Well, hello there, welcome to an emergency group therapy edition of Padre's Hot Tub.

On the morning of Thursday, November sixth, almost precisely one hour to the announcement of Craig Dammon as the new Padres manager, getting a three year contract, which is two more years than currently aj Preller has.

Although based on this sign this agreement, I would assume that this was all Preller, but we're going to get into it all.

I'm Craig Elston, Rafie canters here.

Chris Reid is overcome right now.

His voice is gone, so he's listening in the audience and offering a couple of a little clips in our group chat.

And we've got almost one hundred people there.

I thought your voice was gone, and we've got almost one hundred patrons here with us live for this impromptu just announced Yes, because we had a just announced manager, Rayfie Craig Stamon, who has never coached or managed ever in any level in his life.

According to Kevin Acy, I don't even think he's been a little league manager.

Craig Stamon is the new manager of the San Diego Padres, forty one years old and in the last two years working within the organization as a special assistant in the player development department.

Am I fair in saying this is the second straight special assistant to the player development department that's been hired.

Wasn't Mike Shilp basically in this role.

He was in a role that was similar.

I don't know if they had the exact same title, but it certainly seems to be the Prince of Wales position of the Padres organization, the heir apparent.

Uh but I mean, look, in classic AJ Preller fashion, this is this.

I agree with you.

A J Preller will be with the San Diego Padres for at least another two seasons.

You know, I suspect that his contract will be made at least to be synchronous with Craig Stammond, because this is not a hire that you make and then don't have a J Preller.

This is AJ's man.

Like, this is not just because he was a special assistant, but like, if you think about the names that were being tossed out in the interviews, like I didn't hear Craig Stammon once I heard work Loretta, I heard like you know, other people aj Ellis, I heard circling in and around the Pods organization who is also a special assistant.

But I did not hear Craig Stammon.

And that's in classic Preller front office fashion, which is that his front office does not leak.

It doesn't leak, and to a certain extent, it's kind of useless to try and predict anything that this man does, because he and the people he has surrounded himself with have made it basically impossible to read tea leaves.

And part of me is like, again, he never ceases to be entertaining, he never ceases to surprise us, and that in and of itself is fun.

I think that the instant reaction based on what I saw on the comment section of the Ben and Woods interview with AJ Preller, which is, you know, already kind of prone to be a little bit of a dumpster fire, but you know, it was like, we're doomed, dwar fucked def Con one, We're going seventy eight and eighty four, and I really disagree with that.

I think that this is a pendulum swing back in the other direction for AJ, where you know, what do we talk about what's the difference Betwen between you know, what did Kevin Acy say on our show a few weeks ago.

They want to hire someone with major league experience that Creig Stamon check Craig Stammon as a first time manager, Uh, someone who's probably not going to operate as independently as Mike Shilt and Bob Melvin did.

This is uh a j preler getting someone who he can influence, and based on the way that Mike Shilt managed towards the end of his tenure, especially, maybe not such a bad thing.

The kind of company line that was being touted out there is that Manny and Tatis respect Craig Stalmon.

I think that that remains to be seen.

I know that they probably like him, but liking someone and respecting someone are are different things.

And uh, at the end of the day, I think that this is probably fine.

Like I don't like.

Am I disappointed that Albert Poohols isn't the manager because I think that that would have been interesting and I, you know, I think it would have, you know, brought the padres.

Different attention for good reasons are bad?

You know, Yes, sure, I think Craig Stamon's rather boring compared to Albert Poohols, But do I think he's substantively going to do a worse job than Albert Poohols would have.

Absolutely not.

I have no reason to think that.

So yeah, I'm I'm sorry of just whatever.

It's just a little boring.

But I don't think the sky is falling, Craig.

I think the sky is falling either.

That's a great place to start.

Plenty of managers are being hired without managerial experience.

I completely agree that this is a reaction to what's taken place the last four years.

The last four years, a J Preller, based on the reporting around it, has had first a manager in Bob Melvin that he couldn't see eye to eye with h and was fully at loggerheads with in his second year, to then a guy in Mike Shilt, who he was not afraid of going in.

But the reporting was that, you know, he'd go into the manager's office and get his you know, get snapped at uh And that actually AJ gave Mike Shilt a ton of latitude along the way, and that maybe Mike grew grew into a more egomaniacal position over time with the latitude that he was given.

So in Craig Stammon, who I will repeat has never coached or managed ever anywhere in that sense, far less experience than even Jace Tingler, who at least had as sniff of the job.

You have somebody who can't help but be at on day one in lockstep with a j preller because he's literally been hired to work in AJ's front office for the last two years in some undefined position in which obviously he was saying plenty.

You know.

Part of Kevin Acy's story this morning was that Craig Stammon would sometimes go down to the locker room and Manny Machado is somebody he would talk to.

Here, here's this quote.

In his six seasons pitching for the Padres, he grew to possess a leadership role that was extremely rare for a middle reliever, serving as a mentor and soundingboard in all corners of the clubhouse.

Among those who revered him and were swayed by his counsel in various instances was Manny Machado.

Okay, that's really more talking about what he did as a player, not what he was doing as a coach.

But nonetheless that's a way of saying, hey, man, he you know, respects him.

Here's another part of that story.

According to people familiar with the interview process, Stammon impressed Padre's officials in his interviews with the genuine manner in which he communicated hmm, his conviction about how a team should be run, and his knowledge of the organization.

Preller has long held Stammin in high regard for his leadership skills and straightforward way of communicating.

