitting catcher Ryan Hanigan, and two lower minor league pitchers Gerardo Reyes and Jose Castillo.  The cost for San Diego?  Good bye hot young pitcher Joe Ross, last year’s first round draft pick shortstop Trea Turner, young slugging lst baseman Jake Bauers, veteran catcher Rene Rivera, and pitcher Burch Smith, coming off an injury season.  Tampa will trade Ross and Turner onto Washington for outfielder Steve Souza and another minor leaguer Travis Ott.
 
The kids jettisoned in this deal, put up good numbers in the minors.  Ross was (10-6) splitting time between AA-A with 106-strikouts in 120-inning.  Turner, the highly regarded draft pick, hit (323) between the Northwest League-Cal League and Midwest League.  Bauers, in just his second season, hit (.296).  Smith was plagued with forearm problems all season and made just a couple of minor league starts, after getting to the majors in 2013. 
 
Lots of things become apparent.  The Padres are preparing to compete for the National League playoffs right now.  Tampa Bay, which traded pitcher David Price last August, and saw manager Joe Maddon opt out for a deal with the Cubs, is beginning a major rebuilding program.  And Washington has a shortstop for the future and another strong arm.
 
General Manager AJ Preller’s second blockbuster deal in a week, shows he is not afraid to make a deal, even if he is dealing for players coming off injuries.
 
The Dodgers-Matt Kemp trade looked like a win for San Diego, but some inside baseball fear the health issues to the ankles and feet of the Dodgers outfielder, mean he might never be the player he used to  be.
 
Myers gets moved to a 3rd team in less than three years, having gone from Kansas City to Tampa and now onto San Diego.  But after a Rookie of the Year campaign in 2013, he spent much of last year on the disabled list, recovering from wrist surgery.  You wonder about the guarantees of his health.
 
If the Red Cross report is positive on Kemp and Myers, then San Diego will present a middle of the batting order that can hit, and hit with power, something we really have not seen here since the days of  Greg Vaughn and Ken Caminiti.
 
Preller also accomplished something he really needed, players he could control.  Kemp has 6-years left on his contract; Myers is controllable for another four years before free agency.  And he made all those deals without surrendering any of his top six starting pitchers, not Andrew Cashner, Tyson Ross, Ian Kennedy, Jesse Hahn, Robbie Erlin,  nor Odri Despaigne.  
 
Granted though, he has dealt away both catchers, four young pitchers, a budding shortstop, and a powerful rookie minor league lst baseman, but the mandate is to win today, and not worry about tomorrow.. 
 
If the GM is right, he has hit another home run, for he has added the power pop of Kemp-Myers-Hanigan, to a lineup that still has Jed Gyorko and Seth Smith, with the still possible availability of Carlos Quentin.   
 
You always hope you can say it was ‘win-win’ for all the teams in these baseball trades. But for the Padres, at least today, the real words might be ‘risk-vs-reward’.

Leadership in San Diego – Have It, Find it

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Leadership in San Diego.  It’s been sorely lacking for years, in the city government, and with the football franchise. 
 
Maybe it is all about to change.
 
The Chargers have announced they are not opting out of their lease at decaying Qualcomm Stadium, staying another year, to keep their season ticket base intact, and giving the city another year to try and find a way to fund a new NFL stadium, in the Gaslamp Quarter.
 
A project that has been in the works since 2000, may be about to take shape, thanks to leadership.  A new mayor, and an old owner of the baseball franchise.
 
Mayor Kevin Faulconer says he will unveil a new financing plan next month, that might put an NFL Stadium on track with a public vote in 2016.  It involves use of the downtown hotel tax extension.  It is the first sign, amongst the past seven mayors at City Hall, that something  realistic could happen, that would guarantee the stadium gets built and the franchise stays.
 
Behind closed doors, the familiar name of John Moores has surfaced, thru his JMI-Realty Corporation, which is proposing to build a 1.4B project, not just for a mufti purpose stadium, but also a Convention Center annex and another luxury hotel in the East Village.
 
Moores was the money man, with the brilliance of Larry Lucchino. who got Petco Park, and 5-adjacent hotels built, that led to the rebirth of the Gaslamp Quarter, the destination spot downtown.
 
