Well here we are after a long Labor Day weekend where we watched the Padres courageously defeat their bitter rival foes (who couldn’t care less about the Padres) the Los Angeles Dodgers in a four game series.  The best part of the series was afterwards when local blowhards tried to tell fans of the Padres, a demographic that is certainly not plentiful, how to be a fan.  Rooting against getting meaningless wins which would place the franchise in worse position to win a World Series in the future TOTALLY SUCKS apparently guys.  After all, if there’s one thing we Padres fans should root for is a meaningless series win in a one sided rivalry and not a better chance at the ultimate prize of a World Series victory.  Telling you how to fan, an annoying feature of Padres Twitter since a long while now.  Now onto the hot feature that’s keeping the Internets ablaze.

Day Since Marver Has Actually Written Something: 77 Days

Marver is about as useful as Allen Cordoba.

Gwynntelligence Posts:

Mission: Get Bob Chandler Inducted

I know I included this in the last TWIPT but it’s a cause I really believe in.  Some of the feedback I got was from dickhead millennials that have no idea who Bob Chandler is.  I decided to go on an educational campaign to let them know that they’re being total peniswrinkles.  The other comment I got was that being mean to Bill Center was counterproductive.  To this, I say who cares.  Bill Center is part of the old guard media that thinks anyone without a media credential is worthless scum.  Center has not only been rude and dismissive to me and the Gwynntelligence team, he has been rude and dismissive to all parts of the Padres blogosphere and podcast communities.  Meanwhile, he’s cashing checks from the Padres after shredding his journalistic integrity that he slaved for decades to build.  The pro-Bob Chandler campaign should and can advance based only off of Bob Chandler’s superior merits and accomplishments.  But unfortunately for those of us that value justice and deserving recognition of a great man that has touched the lives of an entire community, we have a total jerk blocking passage so he can force the agenda passed to him from above.  He is a sycophant suckling at the teet of selling out and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Padres in the past few years, the only way to motivate them is through public shaming and embarrassment.  So here we are.

Padres Blogosphere Posts:

East Village Times: Predicting the 2021 World Series Champion San Diego Padres

I’ve selected this not to highlight specifically the work that Campbell Doyon did to write this.  It’s fine.  I’ve selected it to highlight what a difficult task it is to figure out a path to a World Series victory for the Padres given the contents of the system, attrition, and payroll constraints.  Even when we dream of free agent acquisitions, we get this bit of fantasy of what a “championship” team will look like.  This post includes free agent acquisitions of Madison Bumgarner, Adam Jones (who will be 36 in 2021), new 5 hitter Nick Castellanos (who’s never hit more than 20 HRs and has a wRC+ of 97 this season) and resigning of Brad Hand at closer.  Even with these additions, I look at this list and squint, and don’t see a World Series caliber team.  It’s hard.  I mean, this list has Jorge Ona as a reserve outfielder, Espinoza washing out, Morejon not contributing yet in 2021, Cal Quantrill as the #1 starter and Eric Lauer as the #3 starter.  These are not good signs for a future “championship” squadron.  I think a lot of fans see performances in the minors and just start adding a+b+c=championship, but it’s a lot harder than that, and the Padres aren’t doing it in a vacuum.  The Dodgers spent more on international and have a better young core, and on top of that, they had the California League MVP and the Texas League MVP, and those players weren’t even their blue chip prospects.  This isn’t to say it’s an impossible task, more that the work isn’t done, and there is a lot of work and spending that is needed.

Padres Public: Twitter Mailbag: Margot’s Ceiling

As usual, Sac Bunt Dustin wrote a great piece answering Twitter questions.  I think the question of what Margot’s ceiling is is an interesting one.  Margot by WAR is one of the valuable Padres, which given that he is on the Padres, is not that great a compliment.  He’ll end the season with about 2 WAR which is fine, but most of it is coming from defense.  His wRC+ is at a homely 94 right now.  He’s hitting a career high total of HRs, but who knows if that is benefiting from a juiced ball.  I’ve heard Denard Span being used as a comp for Margot before but the thing about Span is his peak was a pretty steady year to year total of a wRC+ of around 120.  For reference, that is a little less than what good (not 2017) Wil Myers consistently produced.  Margot has never hit that mark at any level of the minors above A ball.  So it kind of begs the question of just how valuable he will be.  He obviously has good bat to ball skills to ensure he isn’t a defense only CFer, but it’s really hard to sit down and say “well Margot is going to be one of the elusive 4+ WAR guys”.

