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MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL CHRIS JENKINS
On the road to nowhere?
The NL-worst Padres are 19-33; with 110 games to go, are they stuck . . .
May 27, 2008
Given a day to reflect on a Padres season approaching its one-third point – albeit something fans probably would just as soon forget – a bit of extra irony does come to mind.
Really now. When your club is the absolute worst in the National League, when almost everything about it seems to have gone wrong since before Day One, when there's little to suggest that that will change, when the pace of games is painful and the play can be unsightly, what's the one statistical category you definitely do not want your boys to lead?
SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
What's the matter with the Padres? Well, led by Khalil Greene, who's done it 50 times so far, they tend to strike out a lot.
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SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
What else? The front office seems to have lost its magic touch. Top offseason pickup Jim Edmonds was released after 26 games.
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SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
And then there's the bullpen, where Trevor Hoffman had always been a rock. Now, he gets rocked.
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Innings played.
The only club in the NL that's being outhit by San Diego is the one the Padres host tonight, the Washington Nationals, marking the second straight series matching cellar-dwellers at Petco Park. The Nats better bring an overnight bag, because no team in baseball lasts longer than the Padres, who average 9.275 innings per game after 19 wins and 33 losses.
People can get too much of a bad thing, which is likely why so few showed up for the Padres' last game, a Sunday outing in the middle of a three-day holiday weekend. And that surely was why so many attendees left Petco Park hours before the end of a game that went a mere 18 innings, relatively short by Padres standards.
The intent here isn't to taunt or rub anybody's nose in anything, nor to further decry the struggles of a Padres club that's just as exasperated with itself as folks are exasperated with it. That's grown tiresome for all concerned.
Rather, the exercise is to delineate just how bizarre and unexpected things have become, well past the point of nonsensical.
Only two months in, it's already been one of the weirdest major league seasons in memory, what with entire divisions being led by Tampa Bay and Florida, contrasted by the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers sinking to the bottom with the weight of their wallets. Even with $126 million, Barry Zito couldn't buy a win until his 10th start, and Carlos Quentin's gone from Arizona discard to the next Hank Aaron.
Heck, just the other day, the Cincinnati Reds used co-aces Aaron Harang and Edinson Volquez, pinch-hit Bronson Aroyo and had a fifth starting pitcher (Johnny Cueto) ready to go in relief. All in the same game.
And there you had it. More incontrovertible evidence that the weirdest place of all this season is, hands down, San Diego. No contest.
Honestly. What ballpark has had more freakish stuff happen this year than Petco?
A 2-1 game that takes 22 innings to settle and 12-9 game that takes 18. Baseball's all-time saves leader, gone quickly from indomitable to incapable of saving a game to save his life. A 6-foot-10 pitcher being felled by a line drive to the nose off the bat of a slugger who then puts your catcher on the DL in the same half-inning. A team in constant contention in the first four years at Petco, now with the worst record in the National League.
Moreover, is there a team in baseball that is more in a state of upheaval, more full of contradictions or unpleasant surprises?
Ownership
Like umpires, owners probably are doing their best job when nobody notices them, and John Moores certainly has been The Invisible Man. (Considering some of the roster decisions, Moores' checks often seem to be written in invisible ink.) Whereas major league clubs normally live on the ownership whim of corporate entities or zillionaires looking to sell off to other zillionaires, it's a far different question in San Diego: So, who gets the ballclub in the divorce?
General manager
The GM with the Midas Touch when it comes to trades – the guy who stole Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young from the Texas Rangers, Kevin Kouzmanoff from the Cleveland Indians, Cla Meredith and Josh Bard from the Boston Red Sox, etc. – makes a total, complete, absolute clunker of a deal with St. Louis. Not only did Jim Edmonds cost the Padres games with his misplays, but he also cost them $6 million for the sheer pleasure of his company. Praised in the past for his assemblage of reserves and relief pitchers, too, Kevin Towers isn't getting anything out of either in 2008. Callix Crabbe?
