Unlike Melvin, I kind of like drama. Spice of life kind of thing. And for me, this season has been filled with intrigue. It hasn’t been fun, but there’s been a lot to talk about. For instance:

Genuine draft: The Padres will have the third pick in next year’s draft, which will probably be too late to grab Strasburg, but still very high. High enough to grab a potential star. Of course, it’s potential to grab a star anywhere in the 175 rounds that are in the draft, but the higher the better.

Gimme the loot: One of the benefits of playing terrible in a season that you didn’t plan on being terrible is a glut of moveable parts. This summer, the Padres moved Tony Clark, Randy Wolf, and Greg Maddux. What will actually become of the minor league pitchers and players to be named later that we acquired for these players is still to be seen, but if just one of them becomes a key part to a future Padres club, it’s a win.

If it’s broke, fix it: For five years now, the Padres have been sending out a makeshift team. They have, essentially, been rebuilding years, but competitive rebuilding years. And this was the season when the bottom fell out. The strong pitching staff that has carried this team since it started playing in ridiculous Petco Park faltered, with names like Baek and Banks seeing significant playing time. Adding to the mess was regressions, disappointments, and injuries that depleted the team on the field.

With the introduction of Chase Headley, however, the Padres have begun to turn over a new leaf. He was soon followed by other top prospects Wade LeBlanc, Will Venable, and Matt Antonelli. It’s only a matter of time the clubhouse is filled with players that came up, and have been neutered, in the system. Not more forcing square players in the round holes.

Jody Gerut: He’s pretty good.

Hey, it’s baseball!: It still is, technically.

The Padres soap opera is bothering me, I’ve never been one to embrace drama. The media is also bothering me more than usual, though this is probably a reflection of my own frustrations for the losing season as well as theirs. Here are some thoughts I’ve been ruminating over.

• 62-97 doesn’t reflect a commitment to this year at all costs, or true talent level. Tony Clark was traded July 17th. That day represents the moment the team began their focus on 2009. Since then they’ve traded Randy Wolf and Greg Maddux, and held auditions for others. Runs score / allowed expectancy puts the team at 67 wins. PECOTA, the best projection system in the business, predicted 79 wins. Judging expectations for 2009 based on simple 2008 record is just lazy. Check the media’s 2008 Rays predictions and you’ll see what I mean.
• Sandy Alderson isn’t paid to tell jokes. He’s paid to run a multi-million dollar business. If you don’t do what he asks you to do, you get fired. If someone at the NyQuil factory fills bottles with Flaming Moe alcoholic beverages rather than cough syrup, he might think he’s improving the product but he still deserves to be canned. Sandy kind of does act like a jerk on the radio, but the way those clowns on air talk to Sandy like he ran off with their mother I would also be tempted to treat them the way he does.
• JC Bradburry points out that $700 billion dollars builds 437.5 Yankee Stadiums. That’s two Yankee Stadiums for every city in the country with a population larger than Denton, Texas (pop. 115,000).
• Darren Smith and Philly Billy practically ran the front-running AL MVP out of town. Granted the front office deserves some criticism for not pushing harder to sign him in spite of the radio clowns’ tomfoolery. But Darren and Billy chewed the shit out of Alderson for having the gall to take a small risk on the best outfielder in baseball this year. Those two have forfeited their right to have an opinion ever again.
• Mike Adams will be a good guy to have around next year. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what the hell’s going on in the bullpen with all the hullabaloo back there. If you haven’t noticed, Adams has set himself apart from the pack with a 156 ERA+ and a 3.13 FIP in 64 innings out of the pen. It seems strange that the pitching is so far behind the offense this year as opposed to those previous, but Mike Adams is a welcome addition in 2009 as the Towers Bullpen Come-Out-Of Nowhere Guy™ for 2008.

The trade deadline has passed and the Padres completed the following deals:

-Tony Clark to Arizona for Evan Scribner
-Randy Wolf to Houston for Chad Reineke

Exciting, huh?