And Moores and Faulconer seem to be the catalyst now, the idea men, with the ability to make money appear, to get the deal done.
 
Owner Dean Spanos and his point man Mark Fabiani have failed over the years to generate support at all the locations they’ve tried.  The land wasn’t right, the cost was too prohibitive, the financing never in place.  Now that may all be swept aside with the vision of a pro sports owner who gets things done, and a new mayor who will not be denied in efforts to save an industry, the Chargers, for his town.
 
Spanos can help the cause along, by putting his money upfront.  The owners of the Vikings, Steelers, Patriots and Cowboys all put lots of their own money into their stadium projects.  Why not here?  JMI has the experience, not just with the Padres, but across the country now with college stadium renovations, minor league baseball construction, and their marketing skills..
 
Spanos should put 200M of his own money into the deal, use the NFL-G6 Fund to secure another 200M, help find 50M in naming rights.  That’s 450M of the estimated 850M for the Stadium.  If you use the hotel tax, you should be able to bond the rest and get both the stadium and the convention center project done.
 
It would be nice to view this, not as a bailout, or giving a rich owner a new stadium, but rather as a consortium deal where the team gets what it needs, a new stadium, and the city saves the franchise, the extension of the convention center grows our tourism business.  All responsible invest, then share in the wealth.
 
It would end all the animosity from decades gone by, the Super Bowl Stadium expansion, the new Chargers practice facility, the ticket guarantee etc, etc.
 
Leadership, for the first time ever, we seem to have it.  Odd, a former baseball owner and his company, may be coming to the rescue of the NFL owner.
 
John Moores, who left town with tins cans of criticism following him,  now using his business acumen, saving the NFL team for our town.  Who could have imagined that?

Chargers Fans Have Changed

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They are going away for the final two weeks of the NFL season, road games at San Francisco and Kansas City, must win games, to keep a flickering playoff hope alive, knowing full-well they need some help now to have any of their mail sent to the ‘post-season’.
 
But in the aftermath of the back-to-back home losses to New England and Denver, comes, the real question.  
 
What has happened to the fans who come to see the San Diego Chargers?  
 
Qualcomm Stadium may have many shortcomings.  It is crumbling badly.  It needs to be razed, not retro-fitted. But beyond its problems, it has seats to be filled.  Seats that used to be filled by Chargers fans everywhere.
 
Those seats have been replaced by fans with strange Cape Cod accents (New England Patriots), and fans wearing Orange (Denver Broncos).  It was never so more apparent than the last two weekends, when big plays by Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, big stops made by a Patriots or Broncos secondary, were applauded by the fans in the stands.
 
Something has changed in San Diego, always a melting pot of people moving here from somewhere else.  Fans coming here with emotional attachments to teams back home. 
 
Chargers crowds in the recent years have become less and less passionate, because fans in the stands are getting thier tickets from longtime season ticket holders, selling them at a profit to total strangers.
 
Is there an explanation to all this?
 
The NFL, with the ever-fast growing relationship with Direct TV, and its Red Zone Channel, makes it more convenient to stay home, and watch the games.  If the Chargers play poorly or are losing, you can always switch to another game.  If your team is getting blown out on Channel 711, you can always go up the Direct TV dial, and find something more interesting.
 
Easier to stay home, eat your own food, and choose the game you want.  The stadium experience isn’t what it used to be, granted a seat is a seat, but the drunk behind you,  the traffic jam in and out, or the just the parking-ticket fees, makes the home game in your living room more acceptable.
 
Maybe it is a spillover effect from the AJ Smith-Norv Turner error-era, and the fact the town has never forgiven Team Spanos for allowing the GM and Coach to run off tremendously popular and productive players, LaDanian Tomlinson, Darren Sproles, Vincent Jackson, who have never been replaced.
 
It just does not feel the same any more, not like the Martyball era, or the Bobby Ross-Bobby Beathard led era, and the teams that ended the ‘Decade of Decline’ and got to the Super Bowl.
 
Maybe it’s the threat Team Spanos will up and move in the middle of the night to Los Angeles, though I don’t think that is realistic, not for that benevolent owner, despite the frustrations and lack of traction to find financing for a new stadium.
 