Well.

As you have said many times, Rafie, that every manager will hire is an overreaction to the previous one.

Sounds to me like Mike Shiltz bullshit, gaslighting, and the way he talked to people and how he would never say anything was so irritating that Craig Stamin, who says it like it is and has a manner of communication that is amenable to the general manager.

That was valued as something important.

What was not valued is finding out if this guy could even possibly want to be a I mean, he wants to be a manager he interviewed for the job.

You know, when I was seventeen, I tried out for the vocal jazz group at my high school, and it was mostly to find out if I could make it, and because there were a couple of girls in vocal jazz.

One that were really hot that I was hoping, you know, I might be able to get close to.

And I made the I made the group, and then after like a week, I realized I didn't want to do it and I left.

I'm just wondering, like, like he has no idea what he's getting into.

I mean, he's a sixteen year major league player, so he does.

But that's the part.

I'm just like mind blown.

It's like we're gonna, we're really gonna go this way.

It's so pod raised, it's so so so podraised.

It's very padres.

God.

I'm not trying to be like a uh like.

A sunny side optimist.

I just like I think that the the managerial position doesn't have nearly the effects that people think it does these days, only in so far as h if you're assuming that they're making optimal decisions, you know what I mean, Like if you're if you're going to say, like person A and person B are going to make the same decisions, and then and then the rest is like you know, their their grint or their personality or whatever.

Like I just don't know that it matters so much.

I mean, I think I think what mattered last year was that Mike Shilt was like not making optimal decisions and then that that's a completely different conversation.

But you know, one of the names that Ben Higgins throughout on the show before A.

J.

Preller hopped on, and I don't know if it's quite a one for one, but he threw out the name of Stephen Vote.

Stephen Vote is the same age as Craig Stammon.

Stephen Vote played for fewer seasons in Major League Baseball than Craig Stammon did.

The difference between Craig Stammon and Stephen Vote is that while Craig went the route of being the special assistant to the general manager, Stephen Vote took a coaching job for one year with the Mariners in twenty twenty three and then immediately became manager in twenty twenty four of the Guardians and promptly won al Manager of the Year and also took his team to the playoffs again this year.

So again, Stephen Vote was a catcher.

You know, that seems to be.

In vogue and a lot of what we heard in Craig Stamon's final years in San Diego was that he was like the dad of the bullpen you know that he was the he was the team captain.

He was like he was leading golf outings for the guys and like this, that and the other.

And you know, I'm not saying there was some sort of tinfoil hat long game that was being played, but he was certainly given the quote unquote Eric Hosmer leadership sort of laurels.

And my question, I guess you guys and you know, welcome Chris up to the stage as well.

Is okay the Padres Hier craigsammon.

Are you more or less uh, you know, impressed or annoyed by that than you would have been if the Padres had hired Blake but Terra, who is now going to be managing the Nationals at thirty three years old, or Tony Vittello, who is a to be the manager of the San Francisco Giants, who managed the University of Tennessee volunteers and has sec managerial experience, but it has never once been a part of a major league staff, and I don't believe played in the major leagues either, So like, is this that much better.

Or worse than any one of those hires?

Rafy I have spent for last hour cackling like a witch in my garage.

So, uh, this is what it has left me.

Ah told you.

I didn't lose my voice, Craig, it just changed.

It just metamorphousized to a beautiful butterfly.

Wits like hell monster from Halloween.

Rayfie drew a line in the sand that I am crossing it and standing next to him.

Managers, you know, the good ones win you three games, really bad ones lose you three games, and the rest of them just about do whatever.

The biggest thing the new manager had to have was the respect to the clubhouse walking in Stammon's gonna have that at least at least when the club shows up for spring training and loses half of its roster to the World Baseball Classic, there will be some continuity.

They won't be having to learn a new system out of you know, it's been brought in out of nowhere.

I see some pros to this, and ultimately, at the end of the day, what we don't know is a lot like we don't know what the manager does.

Hopefully, this guy's better at the press conferences and he has so much respect from Padrey's media that I don't think I really feel like that he will, but this was hilarious.

That's a great juxtaposition from Hall of Fame or poo right, San Diego's owned Craig Stammon.

The next best thing, I will repeat something I said recently, which is that I'm in favor in general of Craig's ascending to positions of power and influence.

So this is the second managerial Craig higher of the last month, and I'm all for it in that sense.

I'm very very pro Craig.

You know, I'm more to where you guys are than any way else.

It is a little flabbercasting to me.

Okay, first big takeaway for me, AJ Preller is very safe the reporting around.

There's a contract extension, it's coming, don't worry about it.

It's you know, it's not a you know, it's not an issue.

Preller is moving apace.

There's no you know, interference in what he's doing.

That's clearly obviously true, because I think you could look at each of the last two managerial hires as being a situation where a groupner or above was like, hang on there, hold on there, buddy, don't go wild crazy, go nuts, and hiring Ryan Flaherty as a first time manager or hiring someone else.

We're gonna go get experienced, Bob Melvin, you know you need.

That Tingler thing was way too far.

We're going to get somebody older than you to be the manager.

And then when that didn't work out, shilt well, trusty Mike Shildt, you know, ninety win manager Saint Louis Cardinal's way again.

A player, you know, a manager that is older than AJ, somebody who is going to be able to talk down to AJ in that sense of like, hey, I've been around this game a long time, because now this is none of that.

Furthermore, it's it's not a splashy higher like Poohles would be right.

