The Padres entered the weekend 10 games under .500 and more than 10 games out of first place in the NL West. While that brings no pleasure to Peter Seidler, the Padres’ lead investor sees brighter days around the corner. He spared a few minutes to share his thoughts on the team at the quarter-pole, his evaluation of the A.J. Preller Era to date and high hopes for the upcoming amateur draft and international free agent period.

Question: Forty-two years ago, Ray Kroc infamously took to the microphone to share his frustrations with Padres fans. We’re putting the mic in your hands. What message would you deliver to Padres fans?

Answer: Well, my message would be please keep the faith. Everybody is working exceptionally hard to bring winning baseball to San Diego at the major league level. This season so far from a win-loss perspective has been a disappointment for all of us. You know, all clubs have injuries, but to lose our No. 1 pitcher, our starting second baseman, our starting third basemen, as well as others including other starting pitchers and what have you, has hurt us, and we knew going into the season that we were not as deep as we would like to be. But I balance my personal disappointment over the win-loss record with confidence that our baseball organization led by A.J. Preller and our on-field leadership led by Andy Green – both groups are doing everything they can to lead us to winning baseball. We’re just coming off a series where for the third time we got swept by the Giants. We’re 0-9 against the Giants. Obviously, that record itself has hurt us a lot. On a positive note, I’m very pleased with the effort and the aggressiveness of our club. We’ve come up short in a lot of one-run games and the bottom line is we have a lot of work to do to get to the level we expect to be.

Q: Some of those games went pretty late in San Francisco. Set the scene: Where are you when you’re following along while the team is on the road?


A: As much as I can look at things strategically and from a long-term perspective, I care about every ballgame, every series, every week, every month. I do – I live and die a little bit with every ballgame. … I enjoy walking by the ocean and breathing in the great, fresh San Diego air and a lot of nights I’m listening to Ted (Leitner) and Jesse (Agler) on the radio, taking a walk by the water and trying not to talk to myself too much as I listen to the game. On a lot of nights, I’m wandering through La Jolla and Bird Rock and other surrounding areas listening to the game and hoping my walk has maximum enjoyment, which only comes when we win the ballgame.

Q: Attendance is down a few thousand per game this season. What’s the concern level that the team’s win-loss record may impact that gate even more as the season goes on?

A: Attendance is down a little bit, but I think our attendance is generally still quite good. You know, I think the experience at Petco Park is magnificent and every home game I take a lap around the ballpark, kind of wander around, and it’s always encouraging to me how much enjoyment people get out of being an at a baseball game at Petco. The frustrating part when we’re not winning is knowing how much greater it would be if we were in first place or a half a game out of first place. And when those days come, you know attendance will increase because ultimately watching winning baseball in a great ballpark with a great in-game experience is about as good as it gets. But we do have we do have work to do to put a winning ballclub on the field.

Q: Speaking of that work, the draft is less than two weeks away and the July 2 international signing period begins shortly after that. A.J. Preller gets to make a first-round pick for the first time. What’s that been like for you to listen in on that process?


A: Ron (Fowler) and Mike (Dee) and I sit with A.J. regularly, and while we ask questions, it’s more listening and understanding to what his strategy is. And I could not be more confident in what he is doing and what his group in baseball operations have in store for us as it relates to both the amateur draft in June as well as when the next window opens to sign international amateurs.

Q: Do you have a sense of what’s different with A.J. running those departments?

A: What I what I see with A.J. and our baseball operation is an intensity, a relentlessness and a thoroughness of turning over every rock when it comes to procuring talent. What I’m referring to is a high-profile high school players, high-profile college players, under-the-radar players. And the same thing when it comes to the international market, where often we’re talking about 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds. There are a lot of players that fall into those categories that everybody knows about. But as efficient as baseball clubs are at finding players, there are also gems to be found and needles to be found in the haystack. And A.J. not only talks about what we need to do in the first round and the second round, but also the fact that gems are found in the 16th round in the 28th round. There’s as much focus on Day 2, as an example, as there is on Day 1, and I would expect a couple years from now when we look back we’re going to be excited about the kids that we got on the first day of the draft, but we’re going to be equally excited about some of the gems that we found on the second day.

Q: In spring training, there were rumors that A.J. was on the hot seat. Can you address those?


A: Yeah, those rumors are completely untrue. We are very pleased with what A.J. has done since the day that we hired him. He’s never been on the hot seat. When we hired A.J. some 21 months ago, we were very optimistic that he would build an organization that would lead us to a years of winning baseball. And I think while that takes a little bit of time, I think we’re well into making that happen. Our confidence in A.J. has only risen since the day that we hired him. I’ve said this before. I would expect he’ll be our general manager for 10 years plus or for as long as he wants to. … We knew going in with A.J. that his biggest strength was his ability to find and sign and develop young talent, and from what we’ve seen we’re right on plan.

Q: The word out there is you guys you know spend big on the draft and international talent this summer. What can you say about that?

A: I’ll put it this way: We hope to make significant signings once the July international window opens. That’s not until July, so we continue to scout and observe and get to know not just the baseball talent, but also the character and the personal characteristics of many of these international teenagers that we hope to sign. … I think we would be very comfortable spending a significant amount of money on young, international talent. Our hope is that A.J. and the rest of our baseball operations people are able to land some players to justify the expenditure.

Q: And the some $12 million you have for the amateur draft pool?


A: We believe there is value in the U.S. amateur draft that justifies the expenditure. So I think at this point we expect to spend the pool of money that’s available to us. We’re not going to be cheap. Those players are not cheap.

Q: You became a fan of certain Dodgers when your family owned that team. Have your daughters begun to form that kind of bond with any of the Padres players?

A: My oldest is 4 and this is the first year we’ve taken her to games where she’d rather watch the game than play with the toys in the background. But even at 4 years old she loves the Padres. I mention her as a serious motivating factor in wanting to bring a winner to San Diego.