Padres Strength Coach takes job with Mets

The team's strength and conditioning coach Jim Malone just took a job with the Mets after 7 muscular years with the Padres. The Padres' loss leads to a great opportunity for the team to take a good hard look at the way they train their players and hopefully revamp their system.

At the All-Star break XX1090's Craig Elsten suggested the Padres trainers were the first half MVPs. A thesis that made me want to drive across the border, climb XX's radio tower and jump off. The training staff, as hard as they worked, simply failed to keep the players healthy. They'd probably tell you that themselves. The roster was decimated by injuries even more so than in other years. In baseball, it's not the work that matters so much as the results. How much blame the training staff deserves is impossible for me to evaluate, but I can't even imagine giving them MVP honors.

Elsten had a great interview with Will Carroll, the "Injury Expert" (MP3) and I'd love to see the team invest in some of his suggestions. Everything from encouraging use of hand and shin guards to collecting bio-mechanical data at San Diego's local lab. Injury prevention should be the priority with bench pressing contests and tank top fashion shows taking a close second.