The Angels have removed amateur scouting director Ric Wilson from his post, ESPN.com’s Keith Law tweets, though he may stay with the organization in another role. GM Billy Eppler tells Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times that the team hopes Wilson will stick around. He has been with the organization for quite some time, assuming his most recent position in 2011. Though the draft results since that time haven’t been terribly well-regarded, as DiGiovanna notes, the Halos have generally not provided him with advantageous draft positions from which to work and have traded away several of the more promising prospects brought in under Wilson.
Here’s more from out west to round out the evening:
- Even with Josh Reddick out of the picture, the Athletics continue to use Danny Valencia somewhat sporadically, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. Manager Bob Melvin says the reason is that the organization needs to look to “see what our future is.” While Valencia isn’t a long-term piece, he is controllable for another season and has been highly productive at the plate. It was somewhat surprising he wasn’t dealt at the deadline, but he could be moved in August or over the winter as well.
- Though he has received quite a lot of criticism (and before that, praise) since taking over as the Padres’ general manager, A.J. Preller has overseen a swift rebuilding of the team’s farm of late, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell writes. The work has been accomplished through a variety of methods, as Cassavell explains in a long look at the club’s action since the start of 2016. Preller says that the initial investment in veteran assets when he took the helm occurred due to an “opportunity in the short term to try to take a chance to put a competitive team on the field.” But there was also a back-up plan, he suggests: “There was also understanding at the time that we were going to acquire assets that potentially could be valuable to other teams. … As a baseball group, you’re always talking about: ’Here’s the best possible scenario, but also here’s other scenarios.'”
- The Rangers have moved James Jones from the outfield to the mound, as Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets. A hurler in college, the 27-year-old (who is a southpaw) has reached the majors as a position player and has had success at the plate in the upper minors. He struggled to a .232/.297/.330 batting line this year at Triple-A after being acquired (and then outrighted and re-signed) over the winter by Texas.
As much as I hated what Preller did in the initial offseason he was hired, I’m beginning to come around as a Padre fan. his biggest mistakes have been well documented, but a quick recap:
Trading for Matt Kemp, a player so useless that they basically had to sell him to the Braves. The cash savings are nice, though.
Not trading Justin Upton for Michael Fulmer at the deadline last season.
The Wil Myers trade is looking a lot better now, but, dang, Trea Turner is going to be a superstar. Watching that kid play in the majors is pretty awesome right now. He’s the fastest player I’ve ever seen on a baseball field, Billy Hamilton included.
Signing James Shields was just a bad idea all-around. I can’t figure that one out even now.
But perhaps all that came from above. His moves this season have been pretty fantastic, although giving away Melvin Upton and eating almost the entire contract was an odd one. I know we won’t really know until 2019 or 2020 how his moves will pan out, but it’s a much better team to watch now. If only they could find a shortstop…
Overall I am pleased with Preller as GM. He sold high on A LOT of the guys he dealt away in trades. He has done a marvelous job acquiring talent through trades, drafting guys, and signing international free agents.
Come 2019 and beyond it will certainly be an exciting time as a Padres fan.
The way I see it is I think Preller did a good job of getting out of a big mess he created when he first got there. They have a lot of prospects about to hit the big league club. If a few reach potential they should be able to score runs finally. They won’t ever have problems finding pitchers who want to come there.
I do think in 2-3 years the Padres should be contending as well.
I don’t see it as a mess. This franchise was virtually comatose. It needed a jolt to get the fans interested again and to prove to them that ownership actually cares. They did a commendable job at that. So what if they had to press the reset button? It doesn’t mean trying was a mistake.
If I was a Padres fan I’m not sure I would be as supportive as you. In his first year, he undoubtedly made some terrible trades, and while he has done a decent job of selling off those mistakes, I’m not sure he classifies as a good GM. At best I would say he has been lucky regarding getting decent chips back for the mistakes he and the organization has made, but looking at his short record so far it seems as though he is in over his head. A franchise like SD that has not been relevant in close to a decade, should not have a mediocre system. I think he tried to make an irrelevant team relevant in 2014, and since then they have been trying to undue that mistake. If they are a serious WS contender by 2019, every single one of their prospects better pan out, and even then they are just WC contenders. Big splash moves rarely work out for small market teams; that is a sentence he should have memorized before taking the job.
