Industry Executive: "It's a mess - that whole [Padres] organization is totally dysfunctional."

by jbox on Nov 25, 2008 9:53 AM PST

It's probably not right that I get a certain amount of joy now from articles that just totally rip the Padres. What can I do? It's the only entertainment they provide for me. I know, I know I should be a better fan.

Everything went downhill in a hurry in San Diego

This article talks about how nothing good has happened to the Padres since we were beaten by the Rockies at the end of the 2007 season. Towers is asked about "what could have been?", but really that team wasn't going anywhere. I never ever think about "What could have been?" with the 2007 team, we'd make the play offs and get swept again and the Padres publicists would brag about 3 post seasons in a row, I know "what could have been".

"I've had less-talented clubs than this," Towers said. "But everything went wrong. We just didn't perform well on the field. I don't think we had more than a week or 10 days where we played well. That [four-game] sweep of the Mets [in June] was probably the highlight of our season."

The article says the Padres are expecting a steep decline in attendance next season, I can't imagine why. Then Towers explains why they must get rid of Peavy, but the problem isn't Peavy's contract, it's the decrease in payroll.

"It's kind of difficult to have one player eat up a quarter of your payroll," Towers said. "We lost 99 games with Jake, and we're not going to get better by keeping him and his salary."

An unnamed executive has this to say about the way the Front Office is set up:

Special assistant Paul DePodesta, the former Los Angeles Dodgers GM, reports not to Towers but directly to CEO Sandy Alderson and must sign off on player moves.

"It's a mess," an industry executive said about the situation. "That whole organization is totally dysfunctional."

But if you're a Padres fan don't worry, because we might still be able to squeak into the post season before we get swept in the playoffs again.

"Other than the Dodgers, it's a winnable division," Towers said. "It really boils down to our young players. For us to have consistent success, we need them to come through."

0 recs | 24 comments

Comments

I fail to understand the pessimism

about the playoffs. Playoffs are a crap shoot. The team with the best record in the NL this year was swept in three games. It happens.

The best thing a team can hope to do is make the playoffs. After that, your players gotta come through and you’ve gotta get and stay hot. This notion that we would have gotten swept out of the ’07 playoffs is asinine.

Look, I get that it’s in vogue right now to be way down on the team. But I do not, and never have understood the disappointment from people here about the Petco years (outside of last year). You can’t gauarantee anything in professional sports. The Padres were heavily favored in 2006 and were beat by a team many people thought would go down quietly in the playoffs. It happens. Get over it.

Phantom - November 25, 2008 reply

You would think the 2006 Cardinals would hammer this point home

But apparently two years is too far back to remember.

Melvin Nieves - November 25, 2008 reply

When we won one game instead of getting swept?

Yeah that was awesome. Anything can happen.

jbox - November 25, 2008 reply

CY was brilliant

zotzotpadre - November 25, 2008 reply

You're missing the point

The 2006 Cardinals were a barely above average team that won it all in the playoffs.

Melvin Nieves - November 25, 2008 reply

I knew what you were getting at

I’m saying I’m not happy with the Padres plan to continually set their goal of building average teams that may or may not have a distant outside chance of making the post season and a ridiculously small chance of advancing.

jbox - November 25, 2008 reply

I love this line, but it is not complete

Padres are bracing for a significant drop-off in attendance in 2009, thanks in equal parts to the economic downturn and their dismal performance this past season.

They needed to add:

And the front office’s dismal performance this off season.

websoulsurfer - November 25, 2008 reply

Name one....

front office that HAS done a lot this offseason?

SDPads_1 - November 25, 2008 reply

florida marlins and kansas city royals

granted, not every move is great… they’ve done a lot, they both get A+’s in my book

zotzotpadre - November 25, 2008 reply

Soooo

Doing a lot = A+ in your book?

SDPads_1 - November 25, 2008 reply

I needed zotzotpadres as one of my professors

Downgrading your team like the Kansas City Royals did earns an A+.

I coulda been a straight A student with that logic.

