The observant reader will notice that I didn't write anything about last night's Game 6 of the World Series. I agonized over this until about three in the morning, when I finally gave up and went to bed. Over the course of the game I collected a long list of things to talk about, but none of them seemed important after the late-inning heroics and David Freese's walk-off sledgehammer to the balls or adrenal gland (depending!), and I was left in a state of complete and utter baseball. There were a zillion things flying through my head, and I couldn't get any one of them to slow down enough to put into words.
That might've been the best game in baseball history. It also might not have been, and in truth it probably wasn't, but it's high on the list, when you consider the stakes. I can't believe there's another game tonight - a more important game, the most important game - because last night's game feels like it should be talked about for days or weeks or months. It probably will be, if the Cardinals win again. If the Rangers win, it won't be forgotten, but it'll be reduced to something less than it was.
I come away amazed by baseball, in the good way. I come away amazed by Ron Washington, in the bad way. And I come away thinking that David Freese is such a good opposite-field hitter for a righty, and he'd be such a great fit in Safeco, and I guess that's just never going to happen, at least any time soon, and maybe that's too bad for us, but what a story he is.
Wait, this post isn't supposed to be about the World Series. It's supposed to be about Chris Gwynn! Major story of the day Chris Gwynn! Here's where that's coming from:
Baseball source said Padres lost Chris Gwynn to the Mariners, where he will be named the director of player development.
Nothing is official yet on the Mariners' end, and nothing will be official for a short while, but this sounds legitimate. Geoff Baker notes that Pedro Grifol put in a request to become a coach after the year, and Gwynn would be a sensible pseudo-replacement. By which I mean there's no evidence to suggest that he wouldn't be a sensible replacement. Somebody who wouldn't be a sensible replacement would be like, me, or Dierks Bentley. Dierks Bentley can't run a player development department! Why would anyone think that Dierks Bentley could run a player development department!
Previously, Gwynn had been serving as the Padres' director of player personnel since December 2009. Before that, he was an organizational scout, for many many years. My instinctive response when I hear that the Mariners are poaching someone affiliated with the Padres' farm system is to run away screaming and hide behind a pile of logs, but it's not like all of the Padres' issues with player development have been Gwynn's fault, and I trust that the Mariners know what they're doing, here. They certainly know better than I do, because how the hell am I supposed to evaluate whether or not Chris Gwynn will make a good director of player development? I can offer literally zero insight or analysis.
Interestingly, the Mariners' list of front office members doesn't include a director of player development. Director of player development Greg Hunter was demoted in fall 2008 when Jack Zduriencik came on board. Grifol's current title is director of minor league operations. I don't know what any of this means, but it's additional words, and what you guys don't know is that, in this editorial window where I'm typing this post, there's a running word count in the lower right corner. Increase, word count, increase!
Here's my absolute favorite angle to this story that I've discovered so far. On September 26, the Padres extended Gwynn's contract through 2013. What did you have to say in response, internet commenters?
In the ~month that's passed since, the Padres have lost Gwynn to the Mariners, and they've lost GM Jed Hoyer and assistant GM Jason McLeod to the Cubs. Stability!