Dodgers: Padres using Larry Rothschild as scapegoat completely backfired

Jun 21, 2021; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres pitching coach Larry Rothschild (38) walks to the dugout during the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 21, 2021; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres pitching coach Larry Rothschild (38) walks to the dugout during the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

The San Diego Padres, man. Not enough can be said about their fraudulent effort to contend in the National League … let alone the NL West.

While some Los Angeles Dodgers fans respect the Pads’ energy and boldness in an attempt to be declared baseball royalty, most are laughing at how quickly everything came crashing down for the division “rivals.”

Yeah, remember the Padres tried to declare themselves the Dodgers’ chief competitor?

A Dodgers-Giants matchup on a random Wednesday with no implications whatsoever is still more heated than ANY possible duel with San Diego.

Nonetheless, if you like poking fun at the Padres, it continues to get better.

We already looked at how most of their trades have yet to pan out. Now, if we look back on their decision to fire pitching coach Larry Rothschild in late August … it’s easy to notice that the organization’s attempt to make him the scapegoat for their “issues” was an epic failure.

The Padres’ decision to scapegoat Larry Rothschild has Dodgers fans laughing.

Some might call these statistics (which were through Monday, by the way) as cherry-picked because of the strides Blake Snell has made in addition to the ones Joe Musgrove continues to make … but it’s clearly not enough!

And removing any sort of continuity/stability there might have been among the pitching staff with five weeks left in the season seemed to be a very short-sighted move. For crying out loud, this team has added Jake Arrieta and Vince Velazquez in the last couple weeks!

And forget about the pitching! That’s hardly been the problem for the Padres over the course of their embarrassing slide. The offense isn’t scoring! Like, at all! On Wednesday night against the Giants, they recorded their first lead in a week!

Since the All-Star break, San Diego ranks 25th in OPS (.704), 24th in batting average (.239), 27th in home runs (52), and 26th in runs scored (228). Did nobody think to fire the hitting coach?

The pitching in the second half certainly hasn’t been much better, but it’s clear there’s a collision of ongoing issues for the Pads, so their apparent attempt to pin the blame on a pitching coach that had been in town for about 180 games was a serious miscalculation.

In short, it’s something an organization with class, like the Dodgers, would’ve never done.

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