David Eckstein enjoys being gritty

MLB.com has a piece up online about how David Eckstein rejected the chance to play for a contending trade visa vie trade in order to help the Padres rebuild their future team. So much to FJM here.

"Eckstein...[said] his reasons for wanting to remain in San Diego were because of the challenge of helping mold a young team and being a part of something that's growing, not something that's on the decline."

The Padres won 89 games in 2007. Last year they won 63. They were on pace to win 67 this season before trading away established superace Jake Peavy for several prospects with a lot of talent but little experience or major league success. Their team has gotten worse in terms of cumulative wOBA (from .319 (6th worst) in 2007 to .311 (5th worst) in 2008 to .308 (3rd worst) in 2009) and FIP (from 3.81 in 2007 to 4.33 in 2008 to 4.35 in 2009, all of this, mind you, BEFORE trading one of baseball's premire pitchers) each of the past three seasons (maybe more, not sure -- didn't look it up). Fangraphs rated the San Diego minor league system a C- and claimed "it isn’t a horrible farm system, but it’s not a very good one either, and for a team in need of a talent injection, that’s a problem." By the very definition of this information, the San Diego Padres are a team on the decline -- at least for the foreseeable future.

Eckstein elaborates:

"I want to be a guy who can help these young guys out. I don't think this club is as far off as some people think. They've got to learn how to play the game the right way, because next year, there's not going to be any excuses. These guys are starting to step up."

All I can say is that's my boy. He even dropped a Darren Erstad reference somewhere in the article. Bravo, bravo.