The TRUTH About the Padres is being REVEALED…

The TRUTH About the Padres is being REVEALED…

The truth about the Padres’s is being revealed as now that the season is over, we have some opinions on everybody. Good opinions, bad opinions, let’s find out together. Hi, welcome back to another episode of Padres’s Digest with your host Andrew and Christian. Our first duo video. Super excited to finally get this out for you guys. I know it’s been a little bit past 2750, but hey, we’re here. Also, please apply if you would like to Digest Media cuz maybe you can do a duo video with someone else. Anyways, today we’re being very opinionated and giving some team rankings. I know the season overall was not the best for us. I don’t think that’s an understatement. Uh, but we could still try our best to be nice. Or I can. And I know Christian will drop his truth bombs and, you know, do his thing. But how are you feeling, Christian? You excited? I’m excited to be doing this. Uh, as a father of a toddler that never has free time, it is nice to have 20 minutes to talk with you about some baseball. I would say I feel that, but I don’t. I do not have kids. I just have adults. Oh, the Padres’s fandom needs to know that that despite us both being under the age of 40 that there is already some like workplace friction in our uh in our cultural and uh and references and whatnot that we make in the group chat. Uh also, I think that there’s a level of optimism that you retain uh that reeks of you not being alive for either of our World Series round. I was not live for a single one. And that’s my biggest claim to shame. No, no, no, no, no, no. It’s the opposite. It makes you a happier, more optimistic person. Um, and and it makes the rest of us more grizzled and delusional because we know even make the World Series, then the 98 Yankees or Allan Traml will be there waiting to curb our boys. Dang Yankees. And now we have another new uh horrible dynasty that we won’t mention because screw them. But oh, let’s let’s mention them. Let’s I mean that’s the that’s the golden standard is we’ve got to beat the Dodgers. We and that’s where we will get into all of these player rankings and everything and we’ll see that you have optimism and I consider all of this a failure because we didn’t beat the Dodgers. We didn’t even beat the Cubs. We didn’t even get that far. Uh dude, man. All right. Where are we starting? Infield, outfield, pitching, hitting uh manager. Oh, yeah. Manager Craig Stamon. This is what this Craig St. We’re still doing recap. I’m grading Shilt for his last time. He gets a fail. Get out of here. Yeah. I mean, I like Shill. I just like I think it got too much for him and I feel like he kind of crumbled. Green. I also liked Jace Tingler. I also liked everybody that we’ve ever had up until we didn’t have him. Yeah. I mean, all right. So, we’re starting with catching. Catching. So, we’ll start with Elias Diaz. And we all saw his first half. It was pretty horrible. And I do have stats brought up if you want to see them. And by you, I mean uh well, I don’t know. You guys can’t see it. I’m talking to the fans on this part, but I have the links open. And let’s just say his pre-allar was pretty horrible, below 200 average. That’s why we gave him an F. Martino Martin Maldonado, same exact thing. Both Fs. We did improve overtime. And Alias Diaz did actually look better in the second half. That’s when he actually started hitting home runs and a little bit better for average. But he’s still just our stop gap basically for Compusano or Solace or like literally anyone who’s better. I mean even Fedine for example. Fetamine first half he wasn’t on the Padres’s obviously so I didn’t grade that. But in the second half hitting wise he is better than both Maldonado and Diaz and he’s a much better defender but he’s definitely not like great at hitting. You know what I mean? Catching hasn’t always been like a big hitting. It’s been It’s been the one position where you get a pass. Yeah, you you you can get a pass because you have to be defensively good. You also have to be chemistry good with the pitcher. Like pitchers have to like throwing to you because pitchers are all emotional head cases. Um and they’re very delicate, fragile creatures and need to be treated um as such. So yeah, historically it’s been like, “Oh, we’re not gonna give our left fielder a pass for hitting a buck 80, but our catcher that’s fine with the That’s why Austin Hedges still has a job.” So getting resigned. My wife’s still mad at me for saying uh I trade Austin Hedges. I do miss Austin Hedges, but let’s just say I don’t miss his average. But moving on, this is a hot take because everyone is so like up in arms about Arise and I don’t blame him. He’s a cool guy, but like historically this year, I have not been the biggest Arise fan. And I wait, hold on. Can I close out catching with one question for you? Absolutely. Diaz as our backup next year. Yes or no? I think they could sign him, but I think he has to have him for two years. So, we have we don’t we have him for I thought we dropped his option like he’s a free agent right now. I thought we did. Yell at me. Fair enough. Okay. So, then if he’s if if we did drop his option, uh then I’m fine with him going. All right. On to on to Luis Aras. Let’s talk. This one is the most divisive, I think, player on the team. Yeah, I think you and me disagree a lot on him. I think you like him more than I do. I think I liked him up until the Cubs series. I was all in on him and then I think I kind of went to neutral on him, which to me neutral probably is out on him because it’s a neutral like if if I was neutral on a guy that we still had five more years on, I’d be like, “Okay, like I’m not going to hype him, but I’m not going to hate him.” But neutral on a guy who’s a free agent that we not going to get into a I will make an offer, make a pass. If he wants to come back, great. Um, but if he’s more interested in making $20 more million, I’m not going to I’m not going to be upset. Yeah, I just think he’s a declining player overall. And I mean, like, yeah, I get a skill set. Yeah, we compare him to Tony Gwyn, but he’s not Tony Gwyn. He’ll never be Tony Gwyn. No one’s ever going to be Tony Gwyn ever again, to be honest. So, I say though that Tony Gwyn didn’t win a World Series, so you know, it having another Tony Gwyn wouldn’t even necessarily help us. I agree with that. