Power Pros Forum

March 28, 2014
My name is Jim Myers Jr., and I've been a Padres fan my whole life. I've been a season-ticket holder since 1994, when we used to play at Qualcomm Stadium. In 2004, I got an apartment overlooking Petco Park just to see it being built. I'm a die-hard fan, but I can't take the way the team has been run the past few years. We choked away the division in 2010, and we've stunk ever since. We've traded away our best hitter, Adrian Gonzalez, only to see him go to our divisional rival, the Dodgers, who continue to crush us each series we play them. And even worse, we idiotically traded Anthony Rizzo away after one bad season, and now he's become an All-Star slugger for the Cubs. True, we got Andrew Cashner out of the deal, but if only we let Rizzo develop some more... If only I could be the GM of this club, I'd guide them back to the playoffs.

March 29, 2014
I was getting ready for another season of Padres baseball, when I received the worst news of my life. My dad had passed suddenly of a heart attack. I didn't know what to do. I was in total shock and emotional grief. I was an only child, my mom had a miscarriage and died shortly after when I was just 7. My dad did the best he could to raise me, but I was always depressed about my mother. But the pain died away when we moved away from the old house in New York to the suburbs in San Diego. Life was more peaceful there, but I still was feeling down. But I became more happy each time my dad took me to Padres games, I loved seeing Tony Gwynn rake the ball. I eventually forgot about my mother, but now I had no clue what I would do without my father. Going to Padres games just wouldn't be the same, I thought, and it would just remind me of my father. I called up the Padres to cancel my season tickets. When I got off the phone, it rang again. It was my lawyer. He told me that in my father's will, I had inherited his multi-billion dollar computer franchise, worth 2.4 billion! I thought of what I could do with the money, and I looked out the window of my apartment onto the baseball diamond of Petco. The Padres were taking BP, getting ready for the Opening Night game tomorrow against the Dodgers, the first team in the Majors to open the season without an Owner. I suddenly realized what I would do with the money. It was what my father would have wanted me to do. I called up the Padres again. They asked if I had already changed my mind about the season tickets. I told them that I was interested in the owner's position. They laughed at first, but they accepted after I showed them the money. I'm now the Owner of the Padres, and I will get my dad a World Series championship. I just know I will. One day.

March 30, 2014
I didn't get any sleep. I walked over to the Stadium at 3 am. In less than 14 hours, we would be taking on our rival Dodgers in the season opener. I had to sign some players that were still available. When the GM arrived at 7 am, I asked him who we should sign. He didn't agree with me, saying that our roster was fine. So, I fired him, and named myself GM. I read some tweets soon after, and the beat writers were already calling for my head, saying that I was too self-confident and that I had no idea what I was doing. My secretary came in and said that a press conference had been called in 15 minutes. "15 minutes?" I said, "I need to sign some players, and win tonight. Then I'll have a press conference". I looked at our roster for our main weakness. I found that we needed a strong reliever, and found Joel Hanrahan. He was a former All-Star with the Pirates, but Jason Grilli took over in 2012 when he was injured and then in 2013, Koji Uehara took over when Hanrahan injured himself on the Red Sox. I hope he can stay healthy this season and I think he will make a huge impact out of our bullpen. The game is starting now, better head down to my seat. Next post will be the game review.

Padres Start Season Right With 8-5 Victory Over Dodgers
Bud Black and I agreed on having rookie Odrisamer Despagnie start. I regret pressuring him, after all, the game was nationally televised, but he was happy because he said his parents could watch the game on ESPN in Cuba. He started well in the first inning, retiring the first two hitters quickly, and got Adrian Gonzalez to an 0-2 count. A-Gon fouled off 3 fastballs before getting the hanging breaking ball he wanted, which he crushed over the center field fence. After that, he settled in, and went 5 innings. We rallied for 7 runs in the 6th inning off Hyun-Jin Ryu, igniting the Padres fans and shutting up all the annoying Dodgers fan that made the trip. In the inning, Jedd Gyroko led off with a dinger, then three batters later, Seth Smith jacked a pinch-hit three run bomb. The score was knotted at 5, and Don Mattingly made the mistake of leaving in his tired starter. Everth Cabrera tripled, Cameron Maybin doubled him in, and then Chase Headley hit the deciding two-run dinger that gave us the 3-run lead. Hanrahan looked solid in the 8th, striking out the side. Houston Street got into some trouble in the 9th, but Matt Kemp hit into a double-play to give us the win. After the game, the reporters took back what they had said. That is, all except this one angry reporter who said that it was only one game. I agreed with him, but told him that this was only one win of enough to get us in the playoffs.

