Kuzul

Embarrassing, pathetic, futile. These are words that come to mind so far this season while watching my Padres become the WORST hitting team of all time. EVER.

San Diego leads all of baseball in several pitching categories, as well as being dead last in almost every offensive statistic. It might be the ballpark, it might be the players, it might be the coaching, and it might be all three of these things, brought together in the perfect storm of hopelessness.

Lets take a quick look at some Padre starters and the numbers they have compiled so far in 2011…

PS- sorry for my absence- no internet at the new house yet…

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Padres All Star closer Heath Bell is the latest Padre to step to the edge of the contract precipice, looking down at the Padres future meager wage offerings and hearing the call of the Yankees or the Red Sox and their monetary sirens song.

This is what is wrong with the sport and in some waysm all sports in the 21st century. There is no longer any semblance of a level playing field when it comes to the buying and selling of players.

Your team is either a have or a have not, there is no in between. If in fact a team is lucky enough to develop or sign a player who takes off, reality soon rears its head, in the form of a trade for prospects, or an eventual huge free agent contract from one of the elite money teams. No where is this syndrome more pronounced than in Major League Baseball, where the name of the game is Gawd Bless Cave 23, and to blazes with everybody else….

The best us Padre fans can hope for is to see a few good prospects in their early years, acquired in a never ending round robin of development and trade, trade and development.

I am going to look at a few players who the Padres should be interested in dealing Bell for, if in fact they deal him at all. Padre fans are very vocal when it comes to the closer role here in San Diego.

All Time Saves leader Trevor Hoffman was retained past his prime as a nod to the power of Padre fans wishes. Bell hopefully will be retained,  since Padre fans deserve at least that much.

As in our power closer, as Padre tradition demands… 

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The San Diego Padres have had many great players over the years, and this list represents what I feel is the best lineup one can make from our all-time roster.

It’s the cream of the crop, the guys you would put on a PS3 All-Time Padres team. 

I have been a Padres fan since 1976, and I have done my research of the seasons before my arrival. Here is my personal starting all-time squad, based on a statistical analysis as well as my own gut.

Bob Owchinko, John Urrea and Paul Dade will probably not make the cut, although I do have some gardening work for them (thanks Mrs. Kroc).

The Padres All-Time Biggest Busts lineup will be my next project, so let’s look at the A-list, and next we will visit the F-list.

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Usually, If a player is exploring the fringe, they roll through sunny San Diego sooner or later. It’s the preferred destination of guys looking for one more shot, returning from a long injury, or one last decent paycheck.

This season looks no different for the Padres, who have invited several familiar names to camp this year. I have penciled in 23 players so far, that leaves two player’s jobs that are up for grabs.

Given the nature of turnover on the Padres fringe, these guys may be gone before we get to April, but for right now, there are my top five players with the best chance to get those last two roster slots.

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A team is only as good as the last player on the bench.

The Padres bench in 2010 was good, but there was room for improvement.

Gone are the likes of Scott and Jerry Hairston, Matt Stairs, Yorvit Torrealba and probably Oscar Salazar. This is not a bad thing; after all, the Padres have Mark Loretta, Brad Ausmus and Trevor Hoffman back…

What? Retired? All of ’em? When? Dang it.

Loretta was rolling for me in fantasy when he was a Padre a few years back; then he broke his wrist and screwed me over at second base for the rest of the season.

So who is going to be coming off the San Diego bench ready to pillage and plunder the late innings?

Let me look into the Padres future, and we will see how close I come to the actual bench that emerges from spring training here in 2011. As always, take future predictions with a full glass of water…

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Adrian Gonzalez? Gone. David Eckstein? History. The Hairstons? Adios.

Miguel Tejada? Auf Weidersehen. Yorvit Torrealba? Movin on..

You get the picture. The Padres will be a different team in 2011.

The question becomes “Is different better?” I know that what I see on paper right now looks much better than the last two seasons teams did at this same point. Lets take a look at what should be the Padres starting line up for opening day.

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San Diego was picked to finish dead in 2010 last by every major writer and scribe in the world, including myself. Just goes to show ya that the game is more than stats. The Padres were nothing short of amazing last year, nearly winning the N.L. West.

Pitching wise, this was one of San Diego’s best seasons, with Mat Latos and  Clayton Richard leading the way. Combined with the best bullpen in baseball most of the season, and the slam the door shut policy of closer Heath Bell, the Padres took the Giants right to the wall before conceding the division.  

Even though the Padres have lost 3 of the starters from last years rotation, namely Jon Garland, Kevin Correia and Chris Young, San Diego still looks strong,  adding  former Cincinnati Red and SDSU alum Aaron Harang to a young and hard throwing staff.

What follows is a reasonable extrapolation of what I feel will be the players who break camp and hit the show come the end of March.

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