For this week’s edition of Friars Row, I have decided to put the main focus on last year’s National League Manager of the Year and current Padres manager Bud Black. Not enough can be said about the hard work that Black has put into the organization since he was named manger back in 2006.

            After the 2006 season, the Padres were coming off of another disappointing first round playoff loss to the St. Louis Cardinals for the second straight season. This was a very good time to be a Padres fan however because the team had just won back to back Western Division Championships which were the teams first since going to the World Series in 1998.

            After the Padres were unable to reach an agreement with Bruce Bochy at the end of the 2006 season, Bochy was unhappy and wanted out of San Diego. So he took his managerial talents to San Francisco to manage the Giants. Since making the move up north, Bochy’s time in San Francisco has been very successful especially after last season when the Giants won the Western Division and went on to win the World Series.

            Despite Bochy’s success, Bud Black has had success in his own right which has gone unnoticed. Unfortunately the Padres do not play is a very big sports market which means that the team has below average payroll, especially last year when the Padres were second to last in payroll. Low payroll makes it extremely difficult to attract good players because the baseball players of today are going after the biggest possible contracts that they can get. Because of this the Padres tend to get stuck with the below average major league players. I am not trying to say that these players are bad because they are not, if they were bad players they would not be playing in the big leagues.          

            Every player has talent, but it is the job of the coach to find out what the best talents of each player are and try to put them in the best position possible to be successful. I think that this is what Bud Black has perfected since becoming a manager. He knows all of his players so well and he knows how to get the best out of them. Since 2007, the Padres have missed out on the going to the post season on the last day of the season on two separate occasions. It might not be this year but I think that Black is going to have this team in the playoffs in the near future.   

The Denzel Gray Interview

Friars Row is going in a different direction this week and focusing on a freshman from Newark, New Jersey with a dream. On the first day of this semester I didn’t know any freshmen in this class. Sometimes you can tell who the freshmen are because they have that terrified look on their face like someone is holding a gun to their head. I know because I remember having that same look on my face during my freshmen year.

When I first met Denzel Gray he did not have that look on his face so I was very surprised when he told me that he was a freshman. After meeting for the first time, I honestly did not think much of Denzel, not because I thought that he was a bad person, but because I thought that this is just another person that I have to do a group project with that hopefully is not going to hold me back on this project.

But I quickly found out that Denzel was a good guy with a good head on his shoulders. And the more we talked that more I found out that his road to St. John's University was not easy. He was not afraid to talk about his past and his journey to St. John’s which is the angle that I chose to pursue with this interview. Denzel was raised in Newark, New Jersey which was not the best experience.

 Q: How was life in Newark, New Jersey?

A: Life in Newark wasn’t hard but it was pretty bad, in the beginning it was a typical neighborhood. The kids were my age, it was fun, and it was my mom’s first house. I stayed in school, I didn’t want anything to do with what my former friends who were stealing cars and doing drugs.

Q: Why did you come to St. John’s?

A: I came to St. John’s because it was away from home but not too far away from home. My dream is to one day be a writer for a hip hop magazine. New York is the mecca of media and everything goes on in New York.

Q: Is there anything that you hope to gain in your four year college experience or something that you hope to achieve?

A: I want to leave college saying that I learned something. So many people leave college and say all I did was pay for my degree. I want to genuinely say I learned something and got something out of this. I want to say at the end of the day college helped me become who I am.

There is no doubt that Denzel has a bright future ahead of him. After growing up in a place filled with high crime and gangs, Denzel has persevered and has decided to following his dreams of working for a hip hop magazine. Every person has a chance to choose their path, what will yours be?   

Listen to audio here:

Jason Bartlett comes back to San Diego

One of the most important positions in the sport of baseball is the shortstop position. It is most often the case that if a team does not have a good shortstop, the team is not very strong defensively. The shortstop is known as the quarterback of the baseball field, in other words, he is the player (along with the catcher) that is involved in every defensive call that is made by the manager and gets the most balls hit to him. When a team has an above average shortstop, it benefits them a lot defensively. But with that being said, the shortstop position is historically a defensive position. When major league scouts are scouting shortstop prospects, they tend to look away from what they do offensively because shortstops have to play good defensive. It is a lot different from scouting for first or third base. When scouting for first or third base, scouts look at the offensive productivity and look away from their defensive play. At the shortstop position, it is very crucial that you have someone who is fast, has good reactions, and someone who can be dependable to lead the team defensively.

