Frustration is rife among those involved with San Diego State football, based on Internet posts, postgame comments and talk show calls following Saturday night's 20-17 last-second home loss to New Mexico.
Conservative play-calling, an ill-timed fumble by quarterback Kevin O'Connell and a win-preventing prevent defense all drew ire and blame for the loss, which dropped the Aztecs to 2-5 overall, and 1-2 in what's turning out to be a typically weak Mountain West Conference.
Ordinarily, fans of the red and black would be pleased with coming close against a team which had won the previous six meetings, and led last year's game 24-0 after just one quarter in Albuquerque. However, the Aztecs led this year's meeting nearly the entire way and had the ball several times in the second half with a chance to stretch their advantage to two touchdowns. That would have put the game away.
Alas, O'Connell's fumble on a run that otherwise would have resulted in a first down with under two minutes left in the game and would have sealed victory gave the Lobos a last chance at victory. They seized the opportunity. The Aztecs did not, which is why they lost.
And that's why we fans spent late-Saturday night frustrated.
But frustration in this program is actually a step up from where it once was. In 2006, the Aztecs lost that match with New Mexico 47-14. They fell to Texas Christian 52-0. They were similarly uncompetitive in losses to San Jose State, Brigham Young and Utah. They dropped a contest to Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, for goodness sakes!
This year, things are better. Much better. They've been blown out just twice, to Washington State and Cincinnati, schools which just aren't out of their conference but at the moment out of their league, thanks to the hated BCS. They played very well in Tempe against an Arizona State squad that remains undefeated and is tied for the Pac-10 lead. They won in the final seconds on the road at Colorado State in difficult weather conditions -- leaving Rams fans feeling then like we do today. While they lost at Utah, their defense for the first time displayed the strides that were apparent last night.
Then came the New Mexico game. For the first time in about a decade, a San Diego State coach out-game planned and out-prepared the Lobos staff. The offensive line did not allow a sack after giving up 12 the previous two weeks. The defense kept an efficient quarterback and the conference's leading rusher bottled up most of the night, the only exceptions being drives against the prevent defense late in each half.
The bottom line is that the Aztecs are back to being competitive again in the Mountain West. That means games will be relatively close and some will come down to the wire, like last night, so mistakes like O'Connell's fumble, a worthless prevent defense and a failure to go for it on fourth and one at midfield in the third quarter will be magnified. Just as O'Connell's interception at Utah turned out to be huge. Just as his scramble on the game-winning drive in Fort Collins that led to a key third down conversion pass to Brett Swain was the play of that game.
So when we win these games, we'll celebrate and all will be right with the world. When we lose, our blood pressure goes up and we point to all kinds of individual things that happened throughout a game that maybe, by themselves, contributed to a heart-sickening loss.
Me, I'll take a couple doses of frustration over what I felt last year. And, to be honest, what I felt again while watching the Cincinnati game.
I know now that we can compete with BYU and Wyoming in the next two weeks and believe we should win one of those games. If all goes well, maybe we win both. We'll see. This team remains greatly undermanned, but with recruiting going well and some youngsters stepping up, that's something that won't last much longer.
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A lot of fans appear to be blaming the New Mexico loss on coach Chuck Long and his staff. In such a close call, as noted above, it's easy to point at some individual failure and say it cost us the game. Most of the ire goes to conservative play calling that resulted in 12 runs and 6 passes in the fourth quarter, or that third quarter decision not to go for it on fourth down.
None of it would have mattered if O'Connell hadn't fumbled. Okay, maybe I'm pointing at just one thing, but the game was over if he'd protected the ball. It's just how the plot line went. It's magnified.
Really, though, San Diego State football fans should be pleased with this coaching staff in two of the three main areas of their duties: their game-planning and their Monday-Friday work of recruiting and changing the character of their losing program. Considering the resources they have available, they've been tremendous in those areas.
The last remaining area is game management. On Saturdays, between the opening kickoff and the final gun, these coaches have often resembled Keystone Kops. They've needed timeouts after TV timeouts. In the New Mexico game, a problem in the secondary required a timeout, before the first play of the fourth quarter!
