The Padres traded for Miguel Tejada yesterday. Tejada is old and can't hit. That's not your typical blogger hyperbole, it's the truth. Here's Miguel's triple slash line for 2010: .269/.308/.362
Sure, the Padres have had their troubles scoring runs and yes Tejada can play in the infield... but damn, how's he gonna hit in Petco now? We can even add in the fact that the Orioles tossed the Padres $1.1 million bucks, and note that the player they got back isn't all that interesting, and it's still a fairly baffling move. It doesn't matter if what you're buying is really cheap if the item is useless.
One of the better explanations I saw came on Twitter, where Jeff Sullivan said the move was simply an attempt to fire up the clubhouse, which could work because baseball players are actually kinda dumb and are too busy playing the game to actually know what's currently going on. OK, he didn't say it in that many words, but you know what I mean.
(Side note: do you just completely lose contact with your normal intake of news/sports when you travel? Imagine if you spent your entire life traveling? And, when you weren't traveling, you had tons of money and also had to be doing celebrity type things? Would you have any idea even what team Miguel Tejada was on? I wouldn't.)
So anyway, all of this is just meant to say, maybe Guillen will be traded after all. Don't take this as another anti-Moore rant or a personal attack on Guillen, because it's not. I think. I just... want him ... gone. I'm tired of watching Jose Guillen play baseball. I could barely stand Pods, and he was only around for 60% of a season. I often hear people talk about how free agency has hurt the fans because players always move around and blah blah blah. I feel the opposite. I like new things. ("Culture of instant gratification!" scream Hillman/Moore)
By the time Buck and Teahen were playing their last year here, there was a vocal segment of the fanbase that seemed to just irrationally hate those guys. I didn't agree with that sentiment, but I understood it. You get tired of seeing the same at-bat rituals, the same facial expressions, the same kind of results. You go crazy into thinking that you can predict what's going to happen, or that really and truly they do the same thing every time.
Anyway, that's where I'm at with Jose. Next, please.