Kevin Towers was hired yesterday as the manager of the San Diego Padres. It's a decent hire, and one that should get the media enthused about the future of the Diamondbacks. But I'd be cautious about showing too much optimism, if I were a Diamondback fan.
For starters, for months now, Arizona has been stressing that the reason why they fired Josh Byrnes as a General Manager was due to the fact that the big league club was disappointing, and that they lacked any sort of top shelf prospects in the farm system. They wanted to rectify that, which is why they traded Edwin Jackson, Dan Haren, and others for more prospects.
Towers' history in San Diego, in terms of farm products, is fairly dismal. Since Towers was first made General Manager in 1995, his most successful players that have come out his farm system from the first five rounds have been:
- Chase Headley (2nd Round, 2005)
- Xavier Nady (2nd Round, 2000)
- Khalil Greene (1st Round, 2002)
And yes, while you can credit him getting Jake Peavy in the 15th round back in 1999, you also have to realize that Towers passed over superior talents in the first round for milder college talents that were more affordable, but had less upside. If the Diamondbacks had really wanted a General Manager that emphasized a strong farm system, and would continue to build it from within while contending, they should have retained Mike Rizzo, who is largely responsible for the brightest parts of the current Diamondback team that is taking the field.
In fact, most of the players from Towers' teams often came from other organizations, be it by trade or free agency. Towers had a talent for finding other teams' undervalued assets, like Phil Nevin from the Tigers, Adrian Gonzalez from Texas, and Xavier Nady and Heath Bell from the Mets. However, it also should be noted that Towers was also more enamored with other teams' assets than some of his own. Towers inherited a couple of good players, Derrek Lee and Matt Clement, that he would later trade away, plus gave away what would later be a king's ransom of talent when he gave up Jason Bay and Oliver Perez to Pittsburgh for Brian Giles, whose power would evaporate once he arrived to PETCO.
Towers' also has gained a reputation for finding excellent relief help off the scrapheap. While I shall admit that he had a talent for finding certain pitchers that he knew had the potential to succeed if give a fair shake, I also have to point to the fact that PETCO had a hand in this also well.
And while one is more than willing to point to the Padres winning the division four times in his tenure, plus their 1998 World Series appearance, it should be noted that Padres have also fielded sub-.500 squads nine times in his 15 year tenure, with a five year stretch from 1999 to 2004 that I'm surprised didn't cost him his job. And in that period of time, the farm system was fairly barren, with San Diego relying on free agent products and trades to try and build a squad.
In reality, I think Towers will likely be a middle of the pack guy. It'll be interesting to watch him wheel and deal his first season in Arizona, as he tries to acquire pieces from which he can try to cobble together a rotation and less strikeout prone lineup. I think you'll probably see Mark Reynolds dealt, with Stephen Drew shopped around for pitching depth. All in all, though, Towers won't be the savior that the Diamondbacks originally planned for.
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