There's been three fourth-and-shorts in the past couple games in which this staff has decided not to go for it. Hard to say whether their decisions were correct. Considering they've lost the last two games, maybe they were not. At some point, though, they are going to have to show some confidence in their players, or their athletes -- who have fought hard loss after loss -- might give up on their coaches. Which would be a shame.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
USD Basketball
The University of San Diego men's basketball team, now relegated to fourth-class status by the football, baseball and women's hoops squads, has been predicted by The Sporting News to finish sixth in the West Coast Conference in this upcoming inaugural season for new head coach Bill Grier. League coaches were more charitable, picking the Toreros third behind perennial power Gonzaga and Saint Mary's.
That the basketball team would have been upstaged by not one, but three other teams on campus -- none of them with soccer in their name -- would not have been figured four years ago, when the Toreros won the WCC Tournament and nearly knocked off Stanford in the NCAA Tournament. Even though everyone realized that graduation losses from that group would hurt then-coach Brad Holland's team the next season, no one knew that still another loss -- Corey Belser to injury -- would result in a 4-win season.
The basketball team never really recovered from that disaster. Potential recruits are often willing to give smaller programs a look, but especially when one has sudden success, they want to know that you're not just a flash-in-the-pan. Okay, you won big this year, but is there any gas left in the tank. For the Toreros, their fuel-level went to empty in that run to March Madness, and there were no gas stations in the neighborhood. Holland became the proverbial man walking down the freeway shoulder with a gallon emergency-tank in his hand.
Holland managed 18 wins last year, but the Toreros were just 6-8 in the WCC and were never really a post-season threat. Only two current players, F Gyno Pomare and G Brandon Johnson, would have seen floor time on that Toreros conference championship team.
I was very sorry to see Holland fired. I liked Brad Holland. I saw him when he was joyful and saw him when he was mad. I asked him tough questions he didn't like and he answered them. Maybe begrudgingly. But we knew where each other stood, so the disappointments he sometimes faced and were forced to talk about did not impact our relationship.
It's kind of funny, sports fans often hold college and pro coaches on some sort of pedestal, like they're so much different from us. But it's not necessarily true. One day right as preseason practice was about to start, I went to see Holland at the Jenny Craig Pavilion so I could get a feel for his team and pass along to you, my readers, what he seemed to have that year.
We walked from the floor of the arena and back to his office. We sat down and before I fired away with my questions, he punched the "play" button on his answering machine. His wife left a message reporting that she'd run an errand to some store in Rancho Bernardo and had driven over a curb in a parking lot and struck something. He hung his head and slowly shook it, crestfallen. His wife said not to worry, everyone was okay, but they had to get the car fixed.
I laughed and told him it was nice to see how similar our lives were.
As much as I was sorry to see him go, I hope that other opportunities open up for him, in basketball or some other endeavor. I haven't heard what he's doing now. That he was fired is sad because the act, and the stigma associated with it, are quite harsh. Undeserved in his instance.
My experience is that sometimes situations simply come to an end. Firing someone connotates wrongdoing, certainly not a factor in Holland's case. But as fate smiled on him in 2003 and some prior seasons, it did not afterward. The Toreros men's basketball team -- the school's lone athletic revenue-producer -- had stopped being a viable commodity in the local entertainment market, and it had slipped behind those other sports in status on its own campus. By March of this year, it was just simply over, and time for everyone to move on.
---
Those who read the old Sandiegosportstown.com will remember my fondness for Toreros women's stars Amanda Rego and Amber Sprague, the alums from Mission Bay High School. This season will be the last to see the childhood friends play together, for Rego is a senior and Sprague, whose college career has been beset by injury, is a redshirt junior.
Rego led the nation with an average of 7.6 assists per game last year and was named the WCC Co-Player of the Year. While she was productive her first two seasons, it was her junior year in which she finally blossomed into a star. Far from the rail-thin pony-tailed teeny-bopper who fired up left-handed threes in a vain effort to keep pace with powerful Santana High in a CIF playoff game as a prep freshman, Rego is now a mature 5-10 and 21 years old. How the time flies.
She can shoot, is a great passer, and is in control of the game. Once, in high school, playing a game vs. Rancho Bernardo High at the JCP, I was along the baseline getting some of those awful photographs I used to take. A Broncos player makes a basket. Rego takes the ball as it falls from the net and, in one smooth motion, steps out of bounds, looks down at me, smiles, says "Oh, hi there," in-bounds the ball and heads downcourt. That was a girl in charge of her environment.