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t sign him for more than 10 million. If he wants to come back for 10 million, cool. But like more than that. Exactly. Yeah. Like I’ll throw in I I would say I I am in in that I would like the Padres’s to make an offer, but I am not in past making the offer. I don’t want to counter. Yeah. So, sorry to rise fans out there. We respect you, but we disagree with you. And if you want to yell at us for that, feel free. I would also say that the problem with Arias wasn’t entirely his fault because if Arise is hitting 290 in front of two dudes who are hitting 25 plus home runs, then Arias probably scores 20 more runs than he did this season and Padres’s probably win some more game. Like he is a useful tool if he gets on and then gets in. But he is a useless tool just for the sake of oh like he hit 290 in the middle of our lineup and did nothing with it. Yeah, I think Shel absolutely hurt him putting him at second, especially hurting Tatis because he only got like a couple. I He could have had 50 stolen bases. I swear to God Tatis could have if he didn’t foul off every single pitch, but that’s besides the point. That’s besides the point. Uh but moving on to Ryan O’Harn. Now I have special thoughts about Ryan O’Harn. Cool dude. Great guy. I just feel like this was a oneanddone kind of for him. I don’t know if he can replicate it in my opinion. What do you think, Christian? You’re saying can’t replicate like the being of an all-star. Can’t replicate the home run numbers. Can’t replicate any of it. Like this was a lightning in a bottle for him. I mean, he has steadily done better. I just don’t think overall like first of all, we need something a lot better at first base than what we have, right? We need someone who could slug. And I’m not saying Ryan Hurden was not a good option. I just don’t think that he’s going to hit 17 home runs, 281 average for next year, especially because I feel like I think we can do better. It was my overall point I made when not talking about Rhino Hearn earlier. I think we can do better than Rhino. I don’t think I don’t think we can. I don’t think we can because I don’t think that the Padres’s are in a spot where they’re they’re I don’t think the I’ve said this on my videos a couple times. I don’t think the Padres’s have more than one big spin in them. And I think the Padres’s even then might not have one big spin. They might only have two or three small spins. So I would say O’Harn locking down first and then letting Sheets and company tried to like sheets can take the right-handed hitters as the DH so and so can take the like Pavino O’Harn as a everyday locked in first baseman even if he only if he hits 275 with 10 home runs for 10 to 12 million and then that allows us to also go spend a couple million on two or three B uh bench utility bats that can actually add some depth. I think that we might be able to like moneyball it and just in the like yes we don’t have Giani coming back but we can recreate him in the aggregate and I think that Ryan O’Harn at 10 to12 million like he might not be an all-star again and he might not hit 20 home runs every single season for the rest of his life but if he can be steady Eddie and hit 270 for the next three years and just be like we don’t have to worry about first base I I find a value in that. What do you consider like a big spend like more than 20 million? Yeah, 15 and up. 15 and up. Okay. 15 and up on a year-to-year basis. Okay. So, an annual uh what’s AAV annual something like that. Oh god, I’m going to yell that again. Okay. But yeah, I have a point about what you said about 15 home runs. But let me get to that player Jake Croninworf. I feel like you saying that I think Jake Cronorf at his best year could be what Ryan O’Harn could be what what you’re saying about 275 10 home runs. And I think he’s a better defender overall at first base than Ryan O’Harn is. But I think he’s best utilized at second base. And I’m I’m team Cronin Worth. I know a lot of people dislike him, call him Cronin worthless. I know this season’s stats didn’t look great from a basic like average home run RBI kind of thing, but this was actually one of his better seasons since what was his last all-star like 22 21. Uh I mean I could go through the stats, but I don’t want to spend 15 minutes going through the stats. But basically, he has improved in some aspects that have really helped for us, like on base percentage, OPS overall. But I know he’s not hitting the sexy like 15 home runs that he’s used to. I mean, he only had 11 home runs this year, 246 average. So, it’s not great. I’m not saying we could do I’m not saying like I want him here for the rest of life. If we get a better second baseman, I’m happy with that. Let’s put it that way. If we can get Jorge Palano, if we can get someone better, fine, right? If we can trade him away for better chips, fine. But I’m not going to be like wishing for his downfall and wishing for him to get off the team. I still like him. I still think he’s a good piece for our team and he plays every day, too. Uh yeah, I I wouldn’t even say Jorge Kongo. I I would say it it would need to be Dan Ugla. Like I would need somebody