The Padres announced Monday that they’ve fired pitching coach Larry Rothschild. Bullpen coach Ben Fritz will step up as the pitching coach for the remainder of the 2021 season.
“Larry has been a tremendous asset for our organization over the last two seasons, and we appreciate the experience, hard work and dedication that he brought to the position,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said in a statement within today’s press release. “We wish him nothing but the best in the future.”
Rothschild’s ouster comes after a weekend in which the Padres were overtaken by the Reds for the second Wild Card spot in the National League. San Diego has been in a freefall in the standings, losing nine of the past 11 games due in no small part to woeful performances from a pitching staff that has not lived up to expectations in 2021. The Padres have yielded an average of 5.91 runs per contest across that 11-game swoon.
Even beyond their recent slide, the Padres’ pitching staff simply hasn’t been as dominant as many would’ve hoped on the heels of an active winter. Joe Musgrove has taken his game to new heights and Yu Darvish has performed well, but San Diego starters rank 17th overall with a 4.37 ERA this season.
Left-hander Blake Snell, a marquee offseason acquisition, has had the roughest season of his career, recording career-worst marks in ERA (4.82), expected ERA (5.62) and walk rate (13.7 percent). Rookie Ryan Weathers has been hit extremely hard of late and is sitting on a 5.83 ERA. Young Chris Paddack, meanwhile, had a brilliant debut in 2019 but has struggled since Rothschild’s hiring prior to the 2020 season. Paddack posted a 3.33 ERA in 140 2/3 innings as a rookie but has a 4.97 mark in 152 innings since. That certainly can’t all be pinned on Rothschild alone, but the timing couldn’t have helped Rothschild’s cause.
Fritz will hold things down for the remainder of the season, but Rothschild’s dismissal means there will be a search for at least one spot on the coaching staff this winter. The fate of others on the field staff could well be tied to how the team performs in the coming weeks. It’s unlikely that there will be major turnover at the top of the baseball operations department, however — not after A.J. Preller was promoted to president of baseball operations and extended through the 2026 season back in February.
Somebody’s has to be held responsible
Yeah god forbid it is Preller. Please let that guy continue to run things like a fat kid in a candy store with $100. It’s amusing.
Totally. The Owner has made a big mistake allowing that GM to spend the way he does.
This squad is not destined to win Championships. Way too many Divas.
Care to explain?
No completely wrong. The owner is the one okaying the trades, the money spent, the direction of the franchise. Every single “expert” gave compliments to management for spending when all others were conserving. Where was your take then? No what happened is the managerial staff is pathetic, pitching and hitting, they have not developed from the minors, and injuries have piled up especially on the pitching staff. AJ had the go ahead and everyone was giving him praise over the winter, can’t blame him for that or the money the owner decided to spend. Coaches have sucked and yes, even players have to take ownership they have not performed. Looking at you Myers, Hosmer, Profar, Kim, Snell, Paddack. Preller did his job, period, the players have to look themselves in the mirror and ask have they? Because losing the way they have since June to some of these teams like Colorado, Arizona, Florida leads one to believe they did not put in an effort against these teams like they should have.
Preller made bad decisions and traded away many very valuable players. Quantrill. Patino. Well, really everyone that went to the Rays for Snell. That trade was a complete cluster. First thought that came to mind for me was BOHICA.
Preller picked up Snell who had a history of being a 4 inning starter that nibbled the corners and put up a 4 ERA. The Padres got that starter. That is on Preller.
Darvish had a history of being a 3.70 ERA starter that only pitched about 75% of the time because of injuries. The Padres got that starter. That is also on Preller.
With Abrams coming and Tatis manning shortstop and Cronenworth at 2B there was no need for Kim and no place for him to play regularly. And because they kept him in the majors he had no time to develop in the American game. That is on Preller.
Lots of blame to go around, but a heaping portion needs to be laid on Preller’s plate.
Divas? Not really. Just kids having fun. They need pitching and everyone knew it. This team has always lived in the shadow of the Dodgers. Since 1969. But they have some pieces in place. The infield is good. Pitching is the issue, but there’s no divas.
What is their record before and after they started using the Swag Chain?
You are blind if you think there are no divas.
Excellent points!!! I told everyone ALL of this BEFORE the season started when everyone was calling A.J. Preller the greatest GM in the game. Two weeks ago I gave out more FREE MONEY …. Remember, I told you to fade both the Mets and Padres ….. FREE MONEY!!!!
Vanmorrissey:
No. Only a few, meddling type owners, want to be involved with every trade/acquisition. Typically, for good teams anyway, the owner stays out of the way unless their approval is needed for a mega-deal, or to exceed the budget.
TBH, I don’t know if Seidler is a meddling owner or not, but if he is, that would be a good reason for their fading away. But, if he’s a more typical managing partner, then Preller is the one that has to wear their disappointing season.
Where were my takes to this effect at the time? In the comment sections for the posts on those topics.
Yes, divas. They haven’t won crap, but bat flip like they’re the ‘27 Yankees.
Who cares about the Swag Chain, How about win a WS before you start acting like you are the 1927 Yankees.
LOL
Don’t forget the “tremendous” contracts of Hosmer, Meyers, Pomeranz, Clevinger, Kim, Profar, etc that Preller signed or traded for. I hated the Machado & Tatis Jr contracts and Padres fans will in a few years too
You lost me at “Just kids having fun.” Hopefully, that’s the stupidest thing I read all day. Grow up.
Its under .500
I have never understood the preller hate. He has done a good job. The Hosmer signing being the biggest blunder. Great at trades. Every gm makes some big mistakes
@johnrealtime No he has not done a good job. If he were to get fired he would not get another GM job.
johnrealtime
Great at trades
========================================
He’s lost most of his trades. He’s gotten some talent back, but virtually every trade has added salary and made the team older, but not necessarily better.
Had they simply kept Reyes, Urias, Renfroe, Margot, Quantrill, Lauer, Patino, Mejia, and France, would they be even one game worse off? And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of how much payroll they took on, and how many minor leagues prospects they gave up.
That’s 3 current starting pitchers, a complete outfield, two infielders, and a catcher.
This is one of the best comments I’ve ever seen on here.
