The Matty Bush Era

As most anyone who would read this blog is already aware, the Matty Bush era ended yesterday when the Padres DFA'd him to open a roster spot for Cliff Floyd. The move coincided with reports of a criminal investigation involving an alleged assault by Bush on some high school lacrosse players in El Cajon, CA, a suburb of the Diego.

This afternoon one of the Bevormo's advisors, Tam O'Flannel, a Red Sox fan and general baseball enthusiast, sent an e-mail seeking comment on the situation.

The exact text of my response, sent at 1:59 EST this afternoon, is below:

I think he's safely leading the argument now for worst #1 overall pick of all time, at least since 1965. He still has a chance to pass Brien Taylor and Steve Chilcott and make the majors, but that seems dubious. The kid is no doubt a straight up dickhead, possibly an alcoholic, and maybe even has some more serious personality disorders. It could just be a maturity question but, regardless, I thought the Padres handled it well in giving him a three strikes and you're out policy. It was time to be done with it.

I thought this blog post summed up Matty Bush nicely.

From a baseball ops standpoint, its probably the worst episode of both the Moores and Towers eras, with the handling of Trevor this offseason probably second, and the failure to protect Joakim Soria in last year's Rule V draft possibly third. That's just off the top of my head, there's no doubt been some other bad personnel decisions but those strike me as particularly heinous. The lesson I hope the Padres learned is twofold (1) building through the draft is the best way to build a mid-to-low market team, but (2) you can't be chintz on the draft. It's one thing if you pay for Stephen Drew and he busts, but to try to get a bargain at #1 and then have that player bust is a recipe for a PR, and baseball operations, disaster.

Going forward it is what it is. Matty Bush may catch on with someone and make the bigs as a relief pitcher. Apparently he has some very good stuff. But I think his leash is going to be very short and the fact he is a jabrone will be too high a hurdle. The Padres will move on and, under the policy began by Alderson, and hopefully continued by Moorad, will invest a ton of caysh in the draft and not shy away from spending on a legit high draft pick when they have one. For example, this June.

The one bright side of this whole episode is that the 2004 draft might not end up a total bust. The Padres drafted Kyle Blanks in the 42nd round that year.

And there you have it. That is this blog's view of the Matty Bush era as of 1:59 EST on February 6, 2009.

Prospect Lists A Plenty

Yesterday I pre-ordered one of my favorite annual book purchases: the Baseball America Prospect Handbook. It's kind of overpriced (like $23 bucks or something) for a product you have to buy every year and that is mostly filled with data about players who will never see the big leagues, but it always has a good feel to it and has a good book smell and is packed with information that gets me excited about future Padre teams.

I'm pretty excited to get this year's copy. Mostly I want to see where Kellen Kulbacki (pictured above) and Kyle Blanks rank. I think those two hitters have Major League bats and could see at bats this season with the Big Club. Kulbacki will start the season with AA San Antonio and Blanks will start with AAA Portland. Kulbacki may be a year away but it's possible Blanks will get a September call up so the team can evaluate whether he or A Gon will be the starting 1B for the Drinos in 2010. The other will be dealt - I hope - for a haul of beasts.

Most everyone and their brother puts out prospect lists these days, all the major publications and all the best bloggers included. Some of the best Padre blogs - Ducksnorts, Friar Forecast, Mad Friars (not really a blog), Padres Revolution - all discuss the minors and do it well. (Gaslamp Ball focuses more on the big league club and that's very refreshing in an old-school way.) Of course DePodesta's blog always talks up the minor league players and draft picks and such.

Reviewing the various lists, here are in my mind the three biggest questions about the Padre prospects:

- what was wrong with Matt Antonelli last season? Was it just a fluke? Will he rebound? Even if he does rebound, will he be a star or just an average second baseman?;

- what is the plan for Blanks? Assuming he mashes at AAA like he has at every other level, will they trade him? Give him reps in LF? Trade A Gon?; and

- will any of the injured pitchers make comebacks? Cesar Carrillo, Matt Bush and Nick Schmidt are all first round draft picks who have had Tommy John surgery in the last few years. If one or two or three of them regain their promise the Padres could have a sneaky strong back of the rotation in a few years.

Time will provide the answers to these questions. Let's hope we like the answers.