Sunrise in San Diego- Executive Decisions

[royals19]

Pitching Staff
Before we show you the guys swingin' the sticks, let's go over what our Pitching Staff is going to look like:

Starters:
You'll notice right off the bat that Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay are gone and their replacements Clayton Kershaw and Felix Hernandez are slotted into their respective slots. We expect big bounce back years from both players and we expect them to bounce back to being top 5 caliber starters. Following them, we've got Tommy Hanson who damn near won the Cy Young last year with a 20 win season he should be number 1 but Tommy Hanson over Kershaw and Hernandez? Not a chance.

Following them we've got Kris Medlen who blossomed into a strikeout machine towards the end of the season and prospect Noah Syndergaard who was acquired from the Blue Jays in that blockbuster.

I'll be honest, that staff looks darn good on paper.... maybe too good. In fact, I don't even trust this group to get us to the playoffs. This is probably the first year in a long time that I've felt we won't have the club to make the playoffs.

Bullpen
Our Bullpen is the same exact one that we had at the end of last season. There are some great arms in that back end and we hope that they can come close to putting up the numbers they did last year.

Chris Dwyer still awaits in the long relief role for a rotation spot to open and we appreciate him for being a team player.

Perhaps the most notable addition is Luke Hochevar down in the closer slot. Hoch was a starter but frankly that wasn't working out and the only way to get our money's worth was for him to close. He has some good stuff and maybe getting that one inning out of him will really help his career.

Then beyond those two big notes, we've got a bunch of power arms who are still somewhat young.

I'll say the same thing about the rotation. This bullpen is good on paper but scares the crap out of me in practice. They all had extremely good years last year and if they all have horrible years this year.... well you can imagine what'll happen.

[royals19]

2015 Opening Day Lineup

Well as you can see, that's a darn good lineup. We've got plenty of power, plenty of guys that will hit for power but the one thing we're missing is speed. Cameron Maybin and Mike Stanton provide most of the speed and occasionally Chase Headley but we don't really have many guys that will generate runs like that.

Just like I said about the pitching staff, this is a great lineup on paper but it doesn't mean a dang thing. Beyond what you see name wise, Cameron Maybin has never been an effective hitter and has lacked the ability to get on base, Jedd Gyorko has never hit for average and Chase Headley has regressed to the point where we aren't even sure if he can be the face of the franchise.

Never before have we had this many question marks. I honestly can't tell you what direction this season is going to go in. We may add another star or dump every body and completely gut this thing. I have no idea yet. We'll know after a couple months I'm sure, what we're going to do.

[royals19]

Alright ladies and gents, today's the day you've been waiting for. It's the first game of the season and the St. Louis Cardinals have been graced by the Padres presence.... Or so we thought. You see, the Cards have never been the same since dealing Yadier Molina and losing Albert Pujols as well as Adam Wainwright.

Now here's the paper vs. practice thing I've been talking about put to the test. Clayton Kershaw vs. Jaime Garcia. Kershaw should dominate Garcia right? Wrong, in fact that was far from the case.


No, Clayton Kershaw got his **** rocked this was a dang scratch. What was supposed to be a power show, showing off the Padres turned into a blood bath in which we played 10 innings in thanks to A.) A crappy Kershaw outing, B.) A blown Luke Hochevar save C.) A poor defensive effort. Let's take a look at the box score real quick.


This is exactly what I'm talking about. The team is the best in baseball on paper but plays no where near close to their talent level... Look at the errors- 7 total errors.

I could've sworn that the 3 time defending World Champs were planning a horrible team but I guess it was just another AA game...

[AC]

Chase Headley playing shortstop. Oh, if this game had defensive metrics...

[royals19]

Quote: Originally Posted by ACMilan99

Chase Headley playing shortstop. Oh, if this game had defensive metrics...

Yeah we originally wanted to build around him as a franchise player. We made the critical mistake of thinking he could be our Chipper Jones, our franchise player. At the time, it seemed like a smart deal because he was improving every year. If there's one blunder we've made this far. It was thinking that Chase Headley was going to be the hall of fame, franchise player that we drafted and developed ourselves.

Now, back to the action.

We darn near lost that game at the Cardinals and we would indeed get our rearends handed to us in the next 2 games and then again in the first game at Colorado.

Luckily, we had someone who wanted to get that 2nd win more than the last piece of pumpkin pie on thanksgiving. That dude is Noah Syndergaard our #5 starter. Here have a look for yourself.


How the heck, does he do this? 7 innings, 15 strikeouts 0 runs allowed in a ROOKIE DEBUT. That's unheard of and that's probably been the only dang bright spot on the year. Everything else has been horrible and sickening.

[royals19]

Alright we're playing the Dodgers now. If we lose this game, I have no idea what's going to happen. The Universe may split, the game may blow up... I don't really know. One thing is certain though, the Dodgers almost never show up to play and its always a moral victory to beat them since they are an arch rival.

This game is more important for the front office than it is for the win-loss column.


The game seemed doomed from the start to be honest. King Felix was iffy through the whole outing and Matt Kemp is going into Beast Mode as evidenced by another robbed homerun. The bats were mostly quiet and things didn't have the same meaning nor intensity as before.


But dang it, Salvador Perez put the team on his fricken back and lead us to victory. How in the heck? The catcher already has to call the games, he already has to control the pitching staff and now we're leaning on him to win us ball games.

If this crap keeps up, we're going to be forced into extreme measures....

[royals19]

It was another rainy day at PETCO Park and another grueling day for Billy Beane and Damon Oppenheimer. The dudes on the field were making a mess of things and it was left to Baseball Ops to clean up the mess.

Quote: Originally Posted by Damon

Damn, Damn, Damn..... It doesn't look good. Billy, I think we ran our luck a little too far with this group and we're payin' a heck of a price for it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Billy

Let's just rebuild. I don't see what the issue is.

Quote: Originally Posted by Damon

If we even thinking about rebuilding, McGovern could have our heads on his desk when he comes back... If he comes back...

Suddenly the door flew open at the far end of the meeting room...

Quote: Originally Posted by McGovern

What the hell is all this rebuilding talk?

Quote: Originally Posted by Damon

What in Sam Hill are you doing here? Your supposed to be in jail!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by McGovern

The Attorney General is a personal friend and I challenged him double or nothing on my sentence in an arm wrestling match. Who's this character.

Quote: Originally Posted by Damon

Uhh... Mr. McGovern this is Billy Beane, he's our new GM.

Quote: Originally Posted by McGovern

Whatever, let's get back to work. Now what in Sam Hill is going on down here?

Quote: Originally Posted by Damon

We're losing everything left and right. There isn't anything consistent. I think we need to explore our options to keep winning... maybe next year.

Quote: Originally Posted by McGovern

Next year? NEXT YEAR??? You must be out of your damn mind!

Oppenheimer stared down at the table while McGovern berated him with words I don't think anyone not in the Navy has ever heard.

Quote: Originally Posted by McGovern

Fix this crap team or you finished! Hear me?

Damon simply shook his head and that was the end of the conversation... Little did he know however, a certain handful of people were listening to McGovern's speech and his actual thoughts on the team....

[joshrmlb]

I've really enjoyed this dynasty so far. I'll be following.