This is such a ridiculous idea, I'm actually angry that Sandy even commented on it.

The team that has been built, the minor league system being built...all have been put together with Petco Park in mind. Now after four seasons at Petco, management is going to just completely change the entire business plan?

The bitching and moaning about Petco Park has become exhausting. Enough. I can never understand this view that the difficulty hitting homeruns at Petco only affects the San Diego Padres. The fences aren't rolled forward 30 feet between innings for the visitors. Remember last Saturday night against the Cardinals? Pujols at the plate with the bases loaded. He hit a bomb. His first thought was that it was going to be a second-deck grand slam. Instead, it died at the warning track and should (thanks, Terrmel) have been an out. It works both ways.

What worries me about Alderson's comment is that he's obviously floating an idea out there to see what the reaction will be. This looks to me like something that comes down to making a change to sell more tickets because the "fans" want to see more homeruns and scoring. Well, screw that. I'm a Padre fan. I appreciate great pitching and defense. I want to see my guys win...not just hit a bunch of homeruns.

I blame Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko for this entire thing.

Geoff Young wrote an article about Petco over at Hardball Times last December. From reading that article, and just from what I have seen in the last few years, I would be very careful about making changes to Petco. The two things that stood out the most to me from Geoff's article was that Petco in it's first three seasons did not play significantly different than Qualcomm in it's last three seasons. The other things was how much home runs jumped last season. Petco went from dead last in home runs to 16th

What this says to me is that it is not just the park and it's dimensions that are stiffling the offense at Petco. Have you ever watched a day game at Petco? The ball sure flies out of there. Remember the game last year where we got into a slugfest with the Cardinals, and the record for longest homerun at Petco park was set like three times? I would say weather has a big effect here. But, like jbox says, we don't know the how or why of the weather.  What if we move all the fences in, and after all the downtown construction finishes, everything changes and we are left with a Phillies or Rangers-like ballpark? Do we really want that?

Like I have mentioned before, last year we had one of the best road offenses in the league, so I am not sure that our focus on pitching and defense is hurting us on the road. So far this year has been a little different story, but we will have to see how that will play out. I think we just don't have the ideal team for Petco yet. We are getting there though. Obviously Adrian isn't affected too much by the Petco factor, there have to be other players out there like that.

I just don't see the advantage right now of bringing in the fences. We have three winning seasons in a row, looking towards a fourth, and are winning consistently at home. Why turn it into a slugfest? Unless it really starts hurting us, leave it be.

They should do a promotion around it.  Hand em out to the first 30,000 fans.

Pretty much agree with what Drama and osbug said.  I just don't see why you start screwing with this now.  I'm tired of the discussion and like Drama said, it's frustrating to watch Alderson toss the idea out there because you have to assume that's a calculated move on his part to gauge reaction.  As long as the team continues to make it an issue, it's going to stay in the players' heads.

And what if you do move the fences in and, uh, nothing dramatically changes?  Does the discussion get revisited again?  "We didn't move them in far enough.  Hmmm.  Maybe we need just another couple feet.  We'll look at that in the off season."

Ridiculous.  Just get over it.  Leave it alone.  

I am so relieved to hear this initial reaction.  All I keep hearing recently is 'move the fences, move the fences', I actually was going to find a way to bring it up today...
I have no where near the baseball smarts as most of the people who write here but I am so relieved to hear some of my favorite bloggers whose opinions I totally respect, to also be against this move.
I don't understand how it can possibly help.  The away team will not notice?  The (old) park dimensions will be in their head and they won't be able to knock it out too?
I lurrrve the pitchers game.  I love the stolen bases, the doubles and triples, the manufacturing of runs and the diving stops/catches.  The home run ball is great too but not ALL the time.  It is one of the reasons I don't like to watch the jankees play...  there can be a beautiful game going on  only to be entirely negated by one swing of the bat.  It reminds me of the circus where people line up to swing the hammer and make the bell ring; there is no art in that!
I realize that the people that count the money rely much more on the casual fan and will always cater to the firework show that they want to see...  isn't that how we got in this whole steroid mess is the first place?
I have a question for those more connected than I...  It seems to me, run scoring in general has been higher this year than of recent.  Is this true or am I just paying more attention?

No need to add to what they said since they covered it perfectly for me.

As a bit of a geek though - I do like the idea of the weather study!!

We move the fences back about 40 or 50 feet just to screw with people.

Make them moveable! Have a fence that starts about 18 feet closer than what they are now. Every inning, they move back 2 feet.

Or even better, have them move very very slowly like a minute hand so that at the end of 2 1/2 hours they're all the way back and then start coming in again if the game starts going long.

Marcus Giles turns 29 today. Happy Birthday, Marcus!