What The Hell Is Going on With Padres?

Fox Sports - Pat Murphy is the Padres' Triple-A manager. The Brewers want to hire him as a major-league coach. And the Padres have balked at letting him go. A simple case of a team valuing an employee? Perhaps. But some in the industry view the Padres' actions as highly unusual — and perhaps a sign that the Pads want Murphy to replace manager Bud Black or, at the very least, join the team's coaching staff. The Padres' 20-20 record is fueling industry-wide speculation that Black could be in trouble. Ownership expects to win after opening the season with a club-record $109 million payroll. General manager A.J. Preller is in his first full season, and like ownership, inherited Black. One Padres official, however, said that the team's desire to keep Murphy is not a reflection on Black's status. Rather, the Padres consider Murphy an “impact guy,” even though he is only at Triple-A, the official said. A rival executive expressed skepticism with those claims. “(Murphy) must have been made promises — big ones,” the executive said.

What is the Hell is going on with how the Padres are handling the Pat Murphy situation?
The Rule of thumb is that you don't stop a a coach from advancing his career with a promotion opportunity elsewhere unless there are extreme circumstances. This has to mean that Murphy is the successor to Black and its imminent unless this team makes a run over the next couple of series'.

This also sucks because it effects Murphy's pay and pension plan because he has never been on a Major League staff unless he gets a promotion within the Padres organization fast. Just all around bizarre move if they don't already have plans to replace Bud Black very shortly with Murphy. Murphy is well known and respected all around baseball with his most notable tenure being at the baseball collegiate powerhouse at ASU. But, not so sure if he is the right fit for a team that has all its chips on the table for 2015. The current roster probably wouldn't react well to a rookie manager unless their are bigger plans of dumping some of the veterans as well.

This also makes the interactions between Black and Murphy as awkward as possible. Bud is already   in the mode of keeping his head on a swivel. Having your Triple A manager being retained from a promotion elsewhere must be as confusing and telling as it gets at the same time.

This also sets a bad public perception/message of future Padres hire candidates.

Official Prediction:

Bud needs to go at least 4-2 during their 2 series coming up vs both LA squads. If he doesn't he will be on the MLB network by June 1st.


P.S.  Kudos to Darren Smith of "Mighty 1090AM" today by asking some tough/awkward questions to Bud Black about being on the hot seat. The majority of SD sports reporters wouldn't dream about asking that type of question. Most would poop their pants and then tell bud he's doing great.