00:00I want to talk about A.J. Preller now because this was the thing that was teased for years.
00:06Is Preller on the hot seat? Is A.J. Preller, the GM in San Diego, going to be fired?
00:11Is A.J. Preller going to be extended?
00:13Well, on Monday, the San Diego Padres announced that they agreed to a multi-year contract extension
00:18with their president of baseball operations and general manager, A.J. Preller.
00:23If baseball were the Wild West, he would be the top sheriff.
00:26He would be the cartoon character that's shooting left and right.
00:30He is the king of building a farm and then trading the farm to go and try and get better
00:35at the major league level.
00:36It has not resulted in a World Series appearance.
00:39It has not resulted in a World Series championship.
00:41It has resulted in an NLCS appearance.
00:45Really, what A.J. Preller does is he gives us so much content over the course of the year.
00:52And that's the thing you're most excited for, Armladen.
00:54I know you are.
00:55Yeah, I was sitting at the, you know, what do you call it?
00:58On the first day of camp, when we're listening to Bruce Sherman, Marlon's owner address.
01:02I've called it a commencement address.
01:03It just feels like this is the start of spring.
01:06Yeah, so the official start of spring.
01:08But I'm sitting next to, you know, Isaac Zapp from Fish on First.
01:11And he gives me a little nudge and shows me his phone.
01:13And Preller had been extended.
01:14I didn't even realize.
01:16But, like, let out a fist bump.
01:17Because it just, he is so good for our show.
01:20He is so good for baseball talk.
01:21But also, there is some seriousness to it that I think he is the far, far, far example.
01:28But in this model-driven world where every team is so careful about every single move they make in terms
01:33of surplus value, the deadline has become much less exciting.
01:38And A.J. Preller is here to save the dead on Jerry DePoto, even.
01:42I think you got to give some credit, was aggressive.
01:43Like, I think we really saw the peak example of this with the Gino Suarez lack of sweepstakes.
01:50Now, we also saw why teams are not aggressive in those spots.
01:54Because Suarez didn't actually provide too much value.
01:57Rental bats aren't great.
01:58But I don't care.
01:59I want to see aggression.
02:00And I always think it's great to have some equalizers still around here that kind of stray and deviate from
02:05what we're used to.
02:06On the baseball side of things, man, like, the Padres have been really solid for a while now.
02:11I know there was some bumps.
02:12But the last four years, man, we're talking about 89 wins, 82 wins, 93 wins, and 90 wins.
02:18I understand that, you know, they have not made a deep playoff run.
02:22The last CS run was in 2022.
02:24A little bit of a tough situation coming out of the National League there.
02:27But the grass is always greener.
02:29And I feel like Preller does some things poorly.
02:32He gets a little overzealous.
02:33But this is a guy that's going to keep your team in contention.
02:36And at this point, the Padres are selling tickets.
02:39The financial thing seems to not be as much of an issue as they make it out to be.
02:43He's made savvy moves.
02:44And, yes, he's going to swing and miss sometimes.
02:47But that type of hitter is very coveted in Major League Baseball.
02:49Why isn't that type of executive?
02:51Right.
02:52I love that.
02:53That's a bar show.
02:54Shout out, Orem, on that one.
02:56I do want to ask you why you think San Diego feels like this is their guy for the long
03:01term.
03:02And he has been.
03:03You know, he's been there for north of a decade.
03:04But he hasn't gotten to the fall classic yet.
03:07He gets to the dance consistently.
03:08He is the lead decision maker of a postseason team year in and year out, pretty much.
03:15But he hasn't gotten to the finish line, let alone cross it.
03:18I consider getting there, winning a pennant.
03:20And he's been to one NLCS as a lead decision maker.
03:23Why do you feel like San Diego thinks A.J.
03:26Preller is their best foot forward there?
03:28And they can't, you know, maybe find better?
03:30Or at least they're very, very happy with what they have currently.
03:34I think because if this doesn't go well with some of these guys, like in the next few years,
03:40this system, and we always talk about it, but this is the most depleted the Padre system has been.
03:44He always reloads it, right?
03:45If you don't bring him back, who's going to reload the system as well as A.J.
03:50Preller?
03:50So I think that's the other side of it as well.
03:52I think they are as much major league heavy as ever, and they always are that way.
03:56But when you look at the farm system and lack of assets, you need to give Preller a little bit
04:00of time to, I think, replenish it.
04:02And I also think Preller is a guy that you can presumably, I think ownership just hasn't limited him at
04:08all.
04:08You could presumably slow down a little bit.
04:11And I'd rather have a guy like that where, hey, let's rebuild the farm.
04:14Let's try to have a little bit more continuity here.
04:17And again, I think the best guy to do that for you is one of the best scouts that you
04:21have in baseball still in A.J.
04:23Preller.
04:23So I think, I also think the playoffs are more random than we like to make it out to be.
04:29And if you have a guy here that you feel like can keep you in contention, which he has done
04:32for the last handful of years,
04:34I feel like that's what they're looking at.
04:36I like some of the smaller moves they made this offseason.
04:39I just think this team as constructed can make a run.
04:43And if they don't, who's better to help rebuild this farm system than A.J. Prowler?
04:50Just don't let him tear it down as immediately this next time.
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