Tuesday, May 19, 2020
State of the Padres
The Padres have been through some tough times but may be entering a window where they can seriously compete for a championship.
Ownership: I don't know much about the Padres ownership but they have shown a willingness to spend money on premium players and have brought a sense of stability to the organization after a near meltdown a few years ago. They have been patient with AJ Preller, perhaps to a fault although Preller has done a lot of good things for the organization.
Grade B.
Management: The aforementioned AJ Preller has made some head-scratching moves and has a couple of bad contracts to show for it. On the other hand, the farm system is the envy of baseball. If he plays his cards right, the Padres should be a force to be reckoned with over the next decade.
Sorry, I don't even know who their manager is. OK, looked it up. It's Jayce Tingler. Don't know anything about him. New hire.
Grade C.
Current Roster: Some of the position logjams have cleared a bit after some trades, but did those trades make the team stronger? A lot will depend on Manny Machado playing within shouting distance of expectations and Fernando Tatis growing into the superstar he looks like he can become. The starting pitching could be above average but a lot has to go right. The bullpen is a strength.
Grade C+
Farm System: Mackenzie Gore might be the best pitching prospect in the minors and Luis Patino looks like he could be a future ace too. They should put a charge in the weakest part of the roster, the rotation, over the next 2-3 seasons. CJ Abrams SS, Luis Campusano C and Taylor Trammell OF, round out an extremely strong top 5. The depth after that is also strong. The Padres issue has always been getting their premium prospects established in the majors.
Grade A-
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Surely teams like the Padres and the Dogs want a 2020 season to happen to strut their stuff and make the expanded playoffs.
ReplyDeleteGiants could benefit in a different way to see if any of the late-20 yo guys can hit ML pitching when playing a regular job.
BUT, do you believe the MLB is serious about losing a HUGE amount of money per game without fans ($640,000 for every regular season game they play)?
When the Players Assn says pound sand, will the Owners cave and say "just kidding!"
However inflated, the dollar amount runs to hundreds of millions for high payroll teams playing 82 games. Fangraphs has a takedown on the amount which mat be more accurate but there has to be losses without gate, concesions, parking, etc.
A lot of teams without deep deep pockets will be better off not playing. Can teams with the lucrative TV networks "share" their revenues with the poor teams? Is that allowed under baseball's special antitrust status?
Can we really have Giants baseball without Amy G?
See: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/parsing-mlbs-claim-of-a-4-billion-loss/