First of all, I would like to congratulate Jeff Moorad and his investment partners on the acquisition of the Padres. I have purposely stepped back to allow my thoughts to flow through my mind before I attempted to post about what Moorad’s presence means to the Padres and the fans of San Diego. Listening to the formal introduction on Padres.com, John Moores handed over a portion of controlling interest of the Padres to Jeff Moorad. I could only imagine how tough it was for Moores to do so. You have to remember Moores is the man who saved Baseball in San Diego. Moores had a tremendous impact on San Diego with not only the baseball team but as well with the development of Downtown. In the same token, Moores had some ill-advised decisions just like any human being does on occasion throughout their lifetime, when Moores fired Larry Lucchino. That one move practically set back the Padres franchise for 4 years in my opinion. Yesterday, the torch has been passed over to Jeff Moorad. What can you expect from Moorad ? I’ll try to give my best shot from a perspective of a fan.

During Moorad’s tenure with the D’Backs, there were some free-agent signings and of course development through the farm system. The person who was responsible for the farm system was Mike Rizzo, who is now with the Nationals. Rizzo had left D’Backs after Moorad had selected Josh Brynes as the GM of the D’Backs. If you do your research, Padres’ GM Kevin Towers was also interviewed by Moorad for that same opening. So, now let’s digest this even further. What are the possible changes on the horizon, given a time-line of 9-12 months. I expect Moorad to analyze the entire baseball operations and will make a few changes that will adhere to his philosophy. One of the positions that could change would be the General Manager, thus we are talking about Kevin Towers. Kevin is the last thread from the Moores ownership and I think that Paul DePodesta could be given a shot to run the ship. DePodesta got the bad end of the stick when he was the Dodgers GM and given that experience, Paul would relish the opportunity to have a second chance. Keep in mind, if Sandy Alderson re-emerges with another baseball franchise, DePodesta could join Alderson. That’s why I say, if Moorad makes a change it will happen after the 2009 season to keep DePodesta or perhaps Moorad will choose someone else outside the Padres. Who can that be ?? Nationals’ Mike Rizzo ? D’Backs’ AJ Hinch ? D’Backs’ Jerry Dipoto ? Angels’ Abe Flores ?

As you know with any take over, changes will come they are just on the horizon. To wrap this up, a good song to dedicate to the new ownership is called “Beginnings” by Chicago & Earth Wind Fire.