Not a new problem
Scoring runs has been a problem the Padres have been struggling with since Petco Park opened. Now, it's making it harder to figure out what's wrong with what should be a great offense.
Last night, while I recording this podcast, I had something of a revelation. Yes, the Padres can’t hit, but they’ve been trying to solve that problem basically since they moved into Petco Park.
I’m sure you remember the Ryan Klesko-Phil Nevin teams that were supposed to be home run machines and instead just…weren’t. At the time, we blamed a lot of different things….
We blamed the hitting coaches, one after another who seemed destined to get fired before their one-year work anniversary. We blamed the large ballpark, which then had its fences moved in two different times. Those moves took those potential issues off of our list of things to blame…
We’ve blamed the size of the payroll, which is no longer a problem. We’ve blamed the team’s inability to keep their own good players, trading them off before they get too expensive, which is no longer a problem. We’ve blamed the team’s inability to sign any hitting talent in free agency, also not a problem anymore.
More recently, we have found new things to blame. First, it was the inexperienced manager(s). That problem was solved with Bob Melvin. Some of us, this author included, also blamed Eric Hosmer for the division he caused in the clubhouse in addition to his poor performance on the field. That problem is gone, now, too.
Based on things I’ve seen and conversations I’ve had, here are the things we’re currently blaming the Padres poor offensive output on:
Fernando Tatis Jr.’s suspension has the guys distracted
The analytics department isn’t big enough
A.J. Preller (who everyone was praising as the best GM in baseball three weeks ago for pulling off the best trade deadline in MLB history) doesn’t know how to build a team
The pro scouting department either isn’t good enough or isn’t big enough
Meanwhile, the team would rather run out a clearly injured catcher instead of the on-fire prospect they have catching in Triple-A.
Anyway, I have a point here….and it’s going to be the only point I make today because I’m not about to be optimistic about this team heading into a series with the woeful Kansas City Royals.
My point is that Petco Park is about 20 years old and we’re still trying to figure out why the Padres can’t hit while calling it their home ballpark, even when other players and other teams don’t seem to struggle the same way at Petco Park.
Is it the ballpark’s fault? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the marine layer. Maybe it is the analytics department or the hitting coach or the manager. At this point, nobody knows. Not us and not the Padres. All we, and they, can do is keep trying to find solutions and hope one of them cures what has been ailing this team for a long, long, long time.
I know there’s a lot of debate amongst Padres fans about whether curses are real, and I promise I don’t want to get into a discussion about witches and their place in philosophy, but maybe we need to stop looking at this 2022 Padres team in a vacuum. Maybe these problems were here before A.J. Preller. Maybe they’ll always be here. Maybe the problems are larger than simple roster construction.
This is my way of saying I don’t have any idea why any of this is happening or how the Padres can fix it, so quit asking. A series against the Royals, away from the drama and media in San Diego, is better than any other solution that I could probably come up with. Now they just need to hit better.