Burning Off-Season Questions

Much to my lament the Padres are done for the year. The players have cleaned out their lockers at PETCO and are left to ponder what might have been. Nevertheless, it is what it is, and it is time to look forward to next season. Forecasting what the front office will do is very difficult. The free agent market is shaping up to be rather weak, and the market price hasn't been established. I assume that the few established players will be out of reach. I'm okay with that as our starting point. However, that asks the question: What is the starting point, and what are our options?

I've struggled with the order of precedence and format- I'm comfortable that my jabberwocky will meander through the issues. The key to our off-season deals is trying to figure out just how ready our minor leaguers are to join the big league club. I feel as though the status of 2B Antonelli, 3B Headley, and C Morton will go a long way in our makeup. If these players are ready to make the club, it sets up some interesting options. Antonelli takes the starting 2B job and hits lead off. Blum played well - but will be gone. Headley assumes the job at 3B, and Kouzmanoff shifts to LF. That leaves Ensberg as our utility corner infielder. C Morton assumes the back-up job to Bard. If those three aren't ready to step up - you'd have to assume that we'd sign free agents to come in and compete for those jobs. Then, all hell breaks loose, and it becomes a series of long drawn-out equations depending on who we sign and when.

In the outfield, the picture is a little cloudier. However, I'll continue with my leap of faith. With the above scenario, you have Kouz in LF and Giles in RF. CF is up for grabs. I see Hairston and Lane as the 4th and 5th outfielders. I think that the first course of action is to attempt to resign Cameron (however, I don't see that happening). For that matter, I don't see us able to afford the other Free Agent Center Fielders (Jones, Hunter, Rowand, and Patterson). Lofton and Edmonds are too old. Milton Bradley isn't a center fielder and won't be ready until sometime next year. Bottomline is that solving the CF position is going to be very difficult. The need for a polished defender at PETCO is well documented. Would I sign Bradley? It really depends on how much he wants and for how long ... 4 million or less per year and no more than 2years ... yes. Therefore, I see us with 2 catchers, 6 infielders, and 5 outfielders.

Moving on to the pitching situation: Really quick and dirty - bullpen remains largely the same, and we have two spots open in the starting rotation. I feel that one will come from within the organization and the other from free agency. My bet is that either Josh Towers of Toronto or Tomko (who ended the year with SD) are first in line in the free agent category. As far as in house for the final spot? - Germano, Thompson, Stauffer, Ledezma, LeBlanc, maybe the AAA kid we got from Atlanta for Ring, or the AA pitcher we got from Milwaukee for Linebrink. Carrillo, Schmidt and Hensley should also be added to that mix. However, they all are recovering from surgeries, and it is doubtful that they will be ready for the opener. Any way you slice it up, it will come down to Spring Training for the starting rotation to work out.

The fact remains that we have some potential back logs in the minor league system - a nice problem to have. I think that we might see some moves from KT involving trades of minor league talent for players that won't make an impact this year (read SS and CF). I guess what I am trying to say is that we will be active this off-season, but it won't be for the marquee players that the majority of supposed SD fans want to read about. Overall, I see the make up of the team very similar to the make up this year.