Jan. 31, 2002 — Three years ago today we were welcoming Deivi Cruz to Padre Nation, optimistic that he would help the Friars in a support role. What we said:

Padres inked former Tiger shortstop Deivi Cruz to a 1-year deal worth $600K. Good low-risk signing. The right-handed hitter will back up left-handed hitters Ramon Vazquez and Sean Burroughs on the left side of the infield… He’s nothing special, but with a grand total of 36 big-league at-bats under the collective belts of Vazquez and Burroughs, a guy like Cruz makes a lot of sense.

There’s the optimism. What we also said:

If Cruz gets more than 250 or so plate appearances, something has gone horribly wrong.

There’s the realism. And we concluded:

As for Cruz, I see nothing but positives. He’ll be reunited with former Tiger shortstop Alan Trammell. He should be hungry and eager to prove himself after slowly going down the tubes in Detroit… Basically, he’s a great insurance policy with very little risk.

What actually happened, of course, is that Cruz wasted logged 547 PAs in a Padre uni in 2002, hacking his way to a .263/.294/.366 performance while the club’s best defensive shortstop, Vazquez, played second base.

Lesson learned: This still was a good low-risk signing. The failure was in having Cruz play everyday. As a relatively inexpensive insurance policy, he made a lot of sense. As a starting shortstop, he was a disaster. Think of it this way: You buy a six-pack of Rolling Rock because it’s on sale at Longs. If you run out of the good stuff (Boddington’s, Newcastle, Sam Adams), you can open the fridge and find something other than your brother-in-law’s old Coors Light. Cruz was our Rolling Rock. If deployed properly, he would’ve been a bargain. As it is, he left a bad taste in our mouth.

In unrelated news, Dave Roberts is excited about playing for his hometown Padres. Here’s hoping he makes us all look like raving idiots.