As we detailed earlier, getting Reineke and Scribner are classic Kevin Towers moves. They’re both under appreciated arms that will likely come out of the pen. Think about Heath Bell (acquired, with Royce Ring, for Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson), Cla Meredith (acquired, with Josh Bard, for Doug Mirabelli), and Scott Linebrink (selected off of waivers). Given that the Padres bullpen E.R.A. has gone from 3.01 in 2007, first in the league, to 4.47 in 2008, 28th in the league, it’s no surprise that Towers took this course of action.

What is surprising is that this was the only course of action taken.

Many Padres heard their names being tossed around in trade rumors, from Brian Giles to Greg Maddux. Besides Clark and Wolf, the only player that seemed to come close to leaving the team was Maddux. But with a trade to the Dodgers never coming to fruition, Maddux will likely continue not winning games for the Padres for the rest of the year.

Maddux handcuffed the Padres when he let them know that he would only accept a trade to a team on the West Coast. Through the process of elimination, this left us with just the Dodgers and, as we’ve already detailed, he won’t be returning to L.A. anytime soon.

At 42-67, the Padres are just behind the Mariners and the Nationals for the worst record in baseball. They’ll have to go 39-14, a .736 winning percentage, to get to .500 by game 162. And while we’re filling in a lot of the blanks here, we think it’s safe to say that the moves not made by the team signal that they’re in it to win it/remain competitive next season.

Giles is a big chip. He is a good hitter with a great O.B.P. and he’ll only get better the further away from Petco he gets, and his name was mentioned in trade rumors with the Mets, Cardinals, and Brewers. Clearly, nothing came true and Giles will remain a Padre for the remainder of the season and, likely, next season as well.

There’s two ways to look at the Giles situation. On one hand, he is this team’s three hitter and is one of the best defensive right fielders in the game. On the other, he is 37 years old and has shown a susceptibility to injuries. In 2006, he finished the season with a slugging percentage of .397, and his .415 mark this season isn’t much higher. The Padres, it would seem, are banking on Giles’ O.B.P. to stay strong into next season, which is risky.

The biggest name to mention in all these trade talks, however, is the one player who wasn’t traded but still isn’t in the Padres organization. On May 9th, Jim Edmonds had an O.P.S. of .498 and was cut by the team. He was picked up quickly by the Chicago Cubs and went Kevin Kouzmanoff, raising his O.P.S. to .757 on July 31st. Edmonds OPS+ was 39 With the Padres. With the Cubs, his OPS+ stands at 132. And the Cubs didn’t have to send a single player to San Diego to get him.

Of course, this move wasn’t so black and white. The management has said that they wanted to see what they had in Jody Gerut (OPS+ 118) and Scott Hairston (OPS+ 117) and you can’t fault them for that. You could say that Edmonds was traded for Gerut, but that’d be disingenuous. Gerut was already on the team and with left field being the game of musical chairs it was, it’s not like there wasn’t room for Gerut. Given the lack of return this team saw at the trade deadline, it would’ve been nice to get something back for Edmonds, even if it was just salary relief.

Astros in serious talks about Padres lefty Wolf

I don’t know what to say. Houston is 12 games out of their division and 10 out of the Wild Card. But when the Brewers get CC Sabathia and the Cubs get Rich Harden, you can’t just sit on your hands.

You have to go get Randy Wolf and his 82 ERA+.

Melvin Update: The Astros don’t have a strong farm system. I doubt Houston GM Ed Wade would part with JR Towles or Michael Bourn, even for someone with the God-like qualities of Randy Wolf. Bud Norris or Samuel Gervacio seem like the type of arms that might be available. They both have out pitches, a curveball and a changeup respectively, plus decent strikeout rates.

Though in reality, when top prospects aren’t available it’s nearly impossible to predict what mid-level prospect could come our way. I would be stoked to nail any mid prospect for a player we don’t need.

R. update: The Astros sent over Chad Reineke. Which makes sense.

Today is July 1st, meaning that there is officially less than a month left till the trade deadline. With the Padres’ hopes for the season fading away, it seems likely that the team will be sellers and, over the course of this month, we here at The Sacrifice Bunt will try to stay on top of all the rumblings surrounding our team. Think of us as a low-rate, more specific version of M.L.B. Trade Rumors.