Maybe it was no surprise that Rego had her breakout year last season, because it was the first time Sprague had a full season in college, and she ended up being All-WCC herself. She missed the previous year entirely, redshirting in a bid to regain health. She's grown to 6-5, which is the sort of thing you deal with when you play Tennessee or UConn, not USD. She will once again -- if healthy -- dominate conference games in the paint.
From the moment I became aware of their existence, covered their games and a couple of times interview them, I went to few basketball games in which those two were not in attendance. They are hoops junkies on par with Dick Vitale. Their success, and that of their team, which won the regular season WCC title under coach Cindy Fisher, came through a lot of hard work and much passion for the game.
It's absolutely worth it to head out to the JCP at some point this season to watch them play together for the last time.
That the basketball team would have been upstaged by not one, but three other teams on campus -- none of them with soccer in their name -- would not have been figured four years ago, when the Toreros won the WCC Tournament and nearly knocked off Stanford in the NCAA Tournament. Even though everyone realized that graduation losses from that group would hurt then-coach Brad Holland's team the next season, no one knew that still another loss -- Corey Belser to injury -- would result in a 4-win season.
The basketball team never really recovered from that disaster. Potential recruits are often willing to give smaller programs a look, but especially when one has sudden success, they want to know that you're not just a flash-in-the-pan. Okay, you won big this year, but is there any gas left in the tank. For the Toreros, their fuel-level went to empty in that run to March Madness, and there were no gas stations in the neighborhood. Holland became the proverbial man walking down the freeway shoulder with a gallon emergency-tank in his hand.
Holland managed 18 wins last year, but the Toreros were just 6-8 in the WCC and were never really a post-season threat. Only two current players, F Gyno Pomare and G Brandon Johnson, would have seen floor time on that Toreros conference championship team.
I was very sorry to see Holland fired. I liked Brad Holland. I saw him when he was joyful and saw him when he was mad. I asked him tough questions he didn't like and he answered them. Maybe begrudgingly. But we knew where each other stood, so the disappointments he sometimes faced and were forced to talk about did not impact our relationship.
It's kind of funny, sports fans often hold college and pro coaches on some sort of pedestal, like they're so much different from us. But it's not necessarily true. One day right as preseason practice was about to start, I went to see Holland at the Jenny Craig Pavilion so I could get a feel for his team and pass along to you, my readers, what he seemed to have that year.
We walked from the floor of the arena and back to his office. We sat down and before I fired away with my questions, he punched the "play" button on his answering machine. His wife left a message reporting that she'd run an errand to some store in Rancho Bernardo and had driven over a curb in a parking lot and struck something. He hung his head and slowly shook it, crestfallen. His wife said not to worry, everyone was okay, but they had to get the car fixed.
I laughed and told him it was nice to see how similar our lives were.
As much as I was sorry to see him go, I hope that other opportunities open up for him, in basketball or some other endeavor. I haven't heard what he's doing now. That he was fired is sad because the act, and the stigma associated with it, are quite harsh. Undeserved in his instance.
My experience is that sometimes situations simply come to an end. Firing someone connotates wrongdoing, certainly not a factor in Holland's case. But as fate smiled on him in 2003 and some prior seasons, it did not afterward. The Toreros men's basketball team -- the school's lone athletic revenue-producer -- had stopped being a viable commodity in the local entertainment market, and it had slipped behind those other sports in status on its own campus. By March of this year, it was just simply over, and time for everyone to move on.
---
Those who read the old Sandiegosportstown.com will remember my fondness for Toreros women's stars Amanda Rego and Amber Sprague, the alums from Mission Bay High School. This season will be the last to see the childhood friends play together, for Rego is a senior and Sprague, whose college career has been beset by injury, is a redshirt junior.
Rego led the nation with an average of 7.6 assists per game last year and was named the WCC Co-Player of the Year. While she was productive her first two seasons, it was her junior year in which she finally blossomed into a star. Far from the rail-thin pony-tailed teeny-bopper who fired up left-handed threes in a vain effort to keep pace with powerful Santana High in a CIF playoff game as a prep freshman, Rego is now a mature 5-10 and 21 years old. How the time flies.
She can shoot, is a great passer, and is in control of the game. Once, in high school, playing a game vs. Rancho Bernardo High at the JCP, I was along the baseline getting some of those awful photographs I used to take. A Broncos player makes a basket. Rego takes the ball as it falls from the net and, in one smooth motion, steps out of bounds, looks down at me, smiles, says "Oh, hi there," in-bounds the ball and heads downcourt. That was a girl in charge of her environment.
