The good folks at XX1090 put on a really cool Beer Summit with Jed Hoyer last Saturday and I was lucky enough to attend. How'd I get access to such an exclusive event? Twitter prowess, obviously. Just follow Marty Caswell of the Darren Smith Show and you might get an opportunity to go to a future Summit. Below are some more pics and a few highlights from the conversation with Jed.

It was a very casual and fun atmosphere. All the other people there were quite knowledgeable about the team and had some interesting questions for Jed. However, we didn't just grill him the whole time. Conversation topics ranged from football (he's a lame Pats fan), to movies (I recommended he check out Sugar), to the boorishness of David Wells.

Other good nuggets that I remember:

• Jed is a big stats guy and Sabermetrics geek, since he was pretty immersed in it while working his way up in Boston. Here for the Padres, they're looking for guys high in runs created (RC) numbers, which is more conducive to producing at Petco.
• This is old news now, but he revealed that lefty Cesar Ramos was surprisingly going to start the year in the bullpen.
• Jed gets texts or phone calls from other GMs inquiring about trades about once a week, on average. He was tight-lipped about specifics, of course.
• They will NOT pay Adrian deferred money, should they agree to a big contract extension.

The main question I had for him was about the direction he sees the team going, what his goals are, and would he like San Diego to sort of become his own version of what those jerks have back in Beantown. His response was that he's excited for the future and can definitely see our fanbase getting behind the team once they start winning. I was impressed with the confidence in that statement and now after meeting with our club's GM I share that optimism.

In my mind, for what it's worth, the Padres are in good hands.

We'll end with more pics of white dudes with beer, if you're interested