That's the irony of it all. Padre fans are excited and can see their team and Dodger fans are confident and many like you blacked out. Could get interesting that first series if the contract as expected is still screwed up. The Comcast/TW merger is shaken at best.
Yeah, they had a World Series appearance. Their only one, ever. And they went down like crack whores. So, you think we should envy them? This might be a new low for you.
Be careful we have been stuck blowng the Phillies and Cards just outside the WS stadium and never made it in.
It will blow up in their faces because of money (unless they just have more money than they've made it look like recently), because if/when all these moves don't make them a playoff contender it will take time and more money to fix their roster. Honestly, I think Shields will be fine, it's the outfield moves that I think won't pan out like they hope. But I can tell you first-hand there's a lot of buzz in San Diego over the moves, and that's an important part of the equation even if on field success doesn't follow. I think the moves they've made look sexier on newspaper than they really are.
Isn't almost everything in life like that Mouse? And as you stated, giving the fans something to buzz about in a place that's been without too much to cheer about these recent days, is worth a whole lot. At least, they're giving it a damn good, seemingly well-thought out shot. I think they'll be for real. I don't know what is worse actually....spending beau coup bucks on players, and failing with not even sniffing the playoffs' jocks for season after season...or being picked to win every fucking season, and going home like a dog without a bone, like us. Life is never what it seems.
It's been said that these Padres are now last years Dodgers with star power, good pitching, BETTER bullpen than us and of course our famously bad defense and despite this we won the division. Of course "on paper" means crap but they are at least 10 wins better than they were last year. I am going to re-iterate that I am on record as still picking us for the division but we shouldn't sleep on the Padres.
10 wins better? I don't agree. Matt Kemp isn't a big upgrade, Norris isn't an upgrade over Rivera/Grandal, Myers isn't a huge upgrade also unless he regains his ROY potential (even then, that defense in CF...), and Upton is replacing Seth Smith who had a good year last year. Besides adding Shields, I fail to see where they've made a significant upgrade.
You don't think a great manager can put his team in a position to win 3-4 games a year? Honestly asking, not rhetorical. Hell, I think DBB probably easily lost us a couple last year.
No snark intended, but I think it comes down to the people on the field. A manager can definitely out-manage another or put their team in a better position to win, but at the end of the day it comes down to the players executing.
From: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/draft-strategy-adp-outliers-060200693--mlb.html Too High o OF Matt Kemp, San Diego Padres (Yahoo ADP: 61) According to ESPN’s park factors, Dodger Stadium was the fifth-most hitter-friendly in terms of home runs. Petco Park, Kemp’s new home in San Diego, was 24th. Kemp is being taken 61st on average following a rebound season in which he stayed completely healthy and posted an .852 OPS with 25 home runs and 89 RBI. The move to Petco should noticeably suppress his numbers, though. Using Baseball Reference’s neutralized batting tool, Kemp’s OPS drops to .832. That may not seem like a lot, but when weighing the choice between Kemp and Matt Holliday, for example, the player’s home park can certainly be a deciding factor.
It's impossible to calculate obviously. A statistical analysis Fangraphs did a few years ago equated their value to your second best reliever, so maybe a win or two each way. Either way it's anti-intellectual to blindly throw a number on manager win shares when you think about the work that goes into these equations.
Don't the Padres even with the Shields signing still have a payroll a little over 100 Million at about 108 million? Hardly big market and paltry compared to ours. Heck we are paying near 25% of their budget just to have Kemp and Harran play elsewhere.