Poo holes would be the kind of star fucking we're chasing the glory of it, but it's also a little bit of a surrender.

And Albert Pools would be somebody who could say to AJ, what what the fuck are you talking about?

You know, I've been in this game so long.

How many homers did you hit?

You know, you just don't know.

This is the way it's got to be.

That could be something that could have happened.

His ego could be an issue down the line.

Craig Stammon obviously gets along famously with Aj Preller because of the way he stuck around here is a mediocre reliever forever, and then the way he moved immediately into the front office once his playing career was done.

Obviously he's been a friendly face in this organization for years to come.

So this is somebody that Aj has got to be one thousand percent behind, and it just doesn't feel like the type of one that's been where his decision making was hamstrung by someone above him.

So that's my number one takeaway is like Aj Preller feels very safe because he's gone to as Tingler esque a hire as he could make in Craig Stammon.

Now this is like a Death of Stalin where Nikada Khrushcheff has consolidated power and he hires Marshall Zukoff.

And now when Scott's Service comes on board, that'll be oh who's in that.

When Scott's Service becomes the bench coach, like all of Krustyev's pieces will be in play and the coup will have been completed, like Aj Rafie sent it and dikes for him.

But Aj always gets his man, and this time the most.

So yeah, you know it's funny, Like there's all these comments on the on the Ben and Woods interview, uh that were like AJ is going to be the puppet master, like AJ is like this is AJ's puppet And I'm like, is that such a bad thing at this point?

Like if AJ's going to have absolute power, if he's going to be the you know, president of baseball ops and he's going to be the general manager, and he's going to have an incredibly tight lipped front office who seemed to all follow it right in lockstep with him, why would we want a manager who is going to be uh a sticking point against him constantly, which is what we've had certainly in Melbourne.

And you could say at times with Mike Shilt.

And I'm kind of like, if you're going, if you're on, if this organization is preller pilled and we're going full boat and we're gonna extend this.

Guy, which I think they should, by the way, like.

Then like we should have everyone working in sync.

So and I don't know if they would have gotten that with pool holes.

I don't think they would have gotten that with pool holes, and uh, you know, maybe you would have gotten it with Neebla.

Probably you would have gotten it with Neebola.

I'm wondering if Craig Stammon is one of the only guys who uh pooh holes or excuse me, who Niebla would have been willing to stay on and work for because with the you know, uh A.

J.

Peler gave a as always meaningless interview on Ben and Woods, and uh, you know.

The only things that I really took away from that is one he did not ask the players about out hiring Craig Stammon beforehand.

He just asked what type of manager would you like to have?

So I think what was implied by his answer there was that they wanted to have a major league player, a former major league player as their manager.

So that's number one.

Number two, It was not outrightly confirmed, but it was heavily implied that Ruben Diebolo will be staying.

But he also did say in the interview that coaches are are free to look at other opportunities.

So that's something that I'm sort of keeping my ear to the ground for, is like, when can we get a confirmation that Ruben die plus for sure sticking around.

But I to me, it's hard to imagine that they make this move if if they think there's a chance that Dieblo leaves right.

And that he's yeah, yeah, I'm the gooyeah Craig.

Just in the in the AC piece, it says the quote the plan is for Niebla, who has two years remaining on his contract, to be retained.

So cool.

I mean, he could quit, you know, he can.

He can interview for another managerial job down the road.

He can, he can try to put his name in for every managerial job down the road.

But he's here until he's not.

That would be my second big takeaway from this is that probably you can start the clock on Ruben Niebla's tenure as pitching coach for the San Diego Padres, and now that he's been passed up twice as the manager, and in this case, the one where you'd expect him to have the best chance, I feel like you can pretty much guess that if he truly has managerial ambition, the next two years are the last two years for Ruben Diebla in the Padres organization.

I don't think that's really dou Marie.

That's just kind of like if you're an adult who has ambition.

How many times can you get passed over and stick with the same organization.

But that's like it's tomorrow, that's a that's a that's a down the road, like yeah, sure, like we can look out that far, but who knows what's gonna happen, Like maybe maybe they have they merge into one actual human being via science and we get half Craig Damon, half room in the EVLA, like joined at the head, you know, two right arms to left arms.

You know, the possibilities are endless the future.

Yeah, I mean, look, if we're two years from now and Stammon's fired because it's been two years and that's how long a Potter's manager lasts, then they will either hire Rubin Diebla or he will will be with another team in two years.

Like I think that that's probably pretty safe to say.

And you know that's a problem for two years from now, when we might be coming off of a season long lockout.

Who's to say, notably Padres not going the Art Marino route and uh and signing someone to a one year deal so you don't have to pay them by the lockout.

So you know, maybe all of the tea leaves that we were reading about a potential lockout.

Either are being disregarded by Padre's ownership, or you know, are maybe a little bit meaningless.

Really, I think it's just it's a little bit more low Angels that they would hire a manager on one year deal.

But that's just that's for uh, that's for Angels Disneyland Ride podcast to discuss.

So gosh, man, I don't know, Uh, I don't know that I have any other like until we get a look at the coaching staff, until we hear from the players, Like, I don't they know that I have any other big reactions to this news.

Well, you know, we've got one and literally only one person in our chat that's just spamming over and over that the team is punting and that there is no plan of contending that this is a sure sign because they've hired the absolute worst person possible and all of that is just a ridiculous thing to say on November sixth.

So I don't think that the club is on the record saying that they're going to try and compete every single year of the twenty twenties.

This to me is the classic idiosyncratic AJ preller.

