Padres Prez Mike Dee surprised by pitching staff performance

Padres President Mike Dee interview with Dan Sileo

• Sileo starts the interview with a clip from Padres Chairman Ron Fowler saying that the team is expecting to play meaningful games in October, that internally the team says they're "in it to win it".  Fowler thinks the Padres will have to win over 88 games to make the playoffs.
• Mike Dee is not in a good mood today.  "If it was a fight they might have stopped it in the bottom of the first last night".  To keep it in perspective he says it's just one game out of 162.  Hopefully the team will regroup tonight and split the series.  The team will then come home an face a tough 10 game schedule against the Nationals, Cubs and Dodgers.  "There's no time to look backwards, they need to keep marching forward"
• Dee is surprised that the Padres pitching staff has given up 50 home runs.  The pitchers are missing their spots and they're being punished by good hitters.  Dee reiterates that Darren Balsley is the best pitching coach in baseball.  He thinks the pitchers will figure it out over time.  If he'd been told at the beginning of the season that he'd be talking about the pitching staff giving up 50 home runs he wouldn't have believed it.
• Dee has liked what he's seen so far from Austin Hedges.  His defense has been as advertised.  Dee would be surprised if Hedges doesn't see more time behind the plate soon, but that's Buddy Black's call.  With Wil Myers' wrist injury it may open the door for Derek Norris to play first.
• Dee likes interleague play but he does think that it's lost some of its luster.  The way it's integrated into the schedule presents some challenges for NL teams.  When the interleague games were consolidated into certain time periods the NL could change its roster to better suit them for the series.  Dee would be surprised if adding a DH to the NL doesn't become an issue of debate in the years ahead.
• Dee will see how the season progresses when talking about extending a contract to Justin Upton.  The Padres don't have a forecast of when they'll sit down with Upton and address it, but they'd love to have him as a Padre for as long as possible.  He doesn't know if Upton will fit into GM A.J. Preller's plan with his future market value.
• Dee doesn't know if the Padres will go after Troy Tulowitzki.  As the Padres get closer to the trade deadline and see where they are in the standings they'll try to address issues.
• The Padres will have "maybe the best giveaway in Padres history, the Padres hoodie which is a $30 retail item".

@PadresJagoff Wait, what? Best giveaway ever? This is pretty hilarious.

— RJ's Fro (@RJsFro) May 13, 2015