San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
RECENT RESULTS SIMPLY BAFFLING
One reader says they need an exorcism, while Melvin says they need to ‘play better’
Sitting unread in the email in-box Saturday morning was, at this headscratching point, a seemingly reasonable thought about how to deal with the Padres’ posttrade deadline morass.
Since what was billed as the biggest such set of moves in history, a Juan Soto-keyed haul for the ages, the club that supposedly aced its deadline report card went 6-10 in its first 16 games with seven of those losses against sub-.500 teams — one of which owns the worst record in baseball.
That’s as morass-y as all get out.
A helpful reader named Mary has devised a plan to shift fortunes at 100 Park Boulevard.
“They need an exorcism. Today,” Mary wrote. “A real ‘Ted Lasso,’ circle the fiery trash can, burn the talisman exorcism. We need to start with locks of hair from Hader, Manaea, Alfaro and Clev. And a Tatis braid. No, two braids. Lucky socks. Couple chains.”
It’s understandable if fans, even those creatively planting a tongue deep into a cheek, feel cosmically jinxed.
Start with All-star Adam Frazier, the first-half hits leader in 2021, forgetting which end of the bat to grip as soon as he landed in San Diego. Now they’ve traded for Soto and Josh Bell, who arrived a .301 hitter and quickly saw 472 points melt off the OPS he posted this season in Washington — but hit his first homer as a Padre on Saturday. Brandon Drury, another big-bat snag, has seen his own 2022 Reds OPS tumble nearly 200 points.
Then there’s Josh Hader, a four-time All-star and one of the elite shutdown arms of the last decade … who caught a case of the Rick Ankiel-throwing yips to the plate and bases with a 16.20 ERA in Padres brown to prove it.
The Padres raided baseball’s bottom-feeding Nationals for their best two players … and are still losing to them.
Welcome to Petco Park, where track records with other teams mean diddly and squat.
Tv-related remedies aside, here is what’s not funny in the least. Nearly one-quarter of the Padres’ remaining games —