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We have a huge Mariners fan here on this board. That's simple. You have an abundance of pitching and the 1/2/3 farm system in all of baseball...yet still can't get part Houston and Texas. Safeco is the toughest environment for hitters ... so you're going to have trade for or draft or overpay to sign Japanese players like Sato to add them to that offense. Naylor was a huge fail, Raleigh slumped miserably and Julio Rodriguez hasn't hit like a superstar for three years now. Suarez wasn't the solution last year. 80% of the focus has to be on finding great young hitters. Just like the White Sox have the opposite problem...80% of their focus has to be on the pitching side to balance out the team.

Bannister never worked for the Royals. Jirschele has nothing to do with the Royals org. He was drafted by the White Sox, retired, and started coaching for the White Sox. I suppose everyone in the White Sox front office acknowledge the existence of the Kansas City Royals, so you can put everyone on your list.

I would not hire Jason Bennetti to manage my investments. I might hire him to my trivia team.

I don't really follow the Padres, so why would I have an insightful treatise on their recent history? You seem to be distracted by me naming the Padres in an example - from the greater point that I'm only doing the same analysis that everyone would give any team I decided to mock for their World Series Championship failures. If I brought up the Mariners (who have made the playoffs less than the White Sox in the last 7 years), there would be a resounding chorus of "Yeah, but..."s.

Do you hire nerds/geeks/dorks to manage your investments or the typical high school QB/cheerleading captain? 80% would go with the former. But Benetti also has CP, so it's not like it is his fault he has had to overcome a disability. In that sense, I would stand with him against Brooks Boyer, Hahn, Getz.

As far as how front offices conduct themselves, it's probably an entirely different game from 10-15 years ago. Nothing that happened in the late 1970s matters when discussing how a 3-year-old front office is operating today. Just looking at the last 36, Himes had 4 great #1 picks in a row. Schueller took over, and about half of his seasons were successful with that core of Thomas, Durham, Robin, Karko, Black Jack, A-Fern, Alvarez, Roberto Hernandez. KW rolled it over to Lee, Maggs, Valentin, and remnants of the White Flag trade. He kept the team mostly competitive in a period when a single wild card was in play. I don't know what "rebuilding the same mistakes" means. Do you mean that the team rebuilds, grows old, then crashes in cycles? Himes, Schueller, KW, Hahn and Getz all seem to be different styles of building a team. If you're just being cynical and saying everything's going to fail because White Sox, then you go on, then. They certainly seem to be aware of previous international failures, drafting and developmental shortcomings, an inability or neglect in supporting prospects once they hit the bigs and needed adjustments - and they seem to be addressing them. Again, if you feel that Reinsdorf is going to sabatoge everything so that it fails because he's cheap and wants to finish in 2nd place, you would have to give me some evidence that's happening right now beyond "but hey, White Sox, you know?"

I was thinking the same thing. Put nerds and dorks behind a computer in my analytics department. Do not give them a microphone for 162 games.

There's nothing wrong with Comerica. Tigers' attendance has been better than the Sox for the most part over the last twenty plus years. Even the Royals are moving away from their miles of parking lots to a built in entertainment/shopping district oriented around Crowne Centre.

I don't want them to win, but it's also not exactly the end of the world if they do. Seems like Cubs fans hate the Brewers on a whole other level. I'm guessing part of that is also because a vast amount of Brewers fans are also Packers fans.

I do find it funny that there was a conversation about nerds and dorks a few posts ago and now we are actively talking about hiring more nerds and dorks while debating how much they make for our favorite baseball team.

They had, what, 40 guys in their R&D department? They're all being paid an average of $1 million each? I doubt that.

I am too for the same reason. Id still root for the Brewers however. Im tired of everyone laughing at the AL central

SoxTalk for free could/would have told them that...initial reaction was 80-85% against the trade.

Most neutral Midwesterners will cheer for Brewers. It's not like Milwaukee is in the AL still. At least 50% of White Sox fans can at least sympathize going 78 years without a WS title in terms of CLE When a team beats you twice now you owe them some level of respect ... and self reflection for why you're not there Cubs' fans that knocked them out a decade ago might have some empathy And admiration towards their organization for getting the most out of every $$$ and every player/coach/staff member

Guardians?

Exactly. So beef up your analaytics operation to 12 million. Sure, it costs you half of Luis Castillo's salary. But then you're smart enough to not trade for Luis Castillo.

TB was over $40 million in that R&D Twitter post

Exec level guys make 250k. Regular engineers around 100-150k according to Google. Seems like you can hire 10 engineers for the cost of Erick Fedde. Top end teams spend $5-10 million a year on their analytics departments. The Sox are probably spending around $2 million a year right now.

Hiring from outside? Brian Bannister Watson Jin Wong Jirschele's son Grifol there are two more i'm forgetting Doug Sisson maybe advice from Dayton Moore He basically brought over half the staff of the Royals...

Perspective requires a broader look. If you look at the last two years, you see a rebuilding team doing some correct things. If you look at the last 50, you see a franchise that’s been rebuilding the same mistakes.

Seems like a smart way to get better ROI is just outspend everyone on analytics. No idea what an MLB analytics department costs but it's probably less than one big free agent's salary. Outspend on analytics so you don't overspend on bad free agents.

Okay WEddy let's hear your insightful ideas on what the Padres could/should have done to be even more successful as a franchise, as the smallest market franchise in the NL West by far???