Just don't try and think that he thinks the same way you do.

You know, whenever you use a logical process to try and determine what direction Aj Preller is going to go, you're just going to fail.

The only way to know what he's going to do is to actually know is to be in his inner circle.

And that circle does not leak.

Here's a quote from Joe Musgrove via Marty Caswell on X says quote, A little surprised at first, didn't even know he was considering taking a role like that, But knowing he's in that spot, I couldn't be more excited.

Level of respect he has from everyone in that clubhouse, I'm extremely excited.

So, you know, I'm sure somebody when as Ben, you know, Ben went to Stephen Vote, I would say, what about Craig Counsel.

You know, Craig Counsel was somebody who had never managed at any level.

He went straight from being a player into being a manager, and then before you know that he was a Manager of the Year, you know, and he was working, he was working well along those lines.

It's the actual trend in baseball right now is going away from retreads, and that's probably great, you know, that's probably better than just hiring the next reetread along the line.

I will tell you if they had hired Don Maddingly, I would have been like, okay, yeah, exactly, I'd be like, okay.

If they had hired Ruben Dieblo, I'd been like, well, here we go, let's see how he does pitching coaches manager man.

This usually doesn't work.

Let's find out if they had hired Pool.

Yeah we know this story.

Yeah, it doesn't work.

It almost never works.

So I really don't I don't get why people are rooting for particular managers.

Like I understand attaching yourself the stories like the whole Benngi Giel like fun that, I'm all for it, but like attaching hopes or some sort of expectation to who a team is going to hire for its manager, especially when run by P.

T.

Burnham, Like it's harsh, guys, you're setting yourself up for needless emotions.

To me, all of this, like strong reactions to this is just telling me what you think about the team.

It doesn't mean anything else, because nobody knows what kind of manager Craig Stammon's going to be.

So if you're going to tell me that Craig Stammon's going to be the worst manager in the world.

That just means you are angry, or you're upset, or you don't like the Padres.

If you think he's going to be the best manager in the world.

I think quite similarly, you know, you just love the team and you're really hoping that it goes well.

Nobody knows, nobody has any idea.

Craig Staman has no idea what kind of manager he'll be because he's never spent a month in a managerial position.

He's never spent a week in a managerial position, so he has no idea how he'll think.

He's not allowed to say this, so I'm going to say it for him.

He's managed so many games in his head.

He's got thousands of games managed in his head.

Right, maybe yeah, maybe I don't know.

Maybe he's played more stratumatic.

That would be uh, that would be great.

There is literally no manager that the Padres could have hired where you'd be like, well, now we ride everyone would have said that about one guy, and you if you want to do a three to two one, we can all say in lockstep the one guy that if they hired, everyone would have been like we ride.

Oh my god, here we go, ready, three two one?

Bochi rus Bochi, Yeah, exactly.

But that's the only name.

It's the only one.

It's the only one.

And there's no guarantee he would have done anything other than collect a paycheck and then head off to the ranch.

There's no guarantee.

There's no guarantee.

The last two years for Texas he was dead average, not even good.

And by the way, as can possible put in the chat, Bruce Bochi took an advisorial role with the Giants.

He's in the Giants organization again, shocking, you know.

So uh overall, this to me just says aj Preller's in charge.

He's hired somebody.

Like if we're talking about who's going to command respect in the clubhouse, Craig Stammon is on a very short list of people who automatically get buy in from the leaders of the San Diego Padres because Joe Muskrove, Jake Cronenworth Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Junior, you Darvish, these are players who all played with Craig Stammon, so, you know, and they all respected him so much that he was a leader as a middle reliever.

So in all of those senses, we might have just had a I want to put this out there, Okay, we might have just had a home run higher.

We might have just picked one of the best managers in Major League Baseball down the road.

Nobody knows, so there's no reason to dive to this is going to be terrible or a cope or whatever.

They'd hired Bud Black, I would have said that, you know, if they had hired Pooholtz, I would have been nervous.

If they had hired I would have been nervous.

They'd hired Flaherty, I would have been like, hmm, interesting, okay, And that's how I feel pretty much about Craig stamon Is.

Okay, here's here's a choice.

Let's see how it rolls.

What's the most important thing, boys, the amount of money they spend to bring in power, to bring in starting pitching, to improve the roster between now and open.

Yes, sir, you're here.

Let's bring up a couple of our patrons who are now jumping up to speak.

Let's do it, and uh friar Goose, you're just you were up just a little bit too late.

Bogot's apologists got in before you.

Bogot's radiologists.

Holy cow, new name, what's going on it?

Hey guys, Hey, I just wanted to chime.

I was looking at Craig Stammon's bio and the one thing that struck me and Craig you were just kind of talking about this.

You know, he was a Roberto Clemente Award nominee.

Guys like that, if you're getting nominated for that award, you're obviously like a kind of a high character clubhouse guy to begin with.

And I'm thinking about this team next year.

It's not like they're bringing in a bunch of rookies and a bunch of prospects.

This is a highly veteran Leyden team, Guys that have been in the organization now for years.

And I think to have a manager who might be, you know, way more in tune with what they need in order to succeed, who understands them, having played with them and knowing what it's like being a major league player, I think that could be a huge benefit for this team.

You know, they kind of maybe just need a guy who's going to let them be the players that they are.

And you know, I'm sure they'll have a bench coach that will you know, we'll be working with him on decision making.

But I think this this veteran team having a guy who they probably have a lot of respect for from when he played with them.

