Comments on: Grin and Barrett

By: clyde

clyde — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:39:26 +0000

I hate interleague games. Markakis looks like he is going to be good for a long time.

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By: Geoff Young

Geoff Young — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:32:13 +0000

#45: The problem is that a few national writers have worked the Bush vs Verlander angle, and now it’s stuck in people’s minds as truth. In actuality, we were looking at Drew, Weaver, and Jeff Niemann. Those first two would have been great picks; Niemann, as it happens, would not have been.

As bad as it is that Bush has failed, much worse in my mind is that in grabbing him, the organization abandoned its plan. If Niemann had turned out to be a bust for us, we might have been more forgiving because at least we were targeting him. The process involved in drafting Bush was terrible, and the Padres have taken steps to correct this. There is nothing more we can do about the Bush pick beyond wishing that it hadn’t happened and hoping that his conversion back to the mound somehow works.

As for claims that we were targeting Verlander and that he was a consensus #1 (Baseball America had him and Bush at #7 and #8), these have no basis in reality, and it’s unfortunate that some members of the media have chosen to rewrite history in light of events that have occurred since then.

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By: Didi

Didi — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:31:44 +0000

48: I thank Geoff and the Ducksnorters for far more intelligent comments and discussions here.

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By: Didi

Didi — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:28:59 +0000

46: LOL. Maybe, that was his fantasy team proposal that got turned down.

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By: St. Oops

St. Oops — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:28:22 +0000

Speaking of stupid write-ins, I “enjoyed” this comment on a UT article today:
“Didn’t Barrett play some third base in his past? Given the production of our current third basemen I wouldn’t be surprised to see him take some turns over there. Right now our options are Kouz, Branyan, Headley and Blum…none of which are hitting over .227. If management was happy with how things were going they wouldn’t have pulled the kid up from AA.”

Yes, calling up Headley had nothing to do with Kouz being injured and we should totally get rid of the bat that’s been hitting over .300 for the last month after getting off to a predictably slow start in the majors.

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By: Didi

Didi — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:27:25 +0000

43: Verlander was paid less in that draft than Matt Bush, I think. Yes, that was a bad year for drafting but I don't think the FO was even thinking about Verlander. Remember, the talk was that he was overworked in college and a lot of scouts were worried about that. The FO was thinking of picking Stephen Drew, I believe, who is not doing as well as expected currently in AZ. And Weaver was rated higher than Verlander that year. So, had the Padres not gone cheap, Verlander wouldn't be in a Padres uniform anyway.

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By: Buddy Israel A.K.A. KRS1

Buddy Israel A.K.A. KRS1 — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:26:07 +0000

He wasn't joking!

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By: Brian Wilmer

Brian Wilmer — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:20:15 +0000

43: There have been several discussions on this board of how Baseball America looked at the picks that year, and Verlander was by no means the consensus #1. As for going cheap, the Padres are certainly not the only team guilty of doing that, and they aren't the only team to pay for it. You make more hay on the body of your draft than you do on one pick, irrespective of whether it's #1 or #1000.

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By: Didi

Didi — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:17:54 +0000

39: I think that may not be true considering that the Padres got Marcus Giles at 2B. Had 2B been a disaster, the callers would have been relentless about the FO. It helps that Kouzmanoff was hitting after April. I still wish Barfield to get out of his funk. I think you right that there are plenty of clueless callers who'd complain about anything. That trade suggestion made me laugh.

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By: Schlom

Schlom — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:15:19 +0000

I don't think that comparing Verlander to Matt Bush is cherry picking simply because Verlander was the next pick. The Padres had the #1 overall pick that year which is far and away the valuable pick in the minor league draft. If you remove the injured #1 picks (Bullington, Matt Anderson, Paul Wilson, Brien Taylor) the last failed #1 pick was Shawn Abner in 1984. And he's likely to be a better pick than Bush. The simple fact is that the Padres went cheap and paid dearly for it. They could have taken Jared Weaver or Stephen Drew (Boras clients who were the top talents that year) but decided to save a little money. And they are going to pay for it. Granted there were other terrible picks that draft (the #6 and #9 picks were bad) but the Padres had the choice of anyone and failed miserably. As I said I think it's amazing that they have been as good as they are since their drafting (which is the easiest and cheapest way to procure talent) has been more like the Pirates then another successful team.

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