Maybe it was no surprise that Rego had her breakout year last season, because it was the first time Sprague had a full season in college, and she ended up being All-WCC herself. She missed the previous year entirely, redshirting in a bid to regain health. She's grown to 6-5, which is the sort of thing you deal with when you play Tennessee or UConn, not USD. She will once again -- if healthy -- dominate conference games in the paint.
From the moment I became aware of their existence, covered their games and a couple of times interview them, I went to few basketball games in which those two were not in attendance. They are hoops junkies on par with Dick Vitale. Their success, and that of their team, which won the regular season WCC title under coach Cindy Fisher, came through a lot of hard work and much passion for the game.
It's absolutely worth it to head out to the JCP at some point this season to watch them play together for the last time.
Friday, October 05, 2007
SDSU - Better Days Behind
There is so much despairing and lack of caring surrounding San Diego State football these days that I thought it would be fun to dip into the archives for a look back at the biggest wins in school history. One of my worries, though a nice one to have to consider, is that this year's Aztecs would have knocked off one of the BCS schools on the schedule and have someone proclaim it as the biggest win in school history. It would not have been, not even close. And it turned out I needn't have worried, not even close.
Here then, a list of the biggest wins in the Division 1 history of San Diego State football.
10. SDSU 42 Arizona 10 (Nov. 10, 1979) - A stunner in the margin of victory at home, the Aztecs dominated a Pac-10 team that would go bowling. Part of a 4-game winning steak for the best team in school history.
9. SDSU 10 Fresno State 0 (Nov. 7, 1998) - Brilliant defensive effort limited the Bulldogs to just 136 total yards and launched a winning streak that led to a Las Vegas Bowl berth. Jonas Lewis carried 37 times for 142 yards.
8. SDSU 52 Iowa State 31 (Oct. 10, 1981) - Signaled recovery from disastrous 1980. Cyclones came in ranked 12th after beating Oklahoma the previous week. Aztecs have not beaten a higher-ranked team. Alan Dale had still-standing record of 21 tackles and Matt Kofler threw for 444 yards.
7. SDSU 41 Kansas 13 (Sept. 25, 1999) - Dominant road performance. Last Aztecs win over a BCS conference team. Jack Hawley passed for 343 yards. Jayhawks rushed for 0 yards.
6. SDSU 51 Oklahoma 31 (Sept. 21, 1995) - Sooners were in mid-swoon, but still, it was OKLAHOMA, and all that entails, getting absolutely ripped at The Murph. Ricky Parker's INT return for a TD, oh yeah!
5. SDSU 28 Wyoming 24 (Nov. 7, 1996) - Cowboys came in undefeated and ranked in the Top 25, but the Aztecs rallied on the strength of two scrambles by QB Billy Blanton and "The Block" by Leandrew Childs.
4. SDSU 17 Oregon State 8 (Sept. 8, 1972) - The Aztecs first modern-era victory over a power-conference team.
3. SDSU 45 BYU 38 (Sept. 10, 1992) - Following the 31-31 tie with USC, Marshall Faulk and David Lowery ran and passed through BYU like a knife through warm butter, and the defense held on this time. Marshall had 299 yards rushing. Second-best block in school history by Lowery on a reverse.
2. SDSU 41 Florida State 16 (Nov. 19, 1977) - Seminoles ranked 13th and on upswing under coach Bobby Bowden, but were taken apart in the game that still ranks as the Gold Standard for upsets against ranked non-conference opponents.
1. SDSU 10 BYU 3 (Nov. 29, 1986) - Outstanding defensive effort bottled up a struggling Cougar passing attack, holding BYU to 167 yards total, as the Aztecs clinched their first and only bid to the Holiday Bowl.
Several other victories were close, including a 1981 home finale rout of Oklahoma State that clinched a winning season, and two comeback victories over Air Force. But that those ten listed above are the ones that warm the hearts of longtime Aztecs fans, and make us long for another conquest over a top team, or a win in a truly meaningful contest, that can be added to SDSU lore.
Here then, a list of the biggest wins in the Division 1 history of San Diego State football.
10. SDSU 42 Arizona 10 (Nov. 10, 1979) - A stunner in the margin of victory at home, the Aztecs dominated a Pac-10 team that would go bowling. Part of a 4-game winning steak for the best team in school history.
