StocktontoMalone wrote:I've been wondering(for awhile now) why is it that sports orginizations hold on to ONE star player instead of dumping his large-ass salary and starting over again? When the Sox were trying to get Adrian Gonzalez from the Fransiscans I was thinking that they are only keeping him because he is ethnic(huge ethnic folowing in SD, plus he is a local boy), and the owners are ONLY concerned with the GATE(read: Bottom line), and not in fielding a competitive team. And other teams that are latching on to that ONE star player with no regards for being competitive are opening a new stadium and suspiciously want that, again, ONE huge draw for the GATE.
These teams will never win anything, and will consistantly hover near the basements of their respective divisions. Having that ONE great star player means jackshit when you have a subpar front office coupled with a less than stellar minor league system. And the confusing thing is the local fans fall for the same smoke and mirrors every year.
Gonzalez will not save the Padres, and Strasberg cannot, and will not be the Nats saviour....
Loyalty will only get you so far....sooner or later these players will tire of losing and the money will come second to the hope of winning a WS Ring.
Too bad they'll come to this realization too late and be over 30, thus limiting their options. Gotta love sports business.
Let’s look at the example you brought up. The Padres are not loyal at all and would have traded Adrian Gonzalez if the offer was right. If they were as myopic as you state they would have never gotten rid of Peavy because he was the draw. Adrian is just having his coming out party this year as the face of the franchise. Remember, we are talking about a franchise with one marquee player in its history, Tony Gwynn. Look who they have developed and then traded away Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Ozzie Guillen, Derek Lee, Benito Santiago, Gary Sheffield, Roberto Alomar, Sandy Alomar Jr., Jason Bay, Andy Benes, and John Kruk. This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as that goes.
The Padres are a poorly run mid-level team. The main reason they have struggled the last two years is relying on low level free agents and not developing their own players. Poor drafting is also a big part of this. See Matt Bush as an example. They will trade Adrian Gonzalez within the next three years if they are not successful. Remember they control his rights for another two years and he is getting less than $4 million a year. Marquee player on a budget, to trade a player like this would take a monster offer from another club. Look at what they got for Peavy, 4 top level pitching prospects. The youth movement is working too. They have Kyle Blanks, Evereth Cabrera, Will Venable , and a handful of starting and relief pitchers that have proven they are major league ready. After July 28th they had the third best record in the NL. I would look for them to be decent next year, and if all goes well they will contend the next.
IMO Strasberg can help the Nats, but they have to give them support. There are not too many examples like the situation you are proposing. Most of the have not teams get rid of all their quality players.