I think that's a big win I can think of.

You know, in other sports where teams have brought in coaches who are former players.

You know, it does work if the team is a veteran team that doesn't need a lot of hand holding and just needs someone that kind of like gets what they're trying to do and lets them sort of be the players that they want to be.

And I don't know if Mike Shildt was that way with them, but I think Craig stamon will be, And so I think in that sense it's a good hire.

Great called Jeff, thank you, I love it.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's a great point.

And I also want to shout out Jeff and our different Jeff in our chat who said Craig Stammon was also high up in the players Union.

I don't know if that matters, but definitely demands respect from players.

He's the one got Jake Cronenworth into the players Union.

I do think that that's kind of important that he's someone who like has been recognized by his peers as someone who's been willing to take a leadership role.

So, you know, I if we take Okham's razor of you know, taking Joe Muscove at his word like being like, look, I didn't even know he wanted it, But now that I know that that's an option, I'm really excited, Like, yeah, I think this could be the right thing for a veteran group.

Let's bring up a huge patron.

Here's Friar Goose.

What's up, Friar Goose.

Hey there, guys.

You know, thanks for the pod today.

You know, I was a little kind of kind of scratching my head.

Wasn't exactly sure what to make of it.

Uh, you know, there's kind of a really out of left field, you know, a selection.

So I appreciate the comments.

I appreciate the input.

You know, I have left with one question though, you know, we you know, AJ has picked, you know, has gotten the pict several managers.

Now he tried the veteran you know manager like Bob Melvin.

You know, now he gets to choose someone that's you know, his main qualification is you know, he's a J's guy.

Right, and he's and he's a veteran player, and he's a J's guy.

You know, I you know, it makes me think about Mike Child, Right, wasn't he also this guy?

You know he was?

He was that was that seemed to be his only qualification that he was, you know, his got experienced manager too, of course.

Right, a successful manager in another organization, But he was a J's guy.

So you know, I almost have questions about, you know, did Mike Schild just you know, flame out on his own?

Was that that velent credence to that, to that that theory that this was one hundred percent Shild's decision and AJ had nothing to do with it.

And now he's just continuing that trend of hey, you know, let me just get my guy in there and and we'll figure things out.

Or do you guys feel the Craig Stammen will be even more of an of AJ's guy that you think Shield was that That's the question that pops out to me, right, what is this incorrection of what is this in reaction to?

Because one thing I will give AJ credit for is that I feel that he's a guy that's proven that he learns from his mistakes, right, you know, case in point, the trade deadline fiasco's we've had in the past, and I think twenty twenty five, I don't know if you guys agreeing on I think it's you know, the most successful trade deadline that I think AG's ever had, right, So, and that used to be a meme, you know, AJ off season trades, we love it, right AJ?

You know, trade deadline trades broke not going to work out?

Right?

So I think AJ is a guy that learns from the past.

Do you guys feel that this is the learning or what learning is?

Does this demonstrate?

Right?

What what is it correcting for?

What is he fixing with regards to Shild?

Because I think both of them are as guys, That's what I got, guys, Thanks.

For our goose.

I think there's a difference, you know, just in the simple concept that Mike Shild had three playoff appearances and two ninety win seasons, you know, going into being a J's guy.

This is much more in the Tingler moved of like, hey, I believe, but hearing the players already, you know, it's pretty clear that they believe too.

So I'm gonna stay optimistic on this right now.

I mean, I think it's generally meaningless in the most classical sense.

But I think that Craig Stanmond's got as good a chance of doing well at this job as pretty much anyone else would happen more than some more than some.

Folks.

I am going to go have some tea and rest this instrument of mind.

I'll be weary bones.

Yeah, yeah, get get well, Get well.

There goes Chris Reid.

Here is MTL Ryan, big patron, jump in the line.

What's going on?

MTL.

Ryan?

Hey, I don't know if this point was addressed.

I'm a little bit of a late entry into the group therapy.

But one thing that I think is kind of a maybe a sneaky move to describe this hire is if we take Eric Grutner at his word that all of the money that is going back into the organization is getting back onto the field.

Albert Poohols, if he was another front runner, is the kind of guy who's not going to take a first year's manager salary, right Like that was probably the whole thing with the Angels is he wanted a lot of money.

So if pooh Holes is coming in thinking you got to pay me for my Hall of Fame experience.

I'm not doing this for anything less than I mean, let's let's just on the lower side of a high end manager salary.

Let's say it's five million dollars a year plus his staff, which I'm sure would be expensive.

You're now looking at a difference in free agency tiers when it comes to filling out the rotation that maybe you didn't have access to.

So I think that if the manager, if they're confident.

In standardability, which you know I think they are, and as people have said, I think he's a guy of high character.

I think there is an added upside in that if the club is still working on a stressed budget, this is them prioritizing making sure they have a guy who's good enough in a role where they see the floor is very high, and turning around and being able to reinvest that money into free agents where we need to get those guys on the field.

Yes.

Yes, Also, if we have to cost cut on our managerial higher in order to be able to get our next fifth starter, that's not saying anything great about our situation, like hey, we saved four million on the skipper, But I do think that let me just broaden it out, Rafie.

I do think that Albert Pooholes, if he was hired as Padres manager, was coming in with his own ecosystem of ego and expectation, like, you know, I'm Albert Pooholes, So now I was the greatest player, I'm going to be the greatest manager.

I know so much.

I'm going to be the automatic leader, I'm going to be the man.

I'm going to be the headman.