Hmmm, Padres are now 5th in attendance for home games in MLB. That’s a far cry from years past. GM’s are business people, just saying
Preller gave LR Blake Snell, Chris Paddack, Joe Musgrove, Dinelson Lamet, and Yu Darvish.
Pretty strong group of arms to work with there.
Can’t blame Rothschild for Blake’s woes. There is a reason why the Ray’s shipped him out. Poor attitude and can’t make it past the 5th.
As a general rule don’t trade with the Rays, they know more than you do. Just ask the Pirates
Winning in baseball or other professional sports equals successful business practices. If that’s the measure tell me how successful Pads have been?
Cronenworth has entered the chat
Paddack is awful. Not even the Marlins are losing sleep over that anymore
Most starters only go 5 anyway, but the attitude has always been an issue. If he wins, mgt looks past the bad attitude.
Paddack is not awful. Paddack is the victim of too many different people telling him he needed to change after a very successful rookie year.
Then Rothschild came in and told him he needed to start working the corners of the plate instead of living high in the zone with his 4 seam fastball and asked him to start throwing a cutter and increase the use of his breaking ball in hitters counts.
In the games where Paddack relied on his 4 seam FB up in the zone and his changeup and curve low in the zone he did well. When he tried to work to corners he got in deep counts and got hit hard. He also had a bit of bad luck as his BABIP was .326 this season. His 3.73 FIP and 3.72 xFIP tells the story well. He is a good back of the rotation starter.
Sonny Gray can tell you how Rothschild’s meddling can ruin a pitcher’s season. Well, LR did it to Paddack too. Paddack just got better just by Rothschild leaving.
If Snell could consistently go 5 that would be great. He averages under 5 IP per start.
Snell = 4 inning guy with big strikeout numbers and little else. #3 starter at best right now. Chris Paddack??? C’mon. He has never proven anything. I bet against him every time he hits the bump! Joe Musgrove – Joe Musgrove was a solid move. Lamet – Will never be healthy enough to ever factor. Darvish = Choker in clutch situations who is always hurt. Pitches like Cy Young when nothing is on the line. “Pretty strong group of arms” – No Not Really
Padres have done very well for a team not that far away from rebuilding. Give it time. They’re a good team. Better than most, so, yea, they’re successful.
For real. Good point @Brewers1. If TB is looking to deal someone it’s either because they want a big contract or there is a huge red flag. Opposing GMs should tread carefully.
Half of those fans in attendance are dodger fans
2018 is the most innings Snell has ever thrown in a season, there were 29 starters that threw more innings than him that year. If you want to say most pitchers only go 5, fine – I’m too lazy to check if that is true for starters in general over a period of time, but most good pitchers (which Snell was thought to be) throw more innings than Snell has. So I don’t think just dismissing the very real concerns about the number of innings he throws is a valid argument against that point.
Paddack was a two pitch pitcher who the league started figuring out in the second half of 2019. At least Rothschild made him throw his curve more, because he was getting lit up throwing his fastball to the same spot middle-up in the zone, and his changup to the same spot in the middle of the zone.
Paddack can’t locate his pitches, and he blows up when he gets in trouble. That’s not on Rothschild.
Well hang on now. It’s not like TB are going to trade their closer in the middle of a competitive season and have him just fall apart…
Having multiple years in a row with top 5+ top 10 picks and a near luxury tax paying payroll can take anyone out of a rebuild…
Rothschild and bad catching are the issues.
What does being 5th in attendance have to do with winning anything? They still haven’t won squat in 55 years yet their players and fans act like they own MLB.
Pham, Cronenworth, Willy Adames, Bobby Abreu disagree.
To be fair if you are the pirates a lot of guys know more than you do.
I get he doesn’t have the stamina but…what do you mean big strikeout numbers and little else….isn’t that a good thing if that’s all he brings to the table as a pitcher?
So you’re saying he needs an opener. SMH the Rays. Just… the Rays.
The whole “the rays know more than everyone else” take is overstated… every friend of mine who follows baseball couldn’t believe when Pitt shipped meadows and Glasnow for archer, who was always a K guy and not much else. Pretty sure most teams would never have done that trade if average joes like us knew it wasn’t smart from a baseball perspective. Before a couple of years ago, TB was a mediocre team who wouldn’t invest in players, and then underachieved in the playoffs until the shortened season last year.
Paddack will be back to a mid-3s ERA in 2022. Book it.
Paddack was always a 3 pitch starter. FB, Change, Curve.
Give them time? They’re already there. This team is designed to win a championship. Sad, but true.
It’s funny on this site to see people post the same slanderous stuff about players as they do on other sites, lol. Preller has made mistakes just like every other GM in MLB. What is also true is that he has raised expectations of Padres fans by acquiring talent system wide every year he has been in San Diego. AJ was also instrumental in building the Rangers Farm System of the early 2010’s. The Padre system had very little talent system wide when he took over. The Turner/Ross trade did not turn out well, but most of you talent evaluation experts on here would have made a trade of prospects for a former number 1 overall top 100 MLB prospect who was also rookie of the year [The Padres had no apparent star in which to build their franchise around]. Preller did make up for that by getting Tatis as the corner stone Padre star for the next 13.5 years. The Padres had 5 all-stars on the 2021 roster and used the farm system to get a sixth one. I would say that is a pretty good run by a GM you emotional expert’s want to run out of town. Even with all of the trades [many of which the Padres would have lost in the rule V draft anyway], the Padres still have 5 top 100 MLB prospects. Preller is not going to win every trade. I would say getting Cronenworth, Tatis, and Grisham cancel out moving Turner and Quantril. I can hardly wait for the arm chair experts to drag Preller when a few of those prospects traded for Darvish turn out [they will] to be pretty good. The next 5 – 10 years look pretty good for the Tatis led Padres! 2021 has been a disappointment, but given the performance of previous Padre GM’s, I definitely keep AJ.
@libertyfighter They weren’t going to lose anyone to Rule 5. Space could have been made. An easy way to clear two spots would have been by not wasting them on Luis Campusano or Ryan Weathers a year ago.
Oh and Turner and Quantrill weren’t traded for Crone, Tatis and Grisham.
I’m pretty sure the dude’s talking about the net results from trades that other commenters were mentioning.
Judging AJ by the previous Padres’ GMs is foolish. Judge him by his peers and well, he’s not terrible (nor deserving of getting fired yet) but the mistakes are pretty alarming at this point.
