The patience of the fans is being tested by the front office decision makers of the San Diego Padres.

For those of you keeping score, the Padres are on their third General Manager in just over two years, under the ownership banner of Jeff Moorad. He's the one who bought the club on a credit card installment plan from owner John Moores. Moorad is the one who decided Kevin Towers did not fit his profile, and removed the long time GM who had driven the Padres to a couple of first place finishes, and delivered a World Series appearance.

Now just two years after Moore introduced the "Kid," bright light GM Jed Hoyer from the Boston Red Sox, the owner decides to let him and his farm director Jason McLeod leave. Moorad hires his friends Josh Byrnes and AJ Hinch, both of whom were in Arizona for the brief period of time Moorad was involved with that team.

Just 24 months ago, Moorad talked of being awed in the interview process by Hoyer. Talked about Hoyer's saber metrics plan of evaluating players. Openly welcomed McLeod and all his expertise to run the minor league program too. Now they're both gone, told that they can go to Wrigley Field and relink with Theo Epstien. They worked together at Fenway Park; now they will try to resurrect the woebegone Chicago Cubs.

It is Moorad's club, or at least a piece of it, since he has not found enough money or buyers to buy complete 100% purchase control of the team yet. But you have to question his beliefs in how a club should be run, his philosophy of what is important in player development. And obviously, question the financial resources to turn this franchise around.

Moorad poured money into the farm system, investing in excess of $23 million over the past three drafts to sign college and high school talent. There are now players in the pipeline and headed to San Diego. Baseball America ranked the Friars and the Tampa Bay Rays as having the biggest number of prospects (18) in their respective farm systems. That will be the legacy that Hoyer and McLeod left behind; they drafted well, spent money and laid the foundation for a possibly promising future.

But you wonder why they fell out of favor just two years into their deals. Hoyer inherited young pitching when he replaced Towers, a guy who was a gunslinger, but whom Moorad never warmed too, philosophically. It probably had to do with 15 years of draft failures by Towers and his people, and the multiples of bad owners he worked for.

Hoyer, operating with a small checking account, brought in seven quality free agents his first year, turning the Padres into a first place team for virtually all of the 2010 season. He blew up the veteran roster last winter, dispatching fourteen players. He burned through $8 million in salaries, never getting value in 2011 from the likes of Ryan Ludwick, Brad Hawpe and Jorge Cantu. Wasting that kind of money might have turned Moorad off.

The owner always preached patience, especially when it involved the farm system and what they invested, and obviously had no patience for Hoyer's mistakes. Although San Diego acquired its centerfielder for years to come in Cam Maybin, and hit the jackpot on a 14 win season from Aaron Harang, Hoyer must have sensed a loss of support and belief. Or maybe Hoyer realized there would never be any payroll to play with in San Diego, and the Chicago Cubs and its $100 million bank account was the way to conduct the business of baseball.

In Josh Byrnes and AJ Hinch, Moorad relinks with familiar people who worked for him in Arizona. But what does he really gain? In Arizona, they inherited players, drafted some more, but hen they were done, Byrnes and Hinch were fired.

Byrnes took a team from 90 wins and a first place finish, to three straight years of diminished results. Hinch joined Byrnes in scouting, then wound up being the team's manager without any prior experience. It was a strange way to do business. When he was asked to leave, the team had just 65 wins in last place.

So as baseball free agency begins next week, it bears watching to see what Byrnes can do. Hoyer left him with a good farm system and with as much as $24 million in budget space. Hoyer did him a favor, despite the mistakes, Byrnes won't have to eat any bad multi-year contracts. The players Hoyer missed on were all on expiring contracts. He leaves the new guy with the challenge of placing a value on relief ace Heath Bell; keep or let him go.

For Jeff Moorad, he can issue more platitudes in this press conference like he did two years ago. But the Padres owner has a major sales job to do in his community. Why did you make the change? What do Byrnes-Hinch bring that is better than the Hoyer-McLeod tandem? Are we ever going to stop getting rid of veteran star players? Are you ever going to start writing checks to put a major league team on the field, not a minor league team at major league prices? Will Heath Bell be the next version of Adrian Gonzalez, who was prior version of Jake Peavy, stars they got rid of?

The city is running out of patience, while the team is running out of fans. Moorad is running out of credibility. Remember, he told us the last group he hired were good baseball people. Now he is rid of them, replacing them with friends who left Arizona with a bad record.

I'm looking for the first logical explanation of how all this happened. Aren't you?