9. SDSU 10 Fresno State 0 (Nov. 7, 1998) - Brilliant defensive effort limited the Bulldogs to just 136 total yards and launched a winning streak that led to a Las Vegas Bowl berth. Jonas Lewis carried 37 times for 142 yards.
8. SDSU 52 Iowa State 31 (Oct. 10, 1981) - Signaled recovery from disastrous 1980. Cyclones came in ranked 12th after beating Oklahoma the previous week. Aztecs have not beaten a higher-ranked team. Alan Dale had still-standing record of 21 tackles and Matt Kofler threw for 444 yards.
7. SDSU 41 Kansas 13 (Sept. 25, 1999) - Dominant road performance. Last Aztecs win over a BCS conference team. Jack Hawley passed for 343 yards. Jayhawks rushed for 0 yards.
6. SDSU 51 Oklahoma 31 (Sept. 21, 1995) - Sooners were in mid-swoon, but still, it was OKLAHOMA, and all that entails, getting absolutely ripped at The Murph. Ricky Parker's INT return for a TD, oh yeah!
5. SDSU 28 Wyoming 24 (Nov. 7, 1996) - Cowboys came in undefeated and ranked in the Top 25, but the Aztecs rallied on the strength of two scrambles by QB Billy Blanton and "The Block" by Leandrew Childs.
4. SDSU 17 Oregon State 8 (Sept. 8, 1972) - The Aztecs first modern-era victory over a power-conference team.
3. SDSU 45 BYU 38 (Sept. 10, 1992) - Following the 31-31 tie with USC, Marshall Faulk and David Lowery ran and passed through BYU like a knife through warm butter, and the defense held on this time. Marshall had 299 yards rushing. Second-best block in school history by Lowery on a reverse.
2. SDSU 41 Florida State 16 (Nov. 19, 1977) - Seminoles ranked 13th and on upswing under coach Bobby Bowden, but were taken apart in the game that still ranks as the Gold Standard for upsets against ranked non-conference opponents.
1. SDSU 10 BYU 3 (Nov. 29, 1986) - Outstanding defensive effort bottled up a struggling Cougar passing attack, holding BYU to 167 yards total, as the Aztecs clinched their first and only bid to the Holiday Bowl.
Several other victories were close, including a 1981 home finale rout of Oklahoma State that clinched a winning season, and two comeback victories over Air Force. But that those ten listed above are the ones that warm the hearts of longtime Aztecs fans, and make us long for another conquest over a top team, or a win in a truly meaningful contest, that can be added to SDSU lore.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Padres Head Into Interesting Off-Season
If I had no morals, I would use the "delete" function offered by the blog host and just erase my predictions for the second-half of the baseball season. While my straight-out predictions proved wrong, I was correct in what turned out to be the Padres' downfall, as the starting pitching suffered from the sudden loss of effectiveness of David Wells, occasional struggles by Jake Peavy, and injuries to Chris Young and Greg Maddux.
So, into the off-season we go, and it should be an interesting one. Here are the priorities for the front office during the fall and winter months:
1. Coach the hitters - The Padres did not lose their play-in game in Denver because of Trevor Hoffman or a blown call at home plate. They lost because of a late-inning by late-inning failure to cash in on opportunities as every hitter but Brian Giles swung for the fences. Just putting the ball in play could have pushed a run across late in the game and Hoffman could have extinguished the Rockies while they were, too, shooting for home runs. Instead, the Rox clued in and did what the Padres should have -- took pitches consistently to the opposite field in the final inning of play.
If it looks like I'm picking on one game, I'm actually just using it as an example. The last home game I went to, a similar extra-inning loss to Colorado on the Friday night of the final series at Petco Park, saw similar bat work by the Padres. You can't have a team that only scores via the home run, but that's what the Friars were trying to do in a lot of games.
2. Sign Mike Cameron - Okay, I'm no big fan of his. But Brady Clark showed just how important center field defense is in large parks like Coors Field and Petco. Cameron struck out a horrifying amount of times, like 160, which is Bobby Bonds territory. But he stabilizes the outfield defense and injects much-needed speed into the lineup. Sign him and bat him seventh.
The trouble is that there is one guy who was smiling as he watched Clark struggle Monday night. That's Cameron's agent. Guarantee they're not coming off their asking price too quickly now when they negotiate with the Padres.
