Idiots Write About Sports

Here’s yet another fun-filled Sign That God Hates the San Diego Padres (number 3,427 of a series):

The Padres had the first pick in the amateur draft this year thanks to their somewhat-less-than-stellar play in 2003. GM Kevin Towers and his staff spent months carefully weighing their options. Tops on their list were two college juniors, pitcher Jered Weaver and shortstop Stephen Drew. But both are Scott Boras clients, which meant that the Padres – given the team’s limited payroll and its traditional role as league assclown – had no chance in hell of actually signing either of them.

So instead they picked Matt Bush, a local kid from Mission Bay High School who plays a mean shortstop, and who actually called the Padres prior to the draft to tell Towers that it’s always been his dream to someday become a San Diego Padre. Ignoring the likely unstable mental state that such a comment implies, Towers signed the eager lad immediately for a bonus of three million and change and shipped him to Peoria to learn the ins and outs of the game of baseball.

That local, eager, and very underaged kid just capped his first week in Peoria by sneaking into the fire exit of a poor man’s Hooters then, upon being confronted by the bar staff, gnawing a chunk out of a bouncer.

Look, I’m all for youthful enthusiasm. And underage drinking, for that matter. But does this ball club really need a biter? More importantly, does this ball club need a kid who’s not mature enough to realize that, two weeks after having his name plastered all over the sports page, a little recreational bouncer chewing might not slip by unnoticed?

Both questions are moot, I suppose, since we’ve already signed the kid. I only bring the debacle up to illustrate that even when good things happen to the Padres, bad things happen to the Padres.

Interestingly enough -- or perhaps not -- I went to a Baseball Prospectus event at Petco on Saturday (stadium review and pictures TK!), and the featured speaker was Padres general manager Kevin Towers. Interesting guy, Towers -- a real straight-shooter who doesn't mince words or play dumb or obfuscate when someone asks him a direct question.

Anyhow, someone asked him who his top draft pick would have been, all things being equal. And while some GMs would mouth some vague pleasantry about drafting the guy they wanted all along, Towers didn't. He said they would have drafted Drew, if not for Boras and his bonus demands.