Note: The Tatis trade does get Preller some credit, but that’s stealing from a bad GM. Let’s not judge by that measurement either.
@bridd If we wanna talk about net results he’s lost way more than just Turner and Quantrill. And gained more than just Tatis, Crone and Grisham to be fair.
@liberty … So how man more years do you want to give him? He’s going into his 8th.
Oh please
Not only has Preller picked top 10 every year before last, but in 2016 he had 3 of the first 25 picks! A monkey could have drafted the number of successful mlb players Preller has drafted
That’s not a very high number..
And of that list, the majority broke out after being traded from SD
I’d say there’s a 0-10% chance Tatis is still a Padre in 5 years
@chazz How do you figure boy?
@SpaceJamSucks
Hahn a bad GM? Haaaaaa Mr smarty pants, so you mean the same guy who’s team has better record than Padres and probably 500 million less in payroll obligations than Padres in next 6-9 years? Tatis was I think 18 when he was traded and not a top rated prospect. Tatis is a star but he’s also made of glass. Tim Anderson was the White Sox shortstop of the future. TA also under contract for something like 305 million dollars less then Tatis nowadays too so yeah I’d go with TA all day over injury prone Tatis and that contract. I know TA missed last few games cause of “soreness” too so stand down children!
A monkey! I know just the one! Little dude’s name is Mikey. Hes some kind of Squirrel Monkey. Meet him at a resort. Jumped down onto our picnic table and dropped a bright orange duece on it. Would so pay to watch him run a draft.
Probably same people that complain their gm’s don’t take any risk.
Preller has made many moves, some wins and some loses. But, overall he reshaped that farm and made Padres a contender when healthy.
I think any team would take that, especially given Padres recent years prior to Preller.
It was a good farm when he got there.
As a fat kid in a skinny kid’s body, I’m blushing with shame.
It’s never going to be Preller. The media and fanbase is in his pocket because he loves to make a lot of trades. Just look at the Clevinger trade. I was told they just moved depth pieces/spare parts for him. Yeah sure, yall definitely don’t miss Quantrill right now…. Even his gold trade Tatis is cancelled out by moving Trea Turner. Mediocre GM who can’t hold a candle to Friedman or Zaidi
Indians are very good at developing pitchers and getting the most out of them.
No guarantee quantril would be having the same success in San Diego.
But Padres should definitely look into hiring a guy from the Rays or Indians to be the next pitching coach. They just seem to churn out results.
Well who’s fault is it that the Padres can’t develop pitching? Would you expect the GM/ President of baseball ops to have some kind of responsibility for that? Only 4 GM’s in baseball have held their job longer than Preller, what has he done to deserve that?
So you’re blaming injuries on Preller? Cause not sure what he could have done differently to prevent injuries to guys like Morejon and Lamet among others who have been injured this year.
If you’ve got some inside eastern medicine way to prevent Tommy John surgery and increase pitcher durability don’t hold back on us man. Share with the class.
They knew Lamet was hurt before the season. Let’s not act like that it was some huge shocker.
The Dodgers lost Bauer and May
The Rays lost Glasnow
The Mets have struggled with DeGrom
Braves lost the best player on their team to injury
At some point you have to quit making excuses, it’s a results based business. Preller could have went out and got some kind of rotation filler at the deadline. Zach Davies etc.
So you dont have any new insights to prevent injuries. Cool.
Injuries happen. It is what it is. Just one of those seasons. But it’s silly to blame pitching woes due to injury on the gm.
The Indians magic is starting to wear off a bit too.
As expected. You can’t keep pumping out the kinds of arms they have been. Looks like Cal may be a good one for them though.
Ruben Niebla from Cleveland should be the guy they look to and hire.
Ruben Niebla from Cleveland should be the guy they look to and hire. We have had zero ability to develop young arms while he has helped them continually to crank out over achievers.
Is he their current pitching coach? Are you an Indians fan? What more can you tell us about him. Peaked my interest.
indians magic hasn’t worked too well for the Twins. Falvey was supposed to be a pitching genius….not so much
But it’s ok to blame the pitching coach?
Must’ve missed where they blamed Rothschild for the injuries.
Seems more like his failure to adapt to the new age of analytics that got him canned. Happened before in NY.
@Faith in the Padres If that is the case then what you need to do is fire the development staff and bring in guys who know what they are doing. Not trade Quantrill for 10 cents on the dollar.
@Faith And the next GM. Preller is on the hook for this team and if they miss the playoffs after and epic collapse, he is toast.
Pads Fans is Koamalu and outinleftfield
He is with the big league team as their pitching coordinator. He has worked his way thru their system over the past few years. Kluber, Beiber, and Clevinger have specifically named him as key in their development.
Wow that’s high praise for sure. Padres should definitely take a look at him.
So now if Preller trades away pitching prospects that develop, it might not be his fault because they wouldn’t have developed like that in SD? If he trades away prospects that bust, should we consider that it might still have been a bad trade because they could have been good in SD? How far do you take that?
@Faith … just knock it off. The Padres were having to throw bullpen games in April, and Preller did nothing to fix it. The injuries suck, but they weren’t surprises. Especially Lamet, because he came into the season injured.
(I guess we found Preller’s burner account!)
Mickey Callaway should be looking for a job soon.
You keep insisting it’s only injuries
Musgroves decline is not injury based. Paddack’s… and Snell’s… inability to get thru a lineup 2x isn’t injury woes.
That is part of the overall strategy, they spent the money and prospects they did in the offseason knowing that they couldn’t afford to do a lot at the deadline. It sold a lot of jerseys and gave a lot of press but hurt them when they didn’t have the resources at the deadline to do anything.
Did Preller not trade for Clevinger who almost immediately was lost for like past 18 months to injury? So I don’t expect Preller to be a doctor or whatever but he’s blown a lot of coin on injured pitchers. Darvish will be next waste of money.
The Padres fired the pitching coach, meaning the team necessarily agrees that the pitching woes are due to more than just injury.
Scapegoat
Wow building a team like a kid on mlb the show isn’t working out with the Padres? Weird. Maybe they should trade for another rotation this winter. If you have to trade for a entire rotation you aren’t close to being a sustainable winner.
Rothschild just never kept up with the times.
