Change Starts at the Top

When you have been working out for a while using the same routine, and your improvements stagnate, you need to change your workouts.

When a pitcher regularly fails to hold runners on first base and allows them to steal second at will, he needs to vary (change) his timing to the plate.

Bruce Bochy has had a distinguished career here in San Diego. I’ll go so far as to say the Padres should consider retiring his number. Not for his playing career, but because he proved to be an asset in developing young talent, nurturing older talent, and putting on a good face when talent was scarce.

While Bruce deserves reverence here in San Diego, it’s also time to show him the door.

The ‘pen isn’t holding leads like it should. The hitters aren’t hitting. And other than Peavy’s brilliance the rotation isn’t consistent – well Redding and Lawrence are consistently bad…

We can’t trade Phil or Ryno. And we shouldn’t trade Nady, Loretta, Greene, or Peavy. Eaton and Linebrink may have some value but if we still want to get back into the playoff hunt, those aren’t the guys to send packing. Furthermore the Padres’ farm system isn’t brimming with talent and most of the talented guys at the top play positions where we have needs.

The point is, there are so many positional needs on the Padres that the only change that would shake things up across the board is a managerial one.

Players don’t need to ‘fear’ their manager, but a healthy dose of accountability to their manager is essential. Players should fear for their jobs. Bochy has become everyone’s friend. He’s their big brother rather than their dad.

When I was in college, my Management professor, Bruce Schooling, said that management was, “The art of getting things done through people.” And right now the Padres aren’t getting things done.

When I was driving home from Lake Elsinore Monday night, I heard Bob Scanlan and Coach John Kentera talk about Larry Dierker, former Manager of the Houston Astros. They didn’t talk about him as a Bochy-replacement, but that’s the guy I would love to see manning the Padres dugout.