Our good friends at Baseball Daily Digest have allowed me to grace their virtual pages with this year’s preview of the Padres. Much of this is review material for regular Ducksnorts readers, but I like to think you’ll enjoy it anyway.
From the article:
This is going to be a learning season. The young players will learn more about themselves and what it means to be a big leaguer. The ownership group will learn more about its players (specifically, which ones will form the nucleus of the next contending Padres team) and its fans. The fans will learn that young players will drive you crazy and that no ownership group is perfect. With luck, they will learn a little patience as well, as these young players and this ownership group figure out how to make things work in San Diego.
Read the rest of the article at BDD.
Thanks for a realistic assessment. I HATE realistic assessments, especially during spring training, but you played the part of the Queen of England well – you know, somebody’s gotta do it.
My only quibble is with Kyle Blanks as a possible “minor” star. Anybody with that kind of all-fields power has at least the POTENTIAL to be a major star, maybe big enough to be too expensive for the Padres to keep, once he’s in his arbitration years. But as they say, potential means you haven’t done it yet.
You’re absolutely right that this year will constitute a shakedown cruise. That also includes something you didn’t mention: fan support. This franchise will go nowhere long-term on 1.9 million attendance. That’s something else to watch this year.
Larry, you may be right about Blanks. It’s possible that I’m being too cautious in my assessment of him. Blame my restraint on Sean Burroughs.
Regarding fan support, I did touch on it toward the end of the article. I absolutely agree that attendance bears watching, and I’ll be addressing this issue in greater detail in my upcoming Hardball Times preview.