What exactly does *that* mean, Joe Says??
Like Hosmer, Rothschild isn’t big on analytics. Very old school approach to pitching. Which is why the Yankees fired him too. He’s experienced and definitely been around a while but he’s a relic in a new age.
The White Sox went down this road too with Don Cooper. He’s a smart pitching coach but didn’t exactly take a modern day approach. They brought on the much younger Ethan Katz and so far the results have been tremendous.
That’s not why they keep getting injured lol. Honestly they are in hot water paying this much money for players just to barely make a playoff spot, even when they know they have this many injuries. Just saying…
Partly it is why they keep getting injured. The biggest part is Preller putting his faith in often injured players. The other part is that Rothschild asked these pitchers to add new pitches to their repertoire and to change their routines.
The only pitcher that “added” a pitch was Paddack, who added a cutter. And that puts the same stress on your arm as a fastball, because — it IS a fastball!
Isn’t that what pitchers on the pirates said happened when they started their slide, that the coaching side was taking guys and trying to mold them to their philosophy tater than embracing the strengths of those pitchers? I believe both archer and cole said similar things.
Bring back Balsley
How is Larry the scapegoat? This reeks as a move of desperation.
He has been atrocious. Since Larry took over, he was given pitchers who are considered aces and proceeded to run them into the dirt. He was never able to help or work with pitchers, especially young ones.
Compared to Darren Balsley, he’s a joke. He didn’t seem like he could motivate or work with pitchers.
Aces? I never ever considered Snell to be an ace. Darvish? Maybe 10yrs ago. And herky-jerky from Cleveland never got a chance to pitch. Don’t attack me on spin rates because i havent looked them up but Musgrove has been rather pedestrian since the sticky stuff crackdown. Lamet is good but always injured. Its late August and its way way too late in the season to make a change at pitching coach. Its a move of desperation. It won’t help. And your GM gets a free pass for life because one of his trades uncovered Tatis
You never considered Snell an ace? Lol, he just won a Cy Young. Your assessment doesn’t hold much water and no one cares what you have to say.
Aces…by the “media” that needs to generate clicks and homer Padres fans.
@Damascus …
So why hasn’t Balsley ever been seen on one of those “Best pitching Coaches” lists or articles? ESPN and SI are fond of those meaningless things, but don’t you find it odd he’s not that well regarded?
@SdHotDawg You answered your own question. Because those lists are meaningless.
… or they never were really aces to begin with…
Why was he hired in the first place? He ruined Sonny Gray. The “playing in NY” doesn’t really fit cause Gray went to a worse ballpark in CIN and has faired well.
Firing a coach mid season usually is desperation
You answered your own question, bucsfan.
“Larry has been a tremendous asset for our organization over the last two seasons,” but …
Exactly… he’s been such an asset that we’re not even going to let him finish the season.
Just a bunch of BS hypocritical public relations propaganda by BS hypocrite propagandists.
Rothschild, put, that coffee, down
What they’re saying is they think he’s one of the top few hundred pitching coaches in the entire world, which means he’s pretty darn good at his chosen profession. Better than 99%+. Deserving of respect for his efforts and dedication. Just not good enough for a major league job, which is only for the very best of the best.
Was LR responsible for signing Hosmer and Meyers to god awful, unmovable contracts?
Hosmer and Meyers contracts = poor SP performances… ??
Hosmer + Myers contracts= Reason the Padres can’t spend anymore money
Myers is a free agent after 2022 and Hosmers contract converts to 13 mill a year after 2022. Those contract didn’t stop them from adding in 2021. Probably wont stop them from adding in 2022 for a year. Theyre not the reason and have almost 0 impact on their spending long term.
Hoz is the reason Gallo isn’t in SD right now. So there’s definitely an impact.
35 million dollars of toilet production impacts the roster and what you can do.
LOL, Wow. Just Wow.
You don’t think the $40m owed to these two in 21 and 22 is affecting their spending? That’s funny.
How about the $7m/ year they are paying to both Profar and Kim? That’s free money too?
Not what you said, remember
“Affecting their spending” =/= “Reason the Padres can’t spend anymore money”
Moving the goal post I see.
Yes. They do affect spending but doesn’t prevent them from spending more money.
No. They aren’t the reason Padres can’t spend anymore money.
Stick with one argument. Strong chance they’ll spend money in 2022 with them on the books like they did in 2021.
For remainder of this year they took on Frazier, Marsinick, and Hudsons remaining salary.
Frazier has 1 more arb year and that will be around 6 maybe 7 mill. His was 4.3 this past year.
Impact? Sure.
“Reason the Padres can’t spend anymore money” no. Which was clearly false since they did add money at the deadline and on the books for 2022 via Frazier.
@JohhnyBets67 Gallo has a .669 OPS since coming over to NY so bullet dodged there
They are at the luxury tax threshold. The $54m they are paying to Hosmer/Myers/ Profar/ Kim this year helped them get there.
I can explain it for you, but I cannot make you understand. Sorry.
You said: “Reason the Padres can’t spend anymore money”
With Hosmer and Myer already on the books
Padres added money before 2021
Padres added money during 2021
Padres added money already before 2022 via Fraziers final arb year.
They’ve already committed money after you claimed they couldn’t spend anymore.
Pick a better argument instead of sticking with the one you’re failing at and that’s easily proven false.
Padres spent HUGE amounts of money. Did you miss the fact that they are over the luxury tax?
While the Padres have been collapsing since the beginning of July, Hosmer has been hitting .300/.900 and Myers ..270/.830. No blame can be placed on them for the team withering at the plate since July 1st.
And money comes off the books every off season in case you forgot.
Pham, Johnson, Kela, Stammen not to mention potential cuts like Dan Altavilla (TJS), Trevor Williams and others.
Currently theyd have about 46 million in 2022 before hitting 210 mill per Sportsrac
Theyre over? Sportsrac shows them at 1 mill under 210 mill.
Its sad when people comment without paying attention to what is actually happening on the field.
Hosmer hit .370/.953 in July and has hit .300/.900 since the beginning of July. In no way is he part of the Padres collapse over the past 2 months. His .277/.743 is above average production at the plate. But hey, he is the reason the Padres are not playing well.
Some people.
Should have never traded for Pham. Should have traded for just Crone and let them keep Pham. That way we could still have Godfroe.
