Ok, so let me start by saying that I really like @sdutKevinAcee. I think he's a great writer, but more than that, a high character person. I appreciate his daily newsletter in my email inbox covering Padres stuff. It's awesome and I encourage every Padres fan to sign up for it.

Now, while I think he covers most things ready well there is one area of team coverage where it seems to me that he is simply relaying team PR lines rather than actually investigating the facts for himself. If you've followed Acre's work for a while you know I'm talking about $$.

The frustration I have about Acee carrying the water for the team in terms of payroll is that the UT also employs @sdutSanders who does a really excellent job of covering the math, with as much information as is available to him.

So when Kevin includes a line about the Padres taking on 3.5 million without the appropriate context that they also traded away about 1.4 million in payroll it feels either dishonest or lazy. Neither of which are characteristics I think of when I think of Kevin Acee the man.

Here's another example of this. When he justifies future scrimping on payroll by claiming the Padres will lose around 100 million this year he's ignoring the context that that "loss" is in projected revenues, not actual cash burn. This is a *HUGE* difference.

Padres prorated salaries for 2020 will be about 61 million. My source is none other than Jeff Sanders UT article on 7/23/20 where he crunched the numbers and came to 59 million. Then I added the 2 million (not 3.5) the Padres took on here are the deadline.

If the Padres payroll is 61 million, how can they possibly "lose" about 100 million? We all know that they're not "losing" money, but are instead using accounting terms. IMO Acee, as a reporter, has a duty to better explain this to Padres fans.

But all that being said, Acee's conclusion is actually very exciting, because he's setting the stage for a Tatis extension. This is something all Padres fans should be super stoked about.
Preller has done a truly impressive job of building an excellent roster at a low payroll.

Even the big expenditures have been balanced out by elite contributors at low cost.

Nevertheless, as fans, I don't think we should celebrate balanced budgets and debt reduction. We celebrate winning, no matter what it costs.

Go Padres!