Padres Season Goes To Waste

Nothing in baseball matters but winning. The team that loses the World Series is just the top loser. Winning the Western Division is cold comfort for this Padres fan when the season is followed by the team's embarrassing performance in the playoffs.

Despite Sunday's loss the pitching staff did not lose the series. The series was lost by the hitters. The worst thing about the team's offensive performance in the playoffs is that it was typical of what fans had to watch all year. The players on the Padres have got to be some of the worst situational hitters in major league baseball. And has the team ever heard of a hit and run? The strange thing is there was a time when manager Bruce Bochy would do the hit and run and other offensive plays to get the defense moving and open up holes. Now he seems to sit back and wait for one of his players to deliver the big hit. All of us have been waiting pretty much all year for that.

O well, there's always next year. But if the same players and management all come back fans will have to suffer through the same offensive malaise. Some kind of reconstruction is in order. Here are some suggestions.

FIND SOME RIGHT HANDED POWER. Enough with the lefthanded bats. Petco's left field is not that deep and homeruns can fly out of the park in that direction. Get some players that can take advantage of that.

Keep Roberts.
Exercise the option on Cameron.
Trade Giles for a true number 2 hitter.
Put Gonzalez in the third slot.
Play Barfield every day.
If Walker stays make him a bench player not a platoon player with Barfield.
Keep Greene.
Keep Blum for when Greene injures his hand for the third year in a row.
Get A-Rod and put him at third.
Keep Piazza and Bard but even out their playing time.

Let Bochy go.

-tdr