who can come in here and hit 35 home runs and wear a ripped tank top and like just be a completely different creature than Troner for me to be Oh yeah. Like all the scenarios where I’ve ever hypotheticated about getting rid of him is less getting rid of him to replace him with a better second baseman and more getting rid of him to just be like let’s replace him with somebody that makes drastically less money. And that’s not really a move. That’s a that’s a hope and a dream. No, that’s just a band-aid. That that’s just a saying, hey, we don’t have the money, so we need money for other people. Like that that’s not that’s not fixing your real problems. Yeah. The only player I could really see like fitting that scenario you just said is Willie Wagner. And I don’t know if Willie Wagner is really ready to take on that mantle yet. I mean, we saw him have like what 20 at bats last year and he like got like one hit. So, I don’t know. I know Blue Jays Digest people and our bosses love Willie Wagner. I haven’t seen it yet, but again, he’s only played for like what two months. So, we’ll see how things go. But yeah, we’ll see. Now, another decisive player, Manny Machado. So, as you can see, first half, second half, huge differences. Huge differences. First half, Pacado looked like an MVP again. And then we got to what, August, a little bit September, late July, and he was hitting like a 100 on average. Looked like he couldn’t get a single hit to save his life. But he just won a silver slugger. So, obviously, he’s doing something right. His stats did look good. I know it’s not like the old man you were used to, but it’s still good. 27 home runs, 275 average. Like, he’s still a good player. just when you really got to that like August and like when we really needed him the most. Like the Avatar when you really need him the most, he vanished. Uh I hope someone gets that reference. I hope you do. Anyways, I just think I I think he’s still great. I think he’ll be good for a while, but again, he’s not getting any younger. And how much is that really going to affect everything? I guess we’ll have to find out. But I it’s going toffect his ability to field. And I think that there is maybe a we if we’re talking about O’Harn and first and DH like maybe we should actually be talking about the need to um put Manny at first. Yeah. Just be like, “Hey, Manny, you know, we have you till you’re 40. You’re going to move over there eventually. like let’s I’m not saying do it right now, but I I think that there could be something to hey like your back and your legs and everything could just stay a little fresher when you’re 37 if you’re playing first as opposed to playing third. So I like I’m I’m down with I think that’s also why I don’t just to loop back to O’Harn. Um, I don’t need a big spin on a first base fix if we can get somebody in there for two years before Manny has to move across the the diamond. But yeah, I part of me also wants to just be like, it’s exhausting to carry the team. And I think some of that down the stretch might have just been Manny being like, man, I got to start swinging upwards a little bit and put some launch on some of these and wasn’t getting the home runs and he was just striking it. I I don’t know. It it can be really hard to expect a guy to just keep hitting this unbelievable clip all the time if nobody else around him is is catching that fire as well. Yeah, for sure. I I hesitate to give him that C, but I still give him a pass for the season. I I think he was one of the few that had another good year. Yeah, for sure. Now, obviously a huge uh controversial one. Xander is gonna be another fun conversation because the summer of Xan was the summer of bipolar, like hot hot cold. Yeah, I made a video that was like, why did we let the Padres sign Xander Bogarts? One of the most popular videos on his channel. I went off on Xander Bogarts and then genuinely like a week later the summer of Xan started and then I was like, you know what, maybe he’s not that bad. But can he keep that up? I don’t know. I just saw on Tik Toker Tik Toker Instagram, I don’t know, but it said worst contracts in baseball. You want to guess what number one was? Xander. Xander. I don’t love his contract obviously, but like I first of all, we’re stuck with him, right? There’s nothing we can do about that. We’re stuck with Yeah. No one’s going to take that. So, we there’s two things we can do. Either bully him off the team, which is never going to happen, or at least try to be as supportive as possible cuz we know he we’ve seen him be good. We’ve seen him be awful. What kind of Xander are we going to get? Literally, no one knows. Maybe Craig Stamon will be his best friend and like elevate him to a brand new level. We don’t know. But I do like that his defense got a lot better this year. So I I like that about him. Yeah. Look, the hitting thing to me, I think my answer to everybody hitting wise this year was hitting is contagious. Nobody got sick this year. Like there just was not a point at which we were all everybody was clicking. Xander was hot over here. Manny was hot over there. This guy was like there was no Oh man. two through five in our order right now is just crushing it. And so it’s kind of hard like it’s hard to be like he did not have a a year that lived up to the hybrid. He did not have because all these guys had like 10 20 game stretches where it was like that’s what we would been waiting for. Just none of it over overlapped. So you know Xander was hot but we were still at 500 during that stretch or something like and so I I I hesitate to go too into the like you like the letter grading of everybody. To me, everybody on the team gets a fail collectively because we did not win the World Series. But a lot of the guys still get a pass to me because we didn’t