            This was a major problem for the San Diego Padres last year because it was not until July 29^th that they got a shortstop in an attempt to make their playoff run. At the start of the season, manager Bud Black selected the very young Everth Cabrera to be his starting shortstop. Cabrera has been one of the Padres top prospects in the Padres system for the last two years and there was hope that he would emerge as a great shortstop with his speed and good defense. But as is the case with many shortstops, the only question going into the regular season was his ability to be a consistent hitter. Unfortunately Cabrera got injured early in the season and he quickly lost the start shortstop job. After Cabrera’s injury, Bud Black needed a good defensive shortstop that he could rely on and he knew he could rely on the ultimate utility man, Jerry Hairston Jr.. Hairston Jr. did an exceptional job as the starting shortstop but as the July 31^st trade deadline was approaching and the Padres were still in contention for the division championship. A change was needed at shortstop. Padre’s General Manager Jed Hoyer made a call to the Baltimore Orioles in regards to their third basemen, Miguel Tejada. Even though Tejada was playing third base for the Orioles, his natural and preferred position has always been shortstop. As a shortstop he won the American League MVP with the Oakland A’s. On July 29^th, the Padres sent a minor leaguer to the Orioles for Tejada and he was in the starting lineup the next day. Tejada was a big reason as to why the Padres won 90 games where were only one game away from winning the NL West division. But unfortunately at the end of the season, the Padres did not make the playoffs and Tejada signed a one year contract with the World Series Champion San Francisco Giants.

            After Tejada decided to take his talents to the bay area, the Padres where once again in the market for a shortstop. After a season that saw a lot of success, Jed Hoyer knew that he needed to bring some players in who have had success in the pass and have been on winning teams. Jason Bartlett is someone who fit that criteria perfectly. He has had success both defensively and offensively with a batting average of .281 which is above the norm for shortstop. When the Tampa Bay Rays went to the World Series in 2008 he was voted as the team MVP and was a big reason why the team was so successful. With this trade, it also gives Bartlett the chance to play for the team that drafted him into the major leagues. Bartlett was the Padres 13^th round pick in the 2001 draft but the team traded him to the Twins in 2002. Bartlett should play very well into the Padres system as he is someone who can contribute both offensively and defensively. He is also a player that has had experience winning and being on a championship team which is something that the Padres desperately need.  

What the Padres Mean to Me

I was asked last week why I was writing a blog about the San Diego Padres. When I first heard this question I thought it would be an easy question to answer. But the more that I thought about the answer to that question I found it hard to answer. Not because I am not a loyal fan, but because whenever I think about the Padres and baseball season starting, it makes me get the warm fuzzy feeling inside and it almost is like I become speechless. It honestly is hard for me to describe how much the Padres mean to me because it is much more than just me being a fan, it’s a full time devoted passion, dedication, and commitment in wanting the team to succeed and win.

            My Padre roots go back to when I was a little kid and growing up in San Diego. I could not think of a better place to grow up because the city of San Diego is known throughout the country; it is not a giant city like Los Angeles or New York City. San Diego only has a population of a little over 1 million people so you don’t necessary feel like you are crowded or have people breathing down your neck. Not to mention the perfect year round weather that San Diego has which allows kids to play outside year round which is something that kids growing up on the east coast do not experience unfortunately.

            I was a kid that enjoyed being outside and participating in activities, the majority of my activities revolved around sports and more specifically baseball. At a very young age, the sport of baseball became my passion and I was addicted. I first became a fan of the sport and then I found out who the local team was and that was the San Diego Padres. My mother being the smart woman that she is recognized my passion early on and would take me to Qualcomm Stadium to see the Padres play. The Padres moved into Petco Park in 2004 which is located in downtown San Diego. Since 2004, my mother and I have been season ticket holders with our seats being in the first row in right field. Out of 162 games during the regular season, I would say that I watch about 130-140 of those games about 30-40 of those games are seen in person. In a way I look at being a Padre fan as a job, I have to do my job by watching the team every time that they play, and I have to stay current with the latest news that his happening with the team.

            The sport of baseball and the San Diego Padres are both passions that will stay with me for the rest of my life. It gives me something to look forward to and look back on with great emotion. The beauty of the sport and watching it with my mother is something that I would never trade for anything.