Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton gives us his grades for the San Diego Padres 2011 campaign. Hacksaw grades Jeff Moorad, Jed Hoyer, Jason McLeod, Bud Black, the pitching, the lineup, the bench and the defense.
Jeff Moorad gets a C, which is tough to argue considering I'm not sure what earns you a better or a worse grade. Hacksaw gets on him about buying a minor league team instead of putting that money into the payroll, but personally, I see those things as separate investments. I mean, let's say Hacksaw decided to buy an iPad 2 instead of going to get a modern haircut? Who am I to give him a C on the basis of that? P.S. I love Hacksaw.
Jed Hoyer also gets a C, which I totally agree with. Playing with rentals worked out last year and this year it failed miserably. Aaron Harang and then not a lot else. Cam Maybin turned out pretty good though.
Jason McLeod gets an obvious A for running the best farm system in Major League Baseball (Baseball America be damned).
Bud Black gets an obvious B for alliteration.
The lineup and the bench both get D's, which is true enough. This is easily one of the more forgettable lineups in Padres history and that's really saying something. Alex Smith and I would trade anyone in this lineup for the equivalent San Francisco Giant in a heart beat.
The defense gets a C. I would've given them a B for Buttgrabbing.
Interestingly enough, after calculating Hacksaw's report card, the Padres have a GPA of 1.875, or a C- in most schools. Hacksaw chooses to give them an overall grade of C+, which proves to me that Hacksaw loves the Padres more than most San Diego sports media.