finally something about the Padres to get excited about

That’s the elephant in the room with the Padres, given the tenuous ownership situation. It looks to me like the GM of this team has to shed salary by any means necessary, so getting any long-term value from assets (Peavy) is key.

Goddamn thats a hot picture!

a) I like the young positional talent at AA and up. I like Kellen, I like Cedric. I like Canham. Sogard should be at AA, and I like him as well, although Antonelli is still “2nd baseman of the future”. I am a big Blanks fan, and I love Chase Headley. There’s enough usable pieces with guys like Venable, Denker, Cabrera, and Huffman to fill in. Oh, there’s that Adrian guy. Certainly, the margins are thin, as expecting all these guys to pan out wouldn’t be the safe bet. But I like the young core.

b) Stating the obvious, but the organization needs more front of the rotation pitching. There’s Latos … and then there’s Inman … and there’s end of the rotation types in LeBlanc/Garrison/Buschmann and others. Bleh.

My focus would be on 2010. My focus would be on starting pitching. Certainly, the draft pick will help, but pitching is the main goal.

My first move - deal Brian Giles. Giles indicated he was more amenable to a deal this year, so I’d shop him around before the OF market hits stride. I think enough teams would have interest in Giles for 1 year vs. FA costs. This would be the first move because I want folks to reinforce that Peavy is a baseball move.

2nd - I’d shop Peavy … and listen on Adrian. The best return would be to shop them separately, but sure, listen if some team offers the farm for them both. I love Adrian, great player, but he’s their best bet at landing the necessary pitching for the organization. I can see Boston, Anaheim, Baltimore, the Yankees and others potentially offering some top level pitching to try and net Adrian.

3rd - I deal Kouzmanoff this offseason … but I wait until the Ty Wigginton piece falls through. If Adrian does get moved, the effect likely is to move Kevin to first and Chase to 3rd, as I think they give Kyle more AAA time. As poor a fielder as Kevin is, you can still sell him as a 3rd baseman right now. That said, Wigginton probably will attract more attention than him.

Yes, this dumps any slim chance of competitiveness in 2009, but I do it with a focus on 2010. Their payroll limitations is the big factor here. If they had a bit more flexibility, then maybe you hold onto some pieces and add some pieces in FA next year. But they are small market for now, so I’d clean house and add as many quality assets as possible.

Everyone on the market that’s under 30 except Mark Teixeira (This would take place before the Mets and Yankees made their signings, of course)

Trade Jake Peavy to the Yankees for Austin Jackson, Phil Hughes, and other good stuff.

That’s about it.

I think the right move is a Marlins style fire sale. There isn’t enought talent to compete right now and no room to add players so you pretty much have to destroy and rebuild.

I would look to move Giles and Kouzmanoff for starting pitching prospec ts. You probably won’t get top of the line guys but I would try to take advantage of Petco and look for strike throwers with decent production but average stuff.

I would listen to offers for Peavy and Gonzalez but would be willing to wait until mid-season to move them if I had to. These are your most valuable properties and you don’t want to be forced into selling them at a discount by desperation.

It would be damaging to the fanbase as San Diego tends to have fickle fans and a true tear-down would make it hard to fill Petco, but I think the damage is mostly done and fans will accept a rebuild and be willing to come back once the young guys start to appear in 2010 and 2011. I would try to clear as much payroll as possible so you can spend in the draft and hopefully get some good signings out of the new latin academy.

Keep Adrian Gonzalez. The best marketing promotion they have going on right now are the two Gonzalez brothers. Plus, he is inexpensive. I’d take a great offer if one develops, but without him who do you sell to fans as a reason for coming to the ballpark?

Look to move Giles midseason to a team making the playoff push. Ideally, it would be for starting pitching prospects.

Stay firm on Peavy, especially since some team’s front-line starter will get hurt this spring, and make the trade then so you only pay a portion of his salary this year.

This gives the guys in the minors a little more time to gain experience before throwing them into the fire.

May need to fire Bud Black because last year’s team had no “energy” or “fight” in them. By end of May/June most of the guys just rolled over. You could tell because Edgar Gonzalez played with so much passion when he came up it embarrassed the rest of the team. So teach the kids to play hard. At least it’ll make the games a little more “watchable.”