3. Fill the holes - Assuming that Cameron re-signs, then Kevin Towers has to fill left field, second base, and two starting pitching spots. Scott Hairston provided late lightning on four occasions this season, but he's not a consistent hitter and not a good enough defender to compete for a fulltime job, which is why Arizona was willing to let him go. He's a 2007 version of Jim Leyritz, the 1998 wonder who fell apart the next season. Keep Hairston as what he is, a good substitute. Maybe good enough to start in left if there's reason to think Milton Bradley will be ready to play by May.
Solutions are more likely to come from trades than the free agent market. The only free agents who fit Padres needs and are, IMHO, worth signing, are infielder Mark Loretta, pitcher Matt Clement and LF Adam Dunn. All have good and bad points. Loretta hit .287 and had 460 at bats for the Astros while only striking out 41 times, but had no power at all and will turn 37 next season. Clement has been a solid starting pitcher since leaving San Diego, but he's well into his 30s and did not pitch for the Red Sox this year because of an injury that limited him to just 12 appeances in 2006. Dunn had perhaps his best season overall with a his highest batting average (.264) since 2004, 40 home runs for the third year in a row and his fewest strikeouts over a full season in his career -- although that was still 165 and the Reds hold a team option for him.
So Towers' options are limited in free agency. Trades are another matter. As soon as you'd think other general managers would be leery of dealing with the man, someone shows up believing he can snooker him. Other teams, wary of how the relief-shy Mets collapsed, will be after bullpen talent, and the Padres have some short-inning arms to spare.
4. Evaluate the young pitchers - It's pitch or cut bait with young pitchers Tim Stauffer, Justin Germano, Clay Hensley and Mike Thompson. The brass has to decide once and for all whether they will make it as fulltime major league starters.
5. Closer reality - Trevor Hoffman is NOT DONE. However, it is becoming clear that Heath Bell, who many teammates and observers believe should be the team MVP, is the best pitcher in the bullpen. Hoffman has made adjustments before and will during this offseason, too. He will come out next spring and be an effective closer for a while. But as Hoffman pitches his first season north of 40 years old in 2008, he's going to need Bell to save some games for him, not the other way around. The sooner Bud Black is willing to be flexible in how he sets up his bullpen -- game by game or week by week or just going with the hot hand -- the better chance the Padres will have at winning ball games.
Overall, it was a pretty interesting and entertaining season. The Padres finished with a better record and were closer to the playoffs than a lot of people expected. They had their share of bad breaks and injuries but were able to plug on via spit and glue. They came up with a third baseman of the future in Kevin Kouzmanoff. They won an awful lot of games in the late innings. They played in October when most other major league teams did not. There are a lot of positives. But they can also stand improvement.
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NOTES: Sorry, I haven't posted in a while. Kind of the way it is ... I'd have written by now about the Chargers 1-3 start if I could figure it out. There seems to be something different every week, which leads me to think that there's some general weakness all over, from the general manager to the coaches to Philip Rivers to the offensive line, to the defensive line not tying up lineman, the linebackers being out of position and the secondary being just plain awful ... It won't show up in the stats, but the plays by Rivers that killed the Bolts chances against Kansas City were consecutive goal line situations late in the game in which Vincent Jackson was open in the back of the end zone and LaDainian Tomlinson was open in the flat and he ended up not throwing to either of them. The next play, Tomlinson was again open in the flat, and again Rivers couldn't even let the pass loose ... San Diego State might have the worst defense in the history of the school, and they had some pretty bad defenses in the early 90s. The secondary is patchwork, the linebackers are young and injured and the defensive line is not strong enough to stop a Pop Warner offense ... Chuck Long is building through young players, which takes time, but Aztecs fans have heard that song-and-dance repeatedly over the years, with payoffs only coming once per decade.
So, into the off-season we go, and it should be an interesting one. Here are the priorities for the front office during the fall and winter months:
1. Coach the hitters - The Padres did not lose their play-in game in Denver because of Trevor Hoffman or a blown call at home plate. They lost because of a late-inning by late-inning failure to cash in on opportunities as every hitter but Brian Giles swung for the fences. Just putting the ball in play could have pushed a run across late in the game and Hoffman could have extinguished the Rockies while they were, too, shooting for home runs. Instead, the Rox clued in and did what the Padres should have -- took pitches consistently to the opposite field in the final inning of play.
If it looks like I'm picking on one game, I'm actually just using it as an example. The last home game I went to, a similar extra-inning loss to Colorado on the Friday night of the final series at Petco Park, saw similar bat work by the Padres. You can't have a team that only scores via the home run, but that's what the Friars were trying to do in a lot of games.
