The offensive Padres offense

After another disappointing loss to the Miami Marlins, when the Padres pitching was again good enough, I can't help but wonder if the Padres offense will ever get to where it's trying to go.

I don’t get it. I really don’t. I’m not the world’s smartest baseball fan, but I don’t understand why the San Diego Padres change literally everything about their team outside of the actual location of their home stadium and the offense just never seems to work no matter what.

The team has gone through a dozen hitting coaches or more since opening up Petco Park 20 years ago, none of those firings have seemed to help. The team moved in the outfield walls twice in an attempt to boost the offense of the home team to no avail. They spent big money to bring in Manny Machado, and invested a lot to secure players like Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Jake Cronenworth, Luke Voit, Josh Bell, Brandon Drury and Wil Myers. They even changed the team colors and uniforms in an effort to rid themselves of whatever curse may have been placed on their bats.

This offseason, they brought in a new hitting coach from the San Francisco Giants, a team that seemed to figure out how to leverage technology to get more offense out of lesser hitters last season.

Here’s where the 2022 San Diego Padres rank in the following offensive categories:

• Batting Average: 16th

• On-base Percentage: 9th

• On-base Plus Slugging: 17th

• Runs: 11th

• Home Runs: 22nd

• Stolen Bases: 27th

I can hear what you’re saying. Soto, Bell and Drury just got here. Tatis hasn’t been here all season. This is cherrypicking.

Okay, let’s look at some offensive stats since August 3rd (which, I believe, was the first game that Soto, Bell and Drury played for the Padres):

• Batting Average: 18th

• On-base Percentage: 10th

• Slugging Percentage: 17th

• Home Runs: 19th

• Runs: 10th

Okay, so the Padres are a little better than average at getting on base and scoring runs. They’re absolutely terrible at everything else, even after adding three incredibly dangerous hitters to their lineup and taking on weaker competition.

Bob Melvin’s head must be spinning. He thought he was done managing the Oakland A’s. He thought this team, with its vast resources and aggressive nature, would have an offense that could do more.

Little did he know, the San Diego Padres will never have a good offense. Not unless the season is 60 games long and starts in July. Not unless they move to a different ballpark, I suppose.

Maybe Petco Park has been cursed to doom all future Padres teams to struggle offensively. Maybe it’s just too close to the dense air that comes in from the bay. Maybe the wind patterns inside the stadium make it impossible for the ball to carry. Maybe the hitting coach is still a problem because they’re cursed to never hire a good one. Maybe it’s the type of player that the Padres sign, or the way in which they train.

Is it all those things? Or is it something else? I’m curious.

Let’s open the mailbag

I haven’t done a mailbag in a little while, mostly because I always forget to ask people to send in questions until it’s too late. Also, there’s been so much to write about that I haven’t needed to look for other ideas.

But, I miss you. I miss answering your questions. I would like to make tomorrow’s post an extra-long mailbag where I answer any and every question you readers throw at me, so please click here and send in your question.

Upcoming schedule

For those that read this newsletter every morning, thank you. I love you.

Sometimes, I really hate having a task to do when I wake up in the morning. Other times, I remember that this is my actual passion and I start dreaming about where this can go if I just keep at it, and I wouldn’t give it up for the world.

Anyway, unless I’m going to be doing some traveling this weekend. Specifically, I have an early flight on Friday and a late flight on Monday. It’s entirely possible that I keep writing these without missing a beat, but if a day goes by and you don’t see anything from me….don’t panic.