I don't get to listen to Leitner much, but I happened to catch some of his show last night while looking for information regarding Adam Eaton. He's been saying some interesting stuff.
His current soapbox, and you'll hear it often, is that he hopes that Padres fans are happy, because losing players that we like is what we've brought upon ourselves by claiming this team was "boring" last season. He goes on and on about how he can't believe that the fans didn't sell out the clinching series against the Giants last season. The Padres have only gotten to the postseason a handful of times and it amazes him that people thought the team was boring!
He then will go on to say how he can't possibly see how the team could be boring when we won the division and it came down to the wire against division rivals. Says Leitner, "I hope you're happy, Padres fans! You claimed you wanted a change because you thought the team was boring and management is listening! Just remember, that you wanted this and it showed by the drop off in attendance!"
I'm wondering if Leitner is out of his mind.
Unlike Leitner, I believe that the rest of us can actually remember what happened last season. The Padres won this "exciting" division with a record of 82-80. The Padres team that Leitner thinks we should be sad to see go got blown out so many times that, by all accounts, we should have finished ten games under .500. This is a team where our most "exciting" players were the guys on the bench and in the bullpen. We barely won a division that featured no other teams that could finish with a winning record.
How many times did this team get swept at home? How many times did we see this team squeak out a win and then get blown out the next night against the same guys?
How was this "exciting" again?
Stay strong, San Diego. We don't have to put up with mediocre champions. We want to be king of the world, not king of the backyard. We've given this team their ballpark. If they want us to spend any more of our hard earned money on them, then they have to demonstrate that they're committed to winning and to putting a truly exciting product on the field.
Thankfully, they appear to be doing that this offseason. Regardless of how Leitner thinks it should go.
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