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Between Sunday and Monday, team sources confirmed the Padres made sweeping changes within their player development system when they fired vice president of player development and scouting Grady Fuson and reassigned scouting director Bill “Chief” Gayton to an unknown position.
The moves are not a surprise, coming just a day after general manager Jed Hoyer promised changes during his introductory press conference. And while Hoyer and CEO Jeff Moorad have their reasons —- and hey, its tough to overlook the system’s difficulty in hitting on a No. 1 pick in the last seven years —- it hasn’t been all negative in regards to the Padres’ player development system. Sure, first-rounder Matt Bush (2004) was a total flop. Fellow top picks Cesar Carrillo (2005) and Nick Schmidt (2007) had reconstructive elbow surgery and Tim Stauffer (2003) had shoulder surgery and was slow to develop. Matt Antonelli (2006) has struggled big time and Allan Dykstra (2008) has a degenerative hip condition and was bad this season.
But what do all these guys have in common? The Padres weren’t fully committed to spending money to developing players at the time.
Recently, Hoyer, as well as several experts, looked closely at the farm system and discovered that, gasp, things are headed right way. The Padres appear to have impact talent at their lower levels in the farm system between Adys Portillo, Simon Castro, Jaff Decker, Donavan Tate, Everett Williams and Keyvius Sampson. Mat Latos showed he has the potential to be a No. 1 starting pitcher. And Logan Forsythe and James Darnell might be good players too. This group’s common denominator? Cash.
In his final year as CEO, Sandy Alderson got majority owner John Moores on board with the idea that developing your own is the way to go in a mid-sized market. That led to the team’s $8 million facility in the Dominican Republic and a $5 million allowance for international spending in 2008. This year, the team paid out $9 million to sign its top picks. And almost overnight, the bottom half of the farm system found itself stocked with players.
One front office source said in August that this was the first season in which the Padres were able to draft players without worrying —- within reason —- about the bottom line. He compared past seasons to going a car lot, and out of the 100s available, the front office limited itself to two affordable options in hopes that it would be the right one. That’s no way to develop your farm system and it’s not the case any more, according to Hoyer, who said Monday that Moorad’s committment to spending resources was a key reason for him taking the job.
Another quick point: even though Fuson, who was in town from Nov. 2005 until Sunday, didn’t instantly hit on any of his top picks, his system has depth. The Padres have, according to one scout, a number of guys who have the potential to develop into average major leaguers. That’s not flashy, but depth is key, as the Chargers’ defensive line can attest.
So do I understand why Moorad and Hoyer cleaned house? Sure. It’s their team and they want their guys in place. And the Padres are a team that can’t afford to miss on the No. 1 picks. But I also don’t think Gayton and Fuson had the resources needed to show their true potential.