And I just don't clearly Craig Scammon doesn't come in with that type of bravado, you know, that type of profile attached to him.

So in that sense, while we all thought like, oh, everyone's gonna bend the knee to Albert Poohols, that's not a worry with Craig Stammond.

Craig Stammond's just gonna be cool.

Probably, Yeah.

I mean, Craig is the the closest you could have to a pitching equivalent of a backup catcher who would then become a manager, you know, on the other side of the ball.

And those guys are much like the backup quarterback, like the prototype for future managers and so like, I.

Don't know, the longer we talk about this.

You know, I'm not feeling like better or worse about it, But the more I'm like, no, this makes sense.

Like if I had heard Craig Stammon's name at any point at all in you know, leading up to this, I think, really, what a lot of the reaction that we're feeling from Padres fans is shock.

But like if they had hired Nick Hundley or a j Ellis, would that have been Like it would have been boring, similar to the way that Craig Salmon's boring, But would that have been that shocking?

Like No, I don't.

I don't think so, because we heard those names tossed around, so, you know, And just to get back to m z O Ryan's question and just to echo what you said, like, I don't I could this be a money saving move?

Like maybe that was a factor in the decision, but I don't think that that If they really felt that Albert Poolholes was like the guy who was going to take the Padres to the Promised Land, I don't think they would have led a few million dollars get in the way of that.

So yeah.

Oh, Also, Albert Pooholes interviewed to be the manager of the Angels, the Padres, and the Orioles, and he didn't get any of those three jobs.

Yeah, so maybe Albert came into those meetings with a lot more huff and puff than I was being expected by the other side.

Maybe he didn't interview well, maybe he came off.

How who knows, none of us are inside the room.

There's no point in speculating.

The point is factually, he interviewed for three different jobs and he didn't get any of the three jobs.

So whether it was because he had exorbitant salary demands, or he was a poor interview or people ultimately decided he wouldn't be the best manager pick for their teams.

He went over three, you know, which he did plenty of times as an Angel.

So here's Venable for president.

What's going on.

There?

Verty?

Okay?

Sorry?

Is the audio Quali on my apod?

Hopefully it's okay?

Great?

I rafly.

I found out about this kind.

Of by getting your notification about the emergency pod while I was on a plane and I'm not sure how that came to him WiFi, but nothing else did, and just that there's an emergency pod.

And then I texted my wife like, can you Google Padres because I don't know what just happened.

And when she told me Craig sam was hurt, I was really surprised.

But I actually I think I think I like it a lot.

And here's why is I feel like, if we're going to stick with the Albert pool host comparison, I could really see Alba pool hosts, like, hey, let's let's say the queen did this note horrible but like they started the season seven twenty three, I could see Alba pool hosts.

And I don't know him obviously, but I can really easily see him the fuck this button of like, this isn't what I signed up for.

And I think Craig Sammons would couldn't do that in a certain circumstances, but also wouldn't do that with the Padres because he's a local guy, right, So I kind of like the idea of having a guy that's just kind of like completely invested, even though, as you said, Craig, we don't know because he doesn't know, but it's I like that he is.

If we're gonna go with a weird hire like, it might as well be kind of like a relatively hometown dude.

And and to your point earlier, like we all were like, oh, well, Bob Melvin is the perfect hire, what a great idea, and that didn't work.

And then shuld had the pedigree and that didn't work.

You know, I guess on his own repoard.

But still like, this doesn't matter.

He's probably gonna be great or fine in the sense that he won't affect the game much and he'll only have positive effects on the players.

So I mean, anyone who's on into it, I mean, like why, like really why, because there's no I don't see any red flags that aren't even more apparent with other managers, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I mean, if we had hired Craig Counsel at nine million dollars a year, are we guaranteed that we're in a so much better position than we are today with Craig Stammon.

If we hired you know, the ghost of Tony LaRussa, if we hired whatever, Like, you know, why is that automatically better when we've seen how many first year managers have success in Major League Baseball.

The only reason I keep coming back to he's like, there's plenty of guys who have had no managerial experience that have gone into have success, but they've usually had some coaching experience or a little bit.

But this is kind of the new thing.

I think is somebody who's been a longtime major league player and can't let it go.

They don't They don't have to work their way up the ranks the way that they used to.

Now, if you have the right in you can go right to the top spot.

And you know, by all accounts, Craig Stammon's so universally respected within the organization.

He was just respected enough for them to hire him as managers.

So you know he's got the gad.

Now we'll see what he does with it.

Go for it.

And if I can have one more thing, It doesn't matter who the manager is, if they don't figure out the rotation and if bog Arts doesn't hit, and blah blah blah.

So like, great, we have a manager.

Now can we move on to the actual problems because I don't see it.

As a problem.

No, me neither.

I see the payrolls.

And I'll jump off.

But I do have a question on what you just said, Like I just kind of assumed that the coaching staff was not part of the player payroll that's affected by the like by all the luxury texts.

Can you just like talk on them for a second and clarify I'll hop off, but I just I kind of just assume that wasn't a part of it.

But do we know for sure?

And thanks guys, thanks to the emergency pun.

You bet well, the manager's salary doesn't affect the salary cap in any way or the luxury tax.

So that's for sure in terms of where we're going to go the luxury tax.

I know when we talked about that too, pods Ago Rafie, I think we counted in some people whose numbers were gonna come off the board.

Isn't that right, like maybe even Michael King for example.

So you know, And another question that I've never heard answered yet, So I'll just kind of toss it into the wind right here.

