Scotty Doesn't Know..

Scott Hairston was traded from the San Diego Padres to the Oakland Athletics for two Minor League pitchers, right-handers Ryan Webb and Craig Italiano, as well as a player to be named, also a pitcher, on Sunday. Hairston had no clue, after learning about the trade, he said "It was out of the blue." And it was, Hairston just came off the 15-day disabled list last week, a stretch in which the Padres went (5-11) in 16 games without his service and protection for Adrian Gonzalez. The Padres were (5-8) with Hairston back in the line-up and were so far only (5-7) with Hairston before General Manager Kevin Towers decided to throw in the towel during the 8th inning of Sunday's game against the Dodgers, a game in which the Padres scored 5 runs in the 9th inning to force extra innings before losing in 13 innings.

The point is, the Padres are terrible without Hairston and bad with Hairston and the Padres are sticking with the former, choosing to be terrible without him. The Padres have not only thrown out this year and next, but maybe a few extra years as well. On top of that, it doesn't seem like they want fans coming to the ballpark any longer. Sure the Padres were bad, but all-star Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell are still worth watching. Without Hairston, Gonzo saw his league lead in home runs disappear and Bell rarely got called on to come into the game in save situations. So if not for the season, the Padres should have kept Hairston to at least fill the seats because fans come to see Gonzalez hit and without Hairston, he can count on seeings ball after ball on top of the occasional base on balls.

Hairston also was a fan favorite (he was a 2009 WBC representative for Mexico) and enjoyed his time in San Diego as evident by the descriptions that reporters gave saying he choked up when talking to them, especially when asked about his time in San Diego. Although as a Padres fan I am not happy with the move, based on how the Padres chose to play this chess game, they had to do it. Hairston was inked for 1 year at $1.25 million and although that pays him more than half of the player on the 25-man roster, it was well within their budget. What they should have done was signed him to a longer term contract for about the same salary per year but did not want to take the gamble during a season in which there was an ownership change and attempted payroll sell-off. He is not eligible to become a free agent until 2011, but through arbitration will likely command a larger salary than the Padres would like to pay.

So Kevin Towers did what he could with the restrictions that he was given and instead opted for 3 unproven youngsters with potential and cheaper contracts in the range of $500,000 for the next 6 years. Padres fan might hate the deal now, but to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we will only have to go back as far as 2005. After a career year from Adam Eaton and a productive year from set-up man Akinori Otsuka, both were shipped off to the Texas Rangers for Chris Young, Adrian Gonzalez, and Termel Sledge. At the time, fans were outraged at this move, but currently this has to be looked at as one of the best trades in recent memory and the best that Kevin Towers has made. Gonzalez quickly became the cornerstone of the franchise while Young has proven to be an effective, elite pitcher and No. 2 starter when healthy. So although fans might not be showing up to the ballpark as often as before, let's hope Adrian Gonzalez sticks around and these 3 arms from Oakland turn out to be gem, even if it's just one and this trade can be declared a winner.

Also, fans should see that after this past month, pitching depth is what the Padres need, they have outright lost games early on due to poor pitching.

So goodbye Scotty, goodbye 2009, 2010, hello 2011?

Overpaid Kidd

Jason Kidd signed a 3 yr./$25 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks as we all expected. There were no heavy favorite NBA Finals team in which he could have signed with and he opted instead for the money as oppose to spending a season in New York before the Lebron sweepstakes started. So knowing that Kidd would likely be offered mid-level exceptions and shorter contracts from teams like the Knicks or Blazers,Mark Cuban overpays for Kidd and signs him to a longer contract than he needed too. Kidd is clearly on the decline of his career, in addition to far being removed from his peak in the 2002-2003 season. And if you're incline to bring up his performance in the 2008 Olympics, Chris Paul (CP3) and Deron Williams were more productive although Kidd did provide the leadership that the group needed.

