Obligatory Mid Season Padres Review

It is pretty standard fare for a baseball blog to recap their teams' first half during the All Star break, and despite not being recognized by Sports Illustrated along with the #cliqueblogs in this week's Padres article, Padres Jagoff is soldiering on.  So here we are.  13 games under .500, one of the worst hitting performance team-wide maybe in history, wasting great pitching effort after great pitching effort, firing our at the very least adequate GM, firing our longtime PA announcer for a hokey and little understood publicity stunt, etc.  It is maybe the worst Padres season EVAR.  But to be objective, let's go to the tape and look at every team category:

3B: I've long been in favor of trading Chase Headley. I've put that on the record. Josh Byrnes' biggest folly was not trading him after the 2012 season, and failure to do so will set this team back substantially.  At this point, I don't think we're even in qualifying offer territory with him for fear of him accepting.  In short, he's sucked.  He had a little bit of a "hot" streak, relatively speaking, at the end of the 1st half, but he is sitting on a putrid OPS+ of 87. I think, best case, we are looking at a B level prospect for him at the trade deadline.

 

SS: Everth Cabrera, what happened to our 2013 All-Star?  His fielding sucks, his hitting sucks, he's not stealing bases like last season.  I've found it to be very selfish of him to go off the 'roids when the team needs him on them more than ever.  I think we can no longer count on him as SS of the future and need to figure out something long term.  Chris Gomez lives down the street from me, I'll try and ask him if he wants to come back. 

2B: So I think Wayne Partello and Mike Dee did some market surveys and saw that San Diego fans grew frustrated never having any continuity with our "star" players.  They saw a glimmer of possibility that Jedd Gyorko would fill that role and thought, hey marketing win and baseball win to sign him long term.  The thing is, there was no reason to.  2B don't drastically escalate their salaries in arbitration, and they didn't get that huge a discount anyways.  At this point, after his OPS+ of 39, he is looking at one of the worst offensive seasons in history.  Sure, he had plantar fascitis.  Great.  That's the thing with this team, every under-performance gets blamed on a lingering injury and never declining skills.  Chase Headley swooned at the plate last year - knee injury that he "heroically" played through.  Carlos Quentin - bad knee, not geriatric skills, etc.  We have no choice but to just keep hoping Jedd plays through it and improves.  I believe he will.  With Byrnes gone, the team, if needed can send him to AAA to work on his swing.  I don't think Byrnes could have done that politically after signing him to that extension.  Also we have no other options at 2B. Like none.

1B: I know everyone wants to point at Yonder Alonso's 2013 and say, look!  105 OPS+!  Above average!  But he has totally blown this year.  I don't think there's much debate that Yonder is going to be a no hit, decent fielder.  Maybe Casey Kotchman if everything works out. For me, that doesn't cut it, and 1B needs to be an area of improvement.  I was a big fan of signing Mike Morse last season but think he will be overpriced this offseason, so I'm not really sure what our options are. 

C: I think if there's one thing to be happy about, it's been the catcher position.  Grandal and Rivera have been great pitch framers.  Rivera is hitting better than we could have ever expected, and Grandal isn't hitting great but is at least flashing decent power.  It almost makes me think Austin Hedges is totally expendable while his value is high.  I swoon for Hedges' defense, but his hitting is not that great.  I heard a comp for Hedges saying he was a Brad Ausmus in the making.  That's great, but that's not a franchise player.  Fangraphs just did their Top 50 Trade Value and the Padres had no one on it.  We have no one to trade to get real value in the majors, meaning to get upgrades in other places, we need to think seriously about trading a guy like Hedges.  I worry that his average at best offensive skills will take its toll on his prospect rankings and sink his trade value by next Spring Training.

OF: For the past couple years, I have repeatedly heard the phrase "Carlos Quentin is a beast when healthy".  For whatever reason, this is taken as gospel.  That if we just get lucky with his health, Quentin will be great again.  Here is a chart of Carlos Quentin's health:

As you can see in this scientific diagram, "when healthy" is a status for Quentin that needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  A healthy Quentin is roughly equivalent to the health of a leper.  At this point, the Padres can't even trade him.  His OPS+ is 77 and he is a risk to literally have a leg fall off at any time, all while making big bucks (for the Padres).  I'd be fine with the Padres DFA'ing him and running Rymer Liriano or Reymond Fuentes out there next season.  As for the rest of the outfield, I have nothing to say about them.  They are that vanilla.  The only real plus is that Amarista has had to play infield to fill in for injuries, meaning he hasn't been in CF much at all. 