For the CBT they are $4 million under. Still a huge amount for a small market team to spend.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hUvYNZODpusJEJQm41…
Hosmer is a 0 fwar player this year…winning more games earlier in the season still makes them a better team than they are now, it’s not only games during their collapse that you can pretend count to their overall record, so I’m not sure why you’re only focusing on that time period.
So 99, a payroll threshold they won’t cross Has nothing to do with the TWO 300M contracts on their infield? Hahaha ok
Look at their tv deal. They’re no small market. What a crock
Just because they’re not as big as LA doesn’t mean their market is St Pete, FL
99- “Hosmer + Myers contracts= Reason the Padres can’t spend anymore money”
Hosmer and Myers aren’t 300 million contracts McCourt.
Swing and a miss. You should probably read who we are talking about before commenting next time.
If you want to lump Machado and Tatis into the ignorant spending bucket I’m fine with that. I never said those examples should be excluded. Certainly Tatis is worth some $$$ but they didn’t have to go so extreme & Machado still looks to me like probably the last guy I’d want to give $300m to.
So sure, throw in two more reasons AJ Preller is a total fail. Anything that will get the guy fired I’m fine with. Noone has been more praised for doing so little maybe in the entire history of baseball.
LOL. The Padres.
In all seriousness, if Tingler gets canned at the end of the year, Bruce Bochy would be an excellent replacement.
This is exactly what will happen.
1. Tingler’s job is safe as long as Preller’s is.
2. Bochy retired.
And San Diego would be the perfect spot for him to come out of retirement, ya know. He’s got a little bit of history there and think the still owns a house?
House in SD*
Bochy has lived in Poway since the 80’s.
And Balsley grew up in San Diego.
This seems like a scapegoat move. The responsibility lies with the players.
Are you a Cubs fan or other AL Central team fan? Trying to figure out why you would take the time to copy my name and show that you do not like the white Sox. Explain
Narcissism thread…move on
Maybe he just doesn’t like the White Sox, a team that never should have existed, has the ugliest park, and has the most boring colors in all of baseball.
That’s a dumb statement.
fsrasmd… ever been to Oakland? I’m not a White Sox fan but I went to a game at Guaranteed Rate Field last month on a visit to Chicago and it was a great experience.
Agree. GR Field is an underrated ballpark. Always enjoyed it.
@fsrasmd
Is this art class? “The most boring colors”. Some people never cease to amaze me! Iverson once famously said, “we takin about practice” now it’s “we talking about boring colors”.
The responsibility for changes in player performance because of changes dictated by the coaching staff lies with the coaching staff. Hence the firing of Rothschild.
You greatly overestimate the importance of a pitching coach.
Thank you!! This dude is old school and was never the right fit for today’s game. Darrel Balsley was better than LR and should never had been replaced, unless it was for someone who could manage a pitching staff in today’s ballgame. Balsley may not have been the answer, but he was a lot better than LR!
Balsley would take castoffs and other pitchers at the bottom of the barrel, and turned them into cy young pitchers.
6820 – Just curious, how is “today’s game” different from yesterday’s game?
Because in “today’s game” we have access to information never available in “yesterday’s game.” Those who bury their heads in the sand thinking that decades of experience with the “old school way” will work are doomed to failure in 2021. Those who embrace analytics and advanced metrics, as well as modern sports training techniques will thrive while old guys like LR fail.
Not necessarily true. TLR and Dusty are self-professed old school guys and they’re doing just fine.
The Astros are one of the most progressive NEW SCHOOL teams in the majors. They are all about the analytics.
The Astros are even new schooner cheating techniques.
How many times has Dusty “retired” because he was getting fired and that sounded better?
What, 6820, is “today’s game”?!
Balsley was an average pitching coach. He had far more fails than successes.
lol
With that pitching staff you shouldn’t need a pitching coach. It’s the injuries, not the coach! Preller had to make a move and he wasn’t going to fire himself.
Please, please, please let Damion Easley be next.
Padres fire trainers & starting rotation for non-arm related bruises.
Never understood how Larry Rothschild held onto a job as a pitching coach after ruining the careers for Kerry Wood and Mark Prior during his tenure with the Cubs!
I’m sure when they were throwing curves and sliders at 13, 14 and 15 years old, that had nothing to do with their arm issues later in life. Eye roll here.
Disjointed: But wasn’t Larry the Babe Ruth League AND high school coach AND minor leagues pitching coach AND manager for both Wood and Prior?!
Sonny Gray too in NY.
Move means nothing if Preller isn’t following right behind him
B I N G O
Fan base needs a serious come to Jesus moment. Preller traded your farm away (again) and is set to miss the playoffs with the fourth highest payroll in baseball. How many times does this guy get to screw it up?
The Padres farm was just rated (as in two days ago) as the FIFTH (that’s 5th) best in Major League Baseball. No, it’s no longer number one or two or three, but it most certainly was not “traded away” into nothingness.
The top 4 in their system IS their farm. Once you get past maybe Josh Mears there is nothing.
@tipsy SHHHHHH They don’t want to hear the truth. That would interfere with their beliefs.
Remove — Based on the points system of MLB (the study I mentioned above), you would be incorrect. There are other teams with four top-hundred prospects that finish LOWER than the Pads. They even mention potential Padres that could move into the top-hundred soon. So, if you want to criticize what I am saying, take it up with Major League Baseball. (They likely know more than you and me.)
Exactly, right now IMO it looks like Abrams and not much else.
Do not know if it is right. Just looks like the crew being thrown off the titanic before it took on water!
The Angels should take some lessons from this move. Our pitching stinks and no one has been held accountable for it.
I’m not sure if Wise is good or not, but it looks like the Angels are going to ride out the season with him.
I understand what your saying regarding accountability, but I would suggest the pitchers are being held accountable for their poor results. Bundy and Quintana were removed from the rotation and sent to the pen. Canning was removed from the rotation and sent to SLC. Heaney was traded, Claudio was DFAd, Slegers was demoted, etc.
Sounds like accountability to me.
Crack open the top shelf stuff boys. Our prayers have been answered.
RIP Towel Drill
His reputation prior to coming on board with the Padres was a guy who caused injuries. I hope they bring back Balsley. I’m betting he won’t want to come back, but maybe he misses the game enough and feels rejuvenated with the time off…
Was there no bullpen coach or bullpen catcher to sacrifice? Or was it not being able to fix Arrieta?
