Yesterday we looked at the Padres pitching, today we will take a look at their offense and defense. Also i will hopefully get another post up tonight for another team i havnt decided who so if you want to make a suggestion on who i should analyize next please leave a comment and tell me who you want. (Note stat lines listed are AVG/OBP/SLG)

Infield  C

C- Nick Hundley  $404,000
1B- Adrian Gonzalez  $4.75 mill
2B- David Eckstein  $1mm
3B- Kevin Kouzmanoff  $432,000+
SS- Everth Cabrera  $400,000
IF- Edgar Gonzalez $407,000
IF- Luis Rodriguez  $675,000+

This is an infield based around 1 player Adrian Gonzalez . Even though he plays in the biggest pitchers park in the majors he still can have 40 HR seasons. So just think if Adrian played at any other ballpark, his home away splits are very different. He hit a .244/.413/.446 line at home (12 HR) and a .306/.402/.643 line away (28 HR). He also is a solid deffender. David Eckstein is one of those guys who bounces around everywhere, he dosnt have that much talent and seems to have peaked in 2007 with the Cardinals. He dosnt play that great of defense, he is a light hitter and dosnt run so he dosnt have that much value. Kevin Kouzmanoff is a very average 28 year old third baseman. He is a good deffender and has some pop and is the Padres 2nd best hitter. Gonzalez and Kouz make up the heart of the Padres order. His career numbers include a .261/.308/.435 stat line. Not great but again PETCO park is a major factor in players stats. At C Nick Hundley is the Padres #1 guy. He dosnt hit for a good average but if he is given more playing time he should show some good pop. His slugging went up from .359 in 08 to .406 this season. He projects to be a middle of the pack catcher. His back up Eliezer Alfonzo is very average and donst project to be very valuable. Everth Cabrera will be the starting SS and his main use is speed. He led the team with 25 stolen bases last season in 377 AB. He is a light hitter and is a bad deffender. He has decent potential though if he can steal more bases next season. The infield reserve players rate as average to below average. Edgar Gonzalez , the older brother of Adrian Gonzlaez has a little pop but really is nothing more than a below average utility player, the same goes for Luis Rodriguez. So overall the infield is below average defensivly and they only have 2 legitamate hitters with Gonzlaez and Kouzmanoff.

Outfield  C

LF- Kyle Blanks  $400,000
CF- Tony Gwyn Jr.  $405,000
RF- Will Venable  $402,000
4th OF- Chase Headley  $412,000

A very young group of players they wil have to prove themselves over a full season before i rate them any higher. They do have potential but that dosnt meen they will actualy perform over a full season. Kyle Blanks in 54 games put up a .250/.355/.514 stat line. Although this is a small sample size i think he could become a star in LF as he is only 23 years old. Blanks is an average fielder. Tony Gwyn Jr. is now roaming CF for the Padres. Gwyn has started show signs of becoming a contact hitter although he will never be as good as his father. Gwyn also has some speed stealing 11 bases this season, he also is a plus deffender. Gwyn is another guy who has a lot of potential and is still only 27. Will Venable is also a 27 year old outfielder who has a lot of potential. He hit .284 with 11 HR and drove in 32 runs in the second half. He could become another big slugger in the outfield for the Padres. Chase Headley was a starting outfielder this year and played fairly well. He is only 25 and could be a starter next year and replace either Blanks or Venable. He hasnt hit for huge power yet as his career line is .263/.340/.400. He hit 12 HR this season in 543 AB. But he has solid potential and was fairly consistent this year. So the Padres have 4 solid starters and Drew Macias is another reserve outfielder on thier roster but he dosnt project that well. This group of outfielders have a lot of potential, Blanks could be a .260 20HR 60RBI guy next season and Venable could put up similar numbers but they could also flop. I think by 2011 they will be more of a B level outfield.

