After reshaping the offense to be competitive and give the pitching some support, new Padres GM, AJ Preller, sat back and watched the first 2 months/half go by. The Padres currently sit in 3rd place in the NL West with a record of 32-33, while their offense is only producing a team batting average of .246 and a slugging percentage of .373. Clearly the new revamped offense with Upton and Kemp is not working out, yet they are only 6 games out of first in their division. Despite being off to a rough start, a newly shaped team with tons of talent needs time to develop before thriving. But instead AJ Preller got impatient, and made an emotional decision in firing manager Bud Black.
According to AJ, this move has been thought about for a couple of weeks now, but all in all he is still itchy to shake things up, when it is better to stick with what the Padres got and practice, practice, practice. In Preller’s interview, about the firing, he states that the team hasn’t lived up to expectations, especially the starting pitching, and that was unlike Black’s managerial style, so he decided to see what his other coaches could do. Preller says that after this season, the team will be looking for a manger who better suits the Padres, because the moves made by Bud Black on the field have been questionable.
First of all, going into the season, the Padres were going to have a few holes in the infield anyway, so Black has done all he can by moving players around. Not having enough depth, is Preller’s fault being the GM and all. Secondly, besides James Shields, the starting rotation has been underperforming because Black has been spending more time this season working with the offense; considering that the front office’s main emphasis was producing more runs this year. After Shields, the Padres rotation consists of overrated pitchers, like Ian Kennedy, who hasn’t been anywhere near his top form since 2011. Tyson Ross and Andrew Cashner are still young, finding their game. Lastly, Black has had almost the same roster every year since 2010, so dealing with all the new guys in the locker room and learning their games, is a lot to put on Black’s plate.
Bud has done all he cans the past 4 seasons without much offense. Pitching does win championships, but not without enough run support. When he was hired in 2006, the Padres won the NL West that year, and then won 89 games the next year, and 90 in 2010. During that stretch they stayed very competitive, as they had a decent set of bats. Since the departure of Adrian Gonzalez after the 2010 campaign, San Diego has finished in the bottom rung in offensive production. But, the Padres’ bullpen production has been amongst the best since 2010. For the longest time, the front office did not do much during the offseason to help the starting pitching or lineup, so Black had to do the best he could with what he had. It’s hard to tell how good a manager is when the team has next to nothing talent.
Ever since Bud Black was hired as the Angels pitching coach in 2002, his work with a team’s pitching staff has been positively noted. Despite having a less than .500 career managerial record, Black has been praised for his work with pitching, being a former big league starter himself. Over the past few seasons with the Padres, Black has been noticed for how well he has managed the pen. However, the Padres lack of success has been mostly do to no run support, so this past offseason, new GM, AJ Preller, went out and found a new outfield, as well as adding a slugger behind the plate. He also signed one of the game’s most consistent starters, and best closers. Occasionally a GM will get over excited about the new stars he just added, so his expectations will be high, especially when the team hasn’t had a history of winning. Now it’s June, and the Padres are 1 game under .500, so understandably, Preller is getting a little frustrated and is looking for a scapegoat. Seeing that other teams have been firing successful managers stating that they were not the right fit for the current path of the team the past few years, the Padres have now done the same thing in firing Bud Black. Maybe some coaching changes needed to be executed, but this move was a little dramatic. The Padres were supposed to be good this year, but not necessarily NL West title good. 2016 was going to be their year, so 2015 was the campaign for Bud Black to move the new puzzle pieces around to get this team on track for the Fall Classic; but Preller got impatient.
