"In keeping with the spirit of Throwback Thursdays, the Padres made a trade that works best as nostalgia.

Miguel Tejada was a stupendous ballplayer once upon a time, an iron man infielder with serious bop in his bat. He was the American League's Most Valuable Player in 2002, drove home 150 runs in 2004 and accomplished all this during a span in which he played in 1,152 consecutive games.

He is not that guy now, nor is he exactly the same guy he represented himself to be for the bulk of his career. Tejada's birth certificate is dated two years earlier than he once claimed — the document spells his surname as "Tejeda" — and the credibility of his statistics has suffered from a steroid taint traceable to pleading guilty of lying to Congress.

So the dude arrives with some significant baggage, and one season removed from his last game as a major league shortstop.

But he makes the Padres better, and here's why: He's a major league hitter in a lineup heretofore overpopulated with imposters. He reduces the Padres' reliance on the overmatched Everth Cabrera. He provides manager Bud Black a palpable threat behind Adrian Gonzalez. And he might not have to be Ozzie Smith to be serviceable in the middle of the infield."