Padres file Grievance Against Khalil
Heath Bell is the Player Union Representative. He had this to say about Khalil:
"We need Khalil to forget what happened last year," Bell said. "He struggled last year ... and it was like he couldn't get out of a hole. He couldn't really get a day off because we didn't have anyone to fill in for him. But I think that he's capable of bouncing back and having a career year."
I'll take that one step further. I need to forget what happened last year.
Heath is hoping that the grievance doesn't hurt the relationship between Khalil and the Padres. He hasn't talked to Khalil, because Khalil is probably talking directly to the players union. Heath really doesn't have any idea how Khalil is feeling about the grievance.
I guess that's the good and bad thing about Khalil, you don't know how he's feeling. He's not the type to voice his anger or comment at all to the media and in some ways that's a good trait for a baseball player. It keeps him out of a lot of trouble and he won't say anything that will lessen the Padres opinion of him. The only bad is that everybody who isn't involved doesn't get his side of the story, which can be frustrating. It's not really our any of our business though.
It's hard to say if Khalil will bounce back, there isn't really any way of knowing. He's had sporadic success but he doesn't really have the plate discipline to fit the Padres philosophy and kinda lost the mental game by letting the slump get to him.
I thought he was easily replaced by Luis Rodriguez, but who knows if Rodriguez is actually better than Khalil. It's clear that as long as the Padres have Khalil they are going to give him the starting job.
During the season I emailed Bob Scanlan at heyscan@cox.net. I told him that I would take a more rounded player like Rodriguez who may not play defense as well as Khalil but can still play effectively and hit for a higher average. I always heard commentators saying how much we'd miss Khalil's defense once it was gone, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. In my opinion good hitting beats good defense every time. So was Khalil overrated as a total player because of his great defense?
"Scan" <heyscan@cox.net>I think it's more that too much has been expected rather than he is overrated. When he first signed the Padres said they would be happy if he played defense and hit above .220. He did that an now the expectation is that he will hit .265 with 25-30 homeruns and 100 rbi's. Simply asking too much. The defense is great, which is what a shortstop is supposed to do. I like Rodriguez at second base. He is doing great at shortstop, but not sure if he could handle 162 games.
I like Scan, I'll agree with just about whatever he says.