2. Sign Mike Cameron - Okay, I'm no big fan of his. But Brady Clark showed just how important center field defense is in large parks like Coors Field and Petco. Cameron struck out a horrifying amount of times, like 160, which is Bobby Bonds territory. But he stabilizes the outfield defense and injects much-needed speed into the lineup. Sign him and bat him seventh.
The trouble is that there is one guy who was smiling as he watched Clark struggle Monday night. That's Cameron's agent. Guarantee they're not coming off their asking price too quickly now when they negotiate with the Padres.
3. Fill the holes - Assuming that Cameron re-signs, then Kevin Towers has to fill left field, second base, and two starting pitching spots. Scott Hairston provided late lightning on four occasions this season, but he's not a consistent hitter and not a good enough defender to compete for a fulltime job, which is why Arizona was willing to let him go. He's a 2007 version of Jim Leyritz, the 1998 wonder who fell apart the next season. Keep Hairston as what he is, a good substitute. Maybe good enough to start in left if there's reason to think Milton Bradley will be ready to play by May.
Solutions are more likely to come from trades than the free agent market. The only free agents who fit Padres needs and are, IMHO, worth signing, are infielder Mark Loretta, pitcher Matt Clement and LF Adam Dunn. All have good and bad points. Loretta hit .287 and had 460 at bats for the Astros while only striking out 41 times, but had no power at all and will turn 37 next season. Clement has been a solid starting pitcher since leaving San Diego, but he's well into his 30s and did not pitch for the Red Sox this year because of an injury that limited him to just 12 appeances in 2006. Dunn had perhaps his best season overall with a his highest batting average (.264) since 2004, 40 home runs for the third year in a row and his fewest strikeouts over a full season in his career -- although that was still 165 and the Reds hold a team option for him.
So Towers' options are limited in free agency. Trades are another matter. As soon as you'd think other general managers would be leery of dealing with the man, someone shows up believing he can snooker him. Other teams, wary of how the relief-shy Mets collapsed, will be after bullpen talent, and the Padres have some short-inning arms to spare.
4. Evaluate the young pitchers - It's pitch or cut bait with young pitchers Tim Stauffer, Justin Germano, Clay Hensley and Mike Thompson. The brass has to decide once and for all whether they will make it as fulltime major league starters.
5. Closer reality - Trevor Hoffman is NOT DONE. However, it is becoming clear that Heath Bell, who many teammates and observers believe should be the team MVP, is the best pitcher in the bullpen. Hoffman has made adjustments before and will during this offseason, too. He will come out next spring and be an effective closer for a while. But as Hoffman pitches his first season north of 40 years old in 2008, he's going to need Bell to save some games for him, not the other way around. The sooner Bud Black is willing to be flexible in how he sets up his bullpen -- game by game or week by week or just going with the hot hand -- the better chance the Padres will have at winning ball games.
Overall, it was a pretty interesting and entertaining season. The Padres finished with a better record and were closer to the playoffs than a lot of people expected. They had their share of bad breaks and injuries but were able to plug on via spit and glue. They came up with a third baseman of the future in Kevin Kouzmanoff. They won an awful lot of games in the late innings. They played in October when most other major league teams did not. There are a lot of positives. But they can also stand improvement.
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NOTES: Sorry, I haven't posted in a while. Kind of the way it is ... I'd have written by now about the Chargers 1-3 start if I could figure it out. There seems to be something different every week, which leads me to think that there's some general weakness all over, from the general manager to the coaches to Philip Rivers to the offensive line, to the defensive line not tying up lineman, the linebackers being out of position and the secondary being just plain awful ... It won't show up in the stats, but the plays by Rivers that killed the Bolts chances against Kansas City were consecutive goal line situations late in the game in which Vincent Jackson was open in the back of the end zone and LaDainian Tomlinson was open in the flat and he ended up not throwing to either of them. The next play, Tomlinson was again open in the flat, and again Rivers couldn't even let the pass loose ... San Diego State might have the worst defense in the history of the school, and they had some pretty bad defenses in the early 90s. The secondary is patchwork, the linebackers are young and injured and the defensive line is not strong enough to stop a Pop Warner offense ... Chuck Long is building through young players, which takes time, but Aztecs fans have heard that song-and-dance repeatedly over the years, with payoffs only coming once per decade.
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