While I respect the majority of what you’re putting forth there, your last sentence was completely unnecessary and does nothing to present Pads fans in a good light. Very disappointing to see someone so dismissive of another baseball fans opinion. I’ve found many Pads fans to be respectful, insightful and open minded – you sir, are none of these.
Nonetheless, Preller has definitely been better as of late. The smartest thing he did was put a stop to the failed attempt at competing in the short-term. His ability to switch focus should be praised, but that does not gloss over the mistake he made (that your average joe fan could see) by pushing all in with next to nothing. His attempt at competing from the outset was widely panned by so many – and rightfully so.
Regardless of whether he felt that the prospects he had were going to make it or not, he completely destroyed the prospect capital he had at the time. Any potential ROI was flushed down the toilet. He could have been much better at the beginning, and significantly expedited the rebuild process. Unfortunately, he let his opinion of his own prospects destroy the value they represented on the market – incredibly self-damaging.
The likelihood he is on the right track now (mostly), doesn’t change how badly he hamstrung himself to begin with.
Simply put – Preller partially recovering from a mess isn’t nearly as heroic when he contributed to the mess in the first place.
It’s a long road back for the Pads.
Cam,
Thank you for your reply since it is more eloquent than I likely would have come up with. At some points, my opinion might sound harsh, but I do not think it is ever unfounded. Simply put, I think that Preller has done a good job of correcting his mistakes, but as another poster commented, his attempt at creating a contender, mostly out of thin air, pushed the organization back. I’m not a Padres fan, but that does not mean I do not know the Pad’s organization just as well as most committed fans.
Adamontheahore, you’re safe. My post was replying to ljbos’ post, which the mods have since removed. You’re all good
My last sentence was out of pure emotion and passion for the Padres. Imagine having your team looked at as a AAA organization for decades, then when a proper GM comes along who knows what he is doing other people around baseball decree him a failure. I stick by what I said because it is true and authentic. People around baseball don’t care about the Padres and chime in with their comments about the current system as if they know everything about it when in reality they know absolutely nothing. It is a long road for the Padres, but Preller and the organization finally realized this, which is something the past GM and owners never did. He “hamstrung: himself because the farm was crap when he inherited it. He acquired top talent for mediocre prospects and then turned such into top prospects. I don’t care what you think Cam because you don’t know what Padres fans have had to endure over the years with mediocrity and what we have received as true Padres fans the past two years is excitement, and then a rebuilding towards the future. It may not be much to outside fans who have had great GM and ownership, but it is meaningful to Padres fans.
You don’t think I know suffering as a baseball fan? I had to endure the Coletti/McCourt years, and no titles since ’88. Your dismissal of other fans and openly admitting you don’t care, is a disgrace to the respectful Pads fans I do know.
Your misery is not exceptional, nor are you special because of it.
Not to dismiss Preller for his mistakes, but I have to believe the mistakes he made in his first year (Kemp, signing James Shields, etc.) had to have been motivated by management. I just can’t see a new guy coming in and deciding to tear down a team like that without thinking of the consequences. And if it was management pressuring him to make big moves, you have to admire the trades he created to make it happen (the Wil Myers trade was pretty creative).
So the strategy was to aggressively try to win in 2015 so that when the epic fail occurred, the Pads could be better positioned to win 4 years later?
Ya, you got at what I was going for in a much more concise way.
Maybe you are correct, and maybe you are not. But, from my experiences, the people who start calling others idiots, at least in a civilized conversation, tend to be the ones speaking into mirrors.
Stop with the poetic bs, I call people idiots when they present themselves as such. When you know nothing about an organization and solely focus on your own team, or market teams, that is when I call you an idiot because they are. So please stop with your pandering and realize the reality around you of ignorant baseball fans like those at ESPN who only peddle Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox games.
Don’t forget the Cardinals
Until you are on ESPN sir, I advise you to be more open minded to other peoples opinion. Shouldn’t even be responding to your “poetic bs”.
Wow, everyone here is being respectful except for you. I get that you’re passionate about your team, but you are really taking comments about the Padres personal and then making personal attacks against other users here.
No GM plans to have his “Plan A” backfire. They all, however, have a Plan B, and even a C, D and E. Preller is no different. What everyone fails to see, or forgets conveniently, is that after his acquiring of stars, most projections had them competing for the division. This optimism was sorely lacking, and I’m sure helped boost ticket sales. While ultimately “A” didn’t work out, and that excitement wasn’t sustained, it’s important. The main job of the GM is to sell the product. His first year in, he made them relevant. Until they add attendance to fantasy baseball categories, the casual fan will miss that.
