NFL
By: Steve Atkinson
The Padres swept the Texans Rangers this past weekend only to lose to the last-place Rockies on Monday. They are now 5 games behind the final wild-card spot and 8 games behind in the division. The Padres today so far have bought at the trading deadline signing Rich Hill and Ji-Man Choi from the Pirates sending prospects in return. The Padres needed to add to their kind of wretched bullpen but with Hill maybe Seth Lugo moves into the bullpen. They also will have Michael Wacha back in the rotation soon.
The Padres made moves today
Rich Hill has a 4.76 ERA this season and is 7-10. Choi is batting .205 on the season with 15 hits and six home runs.
The Padres have to play catch-up baseball. They can’t afford to lose many games, or they could be out of it quickly. They seem to play better against the good teams and the bad ones they lose. Padres really need to win these next two games against the Rockies then try to take two out of three against the Dodgers this weekend.
Rich Hill adds starting rotation depth after already having Darvish, Musgrove, Snell, and Lugo. It was good the Padres didn’t sell despite the loss from Monday. At 52-55, they are still in it and really can’t count them out yet no matter how inconsistent they have been all season. The Padres haven’t even gotten a five-game win streak, yet this year and we are already in August. They haven’t won an extra-inning game yet and are putrid in one-run games. Can they turn this around consistently these last two months of the season? They better or it will be the most disappointing season probably ever in Padre’s history.
Preller Is Trying To Add ToJi-Man The Padres Can Win The World Series
Deadline Trade Grades:
Ji Man Choi and Rich Hill:
B-Garret Cooper and Sean Reynolds:
AScott Barlow:
A-— Padres Nation (@NationPadres) August 1, 2023
They have spent a ton of money over the years trying to buy talent and it hasn’t worked this year. I blame Melvin for not being able to connect with his players on a consistent basis. That stupid pinata after sweeping the Giants in Mexico showed you where their heads were. They thought they could just show up and play. Not the case for the first half of the season.
Padres Say Bye To Ryan Weathers
Also, the Padres traded away Ryan Weathers who sucked and was sent down to Triple-A to Florida for first baseman Garrett Cooper. Cooper has 13 home runs and a batting average of .256 this season. The Padres also got Triple-A reliever Sean Reynolds from the Marlins.
Preller is not done adding to this team at the deadline. The Padres have just added Scott Barlow a reliever from the Royals. Barlow this year has a 5.35 ERA and is 2-4. Last year and in 2021 Barlow was really solid for the Royals in 2021 his ERA was 2.42 and last year it was 2.18. Preller believes this team can make the playoffs and just needed some tweaks in it. They should be able to turn things around.
