Here come the Padres
The San Diego Padres have reached the easy part of their schedule. It's time for them to make some hay. Here's what to watch for over the next couple of months.
You probably remember me saying this on Friday:
There are 29 Padres games between right now and the all-star break, and all but 6 of them are against teams with losing records. Or, a more fun way to put it, the Padres should be heavily favored in 23 of their next 29 games. That’s how winning streaks happen.
Well, quick update there. It’s now 23 of their next 26 games, with the Mets game in the rear view mirror. Basically, outside of the series against the Dodgers next week, the Padres don’t face another difficult opponent for quite some time.
The fun begins with a road series against the Rockies tonight.
So, despite going 4-10 in their last 14 games, the Padres are about to catch fire. And they need it now, trailing the NL West division lead by 3 games.
Here are the things I want you to keep an eye out for:
The MVP
Anyone miss the grand slam yesterday? Want to rewatch it anyway? Here you go:
Give that man his chain.
Anyway, due to some time off due to injury and COVID, Fernando Tatis Jr. doesn’t yet quality for the hitting leaderboards. When he does, you’re going to hear an awful lot about him being in the conversation for NL MVP award.
Bebo current has 19 home runs, 44 RBIs, an OPS of 1.008 and a flair for the dramatic. And…as a reminder…he hasn’t even faced the easy part of the schedule yet.
In the National League, there are a handful of guys that have comparable numbers. Two of the them from the Reds, who are barely .500 and likely have no chance to win their division, and one from the under-.500 Braves (Acuña).
If Tatis finishes at or near the top of this list, and his is the only team heading into the playoffs amongst them, he’ll win that NL MVP trophy. At 22 years old. And nobody would be surprised.
The Cy Young
I still find it hilarious, in one of those ways where I wouldn’t be able to stop laughing for a few years if I won the lottery, that the Padres have two of the top four Cy Young Award vote-getters last season in their starting rotation this year.
Anyway, let me start there. At 34-years old, and with a really outstanding career behind him, Yu Darvish is having arguably the best season of his life pitching for the San Diego Padres in 2021.
And…one more reminder that he hasn’t even gotten to pitch against the easy part of the schedule yet.
He was better last season, but he has already thrown more games this year than that one and it’s mid-June. His OPS+ of 161 is the highest amongst Padres starters, but that’s where the trouble starts.
Where Yu is sitting currently is not enough to get him his first career Cy Young Award. Partly because other pitchers have been better this year (most notable, last year’s 3rd place finisher Jacob deGrom) and partly because he’d be splitting votes on the Padres with the likes of Joe Musgrove and Mark Melancon.
I think Yu Darvish wants a Cy Young Award. I bet he thinks about it a lot. And I believe his best chance to get one might be this season, when it’s fresh in everyone’s mind that he finished 2nd last year.
He’s been great so far this season, but for the next 2.5 months, he will need to be absolutely exceptional to grab attention and adulation away from deGrom. I’m excited to see if he can do it.
The trade deadline
![Column: Padres as "Texas Rangers West" is nothing new in San Diego - The San Diego Union-Tribune](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fJY7!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F67cc69d3-b4e7-4c79-a73f-5748e97f3638_840x559.jpeg "Column: Padres as "Texas Rangers West" is nothing new in San Diego - The San Diego Union-Tribune")
One of the most entertaining things about the Padres is just how aggressive their general manager is. There isn’t really a world, no matter what position the team is in, where A.J. Preller is going to stand pat at the trade deadline or during the offseason. Something will happen.
But the target of what the team is looking for is a moving one.
They no longer desperately need a replacement for Tommy Pham because Tommy Pham is awesome again.
The need for an innings-eating starting pitcher is still very important, but not nearly as dire as it was before because Lamet and Weathers have started pitching a regular amount of innings for a starter.
Where as the team was comfortable with what it had at catcher with Austin Nola and Victor Caratini, now they might be wondering if Nola can actually take the beating of being the starting catcher or if it’s time to look for other options there.
There’s also the uncomfortable question of if Wil Myers and/or Eric Hosmer can stay in the starting lineup while contributing nothing to the team. Those guys need this streak of games against lesser opponents more than anyone, or they could risk being benched.