Recently Jeff Moorad, Padres vice chairman and CEO went public and told fans in an interview with Bill Center that the Padres payroll would start with five.  In most circles this was met with sarcasm and for good reason.  If you take a look at what the other teams in the division spend on average over the last three seasons (below), fans are not asking much.

• Diamondbacks:$68 million (lowest payroll since 2000, $52 million in 2007)
• Dodgers:$107 million (lowest payroll since 2000, $83 million in 2005)
• Giants:$98.6 million (lowest payroll since 2000, $53 million in 2000)
• Rockies:$80.3 million (lowest payroll since 2000, $41 million in 2006)
• Padres: $41.6 million (lowest payroll since 2000, $37 million in 2010)

With that said, I could care less what the team payroll is.  The only number I care about is the number of wins.  As last year showed, winning 90 games does not guarantee a playoff birth, but it sure puts the team in a great position to play in the post season.

At a certain point this Padres team needs to spend money to bring in/retain talent if they plan on fielding a competitive team that is able to score more than three runs (currently averaging 2.93 runs per game) a game in Petco National Park.

This Padres team was sold to fans as having a lineup that was better from top to bottom than the 2010 team.  The ugly truth is that the Padres have scored three runs or less in 40 of the 59 games at Petco.  In 33% of the games played at Petco this season, the Padres have scored one run or less.

In reply to Jeff Moorad’s comment about running the Padres like a business, I answer that comment with this quote from Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus… “You must spend money to make money.”