have if you’re hitting under 250 and you’re really struggling, then I’ll talk about fail. But most of these guys by the end of the season, the math masked out to be like, yeah, it’s a middle of the road average year. Yeah, odd years. That’s how it is for us normally. Uh, but moving on, Gavin Sheets. Love Gavin Sheets. I probably gave him higher than he should have gotten, but I love Gavin Sheets from going from the White Socks and being horrible to coming to the Padres’s and generally being our offense for like a good couple of months at the beginning of the year. Like remember when he had like what was it like two three home runs against the Blue Jays or something and like single-handedly won us the game? That’s the kind of stuff I love seeing. I was kind of sad. We gave him a B or I gave him a B at the second half because a he didn’t play as good, but b we didn’t really use him as much since we got Lauraniano who I know you love. Uh, but I think overall Gavin Sheets fits nicely somewhere in this team and is a good enough bat that we should consistently use him somewhere on this team. And that’s where I like I like O’Harn because I trust O’Harn’s splits against righties and lefties enough to just be like we can throw him out there for the whole season at first base except for when we want to punctuate it with Sheets and let Sheets, you know, Monday against a righty, let him start first and then Tuesday against a lefty, don’t play him. Wednesday, use him as the bat off the bench. Thursday, play him in left field against a righty to give Lauriano a day. To me, Sheets can have another great season coming up with the Padres’s because there we we saw the road map on how to use him correctly. We just sort of didn’t have the team around him to use him correctly because we had to put him out in the left. We had to put him at like he had to play full full stretches against righties, lefties, hardth throwing, submarine, like everybody that was coming at him. And so like you know some ho some holes were exposed in his game. But I I think given the depth that the team has this year, he can still play five out of seven days of the week, it’s just going to be in a he’s going to be the the outfield first base DH utility rotation guy. Yeah, he did have pretty good splits if I remember correctly. Yeah, he actually hit higher for average against lefties than against righties. And so and because some of that was that part at the beginning where he was just absolutely just crushing everything. Yeah. And then I think by the middle of the season, teams started to get a good scouting report on him. And that happens a lot in baseball is you will see a guy is new to an area, is new to a division, is new to a league, is new to the West Coast, is new to whatever, like and has a spurt where just nobody has really sunk their teeth into figuring him out yet. And then they teams will be like, “Hey, okay, we have a date, we have a sample set on how this guy hits against our pitching. Here’s how we counter this now.” Yeah. And the best part about Gavin Sheets, he’s cheap right now. So that’s why I love sheets. All right, let’s talk about my boy. Your boy. You want to start with the boy? Uh, yeah. I will guarantee guarantee I am staking my claim on this. Uh, his number is going to be retired. He might be the best player in Padres’s history just in the fact that he has the it factor. Like like I think that seriously I I I get that that’s hyper hyperbolic. Although we did retire Steve Garvey’s number and Steve’s like a legendary Dodger. So I don’t know what it takes to get a number retired. It’s Padre. Um, he came in and had a couple of walk-offs and clutcher moments, but also just in the underlying I got the sense that this guy was like, does the term a gamer mean enough to just sort of like, you know, what that means without me having to explain it? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Like dude’s a gamer, dude. He would have those walk-offs and have like, yeah, he’s happy, but it was just like, okay, Bob Scandlin, I was just doing my gig. Like, I don’t need this postgame interview. there was no necessarily like hype to it. And I’m not saying that he was a sociopathic detached like, you know, I don’t feel emotion, but like I got the sense that he was just like, “Yeah, this is game 148. I’ll be hype when we’re in the playoffs.” And we didn’t have him for the playoffs. And so I I just Is he the singular missing piece to all of this? you know, a rational person would say no, but I kind of just I just can’t I can’t get it out of my brain that having no Jason Hayward, Julie Gurley, Connor Joe sort of BS in the left field and just being like, look, we’ve got a dude who shows up every day and works his ass off and puts his head down and is here to grind because he’s on a contract year and wants to make that. I I really I just think that the impact of having that all season long versus just the post trade deadline can’t be understated. You sound like a big fan of him. Dude, I’m a big fan of guys who just I like I not not ball out, but guys who just like you you get the sense that it’s it’s max effort every single time they’re out there. Yeah, for sure. And I love that for him. I forgot we had Carter Joe on this team. I’m going to be so honest. That’s a name I was like, “Oh, yeah.” Huh. Uh Man, go Titans. Here’s my hot take. Oh, it’s not really a Well, I don’t know. I like I like Lauriano. I think he’s great. I think he’s going to be huge for this team, but I am I do have a little bit of like worry in my system. Like again, is this a oneand done for him? I know he’s had he’s slowly improving his numbers, but can he replicate 24 home runs, 281 average? I don’t know. But I don’t even need that. If if if we keep O’Harn and Lauraniano and each one of them hits 