Starting Pitching: The true bright spot for this team.  Son of Troy Ian Kennedy has rediscovered how to strike people out.  Tyson Ross has learned how not to walk 6 people a game.  Odrisamer Despaigne has made himself Padres Jagoff's new favorite pitcher with his arsenal of tenacious junk pitches.  Jesse Hahn has a curveball I'd like to get pregnant.  Oddly enough, the only disappointment is Andrew Cashner, who as usual, can't stay healthy.  I know this is an unpopular opinion (like my Austin Hedges opinion), but I'd trade Cashner this offseason if you can get a good package for him.  We've got Luebke, Erlin, Wieland, Kelly all coming back from surgery.  You've got Wisler in AAA also.  He's sucking, but Despaigne had an ERA over 7 there and now he's basically Randy Jones in 1976.  Eric Stults is still breathing, so he's got that going for him.  Which is nice.

Relief Pitching: Another bright spot.  Huston Street did well enough to net 4 good prospects from the Angels.  Joaquin Benoit is doing well enough to hopefully garner a handful of other prospects.  Blaine Boyer and Alex Torres have been decent out of the pen.  Basically, in the grand scheme of all of the Padres suckitude, the bullpen has not contributed to the sucking.  Grand words for a team this bad.

Manager: I'm of the belief that manager doesn't do that much.  Bud Black changes the lineups and all, and I guess I get annoyed when I see Amarista in CF, but it seems like he's doing the best he can with the sack of crap that got handed to him.  The players seem to like playing for him and I think that's really all you can ask.  I've got even money odds that he stays here next season, regardless of GM hire.

Front Office: I've made it no secret that I'm not a fan of this front office.  I will never understand the logic that went into setting up an organizational structure where the head of baseball operations, Josh Byrnes, is reporting directly to Mike Dee, a marketing executive who was completely out of baseball for four years prior.  Organizationally, a marketing guy had the last word on player personnel decisions.  We saw this play out with the drafting of Manziel, which clearly, was not Josh Byrnes' idea.  Dee, being a marketing guy, is slick with his public statements, to the point where you need to really read between the lines.  He's like an attorney, carefully crafting his words to be technically truthful, but deceiving to the untrained ear.  This played out with the Street statements he made to the fans on Padres Social Hour/season ticketholder telecon.  Ballpark operations did a great job improving the stadium experience, at least at the start of the season.  Beer was improved, food was improved, people were talking positively about the changes.  And then they totally blew it with #beergate, hiking the prices of beer months ago by changing the craft beer quantity, charging the same price, and not updating the signs until a couple weeks ago.  Most people, including the legal community, would consider this outright fraud.  The Padres just write it off as an "honest mistake" [that netted them and their contractor DNC roughly 20% more in revenue for months of beer sales through the stealth price hike].  The elimination of free Western Metal Supply porch standing room only in favor of $40 stools was an abortion of a move from the fan's standpoint.  Wayne Partello, for a guy that was a mobile DJ only 4 years ago, has had a real upward career trajectory.  Unfortunately, the initiative to fire a perfectly good PA announcer for a three ring circus of a PA internet voting promotion landed with a thud.  The "cross-promotion" with FSSD pushing the thousands of dollar on-deck suite was patronizing and annoying to their fans.  The National University eyesore in LF is hated by pretty much every fan.  I get that they're trying to maximize revenue generation, but at least be tasteful about it.

So that's that.  Things really can't get any worse this season.  I'm in favor of blowing 2015 up as well, running youth out there, and maybe getting a spark from high effort youthful play.  We'll see if the new GM will be allowed to do that.  For now, we'll always have beer and pals to get us through the rest of this season.

Padres Jagoff Hits the Big Time with Beergate Exposure

So I went to the Monday night game expecting to throw some Mat Latos fat jokes around and hopefully not see the Padres get shut off.  But even more unexpected than the hot streak that started that Monday night with a victory was how my tweets about the Padres reducing the San Diego craft beer quantities from 24 ounces to 20 ounces took hold.  As I tweeted that night, I was a little perplexed about whether SD craft beers had always been 20 ounces, or if my mind was playing tricks on me, because I distinctly remembered them being 24 ounces a few weeks prior.  As I found out, I was right, the Padres snuck a reduction in quantity in during the Dodgers homestand a couple weeks before.  Jay Posner from the U-T started asking questions via Twitter, which led to Matthew T. Hall from the U-T getting involved.  And boy did he.  It all culminated in an article that documented everything, got Padres comment, and hopefully incited the public (it even sat atop utsandiego.com for a day).  My life's dream to start a Lobshots-esque viral controversy had come true (except this was about something that kind of really mattered, not an umpire throwing gum).

Matthew Hall pretty well covered it, and I don't have anything to add to the reporting.  I am left with a few questions and a bit of analysis due to the Padres woefully inadequate and evasive statements.  To recap, here is what Padres vice president Scott Marshall said regarding beergate:

"Marshall apologized in a telephone interview and said the ballpark began selling smaller cups after the team's "first or second home stand" — which were played in April." - U-T

"'It was just an honest mistake on our concessionaire partner's side," Marshall said. "It comes down really to the cost of what it is.... It's a mistake coming from the fact that we introduced so many 'super' crafts, and our concessionaire, for whatever reason, missed it.

