As if the Padres weren't suffering enough with pitching, word has it, Casey Kelly may need Tommy John surgery. Oh and apparently Cory Luebke has hit a bump in his recovery. These not so fun facts combined with the not so fun facts of the whole not doing much in the off-season thing makes me one pissy little girl and yes, I'm about to bring up the Latos trade again and yes, I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record. Deal with it... like I should be doing with that trade but won't anytime soon.
Given the fact that we are possibly down yet another pitcher while another's return might be pushed back and the fact that Grandal is suspended for 50 games really makes me question what the Padres were thinking when they made the trade. We NEED pitching, kinda can't win games without it.
I know that trading Latos had little to nothing to do with pitching and more about filling "holes" but the fact that we seem to be hemorrhaging pitchers, is like pouring salt into the wound. Trade: 0, Ashley: 1.
I've probably said it before how we didn't necessarily need a 1B or another catcher and we wouldn't have needed a starting pitcher had we not traded a starting pitcher and well our bullpen, yeah, I'm going to ignore that. Sure they didn't know that Hundley was going to get hurt last season/suck and we were going to need to rely on Grandal but they lucked out with that... at first. Trade: 1, Ashley: 1.
Then the numerous injuries screwing with out pitching during the season and the freak Cashner incident of the off-season happened. PLUS Grandal's fantastic off-season news came about. I have to believe they didn't know Grandal was using PED's... or maybe they did and overlooked it, who knows but it doesn't help make them look good for making the trade. Trade: 1, Ashley: 2.
I don't follow our minor leagues close enough to know who we have in the system that would be close enough to starting at first or any other positions we claimed the traded filled but we did have Blanks who could have played first, though he was probably hurt too. So I can see the Alonso part of the deal making sense but that's about it since we know I hate Volquez and forgot who the reliever was we got. Trade: 2, Ashley: 2.
Yes, we need guys that are going to do more than just play small ball but what good is that going to do for us if we don't have solid pitching?? To me, the game revolves around pitching. We don't necessarily need the big bats or super fancy defensive skills to win games, though the super fancy Brandon Phillips like plays would be fantastical and the David Wright, WBC type AB's would be just as fantastical. We have seen it before that we can win games with pitching. Ya know, back in the day when we had one of the best, if not the best, pitching staff. A whole, what, three years ago??
Despite my want for pitchers that can carry the team on days where we can't hit to save our lives, I pretty much hate pitchers duels and would rather have high scoring games than 1-0 shutouts or 2-1 team wins with the starting pitching getting a no decision in both incidences. Though sometimes those no decisions mean a lot more than the pitcher recording the win. Sometimes, they mean the pitcher worked his ass off and did everything possible to give us the best chance of winning with the least amount of power hitting. Of course, at other times, they mean the pitcher completely blew it and our bats magically showed up. But in the case of the Padres, as we all know, we rely heavily on the first example. As you can tell, I can't make up my mind about pitching. I very strongly acknowledge the need for dominant pitching and desperately want that but my attention span seems to be more than okay with high scoring games which completely goes against the logical want.
In my nonscientific or probably even really logical opinion, the trade evens out with me, though I should dock points for the suspension and therefore my logic or lack there of wins. Let's just face it, I'm a mess of a blogger and counteract my own points at times but that's what happens when I'm too emotionally involved in the team and can't separate wants from needs.
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