275 with 11 home runs, how massive of an upgrade is that from what we had at those two positions last year? Yeah. And like it might not it might not be what I get what you’re saying. If can he duplicate 20 plus? Maybe not. But I also don’t think that that means he’s going to fall back to four. Yeah. And it’s just like I I maybe I again just see baseball differently than a lot of other people, but I instead of liking to have three superstar, this is an NBA. You can’t just do three superstars and then have uh you can’t have LeBron dragging J.R. Smith to a championship in baseball. Like you can’t put Connor Joe and let look what Mike Trout has not dragged the Angels to a championship. So, I kind of am just like, okay, I get what you’re saying and I’m I’m with you on that fear, but to me, regress back to the normal and if his normal is 275 with 11 home runs, that is 20 batting average points and 11 homers better than our left field spot did last season. Yeah. And my biggest point I want to make is for 6 million, I will absolutely take that risk. That is a great risk. 6 million, which obviously we’re poor, so that sounds like a lot of money, but for the Padres’s, hell yeah. 6 million. So, which one are we on? Okay. Uh, we’ll try to make to make this too long, so we’ll we’ll go a little faster for these. Uh, but Jackson Merrill, the kid, I think this is sophomore slump. I know he had a lot better second half than he did first half, but I think overall sophomore slump, injuries, I think next year he’ll be a little butterfly, booming once again, but he will always be huge for this team. I’m glad we signed him for that team friendly good long contract. I think it’ll be one of the better contracts we’ve ever handed out in my opinion. So, how much you can say about that? And that’s the other one where if he regresses to the median and he’s halfway between where he was his first year and was his second year, that’s still a good enough baseball player that when you average that out with everybody else, I’m in. I love it. I love his hype. I love his I love the chemistry. I love that he’s a different person than like like to me now our outfield is three very different people. Yeah. Who can all coexist with the limelight and superstardom in different ways. So I’m down with it. And then Tatis Jr. also a huge divisive one. I’m team Tatis did good this year, but I’m also team I understand why people are down on him. Like I think he had good step forward for his batting in general. Like his good eyes, much better OBP, much better walks, less strikeouts. I think that’s great, but I think losing that aggressiveness that Victor Rodriguez really tried to push onto this team hurt him in the long run. So, I think finding a good median between aggressiveness and patience will be his sweet spot. So, I’m hoping next year will be that kind of mindoping thing that pushes him forward. But, he’s still a great defensive. Did he deserve the platinum glove? I don’t know. Do I care? No. I’m happy he got it. Made up award. It is. It’s fan. The fact the fact that they put fan voting in it is just so weird to me. But, who am I going to complain? It’s not our job to complain. Not our job to complain. I mean, it is our job, but it’s not our job to I don’t know. Give him a I’ll give him a pat. Incredibly hard to have the expectations be that you’re the best player of your generation. Yeah. Like, you go out there and you’re I was say you go out there and you’re like, well, he needs to hit 40 home runs to have a good season. Not really. We expect it. Yeah, cuz he did it. he does to have a good season if he is the face of MLB the show and if he is the player of his generation and if show is putting the gas pedal through the floor down through the concrete under into the magma um of driving that superstar car that he’s on. Yeah, that’s where the expectations are. That’s hard to do. I was that a pitching co or a hitting coach changed his aggressiveness? Was it ongoing litigation off the field with the people that he made that bad deal with for his contracts? I I don’t know. I all of the two I will say this one thing though to all of you in the comment section they’re like he smokes too much weed. I like bro just because like look just because some I can’t stand reductionist points of view where people boil it down to one thing about a guy especially in a game like baseball where it can be so many little culminating factors. Yeah, that I just I I Tatis maybe isn’t a generation Tatis might not even be a Hall of Fame player. Kevin Kmanov first pitch he ever saw in the major leagues he hit for a grand slam. I would then go on to say that Kevin Kmanov was one of the worst third baseman in the Padre’s ever started. So uh does does Nando make the Hall of Fame? I don’t know. I don’t care. Give me a regression to the middle next year. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, his contract isn’t like I think he’s still making 20 million a year. I know it’s going to higher over time, but his contract’s not horrible for still only 26, so like we got years left of this to figure this thing out. Yeah. All right. Jose Glaciius utility. I like a Glaciius. I would resign him for like cheap if we had to, but if we don’t, that’s fine. But I know he single-handedly literally won us games against the Giants. Well, and and I like him coming back too now that we’re talking about if all the starting positions really are filled and we can actually have him as a utility guy, having Sheets and a Glacius and two other dudes and coming off the bench to be actually used in their proper roles. I love him there. Yeah, he’s not going to hit 300 again, but as long as he plays really good defense like we’ve seen him do, I’m fine with it. That’s insane. He seems to fit the vibes. