Before I go any further I have to give all the props or credit or hi-fives or whatever to the Milwaukee Brewers. They were clearly the best team this year, played fun Baseball, have a young team, blah blah blahhhhhahahahhhahahahaha. Great. That’s out of the way.
Okay. But, I WANT THAT.
I want it. I want my team to be the Brewers. Not just because they won a championship, but I want the Padres to be fun again. Fun to watch. I want them to look like they’re having fun. I want them to be fun.
This season was a slog. And, at times some of the worst Baseball I’ve seen the franchise play ever. And, I watched Al Martin in Left Field for a year. THIS ISN’T TO SAY THERE WEREN’T BRIGHT SPOTS. They had plenty of games that were a dang blast. The last two months of the season was a fucking fiesta. But, the first half of the season? The first half was…tough.
I remember watching this team in a late Spring Training game against the Rockies. It was pretty much our entire starting roster, and we got two hits. I was worried. I know, I know, we’re not supposed to care about Spring, but the season was starting in like a week and they looked lost against some shit pitcher who never even made the Rockies roster.
Rememeber Nick Castellanos? DO YOU REMEMBER HIM?
This team was ready to give up pretty early, and that game was a solid indicator to me. We had a rookie manager who’d never managed anywhere ever, an aging superstar who came out and said “Baseball was hard now”, and a pitching rotation that was more of a pitching duo. The team came out of the gate very strong though, and even Xander looked almost worth the money.
Then the second month of 2026 started. We’ve been doing The Kept Faith since 2008. Before that we blogged (on Blogspot!) from 2006-2007. We’ve been podding since 2009. We’ve been doing this shit a long time. And, when the team is playing poorly we always say, “This feels right.” Cause it does. We are used to being a bad to average team. So in May 2026, things felt right.
In June I kind of tuned out. Then SLOWLY something started to happen…my interest was piqued. Why? Cause of weird ass players like Samad Taylor. WHO THE HELL IS SAMAD TAYLOR?! And, Jace Bowen?? I mean, it just started to get wacky, and that is actually my favorite time to be a Padres fan. I love a guy I’ve never heard of just being stoked to play.
That’s Profar energy. That’s early Crone energy. I’ll take it all day. If they’re gonna suck at least let them be smiling. But, that energy rubs off on the other guys. And, it did. We can dive in to this or that, but once Samad was on this team things took a turn. They gained momentmum. They had fun. I had fun.
Then, they started to fall off. It wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t hard to watch. Not like May or June. But, it was obvious that the magic was fading. And, of course it was. Samad is not a full timer. Jace might not be good at all. Our pitching staff is very thin. Miller was fading. Stammen…is not a good manager…
Now, I’m not gonna go through all of this. It’s been talked about. A lot. The boys over at Gwynntelligence actually had a perfect post-mortem pod.
So, let’s dive into 2027 for minute and what is holding us back: AJ Preller.
I’ve been singing this tune for a very very long time. AJ is NOT a great GM. People LOVE to assume he is. He isn’t. He’s gutted our farm system, and for this has had very little to show for it. Yes, we’ve been in the playoffs a bunch. But, it seems he has little interest in fixing problems rather just getting free agents that sound cool. Xander is a mess. Yu and Crone were dumb extensions. Mason Miller is fun, but if anything that dude cost us the playoffs. And, it’s not really Miller’s fault. It’s Stammen’s fault for completely and horrifically mismanaging Miller. And, it’s not really Stammen’s fault. He’s not a real manager. It’s AJ’s fault for somehow thinking Stammen could do this!
Stammen has potential. He does. He could wind up being a pretty good manager. He made some interesting moves, he does believe in and protect his team, and he seems like he listens to his team as well. But, he’s not there yet. He’s YEARS from being there.
This is why it’s time for AJ to go. He cannot evaluate pro talent. He was a great scout. He was great at picking young kids with potential. He’s terrible at evaluating anyone over the age of 18. Players and managers.
A real competent manager would have never bat Austin Hays in the playoffs. Stammen did. But, a real competent GM would have never picked up Austin Hays and hired Stammen. Again, this isn’t truly a knock on Stammen. But, so far AJ has passed up on Dave Roberts, Pat Murphy and Will Venable. All guys with Padres ties, a huge amount of managing experience and all interested in being the skipper here. Oh, and also all of them were in the playoffs this year. Venable with a team that had no business being there. But, when you’re a seasoned pro player and manager you are able to get the best out of a roster.
It used to be the Padres curse was ‘we’d trade a player and they’d go on to be amazing’. Now, it’s ‘we had this guy as a manager and we let them walk cause they dared have their own ideas’, and now they’re amazing.
The Padres got to the playoffs this year in spite of AJs moves. They lucked into it. Along with having enough talent: Machado, Tatis, King, Miller, Pivetta and Merrill (NOTE: AJ let Ty France go, and again LUCKED INTO HIS RESURGENCE.) to make a run seem possible.
But, now we have no fucking clue what happens. We have new owners who want to win (so they sing), and we have some talent on the team. But, we have no pitching waiting in the wings. We have lots of holes on the field, and we don’t even know if they’ll be Baseball next season.
But, I can all but guarantee AJ will be back. Cause he gets just enough done to not get fired. But, he needs to be. He cannot and will never be able to build a roster that wins it all. He doesn’t know how to. He’s more interested in getting people to listen to him than win.
The Brewers, the Rays, the White Sox, the Guardians, even the Cubs, were all teams that are masterclasses in roster construction, development, and patience. Things AJ has none of.
We trade all young talent for flashes. We can’t develop long term talent outside of Tatis (not really our doing) and Merrill (a complete surprise to most). And, we have no patience to build anything lasting. AJ is more focused on extending the Machado window of competitiveness than giving us hope beyond Machado.
I want fun. I just want fun. I honestly don’t give a shit if we win right now. I’ve resigned myself that we won’t win a ring in my lifetime. So, I just want a team that’s fun. If we do win – great! But, for the love of all things fucking holy can I not be forced to hope that Robbie Ray or Casey Mize or Nick Castellanos or Nelson Cruz or Gavin Sheets or Freddie Fermin or whoever just works out? CAN WE JUST BE SERIOUS FOR TWO FUCKING MINUTES?
I love the Padres. I love them. I watch at least 80 games a year. I’ve been rooting for them since The Beach Boys played their annual summer show at the Murph. I love this team. I will always love them. And, yes, most franchises will roster someone like Matt Carpenter, but they sure as shit won’t seriously hope Matt Carpenter hits 40 homeruns at age 73.
I just want the Padres to be serious about contending. Not a “window” team, an “always in the mix” team. I want a GM who’s not thinking in timeframes, but thinking in lifetimes. I want owners who are gonna spend, but not foolishly on a shortstop who can’t hit. Or a first baseman who can’t hit or field. Or a pitcher who decided to stop pitching. We haven’t been a smart Baseball team for a long time. We haven’t been well-run in a decade. In fact most stories about the Padres are always about how poorly everything is done.
I want what the Brewers have, not just because they won it all, but because they’ve always seemed in the mix to some degree. Sure, there were some very bad years and will be again, but they’ve always spent smart, had great roster construction, and were a fun team to watch. Even if it was Davey Lopes trying to fight Ricky Henderson from the dugout.
At least I knew Kevin Towers wouldn’t blow it all up for a window.
I want competency. If you give me that I’ll have my own damn parade.