Josh Byrnes joined Josh and Charod of “The Drive” on XTRA Sports 1360 to talk Padres.  If you are like me you were growing weary of all the softball questions Byrnes was getting on his previous interviews since becoming the general manager.

(Download/Listen to the interview here)

Topics included:

• Mat Latos trade thoughts

• Stockpiling the minor leagues – “Looking to build a roster that has staying power”

• Locking up young guys to long term contracts – “If you pick the right guy, it’s a pretty good financial decision”

• Mat Latos’ attitude was not an issue – “I don’t think it’s a character issue”

• If Anthony Rizzo has a future in San Diego

• If the pending TV deal is a factor in the budget.

• How soon could Robbie Erlin and Joe Wieland make an impact on the major league roster.

• The difficulty in signing offensive free agents to play in Petco.

• Donovan Tate’s struggles.

• Do you have the right scouts in place?

What do I think of the Mat Latos trade? Well, since neither the Padres, nor the Reds asked my opinion, it really doesn’t matter… Okay, maybe I know a thing or two about minor leaguers and thus maybe my opinion isn’t entirely insignificant…

You know the particulars: the Padres traded RHP, Mat Latos to the Reds for three minor league players: 1B Yonder Alonso, C Yasmani Grandal, and RHP Brad Boxberger as well as MLB RHP Edinson Volquez.

Mat Latos has “Ace” potential. In 2010 he was the best pitcher on the team. Last year, he started slowly and in the second half, again looked like the best pitcher on the team… Why do you give up on a player like that? I can stand on either side of this argument. In general, I wouldn’t want to give up on a player with Latos’ talent. However, if I have a surplus of talent at his position (and the Padres do), and if another team is willing to give an overwhelming level of talent back in return (and the Reds were), then I have to have to think about the deal.

The Padres’ 2012 starting rotation was going to look like:

• Latos

• Stauffer

• Richard

• Luebke

As I was going throw the old achives of Friarhood.com, I noticed a story I wrote before the 2010 season about the White Sox using Gordan Beckham as the key piece of a deal for Adrian Gonzalez.  Whoops!

Since then Beckham has been very pedestrian, ironically he has only put up a line of .216/.284/.348/.632 at hitter friendly U.S. Cellular field.  While posting .245/.309/.325/.634 on the road.

Drafted in 2008, Beckham was on the fast track and some could even argue he was pushed too fast to the majors playing in 109 games in 2009.

Beckham is arbitration eligible start in 2012, but is under team control for three more seasons.  He would seem like a nice middle infield target, with plenty of upside, that could benefit from a change of scenery.

Photo by: Keith Allison, creative commons 2.0

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I've been hearing plenty of "experts" say that Petco doesn't play well for left-handed power hitting pull hitters.  That made me think... have the Padres had any left-handed power hitting pull hitters?  I find it amazing how many people think Adrian Gonzalez was a pull hitter, or that he was successful in Petco.

Although it's true that Gonzalez pulls the ball, he tends to pull the ball when he's not elevating it.  When he elevates the ball, he loves to go to the opposite field.  It wasn't until Gonzalez suffered his shoulder injury in 2010 that he started pulling the ball more at home.

Going into the 2010 season Gonzalez was a career .263 hitter in Petco park, after suffering the shoulder injury he adjusted his swing, and although his power numbers suffered, Gonzalez hit .279 at home during 2010.  Ironically pulling the ball more.   After asking the people on the facebook and twitter pages, the only name that came up was Ryan Klesko...