Wonko - November 26, 2008 reply

Hell if the Padres FO did nothing

then it would be an improvement over what they have done…Making their desire to trade peavey so public, talking about slashing the payroll in half and blaming the poor economy (when no other teams are talking about reducing payroll due to the economy and teams like the A’s, Royals and Nationals are expanding their payroll), completely botching the way they handled the Trevor negotiations, trying to recoup some of Greene’s salary from last year, publically talking about trading Greene the list goes on…

Grey Suit - November 25, 2008 reply

OK

Well the A’s are trying to get that new ballpark…..the Royals top 3 salary guys are currently Jose Guillen (12 million), Gil Meche (11 million) & Coco Crisp (5.75 million) …..the Nationals top 3 are Austin Kearns (8), Christian Guzman (8) & Nick Johnson (5.5)……………please truely think about that statement you made regarding those 3 teams again.

By the way I like how you completely make the players (or their agents) 100% unaccountable for what’s happened in the Trevor and Peavy situations. When have they ever talked about trading Greene too? Are you refering to an ESPN or SI or a Yahoo writer when you say “they”? Becuase they are the only ones who have discussed it….please show me one quote from KT, Sandy, Depo, Grady, Chief, John Moores….anybody that is high in the Padres FO saying that they are going to trade Greene.

SDPads_1 - November 25, 2008 reply

Those are current players that they have on thier rosters but all three teams have been

active in the FA or trade markets and there has been reports that they plan to expand their payroll. As far as stadiums go wasn’t San Diego sold that bill of goods? So we gave Moores a new stadium and after 5 seasons we are going back to a Qualcomm level payroll? Also if Peavy and Green are traded then the top Padres players would be Giles at $9 mil, Young at $4.5 mil and Adrian at $3 mil.

As far as Peavy no he has said several times that he wants to stay in SD, he said he would be open to a trade if the Padres were going to cut payroll and not be competitive for the next few years the Padres approached him about being traded not the other way around. As far as Trevor goes Alderson even admitted that he should have handled the situation differently.

The Padres are not going to come out and say We are trading Greene no matter what we get for him but you read things like this:

"We’re looking to improve the ballclub," Towers said. "If we move Khalil, Luis Rodriguez is really our backup shortstop and second baseman, so we would create another hole by moving Khalil. There are some ballclubs that have interest in him, but they are also waiting to find out what the going rate is on shortstops."

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2008/nov/03/padres-greene-latest-one-padres-discuss/?padres

or this:

“It may be better keeping [Greene] and getting a couple of [compensation] Draft picks,” Towers said. “Or, maybe get some pitching back and sign a free-agent shortstop. Or, Khalil’s situation could be tied to a Peavy [trade]. If a shortstop comes back in a Peavy thing, it’d be easier to move Khalil.”

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081104&content_id=3664241&vkey=hotstove2008&fext=.jsp

And see that the main player talked about in the Peavy deal to the Braves was a SS and you can put 2 and 2 together.

Grey Suit - November 25, 2008 reply

HAHA Way ta backpedal there!!

So you say those are 3 on their active roster and who cares about actual players you want to hear about them “talking” about doing stuff?

I guess “saying” they are going to be active in free agency (no matter the quality of the players they are bringing in), trading players away (regardless of the quality they are bringing back) and are “talking” about increasing payroll (whether that means by 20 million or 1 dollar)…you’d be happy eh? Then you said well let’s take out Khalil and Peavy well then our top 3 are Giles, AGon & Young all of which I’d much rather have than any of those top 3 salaries on those other teams.

SDPads_1 - November 25, 2008 reply

You lost me there buddy...

Yes I said that those are players on their active rosters…not sure how that is back pedaling? Anywho the Royals have already started to add payroll by taking on Coco Crisp and Mike Jacobs (who is arbitration eligible this year). The Nationals have been linked to Mark Teixeira…but who knows.

You are missing my point in trying to make this about payroll…the Padres are trading away their Ace pitcher, SS and left thier HOF closer out to dry all while telling the fans that they are cutting payroll in half because of the economy…I’m not asking for a big FA signing im not even asking for them not to cut pay roll all im saying is that the team has not done much this off season (other than pick up Giles option) but yet some how they have created much panic within their fan base…like I said originally they would have been much better off if they did nothing at all to this point…or at least have kept it behind closed doors.

Grey Suit - November 25, 2008 reply