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s another thing where like baseball is so weird of those like him being on the bench might just be the key. Like like you could say you could line up the rest of our team coming into this season and then remove a Glacius with and replace him with generic player X and maybe that guy doesn’t bring the zen to the clubhouse the way that a Glacius does. So like it. Yeah. From everything I’ve seen, I would like him back if it’s cheap price to be a utility guy. Yeah. And I didn’t include him in this one because we didn’t really use him in the second half, but Tyler Wade’s another big one for me. I love Tyler Wade, dog. I I intentionally get uh Terrence Wade, Brian Johnson, um Kyle Hart, all those names wrong because to me they those are the Star Trek red shirts. Those are the guys are the guys that you know when they beam down to the planet with Captain Kirk that they are going to get eaten by the monster. Man, I don’t care. I’m team Tyler Wade. Put a put a hashtag team Tyler Wade. Okay, pitchers. Michael King, I don’t know how to feel about you, Michael King. Like, I love you. I know you can be great. This year kind of proved it differently. I wish you would stop sleeping on your shoulder. Would I take you back for 22? Yeah, maybe. I don’t know if we’ll take the draft pick. If we sign somewhere else, but if you stay, I’ll support you. I’ll love you. But right now, I don’t know how exactly sure I am of you. But I know you can be great. I’m talking to you, Michael King, right now. I know you can be great. Do it again, please. Not for another team, but for us. I don’t even know what to say, man. I I don’t want to spend my time talking about players that aren’t going to be with us this year. Uh he had an he had an absolute F for me. It just in that like availability is the best ability and whether it was just the way he slept or something of this that or the other, I don’t know. A DNP in terms of like a season. Yeah, pretty much. And so I I I if he comes back, I’m with you. If he comes back, great. If he doesn’t, draft I kind of I I kind of say I I’ve said this also on some of my videos. Damn the damn the pitching this year, man. Just don’t don’t spin a dime on it. Let’s let’s hit let’s hit for a season and let the chips fall. I mean, if there’s ever a pitching coach to let us do that, it would be Ruben Nebla. So, I do get what you’re saying on that. I want to see Kyle Hart pitch good. I want to see pitch. Uh, Ruben’s just want a random shout out. Ruben’s brother just got hired as a head coach at the high school level. So, uh, maybe maybe if Ruben’s upset, he can go work for his brother. Well, Dylan sees, we’ll do quickly then because I know he’s not going to resign with us, but man, I thought you would do better. You did fine the second half, whatever. But I’m disappointed in you. But at least your mustache was cool. It wasn’t really clear that you have to dig deep into the analytics to be like, “Oh, but his spin rate f out of here. F out of here.” Absolute get out of here. Nonsense. The best way you can say it, great strikeout pitcher, afraid to strike people out. He was terrified to pitch, but he was really good at it. But he’s terrified to pitch. Same as everybody that was like, “Plake Snell’s amazing.” Yeah, but if you throw 162,000 pitches to get through four and two/3 innings, you’re useless to me. And he almost blew the World Series. almost Nicka. I’ll give I will I will give him a pass. He did not fail. I loved him. I enjoyed his season. Yeah. Best year he ever had. But I also just enjoyed I enjoyed his general approach to the to the the art of pitching. He seems like a guy who was fast ball first, get after the zone, challenge them early. I liked everything about that and I think that he fits in as a guy who again, even if he doesn’t have another career year and regresses, and I’m sure all of you guys have stop saying the same thing. If we get an average year out of Pavetta, I still like him because I I I can see six innings from him every time. Yeah. Like I can see his pitch count staying low enough that even if he loses the game, he still got us to a point where his loss was not, oh my god, we had to burn our bullpen. Yeah. So, let me ask you this. If funds were not an issue, do you think that is good enough to be a number one or would you want him more a number two or number three? Is he good enough to be a number one? Yes. Would I like him to be our number one? No. Interesting. Interesting. I agree with that. I think that there are several guys who are good enough to be a number one, but I would prefer our number one to be a unabio. Yeah, I’d like a horse. Yeah, like a real just a I I would even take 47y old Justin Verlander still as our number one just because he’s a dude who you’re like he’s gonna go out. I like Verlander. I know he’s not great no more, but he’s I like him. Now, I made this before the Darvish news happened, but let’s just say you Darvish, I love you. Please retire. I love you so much. Please retire. Let me throw this out there. If he can come back and be John Smoltz for two years and move to the bullpen, and yes, 20 million is way an overpay for a closer, but if if Darvish can come out of the bullpen four games a week for an inning or two throwing a bunch of stuff that goes a bunch of different ways, I I’m not going to push him to retire. