tonight was the season tickets holder meeting for the padres and amongst the great food.

Alot of the FO was there to talk about the upcoming season and answer questions.

Among the people there where GM Kevin Towers, CEO Sandy Alderson, Grady Fuson Announcer Ted Lightner

a few things that might clear some things up...

As could have been predicted we didn't get much new info.

- Blum is going to be signed tomorrow for sure. 2nd season in a row where Blum's name was rolled out to "excite" the fans with the return of a "fan favorite"...

- Graffanino, Durham, Loretta, and Giles are still in the mix as possibilities for 2b.

- Bonds won't be coming here. Teddy Ballgame and KT made that fairly clear.


- Management feels they still have a shot at Manny, and at the very least feel their efforts will drive up the asking price for the Dodgers. If the Dodgers get Ramirez the price will have been directly affected by our offers.

- Arbitration will be offered to all eligible players other than Piazza. KT said they were still deciding on him, but didn't want to offer at risk of him accepting and forcing a $10 million deal.

- Spent some time justifying the Barfield trade to the emotionally attached fans... Some people can't see the logic in acquiring a cheap potential cleanup-type bat at a premium position in an exploding market.

- Matt Bush is going to remain at SS for the foreseeable future. Fuson felt he made strides last season despite all the injuries.

- Peavy and Gonzalez and Young will not be traded. And More Peavy and Gonzoles will not be traded for Manny. KT commented on how ridiculous that rumor was.

- There was lots of free food again... hot dogs, pork sandwiches, clam chowder, pizza, popcorn, cracker jacks...

- KT insists we're going to fill our two empty rotation spots with quality arms... but keep in mind that quality arms in the past has meant Estes, Redding, Valdez, and May among others...

- Mentioned very little about LF other than the bit about Manny. Alderson did say he truly felt we were missing a pair of right handed power bats.

Really not much to go on overall... They insisted yet again that this club would be better going into next season and that our goal was to reach the World Series. KT also said he'd "go out on a limb" and guarantee this club would perform better next season... whether that means he's got something up his sleeve I'm not sure...

That's all I can remember right now. If I forgot something I'll post it.