This Team Makes Me Drink

The trade deadline came and went- and much to my surprise, Brad Hand is still a Padre. There were so many "Hand" puns to choose from for the title, and after much deliberation, I settled on the poker-related one because I thought it seemed apt for today. BUT... as soon as I started writing, I felt oddly compelled to incorporate the runner-ups into the prose of my article somehow. However, to spare you, the valued reader, from a barrage of subpar wordplay, I'll just list them below and get them out of the way now. Let me know which ones are your favorite! Apparently an arm and a leg is not worth a Hand. AJ Preller decides not to Hand away his best tradable asset for nothing. Is one in the Hand worth two in the bush? AJ Preller rebuffs offers from rival GMs.  Raise your Hand if you thought the Padres wouldn't trade anyone today. Were the Padres demands for a top prospect today a bit heavy Handed? Padres take a Hands-off approach to the deadline today. ...

Hard to believe that I've been writing this blog for an entire year now! It's even harder to believe that, of all things, I felt compelled to start This Team Makes Me Drink because I vehemently disagreed with Melvin Upton, Jr. being traded - that hot take ( Melvin Upton goes to the 6!!!) didn't age too well. I genuinely thought that I would write a couple posts, get bored, and completely forget about ever writing about sports again- but alas, here we are, a full trip around the sun later- and what better way to celebrate TTMMD turning a year old than by going to a Padre game ? And what a celebration it was. The Padres won, 7-5, splitting the series with the Mets, and more importantly, allowing me to experience my first Padres W in over two calendar years. My thoughts/stray observations from my experience are below, but first, a few acknowledgments: I'd like to give a big shoutout to my Mom being my #1 reader and for unfailingly promoting this blog on all of h...

Aaaaaaaand just like that, AJ Preller has made his first major move as the July 31st trade deadline looms, sending pitchers Trevor Cahill, Brandon Mauer, and Ryan Buchter to the Royals in exchange for pitchers Travis Wood and Matt Strahm, and prospect Esteury Ruiz. These are some of the more popular members of the big league roster getting moved, and Cahill, Mauer, and Buchter were all important contributors to the Padres pitching staff. Resultantly, some fans on Twitter are somewhat upset (" WHO IS GOING 2 CLOSE NOW??? THX AJ", as one particularly articulate fan put it), but honestly, who really cares? None of these guys really had any long term future with the Padres. Brandon Mauer wasn't even that good . Trevor Cahill was probably going to sign somewhere else in the offseason. And Ryan Buchter was just an average reliever- Darren Balsley's literally been growing those on the Reliver Tree that's been planted in the Padres bullpen since 2003 (bet you did...

The 2017 All Star game has come and gone. Tomorrow, we're back to baseball- and the chase to the playoffs is on. Quite unsurprisingly... the Padres are not in that chase. Which is fine and expected. The Padres finished the first half of the season at 38-50 and ya know what?  We aren't in last place! How exciting is that?  Even better is the fact that last place is instead occupied the despicable Giants, who unlike the Padres, came in to the season with high expectations. Mediocrity looks good on you, Giants fans! Besides the win-loss column, how is the 2017 actually going for the Padres? Let's take a look at the good and the bad. The Good: Brad Hand Raise your hand if you thought Brad Hand would be the Padres All Star this year. *waits* Okay then! Brad Hand has been very good this year as Padres' 8th inning option- you really got to give him a...... hand  for the job he's done. I really hand to get that pun off my chest. But I d...