San Diego Padres fans mock GM AJ Preller’s statement of faith in hitting coaches as team continues freefall: "That’s just not true"
With his team in an absolute freefall, San Diego Padres general manager AJ Preller gave the dreaded vote of confidence to the team's hitting coaches.
Oscar Bernard, Scott Coolbaugh and Morgan Burkhart are listed as the team's three hitting instructors. It may not be something that any of the three will want to include on their resume for any future job searches.
The Padres enter the weekend dead last in MLB with a .226 batting average and are just 22nd with a .699 OPS, and 24th with a .382 slugging.
San Diego is nearly in the middle with a .317 on-base percentage, but given the All-Star look of the team's hitting lineup on paper, being 18th in OBP as a highlight doesn't quite cut it.
AJ Preller tells @BenAndWoods he has a lot of faith in the team's hitting coaches and they know what they're doing.
One of the fashionable picks to perhaps win the franchise's first World Series championship this season, the San Diego Padres are arguably the biggest disappointment of the first seven weeks of the MLB season.
San Diego enters the weekend with a record of 20-24, just one game in front of the eternally-rebuilding Colorado Rockies at the foot of the National League West.
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods That's just not true like come on
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods Aj Preller when he looks at his hitting coaches and the teams offensive struggles. https://t.co/HteYVn0LFD
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods Right off the canned response doc, I see
The San Diego Padres entered 2023 looking to build off a run to the 2022 NL Championship Series. However, this season has been a nightmare for the team's supporters – and things look to only be getting worse.
San Diego has won just two of its last 10 games and is on a two-game losing streak. A powerfully constructed offense is being outscored by eight runs by the opposition through 44 games, with the quarter pole of the season already in the rearview mirror.
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods And this is why this franchise can’t be taken seriously
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods https://t.co/rONl7H3yc5
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods they are not doing the job, the alignment is wrong, EVERYTHING IS WRONG and they have to realize now that there is time
The return of Fernando Tatis Jr. from suspension in late April was supposed to buoy the offense, but it has has seemingly little effect. Tatis is hitting .274 with five home runs through 24 games. His batting average is the second-best among San Diego Padres starters, just one percentage point behind shortstop Xander Bogaerts at the start of the weekend.
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods That is a very AJ thing to say
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods Vibes https://t.co/2oZtHCuLDn
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods What if Preller didn’t know what he was doing?
Manny Machado and Juan Soto continue to disappoint in 2023, hitting .231 and .252, respectively. Machado has just five homers; Soto has seven.
@973TheFanSD @BenAndWoods AJ reading off the script but what did you think he would say?
San Diego Padres too good to be this bad
The Padres simply have too much talent to be this awful. There's only so long this can go before some major changes are implemented to the on-field management team.