I really wonder if the Podras have any type of insurance on you Darvish's deal.

You know, I mean there's been some there's been some cases where a guy that's gonna goes down for a year that the club gets, you know, they've they've put insurance on the deal and they get a percentage of that back.

But I literally don't know, and I haven't seen any reporting along those lines.

I'm just curious because I would think that a guy that you signed it to a six year deal at age thirty seven, Yeah, it probably wants some guardian against injury.

Well that's assuming they could get an insurance policy against it.

That anyone would be willing to right to write that policy given the fact that it was such a high risk move.

Uh yeah, I don't know, and I suspect, well, we will likely never know, given the opacity of the Padres finances.

But uh yeah, we've got a we've got a big patron who's waiting to come up.

And I just happened to love that You've You've made it your own personal hobby horse to recruit one and a half million dollar player, Rowdy to Lez to the San Diego Padres.

Welcome, Rowdy to Les Slugs.

Okay, thanks guys, can you hear me?

Okay?

Okay, great?

Thanks.

Uh.

I just had a couple of quick questions.

The first one is, and this is me being ignorant, but who decides if a bull ten like guy like Miller or someone were to be bumped into the starting rotation?

Is that a manager position or or decision or GM as a decision.

Okay, So yeah, organization.

Because I mean obviously they would they would say who starts to win?

Right the managers would say you're getting starts today versus tomorrow.

But but whether or not you are a starter, is that is a GM move?

Okay, because I was going to say that might affect who comes out of the bullpen, if anybody to start.

My second question is, given that obviously Stamman an Ebla have probably pitching philosophies and their own ideas, do you think that there'll be any sort of budding of heads or do you think Stammen will be you know, you got this Ruben, or do you think they'll be how how that will work?

And then my third question is I think now this puts a lot of pressure on the hitting hire because we're going to have two pitchers, you know, a great pitching coach and a pitcher as the manager.

So who they who they recruit for that I think will tell a lot.

And also who they you know, is that it is that another internal hire or an external hire?

And where's where's he coming from?

So so those are my questions, But uh, I can take the rest offline.

Do Roddy Teles slugs.

Let's let's start at the back there, Rafie.

Clearly they're going to have to hire an experienced bench coach for first year ever manager of any type, Craig Stammon, just like they would have had to for Nieblet, just like they would have had to for Pooh Holes.

I bet Pooh Holles would have wanted his guy.

So, you know, continuing along those lines, uh Stamman offers more you know, organizational flexibility in terms of who they want to try and put alongside him.

But of all the positions, I would suspect act, you can't go internal for hitting coach.

I feel like now that right now that you've done all this, you need to go get the shaman, right, you need to go get the guru from some other organization to to turn this thing around.

Yeah, and I think that that is something that even Eric Grupner was hinting on his interview with Ben and Woods, you know, several weeks ago, was that like they are going to be looking to try and extract more slug out.

Of, you know, players within the organization.

And so yeah, I suspect that they will go after someone in another organization, maybe use some of the savings that they're not paying Albert Pouhols to bring someone in who they really like for hitting coach.

But I think Victor Rodriguez leaving, which I don't think we've covered on the show yet, but that was, you know, announced that he's going to leave to be the Astros hitting coach, which I find to be quite interesting because the Astros are not a dumb organization, so they clearly believe in what Victor Rodriguez is bringing in some way, So you know, is it us or is it him?

I guess we'll we'll find out next year within Houston, but I definitely think they're going to have to go outside the org.

Yeah, there's just no question in my mind.

Let's get through some more folks that are lined up to come on stage.

Here's Monty, what's up, Monty?

Hey, Bello's how you doing?

Okay?

Good?

Yeah?

Great?

Eastern time zone folk very much appreciate the ten thirty surprise pods.

Just Jim Thoughts kind of stands there's no such things like a splashy and nager of them there, right.

Obert Pools was like, yeah, I know, he hit like seven hundred home runs and people respect the both players respect a lot of other players.

I don't know who they could have brought in where you're like, oh, hell yeah, this guy knows four left handers in a row, like they're all just dudes.

Uh.

Also, like the problem seemed to be much shilt, like that seems to be the consensus now like in the after minute, and then I don't know who all we're losing, Like I know Victor rod.

Reagan's because you know, you only hit singles, and but we're.

Not losing anyone else to the best of my knowledge.

It right like Neah Blood so far as we know, still here, if it's still here.

Right outside of Rodriguez.

Now, yeah, we haven't lost anyone.

Well, we have a new getting coach.

I was gonna joke like every other view that's our manager as well.

But it's it reminds me of like one of the situations and they think we've all kind of been there.

It's like adults where you have usually the leader of a team or something such, they're a fudging headache and you know they're all ego and they don't listen to anyone.

Then there's the number two and I know and standin was at number two necessarily was in whatever role he was in.

But and you have that the number two who actually like knows how to run things and talks to people and actually manages everything behind the scenes.

And once the uh that one leader goes because usually there's a reason for them to go, like that second guy steps in and everything just seems a hundred times better.

And if the big problem is just that ship was not listening to anybody and just making life miserable for every coach and you have to figure that the beats down to the players, it seems.

Like the way to go.

Like that's the only kind of why he likes Meebo for the role.

It's like, let's not if everything was ninety two percent good and that eight percent was just Shilp driving people insane, like Stalmming seems like a good dude.

And also I just liked him as a padre.

I might be all aim.

I was at his last game where you have to start, and I think they gave up like five runs, but they like pick stung, so oh my last onle note here managers, It kind of reminds you.