Fix Arrieta….funny!
Fire Tingler too. Bad manager for this team
If they bring back Bruce Bochy and he takes them to the World Series, he’s a first ballot Hall of Famer then.
Balsley was a local guy who I hear has left the area in retirement. I hear Bochy is in Tennessee now… Maybe they miss California.
@CrikesAlready Bochy retired
Why would Bochy want to come back and try to manage the prima donna Padres?
Classic. All that hype and they’re still trash hahaha that’s so great
Padres fans are like groundhogs, they surface once every few years claiming to be gods gift to baseball.
Then after Preller blows it up, they go back into hiding.
Okay as a Yankee fan I may be biased, but this is a big reason why we got rid of LR. Look at Paddack’s numbers before SD went out and got LR. Look at Gray’s numbers in CIN since he got out from under LR’s coaching. Since we replaced LR with Matt Blake, NYY pitching looks considerably better and more often than not, has kept us in close games. Maybe the firing of LR will be addition by subtraction for the SD rotation
^ this
Injuries injuries. To blame the coaches is pathetic
A club can’t fire all the players. This is a good attempt by the Padres at righting the ship.
The BlueJays need to try this too., Their own bullpen burnt out after the allstar break due to overuse and lousy starting pitching in the first half. Atkins and Shapiro attempted to fix it at the trade deadline. Now it is the players responsibility but they are not performing. Time to fire Charlie Montoyo and/or Pete Walker and/or Dave Hudgens. At least that will send a message to the players before the season is totally lost.
Darren Balsley still in the organization. whomever wanted him replaced with Rothschild was mistaken. Reinstate him and watch the magic return. He did wonders with a mediocre staff.
They need to bring in Ruben Niebla from Cleveland. All of their guys rave about how he has been so important in their development.
Lol Snell was a one hit wonder, Darvish has his moments, Musgrove is your ace (great pickup) weathers is what he is A PROSPECT (never know what he turns out to be), Paddack seems good just a learning curve like all pitchers go through, Lamet is well broken goods (ton of them out there), etc. to have expectations high is of no fault to Rothschild. Expectations shouldn’t be use as a reason to fire a coach BUT AHOULD BE FOR A GM who clearly misjudged the talent he brought in. Or lack there of.
Next theywill fire the announcers and the ball girls
One of the ball girls turned out to be the groupie who scored with Tatis, possibly Mike Clevenger and may have hit her big payday by scoring with Trevor Bauer.
As for the announcers, Tony Gwynn Jr can screw up the language. Double superlatives, poor syntax, and the lack of vocabulary drives me nuts. He once again proves how bad San Diego State University is as an educational institution.
Sigh. Yeah. Let’s blame him, I guess.
Months overdue.
Now bring back Balsley.
Fire Tingler, hire Bochy.
“We wish Tingler nothing but the best in the future.”
Bochy retired. Nice try tho.
People can un-retire ya know lol
No reason to believe that Bochy will lol
Absolutely no reason at all. Other than this, of course: “I’m just hitting the pause button,. That’s all, you know, I’m taking a sabbatical here for a year and then, you know, I’ll see where I’m at. I don’t know how I’m going feel but I’d love to have one more shot.” – Bruce Bochy
Two words: Lip service
Tinglers, job is on the line. Score more runs, win now or he is gone after the season.
I think Tingler is probably safe as long as Preller is but if Preller gets canned he’ll probably just step down of his own volition. Similar situation to Torey Lovullo over in Arizona.
2020vision: LOL!
LOL Pobres
I don’t think he can take all the blame. Pads have way too many pitchers injured right now
Well you could make the argument that some of the pitching injuries are due to poor form warmup (etc) which WOULD be on the pitching coach
Rothschild might not be a good coach, but he didn’t hire himself, or trade Trea for Wil, or go into the luxury tax to bring on Snell, etc.
Preller is the perfect farm director, I’m not sold on him as team president though.
I knew the pitching would go South without DB, Darren Balsley.. That guy was the heart of the pitching success. I also knew there is more to our pitching woes than just the retirement of DB. Larry stunk, period. He leaves guys in too long, rarely visits the mound, and never brings in the right pitcher.
“He leaves guys in too long, rarely visits the mound, and never brings in the right pitcher” — Have you met Dave Roberts?
Scapegoat
This is why I hate Corporate America in every facet. MLB is no different. Upper management always finding scapegoats as bullet shields when things go wrong. Case in point folks stop working to make other people rich and find your own thing to do. Larry is the most capable and experienced member of the staff and is getting demoted by our head coach who has never played one game of MLB ball himself. Just like Andy Green and how dumb the Cubs are to have hired him. Given Larry’s tenure and success with the Yankees I’m not sure it’s fair and quite ignorant really to say “he’s a bad coach” while you have head coaches with no experience at all!!!!!!!
I really couldn’t put my finger on it but I’m so glad that you found the missing piece!
It was Corporate America all along!
It’s the same blame game system bud.
Larry Rothschild is 66 years old, makes $340,000 a year, and his contract doesn’t expire until after the 2022 season.
Corporate America is responsible for that salary and he’ll be just fine.
Rothschild is a pitching coach stuck in the past in the era of data driven pitching. He is a relic that should have never been hired. Good riddance to him and his towel drill.
Also the season is not over until the Fat Lady Sings….Just saying Doyers Fans.
Ahh…the militant Padres fan tells us that it’s not over….lol, but the Padres chances at the division and WC#1 are definitely gone. I do think the Padres straighten things out and make the playoffs. I mean, there’s no way they can play this bad for another month, right? But even if you do, there’s no way you’re catching up to whomever finishes second in the NL West, to say nothing of winning the division.
I think MLBTR needs to start a “LOL, the Padres” trend
Watch them put Trevor Hoffman in LRs place next year.
HoW iS tHiS a TrAdE rUmOr !?
Maybe because
MLBAndMiLBTradesSigningsInjuryListTransactionsAndOtherRelevantNewsRelatedToRostersInGeneral.com was taken?
His font implies sarcasm though.
