Anyone who knows Ted Leitner knows he has a penchant for excessively utilizing superlatives to describe individuals who don’t deserve those superlatives. If you catch a standard, three-game Padres series on the radio, I’d be surprised if you didn’t hear the term “excellent”, “fantastic”, or “unbelievable” used to describe every single player on the roster. And the roster isn’t good.

Recently, Ted joined Scott and BR on the Mighty 1090 to talk about the Aztecs and then, regrettably, the Giants as World Series participants. What ensued was an insult to the listeners.

Lame Ducks

Within thirty seconds of the discussion on the Giants, Ted Leitner broke into a story about when Sandy Alderson offered Bruce Bochy the opportunity to play out his contract by returning for his final season. Storytelling is probably Leitner’s best asset as a commentator and, unfortunately, accurate fact-reporting is probably his worst asset. Here’s an excerpt from Ted on why Bochy left with a year left on his contract:

Well, of course, nobody does that…nobody comes in as a lame duck with one year.

Ted Leitner, meet Bud Black, the current Padres manager. Bud Black has one year left on his contract. Bud Black is returning as a “lame duck with one year”.

I only wish Teddy meant that Bud Black literally is a nobody, but he kinda shoots that theory to hell…

Buddy’s brilliant and it’s all the lack of talent

In the follow-up to that, Scott Kaplan asks if the Padres made a huge mistake letting Bochy go, to which Leitner obviously says yes. He backs this up by stating that Bochy led the team to division titles, and that fan complaints and the organization were mistaken in allowing him to leave.

Leitner then brings up Buddy Black and says the following:

He’s brilliant. He’s a tremendous manager if he ever gets enough good players.

Hey Teddy, remember that 2006 division title you just cited Bochy for? The following season Bud Black took the same team, had Khalil Greene and Adrian hit 25+ homeruns, had Kouz replacing Vinny Castilla, and got a Cy Young season out of Jake Peavy…and still (barely) missed the playoffs. Since 2007, yes, the talent has been reduced. But let’s not forget that Buddy was given a pretty good team in 2007 – in fact, the highest salaried team prior to 2014.