"It was just an unfortunate experience and we corrected it, and we hope we didn't affect anybody adversely or give them a poor experience," he said. "We apologize."

"What do you say to the fans who will still complain they're now paying more for beer?" I asked.

"We have a variety of pricing for all our fans from $5 to $15.25 depending on type, size and alcohol content," he said." - U-T

So basically, according to the Padres, they have known about the "mistake" since April, and it is really all Delaware North's fault, who is the Padres' concessions contractor.  

1.  I don't see this as just an "honest mistake".  Fans have been defrauded by the Padres since April.  The team's signage at the stands, corroborated by many including Matthew Hall, had said 24 ounces.  Fans buying a beer would reasonably expect to receive 24 ounces.  In fact, this is the entire basis for weights and measures, as well as labeling, laws.  When you buy gas, you expect that the pump is giving you a gallon when you are charged a gallon.  In this case, the team is legally bound to deliver 24 ounces to the customer, as that is what has been labeled for that product.  The fact that they didn't, is outright fraud in the amount of 17% of the purchase price.  On one beer, that's not much, but when played out to cover 4 homestands' total SD craft beer sales, that's a lot of money that is legally and duly owed to those customers.  An enterprising young lawyer could assemble a nice class action lawsuit on behalf of these defrauded customers, who, yes Scott Marshall, were affected "adversely".

2.  So, in the end, we're talking a couple bucks per beer.  It's not like it'll kill us.  But I think it's an example of a bigger issue with this management team: the gradual erosion and elimination of the things that were good values for the fans in the name of crass revenue maximization.  For years, the first come first serve Western Metal Supply porch was lauded by tour guides and the team.  It was a great value, as even if you had a Park at the Park ticket (more on them later), if you were on the ball, you could land a stool at the porch.  No longer.  The team has monetized those seats into $40/game tickets.  The Park at the Park was $5 not too long ago.  Now you are looking at $10-15, depending on the game.  To sit outside of the stadium and view a jumbotron.  It's no longer a value at all, considering you can get seats in sections 300-305 on Stubhub for $10.  The National University sign, universally hated, is gigantic, blocks the small view of the field you used to be able to get at Proper Gastropub, and blocks the view of the skyline for many seats.  All in the name in a little more marginal revenue.  Which brings us to beer.  The team is awful this season.  The team is boring to watch.  In most cases, other teams CUT prices to beer to keep people coming out to the park.  This management team sees an opening and sneaks in a price hike (a quantity cut IS a price hike) to beer.  At one time, the 24 ounces for $10.75, or even for $11.50, could be justified as a good deal.  I had out of town friends go to the games with me be outraged at the beer price.  I rationalized it as, hey, it's basically two 12 ounce cans of GOOD BEER for $11.50; $5.75 for a can of Calico Ale is not that bad, especially for a ballpark.  Now I can't even use that rationalization.  This is so totally tone-deaf to the sentiment of the fans by Mike Dee and this management team.

3.  Assuming Scott Marshall's statements are true, that reveals that he, the VP of ballpark operations, is so woefully inadequate at his job that it's unbelievable.  Of course, they are more likely not true, but that's besides the point.  You're telling me that the VP of ballpark operations, who walks around the park all the time checking on operations, and that all of his staff under him, never noticed that beers were selling at the "wrong price"?  Beer prices, one of the primary drivers of concessions revenue, was never noticed by anyone in ballpark operations staff??!?!  I find that very difficult to believe.  

4.  If you really want 24 ounces for $11.50, you still have options.  Inbev/AB beer Goose Island is still available at that price.  Not shocking considering they are a major sponsor.  The same goes for Kona, who sponsors a large group sales area along the left field line.  Still available (FOR NOW) at $11.50/24 ounces.  It's a shame that after all the empty talk of expanding the local craft beer base at Petco, we are now being economically discouraged from buying those beers.  

In the end, I'm not one of those bomb throwers who will say "let's just never go to any games!"  I like going to games because I love the Padres.  I don't necessarily enjoy feeling gouged or cheated, but I like going to Padres games.  I do hope Matthew Hall keeps pushing the Padres for change as he has the pull and readership to actually get something done.  We can only hope Mike Dee, aka the Turtle from Master of Disguise, gets the message.

P.S. The best part of all of this is that yet again, the LAMEstream media is refusing to say Padres Jagoff in print/on the air waves.  I was hilariously pseudonym'd to "one fan" in the post and article.  I feel like I'm missing out on millions in ad revenue due to the choice of names of this blog.