Padres fans are not buying Craig Stammen’s stay-positive approach anymore

There is a fine line between staying calm and sounding disconnected. Craig Stammen is playing a dangerous game dancing between them. The Padres aren’t dealing with a minor bump in the road. They aren’t stuck in a usual three-game rut. This has turned into a full-on slide, and fans are watching a team that was supposed to be in the National League playoff race start to look like one that may not survive the trade deadline.

After the Padres lost their eighth straight game, Stammen told reporters, “They’re going as poorly as they can right now, and we’ve got to find a way to dig deep, dig our way out of that hole.”

In fairness, that’s a pretty accurate assessment. Nobody needs a manager lighting matches near a team that already looks combustible. But outside the clubhouse? That message is wearing thin.

Craig Stammen’s calm tone is becoming part of the problem

Padres fans aren’t asking for theater, but they would like some urgency here. That also doesn’t look like publicly ripping players, or pointing the finger after each loss. But the issue is that the Padres keep handing him ugly evidence, and the response keeps sounding like the same soft reset button.

Believe. Stay together. Keep digging. That all sounds fine when a team is one swing away. It sounds very different when the Padres are losing in every possible way.

They were embarrassed by the Cubs in a 23-3 loss at Wrigley Field. They went to Dodger Stadium, jumped out to a 6-0 lead, and still found a way to lose 12-7. They’ve watched the offense completely disappear, the pitching staff crack, and now they’re in freefall in the standings. At some point, staying positive cannot be the whole message. It has to come with adjustments and some proof that this slide is the crisis it has become.

At this point, Stammen’s ability to stay-positive may just be antagonizing the fanbase. His calm approach was only going to work only if the Padres looked steady enough to justify it. When the team was winning, it could be defended as the right way to keep a veteran clubhouse from turning toxic. But when the losses stack up like this, the tone starts to feel stale, and people will question if he’s already lost the clubhouse. 

Again, it might not be fair. Managers aren’t required to perform panic in front of the cameras. But perception is important when the product is this bad. Currently, the perception is pretty brutal. 

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