Glimpse into AJ Preller via Conference Call Comments

Thursday night the Padres held a conference call for season ticket holders featuring GM AJ Preller and President Mike Dee. The call wasn’t exactly earth-shattering, but it was good to get some perspective on the personality of Preller and his plans for the Padres both in 2015 and beyond.

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The Padres Twitter feed has some of the highlights, and this conference call was another in several that the Padres have had over the past year for season ticket holders.

Mike Dee talked about some of the improvements the club is focused on for the stadium and infrastructure, particularly the new High-Def video board going up in left field. Construction begins Monday and the wall was torn down last week. When it is completed it will be the 3rd largest in all of baseball and the largest in the National League. Sorry Dodgers. Dee also talked about the Padres efforts to bring the All-Star Game to Petco Park, and you can clearly see that the new video board goes hand-in-hand with such a venture. Talking from a 10,000 foot view is Dee’s job for the club. When it comes to the down and dirty, that is where we need Preller to get detailed for us.

On that front, Preller gave an update on the recent workout of Yasmany Torres and where the Padres stand in the process. He stated:

“We’ve had a chance to see Yasmany Tomas and we’re in the process of determining his value for the Padres. We’re in the game.  Power plays. It’s going to be a competitive market for that kind of bat, but it will be a focus of ours this off-season.”

Not exactly ground-breaking news, but exciting from a Padres fan perspective that Preller is excited about it and actively pursuing a potentially marquee player. Of course, I remember going to a similar “State of the Padres” event years ago and then GM Kevin Towers talking about international free agent Kozuke Fukudome. He was supposed to be the next big thing with speed – but ended up flaming out in only a few years. Torres however is about 8 years younger than Fukudome was even then.

Preller closed things out by showing his fire and passion.

“As an organization, we need to become a baseball factory. We need to make good evaluations and people will stick around. The tone throughout the org has been set with what we want to do: win the World Series. It’s all of our jobs to grow & improve.”

While talk is indeed cheap, these conference calls are a fun way to stay in touch with some front office staff or players that you normally wouldn’t hear outside the cliche press conferences. They don’t go too far, but a good idea but whoever thought it up to help the fans feel a little closer to the club. Follow Friarsonbase to stay up-to-date on the Yasmany Torres sweepstakes and everything else Padres!