Buster Olney reported on a possible Heath Bell trade to Philadelphia. Let's assume that happens, as well it probably should.
Taking away all the given negatives of losing an all-star, heavy-set, funny as hell, sprint your ass-off out of the pen looking like a chubby kid chasing an ice cream truck, closer, is our 'pen strong enough to take that hit and with in reason still be stellar?
I think if we are to consider this, we have to directly correlate it with the questions: Is Mike Adams ready to close games out on the regular? If so should we trade both Bell and Adams and load up on prospects?
I think probably, and no.
I think that if Gregorson doesn't lose any nasty on that slider and move him to 8th, and we can throw maybe Qualls in the 7th, Adams can do well anchoring The Yoda Backpacks. He's been the All-Star on the team this season, and he's been dominating for years now. He's the man. Here's the rub -- he doesn't strike me as a closer. Just his composure - which is to say he has good, calm, collected composure - makes me feel he doesn't match the mold of fiercely competitive, lil bit insane, with down right intimidating stuff closer that I'm used to seeing. Heath has all three of those. Hoffy had that intensity. Hard. And during his hay, that hall-of-fame-dirty change up made hitters look so foolish it was insane.
Now objectively rebuilding is exactly that, and if we need to wipe the slate and plan for 2013+beyond then so be it. As an intelligent fan base we can't expect us to take the actions to rebuild and then be surprised with the consequences. For example yesterday I had four slices of big-ass slices of CostCo pizza, a large big mac meal, and double digits of cheap beer, and now the next day I'm drinking a large coffee. Consequence: beer-fartin up a storm, sitting here in my own stank barely able to function. Is it lame? Stanky? Pot-belly inducing? Yes. And I accept these consequences because I know that I like fun.
However subjectively, and probably selfishly, the San Diego Padres have had a All-Star-ish closer for SIXTEEN years now in a row. Sixteen. Since I've cared about baseball, the Padres have played dozens of 8 inning games every year. It might be a little bit sentimental, but I don't want to imagine my team auditioning closers, trying to see who fits, waiting for them to blow 4 or 5 and then move on to someone else. That's not My Padres. As far as trading both, please don't trade big Mike Adams. 1st of all he's my mom's favorite player and I don't want to deal with those repercussions. But also if we lost both I think that would be so demoralizing voluntarily giving up the two best parts of the only good part of our team, it might turn the season from a bad circus to a full blown shit-show and no one wants to see that.
Thus I'm torn between knowing we need to rebuild, and wanting to keep the one consistent positive aspect about the franchise in tact.
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