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San Diego Padres exec: Team’s performance has ‘been embarrassing’

San Diego Padres executive chairman Ron Fowler is not a man who will sugarcoat things. He made that obvious in a Wednesday interview with the Mighty 1090 AM.

“It’s been embarrassing. I don’t know how else to put it,” Fowler said, via Ken Rosenthal. “Our performance on the road trip, 1-7, was pathetic.”

Wow. Tell us how you really feel.

Fowler specifically cited San Diego’s 16-4 loss on Tuesday to the Seattle Mariners that saw not one, but two position players come in to pitch for the Padres. Fowler referenced a rant from former owner Ray Kroc, who once grabbed a microphone and announced over the P.A. system that he had “Never seen such stupid ball playing” in his life.

“The performance by our team, I can understand how Kroc would have grabbed the microphone. It’s that frustrating.”

On one hand, it’s hard to argue with this rant. The Padres are 20-33, in last place in the National League West, and by any objective standards, are one of the worst teams in baseball.

This is a team that opened its season with a three-game sweep at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers when they failed to score a run. They are also 0-9 against the San Francisco Giants.

So, they’re not only bad, but miles behind the division’s two blue blood franchises. It’s a bad realization to come to in a season that’s not even half over.

The timing of the rant is what’s a little odd, as it would have been much more appropriate last season. Remember, the 2015 Padres were built to win, as they added stars like Derek Norris, Justin Upton, Matt Kemp, James Shields, and Craig Kimbrel. That season ended at 74-88.

With Upton and Kimbrel now gone and other players exiting over the winter, the expectation had to be that San Diego would struggle. Add in the fact that the team’s No. 1 starter Tyson Ross was lost for the season after just one start, and this is magnified even further.

Kemp and Shields look like they might still be effective players, but are also clearly on the downside of their careers. What’s worse is that to acquire those players in 2015, the Padres really gutted their Minor League System.

Anyone who really thought that the Padres would compete in this division was really kidding themselves. This team was going to be bad this year. If anything, the poor performance of the Arizona Diamondbacks has made San Diego look a little better, as the squad is only 2.5 games out of fourth place.

Certainly anyone with the Padres has a right to be frustrated, and really, there’s no problem with anyone voicing that frustration in a public forum. In this case, though, the rant might have been better served for 2015. In 2016, the Padres are playing right up to their not-so-lofty expectations.

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