Another horrid season for the Portland Beavers
The San Diego Padres, over the years, have been an absolute disaster of a parent club to the Beavers and this past season has been no exception. Not only did the team lose 84 games, it ran through 69 players and three managers during the season!
Gee, it’s just shocking that the crowds were a little thinner, wasn’t it? Seriously, winning at the Triple-A level isn’t mandatory for drawing big crowds, but it helps. And losing year after year really hurts. But what’s even worse is putting no players into Portland who are top prospects — guys who you know you’ll be watching in a big-league uniform for years to come.
The Padres have seldom done that during their tenure in Portland. On top of that, running the equivalent of three different teams through this city during one season – with three managers to match — is downright ridiculous, particularly for a big-league club going nowhere.
I realize, Beaver management doesn’t have much say in the matter, but it really should be shopping for another parent club. If the Padres can’t do any better than that, what’s the point? Yes, a new ballpark will revitalize interest in the team, but a better shake at getting a talented roster once in a while would be a big help.
Baseball | Dwight Jaynes | September 8, 2009
I completely agree with you Dwight. Padres traded away their once good team to trim their payroll and sucked up anyone left in the minors that were half way decent leaving them to struggle for the year. Really didn’t help the Padres except probably in the pocketbooks.
who cares.. kp why is LMA not signed yet?
I am inclined to disagree. Sure, I’d definitely prefer it if the team were better, but San Diego has put people in Portland who have been their top prospects. This year we’ve seen both Will Venable and Kyle Blanks, top prospects in the Padres system, come through Portland and have a decent amount of success in the majors. Matt Antonelli was supposed to be a top prospect, but hasn’t really panned out. Point being, it isn’t like the Padres are keeping their prospects out of Portland and that is what’s causing the Beavers to suck (although they did call Mat Latos, their best pitching prospect, right up out of AA, skipping Portland, but that’s because they were desperate).
Honestly, what makes a AAA team good is not necessarily having top prospects, but having a roster stocked with journeymen, guys who have had difficulty making the majors and are too old to really be prospects anymore, but have been around long enough and are good enough to hit AAA pitching. Take this year’s Tacoma team as an example, they made the PCL playoffs not because they are loaded with future MLB players, but because they have a bunch of guys in their late 20s who are good enough to have made it to the majors a few times but haven’t been able to stick there, yet they are definitely good enough to beat up on AAA competition. Guys like Chris Shelton, Prentice Redman, Jerry Owens & Bryan Lahair. So if you want to accuse the Padres of anything with regard to their handling of the Beavers, it shouldn’t be with regards to their placement of prospects, but it should be with regards to filling out the rosters with Crash Davis journeymen types. In the past when the Beavers have been good, it has been because of guys like that, guys like Tagg Bozied and Jon Knott.
Well, what makes them win is veteran players, yes. But what makes them fun to watch is great young players. The ones you named, sorry to say, are NOT good young prospects. They are borderline. Most are not expected to be high-impact big-league players. Not many of those type have been through Portland — even the high picks have often been busts. The best player who came through here with the Padres was Jason Bay — and they couldn’t wait to trade him.
In summary, if you don’t have great young players, get some good journeymen. And whatever you do, leave them alone for a while and let them get a full season in at Triple-A. And please, leave the manager here for a full season!
Dwight: I have never seen pennant fever in PDX in regards to the Beavers. They are what they are…minor league, and they just don’t blip the radar for most.
Sure, I will go watch a Thirsty Thursday game on occasion…but do I care if the hometown Bevo’s lose 5-4 to the Tacoma Tigers? Not in the least. I bet you could extrapolate my sentiment across 80% of the attendees on any given night.
You might say that this is Portland’s way of helping to pay for Petco Park. That franchise is in bad shape right now and the ownership turnover this past year didn’t help. Seattle should be the parent club but it won’t happen as long as Tacoma still has a viable facility.
Well, yes. But high-impact prospects, future MLB stars, are few and far between, teams are lucky if their farm system produces a couple of them over the course of several years. The Padres have basically had none in the past few years, all of their good players have come in through trades. Which is to say, they have not been good in the draft, their draft picks have not been wise. But really that’s a problem with their scouting and management at the major league level, not a problem with their specific handling of the Beavers.
Anyhow, I forgot to mention Chase Headley, who played for the Beavers at the beginning of last year. He’s had a rough year this year, but is only 25 and has quite a bit of upside. The type of talent he’s shown though means he could very well be a high-impact player in the near future.
Does everyone forget Xavier Nady played almost 200 games here? He wasn’t chopped liver.