1. If Peavy is willing to go to the Angels, as it’s been potentially mentioned above and by Axelrod, I’d probably deal him there for Brandon Wood, Nick Adenhart, Peter Bourjos, and Mason Tobin. Wood is installed as your everyday SS and isn’t messed with. Adenhart goes to AAA to get things straightened out. Bourjos goes to AA with Tobin a nice pitcher to develop.

2. I’d move Giles somewhere, I’m thinking maybe to Tampa for Jeff Neimann? Is that too much? Giles seems like he’d be a good fit in Tampa even though he’s a lefty. Veteran presence(means no Cliff Floyd), gets on base, has some pop left.

3. I’d move both of Kouzmanoff and Gonzalez, and I’m going to say do it in one big move. Send them both to Oakland for Trevor Cahill, James Simmons, your choice of Aaron Cunningham or Travis Buck(I’d pick Cunningham for the Padres), Barton, and your choice of either Adrian Cardenas or Jemile Weeks. Now, if I have the rules right, to pick Weeks this deal couldn’t actually be done until what, the end of January to be safe? That’s more than 6 months after Weeks signed his contract, then you make him a PTBNL and they get him after July 9 of 2009, which is one year to the day he signed his contract. You get an ace in the making in Cahill who goes to AAA mostly likely, but would be given a shot to win a job in the spring. The knock on Simmons is he’s hittable/gives up flyballs. Those wouldn’t be nearly as big of issues in the NL and Petco. He goes to AAA and is ready by 2010 at the latest, possibly after the AS break. Cunningham replaces Giles in RF, Barton competes with Blanks for the 1B job with loser going to AAA, and then you’ve got a 2B prospect to compete with/push Antonelli in a couple of years.

4. Look into landing one or two starting pitchers on the cheap, guys who had down years and need a chance to bounce back. Chris Capuano, Tim Redding, Freddy Garcia, Jeff Weaver, somebody to come in and chew up 200 innings for you. I say pickup two of these guys, one for the MLB roster, one for insurance in the minors.

5. Find a veteran catcher to pair with Nick Hundley for a year or two. I’d say Gregg Zaun is a good idea here, he gets on base and shouldn’t kill you money wise. Also, look for a backup 1B/PH type like Tony Clark or Scott Hatteberg.

The lineup:

C Zaun/Hundley
1B Barton/Blanks
2B Gonzalez
SS Wood
3B Headley
LF Venable
CF Hairston/Gerut
RF Cunningham/Gerut

Bench:

Zaun/Hundley
Hairston/Gerut
Denker
Rodriguez
Clark/Hatteberg

Rotation:

Young
Niemann
Baek
Banks
Weaver/Capuano/Garcia

Bullpen:

Bell
Meredith
Adams
LeBlanc
Hampson
Geer
Reineke

simmons and pennington

who would feel like less of a whore cleaning up the shit and making a terrible team terribler, giving the fans no reason to come to any games.

Peavy to the yankees in a three team deal with the Dodgers…

Peavy and Edger Gonzalez go to the Yankess, Dodgers get Cano, Padres get Kemp and Hughes.

Deal Giles and Kouz to the Twins for Delmon Young and Blackburn.

sign a cheap 2nd basemen to compete with Antonelli

deal Gerut to the Rays for Ben Zobrist and a RP

pickup Mcpherson for Cla Meredeth

sign Pavano to a deal with a couple of of incentive years.

C. Hundley
1st. Agonzo
2nd. Antonelli/cheap 2nd
SS. Zorbist
3rd. Mcpherson
LF. Headly
Cf. Kemp
Rf. Young

P.Young
P.Hughes
P.LaBlank
P.Blackburn
P.Geer/Baek

Let Bell close and look for cheap RP.

hope your payroll goes up in the future.