Like the the Major League draft.

If you're not drafting the to five.

I'm just like okay, like, oh it's some dude from high school and Charlotte.

You're like all right, you know how that Like, I'll let you know how that goes in three years because I don't know anything about or anything.

So anyway.

Yeah.

Also, uh for punting on twenty twenty five.

The pods won't spend money.

They suck.

I just represent everyone everyone in the chant.

Over here, just one guy over and over.

Thank you, manty.

Look forward to seeing you December seventh, just about a month from today.

Oh sorry, I didn't need to take off the stage and this said that, but I'll finish the tease, uh when we will have our second annual Padres hot Tub Christmas party and trivia game at Stone Brewing.

Down Where would you describe where that Stone Brewing is?

I wouldn't say down to the stage.

Yeah, yeah, literal literally there you go there there.

It's not North Park, it's the one we went to, right.

Little Italy little Yeah, thank you so much better.

We'll be at Stone Brow on Ketner on December seventh and look forward to seeing you all there.

Please make You've got a month to make your plan to come on down and see us at Stone Brewing at Kettner and Monty will have trivia for all of us.

Two more folks in line.

Here's James Harvey up next.

Thank you so much, James Harvey.

Welcome to the show.

Hey are you guys hearing me?

Yes?

Okay, great.

So the date is June second.

It is a Wednesday afternoon in the year of our Lord.

Two thousand and one.

The Padres are on their way to a six to one loss to the Cubs that will mark a serious sweep by the Cubs.

I am at the game with my older brother and being down big on the road in a bad game, we decided to keep the thing where you just try walking up and sitting behind home plate, because the worst thing is that you get picked out of a bad game.

So we run into a man in his fifties who's wearing kind of a muted Colors Padres hat, and he engages us in conversations.

You know, we're also wearing San Diego gear.

We have some predictable small talk and then I ask him do you make it out to a lot of Padres games?

Do you live around here?

And he says, I travel to a lot of Padres games.

I'm Craig Stammon's uncle, and I had a lovely maybe forty five minute chat with mister I don't remember his name, mister Craig Salmon's uncle.

He seemed like a really nice guy.

He really liked his nephew.

He spent a lot of money traveling to his games.

And I think this is the data that no one is accounting for that proves that the Padres will win a World Series in twenty twenty six or twenty twenty seven if there's no season.

And that's really all I have.

I'm just going to note that I will drop a picture of Craig Salmon's uncle in the chat, and you know, hopefully you enjoy that and believe every part of my story because the picture cannot be faked and everyone knows.

It's like, I'm just guessing it was twenty twenty one, not two thousand and one, because oh that is correct.

That is just like yeah, I was.

I was like, one, did you meet a time lord?

Like how like.

Yeah, thank you baba on my own man, yeah, like one of the outer rings in the queue.

Yeah yeah, actually there will come a time.

James Trivy, thank you so much, good.

He's also like and remember this by Navidia Stock.

Okay, all right, remember who told you that much more?

You told me so much more?

Oh my goodness, amazing.

Let's wrap things up with Donnielle.

What's up, Donnielle?

Unmute yourself?

You're up?

Hey, guys on your name?

Can you guys hear me?

Yes?

All right?

So again, I feel like I share the sentiment of most of your fans were I was pretty shocked about the Craig Stammond managerial higher again, shock, kind of scared, kind of you know, just all the different, you know, emotions that go into hiring a new manager, especially a first time manager.

But I feel now that it's everything's kind of calming down and everything.

I feel like, if we just really surround him with a solid coaching staff and you know, again i'm hearing all those those players really that respect him in the clubhouse, I feel like this could be a really good hire.

And I know we said this a lot about you know, different all the other different managerial's hires previously.

But you know, let's let's keep room diable.

I know, Rayfie was.

Kind of crashing out when you hear it.

What he saw if if he comes back from Joe Musgrove.

But yeah, I just I feel like we could really run this back, you know, And yeah, that's all I really have.

And thanks again for having the emergency pod and let's go Padres.

Let's go Padres.

Thank you, Donnio.

Well, there we are, Rafie at the end of an hour.

And I think with the something resembling a consensus that the Padres did a very podresed thing and that we all feel at least reasonably okay about that thing they did, and everything else is kind of just a warshock test and what you think about the club situation right now.

But Craig Stalmon's in charge of that situation for the next next two to three years.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think the war shark test is spot on.

Craig.

You how you feel about Craig Stalmond's hire is probably how you feel about being a fan of the San Diego Padres.

I don't really know that things would have moved the needle all that much, you know, like we we laid out with a matting Lee or a pooholes Hire.

But I am at this point like that's just sad to say, Like what other choice do we have.

We have to embrace it.

We have to.

We just have to.

We have to embrace it.

And you know, I think if Joe muskrubs quote is any sort of uh you know, indication, I dispect a Manny Machado quote similar in tenor to Joe Mushkrub's quote will be received on the way soon.

But uh, thanks to everyone for joining us on short notice.

It's really cool to have a random Thursday morning, you know, at ten am on the West coast and have almost one hundred people here listening and joining us.

So appreciate you for hanging in and Go Padres.

Yeah, and for anyone who's listening to this posted on the free Feet join us patreon dot com.

Slash padres hotup to be a part of these when they happen live, because you never know what another crazy go Padres thing is going to happen next.

For Chris Read's sore throat and Rafie Canter, I'm Craig Elston repeating Go Padres.