The pitching coach doesn’t make the call on how long a pitcher stays in! That’s on the manager!!!! Can’t use that as an excuse on why he’s gone. Stats are one thing and analytics are another. And again that’s on the higher ups for that stuff to relay to the manager and his coaches. Can’t say the coaches don’t use them as EVERY TEAM has an analytics department now. These are all new for every team (meaning few years now). So they’re firing him and then using a BULLPEN COACH as interm isn’t any better lol. Worse quite frankly. Just a scapegoat move that shouldn’t save his arse at the end of the year. Building these “SUPER TEAMS” has failed more times than they’ve succeeded in most sports in general. Poor building with tons of resources at their disposal is to blame.
Except in this case. Tingler has said multiple times that he allowed LR to make the calls on whether a pitcher seemed like they were done.
Rothschild has asked Padres pitchers to change their warm up routine (the Towel Drill, long toss, and no weighted balls), to add pitches (cutter and other breaking pitches) and to change their pitch sequence.
It has not been a secret that Rotschild resisted input from the analytics departments both with the Yankees and the Padres and from the biomechanics personnel the team hired to keep these guys in shape preferring old school warm up routines and workouts.
The results are apparent.
I have NEVER seen that reported anywhere. Not once. Rothschild never made those calls. He may have said something in the dugout while watching Paddack or Weathers blow up, but it was never his call.
Your wasting your time. He never provides links for his dubious claims. Like Luis Campusano’s charges getting reduced to a misdemeanor in November. Then he changed it to January.
Once again, the Rays knew what they were doing by trading one of their top starters. However, they were too rigid in knowing what they were doing in Game 6 of last year’s WS.
The latter is a graver sin.
Eh, the Dodgers probably get to Snell on the third time through. Snell was lights-out in Game 6, but his MO, especially last year, is that he gets hit third time through. I don’t disagree that the Rays should have stuck with Snell and tried to buck the trend, but they did what they do to win a majority of their games in 2020. The mistake was going to a clearly-ineffective Anderson, hoping he’d buck the trend he was on. If you’re going to deviate from your plan, why trust the struggling reliever to turn it around instead of the starter who is dealing?
Looks like the return of Darren Balsley
Except Preller or *maybe* Tingler seemed to be the guy pushing DB out
You have to wonder if Rothschild would have been fired before the end of the season if SD had acquired Max Scherzer. I guess we’ll never know.
That Rothschild was hired in the first place seems to me to be an empirical indicator. Teams reflect, or should reflect, the philosophy of the leadership from the top on down.
So who hired Rothschild? His rejection of analytics should have been a red flag, but he got the job anyway.
It just seems to me that if he was chosen by Tingler, then it would seem that he is not a fan of analytics either. And, if that’s true, why would Preller hire Tingler, unless he also does not have full faith in analytically driven data?
Tingler was hired to be a puppet. He does what he is told, whether he “believes” in it or not.
rothschild’s time with the yankees was his “fastballs get hit” era when the entire staff upped the use of their secondary pitches. it appears he did the opposite with the padres, with bad results. if teams no longer allow managers to set their own line-ups (i.e. aaron boone was hired to be good in the clubhouse, good with the media, and do whatever the analytics department orders him to do), i assume they no longer allow pitching coaches to tinker with pitch usage (not to mention mechanics, which has been off the table for years). my guess is the yankees hired matt blake because of his ability to execute the new job description: translating analytics into language pitchers can understand and motivating them to adjust their approach as ordered
@dasit … that is a fact. No Padres manager has set his own lineup or pitching rotation since Preller fired Bud Black.
Seriously!? Wow. Had no idea
Rothschild can kick rocks. He will not be missed. Preller has holes in his game when it comes trading (especially at the trade deadline). He is an entertaining GM which is needed in San Diego. Being able to acquire 3 Quality starting pitchers in Darvish, Snell, and Musgrove while only trading away one top 100 prospect shows he is the right man for the job.
Finishing up his 8th season on the job. 1 Playoff appearance, 6 losing seasons. All while ownership is allowing him to spend like a drunken sailor.
Oh yeah, he is doing awesome.
Weak generalized analysis. Padres started contending in 2020 and made the playoffs. As far as financials go; the Padres now have the means to compete with teams with deep pockets in their division. Money is a big factor in winning. You gotta pay to play and that’s why the Dodgers are the favorite to win the division every year.
SDPadsfan11 — I mostly agree with your point but the Padres likely would not have made the playoffs last year if the season had been say a hundred games. Possibly even with the larger playoff structure. Clevinger needed TJ before game 60 and Lamet’s injury may have shut him down the rest of the season. The rotation would have been Paddack, Davies, and it goes downhill from there (Richards & various bullpen sessions). Now, maybe other trades would have been made but who knows? Last year would have looked a lot like this year if a longer season had unfolded.
Well Preller tried to compete in 2015 and failed…That’s why the first time they competed again was last year
sdpadsfan11- yes they do have the means to spend. And they have. They’ve pretty much spent it all.
This amounted to being 1 game behind the Cincinnati Reds for the final wild card spot. Congrats.
#rockstar
Rule of thumb in Major League Baseball: If your team needs to make numerous significant transactions in a year, then they’re not ready to contend. The Mets and Padres are this year’s exhibits 1a and 1b. Neither of these teams has the organizational depth to vie for championships. Not now, and maybe not for multiple years.
In the case of A.J. Preller, he was looking for a shortcut to save his job. He was desperate. That’s not the kind of person you want calling the shots. For years, we’ve been hearing about the great Padres farm system. So, where are the results? I’ll give them credit for Tatis since he hadn’t yet played a professional game when acquired. But the remainder of the starting lineup comprised of players who did their developing in other organizations.
On the pitching side, highly-rated prospects Paddack, Weathers, Morejon, and Baez have yet to show they can be consistent Major League contributors. Lamet has a shot, though his health issues mean he won’t get another real opportunity until next season when he’s 29. Patino also might pan out, but that will be a Tampa Bay win if it happens. Meanwhile, Gore has taken a step or two backward.
Top farm system? I don’t think so.
Some of us Padre fans who are more objectve, and actually follow our minor league teams, know that our farm is not only weak, but unbalanced.
Padres’ top 4 prospects are as good as any other team’s top 4 but there’s a big dropoff from them to 5-7 and then a bigger dropoff from those 3 to everyone else.