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think he’d like to be a closer, to be honest. I think he’d rather retire it than be a closer or I’m I’m with you. But I I say the John Smoltz thing because Smoltz went to the Hall of Fame for it. Like he went to the Hall of Fame for being the dude that just had great iterations of both versions of his career. So that’s where I’m like, if you want to, man, I would not be I would not say that that would be a bad situation to move him in that direction. Comment section, let me know how you feel. Please. Randy Vasquez, I am I don’t know how to feel about Randy Vasquez, though. Rowdy, man. Randy Vasquez is like uh uh Randy Vasquez is uh he’s that he’s that NASCAR driver that you know is never going to win so he just crashes intentionally to f with people like Yeah. He’s not good per any analytic but you don’t hate him. Yeah. Like like pick five Padres’s pitchers from the last 25 years that you hated. Like pick a Brian Lawrence, a Pedro Assasio, a a um a Woody what was what was Woody? Uh you lost me on that one. Woody Woody Williams. Um pick five of those guys and you’ll be like those guys. I did not like when any of them were on the mount. Randy might have the exact same numbers as some of those absolute turds, but for some reason you like him. Yeah. Luckiest pitcher I think I’ve ever seen pitch. I don’t know how he got out of half the things he got out of, but we’ll take it. Uh, hard pass on the other two guys on this. Nester Cortez, please go away. I never want to see you ever again. JP Sears, we’re stuck with you. I hope you can do better. We’ll just see how it goes. We’ll have to see. I think that’s with to me he’s with Blake George Jorgensson and uh all other names that I make up. Like he’ll be I’ll I’ll call him JT JT Spears probably. next season just intentionally disrespectfully. I don’t know what’s going to happen next year with him, but we’ll see. Bullpen, I think the best way to summon the bullpen is greatest thing I’ve ever seen out of a bullpen ever for most of the people. Yuki, I need you to bounce back for me. Mason Miller, I would rather have you as a closer starting, I don’t think so, to be honest. If they if they do that, I’m going to I’m going to that his arm is going to explode. I saw we were tied to uh Edwin Diaz. I don’t know why, but I saw we were tied to Edwin Diaz. And people are like, “Well, he’ll be a Mason Miller will be a starter then. Please know.” I have never seen a pitcher be more dominant in the playoffs in my entire life when I saw Mason Miller against the Cubs. We had like seven straight strikeouts, something like that. I have never seen anything that amazing in my life. Keep him as a closer. My my proxy, and again, this proves that I this shows that you and I are from different generations despite both being under the age of 40. Uh he Mason Miller is is the next Mark Prior and that he is an absolute overwhelming fireballer, but you have to be aware that the second that that arm starts to go, you’re in danger that the whole thing’s going to go like there like Mark Prior with the Cubs in 01 was him and Carrie Wood were so unbelievable. They were so overwhelming in every way, shape, and form. And then three years later, Prior was out of baseball because Dusty Baker just blew his arm out. Yeah. And so that’s where I’m with. Mason Miller is exactly that right now. He’s so so so unbelievably overwhelming. But the second the Padres’s misuse him, that arm is going to explode. Yeah. My favorite thing I’ll say this, my favorite thing about our bullpen is that we have like five closers. Like these would be closers on like completely different teams. Well, and and I am uh a new age radical uh anarchist, socialcommunist, whatever you want to call it, of I don’t believe in the closer role and I am just more of a high leverage role. Yeah. I like because to me the closer role is has been misconstrued as like the ninth inning is the biggest inning because it’s the last inning and it’s not that because what if the what if the seven eight nine are coming up in the ninth? Then in reality like the seventh or the eighth is the actual like biggest inning because that’s the last chance for that team to hypothetically like if we’re playing the Dodgers I guess maybe Dodgers everyone’s good on that lineup but like somebody who has to work the eighth to get through show and that side of and Muki in that side versus somebody who has to work the ninth to get through Will Smith and that side like the eighth is the actual bigger inning. So I I I don’t like a closer. I like having three guys that you can trust between uh, Estrada, and Miller that you’re like, hey, I would trust any of those guys in any big leverage inning. I will say as Padre fans, I feel like it’s team law to have a very good closer on our team. Like Hoffman, Heath, Bell, Houston Street, not Mark. We had Raleigh Fingers. We’ve had uh Goose Gausage. We’ve had forever. I think I think for lore sake, we need a good closer constantly. Okay. And I’m fine with that. But but to me, give me two closers because that way you can still I don’t know. We kind of had that. Yeah. And I like that’s why I like Miller and Mory Hone being the two dudes that will close out games. I don’t like calling either of them the closer. Yeah, I think so. I like more because we can use him literally anytime, anywhere, wherever he wants to go. Like fifth inning, seventh inning, eighth inning, he’ll pitch whenever and he’ll do great at it. Well, that’s one where maybe though the fifth inning is the high leverage inning because we’re up one and the bases are loaded and the starting pitcher falling apart and then in the seventh or eighth we score five more runs and so nobody gets a save. But that we did have the closure come in to close out the one situation that we were worried about losing the lead. Yeah. But yeah, bullpen, we’ll be fine. If we lose a player, we’ll still be fine. Oh, we’ve already lost Suarez. Yeah, we lost Suarez. He’s not coming back. That means nothing to us. Yeah, that’s what I said, too. Like, we lost Suarez. We still have five different closers. Jason Adam will be back by the start of the year, so he’ll be great. I hope. I assume. Uh, but I hope he is. I hope to God