San Diego Padres: Injuries, Flakes, Rookies, and Disappointment

This season has been reminiscent of pre Petco Park days for the San Diego Padres. A season after playing 163 games to decide their playoff chances, they have followed up a decent effort in 2007 by spending no money on big name players. Andruw Jones (smart move on SD for not signing him), Torii Hunter, Mike Cameron (who wanted to be here), Aaron Rowand, Kosuke Fukudome were all big names in the outfield. The Padres biggest signings were Randy Wolf (traded to Houston for Chad Reineke), Greg Maddux resigned and is getting no offensive support and he should be 20-9 and not 6-9, Tony Clark (traded back to D’Backs), traded David Freese for Jim Edmonds, who was a huge bust but now is having a season San Diego expected from him in a different uniform with 16 hr’s and 48 RBI.

Now, give the team some slack, they have had both of their aces on the DL at the same time, Chris Young is back on the DL for the second time this season. Starting catcher Josh Bard and starting second baseman Tadahito Iguchi have both been on the DL for extended stays. Khalil Greene showing some emotion for the first time in 5 years broke his hand on his own accord and is done for the season.

The injuries and trades have opened up opportunities for such rookies as Chase Headley, Edgar Gonzalez (Adrian Gonzalez’s Older brother), 2 catchers, Nick Hundley and Luke Carlin who are hitting barely above .200 combined. The team has used about 25 different pitchers which has led to inconsistency and a lot of blown leads and a lot of runs. Trevor Hoffman has been shaky and the only bright spots on the roster are Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff.

So, looking back on 122 games, we have reached tonight when last years stars have faded and rookies are the story, will rookie of the day Chad Reineke answer his call?

Reineke as mentioned earlier traded for Wolf at the deadline was called up to start for Chris Young, who also mentioned earlier is on the DL with a strained forearm. Reineke has been in my opinion shaky at best in the minors. His record since being picked up by the Astros in Portland (Triple A) for the Padres is 0-1 and a 4.15 ERA. His pre trade stats were also unimpressive 5-9 and a 4.41 ERA for Round Rock (Houston Triple A affiliate).

He is facing a Philadelphia Phillies team today who has 2 of the last 3 MVP’s and a current candidate in Chase Utley who is by far the best second baseman in baseball. So my question is, why Reineke? Why not Will Inman, Cesar Ramos, Wade Leblanc, or even Justin Germano? The Padres have already squandered their fan support they had resurrected from 04-07 after a horrible end to the Qualcomm days from 99-03. This team needs to stop bringing in guys who will be gone or optioned down tomorrow and start bringing in guys who we care about, the ones who could potentially be good #2 or #3 starters next year. They did it right with Chase Headley and gave him extra time by bringing him up in June, they need to do it right again.

So tonight we shall see what this rookie can do, hopefully it doesn’t embarrass me more to be a fan of a team who wont spend the extra 5 million to bring in the players who really CAN hit and play defense. Hopefully this off-season they decide it is time to pay up.