Team Overview  C

This is not a horrible team by any means but they are not at contention level yet. The NL West is one of the best in baseball with the Dodgers, and Giants being excellent teams. But if the Padres young talent develops they could be competitive by 2011. Their Pitching is average right now, i think they need to bring in a low cost veteran pitcher to mentor their young pitchers. The Bullpen is currently the Padres strength and they have enough depth to trade Heath Bell and still be an elite bullpen. They also have a solid core on offense built around Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff. If their young outfielders develop their only concern should be infield defense up the middle. They could be in the upper 70's in wins this year but as i said before they are not at contenton level yet. Hopefully whoever steps in as the new GM will be able to do as good of a job as Towers. The best thing about this Padres team is how close they are to contention with only about 30 mill commited to player salaries next year.  

Hey everybody sorry i was able to post this last night, i was having some technical diffiulties. I also want to apologize that i could'nt analyize the Giants as i said i would on my last post. One of my sources who provides stats wont be able to give me some stats on them for a while. So i figured i would stay in the same division. And there is one more update i am changing my pds system to a letter based scale from the plus symbols i had used before. But lets get to the point, the San Diego Padres. Many considerd this a AAAA team at the begining of last season. But they were able to actualy post good numbers, they got rid of Jake Peavy and still managed to have a decent rotation in place for the future. The bigest change to this team for next year will be the absence of GM Kevin Towers. Which in my opinion will significantly hurt them. But we will have to wait and see who his replacment is. Now to the analysis.

San Diego Padres  2009 Record- 75-87 (4th NL West)

Rotation   C+

1. Kevin Correia
2. Chris Young
3. Matt Latos
4. Clayton Richard
5. Tim Stauffer
 
Well for the first time in 8 years Jake Peavy will not be a part of the Padres rotation. They may feel it right now but they have a plethora of young talent that may be able to make this a much better rotation than it was with Peavy. Kevin Correia came over to the Padres as a unsuspecting starter and by the end of the year he was staff leader. He is more of a middle to back of rotaton guy but he put up solid numbers this season going 12-11 with a 3.91 ERA.Chris Young will enter his 5th season as a Padre next season and has shown that he is inconsistent and injury prone. He hasnt started more than 18 games in a season since 2007. When healthy he can put up solid numbers but he will never be a top tier starter since he has never pitched more than 180 innings in a season in his career. Matt Latos is one of the Padres many young starters who proved to be a solid starter, he really could pitch in the 4 or 5th spot to. He shows decent strikeout potential and a low average against. Clayton Richard was the main piece in the Jake Peavy trade. He has the best potential of the starters in this rotation. He dosnt have a ton of strikeout potential but he was pretty good last season going 9-5 with a 4.41 ERA in 153 innings. Tim Stauffer is yet another one of the Padres many young talents, and again not a huge strikeout guy. But in his 14 starts he went 4-7 with a 3.58 ERA. He also has some good potential, he mainly likes to throw fastballs and sliders. The Padres also have several guys in the minors including former Cubs star prospect Sean Gallagher who came over in the Scott Hairston trade, and Wade LeBlanc.

Bullpen  B

CL- Heath Bell
SU- Luke Gregerson
SU- Mike Adams
MR- Joe Thatcher
MR- Greg Burke
MR- Luis Perdomo
MR- Edward Mujica

The Padres actually have a really good bullpen, featuring an amazing closer in Heath Bell . Bell is a dominant closer who went 42/48 in saves this season. But chances are Bell will get traded as he is at his top value right now. The supporting cast is actulaly pretty good, Mike Adams was utterly dominant. He posted a 0.73 ERA in 37 innings with a healthy 45 strikeouts. Luke Gregerson was also solid posting a 3.24 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 75 innings. The middle relief is above average with guys like Joe Thatcher, Greg Burke, Luis Perdomo, and Edward Mujica . Joe Thatcher being the best putting up a 2.80 ERA and 55 strikeouts over 45 innings. The rest are very average bullpen arms but thats to be expected for the back of the bullpen.


I will continue with this analysis tommorow, so look for part 2 on saturday. I will talk about the infield and outfield and the team as a whole.