Padres (finally) Sign Hometown Prior

So we FINALLY signed Mark Prior. I feel like I have been waiting for this to happen all offseason, especially since he was non-tendered by the Cubs. I have heard rumors that San Diego was where he really wanted to play all along, so I am glad that it is finally done. This is pretty exciting for the number 5 spot in the rotation, but there are a lot of worries that come with this signing. I really am curious how bad his injury really is, and maybe hes not disclosing something. If he is healthy he obviously has incredible potential, so again its a low risk high reward, especially with the 1 million dollar contract (3 million with incentives). Basically if Wolf and Prior get injured and cant make thier starts, our team is gonna suck and the only happy people will be Moores because he will be saving millions. But a guy who averages 10ks per 9 innings playing in the NLwest and in a pitchers park trying to rejuvinate his career so he can get a big contract is fine with me. Who knows, if he has a good season, is handled right by the padres pitching coaches and finds his stuff perhaps we can shell out the bucks to keep him around and then have a rotation of Peavy, Young, Prior locked up for years to come. Doesnt sound too bad now does it….

Fukudome is a tease; Lots of players used roids; Pads trade for Edmonds, sign Iguchi

A lot has gone down in the world of Padres in the past week. Ill start from the top.

FUK-U-Dome

After making fans wait and wait and wait Fukudome finally announces hes coming to America and hes gonna play for America’s worst team, the Cubs. They offered more money, and he took it. Guess he didn’t take Aki’s advice to come to SD. This pretty much left the Padres screwed.

Roid Rage

A few days later the long awaited Mitchell Report was released listing over 80 names of players past and present who were found to be involved with steroids, HGH or other substances. Amazingly Giles was not on it….actually no current Padres were, but plenty of former Padres. Most notably Kevin Brown, Caminiti, Joyner. Surprisingly no word of Greg Vaughn on there either, so the search for reasons why he had one ridiculous season is still in progress. I was really excited for the Mitchell Report but I got over it pretty fast. I am a huge advocate of justice and equality and I hate cheating, but for some reason in my mind it was just something that was done under the table by many in those years. I think they should at least open up a steroids league where its like the XFL but its the XLB where all players on roids and hitting 50 homers average a year. I would love to watch that. Believe it or not Jody Reed was left off the list…shocking I know.

Edmonds and Iguchi are Friars

In the wake of not signing the biggest Japanese player on the market the Padres settled for signing another solid Japanses FA, Tad Iguchi. Any move that enables you get to go to the ballpark and yell “GOOOOOOCH” at the top of your lungs without people looking at you strangley is one that I am ok with. To be honest with you I have mixed feelings about this move. I was really hoping to get to see Antonelli up at second for a full season, but it looks like he will get another year down at AAA. Iguchi however is a solid option at second base and should be a vast improvement over the Giles/Blum tandem of last year. He had a solid end of the season for Philly and I am really looking forward to what he can do for us at second. I am hoping we put him up in the lead off spot and we finally can have a solid leadoff hitter.

The Padres followed this move up by finally filling thier center field position with Jim Edmonds. Initially i was not very happy with this move, as I have always hated Edmonds because of his flair for the dramatic and the fact that he has always killed the Padres (see 2005 playoffs). I do however admire his web gems and think he is one of the best CF defensively around, or used to be at least. After letting it settle in I think IF he can stay healthy he will be an upgrade over Cameron. My love for Cameron really faded last year with his record setting strikeout season and one too many dropped routine fly balls. I still to this day think he needs to get his eyes fixed again and he will never admit that he has a problem (at least didnt want to admit it before going into free agency). I heard Edmonds on the radio this morning and he didn’t seem outwardly excited to be playing for the Padres but sounded pissed off as if he had something to prove to everybody and he couldn’t wait. He said the fact that St. Louis got rid of him when he planned to end his career there as well as the fact that people think he is too old and declining are enough to motivate him to have a great season. I give him a month before the PETCO park effect starts getting into his head like every other player (not Andruw Jones which scares me that he is going to be playing there a lot more now).

Now we have to fill LF unless we decide to stick with Hairston. There are rumors Nady may come back for Barrett, I wouldn’t mind that at all. The curse of Barrett needs to be exorcized.

Peavy gets his big extension, Towers sleeps through winter meetings

Well the biggest news since I last posted is that, although its not quite official, the Padres and Jake Peavy have agreed to the largest deal in franchise history.  Peavy is rumored to recieve a 3 year extension worth about 52 million dollars.  He also would have a 22 million dollar team option in 2012.  Pretty un-padre like, but very impressive.  We locked up our big homegrown star for 5 more years and actually dished out a large long term contract.  With teams going after Santana this off-season the Padres have quietly made one of the biggest signings in the MLB of this off-season and have gaurenteed the Cy Young winner to be with them for a a while.  Peavy is now poised to become the next generation Mr. Padre.  I would love to see Peavy take after Mr. Padre himself and stay in the sand and blue unis for his entire career…but who knows what will happen.  All I know is that this is exciting news and the type of deal the Padre fans were expecting after moving into Petco Park and becoming more serious about winning and committing money to valuable playeres.

