San Diego Padres Preview
Another division title in 2006 will be harder to come by for the San Diego
Padres with a healthy Barry Bonds returning to the lineup for the San Francisco
Giants to give them formidable challengers. San Diego dropped 5 games from the
2004 to 2005 season and they could see another drop off in 2006.
Padres players continue to complain about their ballpark not being
hitter-friendly. The Padres finished just 3 games over .500 at Petco in 2004 and
despite continued complaining they improved to 11 games over the .500 mark in
2005. I expect they’ll understand even more in 2006 that they aren’t going to be
a long ball team and they’ll focus on hitting line drives which will improve
their home record even more. I expect taking the Padres at home, especially
within their division, to be a money play this season. This team doesn’t have an
extremely potent lineup anyway you look at it, but Brian Giles may be the Padre
that seems to have been hurt the most by the new ball park. Last season he only
mananged 15 home runs and 83 Runs Batted in, after being a consistent 30+ home
run guy in Pittsburgh for so many years. I am looking for him to get over the 25
homerun mark this season. Khalil Greene will have to be a little better in the
shortstop position with another year under his belt. I think you are going to
see Mike Piazza is way past his prime and won’t be able to produce in the
catcher spot. Teams will be able to run on him at will when he’s behind the
plate and he won’t be in the lineup enough to find consistency with his at. This
team didn’t have a lot of offensive pop so they thought Piazza could help out,
but I think his game is more suited for an American League designated hitter
slot right now.
Jake Peavy who is the stud of the Padres starting rotation, and Chris Young is a
young gun poised to make a big move this year after moving over from the
American League. Do Chan Ho Park and Woody Williams have anything left in the
tank? Who knows, but if one of them can produce then this staff is going to be
decent from top to bottom. The bullpen still has Trevor Hoffman who managed 43
saves last season. Linebrink and Alan Embree are solid options in the setup
position. It’s going to take a nice season from these arms in order for the
Padres to do much damage in the National League West.
The Padres really struggle on the road as they were just 36-45 last season.
Inconsistent road play can be expected from young teams. With another year of
experience under their belts, they should be able to improve 5 wins on the road
in 2006. I would still stay away from taking them on the road unless any trends
develop as the season forges on. We are going to want to play the Padres almost
exclusively at home.
The inconsistency of the NL West makes it tough to gage who will be at the top
of the division come October as bad teams can fall into a terrible slump at any
time. It happened to the Royals last season and realistically the teams in this
division are not head and shoulders above a team like Kansas City.
2006 Baseball Previews
Baseball Picks by
Jimmy Boyd
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