You rang?
Not going to argue things are skittles and rainbows in the Gaslamp right now, but the backlash is getting out of hand. After watching virtually every Padre prospect bust since Khalil Greene, it's surprising seeing ex Pads make strong debuts but it's still early. Jace is now starting to look more like 2014 Jace, and neither Joe Ross nor Wisler were touted to be this good, so I feel like there will be regression coming shortly. The exception may be Trea Turner - he's a potential franchise MI, IMO.
This is one long, crazy logical fallacy.
Pads played a tough 1st half schedule and a ton of road games,
(53 out of 102 games on the road, nuts) so it was a bad time for Kemp to go into a funk
(Current fWAR of 0.0. Wonder if the arthritis had anything to do with that) and JUp to disappear late in the half. Kemp is back to playing at an All Star level
(Sustainable!) and not coincidentally the Padres are getting close to .500 with upcoming series against the Marlins, Brew Crew, and Phils. Friars should be at .500 10 games from now with a favorable schedule in August and Sept.
(YES! Keep the band tog)ether!)
Was that worth the salary taken on (mostly Kemp at 5/75

, Shields 4/70

, Kimbrel 4/46

, and BJ 3/46

) while dealing prospects that no one had in the top 50? All the recent articles crushing Preller fail to mention that the Upton contract was really only ~ $20M in additional $' since he shipped out $25M in essential dead money in Quentin and Maybin.
Still too much.
Padres are drawing 5k more per game in '15 vs '14. I can tell you that is directly related to Matt Kemp, Shields, and the guns blazing approach to the offseason. Over the course of the season, what's 500k more fans and a positive, optimistic buzz worth to a franchise? (
Started off at ~40k during the weekends, already down to ~35k. Wonder which way that number is headed.) Dave Cameron and Grantland can point to Grandal's WAR and Kemp's defensive liabilities all they want, but when Seth Smith is voted the "Face of the Franchise" on MLB network in November, you've got bigger problems than simply UZR and pitch framing can solve
(like having a GM who doesn't know what he's doing). In the end, baseball is entertainment, and being boring is worse than being mediocre & invisible.
(Or you could just try to build a good team)
Don't get me wrong - I think Preller has made some obvious errors.
(llo) Myers is an abortion in CF
(who saw that coming) and firing Bud Black was perhaps the worst decision he's made as GM IMO
(bad but not in the top 3). But as some who has watched 150 Padre games a year for the past 13 years
(go outside), I have absolutely zero buyers remorse for the offseason moves Preller made
(that's because you have cognitive dissonance), even as he's about to undo a couple of them today. He took a shot
(gun wasn't loaded), will reload
(hypothetically), and take another shot
(can't wait!). And that's light years more interesting than the previous regime who did nothing more than draft poorly and hoard cash.