Padres News: Exec Avoids Blaming Any One Player for Friars' First Half Struggles

AJ Preller reminding everyone that baseball is a team sport!

The Padres' first half of the season was a massive disappointment, with the Friars sitting six games back in the NL Wild Card and eight-and-a-half back in the NL West. For all the money spent on getting big-name stars, San Diego has been a bit of an embarrassment leading up to mid-July.

Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts, two of the most expensive players on the roster, have abysmal starts to their seasons. Machado hit .217/.288/.326 and only one home run in a May the team captain likely wishes he could forget. Bogaert's May was even worse, hitting at a .200/.283/.263 clip with only one homer.

It wasn't a coincidence that the Padres went 10-16 in May, setting the tone for what would be a disappointing season in which San Diego is forced to try to climb out of the grave they dug themselves in the second half.

In reference to some of the poor starts, President of Baseball Operations AJ Preller spoke on the struggling stars, while making sure to not blame any specific players.

"Any team, your core foundational guys, if they perform, you're going to be good," Preller said recently. "I think from that standpoint, there are guys that we believe in that are gonna be here for a long time that we know are good players and they're gonna hit."

(Via

The San Diego Union-Tribune

)

Fortunately, Machado had a much better June and an outstanding July in which his OPS reached a sky-high 1.472, due largely to his 6 home runs across eight games.

Bogaerts struggled in July, but his decent June has at least salvaged his batting average, which now sits at .253. However, Bogaerts must step it up in the second half of the season if he wants to live up to the 11-year, $280 million contract signed in the offseason.

However, you will not hear Preller call out Bogaerts or Machado or any player or position group in particular. In Preller's eyes, a world in which San Diego climbs back to the top of the NL West or Wild Card standings must be because of a collective improvement across the team.

"You don't ever want it to be on one player or one group, because it's a team situation, a team thing," Preller said. "But if we're gonna get to the playoffs, it's gonna be because our guys achieve or overachieve. That's our top players, and that's throughout the whole roster. They need to play up to or exceed the expectations.

(Via

The San Diego Union-Tribune

)

Currently, most sports books have the Padres' win total set at 82.5, so if the Padres are to live up to expectations, they have some winning to do.