Absolutely. And I checked up on the Padres average attendance from 2014- present. 2014 the year before Preller started the moves that Padres averages 27,103. In 2015 with the excitement attendance jumped 12% up to 30,367. Sure it has come back down somewhat this season with the trading off of many veterans but its still at 28,771 a 6.2% increase over the 2014 numbers. The increased revenue from ticket sales (along with likely higher tv ratings and merchandise sales) I’m sure have contributed to generating the revenue that was needed for the Padres to sign a whole bunch of top international talent (I believe they just spent around $60M for all the international signings + draft picks). So I think to dismiss the plan as a failure is short sighted. Even in failure on the field, the excitement generated by Padres fan has allowed the team to invest heavily in long term growth. Don’t dismiss Preller or Padres management yet. These moved can properly be judged in 5-10 years times.
Winning drives attendance. While the Padres experienced a slight attendance boost in 2015 (250 thousand), it wasn’t in line with the leaguwide attendance spike, percentage wise, and the team lost more games than they had the season before.
Padres highest attendance in the past decade came in 2007, when they won 89 games and their lineup included huge names like Termel Sledge., Josh Bard, Marcus Giles and Geoff Blum.
Valencia sure would make a lot of sense for the Mets right now with Cespedes hitting the DL and Michael Conforto continuing to look lost and pressing at the plate. Could play some LF and 3B and provide a little balance behind Bruce
2020 NLCS – Brewers
hahaha long road to go before that
As someone who has been disinterested with Padres baseball for a better part of the past 10 years, I really appreciate what Preller has done. Whether you liked his moves or not, he brought the Pad’s back into conversations. The moves at the begnning of his term as GM always seemed more like marketing/business type moves than actual “win now” type moves.
I live in San Diego and loved the days of T. Gwynn, Ken Caminiti, Chris Gomez, Steve Finley, etc. I loved hearing the opening riff to “Hells Bells” and was in the yard when Trevor tied the all time saves record. Yet, it was boring going to games for many years when you couldn’t memorize a player’s name because he was either a minor leaguer just days before, or you were sure he was going to be shipped off if he played too well.
Preller has a plan and though he has made mistakes, he was given the task of raising a shipwreck back to the surface. That is a job that takes time, and I have enjoyed seeing the improvements in my town’s ball club these past 2 years. Exciting baseball is rearing its head in SD and you can’t help but sense that winning is just around the corner.
Wow, a lot of opinions regarding Preller’s first year deals and “woulda, shoulda, couldas”. Preller made some huge signings and moves of big name players his first year. None of us here know the reason behind it but one thing for sure is that those deals brought life and hope to our fans. Our fans and other fans then turned into critical, second guessing, Monday morning quarterbacks who act like they know what goes on in the board room and the motivations of the ownership and management teams.. Preller himself said, “There was also understanding at the time that we were going to acquire assets that potentially could be valuable to other teams. ” That totally explains his signings of Shields, Kemp, and Kimbrell. Taking on Mupton’s contract was a means to an end, which worked out in his and the Padres favor.
He has a great infrastructure in place. One which all of us can see has potential to make this franchise a contender in the future. In his position as GM, he is not likely to stop making moves to improve this club. Some may be popular with us as fans and some may not. It’s disheartening to read the posts which are clearly made though rear view mirrors.
I fully support Preller and expect him to do what’s best for this team.
Preller comes in for a lot unjustified criticism on these boards (too many armchair GMs) but I suspect most Padres fans such as yourself get it and are grateful to have someone who is actually trying. Makes for a nice change, from a fan perspective. To be any good at his job, a GM has to take chances, and he should not be hauled to the woodshed every time the bets don’t pay off. Honestly I’d rather have a GM like Preller in LA than the risk-adverse bunch we are living with now. They are running the Dodgers more like an insurance company than a ball club.
Long past time for the Angels to move Ric Wilson out of that position. Even accounting for the lack of early picks, he’s not done well at all.
Now Eppler needs to go to work on the player development side. It’s been poor throughout the system for years also. The lone bright spot has been Dave Stapleton and his staff in Orem, they’re doing something right.
Sorry, Preller basically created a year in which the team went backwards in young talent with a large payroll increase for no gain. He should not get a pass for that despite his decent recovery.
The Padres have one of the best AAA outfields in baseball. Their offense could get really good really fast. The pitching help is still a few years out tho.