Gay Sports Blog: America's Finest Mess: the San Diego Padres

The Padres have gone from annual contenders to fire sale auctioneers almost overnight. Their owner is involved in a messy public divorce, forcing management to sell of the few useful parts the team has following an embarrasing 99-loss season. Who's to blame and is there any hope for a turnaround?

The Padres are a team in disarray. Owner John Moores is in the midst of a nasty divorce and has ordered payroll cut nearly in half (to between $40-50 million). GM Kevin Towers has explored trading young ace Jake Peavy, while simultaneously showing all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman the door in what was a messy public feud. Brian Giles' $9 million option was exercised, but only with the intention of flipping him to a contender in 2009.

It's hard to believe these guys were one strike away from their third consecutive NL West title just over a year ago. But a 99-loss season in 2008 has left Padres fans wondering IF the team's problems can be fixed, not WHEN. Who's to blame, and how can faith be restored among the Friar faithful?

I'm not sure that it can, anytime soon. Management's arrogance towards "its ways" has seeped out publicly since the arrival of CEO Sandy Alderson. Special assistant Paul DePodesta, who writes a terrific blog detailing many of the thoughts of the Padres' brass, recently wrote about a 4-step plan the front office has been working on for three-plus years. Alderson goes on the team's weekly flagship radio station, Mighty XX, and talks openly about everything Padres.

But such rare openness by a team's executives doesn't diminish the notion that the team's plan may not be working, despite the star talent of the group's makeup; the front office is composed of successful scouting directors, Ivy League grads, and past-and-present GM's.

Fans see these plans, and they hear huggable quotes such as 'Kevin Towers is one of the shrewdest negotiators in the game.' They're told to believe that Nick Hundley, Chase Headley, and Will Venable will be stars one day. But what they see on the field are a bunch of Luke Carlins, Luis Rodriguezes, and Dirk Hayhursts.

Fans are angry. The city helped fund the ballpark and competitive payrolls were assumed as part of the deal. They are tired of hearing how difficult it is to hit in PETCO when opposing teams have no problem. They have been subjected to too many waiver-wire pickups, trades for other people's tired veterans on cheap contracts, and public assurances from the brass that 'we know what we're doing.' But do they?

Jake Peavy and Khalil Greene are the only two homegrown players in recent years who have arrived and succeeded in the majors. But Peavy was a 15th round pick - credit the way the team developed him but not finding him - and Greene is on the trading block after a season where the only thing he made contact with was the storage unit he broke his hand punching after his millionth strikeout.

What I'm looking for is some accountability and there rarely is any. When a team has to go cheap like the 2009 Padres, you'd hope that they would have at least some exciting talent already up. Hundley is exciting only because he is the first Padres backstop in years who can make a throw to second on the fly. Venable? Yeah, we'll see. Headley? Gonna be a star if they can figure out where to play him. Of course, by that time, they may have to trade him once his arbitration years are over.

If the team does deal Peavy, it had better receive an overwhelming offer of young players ready to play in the majors soon. But don't trade him to save money - trade him to build depth for the future. Because with or without him in 2009, the team is going to struggle badly. I'd get whatever I could for Kouzmanoff (who is developing but just doesn't walk enough) and move Headley to his natural position at third. I'd even consider moving Adrian if someone overwhelmed me.

But most importantly, stop saying 'trust us.' You haven't earned it. We don't want to hear that your computer projected the '08 squad to win 90 games. 2008 was a year of the Portland Padres and 2009 is shaping up to be more of the same. Drafting Matt Bush or Allan Dykstra or Tim Stauffer in the first round just to save a few bucks doesn't offer faith in the plan or the people operating it. Repeat those mistakes and the front office should be blown out.

Oh, and Mr. Moores: Sorry about your divorce, but the city is more important than your right to have a hobby. Sell the team. Now. Not 49% of it. It's getting stripped down like a car anyways, so sell to someone who's willing to take a loss on it to field a competitive, interesting team. You've never been a public person but you've refused to apologize for what's going on with your team now, and fans are hurt. You have remarkable attendance for such a bad product. Give them a reason to keep coming downtown in this struggling economy.

Fielding a team of guys who walk, AA fringe players, and veterans on expiring contracts just doesn't incite hope.

(Photo: Getty Images)

Chase Parker believes in the East Coast bias, stretching triples into doubles, and considers Tommy Boy to be the greatest athlete of our generation.