Another Padres Offseason Preview

Dan Hayes at the NC Times lists the important questions for the Padres this offseason. Since he asked, I think the quick answers are keep AG and Blanks as he is fine in the OF, keep Bell for PR, trade Kouz, Hundley is fine, Tony Jr is a 4th outfielder and you can never, ever have enough starting pitching.

A couple of comments:

• Another mention of the 37-25 stretch. If I was the Front Office, I would spend some time addressing that stretch. On his way out, Towers pointed to it as an indicator of the Pads being ready to contend next year. Moorad talked to it as well as a positive sign and part of the excellent job done by Towers this season. But, it just screams SMALL SAMPLE SIZE. And, with runs scored of 275 versus runs allowed of 259, Pythagoras would have had them at 4 games over .500 during that stretch instead of 12. I bet the new GM comes in trying to manage expectations a little better than has been done so far.
• Another mention of how the Pads should have money to spend. Yes, maybe even $8-10M! What does that get you in today's game? You could get one aging star trying to re-establish some market value for a year. You could get an average starting pitcher if you are willing to do that range for at least 3. You could get a couple of veteran projects, guys that have plenty of service time, but for whatever reason have a hole in their game that keeps them from finding a home in a teams line up. In other words, not much!