In the end, the Philip Rivers era, record setting as it is, seems close to ending.  Failing to make the playoffs four times in five years, means the franchise is really heading towards rebuilding.  And that does not bode well, for lagging fan support is now part of the conversation about the future of the team.
 
Something is very different now at the Q.  The fans passion is waning, the team is wanting for quality talent, and boos from the home town fans are dwarfed now by the cheers of the visiting fans who bought your tickets to sit in your seats to cheer for their team.
 
Defensive end Corey Liuget put it simply, ‘it feels like we played 16-road games this year’.  Scorn was heaped on Coach Mike McCoy last week, when he told fans not to sell thier tickets, but to sit in their own seats.
 
The town has changed.  The team has surely changed.  The atmosphere inside the stadium has changed.
 
The Chargers are facing big obstacles:  roster, stadium, and now the loss of the most important part of the franchise,  Bolt Blue passion. 

December Depression

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Peyton Manning was sick and then got hurt.  The Chargers played sick, and their playoff hopes have been hurt too.  It was a bad game to watch.  It’s turning out to be a bad season too.
 
The Denver Broncos found the resolve to win, despite a myriad of problems, clinching the AFC-West race, and dealing a possible deathblow to the Chargers post-season hopes, with an ugly (22-10) win in front of a Qualcomm Stadium crowd that had as much Orange in it as it had Powder Blue.
 
Manning, fighting the flu, and then hobbled with a bruised thigh, engineered a conservative run-first offense, and completed just enough passes to his star wide receiver Demariyus Thomas to give the Broncos the win,
 
For Philip Rivers, who built his record setting reputation on big plays down the field, it was a day of struggles.  His battered offensive line went to ‘max protect’ blocking to stop the Broncos pass rush, but it meant one less big play receiver in the pattern, and that coupled with an anemic run game, gave the Chargers few bullets in the gun to fight this fight.
 
The Broncos beat the Chargers for the 7th time in their last 8-outings over the last four years, not much of a rivalry to speak of.  Denver has won 5-of the last 6-years they have played at the Q, and Rivers is now (1-5) vs Manning since the Hall of Fame icon quarterback put on a Broncos helmet.
 
San Diego died under a siege of mistakes.  Brandon Flowers gave up 5-receptions to the bigger receiver Thomas.  Shareece Wright got burned in the 2nd half, and San Diego committed two costly pass interference penalties, a defensive hold, and a bad personal foul on offensive tackle DJ Fluker, that all impacted Denver scoring drives.
 
Mr. Automatic Nick Novak missed two field goals, and maybe that had something to do with his new holder Matt McBriar, one kick tipped at the line, the other pulled wide.
 
There was no Ryan Mathews to give San Diego tough guy yardage inside.  Keenan Allen got dinged with an ankle, and that meant a limitation on big plays.
 
The disappointing aspect was Manning was less than 100% healthy, left tackle Ryan Clady went out early with a thigh injury, tight end Julius Thomas contributed nothing with an ankle, and the Broncos lost both starting inside linebackers, and San Diego still lost.
 
So they are now on ‘the outside looking in’ at a wildcard spot.  The supposed ton of draft picks they hoped would change things, haven’t overwhelmed us, and Rivers is now looking at missing the playoff for the 4th time in the last 5-years.
 
The stadium is falling down, and for the second weekend in a row, there seemed to be an enormous number of Broncos fans having purchased tickets from Charges fans, just like last weekends invasion of Patriot fans.  Last week, Al Michaels on NBC dropped a few bombs on San Diego for the decay of the stadium, and yesterday Phil Sims opened the CBS broadcast taking a shot at Chargers fans selling their tickets to Broncos fans.  And Coach Mike McCoy implored the fans not to sell their tickets, to sit in their own seats.  Not a good weekend for the perception nationwide of the Chargers nor San Diego.
 
Won’t have to worry about it next week or the week after, this was the final home game, in what is now turning out to be a series of disappointing seasons in San Diego. 
 
They couldn’t beat a crippled and ill Broncos team.  Crippled and ill pretty much sums up the Chargers roster and playoff hopes too.