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While Law may have predicted the Padres to beat the Cardinals (I think), he also said Bochy was a glaring weakness for the Padres. So to point that out again after the series isn’t second-guessing. It’s saying I told you so.

Again, the Tigers were the smart pick in the World Series in every conceivable way. I’m tired of everyone saying the Cardinals proved the pundits wrong. The pundits have a job to do and they did it do the best of their ability. So do the Cardinals, and they did the same. In fact, they played over their ability. That’s why it’s called an “upset.” An 83-win team beat a 95-win team. For someone to predict that would be insane.

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Anyways, what’s the impression that you guys get? It’s hard for me to get an impression on things like this being all the way out here in Wicked fa’hr Beantown.

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Writers did not predict 77 wins. Las Vegas didn’t even predict 77 wins. Las Vegas set the Over/Under on the Padres 2006 win total @ 77. Keep in mind, Vegas has not desire to be accurate. Their desire is to split the margain. If too many people take the under or the over, they’ll lose money. They want 50% of the bets on each side.

We can all agree that San Diego is dismissed by a large percentage of the baseball audience (fans, writers, probably even non-Padre players). That Vegas set the over/under at 77 it reflected where they thought they could get the best margin.

Likewise (or maybe “conversely” is a better word), when Vegas set the over/under on the Yankee win total, I would expect them to set the total artificially high because so many are overly-optimistic about the Bombers’ chances every year…

Re 8&9: I don’t think Bochy’s departure will hurt our ability to attract free agents. Bochy has long been regarded as a great manager to play for, but FA’s consistently go where the money is rather than follow their favorite managers around… Bochy’s presence didn’t help us much in attracting free agents, why should his departure hurt us?

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I felt obligated — because I am a Bochy fan — to point out that when Law had a chance to demonstrate his expertise beforehand, based on his knowledge, that he was not only wrong, he was dead wrong. Hindsight always seems to come a little easier than foresight.

And why are you so sensitive about a little criticism regarding writers? What, are you a former writer or something?

Just kidding.

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Supposedly, Alderson doesn’t think Bochy is worth $1.9M (or more) per season. Which is different from saying that he doesn’t want him as a manager. But if Alderson feels he doesn’t want to pay Bochy what he’s making now, he’s in a tough spot; he won’t want to extend him, it makes no sense to fire him, and it’d be tough to leave him hanging around as a lame duck. Letting him walk makes the most sense, [i]if[/i] you believe you can find a manager who is practically as good for ~$1M/yr. Which apparently Alderson believes. I’m not sure.

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They might be referring to the fact that Bochy was with the Pads for 24 years, Alderson 2(?). When you win back-to-back division titles and you have one year left on your contract, it might be nice to hear a little more than “you’re free to look for another job.” They did take him to a nice restaurant, though.

As for Alderson’s role in the back-to-back division titles, the events of the past weeks have shown that in fact management felt Bochy was not giving their ideas a big enough chance, so most of the credit has to go to Bochy for the winning seasons. Of course, Towers made some good moves, and Moores and SA have put the wheels in motion (Depodesta, Smith, Dom. Repub. farm system) to build a perennial champ. Much more so than this year, next year and the years after are when Alderson will be responsible for the team’s record.

The UT article about KT confronting Nevin was very telling. Nevin is a known whiner and mama’s boy who had enormous potential but had let his attitude get in the way of his stays with Det. and Anaheim (remember we got him for Japanese league superstar Andy Sheets). Nevin began producing after arriving in SD, so Bochy’s way of handling him seemed to be working. Nevertheless, Nevin’s capricious ways lingered and KT felt Nevin needed to be dealt with more firmly than Bochy was willing or felt necessary to do. Not that KT wasn’t correct, but I’m guessing Bochy thought that his everyday guidance and the example he set for his players would eventually wear off on Nevin. When you have a volatile player, confrontation oftens only leads to more confrontation, and then it’s human nature to start taking sides. That’s the last thing you want on any team.

Side note: I couldn’t believe how much smaller Nevin looked up close in spring training (2 years ago) than in previous years. Did anyone else notice this?

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The comments by the players, while not surprising, does worry me. Does this move affect the Padres ability to sign or resign veteran players because they might perceive this as a lack of loyalty, not to mention players loved Boch.

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