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?
The Padres lost, lots. Well, at first anyway. Since Part 3 of this post the Padres lost five of the next six, this saw them slip from 8-11 to 9-16. The Padres conceded 38 runs during this period with the majority being given by the inconsistent rotation. It was ugly.
Then, the starters tightened up their leaky appearances and the offence continued to do what they do best. The Friars are currently riding the crest of a three win streak.
What went wrong?
Perdomo looked ok in the final game against the Marlins, but as the runs began to pile on the Padres turned to Stammen, who was (and still is) looking pretty bad.
Then two days later, Clayton Richard was handing out runs against the Diamondbacks. The Padres brought in (you guessed it) Stammen who then continued to dish out runs like he was worried his ERA might dip below double digits.
Essentially (and as expected) the rotation struggles to go at least six innings on most games without giving away too many runs for the offence to catch up. They hand over to the bullpen and unless your name is Brand Hand or Brandon Maurer, it’s more than likely going to end up in a loss.
Throughout all of MLB, this team is 3rd in SOs with 256. But…
What went right?
They are 6th in HRs with 37 so far.
With all the preseason concerns about him going back into a starting role, Trevor Cahill is actually managing to pitch relatively deep into a game and continue to strike guys out. With 30 Ks so far this season (averaging six a start), Cahill seems to be developing into the ace of this pitching staff.
Brad Hand has an ERA of 0.64, he has 17 Ks and 3 BB. Watch out for him on MLB.tv if the Padres are in a close game. He’s making close games great to watch.
Stammen managed to get his ERA below double digits whilst pitching against an already beaten Giants team. Huzzah.
More importantly though, this offence keeps on hitting. The Padres have not been shutout so far this season, when you consider they have faced Kershaw, Bumgarner and Greinke, that is impressive.
Wil Myers continues to improve, Cordoba has had a little hot streak and Schimpf…I love this guy. He’s batting .156, has 7 homers (the same as Myers) and he’s sitting pretty with a cool OPS+ of 100. Lad.
What’s next?
It’s all home games for the Friars, as they look to improve on their three game win streak for two against the Rockies (Don’t hold your breath, it’s Weaver on the mound), then they face the Dodgers and finally their first inter-league matchup against the Texas Rangers.
The Great All-Rounder Experiment – Will Austin Hedges Ever Hit Again? – How long will Jankowski last in the lineup?
Not long, he’s on the 10-day DL.
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 – 12-16 .429
Individual Stats:
Batt Avg. Leader – W. Myers .308 (30th)
OBP Leader – Y. Solarte .348 (66th)
OPS Leader – W. Myers .912 (34th)
Starter ERA – T. Cahill 3.60 (43rd)
Strikeouts – T. Cahill 37 (Tied 17th)
WHIP – J. Weaver 1.08 (23rd)
Team Stats:
Batting AVG. – .221 (28th)
OBP – .284 (29th)
OPS – .669 (27th)
ERA (Starter) – 4.34 (22nd)
ERA (Relievers) – 4.81 (20th)
Strikeouts – 216 (15th)
WHIP (Relievers) – 1.30 (14th)