Speaking of that fine website, they gave a rundown of Peter Gammons‘ latest blog entry discussing the Cubs and their starting pitcher search. While there’s no talk of Greg Maddux becoming a Cub for the third time, there is mention of Randy Wolf.

Gammons reports that the Cubs have interest in Wolf and Wolf has interest in playing for a contender. And for good measure, Gammons mentions that the Padres still show interest in Matt Murton who’s been on our radar for a minute now. Of course, we already have a full outfield, complete with players who buy into the team’s philosophy of getting on-base. Where would Murton play? Would one of the outfielders have to change positions, possibly moving back to the position he played in the minors that is currently manned by a free-swinger? Hmm.

(jes’ sayin’)

In more Wolf news, the Phillies have demoted Brett Myers to Triple-A. Wolf is a former Phillie (Philly?) who rebuffed their attempts to bring him back after the 2006 and 2007 seasons. I have no idea who they’d give us in return, though.

Ray’s update: Of course, not if Wolf’s value plummets.

Was in attendance for the Padres-Rockies contest on Tuesday the 15th.  The 6 run 6th for the Padres was an absolute blast thanks to doubles from Brian Giles, Kevin Kouzmanoff, and Hollywood Jim Edmonds.  Though by far the most exhilarating play of the 6th inning was a walk from Khalil Greene.  You read that right.  No?  Fine, look it up.  It really happened.

edit (4/16): Far be it from me to admit being wrong about anything, but the guys at the ‘Snorts point out Khalil walked not once but twice that inning. I figure that this much discipline from Khalil is so rare it warrants an admission. Enjoy.

Not to mention the little no hitter our boy Randall Christopher Wolf took for 6 and 2/3rds.  It didn’t start until the 7th inning, but nervousness took over and my body was shaking watching the game.  It’s hard to imagine what Randall was going through on the mound.

I have now attended a couple near historic games at Petco.  Besides the Wolf almost no hitter, I also saw Mikey C’s near cycle, only to be denied the opportunity to finish it out due to his own awesomeness.  My dad mentioned witnessing a cycle hit by the Tigers’ Travis Fryman in ’93.

But to the matter at hand.  Matt Holliday was booed loudly by the crowd of ~23,000 before and during each plate appearance.  I doubt the stadium harbored any deep resentment towards the guy, rather I’d like to think it was more of a fun boo than anything else.

We sat in left and witnessed a group growing both in numbers and obnoxiousness as the game progressed.  The chanting seen above went on like that for innings. They got their haggle on too.  It was a wonderful scene.

And I still have that stupid “guess the moving hat hiding the ball” music stuck in my head.

According to Ken Rosenthal, the Padres have signed Randy Wolf to a one-year contract.

Wolf, the star of TV’s “Airwolf,” has spent the better part of his career being hurt, having Tommy John surgery in July of 2005. Last season, with the Dodgers, he got hot in May (sounds like a Padre!), posting an ERA of 1.48, but ended his season early after having shoulder surgery in July. Obviously, there’s something about the seventh month of the year that makes Wolf severely hurt himself so I think that the team should get Stauffer/Germano/whomever ready to go around the All-Star break.

He doesn’t have any splits at Petco to really speak of, having only pitched five innings in his sole start there, although he did give up five earned runs. His numbers at Qualcomm are better, with an ERA of 3.42 in 26.1 innings. Although I suppose that’s a dumb point.

Wolf will be slotted in the rotation behind reigning Cy Young award winner Jake Peavy, Young, and Maddux. If he can stay healthy, Wolf will help make this team’s already formidable starting rotation even tougher, especially since Petco is a godsend for pitchers. And Wolf might be joined there by Mark Prior or Matt Clement. Personally, I’d like to see the team get Prior, as I get a real Chris Carpenter feeling from him. Bring him in, get two or three good-to-great seasons out of him, just don’t resign him before he blows his arm out again.

Melvin Update: Incentive Laden? Shaaaa buddy! $4 million base, $9 million if he meets the incentives.  It doesn’t get much better. A 102 career ERA+ back of the rotation starter, with the injury risk minimized by the contract works for me.

Despite the injury, Wolf was one of the most hotly pursued free agents on the market this offseason.

Umm, errr….. Que?