Tom Pringle (@PedroiasFace) will be covering the Padres during the season. His updates won’t be game-recaps, more like weekly or monthly recaps. If you don’t get the twist on words in the title, you’re dead to him.
What Happened?
Well, so much has happened since the last post, the Padres won a series against the Giants, won a series against the Rockies, lost Perdomo to right shoulder inflammation and someone got their first hit. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t Jankowski.
Also, it was the first Friday home game of the season, which meant the Padres played in their fantastic brown uniforms. This should happen much more often than Friday home games only, sort it San Diego.
What went wrong?
With this rotation not expected to be anything worth watching (by everyone except myself and Padres fans), the loss of Perdomo is a knock on this fragile pitching staff. His FB was sitting nicely around 96mph, but he simply gave up too many runs. We also saw very little production from the bottom of the lineup (and Jankowski at the top).
But what really went wrong, was that Brandon Belt was born. He was a nemesis for the Padres in that Giants series.
Clayton Richard went back down in some estimations as he got slapped around by the Giants early on and never really looked like he did against the Dodgers. Expect him to bounce back in his next outing.
The Padres bullpen, sort of. It’s not terrible, it’s not great. It’s pretty average and being saved a lot of the time by the lineup getting so many runs.
What went right?
The top of that lineup is fire emoji, it’s been seriously good and exciting to watch. If you’re a member of the mainstream media doubting Wil Myers contract prior to the season starting, it’s time to start believing. This is for real. Manny Margot is leading all the important categories for rookie hitters in MLB, Dealin’ Dave Dombrowski may live to regret that one later down the line.
I never thought I would be enjoying bunts, but the Padres also worked the bunt so well against the Giants. Yes, I enjoyed watching a team bunt. The speed they have at the top of the lineup meant they could really capitalise on the sluggish reaction the Giants had. Speaking of the Giants D, it was pretty poor and allowed the Padres to pickup extra base runners and runs.
We also saw the return of the “ace”, Chacin, which also sees his first visit into the “What went right?” section. The Giants serious struggled all game against him, only 5 Ks for Chacin, but it was a huge improvement from game one.
I just have to say it again, this top of the lineup, is very VERY good. They will shock a few starters early on throughout the season.
With every cloud, comes a silver lining. With Perdomo going on the DL, it means GB Baseball starter Jake Esch gets the call to the bigs. When we at Bat Flips and Nerds saw the Padres claim him on waivers, we were quick to predict he would be getting the call sooner rather than later.
What the tuck?
We haven’t seen Christian Bethancourt since the 9th April, is the experiment coming to a close?
The Great All-Rounder Experiment Will Austin Hedges Ever Hit Again?
As I typed the new title, he hit a shitty little dribbler down the foul line and got a hit. I’ll have to find a new subject for the next post.
Until next time, here’s some numbers that I’ll keep updated for the year.
Stats: (Positions in brackets for all qualified players in MLB)
Win/Loss – 5-5 .500
Individual Stats:
Batt Avg. Leader – W. Myers .400 (Tied 8th)
OBP Leader – W. Myers .419 (27th)
OPS Leader – W. Myers 1.224 (3rd)
Starter ERA – J. Cosart 0.00 (Tied 1st)
Strikeouts – J. Torres 10 (Tied 45th)
WHIP – M. Diaz 0.46 (27th)
Team Stats:
Batting AVG. – .212 (27th)
OBP – .283 (27th)
OPS – .668 (23rd)
ERA (Starter) – 4.68 (23rd)
ERA (Relievers) – 5.33 (21st)
Strikeouts – 62 (19th)
WHIP (Relievers) – 1.37 (15th)