FanHouse JodyGerut

The Padres have acquired Tony Gwynn Jr. from the Brewers in exchange for Jody Gerut, a major league source told FanHouse on Thursday.

Gwynn, 26, was hitting .309 with the Brewers Triple-A affiliate in Nashville. The son of the Hall of Famer and Padres icon, Gwynn Jr. is a .248 hitter in parts of the past three seasons in the majors with the Brewers.

Gerut, 31, has bounced around the majors, playing with the Indians, Cubs, Pirates and Padres. He is hitting .233 in 36 games with San Diego this year.

After an improbable stretch where the San Diego Padres won eight of nine games, they were sitting with a 9-3 record. Since then, they have fallen to 12-15, a bad stretch which included a six-game losing streak. The team has many issues, obviously, but the offense is not doing the job at all. They rank 11th in the NL in runs scored, 15th in batting average and 14th in on-base percentage.

First-year hitting coach, Jim Lefebvre -- the fourth in four seasons for the Fathers -- is willing to be accountable for the failures of the entire offense.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

Remember that time when Troy Glaus was eligible at shortstop? Yeah, that was awesome. Shoddy Chris Farley impersonations aside, roto-devotees will recall that Glaus had to step in for the Blue Jays for one measly game and was eligible the remainder of that year and the next.

Well, what if Nick Swisher was eligible at pitcher?

The San Diego Padres, picked to finish last by pretty much everyone who follows baseball, have stormed out of the gate to a 6-2 start. This has to be a shock to even the majority of the team's own fans. Then again, they've got 154 games left to play, and it's difficult to imagine them staying in the thick of things for long, even in that sub-par division. Personally, I still believe they'll finish last.

Hopefully Padres closer Heath Bell doesn't read the above paragraph. If so, he's sure to have a problem with FanHouse. You see, he's paying way too much attention to the media right now.

FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the San Diego Padres.

You know that scene in Caddyshack where Chevy Chase turns to Rodney Dangerfield and says, "You're not ... you're not good, Al. You stink" If Kevin Towers was sitting near me right now, that's what I would say. And one would imagine if there wasn't so much ownership turmoil around the Padres right now, someone else might have noticed as well.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Worst team in baseball. Much like the 2008 incarnation, there are very few bright spots on the 2009 San Diego Padres. Jake Peavy is obviously awesome (although he does have a lot of mileage already), Adrian Gonzalez has been quite consistent the past few years, Chase Headley is dreamy if you're one of those folks that are obsessed with prospects (/raises hand), and Heath Bell might be able to save some games ... if the Pads can get him a lead.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

After clinging to contender-ship for the past few years, it seems as though last season was a wake-up call to San Diego Padres GM Kevin Towers. Trevor Hoffman will not be the closer this year, Khalil Greene is likely to be traded, and Jake Peavy is definitely going to be traded. Let's examine what triggered this.

The Padres can't hit, and they are not in position to develop an offense any time soon. They had been able to survive with little offense the previous three seasons because their pitching and defense -- teamed with their home-field advantage in spacious Petco Park -- was able to churn out those 3-2 and 2-1 victories enough times to stay competitive. That all went by the wayside in 2008, as significant time was missed by Peavy and Chris Young atop the rotation (they made only 45 combined starts after making 64 in 2007) and the rest of the starters were shaky all season. In turn, the team ERA ballooned from 3.70 to 4.41.

Releasing veterans after a limited number of at-bats seems to be the new black in baseball. The Padres cut Jim Edmonds loose this afternoon after just 101 plate appearances and ate the $4.75 million or so remaining on his contract. The move mimics the one made by Toronto when they parted ways with Frank Thomas.

Like Thomas, Edmonds wasn't producing up to his established level. A .178 average and 498 OPS is about as ugly as things get and, when you toss in the step Edmonds lost in center, he was hurting the team more than he was helping it. That said, what did the Padres expect? Unlike Thomas, Edmonds has been breaking down physically for years and was more than two years removed from his last healthy and productive season.

He'll be replaced by Jody Gerut and Scott Hairston but all seems lost for the Padres this season. Their lineup is lacking at every non-Adrian Gonzalez spot and Arizona and it seems that a housecleaning is in order down San Diego way.

As for Edmonds, he may get another look if a team finds itself shy an outfielder. He should probably think about hanging 'em up, though. His defensive decline is the most telling sign that he's given all he could in an excellent career.

Some of you may remember Jody Gerut as a once promising outfield prospect with the Indians. Even if you do remember that, you probably have forgotten about Gerut and didn't even realize he's been in the Pirates organization for the past year and a half. Or was in the Pirates organization until he was released by the team yesterday. Here are some fun facts from Gerut's stint with the Buccos, courtesy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a calculator:

• Gerut batted 18 times over four games for the Pirates after being acquired from the Cubs for Matt Lawton at the 2005 trade deadline. After those 18 at-bats he went on the disabled list and hasn't played since.
  
• The Pirates payed him over $2 million in that time span.
• That's $500,000 a game and $111,111.11 an at-bat.
  

One might be inclined to feel bad for the Pirates in this situation, except that everyone knew Gerut's knee was injured when the Pirates traded for him. I hate to link back to my own blog, but this is what I wrote about Gerut after seeing him play in person three days after the Pirates traded for him:

[Gerut] does have a pretty strong swing, but the knee brace he wears on his left knee is ENORMOUS. He left around the 5th or 6th tonight with what's now being described as "irritation" in the knee. Hopefully this isn't another [Armando] Rios situation.

And that was gleaned from a post in which I was trying to be positive about Gerut. If you are unfamiliar with the referenced Armando Rios situation, he was half of the Pirates' bounty from the Jason Schmidt trade, who played two games for the Pirates in 2001 before blowing his ACL out (though he did briefly return for part of the 2002 season). Yes, Dave Littlefield was the *ahem* architect behind both trades. Time moves on but history repeats itself in Pittsburgh.