he is. But yeah, bullpen. The biggest thing we don’t have to worry about right now is bullpen. Everything else, absolutely. And that’s the best way you can describe how we feel about going into the offseason. We have holes. Spending 20 million or not even 20 million, spending 40 million on Petalonjo is not going to fix this team. We need to start finding some players who are going to the only 40 million to spend that could fix this team is Kyle Schwarber. Even then, I don’t even know to be honest. I know we need Slug. Absolutely. He’s great. But I even then Well, cuz cuz we I say that just cuz we could put Schwarber and just tell him to be a softball DH and just match go drink from a keg between innings. Just come up swing directly upwards and if you hit like Joey Gallow and you hit 47 like 0.047 but every single hit, every time you touch a ball it goes 1600 feet. Yeah. a true three outcome player. An Adam Dunn by Adam Dunn. Adam Dunn, big country, man. But yeah, that feels like you’re digging way deep into what you think is the past of baseball. Um, but I when you said Dan Ugla, I was like, I know exactly who Dan Ugla is. That’s the That’s the bigs too right there. 2009 when I played for him at the video games. But hell yeah, man. You went a little too far for me sometimes. Uh, what? Brian Lawrence, not a not a not a Pedro Estasio fan. You don’t have a uh um trying to think other bad Padres’s. Uh God. Um I didn’t make a Khalil Green reference. I don’t think I know him enough to make that kind of reference. Oh dog, where’s my Khalil Green bobblehead? Everyone’s like, “Oh, he’s such a great player.” Like I I thought he was going to be great. And I was like I was like five when he played. I don’t know. But yeah, we love Khalil Green still. Hope you’re doing good. Uh but yeah, let’s just do one more. were great. And by me do a great grade and you say it’s a fail. But I think overall the season was probably like a C++. I’m glad we made the playoffs. Did we deserve to make the playoffs? I don’t know. This team was pretty inconsistent all year. I’m glad we’re having a fresh start. I know it’s a little bit more inconsistent having a new manager, new hitting coach, but I think a fresh start is honestly what we need and I’m excited to see how things go. Yeah, I don’t consider this a fresh start. Apologies for the feedback on the mic there. Um I have nothing constructive to say about last year’s team. Uh could have been worse. No, no, honestly, it couldn’t have because what’s the point? I will quote Moneyball and I’ll say if you don’t win the last game of the season, no one gives a damn. Like us making it to there versus falling 70 games short and being the Rockies versus losing in the NLCS all kind of feels the same to me. So I say that in the in the bottom line, I give last season a if because I was grading on past fail, I give him a fail. We can tell ourselves all these little things that make it feel better and give us optimism and say like, “Hey, we’re going to be competitive again next season.” But truth is is that baseball’s a really hard baseball might be the hardest professional championship to win out of any of them because there are just the most randomizing aspects of it versus anything else. And you just never like we could load up with we could have 100 million to spend this off seasonason and go sign guys from Japan and uh Kyle was it Kyle Tucker from the Cubs and all these other f we could give out $500 million in contracts the way Oprah gives out cars and still not have it be a guarantee. And we tried that too in 23 when we signed literally everybody blah blah blah blah blah and we still didn’t even make the playoffs. So money’s not everything. Obviously, coaching, consistency, dog in them are massive factors. And I think we have the good I think we have the parts that make a good hole. But I still think, like I said, we have holes we have to fill. I think the players are there for the most part, but we got to make some tinkers. Tinkers, can I say that? Make some tinkers. Tinkle. Tinkle with tinker with it. Whatever. I am not going to pee on anybody, but yeah. But yeah, let me know how you guys feel about everything. Do you agree with us? Do you disagree with us? Do you think we’re too nice? Do you think we’re too mean? Are you excited for next year? Let me know. I want us to do a bunch of discussions. I know this video was long, but we’ll post it early in the morning so you can listen to it in your car ride to work or whatever. But yeah, thank you so much, Christian, for joining me. I’d love to do more of these with you. Maybe next year we’ll be happy about it. Uh maybe some live streams coming up. Like we said, we’ll hit 3K. We’ll do some live streams eventually. But yeah, thank you guys so much for watching. Have a fantastic rest of your day. Go Padres’s. Please subscribe and please win next year or I’ll be sad. Keep the faith prior faithful.

Today, on this episode, Andrew McFarland AND Christian Pedersen combine for their first ever DUO VIDEO and give their thoughts and opinions on the overall 2025 season for the Padres and whether or not it was a total failure or at least had some bright spots sprinkled in…

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Padres Digest is a YouTube channel dedicated to covering all the latest news, trades, reports, and rumors about the San Diego Padres. We provide in-depth coverage of game highlights, player performances, and analysis of team strategies. Our channel features discussions on key players like Fernando Tatis Jr. Luis Arraez, Manny Machado, and Xander Bogaerts, along with insights from Manager Mike Shildt and General Manager A.J. Preller. Stay connected for exciting updates and engaging content on everything Padres!

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