Saturday Q&A: Where can/can't the Padres upgrade?

This week's mailbag is heavily focused on the San Diego Padres' options at the trade deadline and what it means for the second half of the season.

As mentioned yesterday, I wanted to do a quick Q&A today because I (probably) won’t be writing something on the morning of the 4th. Thanks to everyone that sent questions in.

Before we get to them, let’s discuss the “glass half full/empty” nature of the first two games in the series against the Dodgers.

Glass half full: Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell have been great. While these game matter for standings, and losses always sting when you’re competing for the division crown, these two games have shown us that the Padres simply need a little more offense to be on par with the Dodgers. Considering neither Machado nor Tatis is healthy, that feels possible once we get into September/October.

Glass half empty: No matter how bad the Dodgers are, they’re always better than the Padres. Even when Justin Turner stinks, he’s still going to find a way to kill the Padres. Every ball will bounce their way and they just have ridiculous depth all over the place because of their insane wealth (money, prospects, market, etc.). The Padres will always be chasing the Dodgers.

You can probably guess that I’m in the “glass half full” camp here. And, it’s mildly amusing to me that a year ago the Padres were beating the tar out of the Dodgers with Tatis hitting bombs left and right and we were taking victory laps. That feeling compared to the opposite this year (“If only Tatis were here hitting bombs”) makes me think it’s more a matter of when than if the Padres can play on the Dodgers’ level.

Anyway, Q&A time!