Padres 2009: A season in review

As the season comes to a close Padres fans are forced to look back on a second consecutive disappointing season.  This year the Pads celebrated their 40^th year in San Diego but failed to exceed, or even meet expectations.

Then again, it may not be a huge disappointment for a team that finished in last place in their division in 2008 and earned the third-worst record in the league.

Coming into the season the National League West division, which the Padres won as recently as 2005 and 2006, was seen as up for grabs by almost all its teams.

The only major additions to the division were veteran lefties Randy Johnson and Randy Wolf rejoining the NL West fold, while Matt Holliday was seen as a major loss from the Rockies’ line-up.

All things considered, the Padres were in position to ride their perennial all-stars, Jake Peavy and Adrian Gonzalez, to a postseason push in a seemingly weak division. And then… the season happened.

Team struggles

In reality, the opening day line-up was not going to scare anyone outside of manager Bud Black, trying to keep his job.  Of the nine players in their opening day lineup, only Adrian Gonzalez is hitting above the Major League average batting average of .263 (say that five times fast).

As a team, the Padres currently sport the worst team batting average in the league and are sitting just outside the bottom five in on-base percentage.  These are terrible statistics for a team supposedly built on players that get on base and play small-ball.

The Padres, as a team, have had to go through their fair share of rough times.  Even before Peavy was placed on the disabled list, he was the center of trade talks that could not have been good for clubhouse moral.  Then, on July 18, when Edgar Gonzalez was hit on the head by a Jason Hammel fastball and knocked unconscious, the team took it really hard, especially his brother Adrian.

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Both Adrian and the team were thrown into a weeklong slump where it was evident the team was just off.  They fell far enough to a Washington Nationals-like 39-62 record, a .386 winning percentage for those scoring at home.

Streaky play

But sure enough — as soon as the team leader stroked a home run in three consecutive games, starting July 27, the Padres too turned around their season and are 11 games above .500 since that point.

This was not the only major winning streak the fans enjoyed in 2009.  In mid-May the team reeled off 10 consecutive wins to pull above .500 for the season.  Unfortunately for the Padres, even after this streak, they were still 10 games behind the first-place Dodgers.

And once the streak was over they reverted back to their losing ways.  This streak was a microcosm of their whole season, flashes of great pitching and defense followed by weeks of uninspired play.

Roster changes

Unquestionably the biggest shakeup of the year was the trade of Jake Peavy to the Chicago White Sox.  Peavy spent his first seven seasons in the majors in San Diego winning nearly 100 games and capturing the National League Cy Young Award in 2007.

He had been the cornerstone of the franchise for years and management showed fans the direction the club is going in by this trade.  In return, the Padres received solid pitching talent including Aaron Poreda, Clayton Richard, and Adam Russell.  Poreda has the best potential future of the group but has looked shaky at best in his first outings as a Padre.

Richard appears to be a solid innings eater who will serve as a middle of the rotation starter, while Russell should be a solid arm for the Padres pen in the future.  Although this trade was tough for the fans to swallow, it was in the best interest of the future of the organization, as it allows the payroll to be freed up and the Padres will be able get pieces for the future.

The team has already shown a new willingness to spend money, signing top-pick Donavan Tate to a bonus deal worth $6.1 million, an unprecedented sum for a Padres rookie.

Bright spots

The main bright spot for fans in the 2009 season has been the all-star play of Adrian Gonzalez.  He will finish the year in the top ten in home runs (40, as of Oct. 1), walks (115), on base percentage (.403), slugging (.552) and overall on base plus slugging percentage (956). He was, and is, the best player on the team and should continue his way into talks of being one of the best Padres in team history in the coming years.

Another great story this year was the continued growth of Kevin Kouzmanoff.  Kevin lifted his game this year to have better plate discipline and became a clutch hitter for the Padres with men on base.  His strikeout rate decreased by 3 percent while his walk rate increased by 2  percent — both significant when looked at over the course of a season.

These new skills, along with his continued stellar defense at third base, make him a building block that the Padres organization would be wise to hold on to.

Potentially the most promising headline of the year has been rookie Mat Latos.  Do not at all be worried about him being shut down earlier this month, it was only a measure to keep his arm fresh and avoid a potential injury from over use.

Latos was overpowering major leaguers until the massive workload finally got to him in mid-August after jumping from low Single A to the majors in one season.  For those of you who are not familiar with how the baseball minor leagues work that is the approximate equivalent of trying to get your PHD after graduating high school.

Other positives the Padres have seen this year were the growth of rookies Kyle Blanks and Everth Cabrera.  Kyle Blanks came into the year as the top prospect in the Padres farm system and showed promising signs of growth this year.

After dominating the minor leagues this year the Padres called up Blanks in an effort to give their lackluster offense a shot in the arm.  Before being placed on the disabled list on Aug. 29 with a season-ending foot injury, Blanks spent enough time with the team to really impress the organization.

Although his average was not overly impressive, Blanks showed his great power would not be affected by Petco’s vast caverns in the outfield and even proved a very impressive ability to draw a walk at a remarkable rate for a rookie.   Cabrera meanwhile is having an equally impressive year.

Cabrera fits the perfect mold of what kind of player the Padres need moving forward.  He can get on base, steal bases and play Gold Glove caliber defense.  Expect these two to be franchise cornerstones for years to come along side Adrian Gonzalez, Mat Latos, and Kevin Kouzmanoff.

Looking ahead

It has been a tough season for the Padres and the Friar Faithful.  Luckily for the team and management they are in great city with a passionate core fan base. But with a great city comes great expectations.  Although the season did not go as planned, the team gained experience and learned a lot about the players.  Latos, Blanks, and Cabrera have provided a glimpse into the Padres’ future, and it looks bright.

Check back soon for SDNN’s look at the Padres’ future and where the franchise needs to go moving forward this winter into the 2010 season.

Jeff Creps is an SDNN intern and sports contributor.

Tags: Adrian Gonzalez, bud black, Everth Cabrera, Jake Peavy, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Kyle Blanks, Mat Latos, Padres, SDNN, Tony Gwynn

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 7:27 pm and is filed under Baseball, Padres . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.