The Padres and Dodgers played again last weekend and it was pretty much the end of the Padres season. San Diego does not have a good team this year. The experiment didn’t work. It’s time to look forward. If the Pads can’t beat the Dodgers with their secondary pitching, it’s sadly a lost cause. Our old Dodgers fan friend Q helped me through this.

NICHOLAS MCCANN September 3rd 2015 2:45pm PST

Q,

So the Dodgers are in the driver seat to win the division and the rest of the teams in the NL West are looking at themselves bewildered at what happened. It’s really not that confusing. Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw are allowing everyone with a keyboard in LA to write the “This is the next Koufax and Drysdale” pieces. Have it. It’s earned. We all want what you have: Blondes who have more fun…on the mound…on the highest level of the sport.

The Padres are in a heated battle for 3rd place with the Diamondbacks and it’s getting ugly. You don’t even know. Preller built a team and it didn’t lead anywhere definitive. They aren’t good and they aren’t a trainwreck…they’re just there.

That said, it’ll be nice to see Mat Latos and think back to all the non-memories.

Can you tell I’m not happy about the current state of Padres Baseball? How was your Summer?

Nick

Q September 3rd 2015 4:45pm

My summer has been fine, I appreciate you asking.

Existing in the middle is worse in football and basketball, where the loss of draft position might be meaningful.  But you guys are going out with an emotional whimper, no doubt.  If you’d hit the cellar and bottomed out, at least you’d have some catharsis.  I certainly thought the deadline would have some kind of movement for the Pads: either a sale to reclaim some value or another desperate shot at glory. Instead, you got a LOOGY who’s name wins every Scrabble tourney. Turned out you were what we thought you were; a strangely constructed .500 team.

I think what should be most alarming is feeling like you don’t know where you’re headed. The Astros and Twins have sucked for a few years….and we didn’t know if it would work…but we knew what they were trying to do. AJ went from maniac to mouse so fast that I don’t have any idea who he is.

But that’s enough about 3rd place don’t you think?

I’d love to take joy in our success. But Im starting to feel ’90s Atlanta Bravish and that doesn’t feel good. Yes, logically having (arguably) the best two starters in baseball in a short series should feel like a huge advantage. But we have a lot of ingredients for another early exit. Our biggest strength on offense is our depth and while that’s useful over 162, it’s less valuable over 7 ( or 5).  Our bullpen is shaky before Kenley, we need meaningful contributions from Carl Crawford and Chase Utley, and our cleanup hitter is Justin Turner. With the caveat that anything can happen once you get to the playoff dance, it doesn’t exactly feel like a team of destiny.

Enjoy watching Latos on TV. Someone should.

Q

The Padres beat the Dodgers 10-7.

NICHOLAS MCCANN September 4th 2015 10:32am

The Top 5 Dodgers That I Hate The Most Right Now:

1) Greinke
2) Grandal
3) Kershaw
4) Joc
5) Ethier

Honorable Mention:

Mat Latos

Look, I have no reason to hate Mat Latos. He didn’t do anything to jeopardize the success of my team. He was a class act, and then he got traded. I think my hate for him is an extension of my hate for all blonde Dodgers (see: list above.)

Last night was fun. Mat displayed the same problems that have held him back his entire career and it warmed my heart to see them hurt your side.

This series is an odd experience. My Giants fans friends texted me with thank you sentiments last night. This should be a spoiler role for us, but it’s not. Can you remember being in a position like this where the outcome of the game hurts one rival but helps other?

Q September 4th 2015 2:49pm

First of all, I’m impressed with any “hated Dodger list” without Puig. Everybody hates him, which says more about them than him. Thanks for looking deeper.

I can’t remember a game like that, where hurting one helps another enemy… but it must happen all the time, right? Especially in football. I mean, right?

Last night added cells to the ulcer, no doubt. I did take some solace in watching Corey Seager.  As underwhelming as the Latos and Alex Wood acquisitions were, at least we kept our future All Star shortstop instead of trading him for Wil Myers.

Spoil all you want; I just hope you’re an Equal Opportunity Spoiler when you see the Men in Black from up north.

Dodgers beat the Padres 8-4.

NICHOLAS MCCANN September 5th 2015 1:14pm

I left Adrian off my list because I’m trying to stay positive, but man that hurt. He killed us last night and my sweep jokes were again shoved back in the sadness folder. He is so visibly comfortable as a Dodger and he should be. A-Gonz is making what the market was for him and he is executing in a consistent way.

It hurts. It really hurts.

Despite LA’s win last night, I completely agree with you on the blind spots of your team. Besides Greinke and Kershaw the rest of the staff would scare me. They should get to and through the divisional series but the NLCS likely against St. Louis could be a real issue.

A few weeks ago on the podcast our other Dodgers fan friend Robert Pouder was on and we talked about Don Mattingly’s job security. What scenarios do you see where he keeps his job? Does he have to make the World Series to stay?

Q September 5th 2015 3:21pm

I sort of felt like that watching Piazza in the series with the Mets in ’99.  Trading him made zero sense; I don’t even remember what the point of it was supposed to be.

So….I am not a fan of Mattingly. At all. I kind of hoped he’d be gone when the new regime came in.  When I heard that rumor about him going to Florida…man I hope it’s true. I’d like to go ahead and let the guy who first hired Joe Maddon go ahead and do his thing. But I honestly don’t know what to expect. Mattingly is, tactically, an awful manager.  But other than a handful (Maddon, Hinch. Bochy, maybe Bannister in Texas or Melvin in Oakland), it seems like every manager in the league costs their team more games than they win according to advanced stats and win probability numbers. So, as bad as Mattingly is, he’s probably about middle of the road. Long story short, if the Dodgers win the series, I guess he has to stay. If not, I think I’m ready for a forward thinker instead of a throwback.

Serving the ball back to you….any idea what kind of guy the Pads go after? Wanna trade us Trea Turner or Matthew Wisler for him? Oh wait….

The Dodgers beat the Padres 2-0 and the beat then won 5-1 on Sunday, winning the series.

NICHOLAS MCCANN September 7th 2015 2:12pm

I had to really think about this. The season is over. When our local idiot middle reliever Nick Vincent threw the ball over Wil Myers head into foul territory for a three run error all hope of turning this thing around was lost.

If the Padres aren’t careful they could end up with the same record as last year. That would be embarrassing. I would probably start the argument that Bud Black’s 2014 season was actually a masterpiece.

Whatever, nobody cares.

Looking at the ocean of Dodger blue at Petco this weekend, I realized we are taking a knife to a gun fight. Back to the drawing board, Prellz. We need some new toys to at least show off at the next All Star Game.

This was a rough weekend and is turning out to be a rough year. I guess I should turn my attention to a team that really cares about me. Go Chargers!

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