The season's starting right, dad. The trophy is coming.

This is pretty darn good, best of luck to ya!

May 13, 2014
Let's skip ahead about a month and a half. The team hasn't been exiting since Opening Day, so you're not missing anything. Despaigne stunk after his first start, and I optioned him down for Casey Kelly, who made a huge opening impact, starting 2-0, but has lost each start since (I'm simulating the games, BTW) with a 5.45 ERA. Today, an off day, as the team practiced on a day off between series with the Marlins and Reds, I optioned Kelly down to AAA and called up another pitching prospect, Robbie Erlin. I headed down to the field to watch BP, like I usually do, when something horrible happened. Our starting shortstop, and All-Star last year, Everth Cabrera, has hit with a line drive warming up in practice on his foot. The team doctor rushed him in to the training room and later told me it would take 2 months max to heal. I put him on the 60-day disabled list and called up shortstop prospect Jace Peterson to the bigs. We need him to contribute, as we are currently 16-23, and third place in the NL West, and 5.5 out of the Wild Card. (It's only May, but I still worry about these things).

May 22, 2014: Padres Back at Petco, .500 With Wild Walk-Off Win
It may have taken them forever, 18 innings to be exact, but Will Venable's walk-off double helped the Padres return to .500. The Padres returned home from a very successful road trip, in which they swept series in Cincinnati and Colorado, and continued their great playing with a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins in Interleague Play. The Padres, (23-23), who have now won 8 straight ballgames, were led to victory by a great outing by pitching prospect Robbie Erlin. In his first big-league start of 2014, Erlin went 9 strong shutout innings, striking out 8 batters, walking none and only allowing 2 hits, losing a perfect game with one out in the 6th. Unfortunately, the Padres couldn't do anything offensively, and the game went scoreless all the way into the 18th inning. The Twins finally broke the ice with a two-out home run by Oswaldo Arcia. Jace Peterson started the bottom of the 18th for the Padres with a line-out to left field. Chris Denorfia followed with a bloop opposite field single to right, and Alexi Amarista looked to bunt him over. Alexi laid a perfect bunt down the third-base line, and beat out the throw to first. Two men on base, one man out, and Carlos Quentin up. Carlos laced a deep fly ball into right field, which was caught at the track. Both runners advanced into scoring position on the sac-fly. With two outs, and all hope seemingly gone for the Padres, Will Venable stood in, and took the first pitch outside. He raked the next pitch to deep left, and just over the glove of Josh Willingham. Both runners scored, and the Padres won the wildest game of the young baseball season.

It may have started rough, but things are looking up for us, dad. I'm telling you.

June 15, 2014
First off, I'd like to apologize for not posting on here in a while. I haven't gotten the chance to sit and write, so this log is NOT DEAD. Yet.
Anyways, let's get back to Padres baseball. After that 18-inning win, we've gotten over .500, but we've struggled in early June, and now we're in New York City, where I grew up. We lost the first game of the Series to the Mets, shut out 5-0 by Bartolo Colon. I traveled out with the team and went to the game on Saturday. Our top pitcher so far this year, (Erlin was called up a bit late to be considered yet), Andrew Cashner taking on the Mets' struggling youngster, Zack Wheeler. Wheeler was 2-10 entering the game, with an ERA of 5, so i expected our offense to guide us to victory. However, it was a more close game than I expected, at least until the end. Wheeler pitched well in 5 innings, keeping our offense in check. I was really impressed with his performance, and it makes me want to trade for another young fireballer in our rotation. But that's for the trade deadline. Cashner pitched well for us, but made some mistakes. The bullpen blew a two-run lead in the seventh, and it took us until the 11th to win it. We scored 5 in the top frame, featuring homers by Chase Headley and Cameron Maybin, and Alex Torres took care of business in the bottom frame. We are now 35-33 on the season, still 3rd in the NL West by 10.5 behind the D-Backs, but only 4 games out of the Second NL Wild Card.

