Farewell Jake...

I know it hasn't happened yet, but it seems inevitable right?

The San Diego Padres are in a predicament. Their team sucks. The fans probably won't show up next year. The team has to cut cost, right?

Goodbye Jake Peavy. No doubt your No. 44 will be retired when your career is all over by the Padres. You're probably the best pitcher that has ever pitched for them after all. Probably.

But apparently Jake, you've got to go.

The Padres are in trouble because they're a mid-market team. They have some money, but not a lot. They've also sucked at developing talent, so San Diego has relied on signing journeyman ballplayers (that's redundant in this era of Major League Baseball) to fill in the roles. Those journeyman (like Milton Bradley and Mike Cameron) brought the Swingin' Friars success. But with those guys gone and a reliance on kids from the farm, the Padres tanked. And they tanked bad.

And that means you've got to go Jake.

The team has no choice. It's in a lose-lose situation here. The team will hemmorage money and field a losing team with you on the payroll Jake.

If Peavy stays and the team continues to lose, the fans will be pissed. If Peavy gets traded, the fans will still be pissed. The team's in a catch-22.

They've got nowhere to go. Their fan base won't let them. They've tasted a little honey and now the fans want more. They paid for part of the new fancy ballpark that the Padres can't win in, so the fans want more.

No more losing. San Diego has had it up to here.

But what is a team like the Padres to do? If I had a real answer, I'd be in the front office and not Kevin Towers or Sandy Alderson.

They've got to think of the future is what the Padres need to do. Tim Sullivan points out how the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays got to the World Series: a decade of futility. But that futility was able to give the Rays plump prospects. They've developed over time. With the additions of a couple key players, Tampa is now in a position to win a World Series before San Diego.

This is what the Padres have to do. San Diego has to eat it. They have to ride through the tough times and low attendance figures. They have to say, "Fans, this is what we're going to do. We may not win today, but we'll fucking win a World Series within the next five years. If you bare with us, you'll get that championship parade."

Eating it also means keeping Peavy and Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell. It means keeping Chris Young. This is the nucleus that will get the Padres to the next playoff run. The Padres have to eat their contracts and their money, while developing talent.

And hopefully, in a few years, after years of pain and shitty attendance and multiple all-star appearances for Peavy and Gonzalez and Young, the team will be ready for a mythical playoff run like the one the Rays are having now.

We just have to be patient.

But, it probably won't end that way Jake. We'll see you in Atlanta.