Good News For The Padres, But Not On The Field.

If this story (here) is true, Padres fans will be get to continue listening to one of the best play-by-play announcers in baseball. Ted Leitner is returning to broadcast another Padres season on the radio next year.

Whether Leitner will have anything worth announcing is an open question. The team lost attendance this year due to their lackluster play. Winning the Western Division and finishing over .500 didn't make up for the team's lousy baserunning, lack of clutch hitting, shaky defense, weak fundamentals, and boring, boring, boring offense. The only thing the team had going for it last year was bullpen pitching, the starts of Jake Peavy all year, Pedro Astacio in the last half of the season, and Adam Eaton in the first. Not enough.

This team has a lot of rebuilding to do over the off-season. Again, damn it. Again. And it hasn't started off well. Ramon Hernandez is probably going to play somewhere else and Brian Giles has declared free agency. (Here and here.) But, hey, at least we've still got Ryan Klesko and Chan Ho Park.

-tdr

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