As you all know by now, the Chargers have left town, making the Padres the sole team in San Diego. The Chargers' vacancy leaves a tremendous hole in the community, and given the state of the current Padres roster, the outlook for professional sports in San Diego has never looked bleaker.
There is no sugarcoating the current state of affairs here- this is our rock bottom.
With all due respect to Mayor Falcouner for beginning negotiations with Major League Soccer about possible expansion, the San Diego sports community can only be revitalized by one thing: a successful San Diego Padres baseball team.
Make no mistake- this is certainly not something that will be achieved in 2017. Ownership partner Peter Seidler himself told the LA Times that "2019 is probably the earliest" fans can expect the current rebuild to yield a winner. Seidler's honesty is refreshing, especially after hearing the disingenuous stadium runaround from Dean Spanos and his cronies for the last five years.
The national media doesn't appear to have much confidence in the Padres- the LA Times suggests that the populace will remain apathetic even though the team is the only one in the city, and the Sporting News ludicrously (and irresponsibly) pondered if the Padres would follow the Chargers' lead by packing up and leaving town too.
Despite the image projected by those outside San Diego, these are not your father's frugal Friars (hooray for irony and alteration!); at last, the powers that be in the front office are building the team the right way- from the ground up.
AJ Preller has done a remarkable, if not exactly ethical, job of rebuilding the farm system through trades and the draft, and ownership, to their credit, have opened their pocketbooks to spend a record 75-million on premium amateur international talent, and signed fan-favorites Yangervis Solarte and Wil Myers to extensions- the latter of whom is set to receive the largest contract in franchise history.
Hell, the team that we'll see on the field next season might not even be THAT bad- sure, they'll be bad: the pitching staff, which is unproven at best and potentially the worst in the league at, well, ah-em, their worst, will ensure that Padres' won't be playoff contenders in 2017, and their membership in a hyper-competitive NL-West probably means the Friars won't come very close to sniffing .500 baseball next season either.
But there is hope!
Our two best position players- Myers and Solarte- have been locked up for the long-term. Austin Hedges, who has long been heralded as the catcher of the future, finally started to hit in Triple-A, and has been handed the starting catching job with the departure of Derek Norris. In the outfield, Manuel Margot and Hunter
Even the insipid pitching staff has some bright spots- Luis Perdemo shined in the second half of the season despite a rough start and having never pitched above Single-A. Carter Capps, who was acquired in the hilariously-lopsided Andrew Cashner trade, was one of the most exciting and effective relief pitchers in baseball during the 2015 season before missing the entire 2016 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Finally, similar to the previous signings of Aaron Harang and Jon Garland, the Padres have made some solid low-risk one-year free agent signings in "bounce back" candidates Jhoulys Chacin and Trevor Cahill, and have even been rumored to have interest in bringing back franchise icon Jake Peavy.
This is a truly pivotal moment in Padres history- as the sole team in the market, ownership has an unprecedented opportunity to foster goodwill and trust in the community like never before. They're off to a good start by extending Myers and Solarte and (possibly) bringing back Peavy (HINT TO OWNERSHIP: YOUR NEXT MOVE? BRING BACK THE BROWN FOR GOOD!!!!).
If the Padres win, they can restore the hope amongst fans that Dean Spanos shattered by uprooting the Chargers. The key word here, though, is if they win.
For better, or worse, we San Diegans are the most fair-weather fans in the nation- if the Padres don't win, nobody shows up. The Padres never received the unconditional loyalty and love from fans that the Chargers got- and the payroll slashing, fire-sales, and countless losing seasons ensured that much of the fanbase's apathy was justified.
Like I said earlier, though: these are not the Padres of the past.
These Padres have talent. These Padres have money. These Padres have one of the best ballparks in the league. And most importantly, these Padres have direction.
It's the right time for the people of San Diego to show the Padres some love. They have embraced San Diego. We, as fans, must do the same to the Padres. In fact, it's imperative- the future of professional sports in San Diego is dependent upon it.
By rallying around this team, we take the first steps towards changing our fair-weather sports culture, and prove to the ignorant national media that we can be some of the passionate fans around.
By rallying around this team, we, in the words of the mayor, show to Dean Spanos once and for all that San Diego did not lose the Chargers- the Chargers lost San Diego.
And finally, by rallying around this team, we show to the world the remarkable resilience of our community in the wake of tragedy, and begin to heal our broken hearts and anguished souls.
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