Meanwhile, Towers really did not get much else accomplished at the winter meetings.  After going into the meetings with his heart set on filling the gaps in the outfield, the meetings ended with an offer to Fukudome, the hope of Bradley resigning a 4 million dollar contract and thats about it.  Today news was released that Bradley had decided to sign with the Rangers, leavin the Padres, well, screwed.  Getting Fukudome has become that much more important for the Padres, as they wait for him to either reject or except his offer early this week.  Right now our outfield would be Brian Giles and Scott Hairston.  Perhaps the Padres will come crawling back to Cameron and offer him a larger contract now that they are desperate.  A lot of the off-season hinges on Fukudome right now.  If we dont get Fukudome we are going to have to come up with a backup plan and start wheeling and dealing.   It also seems we have given up looking for a second baseman, and have settled with taking a gamble on Antonelli.  I have read some reports that say they dont think he is ready to be a MLB starter yet, but I guess thats a risk we are willing to take.  Besides the Peavy extension and signing wolf this offseason has not been very productive.  We need to fix our offense or we will not survive in the NLwest which now is the new home of Andruw Jones (dodgers).   Ill update once I hear any final decision on Fuku….

Padres sign Wolf to pitch behind Mad Dog

The Padres and Randy Wolf reportedly agreed to a contract yesterday. It really amazes me that Towers can continue his unique strategy of bargain hunting by signing either big name stars at the dusk of their career or guys that have had good years but are coming off serious injuries or down seasons. I guess it’s a no risk high reward move so it really cannot hurt the team too much. Who knows, maybe Wolf can turn things around and have a good season with the friars. Either way, he should make for at least a solid number 4 or 5 pitcher behind Peavy, Young, Maddux. We have seen this strategy fail before (ex: Estes, Ashby) but it never impacted the team too much. Wolf showed signs of being a solid pitcher last year before his injury, with a fantastic month of May (3-0, 1.48 ERA, 5 ER). Wolf only gave up 6 or more earned runs 2 times in his 18 starts. Overall I like this signing and am excited to see how he rebounds from his injury and see if PETCO has any positive effects on his pitching. Although he may have to suffer with the Padres classic low run support.

Other News:

• According to the Union Tribune Towers is going from rehab facility to rehab facility in order to fill out the rotation. With Wolf signed there is only one more slot left to be filled. It seems the Padres are trying to work things out with either Matt Clement or Mark Prior. Both have a history of injuries and are coming off injury years but both have potential to bounce back. I personally would prefer Prior, not only because he is a San Diego guy but because he has so much potential. Its sad when a player with so much potential has a career like Prior has had and it would be a real feel good story for him to come back and have a solid season with his hometown team. With a rotation of Peavy, Young, Maddux, Prior, and Wolf I would be pretty satisfied. Its the offense that still worries me..

• So on Wednesday night I sat through a Sandy Alderson XX radio 10 or 15 minute interview which despite Sandy’s despite his monotone voice and dodging of almost every question was actually interesting. He said that they were going to try and pull of some trades at the winter meetings and that the Padres are more likely to go the route of trades rather than free agents to fill our gaps. He said that both Boras and Andruw Jones know the Padres would be interested in him for a one year deal, but ONLY a one year deal, he doesn’t think they are interested in a one year deal. Said he would be open to maybe offering a one year deal to Cameron but doesn’t know how that will end up. He mentioned that the Padres met with Jenkins and there is mutual interest in signing him, but what Jenkins role would be is unknown. I have heard there are some worries about Giles recovering from his knee surgery in the offseason so the more outfielders we have the better. The Padres have interest in the Japanese corner outfielder Fukudome as do many other teams. He said that their top priorities are the outfield and maybe some pitching. Throughout the whole interview I didn’t hear a single mention of filling the gap at second base, which must mean they are feeling pretty confident they can fill the position with Antonelli. The winter meetings, which start tomorrow are when more deals are going to go down and more specific rumors will start coming out..

• Padres and Brett Tomko have mutual interest in working out a deal that would bring him back to pitch in the bullpen. Tomko lives in Poway so it is convenient for him, and the Towers loves stockpiling the pen.

• The Padres decided to fill the sibling void in the clubhouse left by the release of Marcus Giles. No they did not sign Brandy Giles the younger sister, they signed Adrian Gonzalez’ older brother Edgar Gonzalez from the Cardinals minor league system. From what I have read about Edgar he is an okay hitter but has some fielding issues as an infielder. He signed a minor league contract, who knows whether we will see him on the big league club during the season but at least we can count on some BRO. B. I’s in spring training.

The winter meetings are this week, that means actual Padres news and maybe a deal or two?