Padres Without a Prayer?

Dave Paisley

Just how bad is baseball in San Diego this year?

When you don't have any hitter with an OPS over .900, when your middle infield choices are limited to guys struggling to break a .700 OPS, when  $15M of your $48M salary is on the DL or perilously close to it, when even Steve Finley's sad-sack .750 OPS would be a welcome power boost, you know you're in trouble.

And so it is with the Padres. With an offense so inept that even the lowly (and very cheap) Marlins and Expos can outscore the Padres, who are dead last in runs scored, it's time to throw in the towel. At least their pitching staff would probably be able to get the towel called for a strike. The hurlers (and if I had to watch the offense every day, I'd be hurling, too) have been pretty decent, but you'd never know it.

If the old cliché is true, that good pitching beats good hitting, then we have to note that good pitching is completely subverted by atrocious hitting.

"How bad have the results been?" I hear you ask. Well, the Padres are 18-28 as I wrote this. Despite the third-worst record in the NL, their worst stretches so far have been two five-game losing streaks. That's not good, but it's not horrendous. No, the really horrendous part is that the Padres' longest winning streak so far is two games (two games!) and they've only done that three times this season. It completely boggles the mind.

So let's take  a look at the main culprits. Behind the plate, we can sympathize with the club,as they lost first-string catcher Carlos Hernandez before the season started. But there's a clue there for you -- using the terms "first-string" and "Carlos Hernandez" in the same sentence is a sign that a team is on the wrong track in the first place. In fact, catcher has been one of the few bright spots offensively, with veterans Greg Myers, Jim Leyritz and super-flake Phil Nevin providing some semblance of offense.

At first, there used to be Wally Joyner, but currently out with a bone chip in his shoulder. First base duties are now being spread around between the modestly acceptable Dave Magadan and Leyritz. The middle infield is an offensive wasteland, with Quilvio Veras just about adequate at second, but Chris Gomez living down to all my expectations at short. Damion Jackson has been spelling them both, but hasn't been able to hit much. Still, with a hefty number of walks and some power, Jackson looks like a better bet than the awful Gomez.

Over at third, we once had Magadan, but now George Arias is back. He seems to have left his bat on the DL, though. He's doing a great job of not showing up Chris Gomez, as they struggle together to break the .600 OPS barrier.

Is the Friars' outfield any better? Well, it depends. Reggie Sanders is the offensive superstar on this club, but that isn't saying much. A whopping eight homers leads the team. Normally, we'd have Tony Gwynn out there, too, but he's been out for a week with a strained calf. However, with Tony's reputation as a chow hound, it may be a whole strained cow by now.  Rounding out the outfield, Ruben Rivera was expected to step up and play every day. He's hit so poorly, though, that the former Yankee prospect is about to drop the "Yankee" from that tag. Let's just say that Ruben is below Chris Gomez in everything but slugging.

This shuffling around has allowed a few hangers-on to get some playing time, and the likes of OF/PH John Vander Wal and OF Eric Owens have done adequately.

But really, this is a woeful offensive team that doesn't have any hope of improvement. And that's a shame, because even the loss of Kevin Brown didn't drop the overall quality of their pitching staff down much. The prescient swap of Woody Williams for Joey (20.52 ERA) Hamilton was smart, and Andy Ashby continues to be tough. Sterling Hitchcock isn't the stud people thought from the playoffs last year, but he's OK. Matt Clement is better than his 0-5 record shows. Stan Spencer, however, was every bit as bad as his 0-5 record showed. Donne Wall, Dan Miceli, Brian Boehringer, Carlos Reyes and Trevor Hoffman have all done well in the pen.

It's just tough to win games when you don't score any runs. They've scored two runs or less fifteen times and are 2-13 in those games. It's just no fun. The scary part is that even if the pitching keeps up their sterling performance, the Padres are on a pace to win only 64 games. If the staff gives up the ghost, the Padres may be lucky to break fifty-five.

So there's really nothing much left to do than pray for a merciful end to this season for the poor Padres. Unfortunately, it won't be quick.

about the author

Dave Paisley has never been the same since he learned that Willie Mays and Ted Williams are actually aliens. Tell him that even if Rey Ordonez is the only remaining human in baseball, life is still worth living at drdjp@strikethree.com.