July 15, 2014
We head into the break with a record of 49-46. We are 10.5 games out of first in the NL West, and have fallen 6 games back in the Wild Card race. I hope that in the second half of the season, we can continue what we were doing in the first half, but with more wins against our NL West rivals. I headed out to Minnesota on Monday to watch the All-Star Game with the other owners around baseball. This season, we had three representatives at the Mid-Summer Classic: CP Houston Street, (2.27 ERA, 31 saves), C Yasmani Grandal, (.294, 5 HR, 25 RBI), and 3B Chase Headley (.296, 18 HR, 51 RBI). As we were still in the playoff hunt, this game meant something to me for the first time in a while, as the game would decide what league would have home field advantage in the World Series. We (The NL) ultimately lost, 4-2, and Street gave up the deciding two runs in the 8th to earn the loss.
In our next update, we start the second half of the season against the New York Mets with SS Everth Cabrera back from his injury.

July 21, 2014: Padres Rally to Take Series From Mets
After taking the opener of the series on Friday night against Matt Harvey, and losing the Saturday afternoon showdown against Bartolo Colon, the Padres were able to salvage the series with New York by taking the Sunday matinee from Zack Wheeler. Wheeler took on the Padres and Andrew Cashner for the second time this season, the first time a Padres victory at Citi Field in mid-June. The game started as an intense pitcher's duel between the two young flamethrowers, trading zeroes until the 7th, when a Lucas Duda RBI single gave the Mets the lead. In the bottom frame, Jedd Gyorko stepped up and drilled his 9th dinger of the season to tie things up. In the next inning, with Cashner and Wheeler gone, the Mets pounced on Tim Stauffer for a quick run as Wilmer Flores laced an RBI double to score Kirk Nieuwenhuis. Alex Torres came in and stranded two runners in scoring position. In the bottom of the 8th, Carlos Quentin roped a one-out double against Jose Valverde, and was replaced at second by the speedy Alexi Amarista. Alexi advanced to third on a sac-fly by Will Venable. Up stood Chase Headley with two outs, and the tying run on third. However, things were not meant to be, as Headly struck out looking at a nasty changeup. After a 1-2-3 ninth by Torres, Jedd Gyorko led off the bottom of the ninth with a groundball single into right field. All-Star Yasmani Grandal followed with a double, but the slow Gyorko was held up by third base coach Glenn Hoffman. Chris Denorfia pinch-hit with a chance to win the game with a base hit. He hit a fly ball to left, and Hoffman took the chance by sending Gyorko. It paid off, as Jedd scored and Grandal advanced to third. After Everth Cabrera struck out, Cameron Maybin lined a single off the glove of a diving Daniel Murphy to give the Padres a wild come from behind victory. San Diego is now 51-47 on the year, 5.5 games out of the Wild Card.

