Former Padres General Manager Kevin Towers passed away today after a long battle with cancer at 56. This is unbearably heartbreaking news. Towers, while not a perfect GM, oversaw Padres teams for 15 seasons (KT was a member of the organization for nearly 30 years, more than half his life! )- and he was one of the most gifted talent evaluators of his generation. When he needed to, he could bring stars players into town- like Kevin Brown, who had one of the best seasons of any pitcher in baseball history. Brown was worth almost 10 WAR in his lone year with the Padres after Towers pulled the trigger and acquired him from the ( surprise! ) Florida Marlins...some things never change. Towers turned throwaway players like Heath Bell, Rondell White, and Mark Loretta into All Stars, and acquired franchise cornerstones Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Klesko, Phil Nevin, and Brian Giles. This is just a shortlist- one could build entire rosters of overlooked players that Towers turned i...