When I look at this organization, what I see from 5000 feet is an organization that needs a new leader. The owner is going through a very messy divorce, and is in the process of looking to sell the team. That situation really, really needs to take place sooner rather than later so that the Friars can get back on track towards becoming a 1st division team again. From an organizational setting, this is the way I see things:

John Moores - Sell this team ASAP

Kevin Towers - Hire a new scouting director, Fuson is really left a lot of cards on the table over the last few years. This can be seen through the lens of the 2007 draft, which could’ve been something very, very special. The selections in that draft, in which they had eight of the first 87 selections still remain to be seen. This result? A very unspectacular take of:

Nick Schmidt, who underwent TJ surgery almost immediately and has yet to contribute.
Kellen Kulbacki - Plus power, but a defensive liability
Drew Cumberland - Speed demon without much punch and screams util guy to me at this stage.
Mitch Canham - Offensive minded catcher looking like the best of the bunch so far
Cory Luebke - Control guy who tops out at 86-88 FB, making him more than likely an organizational arm
Danny Payne - Another middling prospect profiles as an average 2nd divison player
Eric Sogard - Most often comp’d to Dustin Pedroia because he plays over his tools, but really, how can you expect 2 of those guys?
Brad Chalk - Clemson OF who has no 1 outstanding tool

This draft had the ability to be something really special, however, it seems they really went for the lower ceiling/more likely to reach it type guys throughout the draft.

On to the prospects that I believe can be contributors:

Immediately move Blanks to RF. His defense will improve given enough PT there to make him a passable defender. His plus plus power will play there, and his inexperience can be helped by a strong defensive CF, whether Cedric Hunter or acquired in trade.

Put Antonelli at 2b immediately. They are not going to contend this year, so you may as well find out if last year was an anomaly and if he can regain that luster.

Major League Team:

Do not trade Gonzalez. His contract is far to cheap for too long and he is an asset in the clubhouse for the youngsters he will be around.

The Peavy situation has become a very large albatross. Other organizations must feel they have the leverage because of the ownership mess. Hold steady, and put a strict 100 pitches/game count that cannot be exceeded. It’ll help reduce the possibility of injury and thus keep his trade value high.

Brian Giles should be traded during his next hot streak to allow for more youngster development, and ascertain if they are indeed 1st division type players, which I suspect they are not. Chad Huffman, Cedric Hunter seem to have the ceiling of a David DeJesus, and a floor of a AAAA player, which doesn’t portend very well.

The Latin Academy that was just opened is a great tool. Adis Portillo is a bonafide prospect, and the Luis Domoromo signing bolstered the farm system as well. However, the slot system in tandem with ownership taking a hard stance on bonus money has hurt this system.

Synopsis:
Double the bonus money available for the Minor league draft.
Hold steady on Peavy until the pkg you want appears
Get the youngsters playing time so as to figure out their capabilities
Fire Grady Fuson and replace with a Jed Hoyer type, giving him a title of Co-GM with Towers
Find a buyer for this quickly corroding organization

if you were mentioning my post. This system really needs a housekeeping….

Jake Peavy to the Braves….no wait….the Dodgers, I mean the Braves, no, the Yankees…no for sure the Braves…or the cubs or the Cardinals no no no it’s the Braves. Well, maybe the Angels, Dodgers or Red Sox. No, for sure it’s the Braves. Maybe, the cubs. Fuck the Braves! He’s going to the cubs! It’s a done deal! It’s all done. Possibly. C’mon Braves where are you? Texas, maybe. It’s down to the Dodgers,Rockies,Rangers,Yankees,Giants,A’s,Angels,Red Sox,Orioles,White Sox,cubs,Cardinals,Braves, Mets or Phillies. No, it’s really the Braves. Scratch that. The cubs got him. Oh, fuck him all. In 2009 Peavy will be my Openining day starter and after that he’ll play 2b and bat leadoff. I’ll show that fucker and the rest of baseball. I’m Kevin Towers.

1. Gonzalez is from San Diego. Like he was born there and went to high school there.

2. He is Mexican. Like he lived in Mexico for part of his childhood and there are a lot of Mexicans in San Diego.

3. He is an All-Star. Like both with his glove and his bat.

4. He is dirt cheap. Like as in 09:$3M, 10:$4.75M, 11:$5.5M club option

Trading Adrian Gonzalez would be really really stupid.

I’d probably pool all my assets, buy a time machine, and go back in time to make sure the Padres DO NOT draft Matt Bush. I’d rather have Randy Bush…hell, George W. Bush!!!