Bench and bullpen
The bread and butter of the Padres is more like living on bread and water. For three straight years, San Diego had the best or second-best bullpen in the NL, but now the only club with a less effective relief corps is San Francisco. The Padres 'pen has lost 13 games – more than any team in the majors – with 11 blown saves in 20 opportunities. In less than 40 innings, Hoffman and Meredith have given up six homers, 42 hits and 11 walks. Conversely, San Diego has had a grand total of two runs driven in by pinch hitters, a dozen fewer than Arizona.
Development
While the youthful Dodgers bring up the likes of Clayton Kershaw and the homegrown, red-hot Diamondbacks get folks further excited with the promotion of flamethrower Max Scherzer, the Padres have no such options. The one celebrated minor-leaguer the Padres do have, Chase Headley, they steadfastly refuse to recall yet. The too-long wait for some positive proof of an improved minor-league system grows longer.
Offense
Odd as it seems to build a franchise that plays 81 games at Petco Park around slugging percentage, and peculiar as it is to be an OPS-minded organization with the league's lowest on-base percentage, you don't expect the Padres to ever rank high in hitting. But there's enough grass out there that contact should count for something. Instead, the Padres lead the majors in strikeouts, 58 of them coming in the four-game series with Cincy. Shortstop Khalil Greene averages a strikeout a game. On the upside, Brian Giles has been solid and allayed concerns over his knee surgery and Adrian Gonzalez is coming into his own as a fearsome force.
Baserunning
If you don't have speed – and don't get the Padres started on that subject – baseball requires that you be smarter on the basepaths. Sore subject there, too. From his years with the Angels, manager Bud Black brought south the mentality that you win games with sharp, savvy baserunning, dashes from first to third or second to home, forcing mistakes by opposing outfields. Discombobulating, on the other hand, are the frequent sights of Padres runners playing “hot box” between bases or getting doubled up for no apparent reason.
Defense
Actually, despite limited range, the Padres lead the majors in fielding percentage and the NL in fewest errors. The best thing to come out of the offseason was the second-base play of Tadahito Iguchi, still errorless after 245 chances, and baby-faced catcher Luke Carlin showed up with a gun unlike anything seen in San Diego in years. Then again, the Reds hit two bunt singles Sunday without even drawing a throw, and even the Petco outfield isn't so big that Padres fielders can stay out of each other's way.
Injuries
The Padres began the season with perhaps the healthiest club – and definitely the healthiest pitching rotation – in the division. Three starts into the year, catcher Michael Barrett was headed to the DL, barely able to throw the ball back to the mound. San Diego lost a whole battery in a matter of minutes to Albert Pujols, who had no malice in either shattering Chris Young's face with his single or nearly busting Josh Bard's ankle with a slide. Jake Peavy's an immense loss, but not an unusual injury, given the torque he puts into his delivery. The Padres did take a flyer on Prior, Mark, with predictable results.
For all of the difficulties above, however, none of the aforementioned personnel has the toughest explanation to make at Petco. That belongs to the concessionaire who hands over a beer and says, “That'll be nine bucks.”
Nonsense.
 Chris Jenkins: (619) 293-1267; chris.jenkins@uniontrib.com
CHANGING TIMES
Since the Padres moved to Petco Park, they have never had a losing record after 52 games – until this season. How the Padres have fared after 52 games since moving into their new park in 2004:
Year W-L after Place GB Finish
52 games
2008 19-33 5th 12 --
2007 30-22 3rd 1 89-74, 3rd
2006 27-25 3rd 3-½ 88-74, 1st
2005 33-19 1st +3 82-80, 1st
2004 28-24 1st Tied 87-75, 3rd
Some bad numbers
Where the Padres ranked in the National League in some key offensive categories going into yesterday's games:
Strikeouts: 1st (421)
Runs scored: 16th (182)
On-base percentage: 16th (.306)
Batting average: 15th (.233)
Slugging percentage: 15th (.365)
Stolen bases: 14th (18)
Home runs: 11th (43)
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