Still with prospect talk
What are you basing your “top 4 prospects” opinion on?
Still with pointless grammatically errant comments
Worse, 3 of those top 4 had bad or injured ruined years
Believe me, I experienced this as a Dodger fan in the 1990s and 2000s. Something was clearly broken, so they tried to cover it up with reckless spending and ill-advised transactions. A dreary era where fans would occasionally be told “the Dodgers are back” when they clearly were not.
As a Padres fan, what do you think needs to be done to get them to a place where they’d be annual contenders?
Also, why have they abandoned the running game? It was a strength early on that has become non-existent. I read yesterday they were something like 4 of 10 in stolen base attempts in the last 29 games. In the previous 97 games, they averaged almost one stolen base per game. They ran the Dodgers ragged. What gives?
They need to be able to produce better big leaguers from within. Both times that Preller has tried to contend the roster has been overwhelmingly players that he traded for or got through free agency.
You cannot build a long term winner that way, even if it does work out it will be short lived. You can’t keep trading away long term control for short term control of players and think that will lead to longevity.
The front office needs more patience. They gave away controllable years on Tatis, Weathers & Campusano for no good reason at all. When they got even a sniff of being in contention they traded away the farm (again).. They had waited years for guys like Quantrill, Lauer, Munoz, Urias, Patino, France, Luchessi etc to develop and then they trade them all away before any of them have a 23rd or 24th birthday????
For most teams, success one year doesn’t translate to the next. I thought they’d be a .500 team till they proved me wrong. I’m not far off. I’ll say the same thing about about the Giants next year till they prove me wrong. Very few teams in mlb that win successfully year in and year out. Even when the giants had their run it was sandwiched between some mediorcre years
The weird thing about the Giants is how their “old” roster is (so far) doing it over a full schedule. That’s a major reason why they were lightly-regarded headed into the season: people assumed they wouldn’t be able to handle the marathon.
Yeah, I refuse to believe anything other than that the Giants will win the 2021 WS until they prove me wrong. People have been repeating all season long that that team is going to run out of steam eventually. My question to those people is “When?”
Maybe in the wildcard game? They can be passed in the standings without running out of steam.
That would require the Dodgers to catch them.
Which they surely can do. Mookie Betts returns Thursday. Trea Turner was recently added to the lineup. Scherzer also added. Urias is back tomorrow, Kershaw soon after. Seager back and hitting. If Bellinger doesn’t, no biggy because Mookie’s coming back. Do those players improve a team’s chances to win?
Eight division titles in a row. There’s a track record there.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
You have seen it eight straight years.
Both the Giants and Dodgers are playing well. Right now, if both teams continue to play as well as they have been, the Dodgers just might catch, and pass the Giants. But, we as fans always assume what we see at any particular moment will continue. That rarely happens.
At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants held on to win the division, or if the Dodgers caught and passed the Giants to take their 9th straight.
I give the Dodgers the edge in talent, but they have ground to make up. Injuries, or the lack of, as well as the vagaries of baseball, will determine who takes the division.
But I won’t see it a ninth straight year.
It’s a 2.5 game lead with 5 weeks to go, and was 1.5 a day ago? They have multiple head to head matchups left. Cey hit the head on the additional fresh(er) talent LA is adding down the stretch
You’re foolish to think this division is decided, either way
@BeforeMcCourt Sorry. Just don’t see it.
Unfortunately for the Padres the way the schedule plays out it’s who doesn’t beat them is gonna finish 2nd.
To date the Padres have not had a single minor league starter give them a 5 inning start. After 126 games is there a better way to judge a bad farm system? Please stop with how good it is.
@BeforeMcCourt Every time the Dodgers win, the Giant win too. Every time the Giants lose, the Giants still win. Sorry fam.
Who’s most to blame?
Preller
Tingler
Easley
Rothschild
The players
Trump
Who’s most to blame:
-Preller
-Tingler
-Easley
-Rothschild
-The players
Wow,
And don’t forget:
-The horrific dirty diaper uniforms
Ffs.
Padres = Mets
Padres are better than the Mets and in a better division (at least in terms of the top teams), but if you mean both teams have a significant chance to finish in 3rd, then you’re right.
Preller is dangerous with a checkbook. If anyone looked at Snells history it was obvious he wasn’t going to throw every game like his last one against the Dodgers in 2020. And Yu is not good year in and year out. Not two players I’d want to acquire after good years. I thought one of them would pull through. They got a so so Yu who’s injured, and Snell is a mess.
And they owe them $100 mil after this year
What a joke they destroy their rebuild by making too many foolish trades and then they blame their pitching coach for it
Trea Turner, Max Fried, Ty France, and Quantrill all traded by brain dead GM
And people still refuse to lay any blame on him. Ownership let this guy spend like a fat kid in a candy store twice now.
Yeah,sure,blame Larry for everything!
Fired everywhere Rothschild goes.
People forget he was the inaugural devil rays manager
citizen,
Point taken, but everyone in baseball, except Bruce Bochy, gets fire.
Rothschild was their pitching coach? Was Mel Stottlemeyer Sr. And Leo Mazzone not available?
Bumping threads despite no new updates again?
I think if they add some analysis it gets auto bumped as an update
I cannot imagine anyone truly though the Kim signing was a good one? Has a Korean FA bat ever hit at the MLB level? Fringy American AAAA hitters go to Korea and become Steve Nebraska overnight yet somehow teams think offensive will travel the other direction?
Back to making wine, Larry!
Wine and international banking.
Yeah, he won’t be hurtin’ for money.
Firing a pitching coach with only a few weeks left to play is not as strategic move, it’s a panic move.
Preller is garbage. Luckily for him, Padres ownership loves garbage……..
I don’t know if Rothschild is any good or not, but some of the issue should not be a surprise.
* Darvish just turned 35.
* Cleavinger & Snell have had issues, but when you trade with Cleveland and Tampa, there is always, always, always a reason they are trading top-tier SPs.
* Pomeranz is 32+, with a long injury history.
* In addition, they traded away several younger SPs, who are normally less injury-prone.
I do agree that the remaining staff looks to be under-performing, but some of their problems were self-inflicted.
Trading Fried, Patino, and Quantrill brain dead
Fried was traded over 6 years ago…and he was having TJ surgery.
Hardly relevant now.