Old Time Family Baseball

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Record: 90-72, 2nd Place in the NL West

Offensive Leaders: Adrian Gonzalez .904 OPS, 5.3 WAR

Pitching Leaders: Mat Latos 2.92 ERA, 4.0 WAR

Surprise: We can debate on how important Petco Park was to the team, but the entire Padres pitching staff almost carried the team into the playoffs. The Friars were 22nd in runs scored with 665, but thanks to a pitching staff that allowed only 583 runs, they were able to cobble together 90 wins. Mat Latos put up a 2.92 ERA in his first full season, Clayton Richard and Jon Garland both had ERA’s below 4, and no reliever with more than 25 innings had an ERA above 4. That’s remarkable and probably unsustainable, no matter how kind the home ballpark is.

Disappointment: For the Padres to surprise everyone in the way that they did, almost every team member had to outperform or at least match expectations coming into the season. While Tony Gwynn Jr’s .591 OPS was absurdly low, it’s what everyone expected from him and he made up for it by playing jaw droppingly gorgeous defense. That leaves midseason acquisition Ryan Ludwick as the recipient of Most Disappointing Padre of 2010. Ludwick was expected to be the big bat the team would need for the stretch run, but instead he supplied the team with a .211/.301/.330 line in 239 plate appearances. To put that in perspective, David Eckstein, who is currently jobless, hit .267/.321/.326 on the year. The Padres are banking on Ludwick’s performance merely being a slump as he has been brought back into the fold for 2011.

Defining Moment: Sanchez should be the most hated name in San Diego. With the NL West up for grabs on the final day of the season, Jonathan Sanchez hit a triple in the bottom of the third inning during a scoreless game against Mat Latos. Two batters later, Freddy Sanchez opened the scoring with an RBI single. Though Aubrey Huff would add another run in the inning, and Buster Posey would ice the game with a home run, that’s all the Giants would need to take the division as their pitching staff shutout the Padres during the 3-0 victory. Of course, the Padres never should have been in this position had it not been for their ten game losing streak that began at the end of August, but no they still had a hand in controlling their own fate until the final day of the season.

Outlook: Rather than hope for the unexpected to happen again, Jed Hoyer traded the only true offensive threat the Padres had to the Red Sox in exchange for prospects Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo, and Raymond Fuentes, while also securing the services of utilityman Eric Patterson. Though the loss of the hometown hero should smart, chances were good that the Padres would not be able to win 90 games again without a more robust offense, as their pitching staff could not be expected to perform so remarkably for a second straight season. Hoyer also leveraged two intriguing bullpen arms in Edward Mujica and Ryan Webb to land former top prospect Cameron Maybin from the Marlins, and upgraded at short by trading even more relievers for Jason Bartlett. Hoyer is clearly betting that he can put a strong bullpen together cheaply and on the fly.

While the Padres probably won’t compete in 2011, they have given a much nicer sheen to their farm system and should begin sprinkling in the prospects in 2012 with an eye looking towards 2013. The Padres shouldn’t embarrass themselves either, and after their 2010 run, I’m open to being wrong once again.