The San Diego Padres – A Team You Should Know

Posted on by Charlie Ricker

The year 2020 has brought some levels of insanity to everyone’s lives, almost immediately since the ball dropped in Times Square in New York. Too many things have happened this year just in Major League Baseball, it would require a lengthy post all on it’s own.

One example in the baseball world is the emergence of the San Diego Padres. Perpetually a losing team, the Padres regularly lost 90 games a year over the past ten years, resulting in no playoff seasons since 2006. However, team Executive VP and General Manager A.J. Preller has slowly and methodically added blue-chip prospects and players via draft, trades and free-agency.

The Padres have a deep farm system, drafting #1 pitching prospect MacKenzie Gore in 2017, shortstop CJ Abrams (#2 prospect) in ’19, and C Luis Campusano (#4 team prospect) in the 2017 draft. In trades, Preller acquired star player Fernando Tatis, Jr. from the Chicago White Sox for James Shields. Secondly, as part of a three-team deal, the Padres shipped OF Franmil Reyes to the Cleveland Indians and got their fifth-ranked prospect OF Taylor Trammell from the Cincinnati Reds. Furthermore, Preller received rotation stud Chris Paddack from Miami for Fernando Rodney in 2016. Lastly, San Diego sent OF Hunter Renfroe to Tampa Bay, bringing back OF Tommy Pham and sensation Jake Cronenworth.

Equally important, San Diego signed RHP Luis Patiño and LHP Adrián Morejón as international free agents in 2016. Both show a lot of promise, with Patiño making his debut this year, Morejón made his big league debut in 2019. Both guys throw hard, although one is a lefty, the other a righty. We’ll let Rob Friedman, the “pitching ninja” show you Morejón’s filth.

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Luis Patiño. Nasty.

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Twenty-eight year old starting pitcher Dinelson Lamet came to the organization as an international free-agent signing in 2014, signing for $100,000. Again, another pitcher with a blazing fastball, Lamet has been disaster for opposing hitters.

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Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention A.J. Preller’s biggest acquisition, Manny Machado. Something of a surprise at the time, he signed his name to a ten-year deal just prior to spring training in 2019. He will be with the Padres through 2028 (Machado does have an opt-out after ’23) at 32M/year.

First baseman Eric Hosmer came to San Diego just a year before Manny, in another surprise free agent signing. This contract is more team-friendly, at 21M/year through 2022, where he has an opt-out. If Hosmer chooses to stay, his salary lowers to 13M per year through 2025, his age 35 season.

What do you get when you put all this together? A team that is 18-12 and has a chance to not only reach the playoffs, but make a deep playoff run. A fun team to watch that has been boat-racing opposing the opposition. The Slam Diego Padres!

Yes, this team cranked 5 (FIVE!) grand-slams last week! This resulted in copious amounts of runs helping them win seven straight games. It all started with Fernando Tatis hurting the Texas Rangers‘s feelings. Jomboy will break it down, as he does so well.

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This is a young team and will have it’s ups and downs. Before the seven game winning streak, the Padres lost five in a row. There are bound to be ebbs and flows. I was concerned how the team would respond after manager Jayce Tingler didn’t completely support Tatis after his grand-slam with the score already somewhat out of hand. However, to Tatis’s and the team’s credit, it didn’t adversely affect them. I believe this team is built for the long-haul, and A.J. Preller deserves praise for constructing it.

To put a cherry on top, the Padres have an excellent play-by-play man calling their games on Fox Sports San Diego, Don Orsillo (and Mudcat Grant). It’s going to be a fun second half of this year’s sixty game schedule.

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Joe Kelly Fight Club V2.0

Posted on by Charlie Ricker

Last night, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros began a two-game series in their first meeting since the Astros sign-stealing scandal news broke in a story by The Athletic‘s Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich.

The game was relatively uneventful until the bottom of the sixth inning, when Joe Kelly entered the game for the Dodgers. Let’s reacquaint ourselves with Mr. Kelly.

 

In April 2018, Kelly threw at then-Yankees hitter Tyler Austin in retaliation for a hard slide into Brock Holt (now of the Brewers). All hell broke loose and Red Sox Nation created “Joe Kelly Fight Club”, complete with t-shirts and all.

Back to last night, there were signs in that sixth inning that something was going to go down. Kelly walked a couple hitters, and was missing inside a lot. He walked Alex Bregman, with several pitches inside before he buzzed ball four behind his head. He missed inside to Yuli Gurriel in the next at bat before walking him on four pitches. Kelly went to 2-0 on Carlos Correa, missing with a head-high off-speed pitch before striking him out on the next three pitches to escape the inning. Video in this tweet by Rob Friedman, the Pitching Ninja (recommended follow on Twitter) captures the moments.

 

Needless to say, the Astros were not happy with Kelly’s pitching last night. The usual “you’re risking ending a guy’s career throwing at someone’s head” kind of stuff. This is true and I don’t condone throwing at a person’s head, but the Astros HAD to know some kind of retaliation was coming. To a man, Kelly handled the postgame questions perfectly.

 

It will be interesting to see if anything goes down tonight when these two teams square off again. They have three more games remaining against Houston, including a pair at Dodger Stadium September 12 and 13. Tonight’s game-time is 9 PM eastern-time.

UPDATE: Joe Kelly has been suspended for eight games by Major League Baseball. Very harsh punishment.