Instead, I think Mark Cuban would have been wise to try and pursue another New Jersey Nets pointguard, no, not the guy that they shouldn't have traded away for Kidd (Devin Harris), but Rafer Alston. Alston had a very productive year for the Rockets and Magics and was a key contributer to the Magics' run before Jameer Nelson's return. Alston would have come cheaper, younger (4 years), and with shorter terms. He would have nicely filled the role of mentor to JJ Barea in that Barea is a career back-up and borderline starter, a role that Alston knows far too well. This would have nicely filled the one-year gap before the 2010 free agents sweepstakes for the Mavs. But as the Kidd signing signals, Cuban is more interested in spending money, making poor decisions, and compiling a potential 50-game winner that will never contend for the NBA Championship in a crowded Western conference than to build a solid young core to potentially contend. Dallas fans are probably wishing Cuban could have bought the Cubs last year and spent this summer worrying about their underperformance as oppose to the Mavericks..

Manny reactions mixed

It seems that with the Padres current 4th place standing in the NL West, the fans have also lost their desire to give steroid users an absolutely harsh reception. Several years ago when the Padres were contending for the NL West (during the Bruce Bochy era) every time Barry Bonds came to town, there were clearly more boos than the mix of boos and cheers that greeted Marry Roid-mirez. I remember seeing games where Bonds was greeted with asterisks made of syringes, signs saying "Ruth did it with hot dogs and beers," and even an inflated syringe thrown onto left field at PETCO Park while being manned by Bonds.

But after two games of hosting Manny and the Dodgers, Padres fan have yet to do anything of the sort. Maybe its because half of the 45,000 capacity PETCO Park is filled with Dodgers fans who made the 2-hour drive down or "Manny being Manny" is accepted as an explanation of the 50-game suspension. I'll chose to go with the former and say that the Dodgers fan filled stadium have continued to embrace the man that declares himself “one of the best players to put on a uniform.” A statement which I will disagree with, as great as he is statistically, he has never and will never be a great outfielder, on top of having never won the MVP award, oh and who could forget, the 'roids.

I hope the Padres fan will step it up and give the fans in attendance during Sunday's game a better idea of what they think of Manny and his cheating. Either that or Dodgers fan will stop cheering for Manny because he's one of their own. Because almost all baseball fans know that they did not treat Barry Bonds with the same kind of love everytime he came to Dodger Stadium. As soon as Manny chooses to bolt for Cleveland or another city for a bigger contract, I'm sure Dodger fans will change the way they praise him, just as his welcome has worn out in Boston, a true baseball town. Dodger fans should be ashame of themselves for cheering their own cheater while booing every other cheater not in a Dodgers uniform. In my opinon, every cheater should be treated the same way. I guess we'll see how baseball fans actually view players who choose to use a little something extra once Manny and the Dodgers go to New York.

Ron Artests' Barber

(check out the masterpiece that Artest is sportin')

Since I'm in Los Angeles and am a die-hard Lakers fan, I've been keeping track of the "Ron Artest signing" since it was gaining steam and announced early afternoon Thursday. After the signing, there were stories from places like Y! Blogs that bashed the Artest signing and articles like ESPN's that declared Kobe the present, Lebron the future, and pushed Shaq to the past a la Kazaam. But none of these stories, poor analysis by Y! Blog's KD or a creative gem like J.A. Adande declaring that "now's the time for Artest," captured the most important detail of the signing.

Will Ron Artest and his barber reach a contract agreement to continue their dominating performance of "cutting-edge" looks and designs displayed on his dome? Or will he sign with Trevor Ariza instead? Rumor has it Ariza might end up overpaying in order to regain the leverage he lost due to Artests' signing with the Lakers. This bid war could be headed deep into the summer.

About this blog..

I am a huge sports fan, high school, professional, and collegiate. So I've come to the conclusion that I simply can't cover every story, nor can I cover them with the depth and analysis offered by professional bloggers (Yahoo! Sports Blog). Instead, I will try to give some insight not given elsewhere, not thought of elsewhere, and not reportable anywhere else - such as being highlight articles on ESPN or Yahoo! Sports.