July 31, 2014: MLB Trade Deadline
I sat from my office, looking out onto the field. We were 56-51, and while the NL West was now an impossibility to win, at 11.5 games back, but we had clawed our way to within 2 games of the Wild Card. I wanted our team to have one last deciding factor to push us into the playoffs. With Josh Johnson and Ian Kennedy both out with injuries, our starting roation was depleted. Our best pitcher was Cory Leubke, who was 9-3 with a 3.45 ERA. I looked around on the trading block for starting pitchers. There was a ton of enticing starters, but my offers were declined. I took a look at Jon Lester, who was being dangled by the Red Sox. I realized he was my last option at starter and called up Boston's GM Ben Cherington. I asked him what it would take to get Lester. He said it would take a lot to trade him, as Boston was 62-46, leading the AL East at the time. He immediately asked for our three best players, Headley, Luebke, and Cabrera. I was reluctant at first, and told him about some prospects instead. He said he was in a Win-Now mode, like we are, and needed MLB-ready players to continue staying in first. I asked him if he would accept anyone other than the three he wanted, but he said only that package would make the deal. I asked him for some time to think about it, but he said that many teams had inquired about Lester and that if I wanted him to help us with our playoff run, it had to be done now. I told him I needed two prospects to finish the trade, Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr. He agreed on that, finalizing on Lester, Bogaerts and Bradley Jr. for Headley, Leubke, and Cabrera. I hung up the phone. We have our ace now, we just need to continue our path into the playoffs.

Dude trust me that trade will bite you on the ass big time.

It was that or the same players from us going to Baltimore for Ubaldo Jimmez, Manny Machado, and Octavio Dotel. Jimenez's contract was bloated and Lester is the better pitcher.

Padres Cruise Into Second Wild-Card Spot With Sweep Of Braves
August 3, 2014 - A sellout crowd came to Petco Park on Sunday afternoon to witness Jon Lester's first start as a Padre, and it's safe to say they liked what they saw. Lester, acquired in the blockbuster deal that sent fan-favorite Chase Headley to Boston, delivered a winning seven-inning effort beating the Braves 3-1. Jon struck out 6 batters and walked 2 in his Padres debut, his only blemish a Freddie Freeman 425-foot moonshot in the first. The Padres got all of their runs in the first as well. Yonder Alonso started the scoring with an RBI single, he scored on a Jedd Gyorko RBI single, and he scored on a Cory Spangenberg RBI triple. After that it was a pitchers duel, but Lester proved to be the better hurler matching up against Mike Minor. After Lester left, Hanrahan pitched a solid 8th, and Street locked down the win in the 9th for his 37th save of the season. The Padres (60-51, second in NL Wild Card) have off tomorrow, but will travel to Minnesota to take on the Twins in an Interleague matchup.

Padres Hopefully Back To The Winning Swing Of Things In L.A.
August 19, 2014 - After sweeping the two-game set in Minnesota, the Padres have some work to do if they still want to get into the playoffs. San Diego has lost ten straight, falling to 3.5 games back in the second Wild Card spot. To make things harder for them, they open up 6 road games against division rivals Dodgers and D-Backs. The Padres need all of these games badly to have a chance for the playoffs. Let's pick things up in the bottom of the 8th inning at Dodger Stadium, the Padres leading 5-4. The top of the order is up for the Dodgers against lefty Alex Torres. Speedster Dee Gordon starts things off by poking an opposite-field grounder under Gyorko's glove. Carl Crawford follows with a single down the left field line with a 0-2 count. Up comes Adrian Gonzalez with two on, no outs. Torres gets ahead in the count quickly and strikes out A-Gon looking with a filthy slider across the plate. Now the heavy hitting righties were up, out came Torres and in came Houston Street to attempt a rare 5-out save. Matt Kemp greeted him rudely by slamming a line drive up the middle, which would have easily tied the game up, but Street stuck his glove out and somehow deflected it away. It rolled to Gyorko, but by the time he picked it up, Kemp had safely reached first, and the bases were loaded with one out. Up came Yasiel Puig, who quickly fell behind in the count. On a 2-2 pitch, he dragged a surprise bunt down the first-base line. Street, shocked, was slow to react and by the time he picked it up and fired home looking for the force, Gordon had scored and the Dodgers had tied it. Street was not rattled, however, and got Hanley Ramirez to ground into a double play, taking us into the 9th. The first two Padres struck out, and the weak-hitting Cameron Maybin stood in. It seemed as if the Padres would have to hope for an extra-inning victory, but Maybin drilled a solo shot over the left field fence and San Diego had the lead. Street retired the bottom third of the Dodgers' order 1-2-3 and the Padres escaped L.A. with a huge win.