Friday Mailbag: Playoffs and Prospects

It's Friday! Which means it's time to open up the mailbag and see what Padres fans want to discuss. This week? We're looking ahead to the trade deadline and the playoffs.

Before we get into today’s mailbag, I’ve got to say it one more time:

I can’t believe how easy it is to beat the Cubs.

Also, four-game sweeps are fun! And it was great to see, again, the team handle its business against a bad team.

It seems like, to me, the 2022 Padres have a real knack for learning from their mistakes. Check this out:

• Lost series in SF, next time they saw the Giants they swept them (in SD)

• Lost series to MIL, next time they saw the Brewers they took 3 of 4 (in MIL)

• Split series with ATL, next time they saw the Braves they won the series (in ATL)

• Lost series to CHC, next time they saw the Cubs they swept the series (in CHC)

The only team that the Padres have played more than once that’s not on this list is the Reds, who the Padres went 6-0 against.

Safe to say, the Padres seem to be taking offense to past performance. Or, at least, they want to show they they can be better than they were. If this patterns hold true, the Colorado Rockies should be in for a world of hurt this weekend.

Actually, the Padres have a lot of “second time seeing them” series coming up. The Rockies series is followed by series against the Diamondbacks, Phillies, Diamondbacks again, and Dodgers. If the Padres truly play teams better the second time, this will be the month that proves it.

Oh, also, this stat is really fun and I feel like it explains a lot of what is going on with the Padres’ offense beyond “the Cubs are terrible”:

Dennis Lin@dennistlin

Why does the Padres offense look as good as it has all season? Since Jurickson Profar and Jake Cronenworth entrenched themselves at the top of the lineup, those two have hit .339/.431/.593 in 138 plate appearances:

theathletic.com

The Padres offense is surging, starting from the top

2:11 AM · Jun 17, 2022

---

12 Reposts · 222 Likes

Right now, the 1-4 hitters in the Padres lineup are just killing opposing pitchers. It’ll be interesting to see how long they can keep this up and if Profar eventually falls back to his career average.

Alright, onto the mailbag!

If you were the Padres GM, which of your top prospects would you use for trade bait this season?

This one is easy but it has a lot to do with reading the tea leaves. I believe that the San Diego Padres do not care about the future of Luis Campusano beyond his trade value. He will never get a chance to be the starting catcher at the MLB level, and probably won’t get a fair shake as the backup or DH, either.

If Luis Campusano isn’t traded two months from now, I will be surprised. I guess the only way that happens is if Nola or Alfaro go down with an injury and the team has no other choice.

I suspect the Padres will look to add a weak-hitting veteran catcher who is happy to play for a month or two in El Paso to collect a paycheck while they shop around Campusano in hopes of getting something that could benefit this 2022 squad.