Quite A Day For Current And Former San Diego GMs

Quite a day, indeed. First, Kevin Towers is hired as the new general manager of the Diamondbacks, and then, a few hours later, A.J. Smith refuses to lower his demands for a Vincent Jackson trade, and is accused by rival GMs as being "the Lord of no rings."

To me, all this feels like a retread. Though he did not get the job at the time, KT interviewed for the DBacks job a few years ago. Nor is this the first time an agent or rival GM, spurned by A.J.'s tough negotiation tactics, has resorted to name calling. I'm pretty sure A.J. isn't weeping about it right now. He, and KT, are probably both celebrating jobs well done.

Though probably not together.

It's Hoyer

So the Padres get Jed Hoyer and the Red Sox might hire Kevin Towers.

Nothing against Jed, but on the face of the deal I'm betting Theo doesn't consider this a downgrade.

More On The 2009 Padres

A couple more things I'm going to remember about the 2009 Padres:

- the new ownership group shelled out a good amount of cash in the June draft to sign Donavan Tate, Everett Williams, Gerry Sullivan, Keyvius Sampson, James Needy and Jorge Reyes; and

- the new ownership group stabbed KT in the back and fired him as General Manager with two days remaining in the season.

My decision to renew my season tickets is now being reviewed.

These Padres Aren't Too Shabby

I did a little reading on the red eye flight back from L.A. and came upon this incredible set of statistics:

- since July 28, the Padres have the 4th best record in all of baseball (22-15 before Sunday night's game against the hated Dadgers);

- the Padres have won nine of their last 12 games; and

- the Padres have won nine of their last 12 series.

That's quite a run by the young Drinos. It's happening with a lot of the same position players who look to make up next summer's roster: Adrian Gonzalez, David Eckstein, Everth Cabrera, Will Venable, Tony Gwynn, Jr., Chase Headley and/or Kevin Kouzmanoff (that will be interesting), Nick Hundley and, until last week, Kyle Blanks. On the pitching side, Mat Latos, Clayton Richard, Kevin Correia and Tim Stauffer - all guys who figure into the rotation mix in 2010 - are pitching well enough to keep the Drinos in ballgames. The bullpen guys - Luke Gregerson, Adam Russell, Ed Mujica, Joe Thatcher, Heath Bell - will all be back next season.

In sum, I'm already stoked for 2010, but I'm just as stoked for the final 3 weeks of the year. Despite today's loss to the Gints, the Padres will be competitive and will have a say in what team makes the NL Wild Card.

Nice job, Kevin Towers, putting together a team with some potential.

Moneyball Movie Script

Finished reviewing Steven Zaillian's December 2008 draft of the Moneyball script.

I'm not gonna lie. I enjoyed it. Paul DePodesta (pictured above) has a key supporting role in the proposed film, as he did in the book, and he, among other characters, has plenty of choice baseball-related conversations, the kind only about a couple hundred thousand baseball fans around the country would really have any interest in watching play out on screen. It's probably for that reason, at least in part, the movie is not going to be made.

Had they shot Zaillian's script, however, methinks my fellow Padre fans would have been a bit perturbed at the final few scenes. I'll summarize the final moments of the script below and you can ponder on them at your leisure:

1. Beane and Red Sox owner John Henry standing at home plate at Fenway with Henry reaching a deal to hire Beane away from the A's, while Bill James looks on from one of the dugouts eating a salami sandwich;

2. DePodesta later calling Henry and convincing him to agree to trade Kevin Youkilis to the A's as part of the deal to hire Beane; and

3. Beane telling DePodesta he's changed his mind and is staying in Oakland and the A's aren't getting Youkilis. DePodesta is disappointed for a second but then says there's a guy in AA Mobile who the Padres don't realize "what they've got." A guy named Jason Bay. Then the movie fades to black as Beane and DePodesta continue to discuss moves for the '02-'03 offseason.

Pretty dicey ending if you ask me. For one, I'm pretty sure Kevin Towers was well aware of Bay's talent. And two, even if he wasn't, I'd rather have Scotty "Bombs" Hairston now than Jason Bay anyway.

They should make a movie about Scotty Bombs.

Now that's something I'd pay to see.