Random Padres thoughts on Preller, Williams and Dee

Preller

Last week we learned form Buster Olney’s blog that there is at least one team that has ruled out all trades with the Padres and GM A.J. Preller because of the way the Padres neglected to record medical issues in the MLB shared database. Olney says that many other teams will negotiate trades with the Padres very differently going forward. And while the trades with Boston and the Marlins are considered closed cases by the MLB, lawsuits could be aimed at the Padres by other teams.

And there's a river of industry speculation about lawsuits that could result from the handling of players involved in the team's medical-reports misdeed.

While it’s a possibility that teams will hold a grudge and possibly treat the Padres differently, I think this boycott will last only as long as they don’t need to make a trade. Now things could get really interesting if lawsuits start arising, I have a feeling the Padres will be making amends to these other teams out of the public eye.

Williams

We received an anonymous rumor last week that White Sox VP Kenny Williams was seen at Petco Park. It was a fairly harmless rumor. I’m sure executives of other clubs come to the Padres offices fairly frequently. I had no reason to doubt it, except for the conjecture about Chris Sale.

There was further speculation that perhaps Kenny Williams was being interviewed by the Padres for their open CEO position, which sent Twitter into a minor meltdown. Enough so, that the Union-Tribune’s Dennis Lin debunked the theory with a Padres official as a source.

And then he tweets that Kenny Williams wasn’t seen by said Padres official.

Now to me that wasn’t a total denial that Kenny Williams was at Petco Park, it’s just that the Padres official didn’t see him at Petco Park. This may just be my total distrust of the Padres organization as a result of Mike Dee’s reign but I’m not ruling it out that Williams at least made a visit. My personal theory is that Williams could have been at Petco Park due to the White Sox grievance against the team because of the inaccurate medical records. Remember Olney listed them as one of the teams concerned, presumably over the health of James Shields:

MLB expanded its investigation, with the White Sox and at least one other team expressing concern over the information provided to them by the Padres.

Remember that’s just me theorizing and trying to give a reason that puts Williams at Petco Park if it wasn’t for a job interview.

Dee

Apparently there’s already been a lot of turnover since Dee was “departed” from the organization and there will probably be more. Hacksaw says that 14 people have left, but I’m pretty sure not all of those are a result of Dee, I think the end of the season is a time when there is increased employee turnover. I’m not sure if this is the purge of Dee’s people that we’re bracing for.

In the meantime Dee’s old job as CEO has drawn quite a bit of interest from sports executives, they received 70 applications in the first 6 hours. Hacksaw is reporting that the Padres are reviewing 23 candidates at this current time.

I hope the Padres take their time and vet the candidates for as long as they need.