Gaslamp Ball: Padres Fire Hitting Coach Alan Zinter

It seems like just yesterday that Padres mlb.com beat writer AJ Cassavell was ordered from above to write a jack off post about how great Alan Zinter was.  In the end, he took the fall for a terrible roster.  But beyond the poor results of a bunch of quad-A players, he seems to be taking the fall for a seemingly organizational philosophy to sacrifice contact and on-base skills for home runs.  Is this that surprising?  AJ Preller is the one who acquired Matt Kemp, perhaps the worst example of selling out for power adding little to no value to a team.  You see it at all levels of the Padres system which tells you it’s not a Zinter thing, it’s a organizational thing.  And here we are at the Major League level, one of the leaders in power but then #29 in offense.  Even with individual power surges from guys like Spangenberg and Margot, they are still terrible as a team at offense.  Unfortunately for Zinter, a man who has incredible hair, he is just the 48th hitting coach forced to take the fall for organizational failures.

The Golden Age of Padres Podcasts:

The Kept Faith: Summer Finale

There was very little Padres talk in this week’s Kept Faith podcast, but that’s OK.  This episode had John Gennaro in to spar with Dallas McLaughlin about Chargers coverage.  I know this is This Week In Padres Twitter, and shut up about the Chargers already and all, but I can’t help commenting.  Gennaro came off great, and I think makes a compelling argument for why he’s doing a Chargers podcast.  If you read between the lines, you see that Gennaro is basically saying he has no faith that the San Diego sports radio market will survive and he’s looking to make a name elsewhere, in this case, in Los Angeles.  This is fine, you gotta look out for #1.  Where he lost me was his defense of Nick Hardwick, and Dallas had some poor argumentation here.  The common refrain defending Hardwick is “he made a decision that he thought was best for his family”.  That’s fine as a reason for why he took Spanos’ paycheck, and everyone is entitled to earn money, but everyone is not entitled to not receive judgement and criticism for those choices.  Hardwick made a name in media for himself by being a spokesman for fans that were wronged by Spanos, by putting the city first.  He appeared as a keynote speaker at the Celebrate San Diego rally largely for his oratory related to choosing loyalty to the city over the Chargers.  His media career locally on 1360 was largely built on this persona as well.  But like any charlatan, this was all smoke and mirrors.  He’s not being criticized for taking a job, he’s criticized for seizing local fans’ emotions, exploiting them for personal gain and career advancement, and then taking a dump on those emotions for more personal gain and career advancement.

The 5.5 Hole: Padres Twitter Is Lit

Aside from ignoring my Twitter question, Eric and Devilish Danny Ortiz did a great job of summing up the week in Padres.  In a lot of ways, the 5.5 Podcast is the podcast I now look forward to (until Pads Pod FINALLY comes back) the most every week.  Not only does it have outstanding cursing, an Adam Carollaesque studio announcer, and regular content, Eric and Danny are really coming into their own on the mike.

East Village Times: James and Patrick

East Village Times: Kyle Glaser

As we can now count on, EVT is still pumping out the quality content.  I listened to the James and Patrick episode and enjoyed the discussion about whether we put Padres prospects on too much of a pedestal.  As is a common theme from me, this is an issue that worries me.  When you think the current prospects are infallible, you advocate for complacency.  This is the attitude that leads to a “hey let’s hold onto a worthless-to-the-future Jhoylys Chacin because we don’t need any more mid-level prospects” attitude.  James and Patrick’s discussion is insightful on the subject.  I have not listened to the Kyle Glaser episode yet, but always find him insightful even though he thinks Rico’s Taco Shop is the best burrito option in Encinitas (it’s not even close to the best).

Tweet of the Week:

And the Jaggy goes to:

Terrible Marver Tweet of the Week:

This tweet’s primary purpose was an attempt at a subtle humblebrag that Marver traveled to see other World Cups.  As we’ll discuss in a future podcast, his travel was likely in coach like a peasant.

Nick Canepa Is An Out Of Touch Irrelevant Old Timer Or Maybe Doing A Bit Tweet Of The Week:

I like when Canepa repeatedly says he has no need to watch the Chargers – I mean Judases – and then has 14 tweets about a preseason game kick returner.  In what should have been a banner week for NCIAOOTIOTOMDABTOTW, Nick surprisngly didn’t have a single tweet about lacrosse.

Catnip for Morons of the Week:

This week, we’re introducing a hot new feature highlighting the tweet that is the best catnip for morons.  Here we go:

Acee is always a source for the primest catnip for morons.  In this city, there is no shortage though.  There is an endless supply.  Here we have noted Artie Lange from Dirty Work impersonator Mike Costa and Steve Hartman dishing some choice catnip for morons:

It’s great!  This is just so great that this is what residents can look forward to having shoved down their throats until these media outlets go under.  Such fun!!!!