So Justin Verlander is calling it quits, effective at the season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s Padres-related history to explore with Verlander, 43.<\/p>\n
With it comes many groans.<\/p>\n
San Diego passed on Verlander as part of the infamous, franchise-rocking decision to draft Mission Bay High School\u2019s Matt Bush with the first overall pick in 2004.<\/p>\n
Had the Padres chosen Verlander and tweaked the Old Dominion alum\u2019s delivery, as the Tigers did soon after selecting him No. 2 overall, the best innings-eater of his generation could\u2019ve headed San Diego\u2019s rotation for many years.<\/p>\n
As a National Leaguer, Verlander would\u2019ve pitched against pitchers, rather than designated hitters.\u00a0His annual ERA would\u2019ve fallen by about a half run, per DH and no-DH data of that time.<\/p>\n
The Padres would\u2019ve boasted a generational monster atop their rotation as soon as 2006, when Verlander won the American League rookie of the year award with Detroit, while the San Diego rotation featured next year\u2019s NL Cy Young winner, Jake Peavy.<\/p>\n
Recall also that Petco Park, from its opening in 2004 until its remodel in 2012, played as big as Yellowstone National Park.<\/p>\n
Not that the DH rule greatly impeded Verlander, a nine-time All-Star.<\/p>\n
Many times over, the ace rewarded Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski and scouting director Greg Smith for drafting him one spot after Kevin Towers and Bill Gayton \u2014 their options reduced by Padres owner John Moores\u2019 stated opposition to drafting Scott Boras-assisted prospects Jered Weaver and Stephen Drew \u2014 selected Bush, the easy-to-sign but troubled shortstop turned pitcher.<\/p>\n
Verlander\u00a0helped Detroit reach its first two World Series in decades. He led the league in innings three times as part of chewing up 200-plus innings in eight consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n
Dombrowski had displayed an unwavering faith in betting big on hard throwers.<\/p>\n
Unfazed by power-righty Kyle Sleeth breaking down soon after he took him third overall in 2003, Dombrowski and Smith, a former Padres scout, became dead set on taking Verlander if the Padres didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Why didn\u2019t Towers and Gayton choose Verlander?<\/p>\n
Foremost, the Padres generally didn\u2019t like him as much as the Tigers did.<\/p>\n
In fact, they preferred Weaver and Drew.<\/p>\n
But Moores all but blocked his scouts there. He was openly critical of their adviser, Boras, saying he didn\u2019t trust him. The two had clashed in the Kevin Brown talks that ended with Brown joining the Dodgers, months after Brown had led the Padres to the 1998 World Series.<\/p>\n
Moores was subjected to other kinds of pressure, too. Legal complaints had delayed Petco\u2019s construction. Those complaints all failed in court. But in the interim, the price of steel rose. Padres ownership bore that cost.<\/p>\n
Even though Moores\u2019 baseball staffers whiffed on Verlander and failed miserably in choosing Bush, Moores put them in a tough spot. He in effect\u00a0removed two players who would both pan out as big leaguers.<\/p>\n
Someone with the Tigers correctly foresaw that shortening Verlander\u2019s stride would sharpen his control. Untroubled by his 21-18 college record and bursts of subpar accuracy, the Tigers\u2019 duo touted the 6-foot-5, 240-pounder\u2019s \u201celectric\u201d combination of size, velocity and a powerful curveball.<\/p>\n
Signing Verlander wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
David Verlander, the pitcher\u2019s father and a union organizer with experience in sticky negotiations, said a contractual impasse led him to negotiate directly with Smith, leading to a deal, per CWA-Union.org.<\/p>\n
The sides agreed on a $3.12 million signing bonus, which was less than the $3.15 million bonus the Padres paid to Bush, who was advised by Jeff Moorad.<\/p>\n
The Boras-advised Weaver and Drew, who went 12th and 15th to the Angels and Diamondbacks, respectively, got $4 million apiece \u2014 but they and Verlander each got major league contracts, increasing the value of all three deals.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until close to the 2005 draft that Weaver was signed. He nonetheless returned great value to the Angels.<\/p>\n
Verlander went on to pitch for the Astros after GM Jeff Luhnow obtained him at age 34 from Detroit.<\/p>\n
Verlander became a better pitcher with Houston, benefiting from the tech-and-data-driven edges the Astros provided him. Verlander embraced high-speed camera data, eventually dropping his two-seam fastball and limiting his rising fastball to high in the zone. Prodded by high-speed imagery, he adjusted his slider grip.<\/p>\n
He won his second and third Cy Youngs with the Astros, and now stands 266-159 with a 3.33 career ERA in nearly 3,600 innings.<\/p>\n
For baseball\u2019s hungriest fanbase, he represents a case of what might have been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So Justin Verlander is calling it quits, effective at the season\u2019s end. There\u2019s Padres-related history to explore with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":["post-391528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}