A Long Summer Ahead

It looks like this is going to be a long summer for all San Diego Padres fans. I as plan to return to San Diego for summer vacation, most of my summer is going to consist of working and going to Petco Park to watch the Padres. With that being said, I do not think a lot of people are going to be joining me at the ballpark this year with the exception of my close friends who are also baseball fans.

The Padres have only sold out one game this season which was opening day back in April. Since the opening day sell out, the Padres have struggled to attract fans into Petco Park. They average around 20,000 fans a night (sometimes even less) at a ballpark that can hold around 45,000 people. It is sometimes difficult to watch a home Padres home game because whenever they show the crowd, most of the seats are empty.

If things stay the way they are now, the Padres are going to have serious problems generating any offense and are going to finish last in the National League West. The Padres have been waiting too long on players like Chase Headley, and Nick Hundley to develop. It might be time for the team to look in a different directions especially now that they team is under a new ownership group. I am already calling this a lost year for the Padres. Last year brought a lot of excitement but there is no sense in living in the past. The offense cannot produce or support a pitching staff that ranks top ten in the league for the second year in a row. This might result in pitchers like Luke Gregerson or Clayton Richard being traded to generate some offense. The Padres will need a summer miracle to make the playoffs.   

TJ's Radio Commercial

TJ's TV Commercial

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Final Project "Scar Stories"

Untitled from TJ Acierno on Vimeo.

First Month in the Books

People have officially turned the page on their calendars and it is now officially May. April showers do bring May flowers as well as standings after the first month of the 2011 Major League season.

It is always difficult to evaluate a team after only a month of playing because the during the course of a 162 game season, a team no matter how good they are, is going to experience some hot streaks and cold streaks. Something that I like to do with friends is to give letter grades to teams. Just like you would in school, if a team is doing really well you would give them an ‘A’, if they are above average but not great you would give them a ‘B’ and so on and so forth.

After watching the Padres for a full month and judging by their performance on the field, my personal letter grade for the team is a ‘D’ for despicable.

The pitching for the Padres has not been bad. Pitchers like Dustin Moseley, Aaron Harang, Mike Adams, and Heath Bell have been very productive for the Padres during the first month of the season. It is the hitting that is the problem.   

Will Venable, and Orlando Hudson are turning striking out looking into an art form. If you go down swinging on a good pitch then you have to give credit to the pitcher for making a good pitch. But these guys are just looking at strike three right down the middle. I do not want to sound like captain obvious but if you do not swing the bat you are not going to score any runs and therefore, are not going to win the game. Going down swinging is a lot better than going down looking.

Keeping Players in Town

My mother and I have been Padres season ticket holders since 2004 when the team moved to Petco Park. We have experienced a lot over the last seven years. We have experienced a 99 loss season, two division championships, and Barry Bonds's 755^th home run just to name a few.

            Since moving to Petco Park I have always felt confident about the Padres because they have always put a competitive team on the field despite their payroll. And new management has taken over the team and has promised the city a winner.

 Last year’s team was built around one player (Adrian Gonzalez) but now there is no player to build this year’s team around. Which brings me to my point; the Padres have to do a better job of keeping players that are productive at an affordable price.

It would have been an absolute miracle if the Padres reached an agreement with Adrian Gonzalez to keep him in San Diego. I am not talking about keeping guys like Gonzalez; I am talking about keeping guys like Jon Garland, David Eckstein, and Tony Gwynn Jr. Even though these players were not the stars of the Padres last year, they were a big reason why they won 90 games last year.

Now you might be wondering why were they so valuable to the team? They were valuable because they would execute on all of the little things that some teams take for granted. For example, Gwynn Jr. last year had a bad year at the plate, but he made up for it with his tremendous defense in the outfield. And on those rare occasions where he did get on base, you could count on a base to be stolen. Eckstein was a guy who made clutch sacrifice bunts to move runners over into scoring position. These are players that the Padres could have kept but decided to let them go instead. They need to do a better job of keeping players.  These are the kind of players you can build a team around.

Leadership

My worst nightmare is starting to become a reality. The Padres are in last place and so far no one has taken on the leadership role. I know that teams traditionally look at coaches to be leaders to pick the team up when they are struggling, but as is the case with most championship teams almost every single team has a player on the field to turn to for leadership.

Look at the team that won the Super Bowl this past February the Green Bay Packers. Sure they had a lot of talent on their team but they also had a leader who put it all together and made them a team, Aaron Rodgers.

How about the World Series Championships from last year the San Francisco Giants. Similar to the Green Bay Packers, the Giants had talented players at key positions. But it wouldn’t have mattered much if they didn’t have the leadership of Tim Lincecum who guided them through the playoffs and eventually to the promise land as world champions.

The Padres have talent throughout their starting roster. Their bench unfortunately is weak this year but the starting line-up and pitching staff has seriously potential to compete and that was proven last year when the team won 90 games. The difference from this year and last year is plain and simple, leadership.

Last year’s leader for the Padres was Adrian Gonzalez who is now playing first base for the Boston Red Sox. Gonzalez was the leader on the field but he was also the vocal leader in the clubhouse. His presence has been missed greatly but it is now time for the new generation of Padres to step up to the plate.

Is it going to be Chase Headley or maybe Nick Hundley ? I don’t know who it is going to be but I do know that until someone steps up to be the leader of this ballclub, they are going nowhere fast.